Dionicio Siegel, born in Truchas, New Mexico, was first introduced to chemistry in high school while growing up in Stockton California. After attending Reed College in Portland Oregon his interest focused on synthetic organic chemistry and he stared graduate school at the California Institute of Technology. At Cal Tech he was awarded an Institute Fellowship as well as being named the Upjohn-Pharmacia Fellow for 1998 in his first year working with Erick Carreira. After one year at Cal Tech he transitioned to the Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department at Harvard University and began his PhD project developing a synthetic route to prepare new antibiotics based on the tetracycline class of natural products with Andy Myers. With success on this project the chemical platform was licensed to a start-up company Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals which was purchased by La Jolla Pharmaceuticals. From this chemistry eravacycline (XeravaTM) was created and succeeded, gaining FDA approval in 2018 for the treatment of complicated intra-abdominal infections with activity against antibiotic resistant bacterial strains. 

            After earning his PhD from Harvard in 2003 Dionicio started a Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program Postdoctoral Fellow at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York City with Samuel Danishefsky. During his four years at MSKCC he developed laboratory preparations of complex phloroglucinol natural products advancing the understanding of these remarkable compounds. In 2007 he started his independent career as an assistant professor at The University of Texas at Austin in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department. Over his seven years at UT Austin he developed a program focused on providing access to naturally produced compounds that promote tissue regeneration. These chemistry platforms have been used to prepare new chemicals with improved activities and probe compounds used to elucidate the mechanism of action of multiple natural products. Small molecule driven tissue regeneration studies were also achieved in his laboratory using nano-second laser microsurgeries on C. elegans. In addition, new chemical transformations were developed to permit the conversion of feedstock chemicals into value added compounds. One reaction (reported in Nature 2013, 499 192-196), patent protected by UT Austin, has been of interest for chemical lithography companies. While at UT Austin Dionicio was awarded the NSF CAREER Award, College of Natural Sciences Outreach Excellence Award, The University of Texas System Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award, and the College of Natural Sciences Teaching Excellence Award. The basis for the educational awards was Dr. Siegel’s development of the high school outreach program Texas Shamans, a Study of the Chemistry and Conservation of Native Californian Plants. The program was awarded the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Award in Chemical Sciences and was supported by the National Science Foundation, Dell Inc., and UT Austin. 

            With an interest in developing a program focused on translation science and transitioning his outreach program to a larger city Dionicio moved to UCSD in the summer of 2014. While at UCSD he has led in the development of small molecule with therapeutic potential by creating and implementing the UCSD Center for Compound Resources, a Frontiers of Innovation Center, and serving as co-Director. The center seeks to develop synergistic connection between the strengths of the campus; the study human medicine and plant biology linked to marine and terrestrial natural products and synthetic and medicinal organic chemistry. The Center’s goal is to expedite the discovery and develop new molecules of significance to human health and the planet. Starting in 2018 he has served as the Head of the Division of Pharmaceutical Chemistry in the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences continuing to encourage academic drug development. In addition to his appointment in the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the rank of full professor he holds an Affiliate Faculty Appointment in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department at UCSD.