Matthew McDowell and Dr. Allen Buskirk, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Abstract Ribosomes are large complexes made up of ribosomal RNA and proteins and are the site of protein synthesis. However, ribosomes occasionally run into problems during this process and will stall during translation. Fortunately, two molecules known as tmRNA and SmpB are made by […]
Search Results for: synthesis
Englerin-A
Curtis Allred and Dr. Merritt Andrus, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry My project has been to synthesize smaller, simpler analogs of a molecule that is effective against renal cancer, called englerin-A. This is accomplished by computer aided modeling of simple analogs, synthesis of those models, and assays to determine activity. I am participating in this project in Dr. […]
Screening of Secondary Chemicals from Selected Species of North American Lichens Against Various Pathologenic Bacteria
Jocelyn Raphael and Dr. Larry St. Clair, Department of Biology Lichens consist of a fungus occurring symbiotically with a photosynthetic organism (such as an alga and/or cyanobacterium). Lichens are known to produce a high number of secondary metabolites. Studies have shown that these secondary compounds have various biological roles such as antibiotic, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, anti-proliferative, […]
Options and Distributional Characteristics
David Mauler and Dr. James McDonald, Department of Economics My BYU ORCA grant provided valuable funding which allowed me to spend significant time on an interesting research question Dr. McDonald and I had considered late last year. We wanted to investigate whether the Inverse Hyperbolic Sine (IHS) distribution would allow for a more accurate option-pricing […]
An Alternative Method to Prepare Cobalt Catalysts Using Salt Precursors
Trevor Seegmiller and Dr. Calvin Bartholomew, Department of Chemical Engineering Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) is the process for converting syngas (carbon monoxide and hydrogen) into liquid fuels such as gasoline and diesel. A cobalt or iron catalyst is required for the process. Cobalt catalysts have the highest effectiveness and stability in FTS; however, they are more […]
Gold Nanoparticle Conjugation with A2 Protein in VLP for Symmetrical Alignment
Matthew Burnham and Dr. Brad Bundy, Department of Chemical Engineering A Virus-like Particle (VLP) is a nanostructure composed of many coat proteins. They differ from real viruses in that they are synthesized to be non-infectious. VLPs have many useful applications in vaccines, drug delivery, gene therapy, and material science1. Last year, I attempted to create […]
Secretory phospholipase A2
Dr. John Bell, Department of Physiology & Developmental Biology Abstract of original proposal Secretory phospholipase A2 (sPLA2) binds to and hydrolyzes cell membranes. It is important in inflammatory responses and diseases including septic shock, atherosclerosis, and cancer. Normally, cells resist the enzyme’s action, but they become susceptible early during the process of either biochemically-programmed or […]
Supramolecular Chemistry for Students
Drs. Roger Harrison, John Lamb, David Dearden, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry Evaluation of how well the academic objectives of the proposal were met Students working in the mentoring environment synthesized compounds and worked with separation and mass analyzer instruments. They learned how to make new compounds by organic synthesis and characterize their compounds by […]
Rational design of the metabolite mimics as Novel Antibiotics targeting SAM-I/II Riboswitches
Dr. Young Wan Ham, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Evaluation of how well the academic objectives of the proposal were met In our 2009 MEG application, we have proposed structure-based rational design of metabolite mimics based on S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) as novel antibiotics targeting SAM-I/II riboswitches and subsequent development of fluorescence assay to evaluate binding of […]
The Function of Yeast PAS kinase
Dr. Julianne Grose, Department of Microbiology & Molecular Biology Evaluation of academic objectives PAS kinase is a newly discovered member of the nutrient sensing kinases that regulates glucose homeostasis in mice and yeast. The aim of our 2009 MEG “The Function of Yeast PAS kinase” was to characterize the role of a known PAS kinase […]