End of semester club activities

The Biology-Chemistry Club ended the Fall semester with an outreach event followed by a party. On Saturday (Dec 8), the weekend before final exams, club members met at the LaSalle branch of the public library for two hours to make slime and snow with children and their families to get them ready for the winter break and holidays. Once final exams were over on Thursday (Dec 13) evening, the club held a party at Langlab with free pizza and scientific trivia games as students rejoiced in their triumphs over the first semester of classes for the 2018-2019 academic year. We wish them all a restful break and an even better Spring semester in 2019.

Student Places in IU Undergraduate Research Conference

On the Friday before Thanksgiving, IUPUI hosted the 24th annual IU Undergraduate Research Conference. Biology major Pierre-Emmanuel N'Guetta travelled downstate to present his work over the past several years under his mentor and biochemistry professor Shahir Rizk. N'Guetta represented IU South Bend amazingly well and came in 3rd place for best poster from the entire IU system. He was first selected as one of the finalists and then was required to give an impromptu presentation in front of a panel of judges.  The title and abstract of his presentation are given below. Congratulations on a wonder performance!

Engineering a Fluorescent Biosensor for the Detection of Herbicide Glyphosate

Glyphosate is the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup and is used to kill weeds. Nowadays, glyphosate is the most popular herbicide used around the globe. It has been classified as a probable carcinogen. Several states are planning to restrict its use. Hence, there is a need for the development of detection methods for GP. The E. coli phosphonate binding protein naturally binds to GP, making it a good candidate for the development of a glyphosate fluorescent biosensor. This happens with a very low affinity limiting PhnD ability to detect low concentrations of GP. Our goal is to increase the affinity of PhnD for glyphosate. PhnD undergoes a conformational change upon binding to its ligand. We can take advantage of this conformational hange to develop PhnD into a fluorescent sensor for lyphosate, where a fluorescent reporter group is attached o PhnD. In this work, we introduced a mutation in the inding pocket of PhnD (E177N) that improved affinity by 100-fold. We also sought to take advantage of the equilibrium property by engineering antibody fragments that bind specifically to the closed form of PhnD. We utilized engineered antibody fragments (Fabs) to improve the affinity for GP. The Fabs were designed to stabilize the bound form of PhnD. Five Fabs were tested, one was found to increase affinity of GP to PND by an additional 10-fold. The combined effect of the mutation and the Fab result in a 1000-fold affinity enhancement, allowing the development of sensitive biosensors for GP pollution.

Two more events from the Biology-Chemistry Club

Our campus club continues in October with two more events. This Monday evening at 5:00 in room 125 of Northside Hall the club has arranged for biochemist Shahir Rizk to give a talk about graduate school - one possible avenue to consider after graduation. His talk is directed to sophomores and juniors to discuss what students can do to gain experiences that will give them an advantage over other applicants.  Undergraduate research, tutoring, and club membership are just some activities to consider. 

This weekend the club has another community outreach event planned - again at the River Park branch of the public library. This time they celebrate National Chemistry Week with the theme of "Stellar Science". National Chemistry Week is held each October during the week of the 23rd because the date 10/23 symbolizes the "power" of one of the most important constants in chemistry: Avogadros' number, 6.022´10^23. The fun starts at 11:00 AM, so please stop by with a younger family member and let them see just how exciting science can be.

Addendum:  Here are a few photos of our students just after setup, waiting for the kids to arrive. This is a great experience for the kids and also our students.

 

Students present summer research in Indianapolis

This Friday morning, students and faculty boarded a bus early in the morning to take them to the 2018 Indiana LSAMP Annual Research Conference. The one-day event was held in Indianapolis at the Ivy Tech Community College Culinary and Conference Center. While chemistry professor Grace Muna participated in a panel discussion on serving as a faculty mentor for the LSAMP program and biology professor Andy Schnabel served as a faculty facilitator, the real stars were the summer research students who showcased the work they had completed as LSAMP scholars. Presenting research at a conference to faculty and peers is a valuable experience and is a great way to celebrate and formally conclude one's research project.  Congratulations to all the students who attended.

Giovanna Gorski - Computer Science Major

vCARE: Application of Geotagging to Improve Delivery of Public Health Services

Winnie Ihano - Biochemistry Major (with Dr. Rizk)
Characterization of Adenosine Deaminase (ADA) Mutants in Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID)

Stacey Jean-Baptiste - Biological Sciences Major (with Dr. Muna)
Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Aminothiols Using Modified Electrodes with Gold Nanoparticles

Jessica Jones - Biological Sciences Major
Effects of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi on Plant Grown and Survival

Jones, Keon - Biological Sciences Major
The Effect of EF-P Post-translational Modifications on Cell Physiology in E. coli
Jones also participated in a panel discussion about the student perspective of undergraduate research.

David Mitchell - Biological Sciences Major
Pollinator Diversity and Abundance in Neighboring Urban Wetlands2

Christian Moreno - Chemistry Major (with Dr. Marmorino)
Development of a Tool to Operate on Periodic Trends

Pierre-Emmanuel N’Guetta - Biological Sciences Major (with Dr. Rizk)
Engineering a FABulous Fluorescent Glyphosate Biosensor Using Phosphate-binding Protein (PhnD)

Library display

The Schurz library has chosen to highlight chemistry this year for the month of October - so no, that's not a Halloween ghost in the right side of the display cabinet, but rather a chemistry lab coat.  But just like Halloween, chemistry is "out of this world", which is the theme this year set by the American Chemical Society for National Chemistry Week of October 21-27. Keep a lookout for a future post in which students from the Biology-Chemistry Club hold an outreach event at the local public library for kids.  Thanks to Assistant Dean (and inorganic chemist) Bill Feighery and Vice Chancellor (and organic chemist) Doug McMillen for setting up the library display.

Biology-Chemistry Club starts off strong

We aren't even a month into the Fall semester, and yet the Biology-Chemistry Club is full of action. The events actually started toward the end of summer session II when the club organized a community outreach program at the Riverpark Library called Rock Candy Romp! The event was held on July 31, and while it lasted just one hour, it was a very intense time of science fun. Our students prepared a volcano and set up some dissecting microscopes for kids to look through. Club members also helped kids make rock candy - an early introduction to recrystallization to prepare them for organic chemistry lab (in the far future). 

Next there was the Fall Semester Kickoff at the end of the first week of classes held at Lang Lab in the evening. Professors and students got a chance to mingle and relax before the onslaught of test-taking (for students) and grading (for faculty). Thanks to the club for generously providing the pizza.  The collage above is a collection of photos taken that night. 

The club also sponsored "Research Night" on September 10th during which students got a chance to hear about the research that faculty are conducting on campus. Students can get involved in such activities for course credit (such as CHEM-C 409 Chemical Research) or even for pay (as a work-study student during the Fall and Spring semesters or funded by a SMART or LSAMP grant during the Summer.

 

The next plan that is in the works is another science outreach event, this time planned for the children at the Ronald McDonald House Charities at Memorial Hospital. If you are interested in helping with this activity or wish to join the Biology-Chemistry Club, please contact any one of the biology or chemistry faculty and they'll put you contact with someone from the club.

Students return from summer research

 

While many of our students worked on campus this summer researching the faculty here, three of our biochemistry majors researched elsewhere.  One of these was Sandy Ho who won our campus's RC Med Review Research Fellowship last spring.  She worked with Professor Laurie Littlepage at the Mike and Josie Harper Cancer Research Institute which is a collaboration between the IU School of Medicine and the University of Notre Dame.  Ho studied how oxidative stress affects breast cancer cells in the presences or absence of a specific aquaporin (a channel protein that allows water and glycerol to flow across the cell membrane).

Hunter Richman attended the University of Delaware REU program sponsored by the National Science Foundation. He researched the kinetics and thermodynamics of post synthetic ligand exchange in Cu(II) metal organic cages with graduate student Garrett Taggart in the group of Professor Eric Bloch. Richman enjoyed the hands-on research experience and the preview into what graduate school might be like. He stands by his research poster (on the right) beside his professor in the photo below during a symposium at the end of the summer. You can find their abstract HERE.

Maggie Fink who was funded by the National Science Foundation REU program to work at the University of Notre Dame in Dr. Shaun Lee's biology lab.  Fink describes her work and experience in the paragraph that follows. She is pictured second from the right in the photo above.

 

"I worked with Streptococcus pyogenes, the human pathogen responsible for strep throat and necrotizing fascitis. Specifically, I investigated the role of streptococcal pyrogenic exotoxin B (SpeB) in virulence through interactions with Streptolysin S. SpeB is a protease with a large number of known substrates and no definite link to its activity correlates to the severity of infection. Streptolysin S is toxin responsible for red blood cell lysis and serious infections. Understanding the interactions between the two, if any even exist, could provide insight into how S. pyrogenes can cause a range of infection severity in hosts, from remaining commensal to a life threatening illness. Participating in the REU program at Notre Dame challenged me as a scientist to think creativity and critically when deisgning experiments and analysing data. Additionally, working with graduate students in a larger lab gave me a better idea of what going to graduate school will be like and helped solidify my desire to pursue a PhD and career in research."
 

Summer research, whether on- or off-campus, has a wide range of benefits.  It is often a paid position so you can earn money gaining experience rather than waiting tables, and it can help you decide whether research is really what you want to do. It used to be that undergraduate research helped you stand out from the crowd when applying to graduate school; nowadays, it is becoming the norm, so that you may be at a disadvantage if you lack research experience.

 

Faculty attend education conference at summer's end

 

The 25th Biennial Conference on Chemical Education was held at the University of Notre Dame this summer. Department chair Gretchen Anderson, associate professor Grace Muna, assistant professor Shahir Rizk, laboratory supervisor Connie Fox, and adjunct professor Merilee Britt eagerly took advantage of the close locale. The conference started on Sunday, July 29 and ended on Thursday, August 2. 

During the conference Dr. Marya Lieberman of Notre Dame, who gave one of the plenary lectures, invited instructors teaching undergraduate analytical chemistry courses to participate in a project to analyze pharmaceutical drugs distributed in developing nations to test their quality. Muna's analytical chemistry class (CHEM-C 310) will analyze levofloxacin using HPLC this semester as part of the project to give her students a chance to do real life application of analytical chemistry.

Rizk (pictured below) gave a presentation titled "Transitioning students from the classroom to the world; creating better prepared and more engaged scientists" based on current, and planned, efforts many in our senior-level biochemistry courses (CHEM-C 484, 485, 486). While success in the classroom for four years is great, it is success for the rest of one's life in the real world that truly matters. Whether students graduate from IU South Bend to pursue graduate school, medical school, industry, or some other endeavor, we hope that we are giving them the tools to succeed.

 

 

Summer research with Muna

Professor Grace Muna is the analytical chemist of the department. She shares with Professor Rizk the uncanny ability to keep her lab occupied year-round with undergraduate research students, which is a very difficult task because coursework typically pulls students away during the fall and spring semesters. This summer she has three students working with her on projects combining electrochemistry and nanochemistry.

Stacey Jean-Baptiste (pictured middle) is a biology major and LSAMP scholar. She is working on developing a sensitive method to detect homocysteine in biological samples by electrodepositing gold nanoparticles onto a glassy  carbon electrode to modify its surface. Gold nanoparticles are expected to catalyze the oxidation of homocysteine. Thiol-containing amino acids, such as homocysteine, play crucial roles in key physiological processes; homocysteine levels have been linked to a number of health disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, developing a sensitive method to measure homocysteine in biological samples such as urine is important for prevention and treatment of these diseases.

Another biology major, Joel Green, (pictured left) came on board just three weeks ago. He stopped by to chat with Stacey and he took so long that Dr. Muna thought she should put him to work. She asked him whether he would be interested in research and he was up to it. Joel is working on the same project with Stacey, however, he's modifying gold (not glassy carbon) electrodes with gold nanoparticles and testing their performance on the catalytic oxidation of homocysteine and cysteine. This allows the group to do a comparison study to see which modified electrode outperforms the other in terms of selectivity, sensitivity and stability.

Chemistry major Joseph Williamson (pictured right) was continuing the ongoing work of developing a portable method to detect lead in water. He was testing whether bismuth nanoparticles on glassy carbon electrodes can be stabilized by a nafion polymer (based on Teflon) to enhance their long term stability. Joseph recently moved back to his home state, and will be continuing his education at University of Arkansas in the fall.

Summer research with Rizk

The biochemistry lab of Professor Shahir Rizk (pictured second from the right) is rarely quiet during the academic year – and it is even busier this summer with three undergraduate research students. Biology major Pierre-Emmanuel N'Guetta (pictured far right) is continuing work on a project to develop a biosensor for glyphosate, the main ingredient in the herbicide RoundUp. He began the project last year with the help of a SMART grant, and now he has a protein-based fluorescent biosensor that can detect micromolar amounts of the pollutant. He is currently trying to use this biosensor to test for glyphosate in soil samples.

Biochemistry major Winnie Ihano (pictured far left) is funded by the LSAMP program. Her goal is to express and purify mutants of the human enzyme adenosine deaminase. This enzyme is important in the degradation of the nucleotide adenosine. Individuals with mutations in this enzyme suffer from Severe Combined Immune Deficiency (SCID), a fatal disease that leaves its victims susceptible to all kinds of infections. Winnie is generating recombinant forms of these mutants found in SCID patients and trying to isolate them in order to characterize them in the lab.

Biology major Chris Stewart (pictured second from the left) is also working on adenosine deaminase. His work, funded by a SMART grant, is concerned with engineering antibody fragments that can bind to the active form of the enzyme. By recognizing the active form of the enzyme, we hope that these antibody fragments can be used to convert the less active mutants found in SCID patients into active enzymes with the hopes of reversing the effect of the disease (at least in the test-tube).

In addition to his research with these three students, Rizk has been busy with other projects. He attended the first Regional Cottrell Scholar meeting in April at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne, at the invitation of St. Mary’s chemist Dr. Kathryn Haas, a recent Cottrell Scholar who had previously taught at IU South Bend for a year before teaching at St. Mary’s College. The Cottrell foundation supports chemistry, physics, and astronomy professors who are developing innovative research and teaching programs at their institutions through their Cottrell Scholars Program. The meeting included former Cottrell scholars and members of their research groups as well as hopeful future Cottrell Scholars (such as Rizk).The meeting included presentations and roundtable discussions on research and teaching methods. Rizk had the chance to present a poster on his research in protein engineering and his teaching strategies that use discussion sections to introduce STEM majors to current events in science policy and new research developments through assigned readings and guest lectures by practicing scientists from academia and industry. Rizk was invited to submit a full application for the Cottrell Scholar program in July and we wish him success in this endeavor. 

Summer research with Marmorino

No goggles for these students. Chemistry majors Conor McGee and Christian Moreno are spending the summer working on quantum mechanical problems with Professor Matt Marmorino. Their work is a combination of theory and computation - not a single chemical will be harmed in their research. Instead they'll be making good use of Mathematica to run number-crunching programs that they are very busy writing.

McGee is funded by the Carolyn & Lawrence Garber Summer Research Scholarship which is awarded each summer to just one chemistry or biochemistry major. He is testing (on the hydrogen atom) some old, but underutilized, techniques to calculate bounds to the energy and position moments for atoms and molecules. These techniques require information that is typically not available for traditional trial wave functions, but Conor is introducing an adjustable defect into the wave functions that, while reducing the quality of the wave function, allows for atypical information about the system to be calculated and utilized. If the approach works well on the hydrogen atom, then it should also work on more complex atoms and molecules too.

Moreno's work  is supported by one of several Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation  (LSAMP) grants provided to STEM students at IU South Bend. He is testing simple quantum mechanical models to duplicate the known trends (such as atomic radius, ionization energy, and ground-state electron configuration) in the periodic table. The hydrogenic model, which ignores electron-electron repulsion is too simple to reproduce the trends; but the commonly-used Hartree-Fock method, which incorporates repulsion, is too complex for the beginning science student to fully appreciate and lacks a [rigorous] simple orbital interpretation.  Moreno is testing a model based on first-order perturbation theory that partly mimics the hydrogen model in simplicity, but incorporates at least some of the repulsion to reproduce the periodic trends. He's hoping that he doesn't need to deal with the repulsion in its full glory, because that is quite a task.

Outreach to Discovery Midde School

Last Friday, Professor Grace Muna went to Discovery Middle School in Granger to advertise science to the children. She was accompanied by some of her past and present research students Stacey Jean-Baptiste, Keon Jones, and Joseph Williamson. Muna and her team let the children perform several mini experiments, but one of their favorites was the production of worms using "worm goo" and "worm activator" available from Steve Spangler Science. The worm goo is an aqueous  solution of sodium alginate (a carbohydrate polymer found in seaweed) and the activator is just aqueous calcium chloride (used in pickles). The calcium displaces the sodium and with its greater charge (2+ not 1+) is able to bind strands of polymer together so that they lengthen and thicken to produce a precipitate of sorts that looks like gooey worms! 

Awards and Graduates 2018

While it is just the end of another year for many students, it is the end of journey for others. Whether they are off to graduate school, medical school, industry, or a gap-year of relaxation and soul-searching, our chemistry and biochemistry graduates are preparing to embark on a new adventure outside of IU South Bend - and most likely outside of South Bend itself. While we certainly congratulate all our graduates for their success, we would like to highlight those graduates - and their non-graduating classmates - who earned special recognition this year by winning awards and scholarships. Last night was an enjoyable time as Professor Gretchen Anderson (as Chair) announced our department's prize winners at the Honors Convocation of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.  Each student then each received a certificate acknowledging their achievement on stage from Professor Bill Feighery (as Associate Dean).

 

Freshman Chemistry Achievement Award
  Audrey Doue
ACS Undergraduate Analytical Chemistry Award
  Abigail Praklet
Student Excellence Award in Biochemistry
  Michele Costantino
  Khai Pham
Joseph H. Ross Seminar Award
  Khai Pham
Zeider Excellence in Biochemistry Scholarship
  Caitlin Schulz
George V. Nazaroff Scholarship
  Sandy Ho
  Conor McGee
Carolyn & Lawrence Garber Summer Research Scholarship
  Conor McGee
RC Med Review Research Fellowship
  Sandy Ho

Professor Rizk receives teaching award

Assistant Professor Shahir Rizk was hired in 2015 to help with our expanding biochemistry chemistry. His sharp research skills and natural charisma quickly attracted a team of student researchers that seems to work non-stop. But if there was any doubt that his teaching abilities were are as sharp as his research skills, they've been put to rest because last week it was announced that Rizk was awarded a Trustee's Teaching award for, what else, excellence in teaching. While Shahir is well-known in the department for teaching junior-senior level biochemistry lecture and laboratory, he also teaches students in their first semester (freshman general chemistry discussion) and their last semester (chemistry senior seminar). Congratulations, Rizk!

2018 IU South Bend Undergraduate Research Conference

Last Friday, students from all over the campus gathered at Weikamp in the morning and early afternoon to present research and creative works from the past year. As usual, our department was well-represented; this year our students contributed two talks and three posters. Pictured above-left is biochemistry major Maggie Fink with her mother on her right arm, while pictured above-right we have fellow biochemistry major Michele Costantino. Further down we see biology major Keon Jones shown with Associate Vice Chancellor (former organic chemistry professor) Doug McMillen. Keon presented his poster earlier this month at MoLSMAP in Missouri (click here for abstract). Jones and Costantino tied for the best poster presentation from the crowd of science and non-science posters.

And finally we find chemistry majors David Aupperle and Abigail Praklet - who both gave talks - pictured with biochemistry professor Shahir Rizk (who moderated the science session). They also traveled out of state in early April to present their work, but they went to NCUR in Oklahoma (click here for abstracts). Praklet's efforts won her the award for best talk in the science session which was an excellent way to cap her summer-fall-spring research adventure with Muna.

But all of our student researchers - whether they presented at the conference or not - deserve acknowledgement for their research efforts and have gained a valuable experience that other students may have yet to claim.  If you are interested in research, please don't hesitate to ask about it. You can get the student point of view from fellow classmates - or visit one of your favorite professors to see what is happening outside of class.

Self Assembly of Novel Proteins Using Maltose Binding Protein and Engineered fABs
Maggie Fink, Professor Shahir Rizk

Many proteins undergo a large conformational change upon binding to a ligand. This conformational shift can expose protein surfaces previously shielded in the unbound state. A class of proteins that exhibits this conformational change is the bacterial periplasmic binding proteins. Each member of this family of proteins binds to a specific ligand, resulting in a shift from an open (unbound) to a closed (bound) conformation. Maltose binding protein undergoes this conformational change in response to maltose binding and transitions from an open to a closed form. To characterize the thermodynamics of these transitions and lock MBP into specific conformations, synthetic antibodies were designed to bind to MBP and screened in different maltose conditions to target both open and closed conformations. Three of these antibodies were isolated, one of which was found to bind to the open form of MBP endosterically (7O) and the other two, D1 and A1, bind to the closed form allosterically and peristerically. The aim of my project has been to construct a novel protein fusion where MBP and one of antibodies identified in the previous research are fused together. In this way the engineering proteins will potentially self-assemble into a nanostructure in the presence or absence of maltose, depending on the specificity of the antibody to the conformation of MBP. Once each of the three fusion proteins have been successfully cloned, expressed and purified, testing will be carried out to determine if a higher order complex can form in response to ligand addition or removal as a trigger.

The Effects of Metal Cofactors on Adenosine Deaminase Activity
Michele Costantino, Maggie Fink, Sandy Ho, Professor Shahir Rizk

Adenosine deaminase (ADA) is a zinc-dependent enzyme that converts adenosine to inosine as part of the purine degradation pathway. In humans, mutations in ADA are associated with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), an often fatal syndrome, due to accumulation of adenosine. This leads to B- and T-cell death, compromising the ability of the patient to fight infections. Previous work has shown that enzymatic activity depends on zinc concentration; however, at greater than 1:1 ratio, Zn can act as a negative allosteric effector of ADA activity. Other divalent cations — such as Co²⁺, Cu2+, Mn2+, and Cd²⁺ — can act as competitive or non-competitive inhibitors of the purified human enzyme. Additional studies indicate that Hg²⁺ inhibits crude ADA extracts from zebrafish at high concentrations. To characterize human ADA, kinetic studies with purified enzyme were conducted using direct colorimetric assays. Under optimal conditions, the rate of reaction was used to determine the K_M and k_cat of the uninhibited enzyme. The K_M and k_cat values were also obtained in the presence of coformycin, a known competitive inhibitor. The activity of ADA was measured in the presence of various divalent cations and Hg²⁺ was found to have the most profound negative effect on ADA activity. The inhibition of ADA by Hg2+ was found to be concentration dependent. This is the first study where the effect of Hg²⁺ on purified human enzyme was determined.

Students give research talks in Oklahoma

From April 4 to April 7, chemistry majors David Aupperle and Abigail Praklet attended the National Conference for Undergraduate Research (NCUR) at the University of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City. Both students gave oral presentations describing their research with analytical professor Grace Muna. The fact that each of their efforts spanned more than one semester or summer of work is a testament to their dedication and love of chemistry. Aupperle and Praklet had a wonderful time at the conference (travel was supported by a SMART travel grant) and we are proud to have them represent our department and university. The titles of their talks and abstracts are given below.
 

Electrochemical Detection of Estrogenic Compounds Using Palladium Nanoparticle Modified Electrodes

David Aupperle, Professor Grace Muna  

Chemical pollution in water is one of the major environmental problems in today’s world. Polluted water poses a threat to the aquatic organisms and human health. The pollutants such as estrogenic phenolic compounds (EPCs) need to be monitored constantly to control their impact on the environment and the ecosystem. These EPCs can be found in fresh water from waste treatment facility effluents as well as agricultural runoffs. Although the concentrations these compounds are typically low in the ng/L range, they have been found to feminize male fish and disrupt human endocrine function. Electrochemical detection provides an alternative to other analytical methods because it has attractive attributes such as high sensitivity, less expensive instrumentation, ease of sample preparation and field deployable. This work utilized the unique properties of electrodes modified with metal nanoparticles. The nanoparticles circumvent the electrode fouling seen on bare electrodes during the electro-oxidation of phenolic compounds. In the present work, glassy carbon and gold electrodes were modified with palladium nanoparticles to catalyze the electro-oxidation of EPCs. The modified electrodes exhibited good catalytic properties, good response precision and stability. For example, 50 consecutive measurements for 100 mcM estriol solution using palladium modified gold electrode gave a %RSD of 5.3%, indicating good reproducibility and response stability exhibited by the modified electrode. Future directions will be to couple the modified electrode to flow injection analysis and high-performance liquid chromatography. Results from the analytical performance of palladium modified glassy carbon and gold electrodes towards the catalytic oxidation of EPCs will be presented.

Developing a Sensitive Stripping Voltammetric Method to Detect Lead in Water and Soil

Abigail Praklet, Keon Jones, Joseph Williamson, Professor Grace Muna 

Lead is one of the most toxic heavy metal in the environment. Its presence is due to human activities notably, lead in gasoline, lead-based paint, lead-containing pesticides, lead in ammunition and sinkers, and incinerator ash or water from lead pipes. Lead poisoning can cause a number of adverse human health effects, but it is particularly detrimental to the neurological development of growing children. Therefore, frequent testing and precise monitoring of Pb in soil and water is important to assess and control lead contamination. We hereby report on developing a stripping voltammetric method using glassy carbon electrodes modified with bismuth nanoparticles (GC-BiNPs) to detect lead in drinking water and soil. Voltammetric stripping measurements have historically utilized mercury in the forms of hanging mercury drop and mercury film electrode to measure heavy metal ions. This is mainly because clean surfaces can be easily be regenerated with a new mercury drop. However, because of mercury toxicity and risks associated with its disposal its use as an electrode material for stripping measurements is severely restricted. We’re utilizing the unique properties of bismuth such as its ability to form alloys with different metals, to develop a sensitive method to detect lead. Preliminary results show that using GC-BiNPs we can detect low levels of lead down to one part per billion in water. The research findings on the stripping voltammetric method development will be presented.

Student presents research poster in Missouri

Biology major, Keon Jones, travelled to Missouri a couple weeks ago to attend the two-day (March 23 & 24) MoLSAMP (Missouri Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation) Undergraduate Research Symposium. His poster describes research done last summer with chemistry student Abigail Praklet under the guidance of Professor Grace Muna. Harnessing the power of electrochemistry to develop methods to analyze the components and concentrations of solutions is standard practice and led to the development of pH meters long ago. But Jones' project takes a relatively new twist by incorporating nanoparticles of bismuth into the electrodes of the detection unit to increase sensitivity to lead. Jones' poster and presentation were well received at the symposium and we are proud to have him represent both the biology and chemistry departments, as well as the entire campus. Jones plans to continue researching this summer, but this time under an REU at another university studying molecular biology as his attention turns toward life after IU South Bend using his upcoming biology major. The abstract for his poster is given below.

A Sensitive Electrochemical Method to Determine Lead in Water and Soil
Keon Jones, Abigail Praklet, Professor Grace Muna

Lead is one of the most toxic heavy metal in the environment. Its presence is due to human activities such as the use of leaded gasoline before it was banned and lead in paint in older homes. Lead poisoning can cause a number of adverse human health effects but it’s particularly detrimental to the neurological development of growing children. Therefore, frequent testing and precise monitoring of Pb in the soil and water is important to assess and control lead contamination. We hereby report on developing a sensitive electrochemical method by using glassy carbon electrodes modified with bismuth nanoparticles (GC-BiNPs) to detect lead in drinking water and soil. Preliminary results show that with GC-BiNPs can detect low levels of lead down to 1 parts per billion in water. The developed method will be employed to detect lead in drinking water and soil. Preliminary results on the electrochemical method development will be presented.

Adjunct professors honored for 10 years of service

 

Adjunct professors George Nazaroff and Rita Harnish were honored this afternoon for 10 years of service to the university as instructors in our department. Nazaroff teaches the introduction  to chemistry lecture course for health science majors (CHEM-C 101), while Harnish typically teaches the accompanying laboratory class (CHEM-C 121). Adjunct faculty are vital to the operation of our department as they teach approximately half of our classes at the freshman level.  We are extremely grateful to all of our adjunct faculty for their excellent instruction of our students. Special thanks to Nazaroff and Harnish for laboring 10 years with us - and we hope that they will continue to teach at IU for many years to come.

Nanotechnology Track

Nanotechnology tracks are now available for both the biochemistry and chemistry majors at IU South Bend.  The tracks consists of the following three courses. The first two courses are offered this Fall 2018 semester with limited enrollment, so register now to ensure you get a spot in the class.

 

      CHEM-C 208 Problems and Reports (3 credits)
 

      CHEM-N 390 Nanotechnology (3 credits; this is an online course)
 

      BIOL-L 355 Introduction to Nanomedicine (3 credits)

 

The image above is taken from Ocsial's webpage.  Oscial (O C Si Al) is a chemical products company that produces nanomaterials for commercial applications. Single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) are just one of their products. Atoms have diameters of 1-5 angstroms but a carbon atom's diameter is about 1.5 angstroms or 0.15 nm so the SWCNT specified above has a diameter of about 10 atoms.  This doesn't look right based on the artist's drawing, so you should imagine that each carbon atom depicted is actually expanded in size until they touch each other in the chicken-wire hexagonal framework of the tube. Then it seems reasonable that about 10 atoms would span the diameter of the tube.

Consider a Ph.D. and learn about graduate school

 

Come learn about graduate school from the perspective of a current graduate student, an IU South Bend professor, and a director of graduate studies. Unlike your undergraduate education, a graduate school will typically pay for your studies in exchange for your efforts to help the department by teaching a few laboratory classes during the first few years before you engage in full-time research with your faculty mentor. The stipend can't compete with the salary of an industry job, but the experience and Ph.D. degree can make up for the difference in the long run.  The photograph below was taken during the presentation and shows biochemistry professor Shahir Rizk moderating the discussion.

Professor Rizk Publishes Research

Earlier this month, the Journal of Biological Chemistry published work done by biochemistry professor Shahir Rizk as part of team investigating ways to force proteins to adopt particular configurations. The two pictures shown above (click on image to enlarge) illustrate two different synthetic antibodies (blue) attaching themselves to the maltose-binding protein, MBP, (teal).  Because the antibodies are different, they bind to MBP in different spots and affect MBP in different ways. On the left we see the antibody holding MBP in its closed state after it has captured a molecule of maltose (red), while on the right the antibody is holding MBP in its open state.  Rizk continues to research interactions like this and has had many students help with this endeavor.  Some of these students have been supported by summer SMART grants. Congratulations to Rizk and his colleagues on their publication. You can read the abstract and access the full paper from this link using a university computer.

Student Outreach at the Public Library

Over the weekend the Biology-Chemistry Club conducted another outreach event at the River Park Library from 11:00 in the morning to 1:00 in the afternoon on Saturday. Our students led children through short and fun hands-on experiments to get the kids excited about science. The Biology-Chemistry Club has been very active over the years in this type of outreach and their efforts are sure to have lasting positive effects on the young future scientists that participate. Thanks to everyone who dedicate their time on the weekend to interact with the students - and their time prior to that to organize and prepare the event.

Research Experience for Undergraduates

 

Learning science is one thing, but actively doing science is another.  Would you like an experience beyond homework problems and routine laboratory experiments? Would you like to have a hand in scientific discoveries and advances? Would you like to get an edge over other students appling for graduate school or a job? Would you like to get paid for all of this?  If so, then an REU - or Research Experience for Undergraduates - may be for you. But these paid opportunities are competitive, so find out what they are, and what you need to do to apply, ASAP. Contact your favorite professor to learn more, watch out for announcements from the biology-chemistry club, and view this video from biochemistry professor Shahir Rizk.

We Have A Winner!

 

Congratulations to Alysha Muhleisen who won $100 for her video on why she loves biochemistry. Not surprisingly, Muhleisen is a biochemistry major, but a love for biochemistry is shared by faculty and students on our campus outside of the major: some of the contest videos were submitted by biology students and chemistry professor Matt Marmorino majored in biochemistry as an undergraduate.  To learn more about Muhleisen and why she loves biochemistry, please see her video on Facebook.