Newby Research Group
Summer 2021
(L-R: Rachael Vasilchenko, Emily Weaver, Annabelle Carney, Kenny Mogauro, Xavier Solivan, Â 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 ButlerÂ
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 & IRÂ (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  Â
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.