Jen Heemstra
Born
Jennifer Margaret Cary
Alma materUniversity of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
University of California, Irvine
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Utah
Emory University
Washington University in St. Louis
ThesisFolding-Promoted Reactivity and Tunable Structure of Pyridine-Containing M-Phenylene Ethynylene Helical Cavitands (2005)
Doctoral advisorJeffrey S. Moore
Websitewww.heemstralab.com

Jennifer Margaret Heemstra (née Cary) is a Professor of Chemistry at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research makes use of the ability of nucleic acids to self-assemble and recognise other molecules. Alongside her research, Heemstra is a science communicator and writes a regular column for Chemical & Engineering News.

Early life and education

Heemstra decided that she wanted to be a scientist whilst she was at high school and she took part in the Science Olympiad.[1][2] Heemstra studied chemistry at the University of California, Irvine and graduated in 2000.[3] She was an undergraduate researcher with James Nowick, where she studied the folding of beta sheets and became interested in supramolecular chemistry. She was a doctoral student at University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign where she worked with Jeffrey S. Moore on phenylene ethynylene cavitands.[1] On the day of her doctoral defense, Heemstra received a phone call from her proposed postdoctoral advisor who was concerned that she would become pregnant during her research position, which would result in her taking time out of the laboratory.[4] Heemstra lost the postdoctoral position as a result, and instead spent two years working on medicinal chemistry in industry before starting a different postdoctoral position at Harvard University. Here she developed new approaches to template nucleic acids, working under the supervision of David Liu.

Research and career

Heemstra joined the University of Utah in 2010 and was appointed Associate Professor with tenure in 2016.[5] She moved to Emory University in 2017. She is interested in the use of biomolecular platforms for self-assembly, molecular recognition and in vitro catalysis.[2] Her research considers the detection and sequestration of small molecules. She has demonstrated that nucleic acid aptamers can be used in biosensing.[6] In particular, split aptamers can self-assemble when particular small molecules are present, resulting in chemical ligation within DNA. This can be used to detect specific pharmaceutical molecules. Heemstra has shown that these DNA sensors can be used to detect the enantiopurity of the small molecule targets via fluorescence.

Heemstra is working on new approaches to monitor RNA editing, through the use of fluorescence labelling, as well as ways to manipulate these modifications for genetic engineering.[7] She has worked on threose nucleic acids (TNAs) which can be used to confer genetic information and in the detection of small molecule toxins.[7]

Teaching and science communication

Alongside her scientific research, Heemstra leads a research program in chemistry education and how students' perceive failure.[8] She has spoken about the need for scientists to embrace failure to succeed in their research.[9][10] Heemstra is a science communicator who writes a regular column Office Hours for Chemical & Engineering News.[11][12] She has discussed her scientific career on their podcast, Stereo Chemistry.[13] She has written for Nature Careers, Wiley and Editage, as well as on her own blog, Things That Change the Way I Think.[4][14][15][16] She has been described as one of the "most influential scientists on social media".[17][18] In 2018 she was selected as a Scialog Fellow.[19]

Selected publications

Her publications include:

  • Heemstra, Jennifer M. (2006). "The chain-length dependence test". Accounts of Chemical Research. 39 (1): 11–20. doi:10.1021/ar0501267. PMID 16411735.
  • Cary, Jennifer M. (2002). "Hydrogen Bond-Stabilized Helix Formation of am-Phenylene Ethynylene Oligomer". Organic Letters. 4 (26): 4663–4666. doi:10.1021/ol0270982. PMID 12489955.
  • Heemstra, Jennifer M. (2012). "Enzyme-linked small-molecule detection using split aptamer ligation". Analytical Chemistry. 84 (14): 6104–6109. doi:10.1021/ac300997q. PMID 22715870.

Personal life

Heemstra is married with two sons. Outside her work she takes part in rock climbing, cycling and swimming.[2] She has said that Rosalind Franklin is her favourite scientist.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Face to Face – Jennifer M. Heemstra". www.iciq.org. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  2. 1 2 3 Community, Nature Research Chemistry (2017-04-07). "Reactions: Jen Heemstra". Nature Research Chemistry Community. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  3. ↑ "Why success becomes more likely when you are willing to fail". events.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  4. 1 2 Community, Nature Research Bioengineering (2019-03-06). "Balance: Are you always this enthusiastic?". Nature Research Bioengineering Community. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  5. ↑ "Professor Jennifer Heemstra - Department of Chemistry - The University of Utah". chem.utah.edu. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  6. ↑ "Heemstra Lab I Small Molecule Detection". Heemstra Lab. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  7. 1 2 "Heemstra Lab I Unnatural Nucleic Acids". Heemstra Lab. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  8. ↑ "Heemstra Lab I Science Education". Heemstra Lab. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  9. ↑ Jen Heemstra: Why Success is More Likely When You're Willing to Fail (Lecture), retrieved 2019-12-21
  10. ↑ Henry, Meredith A.; Shorter, Shayla; Charkoudian, Louise; Heemstra, Jennifer M.; Corwin, Lisa A. (2019-03-01). "FAIL Is Not a Four-Letter Word: A Theoretical Framework for Exploring Undergraduate Students' Approaches to Academic Challenge and Responses to Failure in STEM Learning Environments". CBE: Life Sciences Education. 18 (1): ar11. doi:10.1187/cbe.18-06-0108. PMC 6757216. PMID 30821602.
  11. ↑ "Meet C&EN's new advice columnist, Jen Heemstra". Chemical & Engineering News. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  12. ↑ "Office Hours". Chemical & Engineering News. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  13. ↑ "Podcast: Real talk with social media sensation Jen Heemstra". Chemical & Engineering News. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  14. ↑ "How I learned to let go of career barriers and burdens". Editage Insights. 2019-04-25. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  15. ↑ Heemstra, Jennifer M. (2019). "Self-Care Is Not the Enemy of Performance". ChemBioChem. 20 (17): 2203–2206. doi:10.1002/cbic.201900285. ISSN 1439-7633. PMID 31211892.
  16. ↑ "Things that change the way I think". thingsthatchangethewayithink.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  17. ↑ "AUB - Events - Mentoring and researc talks by Prof. Jen Heemstra". American University of Beirut. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  18. ↑ Clifton, Louise (2019-05-24). "Academic Culture". Invisible Grail. Archived from the original on 2019-12-21. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  19. ↑ "Jen Heemstra – The Lab Report". Archived from the original on 2019-06-07. Retrieved 2019-12-21.

Jennifer M. Heemstra publications indexed by Google Scholar

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