SHOCKER CHEM Volume 9, Issue 1 A Publication of the Wichita State University Department of Chemistry Spring 2017

From the Chair… ichita State’s unique position as a research university located in an urban center provides challenges, opportunities, and responsibilities that differ from institutions located more distant from population centers. As part of Wichita State’s strategic planning process, an emphasis has been placed on interacting

with and positively impacting the greater Wichita community. The WSU Chemistry Department is active in this goal in many ways, including consulting with Exploration Place on chemistry-themed programs, our ACS Student Affiliates group reaching out to local schools, faculty and staff serving as judges at science fairs, speaking to groups, and giving expert advice. An important aspect of giving back to the community is engaging young people in science, and I’d like to highlight two longstanding programs to which the WSU Chemistry Department is a significant contributor. The Kansas Science Olympiad is part of a national program in which teams of high-school students compete in activities ranging from pencil and paper “tests,” to performing lab experiments, to building a structure or robot. Events cover a wide range of scientific disciplines, including biology, physics, chemistry, earth science, engineering and inquiry. WSU hosts the Kansas competition, the winners of which move on to the national tournament (which was hosted by WSU in 2007). The Fairmount Center for Science and Mathematics Education runs the competition each year, but the WSU Chemistry Department plays a large role, especially Susan McCoy, who recruits and coordinates graduate student volunteers, keeps the stockroom open on the day of the competition, and has started to write some of the events. Many other department members contribute – see page 2 for details. Expanding Your Horizons is a national program which sponsors one-day hands-on STEM workshops for middle-school girls. A few years ago, I was contacted about starting EYH in Wichita. Moriah Beck eagerly took on the formidable task of organizing this event, which involves recruiting 15-20 female STEM professionals to run the workshops, finding keynote speakers and volunteers, obtaining funding, and all the other minutiae that go into running an event for 200 people. Dr. Beck has continued to chair EYH-Wichita, which has completed its fourth year and is a resounding success. See page 2 for details from 2016 and 2017. These are just two (very big) examples of how the WSU Chemistry Department is giving back to the Wichita community. David M. Eichhorn

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Chemistry Office 206 McKinley Hall (316) 978-3120 FAX: (316) 978-3431 www.wichita.edu/chemistry chemistry@wichita.edu Chair: David M. Eichhorn david.eichhorn@wichita.edu

Each year, the State of Kansas Science Olympiad is held at Wichita State University. Teams of high-school students who won local tournaments across the state

compete for the right to advance to the national Science Olympiad. On one Saturday in April, all the teaching labs in McKinley are given over to this event, with many WSU

Chemistry Department personnel giving their time and effort to help make it successful. Chief among these is Susan McCoy (pictured at left), who is the “cruise director” for the day – recruiting and organizing the

student volunteers, making sure that the labs are stocked, and keeping the stockroom open and available. In recent years, Susan has also taken on the task of writing exams for the competition – she wrote the Crime Busters exam and edited the Chem Lab in 2016 and she wrote the Forensics and Crime Busters

exams and edited the Chem Lab exam in 2017. It is safe to say that this event doesn’t happen without her efforts. Jim Bann is also a mainstay of the Science

Olympiad, as he has written the Food Science exam for many years. Mary Cambridge lends her assistance every year on the day of the event. Chemistry students who wrote exams for the 2016 competition included Barclay Houck and Matt Baird (Experimental Design), Julia Kaszycki (Forensics), Jasmine

Mayorga and Sydney Seeby (Crime Busters), and Brandon Johnson (who wrote the Chem Lab exams for the 2016 and 2017 competitions). Aside from people writing exams and preparing for the events, a large number of volunteers is needed to oversee the events on the day of the competition. Many of these are Chemistry Department graduate students. Science Olympiad is a fabulous opportunity to help prepare the next generation of scientists, and the WSU Chemistry Department is proud to play a part. Thanks to all the people who have made this possible.

For the fourth year, on November 5, 2016, WSU hosted the Expanding Your

Horizons workshop in STEM for middle-school-aged girls. Moriah Beck again organized the event for 200 participants. Three of the workshops were organized and run by members or graduates of the WSU Chemistry Department. Dr. Beck presented “Cheesy Chemistry,” where the kids made cheese while learning about biochemistry. The ACS Student Affiliates group returned their popular “Fire and Ice,” with fun experiments to highlight physical and chemical changes, and a group of chemists from Pfizer in McPherson, KS, including WSU chemistry Ph.D. graduates Champika Jayasinghe, Inoka Hewawitharana, Irish Gibson, and Janet De Los Reyes brought a workshop on “Kitchen

Chemistry.” The keynote speaker was Olivia Pavco-Giaccia, founder and CEO of LabCandy – she also hosted a workshop. Other workshops were run by faculty from the WSU biology, economics,

psychology, engineering, and environmental finance programs and the Fairmount Center for Science and Mathematics, while outside presenters from the Kansas Cosmophere, W.A.T.E.R., Lake Afton Observatory, NetApp,

and AccuWeather also participated. Finally, volunteers to escort the kids between and inside multiple campus buildings included chemistry students Ravi Vattepu, Vinay Kadarla, Sumudu Mapa, Sireesha Mamillapalli, Marc Limpiado, Brae Bigge, Dami Alao, and Stephanie Dillon along with

non-chemistry helpers James Beck, Lauren Konrade, Harper McMinn, Jada Smith-Bell, Carissa Stover, CleoAnne Worthan, , Emmy Engasser, Thandolwenkosi Musengezi, and Dylan Harris. We appreciate all their help.

Watkins Speakers The Watkins Visiting Professorship, shared by the departments of Chemistry, Biological Sciences, Geology, and Physics, was created in 1974 by the Watkins Foundation. This grant is now provided through the Watkins fund, a part of the Wichita State University Foundation’s endowment. The Department of Chemistry was pleased to host Dr. Brian Kulhman as a Watkins Visiting Professor on Nov. 9-10, 2016. Dr. Kuhlman is professor of biochemistry and biophysics and co-director of the molecular and cellular biophysics program at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. His current research focuses on a variety of design goals including the creation of novel protein-protein interactions, protein structures and light activatable protein switches. Dr. Kuhlman’s two lectures were entitled “Computer-based design of novel protein interfaces and switches” and “Proteins: The ultimate miniature machines.” The four Watkins departments chose to invite an interdisciplinary Watkins Visiting Professor for the 2016-17 academic year, and we were happy to bring Dr. Donna Nelson to campus on March 16-17, 2017. Dr. Nelson is professor of chemistry at the

University of Oklahoma, immediate past president of the American Chemical Society, and served as science advisor to the popular TV series, “Breaking Bad.” Her nanoscience research involves functionalizing single walled carbon nanotubes with applications in energy research and technology development and she has studied academic accessibility through workforce surveys of faculty race/ethnicity, gender, and rank in science and engineering at research universities. Dr. Nelson’s two lectures were entitled “Lessons learned while science advisor for Breaking Bad” and “Increasing America’s scientific readiness.”

New Instrumentation Dr. Shvartsburg has progressively established his mass spectrometry research lab, with the purchase of four instruments over the past two years. Pictured are the ORBITRAP, LTQ, and TOF instruments. All of these instruments are used in Dr. Shvartsburg’s research, with the TOF also being used to provide service mass spectrometry to the department.

Dr. Gong’s lab also has a new instrument – a capillary electrophoresis instrument used in his research and in the Chem 524 Instrumental Analysis Class.

A former graduate student, Dr. Champika Jayasinghe, arranged for a donation of an Agilent GC/MS from her current employer, Pfizer.

Three Chemistry Faculty Members Receive Research Grants

Alexandre Shvartsburg received the prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER award for his project, “High-Resolution Multidimensional Nonlinear Ion Mobility Spectrometry for Analytical Separations and Structural Characterization.” The award is for $610,000 for three years. Dr. Shvartsburg also received a grant from the NIH COBRE in Protein Structure and Function.

Moriah Beck received an R15 AREA award from the National Institutes of Health for her project, “Probing Actin Filament Assembly, Structure, and Dynamics by Palladin.” The award is in the amount of $415,340 for three years.

Katie Mitchell-Koch received three grants: a Doctoral New Investigator grant from the Petroleum Research

Fund of the American Chemical Society ($110,000 for two years) for her project, “Toward Improved Non-Aqueous Biocatalysis: Mapping Relationships between Enzyme Structure, Interfacial Solvent Dynamics, and Enzyme Dynamics;” an NSF grant for $200,000 in “Unraveling connections among biomolecular structure, interfacial solvent dynamics, and conformational dynamics;" and a grant

from the NIH COBRE in Protein Structure and Function for “Cofactor influence on human aldose reductase conformational dynamics.”

English, Groutas Honored for Patents and Innovation WSU Ventures, an office established to assist Wichita State University faculty, staff and students with commercialization and intellectual property, held its first annual Innovation Celebration Awards ceremony on Oct. 30, 2015. Doug English and Bill Groutas were both honored with the award for patents. Bill Groutas was honored with the same award at the second annual WSU Ventures Innovation Celebration Awards ceremony on Dec. 9, 2016. This past year, Dr. Groutas received a patent for “Macrocyclic and peptidomimetic compounds as broad spectrum antivirals against 3C or 3CL-like proteases of picornaviruses, caliciviruses and coronaviruses” – this is his 7th patent, by far the most of anyone at Wichita State.

Doug English, along with undergraduate students Whitley Quan and Kelsey Hanna, received an inaugural Shocker Innovation Corps Award from WSU Ventures. This award provides seed funding to assist students and their faculty mentors with developing and marketing commercial projects. The award to the chemistry team was for the project “Brom-eco.”

Groutas Wins Academy for Effective Teaching Award The Academy for Effective Teaching at WSU makes an award each year to one professor based on recommendations submitted by students and evaluation of a teaching portfolio by Academy Steering Committee members. The award for 2016 was given to Bill Groutas and was awarded at the annual Faculty Honors Convocation by Regent Zoe Newton and Faculty Senate President Peer Moore-Jansen.

Moriah Beck Wins Two Awards

The WSU Office of Diversity and Inclusion sponsors the Phenomenal Women Award recognizing WSU female employees, students, faculty, or staff for accomplishments and contributions to the WSU community and society. Moriah Beck was one of the 2016 recipients of this award. Dr. Beck was also the recipient of the YSP Leadership Award from Washington University of St. Louis, honoring her for her service as director of the Young Scientist Program while she was in graduate school. The award was presented at the YSP 25th Anniversary Gala (picture at left).

WSU alumnus wins Oklahoma Chemist Award At the 2017 Oklahoma Pentasectional Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Dwight L. Myers, professor and co-chair of the chemistry department of East Central University, was honored with the Oklahoma Chemist Award, the most prestigious award given to a chemist in the state of Oklahoma. Dr. Myers is an alumnus of the WSU chemistry department, having received B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from the department. He earned his Ph.D. in 1991 under the direction of Phil Wahlbeck. We congratulate Dr. Myers on this honor.

Susan McCoy receives CHMM certification Laboratory Education Technician Susan McCoy, as part of her myriad responsibilities, monitors the department’s compliance with hazardous waste management and disposal regulations. In order to increase her understanding of these regulations and their underlying principles, Susan has been studying to become a Certified Hazardous Materials Manager. She recently passed the exam offered by the Institute of Hazardous Materials Management to receive these credentials and, in the words of the letter from the IHMM, “demonstrate a personal commitment to professional excellence in protecting the environment and the public’s safety.” We appreciate Susan’s continued efforts at helping to advance the teaching and research missions of the Chemistry Department. We congratulate her on this accomplishment.

Beck receives tenure/promotion

Dr. Moriah Beck joined the WSU Chemistry Department as an Assistant Professor in Fall 2011. As such, her mandatory review for tenure and promotion occurred during the 2016-17 academic year. We are very happy to announce that she has been approved for tenure and promotion to Associate Professor.

Congratulations Moriah.

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Recent Departmental Publications

Kadel, LR; Kromer, JR; Moore, CE; Eichhorn, DM; “New trisubstituted cyanopyrazoles and cyanoscorpionates”; Polyhedron;

2017, 125, 206-218.

Damalanka, VC; Kim, Y; Kankanamalage, ACG; Lushington, GH; Mehzabeen, N; Battaile, KP; Lovell, S; Chang, KO; Groutas,

WC; “Design, synthesis, and evaluation of a novel series of macrocyclic; inhibitors of norovirus 3CL protease”; Eur. J. Med.

Chem.; 2017, 127, 41-61

Kasireddy, C; Ellis, JM; Bann, JG; Mitchell-Koch, KR; “The Biophysical Probes 2-fluorohistidine and 4-fluorohistidine;

Spectroscopic Signatures and Molecular Properties”; Sci. Reports; 2017, 7, 42651.

Maddukuri, N; Zhang, QY; Zhang, N; Gong, MJ; “Rapid labeling of amino acid neurotransmitters with a fluorescent thiol; in the

presence of o-phthalaldehyde”; Electrophoresis; 2017, 38, 507-512.

Panja, A; Jana, NC; Bauza, A; Adak, S; Mwania, TM; Eichhorn, DM; Frontera, A; “Introducing Supramolecular Interactions

into Robust; Bis(tetrabromocatecholate) Chelated Manganese(III) Systems and; Biomimetic Catalytic Activity”;

ChemistrySelect; 2017, 2, 2094-2105.

Mamillapalli, S; Miyagi, M; Bann, JG; “Stability of domain 4 of the anthrax toxin protective antigen and the; effect of the VWA

domain of CMG2 on stability”; Protein Sci.; 2017, 26, 355-364.

Kaszycki, JL; Shvartsburg, AA; “A Priori Intrinsic PTM Size Parameters for Predicting the Ion Mobilities of Modified Peptides”;

J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom., 2017, 28, 294-302.

Kankanamalage, ACG; Yunjeong, KB; Rathnayake, AD; Damalanka, VC; Weerawarna, PM; Doyle, ST; Alsoudi, “Structure-

based exploration and exploitation of the S-4 subsite of; norovirus 3CL protease in the design of potent and permeable

inhibitors”; Eur. J. Med. Chem., 2017, 126, 502-516.

Kasireddy, C; Ellis, JM; Bann, JG; Mitchell-Koch, KR; “Tautomeric stabilities of 4-fluorohistidine shed new light on;

mechanistic experiments with labeled ribonuclease A”; Chem. Phys. Lett.; 2016, 666, 58-61.

Baird, MA; Shvartsburg, AA; “Localization of Post-Translational Modifications in Peptide Mixtures via; High-Resolution

Differential Ion Mobility Separations Followed by; Electron Transfer Dissociation”; J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom., 2016, 27,

2064-2070.

George, DK; Charkhesht, A; Hull, OA; Mishra, A; Capelluto, DGS; Mitchell-Koch, KR; Vinh, NQ; “New Insights into the

Dynamics of Zwitterionic Micelles and Their; Hydration Waters by Gigahertz-to-Terahertz Dielectric Spectroscopy”; J. Phys.

Chem. B; 2016, 120, 10757-10767.

Yadav, R; Vattepu, R; Beck, MR; “Phosphoinositide Binding Inhibits Actin Crosslinking and Polymerization; by Palladin”; J.

Mol. Biol.; 2016, 428, 4031- 4047.

Kadigamuwa, CC; Mapa, MST; Wimalasena, K; “Lipophilic Cationic Cyanines Are Potent Complex I Inhibitors and; Specific in

Vitro Dopaminergic Toxins with Mechanistic Similarities to; Both Rotenone and MPP+”; Chem. Res. Toxicol.; 2016, 29, 1468-

1479.

Weerawarna, PM; Kim, Y; Kankanamalage, ACG; Damalanka, VC; Lushington, GH; Alliston, KR; Mehzabeen, N; Battaile, KP;

Lovell, S; Chang, KO; Groutas, WC; “Structure-based design and synthesis of triazole-based macrocyclic; inhibitors of

norovirus protease: Structural, biochemical,; spectroscopic, and antiviral studies”; Eur. J. Med. Chem., 2016, 119, 300-318.

Sullivan, MT; Senaratne, NK; Eichhorn, DM; “Synthesis and X-ray crystallographic characterization of; [In(tsalen)(OAc)]

(tsalen = N,N '-ethylenebis(thiosalicylideneimine))”; Polyhedron; 2016, 114,152-155.

Wimalasena, NK; Le, VQ; Wimalasena, K; Schreiber, SL; Karmacharya, R; “Gene Expression-Based Screen for Parkinson's

Disease Identifies GW8510; as a Neuroprotective Agent”; ACS Chem. Neurosci.; 2016, 7, 857-863.

Zhang, QY; Gong, MJ; “On-line preconcentration of fluorescent derivatives of catecholamines in; cerebrospinal fluid using

flow-gated capillary electrophoresis”; J. Chromatogr. A; 2016, 1450, 112-120.

Kadel, LR; Bullinger, JR; Baum, RR; Moore, CE; Tierney, DL; Eichhorn, DM; “Cyanoscorpionate Ligands: Agostic Interactions

in a Series of Metal; Complexes Containing the Tris(4-cyano-3-phenylpyrazolyl)borate and; Bis(4-cyano-3-

phenylpyrazolyl)borate Ligands”; Eur. J. Inorg. Chem., 2016, 15-16, 2543-2551.

Recent Departmental Publications (continued)

Kaszycki, JL; Bowman, AP; Shvartsburg, AA; “Ion Mobility Separation of Peptide Isotopomers”; J.

Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom., 2016, 27, 795-799.

Damalanka, VC; Kim, Y; Alliston, KR; Weerawarna, PM; Kankanamalage, ACG; Lushington, GH;

Mehzabeen, N; Battaile, KP; Lovell, S; Chang, KO; Groutas, WC; “Oxadiazole-Based Cell

Permeable Macrocyclic Transition State Inhibitors; of Norovirus 3CL Protease”; J. Med. Chem.,

2016, 59, 1899-1913.

Kankanamalage, ACG; Weerawarna, PM; Kim, Y; Chang, KO; Groutas, WC; “Anti-norovirus

therapeutics: a patent review (2010-2015)”; Expert Opin. Ther. Pat., 2016, 26, 297-308.

Rillema, DP; Moore, C; Jehan, A; “(Bi­phenyl-2,2′-di­yl)[1,3-bis­­(di­phenyl­phosphan­yl)propane-

κ2P,P′]platinum(II)”; IUCrData, 2016, 1, x161277.

Kim, Y; Liu, HW; Kankanamalage, ACG; Weerasekara, S; Hua, DH; Groutas, WC; Chang, KO;

Pedersen, NC; “Reversal of the Progression of Fatal Coronavirus Infection in Cats by a; Broad-Spectrum Coronavirus

Protease Inhibitor”; PLOS Pathogens; 2016, 12, e1005531.

Gurung, R; Yadav, R; Brungardt, JG; Orlova, A; Egelman, EH; Beck, MR; “Actin polymerization is stimulated by actin cross-

linking protein; palladin”; Biochem J.; 2016, 473, 383-396.

Rillema, DP; Moore, C; Komreddy, V.; “Di­ethyl 2,2′-bi­pyridine-4,4′-di­carboxylate”; IUCrData, 2016, 1, x161547.

Wimalasena, K; “The inherent high vulnerability of dopaminergic neurons toward; mitochondrial toxins may contribute to the

etiology of Parkinsons; disease”; Neural Regener. Res.; 2016, 11, 246-247.

Freyberg, Z; Sonders, MS; Aguilar, JI; Hiranita, T; Karam, CS; Flores, J; Pizzo, AB; Zhang, YC; Farino, ZJ; Chen, A; Martin,

CA; Kopajtic, TA; Fei, H; Hu, G; Lin, YY; Mosharov, EV; McCabe, BD; Freyberg, R; Wimalasena, K; Hsin, LW; Sames, D;

Krantz, DE; Katz, JL; Sulzer, D; Javitch, JA; “Mechanisms of amphetamine action illuminated through optical monitoring; of

dopamine synaptic vesicles in Drosophila brain”; Nat. Commun.; 2016, 7, 10652.

Rillema, DP; Moore, C; Jehan, A; “Bis(-diethyl sulfide-2S:S)bis­[(biphenyl-2,2'-di­yl)platinum(ll)]”; IUCrData, 2016, 1, x160789.

Panja, A; Jana, NC; Patra, M; Brandao, P; Moore, CE; Eichhorn, DM; Frontera, A; “Valence tautomerism induced nucleophilic

ipso substitution in a; coordinated tetrabromocatecholate ligand and diverse catalytic activity; mimicking the function of

phenoxazinone synthase”; J. Mol. Catal. A: Chem.; 2016, 412, 56-66.

Dahanayake, JN; Gautam, DN; Verma, R; Mitchell-Koch, KR; “To keep or not to keep? the question of crystallographic waters

for; enzyme simulations in organic solvent”; Mol. Simul.; 2016, 42, 1001-1013.

Kim, Y; Kankanamalage, ACG; Damalanka, VC; Weerawarna, PM; Groutas, WC; Chang, KO; “Potent inhibition of enterovirus

D68 and human rhinoviruses by; dipeptidyl aldehydes and alpha-ketoamides”; Antiviral Res.; 2016, 125, 84-91.

Kim, Y; Kankanamalage, ACG; Chang, KO; Groutas, WC; “Recent Advances in the Discovery of Norovirus Therapeutics”; J.

Med. Chem., 2015, 58, 9438-9450.

Kim, Y; Shivanna, V; Narayanan, S; Prior, AM; Weerasekara, S; Hua, DH; Kankanamalage, ACG; Groutas, WC; Chang, KO;

“Broad-Spectrum Inhibitors against 3C-Like Proteases of Feline; Coronaviruses and Feline Caliciviruses”; J. Virol.; 2015, 89,

4942-4950.

Gurung, R; Vattepu, R; Yadav, R; Beck, MR; “Palladin Nucleates Actin Assembly and Regulates Cytoskeleton; Architecture”;

Biophys. J.; 2015, 108, 297a.

Chemistry Student wins Sarachek award

The Rosalee and Alvin Sarachek Award for Scholarly Excellence in the Natural Sciences was established by Dr. Alvin Sarachek, WSU Emeritus Professor in Biological Sciences, and his wife, Rosalee, to recognize one graduating senior in biology, chemistry, geology, or physics. For the third time in its four year existence, a chemistry student has won the Sarachek award. Olivia Hull, who graduated Summa cum Laude with a BS in Chemistry in May, was the recipient of this award. Olivia completed her undergraduate research at WSU under the direction of Dr. Mitchell-Koch, as well as doing summer research at three other universities as part of the NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates program. Olivia will begin graduate school in theoretical chemistry at Kansas State University this Fall. She received the Sarachek award at the WSU Commencement ceremony and was also recognized at the Chemistry awards ceremony (pictured at right with Dr. Mitchell-Koch and Dean Ron Matson). Congratulations, Olivia!

Undergraduate Chemistry Awards

Although no chemistry awards ceremony was held in 2016, the following students received departmental awards: American Chemical Society Wichita Section Awards: Outstanding Freshman Chemistry Major: Betty Giang Outstanding Graduating Senior: Logan Pohl ACS Award in Inorganic Chemistry: Olivia Hull ACS Award in Organic Chemistry: David Murphy We reprised the annual chemistry awards ceremony on May 3, 2017, hosted by Dr. Doug English. The following awards were presented: American Chemical Society Wichita Section Awards: Outstanding Freshman Chemistry Major: Kirsten Roberts Outstanding Graduating Senior: Elvin Salerno ACS Award in Analytical Chemistry: Olivia Hull ACS Award in Inorganic Chemistry: Drew Scanlan ACS Award in Organic Chemistry: Jasmine Mayorga Physical Chemistry Achievement Award: Olivia Hull Biochemistry Achievement Award: Brae Bigge CRC Press Chemistry Achievement Award: Hunter Picard

The following students were also recognized for achievements:

Olivia Hull - Rosalie and Alvin Sarachek Award S

Mackenzie Freige – 2nd place Natural Sciences and Engineering Oral Presentation – URCAF Erin Narita – WSU Undergraduate Research Grant (with Dr. Beck)

KINBRE Research Scholars: Ester Alao (doing research with Dr. Beck) Sam Womack (Dr. Beck) Joseph Karnes (Dr. Mitchell-Koch) Nhat Nguyen (Dr. Groutas) Elvin Salerno (Dr. Eichhorn) Brae Bigge (Dr. Beck) Olivia Hull (Dr. Mitchell-Koch) Adam Schulz (Dr. Burns) Derek Hildebrandt (Dr. Mitchell-Koch)

Congratulations to all these students!

Two Students Win Presentation Awards at K-INBRE Symposium

The Kansas IDEA Network for Biomedical Research Excellence (K-INBRE) is an NIH-funded program whose goal is to strengthen the ability of Kansas researchers to compete effectively for NIH funds by building a "critical mass" of junior and senior investigators, as well as undergraduates, graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows supported with cutting edge technology within a scientific research theme. WSU is an active participant in K-INBRE, with grants to students and faculty in the departments of Chemistry, Biological Sciences, and Biomedical Engineering. Each year, K-INBRE hosts a statewide symposium. Bryan Lickteig won an

award for oral presentation at the 2016 Overland Park symposium. Chemistry presenters at the 2016 symposium included:

Bryan Lickteig (Wimalasena), “Dopaminergic Cell Toxicity of a Derivative of Parkinsonian Toxin, 4-methyl-phenylpyridinium (MPP+)” Elvin Salerno (Bann), “Use of a propionate-inducible expression system for production of CS1 pili from Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli” Logan Pohl (Beck), “Measuring the effects of mutations to non-conserved amino acids in lactate dehydrogenase” Qiyang Zhang (Gong), “Double-Branch Capillary Electrophoresis by Using Microfluidic Switch for Alternate Injections”

Andrew Bowman (Shvartsburg), “Broad Separation of Lipid Isomers by FAIMS Coupled to Mass Spectrometry” Matthew Baird (Shvartsburg), “Characterizing Modified Peptides by High-Resolution FAIMS Followed by Electron Transfer Dissociation” Elvin Salerno won an award for poster presentation at the 2017 K-INBRE Symposium in Manhattan. Chemistry presenters at the 2017 symposium included:

Ester Alao (Beck), “Improving Personalized Medicine by Examining Structure-Function Patterns in the Non-Conserved Regions of Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH)” Brae Bigge (Beck), “Myopalladin’s Role in Cardiac Muscle Function and Disease” Olivia Hull (Mitchell-Koch), “Interpreting Fluorine-19 Chemical Shifts of Fluorinated Amino Acids in Protein Environments” Jasmine Mayorga (Bann), “Structure Analysis of Pore Formation of PA Fluorescence” Elvin Salerno (Eichhorn), “Use of Cyano-Substituted Scorpionate Ligands to Model Nickel Superoxide Dismutase Active Site” Samuel Womack (Beck), “Conformational Changes in Palladin Actin-Binding Domains Measured by Fluorescent Resonance Energy Transfer”

WSU Presentations at MWRM 2016 The 2016 Midwest Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society was held in Manhatttan, KS, and hosted by Kansas State University. The following WSU Chemistry department members (students and faculty) presented papers at this meeting.

Doug English. Green chemistry applications for surfactant-based colloids.

Jonathan Ellis (Bann, Mitchell-Koch groups). Predicting fluorine NMR chemical shifts in labeled proteins

Vishnu Damalanka (Groutas group). Design, synthesis, and evaluation of novel macrocyclic inhibitors of norovirus 3CL protease.

Doug English. Fluorescence studies of surfactant vesicles for pH-responsive drug release and as models for evaluating novel antimicrobial compounds.

Katie Mitchell-Koch. Solvent dynamics and protein dynamics: What is the connection?

Julia Kaszycki (Shvartsburg group). Structural characterization by isotopic splitting in high-field ion mobility spectra: a gas-phase analog to NMR.

Bhusi Seelam (Burns group). Synthesis of charged picket porphyrin receptors.

Anushka Kankanamalage (Groutas group). Structure-guided cap optimization of a series of dipeptidyl inhibitors of norovirus 3CL protease.

Maojun Gong. Reproducible quantitation of biological samples with flow-gated capillary electrophoresis.

Andrew Bowman (Shvartsburg group). Broad separation of lipid isomers using high-definition differential ion mobility spectrometry and a range of ionizing species.

Qiyang Zhang (Gong group). Analysis of cyanide levels in human urine by using capillary electrophoresis.

WSU GRASP and URCAF Symposia

The chemistry department was well-represented at the WSU campus-wide student research symposia, both at the graduate level in the Graduate Research and Scholarly Projects Symposia (GRASP) and at the undergraduate level in the Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Forums (URCAF). GRASP was held on April 29, 2016, with presentations by:

Matthew Baird (Shvartsburg group), “Characterizing modified peptides by high-resolution FAIMS followed by electron transfer dissociation” Julia Kaszycki (Shvartsburg group), “Exploration of isotopomer separations by high-resolution differential ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS)”

Vinay Kadarla (Beck group), “Myopalladin's role in cardiac muscle function and disease”

Sireesha Mamillapalli (Bann group), “Effect of the receptor CMG2 on stability changes in Domain IV of anthrax toxin protective antigen in comparison to the full-length protein“ Ravi Vattepu (Beck group), “Palladin regulates cancer metastasis via actin cytoskeletal remodeling” Andrew Bowman (Shvartsburg group), “Separation of diverse lipid isomers by FAIMS in conjunction with mass spectrometry” Qiyang Zhang (Gong group), “Double-branch capillary electrophoresis by using microfluidic switch for alternate injections”

On April 28, 2017, Bryan Lickteig and David Murphy from the Wimalasena group presented “Dopaminergic Cell Toxicity of N-Substituted Derivatives of Parkinsonian Toxin 1-Methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP+)” at GRASP.

The URCAF on April 5, 2016 featured presentations by:

Logan Pohl (Beck group), “Measuring the Effects of Mutations to Non-Conserved Amino Acids in Lactate Dehydrogenase” Jasmine Mayorga (Bann group), “pH Sensitive Conformational Change Monitored by Tryptophan”

At URCAF on April 4, 2017 the following students made presentations: Samuel Womack (Beck group), “Conformational Changes in Palladin Actin-Binding Domains Measured by Fluorescent Resonance Energy Transfer” Mackenzie Freige (Eichhorn group), “A Synthetic Model of the Nickel Superoxide Dismutase Active Site” - Mackenzie won 2nd place for Natural Science and Engineering Oral Presentations.

Brae Bigge (Beck group), “Myopalladin's Role in Cardiac Muscle Function and Disease’ Ester Alao (Beck group), “Improving Personalized Medicine by

Measuring Sequence Variation Impact on Disease Enzyme Marker”

Beck speaks at Wichita Science Café The Science Café in Wichita was started in January 2011 with the support of Kansas Citizens for Science. They meet generally on the second Monday of the month at the Donut Whole on Douglas, with face-to-face conversations about current science with scientists or people in fields involving science. Moriah Beck was the featured speaker at the May 9, 2016 meeting, making her the second WSU chemistry professor to speak following Jim Bann in September, 2015. The title of Dr. Beck’s talk was “Moonshot or Crapshoot: Why is Cancer So Hard to Cure?”

Talaty Graduate Research Assistantship Dr. Erach Talaty was a Professor of Chemistry at WSU from 1969 until he passed away in the Spring of 2013. Before his death Dr. Talaty established a bequest to the WSU Chemistry Department which, among other things, provided for an endowed Graduate Research Assistantship. This award provides a one-year stipend for a new graduate student in the department. The first recipient of the Talaty Graduate Research Assistantship was Ryan Steinert, who earned his undergraduate degree from Fort Hays State University and began his graduate studies in Fall 2016, working with Dr. Katie Mitchell-Koch.

WSU Chemistry Alumni Survey

Please help us learn about our WSU Chemistry alumni. Fill in as much of the information below

as you can and want to. None of this information will be published, except in aggregate form,

without obtaining permission from you. Return this form to the WSU Department of Chemistry,

1845 Fairmount, Wichita, KS 67260-0051. If you prefer, you can scan it and email it to

chemistry@wichita.edu or you can fill it out online at

https://wichitastate.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_57NNGbMfFpVJApL. Thanks.

Name at Graduation: ________________________ ____________________ _____________________

Last First Middle

Current Name: ___________________________ ______________________ _____________________

Last First Middle

Current Address: _______________________________________________________________________

Email Address: ________________________________________________________________________

WSU Chemistry Degree(s): _______ ________ _______ _______ _______ _______

Degree Year Degree Year Degree Year

Research Advisor(s): ____________________________________________________________________

Degrees received after your last WSU Chemistry degree:

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Degree Subject Year School

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Degree Subject Year School

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Degree Subject Year School

Employment after receiving your last WSU Chemistry degree (start with most recent):

Years Employer Position

__________ ________________________________________________ _________________________

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Anything else you would like to add (or if you need more room for one of the above questions):

Chemistry Department Graduates Fall 2015 – Spring 2017

Undergraduate Degrees Fall 2015 Fall 2016

Dorcas Oluwadamilola Abiola General Studies Chemistry Nhat Bang Chau General Studies Chemistry

Micah Elizabeth Bell General Studies Chemistry Stephanie Louise Dillon Chemistry-Biochemistry

Brien Nicholas Boyd Chemistry BS Hewit Ejigu General Studies Chemistry

Charity Ann Hicks Chemistry-Biochemistry Scott Minh Huynh General Studies Chemistry

Dakoda L Kern General Studies Chemistry Joseph Anthony Krauska Chemistry BS

Anh Quynh Nguyen Chemistry BS Kenneth Wai Ip Ma Chemistry BA

Hajar Rateb Yaacoub General Studies Chemistry Philadelphia Kern McGregor Chemistry Pre-Medicine

Spring 2016

Theresa Frances Nank General Studies Chemistry

Jessica Marie Adams General Studies Chemistry Minh Thu Thi Nguyen Chemistry Pre-Medicine

Yves-Alain Kouame Aka Chemistry BA John Charles Ritter Chemistry BS

Jihad Basem Al-Khatib Chemistry Pre-Medicine Spring 2017

Dalton D. Beard Chemistry BS Qurat Ul Ain Akbar Field Major Chemistry

Jeung Eun Cho General Studies Chemistry Joshua Allan Bahr Chemistry Pre-Medicine

Logan Lee Cockrum General Studies Chemistry Reagan Thomas Biechler General Studies Chemistry

Louis John Colling General Studies Chemistry Brae Marie Bigge Chemistry-Biochemistry

Michelle Sarah Collins Chemistry Pre-Medicine Gabriel William Clark General Studies Chemistry

Dustin Charles Cusick Chemistry-Business Emilea Janae Finley Chemistry-Biochemistry

Phu Thien Do Chemistry Pre-Medicine John Austin William Griffith General Studies Chemistry

Peyton Makenzie Howard Chemistry Pre-Medicine Olivia Ann Hull Chemistry BS

Pui Yen Loh Chemistry-Biochemistry Kit Yves Irlandez Limpiado Chemistry-Biochemistry

Cassidi Grace Palmer General Studies Chemistry Kaitlyn Marie Malone General Studies Chemistry

Logan Elizabeth Pohl Chemistry-Biochemistry Lucas Anthony May Chemistry-Business

Amanda Michelle Prince Chemistry BS Nicholas Anthony May Chemistry-Business

Natasha K. Schlittenhardt Chemistry BS Mackenzy Faith Meinhardt General Studies Chemistry

Michael Laurice Stidham Field Major Chemistry Dylan Everett Morlan Chemistry BS

Jordan James Stiverson General Studies Chemistry Chanell Nguyen General Studies Chemistry

Megan Annette Sullivan Chemistry BS Brandon David Offutt Chemistry-Business

Branden David Tang Chemistry Pre-Medicine Asmita J. Patel Chemistry-Biochemistry

Jacqueline Mae M. Tio Chemistry-Biochemistry Claire Elizabeth Provenzano Chemistry-Business

Daniel Lloyd Warns Chemistry-Biochemistry Elvin Valerio Salerno CHEM ACS Biochemistry

Ariel Eden Wilson General Studies Chemistry Andrew Joseph Scanlan Chemistry BS

Summer 2016 Samuel Elliott Womack Chemistry-Biochemistry

Jessica Michelle Stephens General Studies Chemistry

Graduate Degrees

Fall 2015 Summer 2016 Fall 2016 Chamila Kadigamuwa (PhD, Wimalasena) Archana Mishra (PhD, English) Sumudu Mapa (PhD, Wimalasena)

Spring 2016 Pathum Weerawarna (PhD, Groutas) Spring 2017

Lava Kadel (PhD, Eichhorn) Qiyang Zhang (PhD, Gong) Julia Kaszycki (MS, Shvartsburg)