not to be confused with charles brenner psychiatristcharles brenner born october 30 1961 is the roy j carver chair of biochemistry and a director of the obesity initiative at the university of iowa he is a graduate of wesleyan university and a veteran of biotechnology companies having worked at chiron corporation and dnax research institute prior to graduate school at stanford university school of medicine brenner conducted postdoctoral research at brandeis university with gregory petsko and then took his first academic position at thomas jefferson university in 1996 moving to dartmouth medical school in 2003 where he served as associate director for basic sciences at norris cotton cancer center he was recruited to chair biochemistry at iowa in 2009 in 2012 brenner was asked by the president of the american society for biochemistry and molecular biology to develop new recommendations for the society for a premedical biochemistry curriculum that will be consistent with a revised mcat examination these recommendations which include development of inorganic organic and biochemistry coursework that is more geared toward the chemistry of bioorganic functional groups have been further refined in academic journalsbrenner has made multiple contributions to molecular biology and biochemistry beginning with purification and characterization of the kex2 proprotein convertase at stanford he has been funded by agencies including the leukemia lymphoma society the march of dimes the burroughs wellcome fund the beckman foundation the lung cancer research foundation the national institutes of health and the national science foundation active research projects include molecular dissection of the function of the fhit tumor suppressor gene characterization and inhibition of dna methylation and discovery of new steps in nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide metabolism notably the brenner laboratory discovered that yeast and human enzymes use nicotinamide riboside to make nad for which brenner was recognized with a william em lands lectureship at university of michigan this new form of b vitamin might have applications in preventing peripheral neuropathy brenner is author of more than 100 publications and was the senior editor of the 2004 book oncogenomics molecular approaches to cancer