Helma B. Wennemers (born 24 June 1969 in Offenbach am Main) is a German organic chemist. She is a professor of organic chemistry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich).
Education
Helma Wennemers studied chemistry at the Goethe University Frankfurt, completing her diploma thesis with Gerhard Quinkert [de] in 1993. She earned her PhD at Columbia University, New York in 1996, under the supervision of W. Clark Still, with a thesis "Encoded combinatorial chemistry: a tool for the study of selective intermolecular interactions." Between 1996 and 1998, she was a postdoctoral fellow at Nagoya University with Hisashi Yamamoto, before being appointed Bachem Assistant Professor at the University of Basel in 1999. She held this post until 2003, where she was promoted to associate professor. In 2011, she moved to ETH Zurich as a professor of organic chemistry.
In chemical biology, Wennemers uses larger proline-rich peptides, such as collagen model peptides or oligoprolines, for applications such as tumor targeting,[9]cell penetration[10] or drug delivery. She utilized Cγ-functionalized proline derivatives for the functionalization and stabilization of short-chained collagen triple helices. Further, she introduced aminoproline[11] and γ-azaproline[12] as pH-sensitive probes to tune the conformational stability of the collagentriple helix by pH change. In the field of cell penetrating peptides (CPPs), Wennemers showed that preorganization of cationic charges along an oligoproline backbone enhanced the cellular uptake of CPPs compared to more flexible oligoarginines with undefined charge display.[10] Moreover, the oligoproline-based CPPs demonstrated a defined nuclear localization and high proteolytic stability as well as low cytotoxicity.
Synthetic Materials:
Wennemers utilizes peptides to control the morphology of nanostructured materials for generation of ordered mesoscopic materials. She developed tripeptides for the size-controlled generation of mono-disperse, water-soluble silver-, palladium-, platinum-, and gold nanoparticles.[13] Recently, she reported peptide‐stabilized platinumnanoparticles that have greater toxicity against hepatic cancer cells (HepG2) than against other cancer cells and non‐cancerous liver cells.[14] Wennemers also explored conjugates of oligoprolines and π-conjugated systems that form hierarchical self-assemblies with diverse morphologies (e.g. nanofibers, nanorods, nanosheets). She used such a conjugate to prepare the first example of an extended triaxial supramolecularweave held together through the interplay of weak non-covalent interactions.[15]
Awards
Wennemers work was recognized by the Leonidas Zervas Award of the European Peptide Society (2010),[16] the Pedler Award of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2016),[17] the Inhoffen Medal (2017),[18] the Netherlands Scholar Award for Supramolecular Chemistry (2019)[19] and the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award (2020).[20]
References
^Wennemers, Helma (2011). "Asymmetric catalysis with peptides". Chemical Communications. 47 (44). Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC): 12036–12041. doi:10.1039/c1cc15237h. ISSN1359-7345. PMID21993353.
^Krattiger, Philipp; Kovasy, Roman; Revell, Jefferson D.; Ivan, Stanislav; Wennemers, Helma (24 February 2005). "Increased Structural Complexity Leads to Higher Activity: Peptides as Efficient and Versatile Catalysts for Asymmetric Aldol Reactions". Organic Letters. 7 (6). American Chemical Society (ACS): 1101–1103. doi:10.1021/ol0500259. ISSN1523-7060. PMID15760149.
^Wiesner, Markus; Revell, Jefferson D.; Wennemers, Helma (22 February 2008). "Tripeptides as Efficient Asymmetric Catalysts for 1,4-Addition Reactions of Aldehydes to Nitroolefins–A Rational Approach". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 47 (10). Wiley: 1871–1874. doi:10.1002/anie.200704972. ISSN1433-7851. PMID18228232.
^Wiesner, Markus; Neuburger, Markus; Wennemers, Helma (5 October 2009). "Tripeptides of the Type H-D-Pro-Pro-Xaa-NH2as Catalysts for Asymmetric 1,4-Addition Reactions: Structural Requirements for High Catalytic Efficiency". Chemistry – A European Journal. 15 (39). Wiley: 10103–10109. doi:10.1002/chem.200901021. ISSN0947-6539. PMID19697376.
^Schnitzer, Tobias; Wennemers, Helma (18 October 2017). "Influence of the Trans/Cis Conformer Ratio on the Stereoselectivity of Peptidic Catalysts". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 139 (43). American Chemical Society (ACS): 15356–15362. doi:10.1021/jacs.7b06194. ISSN0002-7863. PMID29043799.
^Cosimi, Elena; Engl, Oliver D.; Saadi, Jakub; Ebert, Marc-Olivier; Wennemers, Helma (6 October 2016). "Stereoselective Organocatalyzed Synthesis of α-Fluorinated β-Amino Thioesters and Their Application in Peptide Synthesis". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 55 (42). Wiley: 13127–13131. doi:10.1002/anie.201607146. ISSN1433-7851. PMID27632946.
^Engl, Oliver D.; Fritz, Sven P.; Käslin, Alexander; Wennemers, Helma (7 October 2014). "Organocatalytic Route to Dihydrocoumarins and Dihydroquinolinones in All Stereochemical Configurations". Organic Letters. 16 (20). American Chemical Society (ACS): 5454–5457. doi:10.1021/ol502697s. ISSN1523-7060. PMID25290528.
^Kroll, Carsten; Mansi, Rosalba; Braun, Friederike; Dobitz, Stefanie; Maecke, Helmut R.; Wennemers, Helma (31 October 2013). "Hybrid Bombesin Analogues: Combining an Agonist and an Antagonist in Defined Distances for Optimized Tumor Targeting". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 135 (45). American Chemical Society (ACS): 16793–16796. doi:10.1021/ja4087648. ISSN0002-7863. PMID24175716.
^ abNagel, Yvonne A.; Raschle, Philipp S.; Wennemers, Helma (30 November 2016). "Effect of Preorganized Charge-Display on the Cell-Penetrating Properties of Cationic Peptides". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 56 (1). Wiley: 122–126. doi:10.1002/anie.201607649. ISSN1433-7851. PMID27900805.
^Siebler, Christiane; Erdmann, Roman S.; Wennemers, Helma (1 August 2014). "Switchable Proline Derivatives: Tuning the Conformational Stability of the Collagen Triple Helix by pH Changes". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 53 (39). Wiley: 10340–10344. doi:10.1002/anie.201404935. ISSN1433-7851. PMID25088036.
^Aronoff, Matthew R.; Egli, Jasmine; Menichelli, Massimiliano; Wennemers, Helma (4 March 2019). "γ‐Azaproline Confers pH Responsiveness and Functionalizability on Collagen Triple Helices". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 58 (10). Wiley: 3143–3146. doi:10.1002/anie.201813048. ISSN1433-7851. PMID30633447. S2CID58536577.
^"Prof. Wennemers receives the Inhoffen Medal". Prof. Wennemers receives the Inhoffen Medal – Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences. 10 March 2017. Retrieved 22 December 2021.