His research interests are rooted in chemical and biochemical discovery, with an emphasis on designing and characterizing peptides and proteins with therapeutic applications in disease processes, most notably cancer.
After an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, he began his independent academic career at Wayne State University, later moving to Brown University and then Dartmouth College. At Dartmouth, he held faculty positions in both the College of Arts and Sciences and the Geisel School of Medicine, as well as an investigator appointment in the Norris Cotton Cancer Center. He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses spanning the chemical and biomolecular sciences at the collegiate level, and he served as the course director for pharmacology in medical school.
Spaller has a B.Sc. in chemistry and a Ph.D. in chemistry and biochemistry from the University of Texas, Austin.