Philipp E. Schilling
Postdoctoral Researcher · Stanford University
Chemist developing amide-forming KAT ligation and organoboron protecting groups that make chemical protein synthesis possible at micromolar concentrations.
About
Philipp E. Schilling is a synthetic chemist working on chemical protein synthesis, chemoselective ligation, and organoboron chemistry. He received his Ph.D. from ETH Zurich in the group of Jeffrey W. Bode. As first author with Samuel Steiner and Jeffrey W. Bode (Science, 2026), he introduced ONNO, a tetradentate ligand that masks potassium acyltrifluoroborates (KATs) as zwitterionic organoboron complexes during Fmoc solid-phase peptide synthesis. The resulting C-terminal peptide KATs were joined by KAT ligation at 100 to 200 micromolar concentrations, with about 50% conversion even at 20 micromolar, far below the millimolar concentrations that established protein ligation methods require. He also contributed to a copper-catalyzed route from carboxylic acids to KATs (Angewandte Chemie, 2022). He is now at the Department of Pathology, Stanford University.
Research areas: Chemical protein synthesis, KAT ligation (potassium acyltrifluoroborate ligation), Organoboron chemistry, Protecting groups for solid-phase peptide synthesis, Chemoselective amide-forming ligation, Peptide and protein chemistry, Bioconjugation.
Selected publications
Research topic
KAT ligation: an overview of potassium acyltrifluoroborate amide-forming ligation and its use in chemical protein synthesis.