Ariana Martinez-Alamo

My name is Ariana Martinez-Alamo, and I am a Forensic Chemistry student at Ohio University. This summer, I am thrilled to join Dr. Hairong Guan's lab, working under the guidance of Bedraj Pandey and Dulmini Jayawardhena. Our research focuses on developing efficient and cost-effective homogeneous catalysts using transition metals like nickel, cobalt, iron, and copper. We hope to produce catalysts with similar reactivity to precious metals by investigating ligands that strongly bind to these metals. I'm now working on developing a reproducible synthetic route for a new compound. My participation in these projects has provided me with valuable skills in handling sensitive compounds and conducting mechanistic studies using techniques like NMR spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography, and chemical kinetics. In addition, I have gained an understanding of the significance of energy efficiency and sustainability in catalytic reactions. This involves utilizing renewable resources and easily accessible materials to promote environmentally friendly practices. This research experience goes beyond classroom learning, and I am excited to further expand my knowledge and skills this summer.

Carter St. Clair

Hello! I’m Carter St. Clair and I am going into my fos. When I graduate, I hope to apply to graduate school and earn my Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry or potentially biochemistry. With my degree, I hope to pursue pharmaceutical discovery research or academia. This summer, I am working with the Dima lab under my mentor Amanda Macke. We are generating and analyzing graph networks for the ring conformation of spastin, a microtubule severing enzyme. This process elucidates key residues as part of the communication network throughout the enzyme, known as an allosteric network. We then compare the analysis of allosteric networks for the ring conformation with that of the spiral conformation previously studied and published. This will allow us to understand how allostery changes upon conformational transitions which is becoming an essential aspect of drug discovery and design. In addition, mutations of this enzyme are associated with a number of neurological disorders such as the hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP). Therefore, it is important to establish the baseline for the allostery of the enzyme to better understand the effect of HSP mutations and possible ways to address potential allosteric modulator designs.

Here are Carter's thought on his experience

Katarina Sumerli

My name is Katrina Sumarli and I am student at Hillsdale College in Michigan. After I complete my B.S. in Chemistry, I plan to pursue a PhD. This summer, I am working in Dr. Gudmundsdottir’s lab researching the photochemistry of vinyl azides with graduate student Dinindu Mendis. Organic azides are highly sensitive, explosive compounds that are used in many things including airbag inflation, as reactants in a myriad of organic reactions, and in click chemistry. My work focuses on elucidating the mechanism using transient spectroscopic techniques and understanding the observed photomechanical behavior of the vinyl azide crystals after irradiation. I am comparing two similar azido derivatives that are only distinguishable by para substituents. We employ a variety of spectroscopic techniques including Laser Flash Photolysis, cryogenics, X-Ray Diffraction, and a high-powered optical microscope among other things. Pairing this with gaussian calculations, where we can model the crystal lattice structure and various interactions, we are able to understand the photochemistry of our azide and the corresponding photoproduct, azirine.