Sun Sun


Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station A5300
Austin, TX 78712-0165





















Contact Information


Office: WEL: 5.428
Phone: 471-5009

Lab


Office: WEL 5.104
Phone: 471-6674
Fax: 471-7550

Jonathan L. Sessler


sessler@mail.utexas.edu
Professor, Faculty
Rowland Pettit Centennial Professorship in Chemistry

Research Group


Sessler Group

Education


BS, University of California - Berkeley, 1977
PhD, Stanford University, 1982

NSF-NATO and NSF-CNRS Postdoctoral Fellow, Universite Louis Pasteur de Strasbourg (1982-83)

Awards


Alexander von Humboldt and JSPS Senior Fellowships, 2005
Pollack Award, 2003
Izatt-Christensen Award, 2001
Fellow of the AAAS, 1999
ACS Cope Scholar, 1991
Sloan Fellow, 1989
Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar, 1988

Affiliations


Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology; IGERT: Optical Biomedical Engineering; Environmental Science Institute;

Molecular Engineering


My group might be considered to be in the business of "Molecular Engineering" in that our research involves the design and construction of molecules carefully tailored so as to accomplish a specific objective. Often these objectives are medically or biologically inspired in that we seek to understand complex biochemical processes through the study of simple, well-characterized "model" compounds or use our knowledge of chemistry to prepare new compounds that we think could find application in the clinic as novel therapeutic or diagnostic agents. On the other hand, as often as not, we simply set out to prepare molecules or assemblies of architectural elegance with interesting chemical, physical, or biological properties. In both cases, however, we try to accomplish our goals through an appropriate combination of design, synthesis, and testing. As a result, the research projects in the group tend to be highly interdisciplinary in nature, involving at times elements of inorganic chemistry, biochemistry, spectroscopy, and synthetic organic chemistry. This helps keep our research activities fresh, focused, and exciting, as does the fact that much of what we do relates to the "real world" of patents, patients, and biotechnology.

Representative Publications



Wang, Z.; Lecane, P.; Thiemann, P.; Fan, A.; Cortez, C.; Ma, X.; Tonev, D.; Miles, D.; Lin, A.; Hemmi, G.; Naumovski, L.; Miller, R. A.; Magda, D.; Cho, D.-G.; Sessler, J. L.; Pike, B. L.; Yeligar, S. M.; Karaman, M. W.; and Hacia, J. G. "Synthesis and Biologic Properties of Hydrophilic Sapphyrins, a New Class of Tumor Selective Drugs" Molecular Cancer 6 (2007): 9-20.

Sessler, J. L.; Lawrence, C. M.; Jayawickramarajah, J. "Molecular recognition via base-pairing" Chem. Soc. Rev. 36 (2007): 314-325.

Stepien, M.; Donnio, B.; Sessler, J. L. "Self-assembly of a supramolecular liquid crystal induced by trinitrotoluene vapours." Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 46 (2007): 1431-1435.

Nielsen, K. A.; Cho, W.-S.; Sarova, G.; Petersen, B. M.; Bond, A. D.; Becher, J.; Jensen, F.; Guldi, D. M.; Sessler, J. L.; Jeppesen, J. O. "Supramolecular Receptor Design -Anion-Triggered Binding of C60" Angew. Chem. 118 (2006): 7002-7007.

Sessler, J. L.; Tomat, E.; Lynch, V. M. "Coordination of oxovanadium(V) in an expanded porphyrin macrocycle" ChemCom (2006): 4486-4488.