biochemistry

Good Chemistry

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Lori-Ann Williams, Geneci Marroquin and Josh Abbott wearing goggles in a lab
Lori-Ann Williams, Geneci Marroquin and Josh Abbott in the lab.

It’s summertime at K; the weather is hot, and so is the chemistry on the second floor of the Dow Science Center. In the first of a series of articles, we focus on chemistry research underway on campus during summer 2013.

Three students are advancing ongoing research projects in the inorganic chemistry laboratory of Professor of Chemistry Tom Smith. Each project is focused on elements included in a group known as transitional metals. Josh Abbott ’13, Lori-Ann Williams ’14, and Geneci Marroquin ’14 apply various techniques to characterize reactions that occur in nature (as well as some chemistry that nature doesn’t do) involving the elements vanadium (Abbott), manganese (Williams), and cobalt and nickel (Marroquin).

The researchers are working to create small molecule models that are motivated by the chemical reactions that occur in nature and involve more complex substances such as enzymes. All three are performing the intricate chemical experiments required to make crystal samples of molecules that result from the aforementioned reactions—enough samples, and of sufficient quality, for the technique known as x-ray crystallography, which will render a three-dimensional portrait of the molecule.  (The notion of portraiture is particularly apt for the chemistry of transitional metals, known for their colors and alterations of color as a result of molecular changes.) The x-ray crystallography work will mean an August trip to Purdue University (the workplace of a long-time collaborator with Smith in these scientific projects) for Smith and the student researchers.

The work of Williams and Marroquin will form the basis of their respective Senior Individualized Projects. Williams’ work, says Smith, is more biologically oriented, and seeks to reconcile data on manganese compounds from Williams and the Smith lab with data published on manganese work from a laboratory in India. Marroquin’s is more “catalytically oriented, doing something nature doesn’t do,” she says. If Marroquin’s contribution to the ongoing project is successful, subsequent work may one day lead to more efficient energy generation. “We’re trying to save the world in this lab,” smiles Marroquin.

Abbott graduated in June but wanted to more research work in inorganic chemistry, the most liberal arts-ish of all chemistry disciplines. “It relates to all other branches of chemistry and science and is very useful for better understanding of peer-reviewed literature in biochemistry,” he said. His vanadium research originates from the way sea algae synthesize special organic molecules for self protection.

It’s been a good summer in Smith’s lab. All five of his researchers are “highly motivated and getting a lot done,” Smith said. (Leland O’Connor ’14 and Mojtaba Ahkavandafi ’15 were not in the lab the day we dropped in, and they are working on projects very different from those of the other students.)

Strong K Presence at National Science Meeting

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Six students presented research work at the annual ASBMB meeting
Six students presented research work at the annual ASBMB meeting. From left: Josh Abbott, Erran Briggs, Amanda Bolles, Mara Livezey, Michael Hicks, and Nic Sweda. Hicks is a biology major; the other five are majoring in chemistry.

Six Kalamazoo College students joined two of their chemistry professors and mentors (Regina Stevens-Truss and Laura Lowe Furge) at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology National Meeting in Boston, Mass. The students–Nicholas Sweda ’13, Mara Livezey ’13, Michael Hicks ’13, Josh Abbott ’13, Amanda Bolles ’14, and Erran Briggs ’14–presented results of their summer and academic year research experiences (Senior Individualized Projects in the cases of Nick and Josh). Nearly 300 posters from colleges across the country were part of the 17th Annual Undergraduate Student Research Poster Competition and Professional Development Workshop. Professor Furge was a judge in the competition.

The lab of Professor Paul Hollenberg at the University of Michigan was the site of Abbott’s SIP research on the role of CYP2B6 metabolism of the chemotherapeutic drug cyclophosphamide. The other five posters were based on research done at Kalamazoo College. Sweda presented ongoing studies from Professor Stevens-Truss’s lab on suramin selective inhibition of nitric oxide synthases. This work is the basis of a manuscript in preparation with Sweda and Alyssa McNamara ’11 as co-authors. Livezey, Hicks, Bolles, and Briggs each presented individual posters with results of three projects from Professor Furge’s lab on the interactions of inhibitors with human cytochrome P450 enzymes. The work presented by Bolles and Briggs is currently being prepared in a manuscript for publication with both students as co-authors along with Livezey. The posters presented by Hicks and Livezey are the basis of current NIH-funded studies in the Furge lab. In addition to the poster sessions, students attended talks, award lectures, and exhibits. Students also met with graduate school recruiters.

During the meeting, Professor Stevens-Truss directed her third annual teaching workshop for middle school and high school science teachers in the Boston area. The workshop attracted more than 70 teacher-participants from the Boston area, a record number for these ASBMB associated events. Professor Stevens-Truss’s efforts in structuring the workshops have provided a new platform for scientists to collaborate and mentor the nation’s secondary school science teachers. Scientists from across the country helped make the workshop a meaningful experience for school teachers. It was funded by a National Science Foundation grant to Stevens-Truss. Next year’s meeting will be in San Diego, Calif., and K expects to be there.

K Students Will Benefit from Chemistry Grant Renewal

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Professor of Chemistry Laura Furge has received a renewal of her National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to support continued research in the area of drug-drug interactions. She will conduct this research with undergraduate science students at Kalamazoo College. Adverse drug-drug interactions are common among individuals who take multiple drugs (both over the counter and prescribed), particularly among older persons and among individuals whose bodies express variants of drug metabolizing (drug processing) enzymes. The research in the Furge lab will benefit human health by adding to the understanding of how certain classes of drugs may interact in individuals and cause drug-drug induced unfavorable medical events. Furge currently has five research students working in her lab and has mentored two dozen in her lab and many more in her classes over the past 13 years at K. Funding from the NIH will help ensure continued research opportunities for future generations of scientists. The grant will provide $225,000 over three years.

 

The Magnificent Five

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Five women representing Kalamazoo College
(Left to right) Regina Stevens-Truss, Lindsey Gaston, Sandrine Zilikana, Laura Lowe Furge, and Mara Livezey

Majors Sandrine Zilikana ’12 and Mara Livezey ’13 and biology major Lindsey Gaston ’12  joined chemistry department faculty members Regina Stevens-Truss and Laura Lowe Furge at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Meeting in San Diego in late April. The students presented results of their summer research experiences (part of the Senior Individualized Projects for Sandrine and Lindsey) as part of both the Annual Undergraduate Poster Competition and the regular scientific sessions of the meeting.

More than 200 students from schools across the country were part of the undergraduate poster competition.  Zilikana’s research measured differences in reducing the potential of cancer cell types to affect drug delivery. She conducted this scientific work at the University of Michigan with Professor Kyung-Dall Lee.  Gaston’s showed that a specific hormone prevented nerve cell death after brain injury. Her research, conducted with Professor Vishal Bansal at the University of California-San Diego, will be included in a manuscript just accepted to the Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology. Livezey presented the results of a study she has worked on for the past two years in Furge’s lab modeling the interactions of inhibitors with human cytochrome P450 enzymes. That study was recently published in Drug Metabolism Letters. While in San Diego, Stevens-Truss directed a teaching workshop for middle school and high school science teachers in the San Diego area. Her innovation in development of the workshop has drawn increasing numbers of teachers to the workshop and provided a new platform for scientists to collaborate with and mentor the nation’s secondary school science teachers.

The workshop was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Next year’s meeting will be in Boston, and Stevens-Truss and Furge plan to attend with another group of students. Stevens-Truss will also lead another teaching workshop there.

Biochemistry Beats Biceps

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A beefcake pose doesn’t always a great male model make. Sometimes it takes a yeast two-hybrid trap for proteins. Two photos of Tanav Popli ’11 are featured on the video advertisement for the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology annual meeting (Tanav is pictured in slides 18 and 19, wearing a gray sweater with an argyle pattern).

The photos are from last year’s meeting in Washington, D.C., at which Tanav presented the results of his Senior Individualized Project work completed at University of California-San Francisco. His poster was titled: “Tmtc4 interacts with C3G, Wntless, and Zfhx4: a yeast two-hybrid trap for proteins associated with development of the corpus callosum.”

“I think he has returned to that USCF lab as a technician while he applies to medical school,” says Laura Furge, associate professor of chemistry. “There are three students that have just this week submitted abstracts to attend the 2012 meeting in San Diego,” she added.

They are: Mara Livezey ’13, Sandrine Zilikana ’12, and Lindsey Gaston ’12. Travel for students to this meeting is provided by a grant to Kalamazoo College from the Howard Hughes Medical Foundation.

Five “K” Students Compete in Poster Presentation for ASBMB

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Five Kalamazoo College students
Left to Right: Popli, Nagy, Diffenderfer, Parson, and McNamara

Kalamazoo College enjoyed a strong scientific presence at the Washington, D.C. meeting of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB). Associate Professor of Chemistry Laura Furge served as a judge in the 15th Annual Undergraduate Poster Competition, in which five “K” students competed against more than 200 other undergraduates from throughout the country.

Laura Diffenderfer ’11 presented a poster titled “Autodock as a method for predicting binding for substrates and inhibitors of human cytochrome P450 2D6,” based on a sliver of the research she’s conducted for the past two years in Furge’s lab. Diffenderfer plans to attend Wayne State Medical School this fall. Alyssa McNamara ’11, a four-year denizen in the lab of chemistry professor Regina Stevens-Truss, presented “Suramin discriminates between the calmodulin-binding sites of neuronal and inducible nitric oxide synthase.” She will work for the Schuler Family Foundation in Chicago before she enrolls in medical school in 2012.

Leslie Nagy ’09 and Diffenderfer presented “Mechanism-based inhibition of human cytochrome P450 2D6 by Schering 66712,” work recently accepted for publication in Drug Metabolism and Disposition. Nagy is completing a two-year appointment as a laboratory research associate in Furge’s lab.

Tanav Popli ’11 presented a poster based on his SIP work at University of California-San Francisco. His poster was titled “Tmtc4 interacts with C3G, Wntless, and Zfhx4: a yeast two-hybrid trap for proteins associated with development of the corpus callosum.” Tanov plans to work in a laboratory after graduation and then apply for an M.D./Ph.D. program.

Emily Parson ’11 presented a poster titled “Characterization of a real time PCR assay for the detection and quantification of Plasmodium malariae parasites.” She did her SIP, which was based in part on her study abroad experience in Kenya, at the Walter Reed U.S. Army Medical Research Unit in Washington, D.C. After she graduates this spring, Emily will return to Walter Reed to continue research in related areas.

“Attendance at a national meeting is a tremendous opportunity for students to hear and meet leading scientists, to see how scientists share ideas with each other, and to see how scientific research accumulates and allows for the formation of new hypotheses,” said Furge.

And it’s an opportunity that depends on philanthropy. Student travel to this meeting was supported by a grant to “K” from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Popli received a travel award from the Undergraduate Affiliation Network of Kalamazoo College headed by Stevens-Truss. Stevens-Truss organized the first annual ASBMB workshop titled: “Fostering Partnerships Between Colleges/Universities and Junior High School Teachers,” and she noted that it got off the ground despite her absence due to and airline grounding. “I was disappointed to miss the workshop when my flight was grounded in Kalamazoo,” said Stevens-Truss. “But I’m glad the idea is now a successful reality.”

The second offering of the workshop will occur next April in San Diego.