Bio

Caroline Proulx was born in Ottawa, Canada and grew up in Toronto, Canada. She obtained her bachelor’s degree from the University of Ottawa in biopharmaceutical sciences (medicinal chemistry) in 2007, working under the supervision of Robert N. Ben. In 2012, she obtained her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Université de Montréal under the guidance of William D. Lubell, where she worked on the development of methodologies for the combinatorial synthesis of azapeptides. From 2012-2016 she was an NSERC postdoctoral fellow at the Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, working with Ronald N. Zuckermann on peptoid synthesis and self-assembly. She joined the faculty at NC State in July 2016 as an assistant professor and was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2023.

Engineering Peptide and Protein Mimics for Chemical Biology and Drug Design

The Proulx Group develops synthetic chemistry strategies to create robust peptide and protein mimics that advance drug discovery and chemical biology. Working at the interface of chemistry and biology, the group designs unnatural amino acids and peptide-based building blocks that expand structural diversity, enhance stability, and enable precise control over folding and function. Research efforts focus on developing broadly applicable tools for peptide modification, including chemoselective late-stage functionalization methods, structure-inducing peptoid monomers, and expanded chemistries for azapeptides. By establishing new “folding rules” and functional capabilities for peptide mimics, this work enables rapid access to protein-like architectures that are difficult to achieve with natural amino acids alone. Together, these approaches streamline the development of peptide-based therapeutics and molecular tools, providing versatile platforms for medicinal chemistry, catalysis, and the study of biological recognition processes.