Vern L. Schramm PhD

Dr. Vern L. Schramm, Chair and Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York City, spends his days capturing moments that last only a fraction of a trillionth of a second yet may be critical in designing innovative drugs for diseases like cancer, leukemia, gout, and malaria. Those critical moments are the points where enzyme reactions transition from one chemical state to another.

Biological life depends on chemical transformations that result from the catalytic work of enzymes. By determining enzyme transition states, which are reached when the probability of the reaction moving forward to form products, or return to reactants, is equal, Schramm and his research team can make stable chemical analogs, or mimics, of this moment in the reaction. Using this knowledge, Schramm and his chemistry collaborators in New Zealand develop novel enzyme inhibitors to treat human diseases.