Enzyme Engineering XXVIII
Enzyme Engineering Award Winner Jeffrey Moore
Dr. Jeffrey Moore is a Senior Principal Scientist in Enabling Technologies at the pharmaceutical company MSD (Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA in the United States and Canada). A pioneer and influential leader, Dr. Moore has been the driving force behind implementation of enzymes for the synthesis of pharmaceutical products and their chiral intermediates. From his graduate studies through a distinguished 30-year industrial career, he has transformed biocatalysis from a promising concept into a standard and indispensable tool in modern pharmaceutical synthesis. Notably, he is one of the very few industrial winners of this award, recognized for his exceptional ability to translate innovative theory into practical solutions to deliver medicines to patients worldwide.
Dr. Moore received his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from North Carolina State University and completed his Ph.D. in 1996 at the California Institute of Technology. As the first graduate student in Frances Arnold’s group to work on Directed Evolution, his seminal work stands as one of the foundational examples of applying this technology to improve enzymes for synthetic chemistry. Upon joining MSD in 1996, Dr. Moore led a paradigm shift away from challenging-to-scale wild-type whole cell bioconversions and toward the use of recombinantly expressed enzyme preparations. Utilizing these enzyme preparations, he and his team consistently demonstrated biocatalytic processes with reaction rates and volumetric productivities comparable to traditional chemical reactions, paving the way for the general adoption of biocatalysis. Dr. Moore championed the systematic incorporation of directed evolution to engineer enzymes with improved properties and expanded substrate scopes to provide manufacturing-ready biocatalysts, facilitating the development of biocatalytic processes that function at the highest standards of synthetic organic chemistry. His transformative contributions have reshaped pharmaceutical manufacturing, inspiring both industrial and academic researchers through high-profile successes that have elevated biocatalysis from a niche discipline into a thriving mainstream technology and ecosystem. Currently, Dr. Moore focuses on the development of computational and microfluidic methods to accelerate directed evolution and further broaden the adoption of biocatalysis in industry. Throughout his career, Dr. Moore has been a trusted mentor to numerous scientists, both within MSD and to collaborators, expertly guiding his teams to success. He is an author of over 40 publications and inventor on 15 granted patents. His work has been recognized with numerous prestigious awards, including the ACS Award for Affordable Green Chemistry (2025), the Peter J Dunn Award for Green Chemistry and Engineering (2023), two Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards (2010 and 2020), the Thomas Edison Inventorship Award (2014) the Biocat2012 Award (2012), MSD President’s Award for Innovation (2009) and the Lonza Centenary Prize (1997). Beyond his scientific achievements, Dr. Moore actively contributes to the biocatalysis and enzyme engineering communities. He is a frequent speaker at the Enzyme Engineering and Biocatalysis Gordon Conferences, including delivering the 2022 keynote lecture. He has served as the liaison of the Enzyme Engineering Conference Steering Committee since 2003, as a guest co-editor for the 2014 issue of Current Opinions in Chemical Biology on Biocatalysis and Biotransformation, editorial board member of ChemCatChem (2009-2012), and co-chair of both the Biocatalysis Gordon Conference (2010) and the Enzyme Engineering Conference (2003).
Enzyme Engineering Award – Past Recipients
1971--HENNIKER, NH, USA
1973--HENNIKER, NH, USA
1975--PORTLAND, OR, USA
1977--BAD NEUENAHR, GERMANY
1979--HENNIKER, NH, USA
1981--KASHIKOJIMA, JAPAN
1983--WHITE HAVEN, PA, USA -- ICHIRO CHIBATA
1985--HELSINGOR, DENMARK -- KLAUS MOSBACH
1987--SANTA BARBARA, CA, USA -- EPHRIAM KATCHALSKI-KATZIR
1989--KASHIKOJIMA, JAPAN -- SABURO FUKUI
1991--KONA, HAWAII, USA -- ALEX KLIBANOV
1993--DEAUVILLE, FRANCE -- MALCOLM LILLY
1995--SAN DIEGO, CA, USA -- MARIA-REGINA KULA/ CHRISTIAN WANDREY
1997--BEIJING, CHINA -- HARVEY BLANCH
1999--KONA, HAWAII, USA -- CHI HUEY WONG
2001--POTSDAM, GERMANY -- HIDEAKI YAMADA
2003--SANTA FE, NM, USA -- JON DORDICK/DOUG CLARK
2005—GYEONG-JU, KOREA — DEWEY RYU
2007—HARRISON HOT SPRINGS, BC, CANADA — FRANCES H. ARNOLD
2009 – GRONINGEN, THE NETHERLANDS – SAKAYU SHIMIZU
2011 – VAIL, COLORADO, USA – DAVID ESTELL
2013 – TOYAMA, JAPAN – YASUHISA ASANO
2015 – ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA, USA – DAN TAWFIK
2017 – TOULOUSE, FRANCE – PIERRE MONSAN
2019 – WHISTLER, CANADA – HUIMIN ZHAO
2022 – DALLAS, TEXAS, USA – UWE BORNSCHEUER
2023 – SINGAPORE – HAK SUNG KIM