Canada has recently declared a chemical known as BPA to be a toxic substance. Europe has partially banned BPA from consumer products. The United States also faces a similar push to remove BPA from products in which the chemical can be ingested. Claire Zurlo ’14, a recipient of an Emerson Summer Grant, and Amanda Ng ’14, funded with summer research funds, will spend the summer contributing to this effort. They will work with Professor of Chemistry Tim Elgren to perform a BPA analysis on various beer samples.

For Kevin Graepel ’11, a career in biomedical research is a goal that he has been working toward since his first year at Hamilton. Graepel, who graduated with a degree in chemistry last month, will take the next step in realizing his goal as he begins a two-year stint conducting research in Bethesda, Maryland, on viral pathogenesis and vaccine development for the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Adam Van Wynsberghe,was a contributing author of a paper published in the June issue of the journal Chemical Biology and Drug Design. The paper, titled “Applying Molecular Dynamics Simulations to Identify Rarely Sampled Ligand bound Conformational States of Undecaprenyl Pyrophosphate Synthase, an Antibacterial Target,” presents the results of research conducted in collaboration with researchers at the University of California-San Diego, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Six students  presented posters at the 55th Annual Biophysical Society Meeting that took place in March in Baltimore.  Matthew Baxter ’11, Daryl Berke ’11, Alex Dao ’12, Jason McGavin’12, Nathan Schneck ’11 and William Wieczorek ’11  presented work as part of sessions on “Membrane Active Peptides” and "Interfacial Protein-Lipid Interactions.”

Taylor Adams '11 and Deborah Barany '11 have been awarded National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships. Adams, a chemistry major, and Barany who is majoring in neuroscience, will both receive a three-year annual stipend of $30,000 and a $10,500 cost-of -education allowance for tuition and fees, and the freedom to conduct their own research at any accredited U.S. or foreign institution of graduate education they choose.

Two groups of local third-grade students recently enjoyed some hands-on science learning with the help of Hamilton’s science faculty. For about 20 years, Professor of Biology Dave Gapp has organized “Science Exploration Days” which bring classes of elementary school students to Hamilton for guided tours and short lessons in various areas of science.

A previously owned ion trap mass spectrometer (LC/MS) was recently donated to the Chemistry Department by SAIC – Frederick, Inc. Dr. Jack Simpson, a senior scientist at SAIC, made the donation possible. A similar, new LC/MS would cost about $175,000.

Robin Kinnel, the Silas D. Childs Professor of Chemistry Emeritus, presented a paper at the 2010 International Chemical Congress of the Pacific Basin Societies (PacifiChem) on Dec. 18, in Honolulu. In his presentation, he discussed work carried out while on leave at Scripps Institute of Oceanography and at Hamilton.

As part of their summer research with Associate Professor of Chemistry Myriam Cotten, Matt Baxter ’11 and Jason McGavin ’12 spent 10 days working at the Center for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy and Imaging of Proteins at the University of California San Diego. The Center is managed by Professor Stanley Opella, who is pioneering the use of bicelles (“bilayered micelles”) to study membrane proteins under physiologically relevant conditions.

Associate Professor of Chemistry Myriam Cotten and her team of Hamilton students spent 10 days this summer at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Fla., to study piscidin, antimicrobial peptides from fish. The team, comprised of Caitlin Burzynski ’12, Nina Kraus '13, Cotten, and Alex Dao ’12, used several state-of-the-art Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) instruments to obtain atomic-level information on samples of piscidin bound to lipid bilayers that mimic bacterial membranes.