Sheldon Schuster

Sheldon M. Schuster (born 1947) is an American biochemist, cancer researcher and academic. He served as president of Keck Graduate Institute from 2003–2024. He previously served as a professor at University of Nebraska–Lincoln and University of Florida. While at Florida, he was the director of research and the university's biotechnology program.

Early life Schuster was born in 1947 in San Francisco Bay Area, California where he was also raised.

He attended University of California, Davis, graduating with a bachelor's degree in biochemistry.

In 2000, while working at the UF Brain Institute, Weihong Tan, Schuster, Jeffery Li and Xiaohong Fang published a study on a synthetic DNA that acts like a photophore. The molecule, which illuminates when exposed to particular other molecules, can potentially be used to detect specific proteins or genes, which could allow for the detection of certain diseases.

On July 15, 2003, Schuster became the second president of Keck Graduate Institute (KGI), taking over for the founding president of the institute, Henry E. Riggs.

He is currently one of the editors of the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education journal and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has co-founded two pharmaceutical companies, AquaGene and Restoragen (previously known as BioNebraska).

Published work