Peter Dedon

Peter Dedon is the Underwood-Prescott Professor and Singapore Professor in the MIT Department of Biological Engineering. He earned a B.A. in Chemistry from St. Olaf College in 1979 and M.D. and Ph.D. degrees in Pharmacology from the University of Rochester in 1987. Following postdoctoral training in chromatin biology at the University of Rochester and chemical biology of DNA-cleaving anticancer drugs at Harvard Medical School, he joined the MIT faculty in 1991 and helped establish the Department of Biological Engineering in 1998. Dedon serves as Lead Principal Investigator of the Antimicrobial Resistance Interdisciplinary Research Group in the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology, and as a member of MIT's Center for Environmental Health Sciences and Harvard Medical School's Initiative for RNA Medicine.

Dedon's research focuses on the chemical biology of nucleic acids across epigenetics, epitranscriptomics, and genetic toxicology. His group pioneers analytical platforms integrating mass spectrometry, single-molecule sequencing, and comparative genomics to discover and quantify modifications in bacterial, viral, and human nucleic acids. These efforts illuminate mechanisms of translational control via tRNA reprogramming, alternative genetic codes, stress responses, and roles in infectious diseases, cancer, and neurodegeneration. He coordinates studies on microbiome epigenomes, including phosphorothioate modifications linked to inflammatory bowel disease. Dedon was elected a 2022 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for his contributions to nucleic acid biology in human disease. He received the 2019 NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award with Eric Alm for microbiome epigenome research and the 2020 Founders' Award from the American Chemical Society Division of Chemical Toxicology. Key publications include "Reactive nitrogen species in the chemical biology of inflammation" (Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics, 2004) and "tRNA-mediated codon-biased translation in mycobacterial hypoxic response" (Nature Communications, 2016). His discoveries have translated into biotechnology startups developing enzymatic tools, protein production methods, and antimicrobial agents.

Professional Email: pcdedon@mit.edu