Synthesis of the Intermediate of a Catalytic Reaction: An NHC-Stabilized, First-Row Transition Metal Complex
Meng Zhou, Lawrence Technological University
The advanced synthesis laboratory course object allows students to study the synthesis, purification, and characterizations of a new diamagnetic organometallic complex of a first-row transition metal. The air-stable complex is stabilized by an N-heterocyclic carbene spectator ligand. It also bears an actor ligand and therefore, is potentially a reactive intermediate of a catalytic reaction. The synthesis of a reactive intermediate is the key to elucidate the mechanism of catalysis. The instructor chooses the first-row transition metal and the actor ligand based on his or her interests. The CURE starts from an NHC-ligated complex that does not bear this actor ligand but is otherwise similar. In our CURE, an anion ligand-replacement reaction was used to install the actor ligand, but an instructor may choose other approaches. The students will evaluate their results by standard spectroscopic analyses using UV-vis, FT-IR, and proton NMR (60 MHz or above) analysis.

Design2Data
Ashley Vater, University of California-Davis
The D2D program is centered around an undergraduate-friendly protocol workflow that follows the design-build-test-learn engineering framework. This protocol has served as the scaffold for a successful undergraduate training program and has been further developed into courses that range from a 10-week freshman seminar to a year-long, upper-division molecular biology course. The overarching research goal of this CURE probes the current predictive limitations of protein-modeling software by functionally characterizing single amino acid mutants in a robust model system. The most interesting outcomes of this project are dependent on large datasets, and, as such, the project is optimal for multi-institutional collaborations.

Laser spectroscopy of atmospherically relevant molecules and clusters in helium nanodroplets
Paul Raston, James Madison University
Superfluid helium nanodroplets present an ideal medium for the study of chemical dynamics at the molecular level. Their low temperature, enormous heat conductivity, and weakly interacting nature allow for the investigation of various things, such as how molecular rotation is effected by a solvent, and how molecules interact with each other. These two topics will be addressed in the lab by (1) measuring the spectra of unexplored molecules in helium nanodroplets and determining their rotational constants; this data will then be used to test known models describing the interaction between the molecule and helium solvent, and (2) synthesizing and characterizing unexplored molecular clusters in an effort to better understand molecular solvation; students will solvate the "unexplored molecule" with an atmospherically relevant species (O2, N2, H2O), and investigate the resulting clusters with laser Stark spectroscopy.

Synthesis and characterization of KLVFF derivatives: Propensity to aggregate?
Kalyani Maitra, California State University-Fresno
The aggregation of β-amyloid peptide plaques in the brain plays an important role in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Studies have shown that the specific peptide sequence of KLVFF (lysine, leucine, valine, phenylalanine, phenylalanine) has an important role in β-amyloid formation. In this research, pentapeptide derivatives of KLVFF containing nonpolar, hydrophobic amino acids will be synthesized and characterized by 1H-NMR spectroscopy. NMR-based structural studies will be done to understand the structure-function/activity relationship of these polypeptide chains in various solvents. This will provide a deeper insight about the process of aggregation of proteins in various physiological environment and its critical role in AD.

Yeast, metabolism and suicide: a brewing introduction to biochemical research
Laurent Dejean, California State University-Fresno
This course provides the student with a range of techniques and methodology appropriate to the study or phenomena at the biochemical, cellular, and organismic levels. In the spirit of genuine undergraduate research (CURE), the students will be involved directly in research that is ongoing in the Dejean's lab, i.e. the study of the mechanisms used by Bcl-2 family proteins to cross-regulate cell death and energy metabolism. The students' involvement in this type of research will be following a set of preliminary experiments which are aimed at familiarizing the students with common biochemistry lab skills; and with the manipulation of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae which is to be used as the main model system in their research. Finally, the students will also engage directly with primary literature sources in preparation of their lab reports and an eventual presentation of their research at the Fresno State CURE symposium at the end of the semester.

A short medicinal-chemistry inspired laboratory sequence aimed at understanding and controlling bacterial communication.
Laura Brown, Indiana University-Bloomington
Medicinal chemists are organic chemists (often employed by pharmaceutical companies) who synthesize and develop new organic molecules with favorable biological properties. As an illustrative example, penicillin was discovered in 1928 and developed into a drug in 1942. Resistance quickly arose and continues to be a problem, and penicillin is not effective against all types of bacteria. In the decades that followed, medicinal chemists synthesized a variety of molecules that were similar in structure to penicillin, but that either demonstrated enhanced antibiotic activity or did not exhibit the same resistance profile. A new approach to controlling the pathogenicity of bacteria is to simply "trick" the bacteria into remaining in their "normal" non-pathogenic state by controlling the ability of bacteria to communicate with one another by a mechanism termed "Quorum Sensing." Quorum sensing is a form of chemical communication by which bacteria sense each other's presence via concentration gradients of small molecules. I have a collaborator in the biology department who has developed a biochemical assay to identify inhibitors of this process, and the students who sign up for this course will synthesize a small library of molecules to test in this assay.

Synthesis and Characterization of Ionic liquid and Ionic Solid Hydrates
Allan Cardenas, SUNY College at Fredonia
CHEM 481 is an advanced synthesis course focuses from synthetic design up to the full characterization of products including optimization. Students enrolled in this class are usually juniors and seniors who already taken organic and analytical laboratory classes. This CURE course will give student to design and perform the synthesis of novel ionic liquid; perform a full spectroscopic analysis of the products; optimize and scale up chemical reactions; provide molecular modifications if needed. This CURE train students to use chemical analysis instruments and introduce them to other capabilities of an instrument which is not usually discussed in regular undergraduate courses.

Chemical Analysis of Coffee Beans in Collaboration with a Local Roaster
Susan Oxley, St. Marys University
This CURE will take place in an Analytical Chemistry course. Students in the CURE course will collaborate with a local coffee roaster to develop a research question related to quantifying components of coffee beans. Using standard methods of analysis, students will work in groups to perform the analysis and validate their results. The outcome of the research will be a report to the coffee roaster.

Photocatalytic degradation of model compounds
Sarah St. Angelo, Dickinson College
This CURE is intended for a junior/senior level inorganic chemistry laboratory. Students will synthesize various composite nanomaterials than can be tested for photocatalytic activity for the degradation of model compounds (organic dye molecules). The components of the nanocomposites will be varied and the effects on the photocatalysis will be measured. Students will synthesize the nanocomposites and characterize them with several techniques useful to materials chemists, such as SEM, XRD, and AA.

Extraction of Lycopene and other Antioxidants from Tomatoes
Marion Franks, North Carolina A & T State University
This CURE is focused on exposing undergraduate students to the use of chemical instrumentation to observe the composition of antioxidants in natural products. Students will learn how to read scientific literature, develop a hypothesis, plan research, interpret data, and relate the data to ongoing phenomenon.