Professor Jeffrey Gustafson
B.S., Chemistry; San Diego State University, 2006
Ph.D., Organic Chemistry; Yale University, 2011
NIH Postdoctoral Fellow; Yale University, 2011-2013
“As an alumnus of SDSU who has greatly benefitted from participating in undergraduate research, I understand the vital importance of these endeavors towards the career advancement of SDSU students, and thus enthusiastically encourage talented undergraduates to perform research in my laboratory.”
Research in the Gustafson group strives to apply innovative chemical strategies towards complex biological problems. Ongoing projects focus on three main areas (a) The development of chemical methodologies that enable the enantioselective synthesis of complex molecules; (b) The application of these methodologies to access new selective small molecule probes pertaining to aberrant protein phosphorylation; and (c) The design, synthesis and evaluation of small molecule vanadate complexes as phosphatase inhibitors.
Graduate students who join my lab will receive a thorough training in organic chemistry (i.e. asymmetric catalysis, organic synthesis, medicinal chemistry). Cutting edge analytical techniques such as NMR spectroscopy and HPLC will be constantly utilized to analyze each reaction. Additionally, the interdisciplinary nature of this research will expose graduate students to diverse techniques from other disciplines such as molecular biology (recombinant protein synthesis and purification, Western blot analysis) and biochemistry (in vitro inhibition assays). As time progresses gifted students will be able to emphasize any or all of these areas depending on their interests. As a new faculty member I am actively recruiting talented Masters and Ph.D. students to join my lab.
Ph.D. and Master’s Students
Undergraduate Students
Postdoctoral Students
Lab Mascots:
Lucas the Spider
(aka Mariel’s Halloween hat)
Oliver
Ashley’s Adopted Pup!
Andy the Elf
and Designer the Panda