Engaging Freshman Undergraduate Students in Faculty Environmental Science Research: Testing the Local Surface Waters for Nitrate, Phosphate, and Ammonium Ions Using Two Affordable Methods as an Example

Clean water is a crucial factor that contributes to the health of eco-systems and their inhabitants. Testing local surface water is an exciting way to engage freshman undergraduates in research which shows them the importance of protecting their communities and environment. Two affordable methods: a Colorimeter and Ion-Selective Probe were used to analyze nitrate, phosphate and ammonia levels in local surface water samples. The samples were collected from the Muskingum River which runs through Southeastern Ohio (Muskingum County) and were collected at 2 mile increments. We believe that this set of experiments would be beneficial if implemented into a college freshman level chemistry lab, thereby, promoting self-awareness of water safety, eco-system safety and community involvement. In addition, the students will learn how our environment is effected by our actions when we neglect to properly monitor the type of pollutants we allow into our water ways.

Fly Ash for Removal of Contaminates from Coal Mine Drainage

In this study, fly ash obtained from a coal burning power plant was used to remove iron from coal mine drainage as well as raising the pH to acceptable limits for natural water using column chromatography. The results of this study indicate that fly ash has the ability to completely remove iron and reduce acidity of coal mine water drainage. This approach can be extended to include other contaminants such as magnesium.

Cytotoxicity and Selectivity in Skin Cancer by SapC-DOPS Nanovesicles

Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and melanoma are malignant human cancers of the skin with an annual mortality that exceeds 10,000 cases every year in the USA alone. In this study, the lysosomal protein saposin C (SapC) and the phospholipid dioloylphosphatidylserine (DOPS) were assembled into cancer-selective nanovesicles (SapC-DOPS) and successfully tested using several in vitro and in vivo skin cancer models. Using MTT assay that measures the percentage of cell death, SapC-DOPS cytotoxic effect on three skin tumor cell lines (squamous cell carcinoma, SK-MEL-28, and MeWo) was compared to two normal nontumorigenic skin cells lines, normal immortalized keratinocyte (NIK) and human fibroblast cell (HFC). We observed that the nanovesicles selectively killed the skin cancer cells by inducing apoptotic cell death whereas untransformed skin cancer cells remained unaffected. Using subcutaneous skin tumor xenografts, animals treated with SapC-DOPS by subcutaneous injection showed a 79.4% by volume tumor reduced compared to the control after 4 days of treatment. We observed that the nanovesicles killed skin cancer cells by inducing apoptotic cell death compared to the control as revealed by TUNEL staining of xenograft tumor sections.

Review of general, organic, and biological chemistry, second edition

Overall, General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry is a very useful text to support a twosemester undergraduate course series in chemistry for health sciences students. Its strengths are the use of the P.A.V.E. way to student learning applications. It is very obvious that the author has the background and the preparation of the student taking the course(s) in mind when she was writing the textbook.

Solid-State NMR Spectroscopic Approaches to Investigate Dynamics, Secondary Structure and Topology of Membrane Proteins

Solid-state NMR spectroscopy is routinely used to determine the structural and dynamic properties of both membrane proteins and peptides in phospholipid bilayers [1-26]. From the perspective of the perpetuated lipids, 2H solid-state NMR spectroscopy can be used to probe the effect of embedded proteins on the order and dynamics of the acyl chains of phospholipid bilayers [8-13]. Moreover, 31P solid-state NMR spectroscopy can be used to investigate the interaction of peptides, proteins and drugs with phospholipid head groups [11-14]. The secondary structure of 13C = O site-specific isotopically labeled peptides or proteins inserted into lipid bilayers can be probed utilizing 13C CPMAS solid-state NMR spectroscopy [15-18]. Also, solid-state NMR spectroscopic studies can be utilized to ascertain pertinent informa- tion on the backbone and side-chain dynamics of 2H- and 15N-labeled proteins, respectively, in phospholipid bilayers [19-26]. Finally, specific 15N-labeled amide sites on a protein embedded inside oriented bilayers can be used to probe the alignment of the helices with respect to the bilayer normal [2]. A brief summary of all these solid-state NMR ap- proaches are provided in this minireview.

Microwave Assisted Peptide Synthesis as a New Gold Standard in Solid Phase Peptide Synthesis: Phospholamban as an Example

In this study, we report the microwave assisted synthesis of Phospholamban protein (WT-PLB) as a new gold standard in solid phase peptide synthesis. Microwave energy offers benefits for both the coupling and deprotection reactions during peptide synthesis. The use of microwave energy for both the coupling and deprotection steps makes the microwave peptide synthesizers the most versatile and powerful systems available. It produces high yield and fast synthesis when compared to conventional peptide synthesizers.

Improved Solid-Phase Peptide Synthesis of Wild-Type and Phosphorylated Phospholamban Using a Pseudoproline Dipeptide

In this study, we report that the insertion of a pseudoproline dipeptide for the solid-phase peptide synthesis of wild-type Phospholamban protein (WT-PLB) has two important advantages. First, it disrupts the formation of different secondary structures, which is responsible for poor couplings during the preparation of highly aggregated sequences. Second, it enhances the purities and solubility of crude products leading to easier HPLC purification.