BACKGROUND Professor Sigman has a had an interest in both science
and teaching since grade school where he was inspired by his sixth
grade teacher, Mr. Young, and his obvious devotion to and enjoyment of
teaching. Since then Jeff has built upon his scientific education and
used that background to teach at the college level. He obtained
his undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Saint Louis University and his PhD in
bioinorganic chemistry from the University
of Illinois in Urbana under the guidance of Professor Yi Lu.
Jeff began his formal teaching career as a Dreyfus Postdoctoral
Teaching/Research Fellow at Wellesley College with Professor Adele
Wolfson. At Wellesley he taught several introductory chemistry lectures
and labs as well as biochemistry and special topics course on
bioinorganic chemistry. Jeff also worked with several undergraduates in
Professor Wolfson's lab on projects delving into the structure/function
relationship of a metallopeptidase called Thimet Oligopeptidase. This
has led to several publications and a successful collaboration on
further projects involving TOP at Jeff's current position in the
chemistry department at Saint
Mary's College of California.
At Saint Mary's Jeff continues to research how certain parts of the TOP
structure govern the enzymes ability recognize a specifically cleave
many structurally unrelated yet physiologically relevant peptides. He
has also taught several chemistry courses including General Chemistry
(Chem10), a chemistry course for Nursing students (Chem02), inorganic
chemistry (Chem130), and Special Topics course (Chem110) in which part
of the focus was on the structural basis for protein misfolding in
amyloid-based diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.
Jeff is also involved in the development of a Biochemistry major at
Saint Mary's College. Look for news on the new major in the very near
future.
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