Summer Research Begins for LSAMP Students

Summer research begins for our biology and chemistry LSAMP (Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation) students who posed today with chemistry professors Muna and Rizk after a group meeting and pizza lunch. Students are pictured left to right (with their research mentor in parentheses) as front row Cordelia Bennett (Dr. Clark), Joey Malkovsky (Dr. Rizk), Edwin Cortez (Dr. Muna) and back row Guillermo Cardenas (Dr. Clark), Moses Nyirongo (Dr. Clear), Perla Diaz (Dr. Marr).  Each student is financially supported by a summer LSAMP grant funded by the National Science Foundation. Summer research is a valuable educational experience for students that gives them an edge in applying to graduate school programs and jobs. We hope that students and professors will have an enjoyable summer.

2024 Graduates and Awards

Congratulations to all of our award winners (listed below) and graduates. They have all put in a lot of hard work and made sacrifices to be where they are now - whether it is moving ahead to the next year in their major; enrolling in graduate or professional school; or starting their career. We are very proud of our graduates and hope that they stay in contact with us because we are very interested to hear about their future accomplishments. We wish you all a wonderful and restful break so that you can take your next steps full of energy and enthusiasm. 

Constance J. Fox Freshman Chemistry Achievement Award*
   Caroline Quinqiuo

Organic Chemistry Achievement Award*
   Kristen Miller

Senior Excellence Award in Biochemistry*
   Ashlei Sonnenberg

Joseph H. Ross Award for Outstanding Oral Presentations
   Zahra Aljuboori

Gretchen Anderson Pathways Scholarship
   Alexandra Ibarra
   Luke Johnson
   Kristen Miller

Carolyn & Lawrence Garber Summer Research Scholarship
   Luke Johnson

   Morgan Underdue

*This award is made possible by donors to the IU South Bend Chemistry Department Fund.

2024 IUSB Undergraduate Research Conference

Yesterday, five students from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry presented posters of their research at the annual Undergraduate Research Conference. Pictured above are analytical chemist Dr. Muna (left) and her two mentees Megan Conn (center) and Nikki Sweet (right). Her students performed their research last fall as part of Muna's CHEM-C 410 Instrumental Analysis course. Pictured below are Megan Conn again (left) and Dr. Rizk's two mentees Morgan Underdue (center) who began work this spring and Zahra Aljuboori (right) who has been working with Rizk for a few semesters. Not pictured is biochemistry major Emily Barrera who presented her work with ecologist Dr. Marr from the Department of Biological Sciences. Titles of all the students' research projects are listed below.

A Correlation Study of Lead Levels in Contaminated Soil Samples with Source, Home Location, and Age 
   Nikki Sweet (Chemistry, B.S.)  
   Megan Conn (Biochemistry, B.S.)
   Dr. Muna (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry)

Engineering a Fluorescent Biosensor for Real-time Monitoring of Ornithine in Bacterial Cultures
   Zahra Aljuboori (Biochemistry, B.S.)
   Morgan Underdue (Biochemistry, B.S.)
   Dr. Rizk (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry)

Fusing PhuZ with GFP and mCherry Fluorescence Proteins Using AI Modeling 
   Zahra Aljuboori (Biochemistry, B.S.)
   Dr. Rizk (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry)

Comparing Soil Properties and Biodiversity in Pinhook and Howard Park in South Bend, Indiana 
   Emily Barrera (Biochemistry, B.S.)
   Dr. Marr (Biological Sciences)

From Aspiration to Admission: Roadmap to Graduate School

Brody Deming began his research career during the summer of the pandemic in the lab of Biochemist Dr. Shahir Rizk. Because of the pandemic, the lab was mostly off-limits so Deming engaged in a theoretical/computational project using the software Chimera to model the interactions of sugar binding proteins that form nanostructures. He has since graduated with a Biochemistry B.S. degree and is now researching in the Purdue Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology program in pursuit of a Ph.D. Deming returned to IU South Bend this Tuesday to talk with current science majors about the "roadmap to graduate school" to give advice based on his experience on how to select a graduate program - and how to prepare as an undergraduate so that this graduate program will select them in return. It is wonderful to see our alumni return to campus to visit their professors, but it is even more exciting to see them give back to IU South Bend. Thanks so much, Brody, for helping to inspire and encourage our students in their pursuit of graduate school.

The Secret Social Life of Bacteria

Last night, Maggie Fink gave a talk about the secret social life of bacteria at the downtown public library as part of an outreach lecture series "Our Universe Revealed" by the University of Notre Dame and IU South Bend. Fink is the perfect candidate for this joint effort because she is a graduate of IU South Bend (biochemistry major) and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Notre Dame where she is supported by the prestigious National Science Foundation Fellowship. Bacteria are infamous as harmful germs, but they are also responsible for symbiotic relationships in the digestive system. Furthermore, scientists have been farming bacteria for decades to produce particular proteins like insulin to treat diabetes. But in this talk, Fink described how bacteria communicate with each other and sometimes work in cooperation to give us a "new appreciation for the invisible hidden dramas unfolding all around us." A video recording of her talk is available at the link below, which also archives past talks.

Video Recordings of "Our Universe Revealed" lectures

Kasey Clear inspires some future chemists!

On Wednesday, organic chemistry professor Kasey Clear led activities for a group of elementary students to engage them in chemistry.  This was conducted at the Center for Civic Innovation, right across from our Center for Civil Heritage in downtown South Bend. Clear used dry ice to increase the carbon dioxide content in water, thus acidifying it, which the children could observe from the color change of a pH indicator - after having used the indicator themselves to test the pH of common items in the home. For more information on the Center for Civic Innovation please click on the link below. The two pictures shown above were taken from the Center's Facebook page which is also listed below.

Center for Civic Innovation (main web site)

Facebook page: Educational Programs at the ND Center for Civic Innovation (Facebook page)

Crocheted protein structures

Ilona Lehman, a pre-nursing major in Dr. Marmorino's second-semester chemistry course (C102), was inspired by the beautiful images of proteins in the textbook and class to crochet examples of the four levels of protein structure.  Thank you so much for these lovely and creative illustrations!

Top image: Primary structure is the sequence of amino acids in a polypeptide chain. Each blue knot represents an amino acid linked to the next by a peptide bond.  

Middle image: Secondary structure is the local folding of the polypeptide chain into regular structures such as the alpha helix illustrated by the twirling dark pink yarn and the beta-pleated sheet illustrated by the zig-zagging light pink yarn. In both cases, hydrogen bonding (in white) stabilizes these local structures.

Bottom left image: Tertiary structure is the overall three-dimensional shape of a single polypeptide chain shown here with dark pink alpha helices, dark blue sheets, and cyan random coils.

Bottom right image: Quaternary structure describes how multiple polypeptides interact to form a single protein. The example shown here is hemoglobin with four subunits (folded chains) each given a different color. Hemoglobin carries oxygen in our red blood cells from the lungs to the tissues - one oxygen molecule for each subunit.