Cassandra Callmann

Dr. Cassandra Callmann is an Assistant Professor and CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin. Following the completion of her B.S. in Biochemistry (2012) at West Chester University, she earned both her M.S. (2014) and Ph.D. (2018) in Chemistry at the University of California, San Diego. Her graduate work was supported by fellowships from the Inamori Foundation, the ARCS Foundation, and the Cancer Researchers in Nanotechnology program (NIH R25T). She was recognized for her thesis research with an Outstanding Dissertation Award from the UC San Diego Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in 2018. Following her Ph.D., Cassandra was an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University.  For her work as an early career researcher, she was selected as a 2019 CAS Future Leader by the Chemical Abstracts Service of the American Chemical Society.

Carbohydrates, comprising approximately 80% of Earth’s biomass, are the main structural components of cells and tissues and are critical to the development of complex multicellular organisms. Many biological interactions are dictated by carbohydrates, including cell-cell recognition, cellular signaling processes, formation of biological networks, and uptake of extracellular materials. Moreover, carbohydrates play significant roles in disease progression and in modulating immunity.  Building on recent, significant advances in solid phase carbohydrate synthesis and harnessing the power of controlled living polymerization chemistries, this program aims to pioneer a new class of synthetic glycopolymers, called carbohydrate-polymer conjugates (CPCs). This research will enable the systematic study of how glycopolymer structure impacts its biological function and answer important questions at the interface of chemistry and biology. With this knowledge, our goal is to design novel carbohydrate-based biomaterials for applications in biology and medicine.