John 'Jay' Schneekloth

John S. Schneekloth, Jr. (Jay) is a research professor at the LSI and a professor of biological chemistry at the U-M Medical Schoo;. His research program is focused on the chemical biology of nucleic acids, in particular developing new chemical approaches to understand, control and target RNA and DNA with small molecules. 

Schneekloth received his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College in 2001 and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Yale University in 2006 with Craig Crews. He subsequently pursued NIH-funded postdoctoral research at Princeton University with Erik Sorensen before joining the National Cancer Institute in 2011 as a tenure-track investigator. During his time at the NCI, he established an interdisciplinary research program at the interface of chemical biology, medicinal chemistry, structural biology and computational science, with a particular interest in understanding how small molecules recognize and control the function of nucleic acids. 

The Schneekloth lab at the LSI continues this work, combining synthetic/medicinal chemistry, biology, structural approaches, high throughput science and emerging technologies to discover new ways of targeting RNA and other challenging biological molecules with a view towards developing treatments for cancers and other diseases with no cure.

A native of New Jersey, Schneekloth has always been curious about how the world works — whether at the molecular scale or looking up at the night sky. Outside of the laboratory, he enjoys music, astronomy, baseball and spending time with his wife, two sons, and their dog Olive. He brings the same curiosity, enthusiasm and appreciation for discovery to his work with students and colleagues in the laboratory.