LVC Chemistry News
LVC Students Present Research in Baltimore (October 2009)
Thirteen LVC research students in chemistry and biochemistry travelled to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) on Saturday, October 10 to present the results of their research projects. 
Accompanied by Professors Tim Peelen and Wally Patton, the students made a total of nine presentations at the 12th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium in the Chemical and Biological Sciences.
The UMBC conference, a prestigious annual showcase for undergraduate research in the chemical and biological sciences, is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. The 2009 conference drew 192 student papers from over 40 colleges and universities in eight mid-Atlantic states. The 2009 symposium also featured an address by Peter Agre, 2003 Nobel laureate in chemistry
All papers were heard by panels of judges who awarded prizes for the best research presentations. LVC students fared well at the event, winning three first place and two second place awards. The student authors and titles of the LVC presentations can be viewed at Student Presentations.
Thomas Gordon '07 and Professor Marsh Publish Research in Catalysis Letters (October, 2009)
Tom Gordon (LVC class of 
2007) and Professor Andy Marsh have published a paper, "Temperature Dependence of the Oxidation of 2-Chlorophenol by Hydrogen Peroxide in the Presence of Goethite," in the journal Catalysis Letters, published by Springer. The experimental work, carried out in the Marsh research laboratory at Lebanon Valley College, studied the ability of a common mineral, goethite, to catalyze the oxidation of 2-chlorophenol, a toxic organic pollutant found in wastewater streams. Goethite, FeO(OH), is an iron bearing oxide mineral found in soil. Gordon and Marsh studied the kinetics of the catalytic reaction over a temperature range, elucidating detailed mechanistic steps in the catalysis. Tom Gordon is currently completing a PhD program in Materials Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Abstract of article may be viewed at: Gordon, Marsh Article.
Jason Navin '08 and Professor Andy Marsh Publish Research in Analytical Chemistry
Jason Navin (LVC class of 2008), Professor Andy Marsh, and two collaborators from the University of California, Berkeley have published a paper, "Characterization of Colloidal Platinum Nanoparticles by MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry," in the journal Analytical Chemistry. The experimental work, the bulk of which was carried out in the Marsh research laboratory at Lebanon Valley College, demonstrates the ability of matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry to determine the size distribution of colloidal platinum nanoparticles synthesized in the 1-4 nanometer size range. Navin and Marsh developed a model for determining the size of the metallic nanoparticle core from MALDI mass spectral data and have verified the model through correlation with particle sizes from transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and from X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements taken at Berkeley. The findings clearly indicate the usefulness of MALDI mass spectrometry in the field of nanotechnology as a technique for fully characterizing nanoscale materials in order to elucidate structure-property relationships. Abstract of article may be viewed at: Analytical Chemistry Article.
Jason Navin graduated from Lebanon Valley College as a chemistry major in May, 2008 and is now enrolled in a PhD program in physical chemistry at the University of Virginia. Jason had worked on research with Andy Marsh for three full summers and for six academic semesters.
Sara Schwanger Wins 2009 Howard Anthony Neidig Award
Sara Schwanger, graduating chemistry major from the class of 2009 was awarded at the college commencement ceremonies the 2009 Howard Anthony Neidig Award as the top graduating senior at Lebanon Valley College. Sara shared the 2009 award with another Sara, business and economics major Sara Wagner. The Neidig award is based on superior academic performance as well as campus involvement. Sara Schwanger carried out research with Professor Timothy Peelen during the summer of 2008 and during her senior year. She presented her research at the Eleventh Annual Undergraduate Research symposium in the Chemical and Biological Sciences, held annually at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Sara won first place recognition for that presentation.
Sara was a four-year member of the LVC Concert Choir and was also a member of the highly selective Chamber Choir. Sarah has served as a mentor for academically bright but underprivileged students in the Lebanon Valley Educational Partnership for all of her four years at the college. Sarah has also served as a Resident Assistant at Funkhouser for the past three years and in this current year she moved up to Head RA in Funkhouser and, as such, was directly responsible for 250 students on campus. Sara has also been an active participant in Chemistry Club and in the Student Pennsylvania State Education Association. Sarah earned her PA certification to teach high school chemistry and has entered a PhD program in organic chemistry at the University of Delaware in the fall. Congratulations, Sara!
Heather Howard '11 to Work at Jet Propulsion Laboratory on NASA Research Project During Summer 2009
Heather Howard, chemistry major from the class of 2011, 
has been selected to participate in the highly competitive NASA Undergraduate Student Research Program (http://www.epo.usra.edu/usrp ) for the summer of 2009. Heather will spend 10 weeks (June 15 – August 21, 2009) working at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Heather’s project, “Cryogenic Chemistry Studies of Water Ice Mixtures Germane to Outer Planet Satellites,” will study photochemical reactions at very cold temperatures in an attempt to understand the processes involved in producing the chemical reaction products and nitrogen materials that are distributed in space between Titan and Rhea, the moons of Saturn. The very precise laboratory data from controlled-variable experiments will be compared with spacecraft observations obtained by the space probes Voyager, Galileo, and Cassini.
Heather will become part of an active experimental team, designing experiments, acquiring data, and working with the data for scientific interpretation. Heather has a strong background for the NASA project, as she has worked in the laboratory of Dr. Andy Marsh here at LVC on his new interstellar chemistry project during the summer of 2008 and also during the 2008-09 academic year. She therefore has experience working with ultrahigh vacuum systems at very low temperatures. We wish Heather the best as she undertakes this exciting project, and look forward to hearing of her work upon her return next fall.
Michael Porambo from Marsh Research Group Publishes 2009 Paper in Optical Materials
Michael Porambo '09, working with Professor Anderson Marsh of the Lebanon Valley College Chemistry Department, has developed methods to synthesize zinc sulfide nanocrystals that are doped with small amounts of either manganese, copper, or nickel metal ions. Porambo studied how the metal dopants alter the optical properties of the nanocrystals. The nanocrystals are spherical in shape and have diameters on the order of 4.3 nanometers, making them far too small to be seen by the human eye alone. Such nanocrystals are finding application as effective catalysts, in optical displays, and in a variety of optical sensors.
A paper coauthored by Porambo and Marsh and entitled “Synthesis and Photoluminescent Properties of Doped ZnS Nanocrystals Capped by Polyvinylpyrrolidone,” has been accepted for publication in Optical Materials, an international scientific journal published by Elsevier Press. A preprint of the paper, to appear in the June 2009 issue of the journal, can be read here: Optical Materials Paper .
Mike Porambo graduated with departmental honors in chemistry in May, 2009 and has entered a PhD program in physical chemistry at the University of Illinois. This project was supported by the Neidig Undergraduate Research Fund in chemistry.
Nick Boaz Awarded a 2009 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship in Fluorine Chemistry
Nicholas Boaz '10 has been awarded a Moissan Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) by the Division of Fluorine Chemistry of the American Chemical Society. Nick and Professor Timothy Peelen received the award based upon a proposal that they submitted entitled, "Diastereomeric Interactions as Stereocontrol Elements in Reactions of Chiral, Trifluoromethyl-containing Molecules." Nick will receive a $3500 stipend from ACS to conduct the proposed research this summer, and funds are also available for Nick to travel and present his findings at a national meeting. Nick Boaz working with a rotary evaporator in the organic research laboratory of the Neidig-Garber Science Center
Peelen Research Group Publishes 2009 Paper
Professor Timothy Peelen and students from his research group, past and present, have published a paper (read paper here) in the Journal of Organic Chemistry. The paper, Addition of Carbon-Based Nucleophiles to Fmoc-Protected Acyl Iminium Ions, describes newly developed reactions from the Peelen group that can offer new synthetic routes to the synthesis of non-naturally occurring amino acids and to medicinally important peptides prepared via solid phase synthesis. Support for this work came from a grant to Dr. Peelen from Research Corporation.
The Peelen paper carried a dedication to the memory of H. Anthony Neidig, 1924−2008.
Student co-authors include Alison Hartman (’07, currently in PhD program in geochemistry at Columbia University), Cheryl Brophy (’07, Visiting Scientist Program, FBI Academy, Quantico, VA), Julia Cupp (’08, Postbaccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award (IRTA) Fellowship, National Institutes of Health, and 2009 entrant to Hershey Medical School), and Daniel Hodge (’09, Eastern Virginia Medical School).
LVC Students Present Research at 73rd ISC Conference at F&M College in April, 2009
Nicholas Boaz ’10, Brandon Parks ’10, and Michael Porambo ’09 presented their research at the 73rd Annual Intercollegiate Student Chemist’s (ISC) Conference at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. The ISC Conference has provided a venue for the presentation of undergraduate research in chemistry annually since 1936. Conference participants present 12 minutes talks, with an additional 5 minutes set aside for questions and discussion. Judges from colleges, universities, and industrial or government laboratories award first and second prizes in each division. The ISC conference attracts participants from colleges and universities in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. This year, Nick Boaz of LVC won first place in the organic chemistry division.
Titles of talks are given below.
Nicholas Boaz, “Activation of Fmoc-protected N,O-acetals Using Trimethylsilyl Halides: Mechanistic and Synthetic Studies” (First Place Award in Organic Chemistry Division).
Brandon Parks, “An Exercise in Drug Discovery: Parallel Synthesis of Lidocaine Derivatives and Analysis of Their Metabolic Stability Using LC-MS-MS” (Presented in Organic Chemistry Division)
Michael Porambo, “Amino Acids...In...Space! Development of Temperature Programmed Desorption Instrumentation and Preliminary Surface Chemistry Experiments” (Presented in Physical Chemistry Division)
Allix Sanders Wins 2009 Judith Bond Award from SEPSACS
Allix Sanders '10 has won the 2009 Judith Bond Award as the top junior chemistry major in colleges and universities in the south central area of Pennsylvania. The $500 award, funded through an endowment provided by Dr. Judith Bond, Chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Penn State Hershey, is awarded annually by the Southeastern Section of the American Chemical Society. This is the second year in a row that an LVC student has won the award as Michael Porambo '09 was the 2008 Bond Award winner.
Allix, studying for P-Chem in the study lounge of Neidig-Garber Science Center.
Brandon Parks Wins Travel Award to Attend 2009 National Organic Conference in Denver
Brandon Parks '10 has won a travel award from the American Chemical Society to attend the 2009 National Organic Conference in Denver, Colorado. Brandon, who has been working on the "Parallel Synthesis of Lidocaine Derivatives and Analysis of their Metabolic Stability by LC-MS-MS" with Professor Timothy Peelen, will present his work at the organic conference in Denver. Brandon's work will create a group project for organic chemistry laboratory in which the entire class synthesizes an collection of lidocaine derivatives that are introduced into an active culture of liver cells. Students will determine the metabolic byproducts of lidocaine in the liver cells.
Brandon Parks, standing by the poster he will present in Denver.
$60,000 Merck-AAAS Grant Supports Interdisciplinary Research in Chemistry and Biology at LVC, January 26, 2009
The Undergraduate Science Research Program (USRP) of Merck-AAAS has awarded Lebanon Valley College a grant of $60,000 to support interdisciplinary research projects at the interface of chemistry and biology. The grant proposal, written and submitted by Dr. Walter Patton, Associate Professor of Chemistry, will provide funding for three primary projects:
» The Design of Molecules to Study Intracellular Signaling Events
» The Development of Nanoparticles for Therapeutic Applications
» The Discovery of Natural Products that Affect Microbial Organisms
The projects will be carried out by teams of students and faculty from both the chemistry and biology departments over a period of three years, and the grant will provide summer stipends for participants and necessary supplies. The grant will also provide funds for undergraduate travel for presentation of student research, an ongoing seminar series, and a capstone undergraduate research symposium to be held at Lebanon Valley College. LVC was one of 14 colleges and universities nationwide to receive a 2009 Merck-AAAS award.
The Merck Institute for Science Education and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) sponsor the USRP, whose purpose it is to enhance undergraduate science education in the areas of chemistry and biology through undergraduate research experiences that foster an understanding of the interrelationship of these sciences. The world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal, Science, AAAS was founded in 1848 and serves 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, reaching 10 million individuals.
Students from Peelen Group Present Research and Win Awards at ACS-Sponsored Symposium in Philadelphia, January 22, 2009
LVC students from the research group of Professor Timothy Peelen participated in the 9th Annual Graduate and 4th Annual Undergraduate Student Poster Session at Temple University on January 22, 2009. The symposium is sponsored by the Philadelphia Section of the American Chemical Society. Five LVC undergraduates participated in the poster session which featured 36 graduate posters and 26 undergraduate posters. Posters were judged by scientists from industry and academia and three posters from each division were honored. This year, LVC students won two of the three top undergraduate awards as Nathaniel Bair and Kenneth Potter were recognized for having outstanding poster presentations. Picture at right shows Nate Bair ('09) at his poster at the Philadelphia meeting.
Presenting at the meeting were:
Nathaniel Bair ('09, chemistry) "Leaving Group Effects in Acyl Iminium Chemistry: Opportunities for Novel Reactivity.”
Kenneth Potter ('09, biochemistry), "Lewis Acid-Catalyzed Reactions of alpha-Acetoxy Glycine Esters: Toward the Asymmetric Synthesis of Unnatural Amino Acids”
Adam Wier ('09, biochemistry) "Diastereomeric Interactions in Esterifications of Chiral Trifluoromethyl Alcohols.”
Sara Schwanger ('09, chemistry) "Diastereomeric Interactions of Trifluoromethyl Containing Compounds: A Window into the Origins of Homochirality.”
Brandon Parks ('10, chemistry and biochemistry) "An Exercise in Drug Discovery: Parallel Synthesis of Lidocaine Derivatives and Analysis of Their Metabolic Stability Using LC-MS-MS.”
LVC Students Present Research at NIH-Sponsored Symposium in Baltimore on October 11, 2008
For the 7th consecutive year, LVC research students participated in the 11th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium in the Chemical and Biological Sciences at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County on October 11, 2008. Twenty LVC undergraduates participated in the symposium, presenting or co-presenting a total of sixteen posters. The annual Baltimore symposium highlights interdisciplinary research in areas of biochemistry, biology, cell biology, chemistry, computational chemistry & molecular biology. The symposium, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, featured 214 presentations by undergraduates representing 42 different colleges and universities from nine different states and the District of Columbia. Scientists from industry and academia heard student presentations, quizzed the students on their work, and then awarded a number of first and second place awards to top papers. This year, LVC students won a total of eight awards, as listed below:
Samantha Burkey (’09, chemistry) first place for her work with Dr. Marc Harris, entitled "Investigating Host-Guest Interactions between Bipyridine Azacrown-Ether Macrocycles and Alkylai Ion Guests.”
Nathaniel Bair ('09, chemistry) first place for his work with Dr. Timothy Peelen, entitled "Leaving Group Effects in Acyl Iminium Chemistry: Opportunities for Novel Reactivity”
Sara Schwanger ('09, chemistry) first place for her work with Dr. Peelen, entitled "Diastereomeric Interactions of Trifluoromethyl Containing Compounds: A Window into the Origins of Homochirality.”
Nicholas Boaz ('10, chemistry) first place for his work with Dr. Christopher Siedlecki of the Hershey Medical Center, entitled "The Effect of Protein Adsorption Competition on FXIa Generation in Material-Induced Blook Plasma Coagulation.”
Charles Schmidt ('10, biochemistry) second place for his work with Dr. Walter Patton, entitled "Ruthenium Bipyridine Compounds as SDS-PAGE- and MALDI-Compatible Protein Labels.”
Khevna Shukla (’11, biology) and Patricia Cunfer (’11, biology) second place for their work with Dr. Kristen Boeshore, entitled “Modeling Neuronal Regeneration in PC12 Cells.”
Michael Porambo (’09, chemistry) and Heather Howard (’11, chemistry) second place for their work with Dr. Andy Marsh, entitled “Development of a User-Friendly Software Program for Temperature-Programmed Desorption Studies of Interstellar Chemistry.”
Brandon Parks ('10, chemistry and biochemistry) second place for his work with Dr. Peelen, entitled "An Exercise in Drug Discovery: Parallel Synthesis of Lidocaine Derivatives and Analysis of Their Metabolic Stability Using LC-MS-MS.”
Professors Timothy Peelen and Walter Patton from the Chemistry Department and Kristen Boeshore from the Biology Department accompanied the students to the symposium.
Research Paper by Sophia Kwon '05 Featured on Cover of Nature Chemical Biology
Yun Kyung (Sophia) Kwon, 2005 graduate of Lebanon Valley College and PhD candidate in the chemistry department of Princeton University, published the cover article in the October 2008 issue of the journal Nature Chemical Biology. Kwon, a graduate student in the laboratory of Professor Joshua Rabinowitz, was first author on a paper entitled "A Domino Effect in Antifolate Drug Action in Escherichia coli." The paper may be viewed at: Nature Chemical Biology
Kwon's paper describes a mass spectral (LC-MS/MS) study of the effect of the antibiotic, Trimethoprim, on intracellular folate metabolism. She found that the direct action of the drug inhibits the metabolic enzyme, dihydrofolate reducatse, causing a build-up of dihydrofolate which, in a domino-like cascade, inhibits a second folate pathway and effectively shuts down much of folate metabolism in the E. coli bacterium. Kwon was winner of the Howard Anthony Neidig Award, honoring her as the top LVC graduating student in 2005. She was one of four national winners of an undergraduate research competition held at the annual meeting of the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in San Diego, California in April, 2005.
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Major Wins Neidig Award
Julia Cupp was a recipient of the prestigious Howard Anthony Neidig Award at graduation on May 10, 2008. The Neidig Award is given annually to the top senior; this year Julia was a co-recipient with Greg Strohman, a music and physics double major. Julia, a Biochemistry & Molecular Biology major and a Mathematics minor, was nominated for her superior academic performance, her research achievements and extensive service contributions.
Among Julia’s numerous accomplishments, Julia has presented her research at ACS National Meetings in Binghamton, NY and New Orleans, LA and she also presented at the 9th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium in the Chemical and Biological Sciences at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Julia served as a research assistant in biochemistry (Patton), organic chemistry (Peelen) and cell biology (A. Wolfe – Bio) at LVC from 2005 through 2007. She is currently involved in a two-year Post-Baccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award Fellowship at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Julia works under the direction of Dr. Forbes Porter, an expert in inborn errors in cholesterol metabolism. After completing her research at the NIH, Julia plans to attend medical school.
Research Corporation Awards $44,820 Grant to LVC Chemistry to Study Interstellar Reactions
Dr. Anderson Marsh of the LVC chemistry department has been awarded a two-year grant of $44,820 to allow his research group to study the mechanism of formation 
of amino acids within nanoscale ice films on model interstellar dust surfaces. The project, Elementary Photoreactions for the Synthesis of Amino Acids on a Model Interstellar Surface, is supported by Research Corporation, a foundation for the advancement of science. The grant will provide funds for new laser equipment and for summer salaries of undergraduate chemistry students working on the project here at Lebanon Valley College.
The surprising discovery of the presence biological amino acids in carbonaceous meteorites has raised questions about how such molecules could be formed in the deep space environment. The grant will allow the Marsh research group to address these questions by purchasing an ArF eximer laser and using it to initiate photoreactions of simple molecules such as water, carbon monoxide, and ammonia. These reactions will be studied on highly-oriented pyrolytic graphite surfaces that simulate the surfaces of space dust and will be carried out using ultrahigh vacuum surface science techniques. Work on the proposal will begin during this summer of 2008, with two undergraduates (Michael Porambo, '09 and Heather Howard, '11) assigned to the project. An abstract of the project is provided: Abstract for Marsh Proposal
Students, Faculty Travel to New Orleans in April, 2008
A group of 8 students and 2 faculty members travelled to New Orleans in April to present their research at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society. Read more about the New Orleans trip
National Science Foundation Awards $150K to Support Curriculum Development at LVC
The National Science Foundation has awarded a grant of $149,999 to Lebanon Valley College to support a project entitled "Project-Based LC-MS Experiments at the Interface of Chemistry and Biology." 
The grant proposal, written by Dr. Timothy J. Peelen as primary investigator (PI) and Drs. Walter A. Patton and Owen A. Moe as co-PIs, outlines the plans for developing three new interdisciplinary laboratory projects based on the use of liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). A powerful new tool in biochemical and pharmaceutical research, LC-MS chromatographically separates mixtures of metabolites from complex biological matrices and simultaneously offers detailed structural information about biomolecules through mass spectrometry.
The grant will support the acquisition of an LC-MS for use in the three laboratory projects and in student research. In the area of pharmaceutical science, organic chemistry students will use parallel synthesis strategies to develop small libraries of lidocaine analogs, confirming their reaction products by LC-MS. These libraries will then be incubated with liver microsomes and the rates of metabolism of these compounds will be analyzed by LC-MS. In the area of environmental science, students taking analytical chemistry will determine how the aerobic and anaerobic digestion methods used in wastewater treatment plants affect the levels of alkylphenol endocrine disrupters that are produced by microbial degradation of detergents. Students taking senior-level biochemistry laboratory will use LC-MS to identify and quantify lipids involved in cellular signaling events. These new experiments, all adapted from the primary scientific literature, will enhance the laboratory experience by asking students to address challenging, relevant questions while giving them the cutting-edge instruments needed to answer those questions.
Chemistry Research Students Earn Awards at Undergraduate Convention
LVC Chemistry research students brought home two first-place and one second-place awards for their presentations at the 72nd Intercollegiate Student Chemists Convention (ISCC) held at Elizabethtown College on April 19, 2008. Participating undergraduate students from Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Maryland and Pennsylvania were evaluated on presentation, design, interpretation and response to questions as well as the relevance of their chosen research project.
Timothy Garrett (’08, chemistry) scored first in the Inorganic division for his work with Dr. Harris, entitled, “Nosyl as an Efficient Protecting Group for the Synthesis of Bipyridine Aza-Crown Ether Macrocycles; An Ion Encapsulation Study of Macrocyclic Amines.” Michael Porambo (’09, chemistry) received first place in the physical chemistry division for his work with Dr. Marsh, entitled, “Photocatalytic Degradation of 2-Chlorophenol by Undoped and Doped Zinc Sulfide Nanocrystals Capped with Poly(vinylpyrrolidone).” Carrie Kauffman’s (’08, chemistry) research with Dr. Marsh, earned a second place in the physical chemistry division; her work was entitled “Hydrogenation of Cyclohexanone by Colloidal Platinum Nanocatalysts.”
Also presenting were Christopher Berg (’09, biochemistry) for his work with Dr. Marsh entitled, “Kinetic Study of the Photocatalytic Activity of Zinc Sulfide Nanocrystals Capped by Amino Acids"; Charles Schmidt (‘10, biochemistry) for his work with Drs. Patton and Harris, entitled “Ruthenium Bipyridine Compounds as SDS-PAGE-and MALDI-Compatible Protein Labels”; Kenneth Houser (’08, chemistry) for his work with Dr. Harris entitled, “Cu(II), Ag(I) and Pt(II) Bipyridine Oligomer Metallomacrocycles that Function as Efficient Host Complexes for the Encapsulation of Alkali Ion Guests”; Brandon Parks (‘10, biochemistry) for his work with Drs. Patton and Harris entitled, “Cation-Exchange Chromatography as a Purification Step in the Preparation of Ruthenium (II) Tris-bipyridine Complexes”; Nathaniel Bair (’09, chemistry) for his work with Dr. Peelen entitled, “Mechanistic Studies in Enamine Organocatalysis: A Simple Assay For Identifying Kinetically Controlled Organocatalysis”; Kenneth Potter (’09, biochemistry) for his work with Dr. Peelen entitled, "Lewis Acid-Catalyzed Reactions of Allyl Silanes with N,O-Acetals: Toward the Asymmetric Synthesis of Unnatural Amino Acids”; and Benjamin Lengle (‘08, chemistry) for his work with Dr. Peelen entitled “Nucleophile-catalyzed Ireland-Claisen Rearrangements of Allylic Acrylate Esters.”
The first ISCC was held in 1936 at Haverford College. Although it did not meet for one year during World War II, the ISCC is the oldest meeting of its type in the United States. LVC hosted the ISCC in 2002 and will again host it in 2013. (Accompanying group picture: (from l to r) Brandon Parks, Chris Berg, Kenny Houser, Nate Bair, Ben Lengle, Dr. Tim Peelen, Carrie Kaufman, Tim Garrett, Dr. Walter Patton, Mike Porambo, Kenny Potter, Rich Carr, and Chuck Schmidt.)
Harris Research Group Publishes 2008 Paper
Six students who worked with Assistant Professor Marc Harris on a multi-year project have coauthored with Dr. Harris
a paper, “NOSYL as an Efficient Protecting Group for the Synthesis of Bipyridine Aza-Crown Ether Macrocycles,” in the Winter 2008 issue of the Journal of Undergraduate Chemistry Research (JUCR). The paper describes a study of the efficacy of various reagents used for protection and cyclization in the synthesis of a class of ring-shaped molecules called aza-crown macrocycles.
An aza-crown macrocycle, shown at the left, is a cyclic molecule containing a pocket in the middle that can bind to metal ions in what is called a host-guest interaction. By varying the size of the ring and the atoms in the central pocket, macrocycles can be “tuned” to specifically bind one type of metal ion. Macrocycles of the type that the Harris group synthesizes can be used to encapsulate and remove radioactive waste, such as cesium-137, from waste streams. They can also function in removing heavy metal contaminants such as lead and mercury from wastewater.
The student coauthors for this paper were Timothy Garrett ('08), Jeremy Umbenhauer ('06), Gary Romberger ('04), Amy Smith (04), Mandy Goulden ('05), and Justin Engle ('05). JUCR, a peer-reviewed journal having editorial offices at the chemistry department of VMI, is published quarterly. The full paper can be viewed at JUCR Paper 2008.
Patton Group Publishes 2007 Paper on Identifying Bacteria by MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry 
Assistant Professor Walter Patton has published a paper, "Identification of bacteria using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry," in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (BAMBED), a journal published on behalf of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Student coauthors from Patton's research group and from his biochemistry laboratory course worked with Dr. Patton to develop a tested laboratory experiment in which students rapidly and accurately identify bacteria by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. Also contributing to this work was Dr. Sidney Pollack, a microbiologist from the LVC Biology Department. The cumulative results of their efforts are experimental techniques and analysis methods that introduce MALDI mass spectrometry into the upper-level laboratory courses in biochemistry or microbiology, in a “wet” lab setting or in a even in a “dry” setting using data available at a supplementary website.
Using MALDI, intact bacteria produce spectra (see figure below, to the left) that can be used as a “fingerprint” for the purpose of identification. Spectral peaks, most less than 20,000 amu, are primarily derived from cytosolic proteins that are basic in nature. The studies described here were originally proposed in a successful grant application to the NSF Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) Grant Program in 2002 by Dr. Owen Moe (PI) and Dr. Patton (Co-PI). Since obtaining the MALDI mass spectrometer under that grant, MALDI has been widely incorporated into the teaching and research activities of the chemistry faculty.
Student co-authors on this paper included Mollie Kedney (‘04 - Officer, U.S. Army Chemical Corps), Kevin Strunk (‘05 - Research Technician, Charles River Laboratories), Lisa Giaquinto (‘05 – Sinofia Pasteur), and Jennifer Wagner (’07 – Physician’s Assistant Program, Pennsylvania College of Optometry). The abstract for this paper can be viewed at the BAMBED website.
LVC Science Research Students Are Winners at 2007 Chemistry and Biology Symposium
Lebanon Valley College undergraduate researchers were awarded three first-place and three second-place awards for their presentations at the 10th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium in the Chemical and Biological Sciences at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County on October 13, 2007. Presentations in the symposium highlight the interdisciplinary nature of undergraduate research in areas of biochemistry, biology, cell biology, chemistry, computational chemistry & molecular biology, among others. Accompanied by Drs. Walter Patton and Timothy Peelen of the LVC Chemistry Department, twelve LVC undergraduates participated in the symposium, presenting or co-presenting a total of ten posters. The symposium was co-sponsored by Proctor & Gamble and the National Institutes of Health and featured 154 presentations by undergraduates from 32 colleges and universities in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region. The three first-place winners in their divisions were:
Timothy Garrett (’08, chemistry) for his work with Dr. Marc Harris, entitled "Nosyl as an efficient protecting group for the synthesis of bipyridine aza-crown ether macrocycles; an ion encapsulation study of macrocyclic amines.”
Kenneth Houser ('08, chemistry) for his work with Dr. Harris, entitled "Cu(II), Ag(I), and Pt(II) bipyridine oligomer metallomacrocycles that function as efficient host complexes for the encapsulation of alkali ion guests."
Charles Schmidt ('10, biochemistry) for his work with Drs. Harris and Patton, entitled "Ruthenium bipyridine compounds as SDS-PAGE- and MALDI-compatible protein labels.” The three second-place winners in their divisions were:
Nathaniel Bair ('09, chemistry) who presented his work with Dr. Peelen, entitled "Mechanistic studies in enamine organocatalysis: a simple assay for identifying kinetically controlled organocatalysts.”
Daniel K. Hodge ('09, biology) who presented his work with Dr. Peelen, entitled "The development of reactions of enamines with Fmoc-protected N,O-acetals.”
Gary Lam (’09, biochemistry) who presented his work with Dr. Patton, entitled “The use of a peptide phage display library to probe domain interactions in E. coli GMP synthetase.”
Also presenting were: Christopher Berg ('09, biochemistry) who presented his work with Dr. Andy Marsh, entitled "Synthesis, characterization, and photocatalytic activity of zinc sulfide nanocrystals capped by amino acids”; Adam Wier ('09, biochemistry) and Kenneth Potter ('09, biochemistry), who presented their work with Dr. Peelen, entitled "Lewis acid-catalyzed reactions of allyl silanes with alpha-acetoxy glycine esters: toward the asymmetric synthesis of unnatural amino acids” Michael W. Porambo ('09, chemistry) who presented his work with Dr. Marsh, entitled "Photochemical degradation of 2-chlorophenol by undoped and doped zinc sulfide nanocrystals capped with poly(vinylpyrrolidone)”; and Carrie Kauffman ('08, chemistry) who presented her work with Dr. Marsh, entitled "Hydrogenation of cyclohexanone by colloidal platinum nanocatalysts"
Accompanying group picture: (from l to r) Dr. Tim Peelen, Gary Lam, Dr. Walter Patton, Adam Wier, Dan Hodge, Mike Porambo, Chuck Schmidt, Chris Berg, Kenny Potter, Carrie Martin, Brandon Parks, Nate Bair, Kenny Houser, and Tim Garrett.
Harris Research Group Publishes 2007 Paper
Assistant Professor Marc Harris and students from his research group at LVC have published a paper, Ethylene oxide-bridged bipyridine oligomers that function as selective host molecules for the encapsulation of small alkali cation guests, in the Journal of Inclusion Phenomenon and Macrocyclic Chemistry, the premier interdisciplinary publication reporting on original research into all aspects of host-guest systems. The paper by the Harris group describes a five-year project involving the synthesis and characterization of two types of organic molecules that can wrap themselves around alkali metal ions such as sodium, potassium, and cesium, to form what are called host-
guest complexes.
The Harris group demonstrated the selective complexation of alkalai ions by the two organic ligands: the smaller ligand was selective for the smaller sodium ion and the larger ligand for the larger cesium ion. These complexes can be extracted from aqueous solution into an organic solvent suggesting, for example, their possible use in remediation of nuclear waste by the selective removal of radioactive cesium in aqueous wastestreams.
Student co-authors on this paper included Ken Houser ('08), Johanna Scarino ('06 - PhD program, Princeton), Scott Wallace ('05 - M.S. Indiana University), Brandon Arndt ('07), Amy Smith ('04 - radiochemist, Schering-Plough), Gary Romberger ('04 - chemist, Merck), and Allix Sanders ('10). The abstract for the paper can be viewed at the webpage of the journal.
NSF Grant of $144,600 Supports Nanocatalyst Research at LVC (Summer, 2007)
The National Science Foundation, after a rigorous six-month peer-review process, has awarded a $144,600 research grant to Assistant Professor Anderson Marsh of the Department of Chemistry. The grant will support a three-year project, “Selectivity Control in Ketone Hydrogenation on Nanoscale Platinum Catalysts,” which will use colloidal nanoparticles constructed from platinum to carry out specific and selective chemical reactions that are important in a wide range of commercial applications including pharmaceuticals, flavorings, and fragrances. The grant will provide summer salaries for student and faculty researchers, chemical supplies, and funds for student and faculty travel to scientific meetings to present their findings. This p
roject is an example of “green chemistry,” in that the Marsh group will use the nanocatalysts in water-based systems, removing the need for the use of toxic organic solvents.
Dr. Marsh’s research group at Lebanon Valley will synthesize the platinum nanoparticles and then study their catalytic properties at the molecular level, teasing out detailed mechanistic information that will be useful in designing the nanocatalysts for specific uses. The students involved will synthesize platinum nanoparticles that are encapsulated in organic polymers to stabilize the colloidal suspensions and prevent aggregation of the catalyst. The students will characterize their synthesized nanoparticles using transmission electron microscopy, chemisorptions analysis, and matrix-assisted laser desorption-ionization mass spectrometry. They will study the reactions catalyzed by the nanoparticles using infrared spectroscopy and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The grant will also provide funds for the purchase of a new Parr hydrogenation reactor and an Specac attenuated total reflectance (ATR) accessory for the infrared spectrometer.
Dr. Marsh’s current research group consists of Jason Navin (’08), Carrie Kauffman (’08), Michael Porambo (’09), and Christopher Berg (’10). In the new Neidig-Garber Science Center, the Marsh group will carry out this work in the new nanotechnology laboratory and in the chemistry instrumentation laboratory. In the past 2 years, undergraduate students working with Professor Marsh on several projects have presented 12 research papers at regional and national scientific meetings. One of Dr. Marsh’s students, Thomas Gordon, won a national first place award in the Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry at the 2006 American Chemical Society Meeting in San Francisco.
Harris Research Students Present at Posters on the Hill - April 25, 2007
Kenneth Houser ('08) and Timothy Garrett ('08), members of the research group of Assistant Professor Marc Harris presented their research in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC at "Posters on the Hill," a national showcase conference for undergraduate research. Joined by a highly select group of less than 60 undergraduates nationwide, Houser and Garrett presented their work in a early-evening session on April 25, 2007 to which senators, congressmen, and officers of funding agencies were invited.
Their talk, "Tunable oligomeric nano-devices synthesized from an ethoxy backbone that serve as highly efficient and selective molecular hosts for ion guests, such as Cs137 radionucleotides," detailed their work to synthesize compounds that can encapsulate alkali metal ions, providing potential remediation for the radioactive forms (Cs137) that are found in waste from nuclear power plants.
Earlier in the day, Ken and Tim met with science advisers to Senators Arlen Specter and Robert Casey, and directly with Representative Tim Holden. They also had a visit to their poster by Dr. Catherine Hunt, President of the American Chemical Society. Picture on the right: Professor Marc Harris and Kenneth Houser at capital in Washington DC
Picture below: Tim Garrett, Ken Houser, Representative Tim Holden, and Professor Marc Harris
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