Stanford University
For outstanding research in biological chemistry of unusual merit and independence of thought and originality.
Professor Polly Fordyce of Stanford University is the recipient of the 2023 Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry. Professor Fordyce is being recognized for her significant contributions to biological chemistry, especially for her revolutionary work on applying high throughput biochemical techniques and analyses to investigate molecular recognition. Her novel strategies have dissected quantitative relationships that govern biological function. The work has contributed fundamental new insights into genetic variation, enzyme kinetics and thermodynamics.
Polly Fordyce is an Assistant Professor of Bioengineering and Genetics and Institute Scholar of ChEM-H at Stanford, where her laboratory focuses on developing and applying new microfluidic platforms for quantitative and high-throughput biophysics, biochemistry, and single-cell biology. She graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder with undergraduate degrees in physics and biology before moving to Stanford University, where she earned a Ph.D. in physics for work with Professor Steve Block developing instrumentation and assays for single-molecule studies of kinesin motor proteins. For her postdoctoral research, she worked with Professor Joe DeRisi to develop a new microfluidic platform for understanding how transcription factors recognize and bind their DNA targets as well as a new technology for bead-based multiplexing. She is the recipient of an NSF CAREER Award, an NIH New Innovator Award, an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship, and she is a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator. Professor Fordyce is highly deserving of the 2023 Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry, and we congratulate her and her team.