Dr. Allyn Schoeffler was awarded $89,000 from the Louisiana Board of Regents' Research Competitiveness Subprogram grant to study molecular determinants of specialization in bacterial topoisoemerases from extreme environments. The funding will support Dr. Schoeffler’s undergraduate research in biochemistry, in which research students will investigate how molecular machines function in hot and cold environments through wet-lab and online bioinformatic analyses.
Congratulations to alumna Mary Claire Kramer (c/o 2017, CHEB) on graduating from the JD program at Loyola University College of Law! Mary Claire continues to work in the Immigration Section of the Stuart H. Smith Law Clinic for Social Justice.
Dr. Anna S. Duggar has a new publication on the use of plasma cleaning for the preparation of soil minerals for forensic comparison by photon and electron microscopy. The article was published in the Journal of Forensic Science (Duggar & Kubic, 66: 1452-1463) July 2021
Dr. Qian Qin has a new publication in the journal Acta Crystallographica. The article, published September 2019, is titled, “Crystal structures of two charge-transfer com-plexes of benzo[1,2- c:3,4- c':5,6- c'']tri-thio-phene ( D 3 h -BTT),” and includes two student authors, Haley Gould (c/o 19) and Samuel Vasquez (c/o 20)!
In April of 2021, Dr. CJ Stephenson was awarded a Board of Regents Departmental Enhancement grant to purchase new LC-quadrupole instrumentation, enhancing the Department’s analytical capabilities and training. A “triple quad” instrument is the standard for toxicological and environmental analysis in government and private industry, so this instrument, in addition to opening new avenues of research, will provide opportunities for students to get hands-on experience with workplace relevance. Congratulations, Dr. Stephenson!
Dr. Christine Heinecke has a new publication in Catalysis Letters on the synthesis and testing of two “magic number” clusters, Au102(p-MBA)44 and Au144(p-MBA)60, showing that both clusters are effective catalysts. The article includes three student authors, Nicholas Milosch (c/o 2020, CHEB), Rachel Dufour (c/o 2017, CHEM), and Mario Rodriguez (c/o 2018, CHEB)!
Dr. Allyn Schoeffler has a new article in which the authors demonstrate that Three critical regions of the erythromycin resistance methyltransferase, ErmE, are required for function supporting a model for the interaction of Erm family enzymes with substrate rRNA. The article was published in RNA, a publication of the RNA Society.(RNA 2022. 28: 210-226)
Dr. Qian Qin was awarded a Louisiana Board of Regents Research and Development grant of over $120,000 to study new organic superconducting materials from sulfur-rich aromatic molecules. This funding will support Dr. Qin’s productive undergraduate research program. Congratulations!
Congratulations to CHFS 2021 graduates Kirsten Turner and Quynh Dang, accepted to graduate programs at Boston College and George Washington University!
Congratulations to alumna Dayla Rich (c/o 2017, CHFS) on graduating from the University of South Carolina with her PhD in Analytical Chemistry and joining the FBI’s Huntsville laboratory as a Chemist!