Our work spans two projects, the first of which is to enable students to gain experience in medicinal chemistry by carrying out a unique laboratory experiment in the undergraduate organic lab. The experiment begins with students choosing their compound of interest, among those from four drug scaffolds, and then synthesizing said compound. Next, students assess their drug's binding potency to the heme-binding pocket of apohemoglobin created by removing the heme-group from hemoglobin. Drug binding is assessed via a novel fluorescence competitive displacement assay developed by our lab. Lastly, students analyze their data, create a dose response curve and compare their results with each other to identify the most potent binders. The experiment is an ideal Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE), and has recently been deployed in-person with a newly developed scaffold. Experiment design, results, and student feedback will all be presented. Our second project is based on coupling a novel nematicidal chalcone with a fluorescent molecule. Nematodes are ubiquitous in agricultural soils and as a consequence annually destroy over $80 billion dollars’ worth of cash crops, worldwide. In pursuit of a new nematocide, the lab of Dr. Alejandro Calderón-Urrea at CSU Fresno screened over 100 different chalcones to find three that worked well at exterminating two classes of Nematodes: Caenorhabditis elegans (a free-living nematode) and Meloidogyne incognita (a plant-parasitic nematode). Dr. Calderón-Urrea and his group also tested the effects of the chalcones on beneficial soil organisms and concluded that they were safe for use, so it was decided to continue research with these identified nematicides. Our research group at Chico State has successfully synthesized these compounds with a versatile handle and we are now attempting to couple these molecules with a fluorescent tag, fluoresceinamine, to enable in vivo studies to discern the mode of action of these compounds via fluorescence microscopy

Investigations in synthesizing biologically-active molecules

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.