Rate My Professor Karen Schmeichel

Karen L. Schmeichel, Ph.D., is Professor of Biology and TALIII Faculty Fellow at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, Georgia. She holds a B.A. from Middlebury College and a Ph.D. from the University of Utah. Her teaching and research interests encompass cellular and molecular biology, genetics, developmental biology, and breast cancer research. Dr. Schmeichel has been honored with the Fuller E. Callaway Professorial Chair, awarded in 2022, and the 2024 Community Builders Award, which recognizes faculty who practice shared decision-making, foster cooperation and open communication, and create partnership opportunities to build a stronger university community.

In collaboration with researchers at Emory University, Dr. Schmeichel developed the Pipeline CURE, a nationally recognized four-year Course Embedded Undergraduate Research curriculum that provides all biology majors with progressive, authentic research experiences integrated throughout their studies. She has presented this innovative program at the American Society for Cell Biology. Her research investigates epigenetic mechanisms regulating cell fate and differentiation, with a focus on histone methylation reprogramming in C. elegans mediated by SPR-5/MET-2, SPR-1/CoREST, DREAM, and MEC NuRD complexes to reinforce maternal epigenetic changes, maintain the germline-soma distinction, and suppress ectopic transcription in differentiated neurons and somatic cells. Author of 35 publications with over 2,261 citations, representative works include 'The DREAM and MEC NuRD complexes reinforce SPR-5/MET-2 maternal reprogramming to maintain the germline–soma distinction' (2026), 'Ectopic transcription due to inherited histone methylation may interfere with the ongoing function of differentiated neurons' (2025), 'SPR-1/CoREST facilitates the maternal epigenetic reprogramming of the histone demethylase SPR-5/LSD1' (2023), 'The Pipeline CURE: An Iterative Approach to Introduce All Students to Research Throughout a Biology Curriculum' (2019), 'Modeling tissue-specific signaling and organ function in three dimensions' (2003, Journal of Cell Science), and 'Platelet-derived growth factor activates phospholipase D and chemotactic responses in vascular smooth muscle cells' (1991).