Education
2017 – present Postdoctoral studies at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Stephen Withers, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation
2017 Postdoctoral studies at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Marco Ciufolini, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation
2012 – 2016 PhD in Chemistry (summa cum laude) at the University of Basel, Switzerland; Diploma thesis: “Synthesis and Biological Activity of Cyanobacterial Aeruginosins” under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Karl Gademann
2010 – 2012 M. Sc. in Chemistry at the University of Basel, Switzerland under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Karl Gademann
2007 – 2010 B. Sc. in Chemistry at the University of Basel, Switzerland
Research Interests
My research interests are focused on 1) the development of efficient syntheses of small molecules as well as natural products and 2) how these molecules interact with living systems. Already during my M.Sc. and PhD studies under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Karl Gademann I had the opportunity to work on the synthesis of natural products with interesting biological activities.
My work in the Withers group focuses on the development and evaluation of pharmacological chaperone therapeutics for Gaucher disease. Gaucher disease is a genetic disorder which is characterized by insufficient amounts of the enzyme glucocerebrosidase (GCase) in the lysosome. Mutations in the genome lead to the formation of GCase with altered folding kinetics, which triggers the degradation of the enzyme, even though mutated GCase has been shown to retain its catalytic function. The concept of pharmacological chaperones is to use small molecules which assist mutant proteins in their folding process and further stabilize that structure for transport. Thus, degradation in the endoplasmic reticulum can be prevented and the concentration of e.g. GCase in the lysosome can be increased.
Publications
Manuel Scherer and Karl Gademann, Total Synthesis and Structural Revision of Aeruginosin KT608A, Org. Lett. 2017, 19, 3915–3918.
Robin Wehlauch, Simone M. Grendelmeier, Hideki Miyatake-Ondozabal, Alexander H. Sandtorv, Manuel Scherer and Karl Gademann, Investigating Biogenetic Hypotheses of the Securinega Alkaloids: Enantioselective Total Syntheses of Secu’amamine E/ent-Virosine A and Bubbialine, Org. Lett. 2017, 19, 548–551.
Manuel Scherer, Dominik Bezold and Karl Gademann, Investigating the Toxicity of the Aeruginosin Chlorosulfopeptides by Chemical Synthesis , Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 9427–9431.
Patrick Burch, Massimo Binaghi, Manuel Scherer, Corinna Wentzel, David Bossert, Luc Eberhardt, Markus Neuburger, Peter Scheiffele and Karl Gademann, Total Synthesis of Gelsemiol, Chem. Eur. J. 2013, 19, 2589–2591.