Biography of Assistant Professor Marion Götz (Organic Chemistry)

Marion Gotz

Marion is an Assistant Professor in Whitman College's Department of Chemistry. She is one of the two tenure track faculty responsible for teaching the organic chemistry sequence. Marion received her Ph.D. under the supervision of Prof. Jim Powers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta in 2004. Her graduate studies focused on the design of inhibitors for proteolytic enzymes. Marion's graduate research is published in several peer reviewed journals including Biological Chemistry , Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, and Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry . She also has two patents pending for the discovery of novel anti-parasitic agents. Marion continued her research in a post-doctoral position in the Bioorganic Chemistry group lead by Prof. Luis Moroder at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biochemistry in Munich, Germany. Her post-doctoral work succeeded in the synthesis of natural product analogs of the fungal metabolite TMC-95 with promising therapeutic potential towards the treatment of cancer. Prior to her arrival at Whitman College Marion began her teaching career on a two-year assignment as Visiting Assistant Professor at Elmhurst College in the suburbs of Chicago, where she taught Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Medicinal Chemistry. As a citizen of Germany, Marion was frequently invited as a guest lecturer to the German classes taught at Elmhurst College. Marion enjoys engaging undergraduate students in her research. Her research at Whitman College involves drug design and synthesis, with a particular focus on fighting Alzheimer's disease, sleeping sickness, Chagas' disease, and cancer.

Curriculum Vitae

EDUCATION

Doctor of Philosophy

Georgia Institute of Technology, Jan 2004
Organic Chemistry
"Design, synthesis and evaluation of irreversible inhibitors for clan CA and clan CD cysteine proteases"

Bachelor of Science

Armstrong Alantic State University, 1998
Chemistry , magna cum laude and with honors.
Research: Relative reactivity studies of various dipolarophiles in nitrile oxide cycloadditions.

Postdoctoral Training

Mar 2004 - Aug 2005

Max-Planck-Institute for Biochemistry, Munich, Germany.
Advisor:        Prof. Luis Moroder
Projects:   
- Design, synthesis and kinetic evaluation of  biaryl-ether inhibitors for the 20S proteasome.
- Synthesis of a labile solid phase linker for guanidinylation.

Employment      

    • Assistant Professor
      Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA
      August 2007-present
      Teach introductory, organic chemistry and associated lab, and advanced organic chemistry lab
    • Visiting Assistant Professor of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry at Elmhurst College.
    • 1999 Kemira Pigments, Savannah, GA - Instrumental Specialist for x-ray fluorescence and diffraction and carbon analysis.

    Classes Instructed

    Organic Chemistry I and II (Biology, Pre-Professional, and Chemistry Majors, Sophomore/Junior Level) lecture and lab.

    Principles of Biochemistry and Intermediate Biochemistry (Biology and Chemistry Majors, Junior/Senior Level) lecture and lab.

    FT-IR and NMR Module (Chemistry Majors, Senior Level) lecture and lab.

    Medicinal Chemistry for senior students.

    Grants Funded

    Pittsburgh Conference Memorial National College Grant (2006) - $9000"Integrating Fluorescence Spectroscopy into the Curriculum at Elmhurst College"

    Elmhurst College Faculty Student Collaborative Research Grant (2006) - $500 "Design and Synthesis of Novel Macrocyclic Compounds as Medicinal Agents with Highly Therapeutic Value"

    Elmhurst College Faculty Development Grant (2006) - $3500 "Biological Probes for the 20S Proteasome"

    Community Outreach

    Summer 2006: Organized and instructed the chemistry sessions of the "Associated Colleges of Illinois Summer Academy in Mathematics and Science" for underprivileged high school students. Developed a new lab experiment to interface the chemistry and biology sessions.

    Awards    

    • Undergraduate Awards                              

    General Chemistry Award
    John G. Brewer Award
    Joel Hildebrandt Honors Society
    Outstanding Undergraduate Senior Award
    Dean's List
    First Prize Winner of the Student Scholarship Exhibition

    • Graduate Awards

    GAAN Fellowship
    Dean's Scholarship

    Teaching and Professional Skills

    -Teaching and mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students academically as well as in the research laboratory.
    - Center of the Health Professions recommendation committee member.
    - Supervising of teaching assistants.
    -     Bio-organic and medicinal chemistry: structure-based design of enzyme inhibitors, SAR studies, natural product synthesis.
    - Experienced in the modern techniques of organic synthesis and manual solid phase synthesis.
    - Enzyme Kinetics: Fluorescent determination of irreversible and reversible inhibition and substrate kinetic constants.
    - Analysis: semi-prep and analytical HPLC, Gas Chromatography, NMR Spectroscopy (300, 400 and 500 MHz Bruker and Varian Systems), UV-Spectroscopy, Fluorescence Spectroscopy, FT-IR Spectroscopy.
    - Standard Office Software, ChemDraw, IsisDraw, Endnote, Insight II, MOE modeling.
    - Experienced in writing patent and grant applications and reviewing journal articles.

    Publications and Patents

    Götz, MG , Powers, JC,. Preparation of Peptidyl Allyl Sulfones as Cysteine Protease Inhibitors. US Patent , US 2006241057. 2006 .

    Groll, M., Götz, M. G ., Kaiser, M., Weyher, E., Moroder, L. TMC-95-Based Inhibitor Design Provides Evidence for the Catalytic Versatility of the Proteasome Chem.&Biol. 2006 , 13 , 1-8.

    Moroder, L, Musiol, H.-J., Götz, M. G. , Renner, C. Synthesis of Single - and Multiple-Stranded Cystine-Rich Peptides. Pept. Sci. 2005 , 80(2-3) , 85-97.

    James C. Powers, Marion Götz , Ozlem Ekici, Juliana Asgian, Karen Ellis, Zhao Zhao Li, Brian Rukamp. Propenoyl Hydrazides. US Patent 11/062,017, 18 Feb 2005 .

    Ekici, Ö, Götz, M. G ., James, K. E., Li, Z., Rukamp, B., Asgian, J. L., Caffrey, C. R., Hansell, E., Dvo?ák, J., McKerrow, J. H., Potempa, J., Travis, J., Mikolajczyk, J., Salvesen, G. S., and Powers, J. C. Aza-Peptide Michael Acceptors:   A New Class of Inhibitors Specific for Caspases and Other Clan CD Cysteine Proteases. J. Med. Chem. 2004 , 47 , 1889-1892.

    Götz, M. G. , Caffrey, C. R., Hansell, E., McKerrow, J. H., and Powers, J. C. Peptidyl Allyl Sulfones: A New Class of Inhibitors for Clan CA Cysteine Proteases. Bioorg. Med. Chem. 2004 , 12 , 5203-5211.

    Kam, C. M., Götz, M. G. , Koot, G., McGuire, M., Thiele, D., Hudig, D., and Powers, J. C. Design and Synthesis of Inhibitors for Dipeptidyl Peptidase. Arch. Biochem. Biophys . 2004 , 427 , 123-134.

    James, K. E., Götz, M. G. , Caffrey, C. R., Hansell, E., Carter, W., Barrett, A. J., McKerrow, J. H., and Powers, J. C. Aza-Peptide Epoxides: Potent and Selective Inhibitors for Schistosome and Pig Kidney Legumain. Biol. Chem. 2003, 384 (12), 1613-1618.

    Selected Presentations

    Götz, M.G. , Groll, M., Kaiser, M. and Moroder, L. Design, synthesis and kinetic evaluation of reversible macrocyclic peptidyl biaryl-ether inhibitors for the 20S proteasome. 22 nd Winter School on Proteinases and their Inhibitors. Tiers, Italy, March 2005.

    Götz, M.G. and Powers, J. C. Peptidyl allyl sulfones:   A new class of inhibitors for clan CA cysteine proteases. Southeastern Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Atlanta, GA, November 2003.

    Götz, M.G. , James, K. E., Caffrey, C. R., McKerrow, J. H., and Powers, J. C. Design and synthesis of tripeptidyl aza-peptide epoxide inhibitors targeting Schistosoma mansoni legumain.   American Chemical Society National Meeting, New York, NY, September 2003.

    Götz, M. G ., Kam, C. M., and Powers, J. C. Design and synthesis of dipeptidyl vinyl sulfone inhibitors for DPPI.   American Chemical Society National Meeting, Boston, MA, August 2002.