Summer Research in the Rizk Lab

Biochemist Shahir Rizk has had a very busy summer. He is pictured above presenting his work on Reversible Self-Assembly of Bio-Responsive Nanostructures at the 2019 Cottrell Scholar Conference in Tucson, Arizona in early July. Rizk was announced as a Cottrell Scholar earlier this year in Science Magazine and IU produced a nice video segment on his research and goals. More recently, Rizk returned from the National Environmental Monitoring Conference in Jaksonville, Florida in early August where he presented work on Engineering a Biosensor for the Herbicide Glyphosate. One of our adjunct professors, Earl Hansen, and his wife, organize this conference each year. They are pictured with Rizk below.

In between his busy conference schedule, Rizk has been mentoring three student researchers in his laboratory: chemistry major Ashley Catanzarite, biochemistry major Audrey Doue, and biology major Joel Green. Catanzarite won this year's Carolyn & Lawrence Garber Summer Research Fellowship.  Doue won the Zeider Excellence in Biochemistry Scholarship and also was funded by a SMART grant for her research experience.

Recently, Chancellor Elrod paid the Rizk lab a visit and met with the students. A geneticist herself, Chancellor Elrod (right) had a chance to learn about the research on protein engineering in the Rizk lab from students Ashley Catanzarite (second from left) and Joel Green (left). 

 

Alumna Success Story

Congratulations to Alexandra Hochstetler (left) who was recently accepted to the IU Medical School  along with her sister (right).  Alexandra is an award-winning graduate of our department. She earned her B.S. degree in biochemistry in 2017. Hochstetler describes her postgraduate experience below. We are so proud of you, Alexandra, and hope that you and your sister both have a wonderful experience in medical school.

"Between my bachelors degree and medical school, I continued working as a research technician in the Schwarz lab at Harper Cancer Research Institute following my experience the previous summer as RC MedReview Fellowship recipient. I later made the decision to move to Indianapolis and began working at Eli Lilly as a contractor while studying for the MCAT. The science labs and lectures at IU South Bend (specifically biochemistry and molecular biology) as well as the summer research experiences offered at IU South Bend, provided me with invaluable hands-on experience, which gave me an edge over the other applicants in order to secure my position at Lilly. As I continued studying for the MCAT, I never felt like any of the information was foreign or that I needed to relearn subjects because the science courses offered at IUSB were directly applicable to the information on the MCAT. My younger sister and I applied to medical school together and were both accepted! This summer before school started, I took Dr. Anderson’s advice and took a Victory Vacation to celebrate! As I reflect during my first week of medical school about my journey to this point, I definitely could not have done it without my professors and mentors from IU South Bend! They were always supportive of my crazy ideas, answered millions of questions, and helped guide me to where I am now."

LSAMP Summer Research Poster Session

At the beginning of the Summer, a group of faculty took on a larger group of students to mentor them in summer research projects funded by the LSAMP (Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation) arm of the National Science Foundation. Today those students (and others) presented their work in a morning poster session (that's just one of them pictured) after eight weeks of experimental design, trouble-shooting, data collection, and analysis.  Congratulations to all of these students for their hard work.  We hope that they will be inspired to continue researching during their undergraduate career and perhaps even pursue a career of research in the near future.

Ebenezer Barinda - Computer Science major
HPS: A Web Application that Uses GPS Tracking to Improve Parcel Delivery Services (Hossein Hakimzadeh's lab) 

Grace Berney - Biochemistry major
Molecular signatures that distinguish IPS cells from their cells of origin (Murli Nair's lab)
 

Angel Garcia-Simental  - Physics major
St. George Detector Simulation (Jerry Hinnefeld's lab)
 

Alexis Glasper - Biology major
Effects of Antidepressant Drugs on Aquatic Plants and Levels of Antibiotic Resistance in Bacteria Isolated from Nectar (Deb Marr's lab)

Brianna Jones - Chemistry major
Phenolic Compounds and Mineral Content Determination in Organic and Conventional Blueberries: A Comparison Study (Grace Muna's lab)
 

Patricia Medrano - Biology major
Pollination Ecology of Iris virginica and Penstemon digitalis: Pollinator Diversity, Pollen Limitation, and Nectar Microbial Diversity (Andy Schnabel's lab)

Chris Mochel - Chemistry major
Method Development for Detection of Aminothiols in Biological samples (Grace Muna's lab)

 

Amber Owens - Biology major
The Effect of Paroxetine, an SSRI drug, on Gammarus, a freshwater crustacean  (Deb Marr's lab)

 

Andrew Vila - Biology major
Optimization of Bismuth Deposition Conditions on Glassy Carbon electrode for Detecting lead in Water and Soil (Grace Muna's lab) 

 

Summer Research with Muna

Associate Professor Grace Muna (second from the left) has three students working in her laboratory this summer on different projects.   Brianna Jones (far left) and Andrew Vila (far right) will both be juniors next year. Jones is a chemistry major and plans to go to pharmacy school when she graduates. Vila is a biology major and is considering to pursue an MD-PhD degree. Chris Mochel (second from the right) is a rising senior in chemistry who plans to attend graduate school. Jones, Mochel, and Vila have been working hard all summer and are currently preparing posters to present the results of their fruitful labor for all to see on the walls of the chemistry hall (and possibly a conference next semester). The students describe their individual research projects as follows:

Brianna Jones (funded by an LSAMP grant)

My research project is aimed at developing analytical methods that will be used to analyze the nutritional value of conventional and organic blueberries and compare them. To do this end, I have been working on developing a calorimetric method to determine phenolic compounds in the blueberries, as well as a microwave plasma atomic emission spectroscopy method to determine mineral content in the blueberries. The question we are trying to answer is whether there is any difference in nutritional values between conventional and organic blueberries. The developed analytical methods are being used to analyze and compare organic and conventional blueberries for their phenolic and mineral content.

Christopher Mochel (funded by a SMART grant)
The goal of my research, “Detecting Aminothiols in Biological Samples”, is to develop methods that can measure the concentrations of cysteine, homocysteine, and glutathione.  These aminothiols are important biomarkers found in the human body and having too much or too little of any or all of these aminothiols can indicate vulnerability to a wide range of diseases.  We are working on developing a colorimetric method to measure total aminothiols in urine by utilizing the ability of aminothiols to reduce iron(III) to iron(II) which complexes with o-phenathroline to form a colored complex. To selectively measure aminothiols in urine and plasma we are developing a method that combines HPLC with electrochemical methods using glassy carbon electrodes modified with gold nanoparticles.

Andrew Vila (funded by an LSAMP grant)
We are currently working on a project to compare different methods of depositing bismuth nanoparticle films on glassy carbon electrodes to be used to detect lead in water and soil. Although the government guidelines allow up to 15 ppb in public water supply, we have been working to detect the lowest concentration possible in order to avoid any lead contamination. The methods that are being used to deposit bismuth naoparticles on glassy carbon electrodes are cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry. These techniques will be tested for their performance in lead detection. The analytical methods will be compared in terms of sensitivity, linear dynamic range and limit of detection to conclude which is the best method to determine lead in water and soil samples.

Summer Research with McMillen

Professor Doug McMillen used to be our full-time organic chemist, but over the years he has risen through the administration and now holds the title of Vice Chancellor. This spring was his last semester teaching organic chemistry for us - which he did graciously on top of his other duties to fill an unexpected vacancy. But chemistry will always be one of his passions and his dedication to chemistry and our students is clearly illustrated this summer as he mentors biochemistry major Brody Deming on a research project.  Deming is a junior in our department and is considering going to medical school after graduation.  He has nicely summarized their project for us:

Dr. McMillen and I are working on researching a greener way to oxidize alcohols to carbonyls. A lot of the reagents used in today’s chemistry can be harsh to humans and the environment. Examples of these reagents are potassium dichromate and pyridinium chlorochromate (PCC). Potassium dichromate and PCC are listed as carcinogenic and are very toxic to aquatic life. It is important to find greener reagents to minimize risk for the chemist and help the environment. In the past, McMillen has researched with N-iodosuccinimide with good results. It was found that the iodine in N-iodosuccinimide could be activated using a strong base. This poses a problem though because N-iodosuccinimide is expensive. We decided that this summer we would work on trying to find a way to activate I2 instead of N-iodosuccinimide since it would be cheaper. Thus far, the results are promising but we are trying to find a way to maximize yield.

Is There Ice Cream in Space?

The Biology Chemistry Club held an outreach event at the River Park Public Library yesterday evening to help launch the library's summer reading challenge. They made ice cream, talked about space, and let kids look at plants and rocks under the microscope. This was a huge success with more than 50 children participating. Each child took home their own painting of the moon. We are very proud that our students repeatedly volunteer to foster scientific interest in the next generation of students.

Awards and Graduates 2019

Professor (and Assistant Dean) Bill Feighery celebtrates with graduates Christian Moreno (BS Chemistry), Conor McGee (BS Chemistry), and Sandy Ho (BS Biochemistry) during this year's graduation ceremony. A few of our graduates are taking a year off before pursuing further education, but a couple are heading directly to graduate school and others are moving into industry. As always, our students excel in their coursework, research, and extracurricular activities and the department was able to hand out several awards at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Honors Convocation several days before.  Congratulations to all of our graduates and award winners!

Freshman Chemistry Achievement Award
  Molly Fox
ACS Undergraduate Analytical Chemistry Award
  Christopher Mochel
Undergraduate Award in Organic Chemistry
  Anna McBeth
Student Excellence Award in Biochemistry
  Sandy Ho
Student Excellence Award in Chemistry
  Conor McGee
Joseph H. Ross Seminar Award
   Maggie Fink
Zeider Excellence in Biochemistry Scholarship
   Audrey Doue
Carolyn & Lawrence Garber Summer Research Fellowship
   Ashley Catanzarite