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Sarah Krueger earned her Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign under the mentorship of Prof. Steven C. Zimmerman. Her doctoral research focused on developing self-assembling therapeutic agents for myotonic dystrophy. She is a proud alumna of the Mount, having earned her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Biochemistry here.
Dr. Krueger joined the Mount faculty in Fall 2022. Her research lab works to develop small molecules that bind to nucleic acids. In the classroom and the research laboratory, Dr. Krueger is passionate about helping to make science, and higher education in general, welcoming and safe for everyone.
Krueger, S.B., Zimmerman, S.C. Dynamic Covalent Template-Guided Screen for Nucleic Acid-Targeting Agents. J Med Chem 2022, 65, 12417–12426.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.2c01086
Krueger, S.B., Lanzendorf, A.N., Jeon, H., Zimmerman S.C. Selective and Reversible Assembly on the DNA and RNA Repeat Sequences in Myotonic Dystrophy. ChemBioChem, 2022, 23, e202200260.
https://doi.org/10.1002/cbic.202200260
Li, K., Krueger, S.B., Zimmerman, S.C. A Novel Minor Groove Binder as a Potential Therapeutic Agent for Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1. ChemMedChem 2021, 16, 2638-2644. – selected as a VIP.
https://doi.org/10.1002/cmdc.202100243
Hagler, L.D., Krueger, S.B., Luu, L.M., Lanzendorf, A.N., Mitchell, N.L., Vergara, J.I., Curet, L.D., Zimmerman, S.C. Versatile Target-Guided Screen for Discovering Bidirectional Transcription Inhibitors of a Trinucleotide Repeat Disease. ACS Med. Chem. Lett. 2021, 12, 935-940.
https://doi.org/10.1021/acsmedchemlett.1c00064
Hagler, L.D., Luu, L.M., Tonelli, M., Lee, J., Hayes, S., Bonson, S.E., Vergara, J.I., Butcher, S.E., Zimmerman, S.C. Expanded DNA and RNA Trinucleotide Repeats in Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1 Select Their Own Multitarget, Sequence-Selective Inhibitors. Biochemistry 2020, 59, 3463-3472.
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.biochem.0c00472
Chen, J., Li, K., Bonson S.E., Zimmerman, S.C. A Bioorthogonal Small Molecule Selective Polymeric “Clickase”. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020, 142, 13966-13973.
https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.0c06553
Hagler, L.D., Bonson S.E., Kocheril, P.K., Zimmerman S.C. Assessing the Feasibility and Stability of U-base Flipping in RNA-Small Molecule Complexes Using Molecular Dynamics Simulations. Canadian Journal of Chemistry 2020, 98, 261-269.
https://doi.org/10.1139/cjc-2019-0421
Serrano, J.F., Lee, J.Y., Curet, L.D., Hagler, L.D., Bonson, S.E., Schuster, E.J., Zimmerman, S.C. Development of novel macrocyclic small molecules that target CTG trinucleotide repeats. Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry 2019, 27, 2978-2984.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bmc.2019.05.022
Although traditional drug discovery efforts focus on developing protein binders, DNA and RNA targeting have recently come into focus as a therapeutic strategy for a range of diseases that cannot be treated by targeting at the protein level. The Krueger group seeks to develop small molecules that bind at nucleobase mismatch sites relevant to trinucleotide repeat diseases such as Huntington’s Disease. Dr. Krueger's students bring together synthetic organic chemistry, chemical biology, and computational chemistry to understand the interactions between small molecules and disease-relevant nucleic acid targets. If you are interested in talking to Dr. Krueger about joining her research lab, please send her an email.