Mark Distefano is currently a Distinguished McKnight Professor of Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Minnesota. He received his B.A. degree in Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of California at Berkeley, his Ph.D. degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was a postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology. He has published more than 200 research articles, book chapters and reviews and is currently Editor in Chief for Bioorganic Chemistry and Chair-Elect for the American Chemical Society BIOL Division. His research is at the interface of chemistry and biology and involves the synthesis of new chemical probes and their use in studying protein lipid modification using a broad range of biochemical, cell-based and animal-based systems. The group uses a plethora of techniques including in vitro enzyme assays, confocal microscopy, flow cytometry, proteomics and mass cytometry. He is currently focused on understanding and exploiting protein lipid modification in the context of cancer and aging diseases.