Office: 843-792-9929
Lab: 843-792-9930
Fax: 843-792-4850
Email: schwabec@musc.edu
BSB-740

Research Interests

Evolution, is it a biological or a chemical phenomenon? Are we, the living citizens of this earth, the direct consequence of certain molecular configurations that self-assembled by the laws of chemistry and physics and that acquired the temporary status of life at a certain degree of complexity? New concepts of evolution, of molecules and species are assembled in a new hypothesis of life called the genomic potential hypothesis of evolution (GPH).  Evidence for the molecular aspects of the new paradigm comes from the detailed study of the structure and function of relaxins, insulins, and similar small proteins. Isolation and sequence determinations of "mammalian hormones" from the earliest invertebrates, visible in our fossil record, have provided an interesting trail to the real reasons for protein similarity or diversity. Relaxin, for example, which varies in its primary structure by more than 55% between all purportedly close related mammals, is identical in pigs, whales, and a tunicate whose history goes back to the upper Cambrian period. There is a path of structural similarity that reaches from the present back to the beginning of multi-cellularity and has no resemblance of an evolutionary tree.  These exciting leads will be pursued in our laboratory in cooperation with the Blue Holes Foundation of the Bahamas, the Fort Johnson Marine Facility in Charleston, and the Marine Station off Roscoff, France, which are able to provide an unlimited source of invertebrate and lower vertebrate species for this study. There will be ample opportunity for investigators and students to join in this foray into conceptual science via marine biology, protein chemistry, and molecular biology.

Selected Publications

Click here to view list of publications on the National Library of Medicine's PubMed online database.

• Büllesbach, E.E. and Schwabe, C. (2001) Synthesis and conformational analysis of the insulin-like 4 gene product. J. Pept. Res. 57(1): 77-83.
• Büllesbach, E.E. and Schwabe, C. (2000) The relaxin receptor-binding site geometry suggests a novel gripping mode of interaction. J. Biol. Chem., 275(45): 35276-35280.
• Büllesbach, E.E., Rhodes, R., Rembiesa, B. and Schwabe, C. (1999) The relaxin-like factor is a hormone. Endocrine, 10(2): 167-169.
• Büllesbach, E.E. and Schwabe, C. (1999) Specific, high affinity relaxin-like factor receptors. J. Biol. Chem., 274(32): 22354-22358.
• Georges, D. and Schwabe, C. (1999) Porcine relaxin, a 500 million-year-old hormone? the tunicate Ciona intestinalis has porcine relaxin. FASEB 13(10): 1269-1275.
• Schwabe, C. and Büllesbach, E.E. . (1999) RELAXIN, Molecular Biology Intelligence Unit Series, Landes Bioscience, Austin, TX.
• E.E. Büllesbach, Schwabe, C., and Lacy, E.R. (1997) Identification of a Glycosylated Relaxin-like Molecule from the Male Atlantic Stingray, Dasyatis sabina. Biochemistry 36: 10735-10741.
• Büllesbach, E.E., Steinetz, B.G., and Schwabe, C. (1996) Chemical Synthesis of a Zwitterhormon, Insulaxin, and of a Relaxin-like Bombyxin Derivative. Biochemistry 35: 9754-9760.