Dr. Guillermo Ardon Munoz and his four research students worked on two projects.

• synthesis of Mebandazole, an FDA-approved drug for parasitic infections
• working towards the development of an efficient synthetic method for triazoles

Dr. Ardon Munoz research students for Summer 2024:
Jacob Alvira (BCH)
Olivia Dibble (PATH)
Emma Jacobs (CHM.ADOL)
Fadhl Salen (BMS)

Newby Research Group
Students in the Newby Group used spectroscopic and computational methods to determine the molecular structure and quantify noncovalent interactions.

sample

FTIR

NCI

Dr. Newby's research students for Summer 2024:
Joseph Nettles (BCH), Jeremy Swartz (CHM), Aaron Uzelmeier (CHM, MUS) 

How does a molecule get solvated?
Dr. Josh Newby with students Kone Mamourou, Anna Dubany, Jeremy Swartz, Isiah McMurray, and Aaron Uzelmeier



The goal of this work is to better understand  the process of solvation. Our research will focus on how the first water molecule attaches to another molecule. Students learned how to use computational chemistry to complete a structural analysis of a molecular complex. This was done using computing resources remotely accessed at the San Diego Supercomputer Center. Students also performed FTIR studies of simple to experimentally verify computational results. These studies make use of a matrix isolation cell that operates at 15 K (-420 F). Student projects have focused on the microsolvation of petroleum impurities, drug precursors, and flavoring agents. 

Using Enzymes to Make Human Milk Sugars
Dr. Jessica Stachowski with students Kyra Couglin, Reece Wieder, Sandra Perkins, Lydia Coombs, and Bianca Hernandez Salazar

Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are a family of sugars that are a major component in human milk and impart many immediate and long-term health benefits to breastfed infants. Although there is a large demand for HMOs for clinical research studies, chemical synthesis of these molecules is too complex for large-scale production. Our group is investigating the use of engineered enzymes as a tool to make HMOs more efficiently.  Students had the opportunity to be a part of an interdisciplinary research group working in the areas of biochemistry (DNA cloning and protein expression), organic chemistry (carbohydrate synthesis), and computational chemistry (molecular docking simulations).

A variety of research projects took place during the summer of 2022.

Story: "Invaluable" experiences for Naz students immersed in research

More Summer 2022
During summer 2022, Annabelle and Emily continued their work to better understand the interactions of lactones (a common drug precursor) with water; Brian, Hallie, Jacob explored isomers of methoxystyrene (used as a fragrance and flavoring); and Joey continued his work on oxazole complexes (found in biologic antimicrobials).

The Newby Research Group, summer 2022. (Left to right:) Jacob Alvira, Brian Chong, Emily Weaver, Joey Nettles, Anabelle Carney, and Hallie Todd.

The group also learned to use the matrix isolation system so that they record spectra of their complexes at 15 K. This low temperature is needed to stabilize the complexes long enough to study them using FTIR spectroscopy. Spectra and analyses of Annabelle and Emily’s lactone complexes were presented at the 2022 International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy held at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to significant interest.

The matrix isolation chamber operating at 14.7 K!

Spring 2022
The Newby Research Group always has something exciting going on!

In the spring of 2022, Annabelle, Emily and Xavier traveled to the national ACS meeting in San Diego to present their work on weakly bound complexes as studied using computational chemistry.

(L to R) Annabelle, Xavier, and Emily at their posters at ACS San Diego

While in San Diego, we also visited UC San Diego where the San Diego Supercomputing Center (SDSC) is located. SDSC is where many of our calculations are run, as they are too complex for a basic lab computer.

Newby Research Group
Summer 2021


(L-R: Rachael Vasilchenko, Emily Weaver, Annabelle Carney, Kenny Mogauro, Xavier Solivan,  and Dr. Newby)
21_Summer_recap.pdf

Summer 2021
Abby Manning (BCH) participated in a SPARK Research Grant with Dr. Amber Charlebois.  The research project explored the interactions between cresyl violet and nucleic acid molecules.

Charlebois Research Group
Fall 2020 Research "Covid-19 Style"

Students: Seth Terzo, Jenna Phillips, & Maggie O’Conner ·
Previous Research Students: Olivia Guerrette, Meredith Rasey, Tenaya Chaney and Ben Butler 

Project 1: Hydrogenation. The synthesis of stercobilin, from bilirubin, a potential biomarker of childhood autism involves a two-step process of hydrogenation followed by oxidation. We produced stercobilin under multiple reaction conditions and analyzed the products using NMR & IR (at Naz) and MS (at University at Buffalo). It was highly successful experience and we confirmed that we can make stercobilin, but in doing so we have discovered the that mechanism is not what we expected. Moving forward we are looking at smaller model molecules to investigate the specific reactivity of different types of double bonds in hydrogenation. We explored limonene and a- phellandrene.

Project 2: HPLC of Proteins. This research involves protein structure interrogation using HPLC for development of a new undergraduate laboratory experiment. We looked at the retention time for several proteins under native, denatured and reduced conditions. The first protein was lysozyme, a protein that catalyzes the destruction of the cell walls of certain bacteria, and the second was Bovine Pancreatic Trypsin, is a serine protease found in the digestive system of many vertebrates, where it hydrolyzes proteins. This was done in effort to explore the differences in structure and therefore interaction with the hydrophobic stationary phase in chromatography. Results show that the more tightly packed the protein is folded, the shorter time it spends bound to the column. We are now working on writing this up for publication.

Current Students: Madyson Marks & Jessica Granchelli (not in photo, Hannah Smith) · Previous Students: Lan Nguyen, Emily Welch & Jacob Dougal   

Project 3: Cresyl Violet. In this research we are investigation of binding of cresyl violet (CV) to nucleic acid molecules. It has been shown that CV is blue when bound to DNA and purple when bound to RNA, and this fall we delved into why this might be the case. We looked at CV bound to multiple different sequences of DNA and RNA both in the gel and in solution. We looked at the interaction in the gel and in solution. We investigated the local environment within the CV when bound to the nucleic acid by exploring the role of pH and concentration (both CV and nucleic acids) and we continue to analyze all of the spectroscopic data the data using peak fit.

Current Students: Jessica Granchelli, Abby Manning & Megan Griffin ·
Previous Students: Frank Gaffney, Nicole Waild & Mitchell Duvall     

Projects 4. Development of microwave assisted esterification and synthesis of amides reactions using unknowns for use in the organic chemistry curriculum.  We have established a protocol for the microwave that allows us to perform several different reactions in the microwave simultaneously. We were successful and therefore the students in Organic lab courses will be required to determine the identity of both their products and starting materials. Moving forward this spring we will continue to collect student data and begin preparing a manuscript.

Current Student: Abby Manning · Previous Student: Bryanna Roos

Projects 5. Art and Chemistry This is a new project for me and I will let you know all about it once we get started! I see the artistic side of chemistry all the time and wanted to see if I could capture it to share. Stay tuned.

Current Student: Emma Golden

Kamal Chappell (BMS)
Buffalo Research Innovation in Genomic and Healthcare Technology (BRIGHT) Program
University at Buffalo - Buffalo, NY

Kamal conducted research in the BRIGHT program alongside a faculty mentor that helped him develop useful computational and statistical skills. His project furnished him with research experience, as well as building skills for a career in biomedical informatics research.


Sofie Fischler (BCH, PBH)
Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU)
University of Connecticut - Farmington, CT

Sofie participated in a biomedical research internship/REU at UCONN in Farmington, CT.  She was paired with the Bartley Lab in the Center on Aging, studying the impact of senolytics on flu vaccination responses in mice in an effort to determine new ways to better protect older adults from the flu.

Noah Suave

Summer 2019 - Noah Suave was part of an REU internship at the University of Delaware. Noah spent 10 weeks in an organic synthesis lab. There he derived a viable synthesis plan for an inhibitor of the enzyme ADAM9. This compound has been used before in previous research, however, it’s creation was either not documented, or they did not have access to the synthesis details.  Noah also created derivatives of the inhibitor, which along with the normal inhibitor, are going to be sent to the Biology Department for testing. This will allow additional properties of ADAM9 to be examined so more effective inhibitors can be created. ADAM9 is an enzyme that has been linked to the severity of cancer.

Lan Nguyen

During the summer of 2019, Lan was an intern at Dr. Somarelli’s lab at Duke Cancer Institute, specifically, genomic techniques.  He studied the genes in marine mammals to discover new treatments for humans to overcome hypoxia during cancers. More particularly, using the technique of siRNA-meditated knockdown, Lan turned down the expression of the ALOX5 gene that was upregulated in dolphin cells under hypoxia. Subsequently, he performed RNA extractions, reverse transcriptions (RT), and quantitative polymerase chain reactions (qPCR) to validate the knockdown’s results molecularly. In addition, he conducted immunofluorescence staining (IF) to validate the knockdown’s results phenotypically. During the school year, Lan will be under the co-mentorship of Dr. Somarelli and a faculty partner at Nazareth College to analyze the gathered data as a part of a final research project. Learning about the nexus of medicine and marine science, Lan realized that the potential positive uses of creativity in science are truly without limit. Therefore, as a student who pursues osteopathic medicine, she looks forward to being more creative in not only her study strategies but also her diagnoses, treatments, and care plans for future patients. 

Abby Krysztofowicz (BMS '18)
University of Rochester
"Biochemical characterization of YbeY from E. coli"
with Dr. Gloria Culver, Dean, School of Arts and Sciences and Dr. Brian Smith, Post Doctoral Fellow

Mark Lysiak (BMS '19) and Kayla Sinclair (BMS '18)
Universidad De Concepcion, Chile

 
Erin Stryker ('19, BMS and CHM)
Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Engineering
Program Head: B. Frank Gupton, Ph.D.
Advisors: Hari Mangunuru, Ph.D., Eric Yu

Erin was in the Medicines for All Institute. This project as a whole focuses on improving access to medicine by lowering the cost of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API). The high cost of APIs is a major cost driving factor of medical treatment in the developing world. (http://medicines4all.vcu.edu).

More specifically, she worked with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, a drug used to treat chronic hepatitis B and to prevent and treat HIV. The current process for making tenofovir uses very expensive starters, so finding a new process that avoided those was the first goal in the project. When she came on to the project, they had already devised a new synthesis for the first half of the drug, so she spent her summer working on the first step of the second half. Currently, the first half of the synthesis can be done as a semi-continuous process, so the goal would be to maintain that throughout the rest of the new method.

Universidad De Concepcion, Chile
Andrew Cross (BCH '18) and Shane Fuentes (BCH '18)

Shane Fuentes researching nano-particle polymers in Dr. Urbano's laboratory.

Shane Fuentes, Andrew Cross, and Eduardo (the head of the Chemistry department at Universidad de Concepcion) in the lobby of their science building.

University of Rochester - Rochester, NY
Kathryn Proe
Biological electron donor project. The group is working to get deeper into bioelctrochemistry and microbiology as they work to identify a sustainable supply of electrons for photochemically driving hydrogen evolution from water.

Mentor:  Dr. Sanela Lampa-Pastrik

University of Rochester - Rochester, NY
Kevin Denny
Making CdSe nanoplatelets.

Mentor:  Dr. Todd D. Krauss

Penn State University - University Park, PA
Jacob Murrary - Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program working on efficient catalysis in modern synthesis.

University of Rochester Medical Center - Rochester, NY
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Department of Dermatology

Mentor: Dr. Benjamin L. Miller

Tom Dwyer - Examining the Binding Potential of RAGE Inhibitors: Towards New Anti-Alzheimer's Therapeutics

University of California, San Diego - La Jolla, CA
UCSD Skaggs School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences
The Handel Laboratory

Goodwell Nzou - Optimization of Chemokine Receptor Expression in Spodoptera frugiperda 9 Cells.

University of Rochester Medical Center - Rochester, NY
Department of Chemistry, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, and Department of Dermatology

Mentor: Dr. Benjamin L. Miller

Moudi Hubeishy - Enhancing the Bioavailability of RAGE Inhibitors: Towards New Anti-Alzheimer's Therapeutic

Abstract: In the past ten years there has been a 68 percent increase of people dying with Alzheimer's disease (AD). AD is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by the progressive loss of brain function. The causative agent of AD is the amyloid- (A) peptide, which has been directly linked to increased levels of apoptosis in neurons. The receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) has been shown to be up regulated in Alzheimer's disease to transport A peptide into the blood brain barrier. Previous research has defined a pharmacophore and designed a lead molecule, which inhibits RAGE from transporting A into the brain. In this research we set out to optimize the bioavailability of the lead compound by enhancing its hydrophilic properties by adding multiple hydrogen bonding groups. I synthesized three different analogs of the lead compound and was able to then characterize and test binding affinities for two of the analogs.

University of South Dakota - Vermillion, SD

Briana Laubacker - Modification of surface ligands coordinated to β-NaYF4: Yb, Er/Tm nanocrystals for use in security printing applications

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Stanley May

University of South Dakota - Vermillion, SD

James Chambers - Investigation into the reactivity of anilinomagnesium halides with carboxylic esters using the Bodroux reaction.

Faculty Advisor: Dr. David Hawkinson

SUNY Upstate Medical University - Syracuse, NY

Molly Kingsley - Characterization of Domain-Swapping Proteins for Design of Self-Assembling Hydrogels

Dr. Loh's biochemistry laboratory

Applying to SUNY Upstate Summer Research Program

Abstract: Molly's work focused on characterizing (and first purifying) six new protein constructs made from ribose binding protein (RBP) and ubiquitin (Ub) which both provided the lever and assembler domain. These proteins were designed to domain swap and ultimately form protein oligomers and hydrogels through the unique forced unfolding mechanism. To domain swap, the lever domain unfolds the assembler domain when it is inserted into a surface loop and the assembler domain swaps with a neighboring assembler.

She characterized the six constructs based on their solubility, stability, ability to bind ribose, and oligomerization. For use in a hydrogel, which is the ultimate goal, the constructs must be extremely soluble and have high oligomerization. Five of the six constructs were highly soluble, stable, could still bind ribose and domain swapped; two of these are moving forward to be used to make hydrogels. Protein based hydrogels have a huge potential in many biomedical uses such as tissue engineering and drug delivery.

Layla Boyer (CHM, CLS)
Betrand Chaffee Hospital
Springville NY

Layla Boyer told us she was lucky to spend 8 weeks at Bertrand Chaffee Hospital in Springville NY. During her internship, she got to see all aspects of the clinical lab space and how each hospital department interacted. She was able to run tests and learn some of the reasons why each test was run. She even got to set up and train some of her colleagues on a brand new machine. This internship was very fast paced and everyone Layla worked with was always there to help every step of the way. "As a Clinical Lab Science major, getting to see a lab function in the real world is something that cannot always be shown in the classroom and this internship allowed me to see everything about the career," said Layla. 



Peytyn Geer (BMS)
Walton Farms
Linwood NY

Peytyn told us that this internship gave her a different perspective of the agriculture world. She only had experience with equine and small animals clinically, so working with cattle was a completely different environment medically and physically. Nazareth was able to help her have this experience that wouldn't have been possible without help.

Eitan Otero (BMS)

Play Rugby USA
New York NY

Eitan was able to return to his high school for an internship coaching his rugby team. Through this experience, he was taught not only how to coach, but also to tend to different age groups and personalities. Eitan told us, "This internship was a huge part of my summer and was even offered a more permanent role after I finish college!"