Sarah Z TaskerAssistant Professor of Chemistry

Education

B.Sc. in Chemistry, Calvin College. Research under Prof. Carolyn Anderson and Prof. Chad Tatko.

Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research under Prof. Timothy Jamison.

Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Research under Prof. Paul Hergenrother.

Research

For more information, check out Tasker Lab website HERE.

Work in my lab is focused on building new small molecule tools to address real-world problems. One project area in the lab focuses on developing new gas-releasing molecules, which allow delivery of reactive and/or toxic gases (like carbon monoxide) for a variety of laboratory uses without the need for a gas tank. Another focuses on synthesizing natural products with reported antibacterial activity. We then make a wide range of novel derivatives of those compounds and test their activity against bacteria to determine their structure–activity relationships. A final area of research is in developing new synthetic organic methods to build more complex structures from alkenes, including investigating the mechanism of how these reactions happen. In all project areas, F&M undergraduate students are key partners in the success of this research, developing skills that range from modern synthesis and purification techniques, to reading the primary chemical literature, to communicating their results through reports and presentations.

Grants & Awards

 

2024-2028 National Science Foundation, Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) "CAREER: Development of New Gas-Releasing Molecules Using a Thiol Carrier" $514,388 (PI) NSF #2338835

2023-2026 National Science Foundation, Major Research Instrumentation "MRI: Track 1 Acquisition of NMR instrument for research and undergraduate research training" $390,720 (co-PI) NSF #2320384

2023-2024 Organic Syntheses PUI Grants. "Synthesis of Thioethers via Anti-Markovnikov Addition of S-Aryl Thioformates to Alkenes" $16,000 (PI)

2018-2022 American Chemical Society, Petroleum Research Fund, "Synthesis of Oxetanes via a Formal Formylation" $55,000 (PI) PRF #59534-UNI1

 

Publications

F&M Undergraduate co-authors are in bold and corresponding authors are indicated with an asterisk. Equal author contributions are indicated by †

DeSimone, C. A.; Naqvi, S. L.; Tasker, S. Z.* ThioCORMates: Tunable and Cost-Effective Carbon-Monoxide Releasing Molecules. Chem. Eur. J. 2022, e202201326.

• • Two of these reagents are now available to purchase from Sigma-Aldrich: Phenyl thioCORMate (#930059) and p-NO₂-phenyl thioCORMate (#930105)
  • Featured in Chemistry Views, New CO-Releasing Molecules. 5/30/2022.
  • Video demonstration of CO-release kinetics can be found here.

Publications pre-F&M

Kelly, A. M.; Berry, M. R.; Tasker, S. Z.; McKee, S. A.; Fan, T. M.; Hergenrother, P. J. Target-Agnostic P-Glycoprotein Assessment Yields Strategies to Evade Efflux, Leading to a BRAF inhibitor with Intracranial Efficacy. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2022, 144, 12367-12380.

Tasker, S. Z., Cowfer, A. E.; Hergenrother, P. J.* Preparation of Structurally Diverse Compounds from the Natural Product Lycorine. Org. Lett. 2018, 20, 5894-5898.

Gates, Z. P.; Viogradov, A. A.; Quartararo, A. J.; Bandyopadhyay, A.; Choo, Z.-N.; Evans, E. D.; Halloran, K. H.; Mijalis, A. J.; Mong, S. K.; Simon, M. D.; Standley, E. A.; Styduhar, E. D.; Tasker, S. Z.; Touti, F.; Weber, J. M.; Wilson, J. L.; Jamison, T. F.;* Pentelute, B. L*. ‘Xenoprotein’ Engineering via Synthetic Libraries. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 2018, 115, E5298-E5306.

Hergenrother, P. J.;* Richter, M.; Riley, A.; Drown, B.; Chavez, M.; Tasker, S.; Garcia, A. Small-Molecules Active Against Gram-Negative Bacteria.International Patent WO2017/156519A1, Sept. 2017.

Tasker, S. Z.; Hergenrother, P. J.* Taming Reactive Benzynes. Nature Chem. 2017, 9, 504–506 (News & Views)

Tasker, S. Z.; Jamison, T. F.* Highly Regioselective Indoline Synthesis under Nickel/ Photoredox Dual Catalysis. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2015, 137, 9531–9534.

Standley, E. A.;† Tasker, S. Z.;†;Jensen, K. L.; Jamison, T. F.* Nickel Catalysis: Synergy between Method Development and Total Synthesis. Acc. Chem. Res. 2015, 48, 1503–1518.

Standley, E. A.;† Tasker, S. Z.;† Jamison, T. F.* Bis(1,5-cyclooctadiene)nickel(0). e-EROS Encyclopedia of Reagents for Organic Synthesis, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published online Sept. 20, 2015.

Tasker, S. Z.;† Standley, E. A.;† Jamison, T. F.* Recent Advances in Homogeneous Nickel Catalysis. Nature 2014, 509, 299–309.

Tasker, S. Z.; Gutierrez, A. C.; Jamison, T. F.* Nickel-Catalyzed Mizoroki–Heck Reaction of Aryl Sulfonates and Chlorides with Electronically Unbiased Terminal Olefins: High Selectivity for Branched Products. Angew. Chem.,Int. Ed. 2013, 53, 1858–1861.

Tasker, S. Z.; Bosscher, M. A.; Shandro, C. A.; Lanni, E. L.; Ryu, K. A.; Snapper, G. S.; Utter, J. M.; Ellsworth, B. A.; Anderson, C. E.* Preparation of N-Alkyl 2-Pyridones via a Lithium Iodide Promoted O-to N-Alkyl Migration: Scope and Mechanism. J. Org. Chem. 2012, 77, 8220–8230.

Tasker, S. Z.; Brandsen, B. M.; Ryu, K. A.; Snapper, G. S.; Staples, R. J.; DeKock, R. L.;* Anderson, C. E.* Synthesis of a New Class of β-Iodo N-Alkenyl 2-Pyridones. Org. Lett. 2011, 13, 6224–6227.

Courses Taught

CHM 112: General Chemistry II: Reactions in the Atomic World, Lecture & Lab

CHM 211: Organic Chemistry I: Structure and Function of Carbon-Containing Compounds, Lecture & Lab

CHM 212: Organic Chemistry II: Reactivity and Synthesis of Organic Molecules, Lecture & Lab

CHM 376: Total Synthesis of Natural Products

In the News

Sarah Tasker Awarded NSF CAREER Grant for Chemistry

F&M Team's Chemistry Discovery Goes Commercial

Biology, Psychology Interests Lead Researcher to Potential New Antibiotics