Douglas Mitchell and his lab group have focused on understanding the chemical biology of natural products with early efforts focusing on thiazole/oxazole-containing peptides. The Mitchell lab is multidisciplinary and employs a combination of bioinformatics, (bio)chemical, and microbiological approaches to elucidate the structures and functions of novel natural products. Upon finding an interesting structure or compelling biosynthetic transformation, the Mitchell lab pursues mechanistic studies to better understand its production.
Mitchell received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University in 2002. After a short internship in medicinal chemistry at Merck Research Laboratories, he obtained his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 2006. For postdoctoral studies, he worked with Jack Dixon at the University of California, San Diego. Professor Mitchell joined the University of Illinois faculty in 2009 and has research interests that span the interface of chemistry and biology. He is an affiliate in Microbiology and the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology.