Searching for Nascent Peptides that Cause Ribosome Stalling

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Shankar Parajuli and Dr. Allen Buskirk, Chemistry and Biochemistry Ribosomes are molecular machines that synthesize all the proteins for all living cells. Ribosomes sometimes stall and cannot complete the synthesis of a given protein. Some peptides interact with the ribosome during their own translation and induce stalling.1 The SecM and TnaC peptides in E. coli, […]

Synthesis and Purification of the Glycosphingolipid CSA-13

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Tyler Olsen and Dr. Paul Savage, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry The need for novel antibiotic mechanisms is prevalent. Common antimicrobial medicines such as penicillin, ampicillin and vancomycin have started becoming obsolete as resistant strains of bacteria become more widespread. The main problem with antibiotics is the rapid mutations that bacteria undergo. Eventually one cell […]

Electrospray of Bacteria Intact and Viable

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Sara Pratt and Dr. Daniel Austin, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry In this project we wanted to see if bacteria can survive a process called electrospray ionization (ESI). While bacteria survival of ESI has not previously been demonstrated, viruses survivability has1. The process of ESI consists of spraying a solution of the desired analyte in […]

Bioactive Lipid Analysis of Asthma-Induced Lung Tissue with a Focus on Biomarker Identification

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Mackay Merrill and Dr. John Prince, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Overview Initially, the goal of my project was to search for biologically active lipids in the lung tissue of mice with and without asthma (as opposed to those which simply form the membranes of cells) and determine if any of these lipids could serve […]

Major Earthquakes in Tsunamic of the Banda Arc Region, Indonesia: The Past 400 Years

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Tsz Man Fisher (Lau) and Dr. Ronald Harris, Department of Geological Science The original project was titled, “Journey to the Center of the Earth: Investigating Subduction Channel Processes in Southern Tibet.” Complications came up when we began to work on this project last summer. With the permission of the ORCA committee, we changed the project […]

Microelectromechanical Devices for Remote Sensing in Extreme Conditions

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David Landry and Dr. David Allred, Physics Department, College of Physical & Mathematical Sciences Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are commonly used to build sensors for consumer products such as game console controllers1 and smart phones2. These sensors use piezoelectric materials and are wired directly into a larger electronic system. Because of their use case, these sensors […]

High-Aspect Ratio Microaccelerometer for Extreme Environments

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Adam Konneker and Dr. David Allred, Department of Physics and Astronomy Over the course of the past year, I have had the invaluable opportunity to pursue a research project under the guidance of Dr. David Allred. I am still working on completing the project, but I have made significant progress and gained experience in designing […]

The Calculation of H-beta Indices for delta Scuti Variable Stars

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Kelsey Jorgenson and Dr. Eric Hintz, Physics and Astronomy A large part of astronomical research involves gathering information about celestial objects and drawing conclusions about that information. Astronomers commonly gather data for research projects via sweeping surveys, either of particular regions of the sky or of specific kinds of stars or celestial objects. Data from […]

FABRICATION OF SUSPENDED GRAPHENE MEMBRANES GROWN BY CHEMICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION (CVD) USING CARBON NANOTUBES

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Caleb Hustedt and Drs. Robert Davis and Richard Vanfleet, Physics and Astronomy Graphene is an exciting material that stands to have a large impact on the scientific community. Unfortunately, graphene cannot be fully utilized due to its small scale and time consuming production. Graphene grown by chemical vapor deposition solves these issues but comes with […]