Associate Professor

B.S. (1990) Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Ph.D. (1997) University of California, San Francisco

OFFICE
Beury Hall 340

MAILING ADDRESS
Department of Chemistry

Beury Hall 130
1901 N. 13th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19122

PHONE
office: 215-204-7128
fax: 215-204-1532

E-MAIL

meister@temple.edu

RESEARCH GROUP

Biological / Inorganic / Materials / Nanoscience / Organic

Research Interests

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.

For more details and images see our reseach page.

Awards

Cottrell Scholar Award, 2004; NSF CAREER Award, 2004-2009; Camille and Henry Dreyfus New Faculty Award, 2000-2005; Research Corporation, Research Innovation Award, 2000-2002; Jane Coffin Childs post-doctoral fellow, 1998-2000; Howard Hughes Medical Foundation pre-doctoral fellow, 1993-1998

Selected Publications

"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 , 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 , 1377-1384

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

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

"Maximizing the stereochemical diversity of spiro-ladder oligomers," Levins, C. G.; Brown, Z. Z.; Schafmeister, C. E., Organic Letters , 2006 , 8 , 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 , 3876-3877

"The synthesis of curved and linear structures from a minimal set of monomers," Levins, C. G.; Schafmeister, C. E., Journal of Organic Chemistry , 2005 , 70 , 9002-9008

"Synthesis of a pipecolic acid-based bis-amino acid and its assembly into a spiro ladder oligomer," Gupta, S.; Das, B. C.; Schafmeister, C. E., Organic Letters , 2005 , 7 , 2861-2864

"Synthesis of a Bis-amino Acid that Creates a Sharp Turn," S.A. Habay, C.E. Schafmeister, Organic Letters , 2004 , 6(19) , 3369-3371

"The Synthesis of Functionalized Nanoscale Molecular Rods of Defined Length," C.G. Levins, C.E. Schafmeister, Journal of the Americal Chemical Society , 2003 , 125 , 4702-4703

"An all-hydrocarbon crosslinking system for enhancing the helicity and metabolic stability of peptides," C.E. Schafmeister, J. Po, G.L. Verdine, Journal of the American Chemical Society , 2000 , 122 , 5891-5892

"A designed four helix bundle protein with native-like structure," C.E. Schafmeister, S.L. LaPorte, L.J.W. Miercke and Robert M. Stroud, Nature Structural Biology , 1997 , 4(12) , 1039-1046

"Structure at 2.5 A of a designed peptide that maintains solubility of membrane proteins," C.E. Schafmeister, L.J. Miercke and R.M. Stroud, Science , 1993 , 262(5134) , 734-738