Biochemist who searches extreme environments to hold Steiner Professorship

By Deborah Wormser

Dr. John MacMillan, Associate Professor of Biochemistry, has been selected as the inaugural holder of the Martha Steiner Professorship in Medical Research. Dr. MacMillan searches for new antibiotics and cancer therapies by studying aquatic bacteria and other natural products that thrive in extreme environments.

Dr. John MacMillian
Dr. John MacMillian

A bequest from the estate of Martha Steiner made during UT Southwestern Medical Center’s Innovations in Medicine campaign established the endowment in 2008.

“John MacMillan is a superbly trained natural products chemist. He scours the planet in search of organisms that make complex chemicals having new and interesting biological activities. He is an excellent fit in our multidisciplinary Department,” said Dr. Steven McKnight, Chairman of Biochemistry.

“I am honored by the Martha Steiner Professorship in Medical Research,” said Dr. MacMillan, who studies bacteria forged in extreme environments such as hot springs, the deep ocean, and mangrove swamps in his quest for potential therapeutics.

“The collaborative environment of UT Southwestern has been the ideal place to carry out work in the field of natural products. The core facilities, such as the high-throughput screening facility established by Dr. McKnight, have allowed us to move our program in new and exciting directions,” added Dr. MacMillan.

Growing up in Iowa City, Dr. MacMillan was an avid reader who fell in love with science and science fiction. As a University of Iowa undergraduate majoring in chemistry, he became interested in the chemistry of natural (organic) products.

His advisor told him about a special program at the University of California, Davis, focusing on natural products from the sea. Intrigued, he read papers on the subject that convinced him to apply. He was accepted and moved to California having never seen a body of water larger than a lake.

He joined the faculty of UT Southwestern in 2007 after pursuing postdoctoral research at the La Jolla, California-based Scripps Institution of Oceanography, one of the world’s preeminent oceanographic research institutions.

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Dr. MacMillan is a Chilton/Bell Scholar in Biochemistry.

Dr. McKnight holds The Sam G. Winstead and F. Andrew Bell Distinguished Chair in Biochemistry, and the Distinguished Chair in Basic Biomedical Research.