Professor Gao wins Smith Family Foundation New Investigator Award
We are thrilled to announce that Dr. Jianmin Gao, assistant professor of chemistry, will be one of seven recipients of the Smith Family Foundation New Investigator Award. The prestigious $200,000 award is designed to provide newly independent scientists the opportunity to demonstrate creativity and assist them in the transition to other sources of research funding.
Launched in 1991 by the Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation, the Smith Family New Investigator Awards Program supports newly appointed junior faculty engaged in basic research in the areas of AIDS, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes (both autoimmune and Type II) and neuroscience. Now entering its 16th year, the Program has made awards to 96 investigators and provided over $13 million in research support.
Professor Gao, a chemical biologist, came to Boston College in the fall of 2007 from The Scripps Research Institute, where he conducted research as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Professor Jeffery W. Kelly. He obtained his Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 2004 at Stanford University under the direction of Professor Eric T. Kool and earned his B.S. in chemistry at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC).
The primary goal of Professor Gao’s research program is to understand the intimate details of how proteins fold and misfold. The proper folding of proteins is known to be absolutely essential for their biological functions. In contrast, the misfolding and aggregation of proteins have been implicated in a wide array of diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Type II Diabetes. Professor Gao and his students employ a multidisciplinary approach, integrating organic chemistry, protein engineering and biophysics, to probe the physio-chemical basis of protein folding/misfolding processes. Advances in this area are expected to provide new understanding of the pathologies of protein misfolding diseases and to foster the design of novel therapeutic strategies for disease treatment. (12.07.07)
LaMattina Graduate Fellowships Announced
The Chemistry Department is pleased to announce the 2007-2008 John LaMattina Graduate Student Fellows in Organic and Organometallic Chemistry: Tricia L. May, Zhen You, and Joshua D. Sieber.
Tricia May, who is in Professor Amir H. Hoveyda’s research group, is examining new N-heterocyclic carbene ligands for applications to asymmetric conjugate addition of alkyl- and arylmetal reagents to b-substituted cyclic enones for the formation of all-carbon quaternary stereogenic centers. The new Ag-NHC complexes allow access to medicinally important compounds of high enantiomeric purity that were previously unattainable.
A member of Professor Marc L. Snapper’s research group, Zhen You has focused on developing the kinetic resolution of hydroxyketones through catalytic asymmetric silylation using a simple amino acid-based catalyst. The new strategy significantly shortens the routes to various enantiomerically enriched hydroxyketones which are important chiral building blocks for asymmetric synthesis.
Josh Sieber is currently developing transition-metal-catalyzed conjugate allylation processes using allylboronates as nucleophiles in the Professor James P. Morken’s research group.
The LaMattina Graduate Student Fellowship was established in academic year 2005-2006 with the generous support of Chemistry Department alumnus John L. LaMattina (B.S. 1971) and his family. (11.02.07)
Dr. Bo Li to be New X-ray Facility Director
The Chemistry Department is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Bo Li as the first full-time director of the Chemistry X-ray facility. Dr. Li will join the department in January 2008, coming from the University at Albany (SUNY), where he completed his Ph.D. degree in inorganic chemistry and X-ray crystallography in May of this year. He holds an M.Sc. degree in materials chemistry from the Beijing Polytechnic University and a B.S. degree in materials chemistry from Tongji University in China.
Dr. Li is a very personable, energetic scientist with extensive experience in small molecule single crystal X-ray diffraction, ranging from organic and inorganic to organometallic compounds. He is intimately familiar with Schlenk line and glove box techniques and will be setting up a special crystallization laboratory to help users grow crystals.
As a graduate student at Albany, Dr. Li won a teaching award, and he is eager to teach a hands-on course here in the theory and practice of X-ray crystallography. His duties will include overseeing the entire X-ray facility, including the macromolecular X-ray diffractometer, but his major focus will be small molecule single crystal X-ray crystallography.
When the renovations of the X-ray facility are completed later this semester, Dr. Li will visit BC to oversee the installation of the diffractometers. On that occasion, he will present a departmental seminar on his work at Albany entitled: "Structural Investigation of Inorganic and Organic Compounds Using a Combination of X-Ray Diffraction and Spectroscopic Techniques" The time and place will be announced. (11.01.07)
Professor Ross Kelly Elected Fellow of AAAS
Congratulations are in order for Professor T. Ross Kelly, who has just been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). A Fellow, who must be nominated by a group of three AAAS Fellows, at least two of whom are not affiliated with the institution of the nominee, is defined as "a member whose efforts on behalf of the advancement of science or its applications are scientifically or socially distinguished." AAAS Fellows are drawn from the elite in their respective fields of research.
In the letter announcing his election, Ross was cited for his "demonstrated excellence in research and teaching and a distinguished record of enlightened leadership and wise counsel." The Award will be presented at the annual meeting of the Association in February in Boston. (10.24.07)
Graduate Fellowships Announced
Yunmi Lee has been named recipient of the 2007-2008 Astra Zeneca Graduate Fellowship in Organic Chemistry. Lee, a member of Professor Amir H. Hoveyda’s group, is focused on developing new methods for the catalytic enantioselective synthesis of tertiary and quaternary carbon centers that are useful chiral synthons as precursors for biologically active molecules. The 2007 Schering-Plough Graduate Fellowship has been awarded to Russell E. Giudici and Heather E. Burks. Also in the Hovedya Group, Giudici’s research focuses on expanding the scope of Ru-catalyzed asymmetric ring-opening/cross metathesis to include non-styrenyl cross partners and well as highly strained cyclopropenes and cyclobutenes. Burks, a student in the group of Professor James P.Morken, is working on the development and mechanistic elucidation of the palladium-catalyzed enantioselective diboration of allenes, and on development of an enantioselective diboration of dienes. Recently announced, the 2007/2008 Novartis Graduate Fellowship in Organic Chemistry for Minorities and Women is has been given to Tricia L. May. A member of the Hoveyda Group, May is examining new N-heterocyclic carbene ligands for applications to asymmetric conjugate addition of alkyl- and arylmetal reagents to b-substituted cyclic enones for the formation of all-carbon quaternary stereogenic centers.
It's SRO for Professor Ross Kelly
If it's Friday morning, you can count on a capacity-plus crowd in Devlin 008 for another session of class CH23101 - Organic Chemistry, taught by Vanderslice Professor of Chemistry T. Ross Kelly.
Kelly has a particularly challenging charge: engaging the hundreds of organic chemistry students each semester in what traditionally has been considered one of the most difficult of undergraduate subjects.
In past years, Organic Chemistry has seen enrollment averaging in the mid-200s, so administrators were surprised at this year's uptick by 20 percent.
"Devlin 008 is our largest classroom," said Student Services Director Louise Lonabocker. But this year's enrollment of 307 has topped its number of seats by three, she says.
"We saw the course enrollment was up to 305 at the start of the semester, but we assumed it would change during Drop/Add period," Lonabocker said. "And it did - only it went up."
The scholar charged with keeping the attention of the 300-plus audience (in which women students outnumber men 166-141) of budding chemists and physicians is himself a nationally recognized scientist - one of many senior faculty members at BC who, while holding impressive research credentials, remain committed to teaching undergraduates.
Kelly's achievements in the lab are considerable: he was the first to synthesize the anti-cancer agent fredericamycin A; he created a molecular "brake" which can stop the rotation of a certain molecule; and he earned global headlines with the prototype of a molecular paddle wheel that was among the world's smallest motors.
He also has won honors such as Teacher of the Year by BC's student Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa and the American Chemical Society's Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, which acknowledges a career that combines cutting edge research with excellent teaching.
(10.5.07) -by Patricia Delaney for the Boston College Chronicle
Abbott Laboratories Support Announced
The Chemistry Department is pleased to announce that Abbott Laboratories Global Pharmaceutical Research and Development will provide continued support for the Abbott Laboratories Symposium. Abbott Laboratories’ strong desire to continue support for present and future graduate and undergraduate research is greatly appreciated by our faculty and students. Professor Marc L. Snapper of the Boston College Chemistry Department and Dr. Michael Hoemann of Abbott Laboratories will serve as the contacts for this collaboration. (09.05.07)
Professor Torsten Fiebig Receives 2007 Inter-American Photochemical Society Young Investigator Award for his work on electron transport in DNA using ultrafast spectroscopy
A recent contribution of Professor Torsten Fiebig’s group in the area of DNA photochemistry addresses a long-standing question. Since the early days of DNA photochemistry, there have been speculations about the degree of electronic delocalization in stacked DNA bases. A thorough understanding of this phenomenon is central for understanding the mechanism of UV light-induced chemical reactions, which may result in carcinogenic mutations. Fiebig’s team has recently applied his new experimental techniques to single and double stranded DNA, tracing the electronic excitation both in time and in space along the base stack. Results of the experiments provide the first evidence regarding the existence of delocalized electronic domains (excitons) in DNA. (08.09.07)
Eli Lilly & Company Grant to Provide Seminar Support
The Chemistry Department is pleased to announce that we have received a grant from Eli Lilly & Company to support the academic year 2007/08 Boston College Organic Chemistry Seminar Series. Lilly strives to create and deliver innovative medicines that enable people to live longer, healthier, and more active lives. As a component of this goal, Lilly is committed to supporting programs that promote excellence in patient care. This initiative will no doubt have a positive outcome and impact on the lives of patients.
Professor Steven Bruner Publishes Key Nature Article
The Bruner group has solved a key research problem associated with the production of the therapeutically-important class of antibiotics - the vancomycins - in nature. The article appearing in the 17 May 2007 issue of Nature magazine discusses issues associated with the pharmaceutical production of structurally complex antibiotics and the goal of exploiting natural antibiotic pathways to generate new therapeutics. In addition to important applications toward antibiotic biosynthesis, the Bruner group’s research provides the first picture of how an enzyme interacts with oxygen gas. Oxygen is a common reagent used in all processes of cellular biology. The enzyme studied, DpgC, is unique in that it catalyzes complex oxidation chemistry without the assistance of any metal or co-factor. The work reports the first atomic resolution picture of this enzyme "caught in action" giving unprecedented detail regarding the mechanism of antibiotic biosynthesis. The Bruner article was highlighted in the 21 May issue of Chemistry & Engineering News and will be featured in an upcoming issue of The BC Chronicle.
Please also see: http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/rvp/pubaf/07/bruner-antibiotic.html
U.S. News & World Report gives BC Chemistry Department top-rankings
The latest rankings of “America’s Best Graduate Schools” by U.S. News & World Report indicate that Organic Chemistry is the top-ranked program in the College of Arts and Sciences at Boston College. Nationwide, the Organic Chemistry division at BCC is ranked 18th, and our Chemistry Department overall ranks 50th. Only 91 of 185 Ph.D. programs in chemistry nationwide were ranked in this survey, which was based on data computed in January 2007. Of those 91 universities, the only program ahead of Boston College on the list with as few chemistry faculty (19 faculty, ranked 50 overall) is Duke University (19 faculty, ranked 43 overall). Only two chemistry departments with 20 faculty members are ranked higher than BC: Johns Hopkins University (ranked 28) and Emory University (ranked 36). The next smallest chemistry department that ranks ahead of BC is the Scripps Research Institute (24 faculty, ranked 6th overall).
Professor Hoveyda Awarded the Max Tishler Prize by Harvard University
Our department chair, Professor Amir Hoveyda, was selected by the faculty of the Harvard University Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology to receive the 2007 Max Tishler Prize in recognition of his outstanding contributions to chemistry. The lecture presented by Professor Hoveyda on the occasion of receiving this award described his latest research on "New N-Heterocyclic Carbenes: Exciting Frontiers in Reactivity, Selectivity, and Catalysis."
2007/2008 Beckman Scholar Award
The 2007 Beckman Scholar Award Selection Committee has chosen Edward C. Koellhoffer, a sophomore Biochemistry major working in the laboratory of Professor Daniel Kirschner, Department of Biology, to receive a 2007-2008 Beckman Scholar Award. Ted's research project, which he designed jointly with Professor Daniel Kirschner and Professor Anne Stellwagen, will focus on conformational and morphological analyses of the prion protein, Sup35 of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and fiber x-ray diffraction (XRD). During his fifteen-month tenure as a Beckman Scholar, Ted will attend two Beckman Scholar Symposia sponsored by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation in Irvine, California. He will receive stipend and travel funds to present his research results at a scientific meeting. The monetary value of the Beckman Scholar Award is $19,300.
Norris-Richards Research Scholarship
The 2007 James FlackNorris/Theodore William Richards Summer Research Scholarship is the most recent award for Ryan Heney, an undergraduate student in Professor Evan Kantrowitz’s group. This award carries a stipend of $2,750 for a minimum commitment of ten weeks of full-time summer research. The presentation of the award will be made at the meeting of the Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society (NESACS) on Thursday, 10 May, at Northeastern University. Ryan is also the 2007 recipient of the Dean’s Scholar at Boston College, the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, and the Chemistry Department Undergraduate Award in Analytical Chemistry.
Stephanie Ng Receives 2007 Schering-Plough Science and Innovation Award
Ms. Stephanie Ng, a graduate student in Professor Marc Snapper’s group, has been selected to participate in the 2007 Schering-Plough Science and Innovation Award Program. Sponsored by Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Schering-Plough Research Institute, this award seeks to recognizes academic excellence and to strengthen the ties between industry and academia. Ms. Ng and her faculty advisor will travel to Schering-Plough’s New Jersey facility to tour the laboratories and participate in a symposium held to honor the Science and Innovation Award winners. Boston College is one of 13 universities nationwide selected to participate in this prestigious program based on its strengths in Organic Chemistry. Dr. John Traverse, a Schering-Plough scientist and alumnus of BC, will present Ms. Ng with a cash award and a trophy at a presentation on 1 May. Ms. Ng’s research is currently focused on using new reactions developed in the Snapper lab toward the synthesis of the natural product cycloaraneosene.
The 2006 winner of this award was Dr. Elizabeth Sattely, BCC 2007, now a post-doc at Harvard Medical School.
Laura Wieland & Stephanie Ng Receive 2007 Roche Excellence Award
Two Organic Chemistry graduate students, Ms. Laura Wieland, of Professor Amir Hoveyda’s group, and Ms. Stephanie Ng, of Professor Marc Snapper’s group, have been selected to present research talks at the 2007 Roche Symposium: Excellence in Chemistry. The two-day symposium, which will take place at Hoffman-LaRoche in Nutley, New Jersey this June, provides selected graduate students and Roche chemists with the opportunity to discuss their research. Ms. Wieland’s research focuses on developing new reactions to efficiently synthesize chiral building blocks that contain structural motifs which are difficult to synthesize by other methods, and which are prevalent in natural products and biologically important molecules. Ms. Ng’s research is currently focused on using new reactions developed in the Snapper lab toward the synthesis of the natural product cycloaraneosene.
Vikki Tsefrikas Receives 2006/2007 Boston College GSAS Award
Ms. Vikki Tsefrikas, a graduate student in Professor Larry Scott’s group, has been selected by the Boston College Graduate School of Arts & Sciences as the recipient of the 2006/2007 Academic Achievement Award. Ms. Tsefrikas’s research focuses on carbon nanotubes, which are one of the strongest materials known to man and have potential applications in electronics and thermal conductivity. Ms. Tsefrikas is attempting to chemically synthesize a specific nanotube by building a hemispherical endcap that can serve as a template from which a nanotube will be grown.
Women in Science & Technology Program Embarks on Second Year
A Boston College student-run program designed to inspire the next generation of women scientists is now in its second year. The month-long Saturday series, which began March 17 and is being offered free of charge to participants, will showcase in particular the impact of women in the sciences and current opportunities for women in the field.
WST brings together 24 female students from Boston-area high schools for research, lectures, field trips, and the opportunity to meet mentors and role models from scientific disciplines. The high school students will conduct research involving DNA forensics, polymers, and protein purification, among other areas. Scheduled field trips for the group include outings to the Weston Observatory and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Among the participants this year are 11 students from North Cambridge Catholic, six from Boston Latin, four from Braintree High, and three from Trinity Catholic in Newton.
Seventeen undergraduate women science majors at BC are volunteering their time to help with the project, and two, Biochemistry majors Meghan Griffin and Kate Pierce, are in leadership roles. Chemistry Professors Mary Roberts and Lynne O’Connell serve as advisors to WST, in addition to being role models for the students.
Pierce, who hopes to become a science teacher after she graduates from BC in May, said "To me, this program is about giving women more opportunities and showing that women can succeed in these fields even though in the past they have been male-dominated."
Beckman Scholars Grant Awarded
Under the leadership of Professors David McFadden and Mary Roberts, a joint proposal submitted by the Chemistry and Biology departments at Boston College has been selected as one of fourteen national recipients of the prestigious 2007 Beckman Scholars Program Award. Five undergraduate Chemistry and Biology students will each receive 15-months of generous scholarship support over the three year program. This new award follows on successful three-year Beckman Scholars Program grants received by Chemistry and Biology in 2004 and 2001. Established in 1997, The Beckman Scholars Program is an invited program for accredited universities and four-year colleges in the United States. It provides scholarships that contribute significantly in advancing the education, research training, and personal development of select undergraduate students in chemistry, biochemistry, and the biological and medical sciences. The sustained, in-depth undergraduate research experiences and comprehensive faculty mentoring are unique in terms of program scope, content and level of scholarship awards ($19,300 for two summers and one academic year). For further information, please see: http://www.beckman-foundation.com/
Professor Steve Bruner Receives NSF Career Award
Professor Steve Bruner, has received a prestigious CAREER award from the National Science Foundation. Professor Bruner’s research uses an interdisciplinary approach, including structural biology and synthetic organic chemistry, to study the enzymatic machinery responsible for the biosynthesis of complex natural products. A detailed, molecular level understanding of biosynthetic pathways will allow the rational engineering of these systems and will facilitate the development of novel therapeutics. The highly competitive NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program provides support for early career-development activities to those teacher-scholars who most effectively integrate research and education within the context of the mission of their organizations.
Electronically Excited DNA
The 19 March 2007 issue of Chemical & Engineering News reports: "For more than a half-century, chemists have debated what happens immediately after genomic DNA is exposed to damaging ultraviolet radiation. Is the resulting UV-induced electronic excitation localized on a single nucleotide base or does it spread over neighboring bases in the helical DNA stack? Boston College chemists now have demonstrated experimentally that the electronic excitation delocalizes in single- and double-stranded polyadenine (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2007, 104, 4794). Torsten Fiebig's team used femtosecond time-resolved broadband spectroscopy to show that this delocalization in polyadenine spreads over three to four stacked bases. Some scientists have suggested that, because delocalized excited states tend to stick around longer than those centered on single bases, delocalization might prolong the window during which the excited bases are susceptible to chemical damage. But Fiebig suspects that delocalization is inhibited in vivo because bases in random genetic sequences are not as neatly stacked as they are in extended strings of adenine or guanine."
Professor Steven Bruner wins NIH Shared Instrumentation Grant
Professor Steven Bruner’s proposal to the NIH Shared Instrumentation Grant program has been approved for funding. This $228,000 award will be used to purchase an X-ray generator for macromolecular crystallography that will be used by Chemical Biology researchers. X-ray crystallography is a way to look at structures at atomic resolution and is especially useful for investigating proteins, DNA, and small molecules. The Chemistry Department is committed to shared instrumentation which fosters interactions among different research groups that otherwise might not interact regularly. The department’s plans include the construction of a new instrumentation room in Merkert, which will accommodate X-ray facilities. Professor Bruner is also the recent recipient of an NSF CAREER award.
Torsten Fiebig shares Gramaticakis-Neumann Prize
Professor Torsten Fiebig, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, is co-recipient of the Gramaticakis-Neumann Prize of the Swiss Chemical Society. He shares this award with Professor H.-A. Wagenknecht (Technical University of Munich). Professor Fiebig lectured at the fall meeting of the Swiss Chemical Society on light-induced dynamics in DNA on the femtosceond timescale (DNA photonics). A member of the Boston College Chemistry Department since 2003, Professor Fiebig's research group develops spectroscopic methods to investigate structural changes in biological molecules in real time.
Dr. Bridget McCarthy named Vice President of Chemistry
Dr. Bridget McCarthy was recently named Vice President of Chemistry at Surface Logix. Dr. McCarthy was an NIH postdoctoral fellow with Professor Amir Hoveyda in the mid-1990s and also collaborated with Professor Marc Snapper. She was also with Pfizer for ten years.
http://www.surfacelogix.com/news/news_060628.htm
Kevin Brown and Josh Sieber win prestigious graduate fellowships:
Kevin Brown (Hoveyda group) received the 2006-2007 Bristol-Myers Squibb Graduate Fellowship in Synthetic Organic Chemistry. Kevin is one of ten national winners. Fellowship awardees are chosen based on demonstrated academic and research achievements as well as for their potential for significant future accomplishments. Josh Sieber (Morken group) received the prestigious 2006/2007 American Chemical Society Division of Organic Chemistry Graduate Fellowship. This fellowship is awarded to eighteen organic chemistry graduate students across the country. Evidence of notable research accomplishment and career potential are important selection criteria for this award.
