Gary B. Schuster Professor and Provost Office: 1-35 Boggs Phone: 404-385-2700 Fax: 404-894-7452 E-mail Gary B. Schuster

B.S., Clarkson College of Technology, 1968; Ph.D., University of Rochester, 1971.

Chancellor's Award, University System of Georgia - 1998; Recipient of the A C. Cope Scholar Award and Paul Flory-IBM Fellowship, appointed as Dean of Sciences - 1994

Research Interests

Cationic Anthraquinone Derivatives as Photocatalytic DNA Cleavage agents. The ability to perform double-stranded (ds) cleavage of DNA is crucial to many molecular biological techniques such as gene isolation and production of recombinant DNA vectors. In order for a single molecule to cleave both strands of duplex DNA at a given site, the cleavage moiety must be either bifunctional or recyclable. We discovered that some ammonium - substituted anthraquinone derivatives bind to double-stranded DNA and function as recyclable photonucleases. This process was examined by absorption, circular dichroism and time-resolved laser spectroscopy which reveals a binding geometry in which the long axis of the quinone group is approximately parallel to the long axes of adjacent base pairs.

Transitions in Liquid Crystals Initiated with Circularly Polarized Light. The fundamental goal of this research is the discovery of new means to control the physical and optical properties of liquid crystals with light. We focus on the development of triggers designed to induce a reversible nematic to cholesteric transition under the influence of circularly polarized light. Systems investigated are biaryl chromophores, axially symmetric benzylidene cyclohexanes, and chiral cycloheptatrienes.

Recent Publications

"Oxidatively damaged nucleobases in duplex DNA oligomers: Reaction at thymine-thymine mispairs," J. Joseph, G. B. Schuster, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2009, 131(39), 13904.

"Acridine-viologen dyads: Selective recognition of single-strand DNA through fluorescence enhancement," E. Kuruvilla, P. C. Nandajan, G. B. Schuster, D. Ramaiah, Org. Letts., 2008, 10(19), 4295-4298.

"DNA-directed synthesis of aniline and 4-aminobiphenyl oligomers: Programmed transfer of sequence information to a conjoined polymer nanowire," B. Datta, G. B. Schuster, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2008, 10, 2965-2973.

"A conjoined thienopyrrole oligomer formed by using DNA as a molecular guide," S. Srinivasan, G. B. Schuster, Org. Letts., 2008, 10, 3657-3660.

"Selective one-electron oxidation of duplex DNA oligomers: Reaction at thymines," a. Ghosh, A. Joy, G. B. Schuster, T. Douki, J. Cadet, Org. Biomol. Chem., 2008, 6, 916-928.

"One-electron oxidation of condensed DNA toroids: Injection-site dependent charge (radical cation) mobility," P. Das, G. B. Schuster, Bioconjugate Chem., 2008, 19(6), 1235-1240.

"In-situ electropolymerization of DNA-templated aniline assemblies on a gold surface," W. Chen, M. Josowicz, B. Datta, G. B. Schuster, J. Janata, Electrochem. Sol. State Letts., 2008, 11(6), E11-E14.