Research Labs

Dr. Michael Webb

• Instrument and technique development for diverse analytical spectroscopy applications.
• Solution-cathode glow discharge: detecting trace metals with a small plasma
• Spectral imaging: chemical information from images, including detecting forgeries.
• Microcontroller-based spectroscopy: Arduinos, LEDs, & 3D printing used for inexpensive educational and field instruments.

Dr. Antje Almeida

• Function and specificity of antimicrobial and cytotoxic peptides.
• Movement of charged peptides across hydrophobic barriers.
• Structure of bacterial membranes

Dr. Paulo Almeida

• Mechanism and kinetics of action of amphipathic defense peptides: how antimicrobial peptides and bacterial toxins attack their target cells.
• Understanding biological membrane function: domain formation in fluid phospholipid membranes.
• Cooperative magnification of small protein-lipid interactions and their functional consequences.

Dr. Chris Halkides

• Chemical modification of signal transduction proteins
• Crystallization of proteins
• Synthesis of inhibitors against enzymes involved in amino acid biosynthesis
• Testing of biodiesel

Dr. Conor Haney

• New methods for the site-specific incorporation of multiple post-translationally modified amino acids to understand how modifications affect protein aggregation
• Peptide-based molecular probes for disease-related aggregates with improved specificity over current, small-molecule probes
• Small molecule modulators of the cells’ inherent response to misfolded or aggregated proteins as a means to “rescue,” protein misfolding

Dr. Soon Goo Lee

• Molecular and structural basis of enzymes, regulatory proteins, and key signaling molecules using biochemical research tools, especially protein X-ray crystallography
• The 'Genomic identification - Structure-based functional study - Protein/Metabolic engineering' strategy to understand and engineer the production of natural products

Dr. Ying Wang

• Molecular basis and pharmaceutical intervention of hereditary cataract formation
• Protein engineering of highly soluble myoglobin inspired by deep-diving whales
• Thermodynamics-guided formulation development of pharmaceutical proteins and peptides

Dr. Nathaniel Grove

• Factors influencing meaningful /rote learning in chemistry
• Factors influencing epistemological development in chemistry
• Development of representational competence in chemistry
• Use of technology in teaching chemistry

Dr. Jimmy Reeve

• Development of home based "kitchen chemistry" laboratory exercises for distance learning general chemistry.
• Creation of distance learning graduate chemistry courses for teachers and other non-traditional students.
• Use of technology to support instruction.

Dr. Brooks Avery

• Global carbon cycling in the atmosphere, water column, and sediments anthropogenic and biogenic).
• Effect of global warming and sea level rise on the remineralization of organic matter in coastal and estuarine sediments.
• Biogeochemical controls on methyl mercury production and flux in estuarine sediments.
• Isotopic characterization of carbon to elucidate sources and cycling of organic matter.

Dr. Dan Baden

• Structure/activity relationships of harmful algal bloom toxins as they interact with receptors in biological systems.
• Analytical methods for identifying natural ligands and receptors
• Solid phase and liquid phase measurement of dissociation constants and dynamic equilibria in biological systems.

Dr. Bob Kieber

• Air sea exchange processes especially as they relate to global warming issues.
• Trace metal speciation in estuarine and atmospheric waters.
• Photochemically mediated processes and their impact on environmental systems.

Dr. Ralph Mead

• Chemical composition and reactions in rainwater, including trace metal speciation, redox reactions, photochemical reactions and nutrient fluxes.
• Impacts of atmospheric deposition (rain, dust, gas exchange) on the chemistry of surface seawater.
• Chemical speciation, biogeochemical transformations and fluxes of mercury, in rainwater, river water, estuarine water and seawater.

Dr. Steve Skrabal

• Marine and environmental geochemistry.
• Speciation and cycling of trace metals (especially Hg) in natural waters.
• Sediment-water exchange in estuaries and coastal waters.

Dr. Wendy Strangman

• Microbial natural products drug discovery
• Natural products structure elucidation
• Mass spectrometry-based bioassay development for drug discovery
• Mass spectometry-based environmental metabolomics

Dr. R. Thomas Williamson

• Application of novel screening technologies for marine natural products drug discovery
• Structure determination of marine and terrestrial natural products
• Application and method development in NMR spectroscopy
• Online organic reaction and bioprocess monitoring & mechanistic studies
• Chemical ecological studies in the context of drug-discovery

Dr. Thomas Coombs

• Development of new methods for organocatalytic alpha-amination of aldehydes.
• Diversity-oriented synthesis of alkaloid-inspired compound collections for medicinal applications.
• Exploration of the properties and reactivity of strained organosilanes.

Dr. Jeremy Morgan

• New transition metal-catalyzed and organocatalytic methods for the synthesis of chiral, non-racemic organic molecules.
• Catalyst development and study of reaction mechanism.
• Application in bioactive natural product total synthesis.
• Dr. Pam Seaton
• Isolation, synthesis, and structure elucidation of bioactive marine lipids.
• Synthesis and NMR characterization of bioactive heterocycles.

Dr. Pam Seaton

• Isolation, synthesis, and structure elucidation of bioactive marine lipids.
• Synthesis and NMR characterization of bioactive heterocycles.

Dr. Wendy Strangman

• Microbial natural products drug discovery
• Natural products structure elucidation
• Mass spectrometry-based bioassay development for drug discovery
• Mass spectometry-based environmental metabolomics
• Dr. Sridhar Varadarajan
• Organic synthesis of DNA-alkylating molecules.
• Design, organic synthesis, and investigation of molecules that target specific receptors on cells.
• Targeting specific cell-types with DNA-damaging agents that induce cell-death, but not mutations, for potential therapeutic applications in diseases such as cancer and diabetes.

Dr. Sridhar Varadarajan

• Organic synthesis of DNA-alkylating molecules.
• Design, organic synthesis, and investigation of molecules that target specific receptors on cells.
• Targeting specific cell-types with DNA-damaging agents that induce cell-death, but not mutations, for potential therapeutic applications in diseases such as cancer and diabetes.

Dr. R. Thomas Williamson

• Application of novel screening technologies for marine natural products drug discovery
• Structure determination of marine and terrestrial natural products
• Application and method development in NMR spectroscopy
• Online organic reaction and bioprocess monitoring & mechanistic studies
• Chemical ecological studies in the context of drug-discovery

Dr. Hee-Seung Lee

• Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of lipid membrane interacting with antimicrobial peptides.
• Density functional theory (DFT) studies of catalytic effect of doped carbon nanotubes in fuel cell electrodes.
• DFT and Time-dependent DFT studies of the photoinduced lectron transfer (PET) sensors.
  Parallel implementation of large scale ab initio molecular dynamics code based on localized real-space basis.

Dr. Mike Messina

• Theoretical studies of quantum dynamics of laser-molecule interactions.
• Computation algorithms for predicting rate constants and activation energies from experimental data.
• Theoretical studies of solvation of the hydrogen atom in liquids.

Dr. Ying Wang

• Molecular basis and pharmaceutical intervention of hereditary cataract formation
• Protein engineering of highly soluble myoglobin inspired by deep-diving whales
• Thermodynamics-guided formulation development of pharmaceutical proteins and peptides