Zion Graham

Hello, my name is Zion Graham and I am from Cincinnati, Ohio. I recently graduated from Cincinnati State Technical and Community College with my Associates of Science Pre-Pharmacy and plan to further my education at UC and get into their pharmacy program and soon obtain my bachelors degree. I always had an interest in becoming a pharmacist and I enjoy the chemistry work that comes with it. This summer I am working in Prof. George Stan’s lab along with his grad students. This is a Computation Chemistry lab that works with the Ubuntu Linux operating system. The research that is being conducted involves the study of the ClpB Disaggregation Biological Nanomachine. ClpB is an ATP-dependent molecular chaperone that belongs to the Hsp100 family of ATPases. We are using computer simulations to probe the conformational dynamics of ClpB. We will be using the GROMACS software program-to perform coarse-grained simulations using the Smog2 model to investigate the molecular dynamics of ClpB. These techniques along with data analysis allow for distances at a molecular level to be measured.

Landon Ashlin

Landon Ashlin is a rising senior at Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, where he is studying Computational Chemistry with a minor in Physics. This summer he is working under the guidance of Professor George Stan to understand the application of molecular dynamics simulations to analyze the ClpB chaperone activity of rescue proteins from aggregation. ClpB is needed for protein disaggregation and it is critical to prevent protein aggregation during severe stress conditions. The goal of this project is to optimize scaling parameters of the SMOG coarse-grained model to best match Root Mean Square Fluctuation (RSMF) values with those obtained using the all-atom model. To this end, he is using Visual Molecular Dynamics (VMD), PyMOL, and GROMACS programs to run simulations and analyze the results.

Anastasia Antropova

Anastasia Antropova is a rising junior transferring to the University of Massachusetts

Amherst after completing an associate's degree in chemistry at Holyoke Community College. This summer she is working in the Sun research group, which specializes in electrochemistry and photochemistry for both sustainability and biological applications. Alongside graduate student Morgan Huddleston, she is developing a synthesis of 4′-Benzaldehyde-aza-18-crown-6 ether from p-fluorobenzaldehyde and aza-18-crown-6 ether. This is part of a larger synthesis of a photosensitizing probe that will be tested by graduate student Rui Chen. Introducing the aza-18-crown-6 ether into this probe allows the molecule to capture potassium and sodium ions, leading to condition-specific functionality. Ultimately, this probe can provide information on subcellular dynamics that will be used to develop pharmaceuticals.