{"id":33150,"date":"2026-03-09T13:01:59","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T17:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/biochem\/?p=33150"},"modified":"2026-03-27T16:18:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T20:18:24","slug":"christopher-shelby-successfully-defends-phd-dissertation-and-earns-his-phd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/biochem\/news\/christopher-shelby-successfully-defends-phd-dissertation-and-earns-his-phd\/","title":{"rendered":"Christopher Shelby Successfully Defends PhD Dissertation and earns his PhD!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"x_elementToProof\"><span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Christopher Shelby, a doctoral student in the laboratory of Dr. Brian Kuhlman, successfully defended his PhD dissertation in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics on March 9, 2026.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"x_elementToProof\">His dissertation, titled\u00a0<i>\u201cEnhancing enzymatic bioconjugation efficiency via computer-based installation of a substrate recruitment domain,\u201d<\/i>\u00a0focused on improving enzymatic bioconjugation through computationally guided protein design. The work highlights new strategies for increasing reaction efficiency by engineering substrate recruitment mechanisms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_elementToProof\">Shelby\u2019s research contributes to ongoing efforts in protein engineering and enzymatic design, with potential applications across biotechnology and molecular engineering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Christopher Shelby, a doctoral student in the laboratory of Dr. Brian Kuhlman, successfully defended his PhD dissertation in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics on March 9, 2026. His dissertation, titled\u00a0\u201cEnhancing enzymatic bioconjugation efficiency via computer-based installation of a substrate recruitment domain,\u201d\u00a0focused on improving enzymatic bioconjugation through computationally guided protein design. The work highlights new strategies for increasing reaction efficiency by engineering substrate recruitment mechanisms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41619,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10,13],"class_list":["post-33150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-news_faculty","tag-news_students","odd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Christopher Shelby Successfully Defends PhD Dissertation and earns his PhD! | Biochemistry and Biophysics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/biochem\/news\/christopher-shelby-successfully-defends-phd-dissertation-and-earns-his-phd\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christopher Shelby Successfully Defends PhD Dissertation and earns his PhD! | Biochemistry and Biophysics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Christopher Shelby, a doctoral student in the laboratory of Dr. Brian Kuhlman, successfully defended his PhD dissertation in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics on March 9, 2026. 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