CHEMICAL & PHYSICAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT
STUDENT PRESENTERS
Organized By Discipline
Catherine Amrich '22
MAJOR: CHEMISTRY
FACULTY SPONSOR: PROFESSOR MASI, CHEMICAL & PHYSICAL SCIENCE
Distillation and Extraction of Clove Essential Oils
Eugenol is an essential oil used in perfume, insecticides and medicine as an inhibitor for pain relief. It is derived from cloves as a hydrophobic natural product. Gas chromatography (GC) is a commonly used qualitative analysis technique that will be used to provide an examination of the spice extracts through vaporization. We expect that eugenol will be a major product of this process, however, other extractable compounds are likely to be present that we haven’t previously acknowledged. Due to lack of access to gas chromatography coupled with a mass spectrometer detector, our preliminary research will begin with consulting other primary sources to gain insight on what compounds are to be expected. We will then use gas chromatography with flame ionization detector (GC-FID) technology to confirm or deny their presence by running our extract, obtained by steam distillation, alongside standards at known concentrations. This comparison can aid further research into intermolecular commonalities among essential oils and how it relates to physical properties, intermolecular forces, and even the flavor of the oil. In the future, research focused on the various products of clove oil will be used in organic laboratory practices.
Sophia Hayward '23
MAJOR: CHEMISTRY
FACULTY SPONSOR: PROFESSOR MASI, CHEMICAL & PHYSICAL SCIENCE
Distillation and Extraction of Clove Essential Oils
Eugenol is an essential oil used in perfume, insecticides and medicine as an inhibitor for pain relief. It is derived from cloves as a hydrophobic natural product. Gas chromatography (GC) is a commonly used qualitative analysis technique that will be used to provide an examination of the spice extracts through vaporization. We expect that eugenol will be a major product of this process, however, other extractable compounds are likely to be present that we haven’t previously acknowledged. Due to lack of access to gas chromatography coupled with a mass spectrometer detector, our preliminary research will begin with consulting other primary sources to gain insight on what compounds are to be expected. We will then use gas chromatography with flame ionization detector (GC-FID) technology to confirm or deny their presence by running our extract, obtained by steam distillation, alongside standards at known concentrations. This comparison can aid further research into intermolecular commonalities among essential oils and how it relates to physical properties, intermolecular forces, and even the flavor of the oil. In the future, research focused on the various products of clove oil will be used in organic laboratory practices.
Shealynn Conway '22
MAJOR: CHEMISTRY, BIOLOGY
FACULTY SPONSOR: PROFESSOR RODERICO ACEVEDO, CHEMICAL & PHYSICAL SCIENCE
Using recombinant DHFR protein as a model to study protein engineering
Dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) is an enzyme that is essential in the generation of amino acids. For DHFR to properly carry out its functions, it requires a cofactor, NADPH. Looking at different chemical vendors, the cost of NADPH is around $530/gram. In a lab environment, carrying out this reaction multiple times would become cost prohibitive. Fortunately, a different cofactor, NADH, has a similar structure and is significantly cheaper. This means that if we could change DHFR to use NADH instead of NADPH, we could cut lab costs for this experiment. Here, we take preliminary steps to generate mutant DHFR by changing two amino acids from the native enzyme, Serine-76 and Lysine-54, that were identified to interact with the phosphate group and replacing them with Isoleucine-76 and Glutamate-54, respectively, via mutagenesis. We used E. coli as our host organism and performed mutagenesis to generate the mutant plasmids. To date, a functional mutant has not yet been produced. When a mutant is successfully produced, classic enzymology (a functional assay) will be done to determine whether or not the mutant can bind preferentially to NADH.
Michael O'Shaughnessy '22
MAJOR: CHEMISTRY
FACULTY SPONSOR: PROFESSOR RODERICO ACEVEDO, CHEMICAL & PHYSICAL SCIENCE
Using recombinant DHFR protein as a model to study protein engineering
Dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) is an enzyme that is essential in the generation of amino acids. For DHFR to properly carry out its functions, it requires a cofactor, NADPH. Looking at different chemical vendors, the cost of NADPH is around $530/gram. In a lab environment, carrying out this reaction multiple times would become cost prohibitive. Fortunately, a different cofactor, NADH, has a similar structure and is significantly cheaper. This means that if we could change DHFR to use NADH instead of NADPH, we could cut lab costs for this experiment. Here, we take preliminary steps to generate mutant DHFR by changing two amino acids from the native enzyme, Serine-76 and Lysine-54, that were identified to interact with the phosphate group and replacing them with Isoleucine-76 and Glutamate-54, respectively, via mutagenesis. We used E. coli as our host organism and performed mutagenesis to generate the mutant plasmids. To date, a functional mutant has not yet been produced. When a mutant is successfully produced, classic enzymology (a functional assay) will be done to determine whether or not the mutant can bind preferentially to NADH.
Anna Postnikova '22
MAJOR: BIOLOGY
FACULTY SPONSOR: PROFESSOR RODERICO ACEVEDO, CHEMICAL & PHYSICAL SCIENCE
Using recombinant DHFR protein as a model to study protein engineering
Dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) is an enzyme that is essential in the generation of amino acids. For DHFR to properly carry out its functions, it requires a cofactor, NADPH. Looking at different chemical vendors, the cost of NADPH is around $530/gram. In a lab environment, carrying out this reaction multiple times would become cost prohibitive. Fortunately, a different cofactor, NADH, has a similar structure and is significantly cheaper. This means that if we could change DHFR to use NADH instead of NADPH, we could cut lab costs for this experiment. Here, we take preliminary steps to generate mutant DHFR by changing two amino acids from the native enzyme, Serine-76 and Lysine-54, that were identified to interact with the phosphate group and replacing them with Isoleucine-76 and Glutamate-54, respectively, via mutagenesis. We used E. coli as our host organism and performed mutagenesis to generate the mutant plasmids. To date, a functional mutant has not yet been produced. When a mutant is successfully produced, classic enzymology (a functional assay) will be done to determine whether or not the mutant can bind preferentially to NADH.
Joseph Dumoulin '23
MAJOR: CHEMISTRY
FACULTY SPONSOR: AARON REYES, CHEMICAL & PHYSICAL SCIENCE
Temporal and Spacial variabilities of Major Cations in The Westfield River: Established a Baseline over a 7 Year Period
The Westfield River has been closely monitored over the last 7 years for salinity content; river waters are classified as sodium chloride waters with Calcium and Sodium being the two most abundant cations. To establish a natural baseline we examined variations of these two cations at three specific locations; upstream location WFR-5 representing rural areas, Mid Stream samples representing the urban zones, and downstream location WSR-1 representing the lowermost reaches of the Westfield River. Uppermost samples from WFR-5 have an average Calcium and Sodium concentration of 6.32 ppm and 9.41ppm respectively. Differences in Sodium and Calcium concentrations between the uppermost reaches and Mid Stream samples are not significantly different; however, they are significantly different to the lowermost reaches, WSR-1 which yielded concentrations of 9.9 ppm and 24.43 ppm for calcium and sodium respectively. Fluctuations in concentrations over time within each section of the river can be attributed to variations in flow rate. However, these fluctuations do not explain the increase in salinity downstream. We attribute the increase of downstream salinity to contribution from tributaries such as Great Brook.
Abbigayle McIntosh '22
MAJOR: CHEMISTRY
FACULTY SPONSOR: PROFESSOR ASHLEY EVANSOKI-COLE , CHEMICAL & PHYSICAL SCIENCE
Local Levels of Fine Particulate Matter, (PM2.5) and the Analysis of Precipitation Through Ion Chromatography to Detect Anions
Pollution from factories, construction, emissions from cars, and other anthropogenic activities have a wide reaching impact on both humans and the environment. One type of pollutant from these emissions is referred to as particulate matter under 2.5 microns (PM2.5), these particles enter the atmosphere and end up in waterways through precipitation and can lead to a lack of biodiversity or be inhaled by humans and lead to respiratory complications, as well as other health conditions. Local levels of PM2.5 were collected by a sensor outside Wilson Hall in order to observe any fluctuations in levels depending on time of day, as well as comparing the concentrations with different weather patterns. Samples of precipitation were collected locally in Westfield and used in ion chromatography to measure concentration of common anions, (F-, Cl-, Br-, NO3-, SO4-2, and NO2-), and compared to anion standards of known concentrations.
Ronald Montgomery '23
MAJOR: GENERAL SCIENCE
FACULTY SPONSOR: RICHARD REES, CHEMICAL & PHYSICAL SCIENCE
Our Galaxy's Spiral Structure
Morgan et al. (1953) provided evidence that our galaxy has a spiral shape; using stars of spectral type O and B as tracers to map the spiral structure of the Milky Way. Using the modern parallaxes for the same stars. We have compiled Gaia and Hipparcos data for the sample used by Morgan et al. to recreate Morgan’s study with better distances and produce a revised map of the Milky Way’s spiral structure. The data includes over 400 stars in 27 aggregates. With these data we will find their positions in 3 dimensions and create our 2D map of the Galaxy.
Olivia Murphy '23
MAJOR: CHEMISTY
FACULTY MENTOR: PROFESSOR RODERICO ACEVEDO, CHEMICAL & PHYSICAL SCIENCE
ln silico enzyme modification of dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR)
Protein engineering is a fairly new field, increasing exponentially within the last 20 years, with the advent of molecular dynamics simulations(MD). By manipulating the amino acid sequence of known proteins, we can develop new proteins with radically different functions. We will work with the enzyme, dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), which is the first committed step of nucleic acid biosynthesis. The goal of our research is to modify the cofactor pocket of DHFR, which naturally binds NADP, and re-engineer the pocket to accept a different cofactor, NAD. We will use MD softwares (Amber and Rosetta) to determine the residues that are most critical in binding NADP. This will allow us to predict what amino acids substitutions to make in the mutant DHFR. MD trajectories of the mutants can be compared to native DHFR to see the effect of those mutations in the 3-D structure. MD can also numerically verify the success of mutations through root-mean square deviation (RMSD) calculations . Graphic verification will be done by using Pymol and VMD. Computational docking will be done using the Amber module, Autodock, to ensure that NADH fits into both the active site and substrate pocket of any successful mutant. Ultimately, we will generate the DNA sequence of the successful mDHFR for wet lab verification. Our goal is to find an amino acid substitutions that when simulated has the same structure and function as the native DHFR but preferentially binds to NAD, not NADP.
Olivia Murphy '23
MAJOR: CHEMISTY
FACULTY MENTOR: PROFESSOR VAITHEESWARAN SUBRAMANIAN, CHEMICAL & PHYSICAL SCIENCE
Preparing and Carrying out an Molecular Dynamics (MD) Simulation
Proteins are essential to living organisms and can act as enzymes that speed up biological reactions. With molecular dynamics (MD) and other computational visual tools like NAMD, PyMOL and VMD, we can gain a closer look than a wet lab could. The multiple uses of MD include carrying experiments out in a cheaper manner, examining ligand interactions, molecular movements on an atomic level, and looking at the result of replacing amino acids. In my project, I learned about MD simulations, and also the 3-D visual aid programs.To do an MD simulation, you must first go through a series of steps with VMD and NAMD to set a molecule up. This also involved learning about Linux commands, as coding on the Linux command line is vital to the entire process. There are a series of detailed videos from the Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group (at University of Illinois at Urbana) Champaign (https://www.ks.uiuc.edu) that I went through in order to understand the inner workings of each of the programs. This gave me the ability to learn more about proteins including, but not limited to, ubiquitin and DHFR. Linux is a fairly new operating system to Westfield State University, which my entire project took advantage of and allowed me to carry out solvating the proteins, minimizing, preparing, and many other functions. Overall, my goal was to be well-versed in the preparation of a protein for an MD simulation, and possibly even carry one out.
Holden Nelson '23
MAJOR: CHEMISTRY & MATHEMATICS
FACULTY SPONSOR: AARON REYES, CHEMICAL & PHYSICAL SCIENCE
Identifying Sources of Salinity in the Westfield River: A Hydrogeochemical Classification of Natural Waters
Salinity is an important metric in measuring the health of a watershed. The ionic composition of a river reflects both naturally occurring features and events--such as geological composition and meteorological phenomena—and anthropogenic activities like farming and road maintenance. Unusually high concentrations of salts in a body of fresh water can harm populations dependent on the river, and thus the determination of inputs of salinity to a river system becomes important for ensuring the general health of a region. In this study, we measure different water quality parameters--such as pH, dissolved oxygen content, and E. Coli content—and investigate potential inputs of salts to the Westfield River, focusing on groundwater, tributary, anthropogenic, and evaporative influences. Concentrations of cations were determined via atomic absorption/emission spectroscopy and concentrations of anions were determined through ion chromatography. To measure the effect of evaporation on river salinity, a meteoric water line was generated from the isotopic composition of water samples collected in the watershed. Based on the meteoric water line constructed, we conclude that evaporation played a minimal role in concentrating salts in the Westfield River during the sample collection period. Similarly, groundwater flow appears to minimally impact the salt concentrations of the Westfield River, however, it does seem to be the primary contributor of carbonate and bicarbonate ions. The spatial variation in salinity data indicates that tributaries and anthropogenic activities raise the salinity of the mainstem Westfield River.
Alyssa Ray '23
MAJOR: GENERAL SCIENCE
FACULTY SPONSOR: FRANK GIULIANO, CHEMICAL & PHYSICAL SCIENCE
Confidence is Key: Investigating Preservice Teacher's Self-Efficacy of Teaching STEM
Before becoming educators, most preservice teachers must complete a teacher preparation program (TPP) in which they learn both the content they will teach and the pedagogical skills necessary to deliver it to their students. It is important that future educators feel prepared to lead their students because science teacher self-efficacy is related to science teaching outcomes. This pilot study measured preservice elementary, early childhood, and special education teacher’s self-efficacy of teaching STEM, and which courses influence these beliefs. To address this question, preservice elementary, early childhood, and special education teachers were surveyed at three points in their program: (a) before content and methods courses, (b) after content courses but before methods, and (c) after content courses and methods. Survey questions inquired about participant’s confidence in teaching math and science, expectations of teachers and students in the classroom, and STEM career awareness. Analysis of the data suggests no significant difference (p>0.05) in pre-post content and pre-post methods course outcomes except on the Science Teaching Outcome Expectancy (STOE) construct. These results suggest preservice teachers have a fixed mindset about their teaching abilities in many respects. However, a science methods course is suggested to increase self-efficacy in teaching science. This further exemplifies the idea that teachers provide better instruction when they are more confident in both their subject material and the effective pedagogy associated with that content area.