# Jason Shear

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{{Short description|American chemist (born 1967)}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Jason B. Shear
| birth_date        = {{birth date and age|mf=y|1967|2|28}}
| birth_place       = [Buffalo, New York](/source/Buffalo%2C_New_York), U.S.
| alma_mater        = [University of Texas at Austin](/source/University_of_Texas_at_Austin), [Stanford University](/source/Stanford_University)
| doctoral_advisors = [Richard N. Zare](/source/Richard_N._Zare), [Richard H. Scheller](/source/Richard_H._Scheller), [Watt W. Webb](/source/Watt_W._Webb) (postdoctoral), {{interlanguage link|Thomas E. Mallouk|de}} (undergraduate)
| website           = {{url|https://jshear.cm.utexas.edu/jshear/}}
| field             = [Biomedical optics](/source/Biomedical_optics), [biophotonics](/source/biophotonics), [nanotechnology](/source/nanotechnology), [analytical chemistry](/source/analytical_chemistry)
| work_institution  = {{ubl|[University of Texas at Austin](/source/University_of_Texas_at_Austin)|[Stanford University](/source/Stanford_University)|[Cornell University](/source/Cornell_University)|[Rice University](/source/Rice_University)}}
| prizes            = 
}}

'''Jason Ben Shear''' (born February 28, 1967) is an American chemist and expert in [biomaterials](/source/biomaterials) and [bioengineering](/source/bioengineering). He is currently Professor of Chemistry at the [University of Texas at Austin](/source/University_of_Texas_at_Austin).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sites.utexas.edu/shearlabs/|title=The Shear Research Group at UT Austin|website=The University of Texas at Austin|access-date=August 18, 2021|archive-date=August 19, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210819044356/https://sites.utexas.edu/shearlabs/|url-status=dead}}</ref> Shear has been considered one of the pioneers of two-photon [photolithography](/source/photolithography).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://theconversation.com/3d-printed-structures-reveal-bacterial-chit-chat-18911|title=3D-printed structures reveal bacterial chit-chat|website=The Conversation|date=7 October 2013 |access-date=August 18, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.utexas.edu/2018/10/23/honey-i-shrunk-the-cell-culture/|title='Honey, I Shrunk the Cell Culture': Scientists Use Shrink Ray for Biomedical Research|website=The University of Texas at Austin|date=23 October 2018|access-date=August 18, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://acsanalytical.com/awards-resources/national-acs-awards/arthur-f-findeis-award-for-achievements-by-a-young-analytical-scientist/|title=Arthur F. Findeis Award for Achievements by an Analytical Scientist|website=The American Chemical Society|date=4 April 2019|access-date=August 19, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.beckman-foundation.org/people/jason-shear/|title=Jason Shear, Beckman Fellow|website=Beckman Foundation|access-date=August 19, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www2.technologyreview.com/tr35/profile.aspx?TRID=516|title=Jason Shear - Tech Titans by Tech Review|website=MIT Technology Review|access-date=August 19, 2021|archive-date=August 20, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210820044843/http://www2.technologyreview.com/tr35/profile.aspx?TRID=516|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.chronicle.com/article/alfred-p-sloan-foundation-24509/|title=New Sloan Laureates|website=Alfred P. Sloan Foundation|access-date=August 19, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/ut-austin-shrink-ray-could-unlock-answers-about-cell-growth-healing/|title=Texas Professor creates a novel shrink ray|website=KXAN features|date=12 November 2018|access-date=August 19, 2021}}</ref>

== Scientific career ==

Shear received his BS in chemistry from UT Austin in 1989. He then moved to [Stanford University](/source/Stanford_University) to work with [Richard Zare](/source/Richard_Zare) and completed his PhD in 1994. He was later an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at [Cornell University](/source/Cornell_University) where he worked with [Watt W. Webb](/source/Watt_W._Webb) in the laboratory that earlier developed the first [two-photon excitation microscopy](/source/two-photon_excitation_microscopy) instrument. Shear returned to Austin to start his own independent lab at the University of Texas in 1996.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://grantome.com/grant/NSF/CHE-9403174|title=NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship|website=National Science Foundation Grants|access-date=August 18, 2021|last1=Shear|first1=Jason}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.searlescholars.net/people/jason-b-shear|title=Searle Scholar Shear|website=The Searle Scholars Program|access-date=August 18, 2021}}</ref>

The Shear group has developed methods for performing solution-phase chemical separations on time frames more than 1000-fold shorter than previously accomplished, offering insights into reaction pathways of transient reaction products that are more easily characterized from their electrophoretic mobilities than from measurable spectroscopic properties. This method, based on photochemical preparation of reaction intermediates, enabled compounds to be electrophoretically probed using extremely large electric fields over distances as small as several micrometres on timescales as small as several microseconds.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1073/pnas.0637211100|title=Microsecond electrophoresis|year=2003|last1=Plenert|first1=M. L.|last2=Shear|first2=J. B.|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=100|issue=7|pages=3853–3857|pmid=12629208|pmc=153011|bibcode=2003PNAS..100.3853P|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1021/ac901283y|title=Microsecond Analysis of Transient Molecules Using Bi-Directional Capillary Electrophoresis|year=2009|last1=Ritschdorff|first1=Eric T.|last2=Plenert|first2=Matthew L.|last3=Shear|first3=Jason B.|journal=Analytical Chemistry|volume=81|issue=21|pages=8790–8796|pmid=19874052|pmc=3169189}}</ref>

The Shear group has also developed micro-3D-printing technologies for organizing cellular environments, a technology that allows cellular populations to be characterized under well-defined conditions and on scales in which ensemble behaviours begin to emerge. Of particular impact has been their use of these methods to probe bacterial group behaviours that underlie enhanced virulence, including [quorum sensing](/source/quorum_sensing) and population-dependent [antibiotic resistance](/source/antibiotic_resistance).<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1128/mBio.00202-10|doi-access=free|title=Probing Prokaryotic Social Behaviors with Bacterial "Lobster Traps"|year=2010|last1=Connell|first1=Jodi L.|last2=Wessel|first2=Aimee K.|last3=Parsek|first3=Matthew R.|last4=Ellington|first4=Andrew D.|author5-link=Marvin Whiteley|last5=Whiteley|first5=Marvin|last6=Shear|first6=Jason B.|journal=mBio|volume=1|issue=4|pmid=21060734|pmc=2975351}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1073/pnas.1309729110|title=3D printing of microscopic bacterial communities|year=2013|last1=Connell|first1=J. L.|last2=Ritschdorff|first2=E. T.|last3=Whiteley|first3=M.|last4=Shear|first4=J. B.|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=110|issue=46|pages=18380–18385|pmid=24101503|pmc=3832025|bibcode=2013PNAS..11018380C|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1021/ac500893a|title=3D-Printed Microfluidic Microdissector for High-Throughput Studies of Cellular Aging|year=2014|last1=Spivey|first1=Eric C.|last2=Xhemalce|first2=Blerta|last3=Shear|first3=Jason B.|last4=Finkelstein|first4=Ilya J.|journal=Analytical Chemistry|volume=86|issue=15|pages=7406–7412|pmid=24992972|pmc=4636036}}</ref>

Shear's lab further developed novel strategies for engineering functionality into 3D printed [biomaterials](/source/biomaterials) to provide environmentally controlled volume/shape change, chemical capabilities, and electronic properties. He has pioneered high-sensitivity multiphoton-based sensing technologies for microanalyses, developing various strategies for characterizing picoliter-sized biological samples using capillary electrophoretic analysis. Using these methods, the group has demonstrated strategies for analyzing volumes commensurate with subcellular volumes for spectrally diverse native [chromophores](/source/chromophores) present in attomole to zeptomole quantities. His lab was involved in foundational work developing broad-based [sensor array](/source/sensor_array) devices for analysis of various solution-phase sample types, ranging from measurements of bodily fluids such as saliva to the determination of small-molecule components in consumables.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1073/pnas.0709571105|title=Multiphoton fabrication of chemically responsive protein hydrogels for microactuation|year=2008|last1=Kaehr|first1=Bryan|last2=Shear|first2=Jason B.|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=105|issue=26|pages=8850–8854|pmid=18579775|pmc=2449329|bibcode=2008PNAS..105.8850K|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1021/ja9727427|title=Characterizing Spectrally Diverse Biological Chromophores Using Capillary Electrophoresis with Multiphoton-Excited Fluorescence|year=1998|last1=Gostkowski|first1=Michael L.|last2=McDoniel|first2=J. Bridget|last3=Wei|first3=Jing|last4=Curey|first4=Theodore E.|last5=Shear|first5=Jason B.|journal=Journal of the American Chemical Society|volume=120|issue=1 |pages=18–22|bibcode=1998JAChS.120...18G }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1021/ja003341l|title=Development of Multianalyte Sensor Arrays Composed of Chemically Derivatized Polymeric Microspheres Localized in Micromachined Cavities|year=2001|last1=Goodey|first1=Adrian|last2=Lavigne|first2=John J.|last3=Savoy|first3=Steve M.|last4=Rodriguez|first4=Marc D.|last5=Curey|first5=Theodore|last6=Tsao|first6=Andrew|last7=Simmons|first7=Glen|last8=Wright|first8=John|last9=Yoo|first9=Seung-Jin|last10=Sohn|first10=Youngsoo|last11=Anslyn|first11=Eric V.|last12=Shear|first12=Jason B.|last13=Neikirk|first13=Dean P.|last14=McDevitt|first14=John T.|journal=Journal of the American Chemical Society|volume=123|issue=11|pages=2559–2570|pmid=11456925|bibcode=2001JAChS.123.2559G }}</ref>

==Awards==
HHMI Predoctoral Fellow (1990-1994) • [Office of Naval Research](/source/Office_of_Naval_Research) Young Investigator Award (1997) • [Beckman Young Investigators Award](/source/Beckman_Young_Investigators_Award) (1997) • [Searle Scholars Program](/source/Searle_Scholars_Program) Award, Kinship Foundation (1998) • [National Science Foundation CAREER Award](/source/National_Science_Foundation_CAREER_Award) (1999) • Alfred P. [Sloan Research Fellowship](/source/Sloan_Research_Fellowship) (1999) • Top 100 Young Innovator citation, [MIT Technology Review](/source/MIT_Technology_Review) (1999) • Noted for a “Chemical Development of the Year” by [Chemical & Engineering News](/source/Chemical_%26_Engineering_News) (2003) • [Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas](/source/Academy_of_Medicine%2C_Engineering_and_Science_of_Texas) protégé (2004, 2005) • [American Chemical Society](/source/American_Chemical_Society) Arthur F. Findeis Award in Analytical Chemistry (2005) • [Texas Instruments](/source/Texas_Instruments) Visiting Professor in Bioengineering, Rice University (2010–11)

== Personal life ==
Jason's grandfather was [Murray Shear](/source/Murray_Shear), widely considered to be the Father of Chemotherapy. Jason's father David Shear was a professor of biophysics and held faculty appointments at [SUNY Buffalo](/source/SUNY_Buffalo), the [University of Georgia](/source/University_of_Georgia) at Athens, and the [University of Missouri](/source/University_of_Missouri) at Columbia.

==References==
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{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shear, Jason}}
Category:University of Texas at Austin alumni
Category:University of Texas at Austin faculty
Category:Sloan Research Fellows
Category:Scientists from Columbia, Missouri
Category:American bioengineers
Category:Stanford University alumni
Category:20th-century American chemists
Category:Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering
Category:21st-century American chemists
Category:Jewish American scientists
Category:1967 births
Category:Living people
Category:21st-century American Jews
Category:Hickman High School alumni

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Jason Shear](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Shear) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Shear?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.