Come check out the Seminar by our own Dr. Karver this Friday. She will be sharing work that has been done by DePaul students in her group and with collaborators. Her work will be especially interesting to those interested in biochemistry, medicinal chemistry, molecular biology, and diseases such as inflammation. She also does a lot of organic synthesis in her work. All majors/areas of interest welcome! See you there!
Come join oSTEM and be part of our weekly meetings, where we will be having seminars and discussions about topics affecting the LGBTQ+ community in the STEM fields! Check out the flyer below for the topics that will be discussed for the remainder of the quarter. Everybody is welcome!
Hello Students, Alumni, Faculty, Staff, and Friends!
WQ2019 is now in full swing (week 2 already!) and things are busy as always here at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
-Students, remember that the last day to drop a course without it staying on your transcript is this Friday.
-The chem club has some events planned for February that we will announce soon. If you want to join the chem club, or learn about what they are doing, shoot them an email at dpuchemclub@gmail.com
-The due date for submissions to DePaul Discoveries, the CSH undergraduate research journal is Feb 1st, and we know that chemistry and biochemistry researchers are working on papers for submission.
-We had a great seminar last week from Prof. Allen from Wayne State, and this week we are having a seminar Thursday (the 17th) from a Professor from Brazil:
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Research in the Allen laboratory is focused on the lanthanide chemistry of contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging and catalysts for bond-forming reactions. Our studies involve the use coordination chemistry to influence the properties of the metals. I will present our studies of the chemistry of divalent europium. This relatively uncommon oxidation state of the lanthanides leads to interesting magnetic and luminescence properties as well as useful reactivity. Through ligand design, we have tuned the electrochemical potential of divalent europium complexes over a range that spans over two volts. We have studied the complexes with more positive potentials in the frame of oxygen-responsive contrast agents for MRI and have demonstrated the first use of divalent lanthanides in vivo. Additionally, we have studied the complexes with more negative potentials with respect to serving as promoters for photoredox catalysis. I will present our findings from these two areas of research as well as discuss the graduate program as Wayne State University.
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We will discuss the inorganic chemistry applications of advanced paramagnetic resonance techniques. These techniques include electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), but rather than being performed at a fixed, low frequency (typically X-band, ~9 – 9.5 GHz) and a modest field sweep (typically 0 – 600 mT), the technique of interest involves variable, high frequencies (up to 1 THz) and field sweeps from zero up to 36 T This technique is referred to as high-frequency and -field EPR (HFEPR). Another technique is far-infrared magnetic resonance (FIRMS), which involves fixed external fields from 0 – 7 T, with FIR frequencies in the range of 20 – 200 cm-1 (or higher using a conventional FTIR). HFEPR and FIRMS are applied to high-spin (defined here for EPR purposes as S > 1/2) mononuclear transition metal ion complexes. Particular emphasis will be placed on those ions that belong to the non-Kramers (integer-spin) class and are typically “EPR-silent” at X-band due to large magnitude zero-field splitting (zfs). Classic examples of this type include: V3+ (3d2, S = 1), Mn3+ (3d4, S = 2), Fe2+ (3d6, S = 2), and Ni2+ (3d8, S = 1). From among these ions, Mn3+ will be the primary example (see Figure 1). HFEPR is also useful for investigating high-spin Kramers-type (half integer-spin) ions characterized by large zero-field splitting. Examples of these are Cr3+ (3d3, S = 3/2), Fe3+ (3d5, S = 5/2), and Co2+ (3d7, S = 3/2), of which the last will be used for illustration. The meaning and utility of the parameters extracted by HFEPR/FIRMS will be explained. This information, in concert with quantum chemical theory, helps understand the electronic structure transition metal ion complexes both as models for enzymatic active sites and as building blocks for molecular (single ion) magnets.
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Mass spectrometry has emerged as a leading technology for biomarker discovery and to identify altered pathways in human diseases. Our laboratory studies Niemann-Pick Disease, Type C (NPC), a fatal, genetic, neurodegenerative disorders. Using combined approaches including mass spectrometry-based quantitative proteomics, lipidomics and lipid imaging, we have identified new markers of NPC and mapped altered lipids in brain tissue from the NPC mouse models. These markers provide insight into the biochemical alterations occurring following the primary genetic defect and can be used in future drug discovery studies.
Martin Conda-Sheridan
Assistant Professor
Pharmaceutical Sciences
University of Nebraska Medical Center
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Friday, September 14 at 1PM in McGowan South 103
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Hospital- and community-associated bacterial infections caused by pathogens such as methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and escherichia coli (E. coli) are a reason of concern to people in the USA and around the world. These infections have become increasingly difficult to treat due to the tendency of bacteria to develop resistance and to form biofilms. Our lab is developing an antibacterial program using the phenazine natural products as active scaffolds. In this talk, we will introduce the total synthesis of two members of the endophenazine family. We will also present their biological activity against MRSA, E.coli and their toxicity towards human cells. In addition, we will present preliminary studies to unravel the mechanism of action of the molecules and the ability of bacteria to develop resistance to the molecules. Finally, we will present data regarding their metabolic stability.
Our Chemistry Seminar continues this Friday, with Professor Hee Yeon Cho from Loyola University! She will be talking about Transition-Metal Catalyzed Carbon-Heteroatom (C-X) Bond Formation, a very important topic for a variety of chemistry fields. See the flier below for an abstract of the talk. We hope to see you all there, everyone is welcome. The Seminar will be in McGowan South 103 from 1-3 pm on Friday February 23.
This Friday, the seminar from 1-2 pm in McGowan South 103 will be a research presentation from Prof. James Devery from Loyola University. The seminar will be a very interesting report about Dr. Devery’s studies of catalytic synthesis relevant to complex organic molecules. All are welcome to come see it!
Our 2nd installment of the 2018 Chemistry Seminar series is this Friday from 1-2 pm in McGowan South 103. Amanda East, a student in Dr. Karver’s research lab, will be giving her undergradate CHE398 Thesis Defense. We are excited to hear about all of the work she has done and what she has learned!
Here’s a facebook event page where you can RSVP for the talk.
We look forward to seeing you all there!
The Catalyst 