It’s mid-morning and Logan Coller ’27 is measuring out a diphenyl compound in the Dow Science Center lab of Associate Professor of Chemistry Blakely Tresca. In a few hours, he’ll trade his lab coat for his workout gear. Across the room, Caleb Moore ’27 is doing the similar math on a different diyne that, with luck, will help hold together the peptoid nanosheets the two of them are building this summer, one chain at a time.

Their routines repeat daily for the two students. When lab work wraps up, both seek opportunities for sport-specific training. Moore, a member of the baseball team, might hit the weight room and the field; Coller, who competes in football and track, works through five days of scheduled conditioning.

It’s a demanding schedule, but both students say it’s one their athletic careers prepared them to handle.

Time management and discipline are the biggest things athletics has given him in the lab, Coller said. “Being able to get stuff done on time, on schedule — show up on time, get in, get your stuff done, get out.” He compared it to a typical day during the school year, when classes, labs and practice are packed back-to-back: “That has taught me a lot about being able to get things done on timelines.”

Moore sees a similar overlap, but through the lens of teamwork rather than time management.

“It’s almost like a team environment in the lab, like on a sports team, where you have to communicate with each other, ask each other for help, rely on your lab mates,” he said.

Last summer, two lacrosse players worked alongside Moore.

“For all three of us, it felt like we were our own team in the lab,” he said. “We relied on each other, communicated and worked under Dr. Tresca. It was a very similar dynamic to being on the baseball team.”

Building Peptoid Nanostructures, One Chain at a Time

This summer, both students are synthesizing diyne compounds that will eventually link together peptoid nanosheets and help stabilize them. Moore is working on one diyne; Coller is developing a different diphenyl compound expected to have distinct effects on the resulting peptoid structures.

“We’re putting together different building blocks to put into a chain, and then we’ll put multiple of those chains together and see how they interact,” Coller explained.

Success this summer looks incremental but concrete for both researchers. Coller is aiming to produce enough of his target product to generate a crystal structure, which would be a meaningful milestone given that the synthesis is new to the Tresca lab and involves several distinct steps. Moore hopes to get his own product finished soon so he can move on to synthesizing peptoids before the summer ends.

Finding Their Way to the Lab

Both students credit K faculty with steering them toward research. Moore said Regina Stevens-Truss, the Dorothy H. Heyl Professor of Chemistry, sparked his interest in chemistry during a spring first-year class before she connected him with Tresca. Coller had Tresca himself for Organic Chemistry I and II. While working with Laboratory Instructor Yit-Yian Lua and beginning to plan his Senior Integrated Project (SIP), Coller was encouraged to join the Tresca lab as well. He started in the winter term.

Both described Tresca as an approachable, hands-on mentor.

“He’s definitely patient with us and he helps us a lot,” Moore said.

Coller added that Tresca is the go-to problem-solver when equipment issues develop.

“If something doesn’t work, we can go find Dr. Tresca and he’ll probably figure it out,” Coller said.

Tresca returned the favor and complimented his student-athletes.