B.S. (1990) Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Ph.D. (1997) University of California, San Francisco

Biological Chemistry; Organic Chemistry; Inorganic Chemistry

Research projects within my group will use the tools of synthetic chemistry, molecular biology, and X-ray crystallography to answer important scientific questions. A universal molecular scaffold. The development of a universal molecular scaffold that would allow the systematic design, construction, and investigation of macromolecules that display chemical functionality in three-dimensional space is a primary goal of my group. A scaffold like this will allow the design and synthesis of new catalysts, molecular sensors, and ultimately molecular machines. My group use synthetic chemistry to synthesize molecular building blocks that we will couple to each other through pairs of bonds to construct rigid macromolecules with diverse and programmable shapes. We have developed computer software that allows the computer aided design of these molecules to carry out specific functions.

"Spiroligozymes for Transesterifications: Design and Relationship of Structure to Activity," Kheirabadi, M.; Celebi-Oelcuem, N.; Parker, M.F.L.; Zhao, Q.Q.; Kiss, G.; Houk, K.N.; Schafmeister, C.E., Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2012, 134(44): 18345-18353

"A Spiroligomer alpha-Helix Mimic That Binds HDM2, Penetrates Human Cells and Stabilizes HDM2 in Cell Culture," Brown, Z.Z.; Akula, K.; Arzumanyan, A.; Alleva, J.; Jackson, M.; Bichenkov, E.; Sheffield, J.B.; Feitelson, MA.; Schafmeister, C.E., Plos One, 2012, 7(10): e45948

"Hydrophobic Substituent Effects on Proline Catalysis of Aldol Reactions in Water," Zhao, Q.Q.; Lam, Y.H.; Kheirabadi, M.; Xu, CS.; Houk, KN.; Schafmeister, C.E., Journal of Organic Chemistry, 2012, 77(10): 4784-4792

"Solid-Phase Synthesis of Functionalized Bis-Peptides," Brown, Z.Z.; Alleva, J.; Schafmeister, C.E., Biopolymers, 2012, 96(5): 578-585

"Synthesis of Hexa- and Pentasubstituted Diketopiperazines from Sterically Hindered Amino Acids," Brown, Z.Z.; Schafmeister, C.E., Organic Letters, 2010, 12(7): 1436-1439

"Synthesis of a Carboxylate Functionalized Bis-Amino Acid Monomer," Gupta, S.; Schafmeister, C.E., Journal of Organic Chemistry, 2009, 74(10): 3652-3658

"Experimental Evidence for Water Mediated Electron Transfer Through Bis-Amino Acid Donor-Bridge-Acceptor Oligomers," Chakrabarti, S.; Parker, M.F.L.; Schafmeister, C.E., Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2009, 131(6): 2044

"Shape-Programmable Macromolecules," Schafmeister, C.E.; Brown, Z.Z.; Gupta, S., Accounts of Chemical Research, 2008, 41(10): 1387-1398

"Distance distributions of end-labeled curved bispeptide oligomers by electron spin resonance," Bird, G.H.; Pronsuwan, S.; Saxena, S.; Schafmeister, C.E., ACS Nano, 2008, 2(9): 1857-1864

"Observation of contraction and expansion in a bis(peptide)-based mechanical molecular actuator," Schafmeister, C.E.; Belasco, L.G.; Brown, P. H., Chemistry-A European Journal, 2008, 14(21): 6406-6412

"Analysis of the dynamical flexibility of bis-peptide nanostructures," Pornsuwan, O.; Schafmeister, C.E.; Saxena, S., Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2008, 112(5): 1377-1384

"Molecular lego," Schafmeister, C. E., Scientific American , 2007, 296(2), 76

"Synthesis of structurally diverse bis-peptide oligomers," Gupta, S.; Macala, M.; Schafmeister, C. E., Journal of Organic Chemistry, 2006, 71(23): 8691-8695

"Maximizing the stereochemical diversity of spiro-ladder oligomers," Levins, C. G.; Brown, Z. Z.; Schafmeister, C. E., Organic Letters, 2006, 8(13): 2807-2810

"Flexibility and lengths of bis-peptide nanostructures by electron spin resonance," Pornsuwan, S.; Bird, G.; Schafmeister, C. E., Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2006, 128(12): 3876-3877

Schafmeister, C., "Fast Algorithm for Generating Cpk Images on Graphics Workstations", Journal of Molecular Graphics, (1990) 8(4), 201-206.

Schafmeister, C.E., Miercke, L.J., and Stroud, R.M., "Structure at 2.5 Angstroms of a Designed Peptide That Maintains Solubility of Membrane Proteins", Science, (1993) 262(5134), 734-8.

Finer-Moore, J.S., Liu, L., Schafmeister, C.E., Birdsall, D.L., Mau, T., Santi, D.V., and Stroud, R.M., "Partitioning Roles of Side Chains in Affinity, Orientation, and Catalysis with Structures for Mutant Complexes: Asparagine-229 in Thymidylate Synthase", Biochemistry, (1996) 35(16), 5125-36.

Schafmeister, C.E., LaPorte, S.L., Miercke, L.J., and Stroud, R.M., "A Designed Four Helix Bundle Protein with Native-like Structure", Nature Structural Biology, (1997) 4(12), 1039-1046.

Schafmeister, C.E. and Stroud, R.M., "Helical Protein Design", Current Opinion in Biotechnology, (1998) 9(4), 350-353.