Chemistry & Biochemistry Students Present at 4th Annual Undergraduate Scholars Conference

Students from the chemistry department and biochemistry program presented their undergraduate research in the form of posters and oral presentations today at the 4th Annual Undergraduate Scholars Conference. The event, held in the HUB, showcases the talent and drive of our students as they supplement their class loads with real-world research experience.

The following students participated in oral presentations:

• Ms. Caitlin Williamson and Mr. Peter Stonehouse with "Calcium Tungstate: A Convenient Recoverable Catalyst for Hydrogen Peroxide Oxidation" (advisor: Dr. Keith Kyler)
• Ms. Brittany Buterbaugh with "Life Happens: An Unexpected Reaction Between Magnesium and Copper (II) Chloride" (advisor: Dr. Wendy Elcesser)
• Ms. Maura Barrett and Ms. Jennifer Beveridge with "The Toxicity of Mercury on Daphnia Pulex" (advisor: Dr. Ellen Yerger)
• Mr. Dragomir Milovanovic with "The Srs2 Protein Expression Using the pET11c Expression Vector in the BL21 (DE3) Bacterial Protein Expression Strain of Escherichia coli" (advisor: Dr. Jana Villemain)
• Ms. Olivia McGovern with "The Cloning of Inositol Monophosphatase Gene from Paramecium tetraurelia: A Search for the Molecular Basis of Ultradian Rhythms" (advisor: Dr. Robert Hinrichsen)
• Ms. Jennifer Casanova with "Finding DNA-Aptamers Against Human IMPDH Enzyme via Ligand-binding Isoelectric Focusing Electrophoresis LIFE" (advisor: Dr. Keith Kyler)

The following students participated in poster presentations:

• Ms. Amy Devlin with "Effect of pH on Uptake Rates of Non-polar Organics by Semi-permeable Membranes" (advisor: Dr. Nathan McElroy)
• Mr. Andrew Crawford with "The Efficacy of a Proposed Ion-paired Reverse-phased HPLC Method for the Determination of Polythionate Mixtures" (advisor: Dr. Lawrence Kupchella)
• Ms. Martha Conners with "The Ion-paired Reverse-phase Chromatographic Separation of Polythionates from Sulfur Oxidizing Bacterial Cultures Grown on Nonathion" (advisor: Dr. Lawrence Kupchella)
• Ms. Laura Fox, Ms. Nadia Szymanski, and Ms. Victoria Constant with "Water Chemistry for Beer Brewing" (advisor: Dr. Nathan McElroy)
• Ms. Whitney Simmons with "A Computational Redesign of Cellulase" (advisor: Dr. Jaeju Ko)
• Ms. Galit Regev with "Characterization of Salicylic Acid Treated Mutant for Double Stranded RNA (dsRNA) in the Plant Pathogenic Fungus Rhizoctonia solani: Isolate 303" (advisor: Dr. Bharathan Narayanaswamy)
• Ms. Ee Leng Terng with "Computational Function Prediction of Hypothetical Proteins" (advisor: Dr. Jaeju Ko)
• Ms. Ashley Rossib and Ms. Heather Wagner with "Using Technology to Discover the Constituents of a Mental Model of Chemical Equilibrium" (advisor: Dr. Michael Briggs)
• Ms. Jessica Nichol with "Azobenzene Dye Synthesis for Attachment to Carbon Nanotubes to Control Conductance" (advisor: Dr. Carl LeBlond)
• Ms. Li Yin Wong with "Characterization of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Srs2 Helicase Features Essential for Regulation of Homologous Regulation" (advisor: Dr. Jana Villemain)
• Mr. James Zewe with "Development of ELISA for Mouse Growth Hormone Binding Protein (GHBP)" (advisor: Dr. Jonathan Southard)
• Mr. Brandon Jones with "Is Bacterial Alkaline Phosphatase Capable of Phosphite Oxidation?" (advisor: Dr. Jonathan Southard)

Undergraduate Scholars Forum Awards

Congratulations to our CHEM/BIOC students who won the following awards on April 1 at the 3rd Annual IUP Undergraduate Scholars Forum.

Ms. Beth Leverett (Chemistry) won a Best In Session Award for her oral presentation of "A Crystallographic Detective Story: Solving the Li₂ZnSnS₄ Structure"

Mr. Antonio Scatena (Biochemistry) won $100 and First Place in the Sigma Xi Award for his poster presentation "Polymerase Chain Reaction: Amplification of RNA from Tomato Mosaic Virus"

Ms. Caitlin Williamson (Chemistry) won $50 and Third Place in the Sigma Xi Award for her poster presentation "Homology Modeling of Influenza A Virus Polymerase Basic 2 Subunit"

Reminder: Call For Presentations

A reminder that the submission deadline for the 3rd Annual Undergraduate Scholars Forum presentations is Feb. 17.

For more information, see the website.

Undergraduate Scholars Forum - Save The Date

The 3rd Annual Undergraduate Scholars Forum will be held on Tuesday, April 1, 2008 in the HUB and Sprowls Hall.

The Forum provides all registered IUP undergraduate students with an opportunity to present their original research, scholarship and creative works at a collegial and scholarly event. Students may present their original work as an oral presentation, a poster, or a performance at the day long event. In addition, an Undergraduate Juried Art Exhibition will feature creative works that will be accepted after a juried review.

Applications are invited from ALL registered IUP undergraduate students who demonstrate outstanding accomplishments in scholarly activity within their discipline. Applications are due February 17, 2008 and require faculty sponsorship.

Undergraduate Scholars Conference Tomorrow

A reminder for everyone to stop by the HUB sometime tomorrow to check out the presentations and posters put together by our chemistry and biochemistry students (along with all of the other great stuff by other departments).

A full program can be found here.

Chemistry Department participation includes:

Session A04 in the Monongahela Room #2 - Dendrimer Biomimetic of Carbonic Anhydrase Catalyst by Mr. Adam Crain (advisor: Dr. Heba Abourahma)

Session B04 in the Conemaugh Room - Learner's Model of Chemical Equilibrium by Ms. Sara Krull (advisor: Dr. Mike Briggs)

Poster 01-16: Analysis of the AX2E Molecules Using the NBI Model; The Physical Basis for the Lone Pair Effect by Mr. Chad Myers (advisor: Dr. Ron See)

Poster 01-17: The Application of the NBI Model to a Variety of Molecule Types Containing a Stereochemical Lone Pair by Mr. Michael Deible (advisor: Dr. Ron See)

Poster 02-02: Calorimetry Through Guided Inquiry by Mr. Robert Turnbull and Mr. Thomas Lieb (advisor: Dr. Anne Kondo)

Poster 02-03: Concepts of Chromatography Through Guided Inquiry by Ms. Olumayowa Azeez, Mr. Herbert Gregg, and Mr. Andrew Newton (advisor: Dr. Anne Kondo)

Poster 02-04: Concepts of Identifying Arson Through Guided Inquiry by Ms. Melissa Moore, Mr. Matthew Browe, and Mr. Ian Koplin (advisor: Dr. Anne Kondo)

Poster 02-05: Concepts of Spectrophotometry Through Guided Inquiry by Ms. Jenna Gazzola, Mr. Justin Williams, Mr. Andrew Adams, and Mr. James Shellhammer (advisor: Dr. Anne Kondo)

Poster 02-06: Learn Your White Powders Through Guided Inquiry by Mr. Robert Putala, Mr. Jason Grimm, and Mr. John Kanyan (advisor: Dr. Anne Kondo)

Poster 02-07: The Case of the Exploding Mailbox by Ms. Brittany Rodgers, Ms. Maura Barrett, Mr. Daniel McDermott, and Ms. Katelyn Myers (advisor: Dr. Anne Kondo)

Poster 02-15: A Novel Synthesis of Iodohydrins Derived from Styrene and Related Compounds by Mr. Joe Zewe and Ms. Amanda Davis (Advisor: Dr. Carl LeBlond)

Poster 02-19: Synthesis and Characterization of Quaternary Adamantine-Like Chalcogenides by Ms. Beth Leverett (advisor: Dr. Charles Lake)

Poster 02-28: Co-Crystallization as a Strategy to Improving Solubility of Theophylline by Ms. Nicole Morozowich (advisor: Dr. Heba Abourahma)

Poster 02-29: Modifying the Physical Properties of Indomethacin by Co-Crystal Formation by Ms. Elizabeth Paladin (advisor: Dr. Heba Abourahma)

Poster 02-30: Computational Characterization of pH-Dependent Properties in Protein Active Sites by Ms. Jessica Wishard (advisor: Dr. Jaeju Ko)

Poster 02-32: Role of Srs2 Helicase Protein by Ms. Hong Yin Ker (advisor: Dr. Jana Villemain)

Poster 02-33: Protein-Protein Interactions Govern Homologous Recombination and Genome Stability by Ms. Lindsey Cox (advisor: Dr. Jana Villemain)

Poster 03-04: Biochemical Analysis of Pondberry Seed Viability by Mr. Robert Bauer (advisor: Dr. Sharon Sowa)

Poster 03-05: Identification of Oils from Viable and Nonviable Cherrybark Oak Acorns by Mr. Jeffery Layton (advisors: Dr. Sharon Sowa, Dr. Carl LeBlond)

Nicole Morozowich Receives NSF-REU Travel Award

Congratulations!

Chemistry major Nicole Morozowich presented a poster in the chemical education field during the recent 233rd ACS National Meeting in Chicago, IL. The poster, titled "Conversion of Free Base Octaethylporphyrins to Oxypyriporphyrins", was the result of research with Dr. Christian Brückner at the University of Connecticut.

In the summer of 2006, Nicole took part in the Research for Undergraduates Program at the University of Connecticut with Dr. Brückner, with help from a 2006 Indiana University of Pennsylvania School of Research Travel Award. Her research topic was "Synthesis of pyrrolidinone-derivatized porphyrinoids by the step-wise conversion of a pyrrolic building block in octaethylporphyrin into a pyrrolidinone moiety".

Nicole was then awarded the NSF-REU Chemistry Travel Award for the 2007 ACS Conference, which allowed her to travel to Chicago and present her work.

Currently, Nicole is working with Dr. Heba Abourahma here in the department on the "Modification of solid state properties and investigation of polymorphism in active pharmaceutical ingredients by co-crystallization with molecules containing complementary functional groups for self-assembly". Nicole plans to present some of this work at the 2nd Annual IUP Undergraduate Scholars Conference on April 11.

Call for Presentations

Just a quick reminder to undergraduate research students and/or their research advisers: if you would like to present your research at this years Undergraduate Scholars Conference (April 11), you must have your proposal in by March 2.

You may submit via the conference website http://www.iup.edu/undergradconf. The participation by chemistry and biochemistry students last year was phenomenal, and we hope to have that continue! Good luck.