Mujeeb Wakeel is a doctoral student in the Agarwal Lab in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Georgia Institute of Technology, supervised by Professor Vinayak Agarwal.
Mujeeb received his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry in 2019 from Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. In August 2023, he graduated with a Master of Science in Chemistry from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where his thesis work under Professor Constance B. Bailey focused on the heterologous expression and purification of polyketide synthase domains to investigate protein-protein interactions in polyketide biosynthetic pathways. His early research established a foundation in natural product enzymology that would shape his doctoral work at Georgia Tech.
In the Agarwal Lab, Mujeeb investigates the biosynthesis of peptidic natural products and the molecular mechanisms by which peptide modifying enzymes recognize their substrates. His research centers on ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides, examining how leader peptides and other structural features guide enzymatic transformations. This work addresses fundamental questions about substrate selectivity and catalytic specificity in natural product biosynthetic pathways.
Mujeeb has made significant contributions to the field in a short time. His first-author publication in the Journal of the American Chemical Society demonstrated that lanthipeptide prenyltransferases recognize the entirety of their peptidic substrates, including the leader peptide region, a mode of substrate engagement markedly different from prenyltransferases acting on other ribosomally synthesized peptide natural products. In ACS Chemical Biology, he described a protein-protein interaction model for the recognition of unusually long and structured leader peptides by an azoline-forming cyclodehydratase, extending the traditional peptide-protein paradigm in RiPP biosynthesis. He also contributed to work published in Biochemistry on the gatekeeping activity of ketosynthase domains in engineered type I polyketide synthases.
Mujeeb was awarded the Herbert P. Haley Fellowship for the 2025-2026 academic year, a competitive honor recognizing research and academic achievement at Georgia Tech. He was the only graduate student selected from the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry for this award.
Outside the lab, Mujeeb loves to spend time with his young daughter, cooking, and exploring nature in and around Atlanta.
