Candace M. Lawrence, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Ph. D., University of Texas at Austin, 2010
B.S., Louisiana State University, 2004

Dr. Lawrence was born in Baton Rouge and graduated from Baton Rouge Magnet High School in 2000.  She received her B.S. in Chemistry in 2004 from Louisiana State University, where she worked on colorimetric detection of amino acids under the direction of Professor Robert M. Strongin.  She then graduated with a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin under the supervision of Professor Jonathan L. Sessler in 2010.  Her graduate dissertation research focused on the utilization of nucleobase pairing to develop supramolecular polymers, electron transfer systems, and to study interactions with biological molecules.

Before joining the faculty at Xavier, Dr. Lawrence held a Teaching Post-doctoral Associate position at St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX from 2010-2012.  In her spare time, Dr. Lawrence enjoys volunteering for the Susan G. Komen Foundation and Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre.

Dr. Lawrence’s group is interested in studying the use of modified nucleic acids (nucleobases) as potential hydrogel delivery systems. Secondly, the group is developing more elaborate nucleobase-appended, biologically relevant covalent polymers as additional drug delivery carriers.  Additionally, the modified hydrogen bonded nucleobase pairings are being studied in electron transfer systems.

Louisiana Cancer Research Consortium

Lin, Zhiwei; Lawrence, Candace M.; Xiao, Dequan; Kireev, Victor V.; Skourtis, Spiros S.; Sessler, Jonathan L.; Beratan, David N.; Rubtsov, Igor V. “Modulation of charge transfer efficiency via excitation of high-frequency modes.” Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2009, 131, 18060-18062.

Fathalla, Maher; Lawrence, Candace M.; Zhang, Nan; Sessler, Jonathan L.; Jayawickramarajah, Janarthanan. “Base-pairing mediated non-covalent polymers.” Chemical Society Reviews, 2009, 38(6), 1608-1620.

Pierce, Sarah E.; Sherman, Courtney L.; Jayawickramarajah, Janarthanan; Lawrence, Candace M.; Sessler, Jonathan L.; Brodbelt, Jennifer S. “ESI-MS characterization of a novel pyrrole inosine nucleoside that interacts with guanine bases.” Analytica Chimica Acta, 2008, 627(1), 129-135.

Sessler, Jonathan L.; Lawrence, Candace M.; Jayawickramarajah, Janarthanan. “Molecular recognition via base-pairing.” Chemical Society Reviews, 2007, 36(2), 314-325.

Wang, Weihua; Rusin, Oleksandr; Xu, Xiangyang; Kim, Kyu Kwang; Escobedo, Jorge O.; Fakayode, Sayo O.; Fletcher, Kristin A.; Lowry, Mark; Schowalter, Corin M.; Lawrence, Candace M.; Fronczek, Frank R.; Warner, Isiah M.; Strongin, Robert M. “Detection of homocysteine and cysteine.” Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2005, 127(45), 15949-15958.