Thesis Title: “Impact of nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase (RT) inhibitors on the enzyme-substrate interactions and intramolecular dynamics of wild-type and drug resistant HIV-1 RT.”

Graduation Date: 2013

MBSB PhD Advisor: Prof. Sanford Leuba (Dept. of Cell Biology, University of Pittsburgh)

Research Interests: 

Grant's research combined single-molecule biophysics techniques with molecular modeling and simulation to probe various molecular mechanisms, with interests in protein conformational dynamics and DNA-protein interactions. He used various techniques such as Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence Microscopy (TIRFM), Scanning Confocal Fluorescence Microscopy (SCFM), Magnetic Tweezers (MT), and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) to interrogate biological machinery one molecule at a time. He mostly employed single-pair Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (spFRET) as a means to study the kinetic mechanisms of many systems such as HIV-1 Reverse Transcriptase and MCM helicase.  By combining results from these experiments with molecular simulations in order he was able to gained detailed new structural insights and to improve upon the measurements themselves.

Current Location: postdoctoral researcher with Michael O'Donnell, Rockefeller University

Education:

B.A., Biochemistry, University of New Mexico, 2003
M.S., Biomedical Sciences, University of New Mexico, 2007
Ph.D., Molecular Biophysics & Structural Biology, University of Pittsburgh, 2013

Publications:

• Graham, B.W., Schauer, G.D., Leuba, S.H., and Trakselis, M.A. (2011) Steric exclusion and wrapping of the excluded DNA strand occurs along discrete external binding paths during MCM helicase unwinding. Nucleic Acids Research 39(15):6585-95.
• Fagerburg MV, Schauer GD, Thickman KR, Bianco PR, Khan SA, Leuba SH, Anand SP. PcrA-mediated disruption of RecA nucleoprotein filaments--essential role of the ATPase activity of RecA. Nucleic Acids Res. 2012
• Schauer G, Leuba S, Sluis-Cremer N. Biophysical Insights into the Inhibitory Mechanism of Non-Nucleoside HIV-1 Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors. Biomolecules. 2013; 3(4):889-904. 
• Leuba SH, Carney SM, Dahlburg EM, Eells RJ, Ghodke H, Yanamala N, Schauer G, Klein-Seetharaman J. Early integration of the individual student in academic activities: a novel classroom concept for graduate education in molecular biophysics and structural biology. BMC Biophys. 2014 5;7:6.
• Schauer GD, Huber KD, Leuba SH, Sluis-Cremer N. (2014) Mechanism of allosteric inhibition of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase revealed by single-molecule and ensemble fluorescence. Nucleic Acids Res. 42(18):11687-96