-
Synthesis of Tuberculosis Competitive Inhibitor Protein KasA
By Arianna Chase and Carrie Garvey Faculty Mentor: Dr. Davis Oldham Abstract: The KasA protein in M. tuberculosis catalyzes the steps of a four-step fatty acid elongation that consequently enables the strength of the TB cell wall. The inhibition of the KasA protein would cause the fatty acid chain to not form and encourage the…
-
Tuberculosis Drug Project
By Vallarie Burge and Elizabeth Sullivan Faculty mentor: Dr. Davis Oldham Tuberculosis (TB) is a common disease that, over time, can become resistant to the drugs that combat it. The KsA enzyme that synthesizes the bacterial wall of TB is the target of the TB drug in this project. A computer analyzed potential compounds that…
-
Analysis of Glyphosate in Pond Water by HPLC
By Madison Minvielle, Abigail Seputro, Dorothy Haas, Zahia Clemmons Faculty mentor: Dr. Randall Reif Glyphosate is the main ingredient in several herbicides such as Roundup, Agrisel, and Eraser. While glyphosate is typically not directly harmful to aquatic life, there is the potential for the compound to be indirectly harmful when it is present in runoff…
-
Synthesis of KasA Inhibitors
By Emma Ostrander, Caroline Pitches Faculty mentor: Dr. Davis Oldham In order to treat tuberculosis, specific KasA enzyme competitive inhibitors must be synthesized. This was done by doing a Grignard reaction, chlorination of an alcohol, and alkylation. For the Grignard reaction, bromobenzene was mixed with magnesium and then mixed with 1-benzylpiperidin-4-one. Ammonium chloride was then…
-
Synthesis of Antitubercular Pharmaceutical Analogue
By Johann Leal, Catherine Nguyen Faculty mentor: Dr. Davis Oldham Tuberculosis (TB) ranks the second deadliest infectious agent in the world, most often affecting underdeveloped and developing countries (WHO, 2022). M. tuberculosis’ ability to build antibiotic resistance requires constant search for new alternative methods of treatment, such as the use of a competitive inhibitor to…
-
KasA Inhibitor Synthesis for Potential Tuberculosis Treatment
By Jay Boudreau, Amna Naz The purpose of this research was to synthesize a lead compound for use as a possible tuberculosis drug. A Grignard addition was performed on 1-bromo-4-chlorobenzene to form 4-(4-chlorophenyl)-1-(phenylmethyl)-4-piperidinol. A separate alcohol, 1-naphthalenemethanol, was chlorinated to 1-(chloromethyl)-naphthalene. Not enough Grignard product was produced, so a deprotected Grignard product was alkylated through…
-
Resolution of Chiral Alcohol
By Raesa Zia, Adrian Coello, Arshpreet Brar Faculty mentor: Dr. Davis Oldham The purpose of this lab was to separate the individual enantiomers of the alcohol 2-ethyl,1-hexanol, to analyze the toxicity of the product, 2-ethyl-1-hexyl acetate. A reaction was carried out combining Amano PS lipase and 2-ethyl-1-hexanol, with a percent yield 74%. From completing GC-MS…
-
Finding a Tuberculosis Drug: Synthesis of a KasA Inhibitor
By Carleigh McDonald and Maria Schneider Faculty mentor: Dr. Davis Oldham Tuberculosis (TB) is a serious illness that is caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacterium attacking the body. The previously most effective drugs in fighting TB are becoming increasingly ineffective as strains of MDR (multidrug-resistant) TB are becoming more common. To combat this setback, development…
-
Optimization of Adsorption of Methylene Blue Dye on Activated Charcoal
By Abigail Seputro Faculty mentor: Dr. Leanna Giancarlo Methylene blue and crystal violet are cationic dyes of high intensity that are commonly discharged in wastewater. The colored compounds in wastewater inhibit sunlight penetration in waterways, resulting in the destruction of aquatic ecosystems. Activated carbon offers an attractive option for the efficient removal of dyes from…
-
USING ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING TO INCREASE REPROCDUCIBILITY IN A PACKED BED COLUMN
By Docia Atanda Faculty advisor: Dr. Sarah Smith Additive manufacturing (3D printing) is a transformative approach to industrial production that uses computer aided design (CAD) software to direct hardware to deposit material layer upon layer to deposit material in precise geometric shapes to yield lighter, more complex, and low-cost designs with increased reproducibility. One area…
-
Exploration of the Effects of Bond Length on the Potential Energy Curves for Diatomic Compounds
By Ramsey Cotton and Ashley Summers Faculty mentor: Leanna Giancarlo Bond dissociation energy (BDE) is the unique energy required to break a bond in a molecule into its respective atoms or molecular fragments. In this study, the theories behind harmonic and anharmonic oscillators, which address BDE of diatomic molecules, were employed to relate the length…
-
Ground water iron concentration
By Emma Jones, Katherine Lauderbaugh, Joey Pack, Caroline Sampson Faculty mentor: Dr. Randall Reif Groundwater samples from Louisa County contain high unknown quantities of iron, resulting in red rust-stained sediments in areas with constant water. This leads to concern over the amount of Fe that contaminates the water, as the WHO suggests levels below 0.3…
-
Elemental Characterization between Single Origin Arabica and Peaberry Robusta from Vietnam
By Docia Atanda, Takoda Chris, Carleigh McDonald, and Emily Morris Faculty mentor: Dr. Randall Reif Coffea arabica and coffea canephora (robusta) are the two most common species of coffee. With the rising price and rising global demand for coffee there is an increasing incentive for distributors to pass cheap coffee as more expensive coffee creating…
-
Microplastic Detection via FTIR
By Maria Schneider, Vallarie Burge, Lydia Bryant, Catherine Nguyen Faculty mentor: Dr. Randall Reif Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) is an analytical method that produces an absorbance spectrum which can be used to identify specific molecules. Previous literature showed that Nile Red (NR) is an effective indicator for detecting microplastics in water samples. As plastic…
-
Optimizing the Alkylation of Carboxylic Acid Derivatives for Use in the Synthesis of the Oxidative Metabolites of DEHP
By Hannah Harris Faculty Mentor: Dr. Davis Oldham Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is a widely used chiral plasticizer whose primary metabolite (MEHP) and secondary oxidative metabolites have been shown to have peroxisome proliferating and endocrine disrupting effects in mice. The synthesis of these oxidative metabolites is necessary to study their binding affinity to nuclear receptor PPAR.…
-
Using Potential Energy Surfaces of Diatomic Molecules to Determine the Bond Dissociation Energy via Computational Chemistry
By Skye Curry and Nathaniel Holbrook Faculty mentor: Dr. Leanna Giancarlo Abstract: The bond length along which two atoms vibrate can be altered in order to construct a potential energy surface used to determine the bond dissociation energy of a diatomic molecule. Carbon monoxide was initially used as the diatomic molecule of choice in this…
-
Assessing the Correlation Between the Electron-Nucleus Binding and Electron-Electron Repulsion
By Isabella Groover and Joey Henry Faculty mentor: Dr. Leanna Giancarlo Multi-electron systems add a level of complexity to the Schrödinger equation by introducing an electron-electron repulsion term into the potential energy. The electron-electron repulsion term is difficult to assess utilizing the Schrödinger equation due to extensive computation required. In this study, the binding energy between the 1s electron(s) and the nucleus of…
-
Transition State Theory: Thermodynamics and Kinetics of Ammonia Production via DFT Functional
By Maddy Stanisha and Emma Freakley Faculty Mentor: Dr. Leanna Giancarlo Abstract: The thermodynamics and kinetics of a proposed mechanism for ammonia production from nitrogen and hydrogen gas were analyzed by utilizing transition state theory (TST) and density functional theory (DFT). The enthalpy and entropy for the overall reaction were computed via DFT functionals, PBE0…
-
How Electrons Impact Binding Energy
By Nicholas Hacker and Sierra Hunter Faculty Mentor: Dr. Leanna Giancarlo An atom is made up of a positively charged nucleus, consisting of non-charged neutrons and a number of positively charged protons, and of negatively charged electrons, the number of which is equivalent to the protons. The attractive force between the positive and negative charges…
-
USING ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING TO INCREASE REPROCDUCIBILITY IN A PACKED BED COLUMN
By Docia Atanda Faculty mentor: Dr. Sarah Smith 2:00-2:50pm, HCC 329 Additive manufacturing (3D printing) is a transformative approach to industrial production that uses computer aided design (CAD) software to direct hardware to deposit material layer upon layer to deposit material in precise geometric shapes to yield lighter, more complex, and low-cost designs with increased…
-
The Relic Abundance of Dark Matter and Indirect Detection
By Abigail Swanson Faculty mentor: Dr. Desmond Villalba 2:00-2:50pm, HCC 329 We analyzed the total relic abundance of dark matter using the Boltzmann equation over the course of three different time periods. Overall, we found that regardless of the model used for mass values of dark matter and thermal cross-section the relic abundance remains constant…
-
Machine Learning For Wind Power Generation Prediction from Turbine Data
By Clark Saben Faculty mentor: Dr. Desmond Villalba 2:00-2:50pm, HCC 329 Machine learning (ML) in physics has become a powerful tool for big data analysis in the last decade. ML offers an effective way to discover patterns from large input vectors when a suitable architecture is applied to a given data type. This work investigates…
-
Quantification of capsaicin and ihydrocapsaicin content in potentially the hottest beer using HPLC analysis
By Valerie B. Ebenki Faculty mentor: Dr. Sarah Smith 2:00-2:50pm, HCC 329 Signal One 2.0 Beer from the Maltese Brewing is a candidate for the world’s hottest beer infusing approximately 500 Carolina Reaper chilies. The two capsaicinoids involved in over 90% of the heat in hot peppers are capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin. Thus, the primary objective…
-
Developing Laboratory Experiments for the International Chemistry Olympiad
By Nyah Hizer Faculty advisor: Kelli Slunt 2:00-2:50pm HCC 328 The International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO) is a high school competition involving multiple examinations (both written and experimental) of an examinee’s chemistry skills. To select a team of 4 students to represent the United States, students complete a three-part national exam: 60 multiple-choice questions, eight problem-solving…
