The Biology and Chemistry of Color

Discover the amazing biology of color and explore how nature harnesses light. Dr. Ania Fryszkowska will take you over the bio-rainbow and reveal the fascinating chemical structures behind reds, blues and greens. You will learn about the biological pathways to make color molecules such as tomato red or indigo to dye your jeans. We will show you how we can use biology and chemistry to make our life more colorful from natural pigments to diagnostic devices.

Dr. Ania Fryszkowska is a research scientist at Merck Sharp and Dohme, where she designs novel and greener processes to manufacture drugs and pharmaceutical intermediates. In her role she works with teams of biologists, chemists and computational scientists to harness the power of biology in organic synthesis. Before coming to the US, Dr. Fryszkowska worked at Dr Reddy's Laboratories in Cambridge, UK and at the University of Manchester, where she applied biocatalysis in chiral synthesis. With over 10 years of research in enzymatic reactions, she is passionate to combine the worlds of chemistry and synthetic biology to transform the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.