Welcome to the Schafmeister Research Group!

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We are located on Temple University's Main Campus in the Science Education and Research Center (SERC), lab 620

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Research projects within my group 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. We use synthetic chemistry to synthesize molecular building blocks (bis-amino acids) that we will couple to each other through pairs of bonds (diketopiperazines) to construct rigid macromolecules (spiroligomers) with diverse and programmable shapes. We have developed computer software (CANDO) that allows the computer aided design of these molecules to carry out specific functions.