Rate My Professor Cynthia Dupureur

Cynthia Dupereur is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. She earned a B.S. degree from Southwest Missouri State University and a Ph.D. from Ohio State University. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the California Institute of Technology, she served as faculty in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at Texas A&M University. Dupereur joined the UMSL faculty as an Associate Professor in 2001 and advanced to full Professor. She has held prominent leadership roles, including Program Director for Biochemistry and Biotechnology from 2011 to 2015, Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry from 2016 to 2019, Faculty Fellow for Faculty Success from 2020 to 2022, and Graduate School Faculty Fellow. Dupureur is an Inductee in the National Academy of Inventors and recipient of the NSF CAREER Award. In 2019, she led a project under the University of Missouri System's research investment to upgrade the Microscope Imaging and Spectroscopy Technology Laboratory.

Her research focuses on the structure and function of metallonucleases and restriction endonucleases, particularly the roles of divalent metal ions in DNA binding and catalysis. She employs techniques such as enzyme kinetics, isothermal titration calorimetry, fluorescence spectroscopy, and multidimensional NMR spectroscopy. Dupureur has published extensively, with key works including "Roles of metal ions in nucleases" (Current Opinion in Chemical Biology, 2008), "Effects of divalent metal ions on the activity and conformation of the N- and C-terminal fragments of PvuII" (Biochemistry, 1999), "A catalytically deficient active site variant of PvuII endonuclease functions as a specific nickase" (Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2000), "NMR studies of restriction enzyme-DNA interactions" (Biochemistry, 2005), and "Improved Antiviral Activity of a Polyamide Against High-Risk Human Papillomavirus" (Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters, 2016). By 2001, she had authored 22 peer-reviewed articles and obtained over $650,000 in external funding. She presented the department's history at its 60th anniversary celebration in 2024 and actively participated in alumni events during her chair tenure.