An undergraduate research project is an exciting and rewarding experience. Undergraduate research can help you acquire a spirit of inquiry, initiative, independence, sound judgment, patience, persistence, alertness, and the ability to use the chemical literature. The Department strongly endorses undergraduate research as one of the potentially most rewarding aspects of your undergraduate experience.
Although successful completion of an undergraduate research project is a requirement for graduation with Honors or Highest Honors, it is not necessary to be a participant in the honors program to undertake a research project. Visit the Office for Undegraduate Research to learn where "your curiosity can lead you."
The Lawrence Group works at the interface between organic synthesis and cell biology. In fact, half the group resides in Chemistry's Kenan Labs and the other half can be found in the newly opened multidisciplinary Genetic Medicine Building in the medical school complex. The lab focuses on the design, synthesis, characterization, and application of probes of intracellular chemistry. Research interests include new diagnostic strategies for cancer, sensors of signaling pathways, mitochondrial proteomics, the molecular basis of memory and learning, and the control of gene expression in living animals.
Sample transport and electrokinetic injection bias are well characterized in capillary electrophoresis and simple microchips, but a thorough understanding of sample transport on devices combining electroosmosis, electrophoresis, and pressure-driven flow is lacking. In work published in Electrophoresis, researchers from the Allbritton Group evaluate the effects of electric fields from 0 to 300 V/cm, electrophoretic mobilities from 10-4 to 10-6 cm2/Vs, and pressure-driven fluid velocities from 50 to 250 µm/s on sample injection in a microfluidic chemical cytometry device. By studying a continuous sample stream, they found that increasing electric field strength and electrophoretic mobility result in improved injection and that COMSOL simulations accurately predict sample transport.
The effects of pressure-driven fluid velocity on injection are complex, and relative concentration values lie on a surface defined by pressure-driven flow rates. For high-mobility analytes, this surface is flat, and sample injection is robust despite fluctuations in flow rate. For lower mobility analytes, the surface becomes steeper, and injection depends strongly on pressure-driven flow. These results indicate generally that device design must account for analyte characteristics and specifically that this device is suited to high-mobility analytes. The team demonstrates that for a suitable pair of peptides fluctuations in injection volume are correlated; electrokinetic injection bias is minimized; and electrophoretic separation is achieved.
Mesoporous silica nanospheres (MSNs) are a promising material for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast enhancement, as they can carry high loadings of Gd(III) complexes. MSN-based MRI contrast agents can circumvent many of the limitations of small molecule contrast agents such as low contrast enhancement efficiency, potential toxicity, and the inability to specifically target disease tissues. Nanoparticle-based MRI contrast agents must be cleared in a timely fashion to avoid the long-term toxicity.
Researchers in the Lin Group, as published in the journal Small, report the incorporation of a cleavable Gd(III) chelate into the MSN material such that the chelate is rapidly cleared after injection. The material was further functionalized with poly(ethylene glycol) and a targeting ligand to impart biocompatibility and target specificity. The effectiveness of this material as a MRI contrast agent was effectively demonstrated in vivo with human colon and pancreatic adenocarcinoma cells; the chelate was successfully cleaved and cleared via the renal excretion pathway.
Nanoscale coordination polymers (NCPs) have been demonstrated as an interesting platform for the delivery of methotrexate (MTX), an antifolate cancer drug, as they possess many potential advantages over small-molecule chemotherapeutics such as high payloads, lower systemic toxicity, tunability, and enhanced tumor uptake. NCPs also overcome the limitations of existing nanoparticle formulations that have very low drug loadings.
Researchers in the Lin Group, published in Chemical Science, report the incorporation of MTX as a building block in an NCP formulation with exceptionally high drug loadings (up to 79.1 wt%) and the selective delivery of the NCP to cancer cells. Encapsulation of the NCP in a functionalized lipid bilayer allows for targeted delivery and controlled release to cancer cells. A phosphor can be doped into the NCPs for monitoring particle uptake by optical imaging. The lipid-coated and anisamide-targeted NCPs have superior in vitro efficacy against acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells when compared to the free drug.
Francis Preston Venable Professor of Chemistry Joseph L. Templeton has been awarded the General Alumni Association's Faculty Service Award. The award was established in 1990 and honors faculty members who have performed outstanding service for the University or the association. Templeton was the faculty representative on the GAA board for 2009-10.
As Templeton — who served as chair of the chemistry department from 1990 to 1995 — has continued to teach a full course load, mentor graduate students, apply for grants and run his own research projects, he also has taken on several high-profile administrative assignments. Among other duties, he served as chair of the Faculty Council from 2006 to 2009, served as chair of the Summer Reading Program Book Selection Committee, on the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee, and the Faculty Executive Committee.
Jon Edwards, a graduate student in the Redinbo Group, has been selected to receive a Graduate Education Advancement Board Impact Award. This award, sponsored by the Graduate School's external advancement board of private citizens, recognizes outstanding graduate student research of particular benefit to North Carolina. The Impact Awards Selection Committee, comprised of faculty from across campus, reviewed a large number of exemplary applications. Jon's project was selected as having exceptional quality and potential.
Jon's research focuses on the structure and biochemical function of a key enzyme involved in bacterial conjugation, called the relaxase. Specifically, he is interested in VRSA (vancomycin resistant. S. aureus) as the CDC states this is one of the major looming health threats facing mankind. Little work has been done on gram positive bacteria and through understanding the DNA binding specificity and the structure of the enzyme Jon is hoping to provide more basic information on the mechanism, which may lead to novel insights about designing new antibiotics.
Chancellor's Eminent Professor of Chemistry, Joseph DeSimone was invited to talk at the 2011 TedMed gathering. His presentation focused on how an amazing new printing technique, borrowed from the micro electronics industry, enhances biomimicry for drugs that target diseased cells and bacteria, not healthy tissue.
TEDMED is a community of people who are passionate about a better future for health and medicine. Once a year, TEDMED holds a "grand gathering" where leaders from all sectors of society come together for three and a half days. They explore the promise of technology and the potential of human achievement. This unique event combines dazzling celebration, high-powered learning and unforgettable theater.