For discovering and developing a new antibiotic in the tetracycline family, Atul K. Verma (PhD, ’96, Rauchfuss) and colleagues from Paratek Pharmaceuticals, were recognized at the Fall 2019 ACS National Meeting in San Diego with a Heroes of Chemistry Award. Due to concerns with drug resistant bacteria in recent years, Verma and colleagues developed the first new antibiotic of the tetracycline family in decades. Applying new reactions to the tetracycline family of antibiotics resulted in new chemistries that produced seemingly limitless derivatives and led to Omadacycline, which received FDA approval as NUZYRA® in 2018 for the treatment of pneumonia and skin infections. Atul received his M.S. from the Indian Institutes of Technology in Kanpur, India, and his PhD in chemistry at the University of Illinois with Professor Tom Rauchfuss. He’s currently Associate Director at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and has been part of the team to develop and bring RNAi therapeutics (ONPATTRO® and GIVLAARI® were approved by FDA in 2018 and 2019, respectively) to patients with rare diseases.