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The Molecular Educational Research Consortium in Undergraduate Computational chemistry (MERCURY) has received a $200,000 award from the National Science Foundation to further its work utilizing computational chemistry techniques to provide productive and educational research experiences for undergraduates.

One of the most common methods of combating the influenza virus is to utilize an inhibitor to prevent the binding of the viral protein neuraminidase with cell surface receptors terminating in a sialic acid moiety. While this may sound like a complex process, it’s actually relatively simple to understand once the scientific jargon has been translated. In order for a virus like influenza to continue its life cycle, its neuraminidase enzyme needs to bind to and cleave a sialic acid molecule away from the human cell receptors.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Adam W. Van Wynsberghe attended the 7th annual National Biomedical Computation Resource Summer Institute at the University of California-San Diego, July 30-Aug. 3, and presented the summer research of Leah Krause ’13. Other Van Wynsberghe lab members who contributed to the research included Alvin Wu ’13, Dan Mermelstein ’14 and Jeremy Adelman ’13.

Rob Clayton ’15 and Leah Krause ’14 presented their research at the 11th Molecular Educational Research Consortium in Undergraduate Computational chemistRY (MERCURY) conference at Bucknell University. Both students have been working this summer in the laboratory of Assistant Professor of Chemistry Adam Van Wynsberghe.

A paper recently published by Assistant Professor of Chemistry Adam Van Wynsberghe received notice in two different venues in the past month. It was featured on the Oak Ridge National Labs’ supercomputing center website and was named a “must-read” by the post-publication review service Faculty of 1000.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Adam Van Wynsberghe was a contributing author of a paper published in the Oct. 25 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. (PNAS)

Over the weekend of July 29,  Dan Mermelstein’14, Carmen Montagnon ’13 and Alvin Wu ’13 presented their research at the 10th Molecular Educational Research Consortium in Undergraduate Computational chemistRY (MERCURY) conference at Bucknell University. The three students have been working this summer in the laboratory of Assistant Professor of Chemistry Adam Van Wynsberghe.

Influenza viruses spread quickly, are quite common and can have devastating consequences. Thus, drugs that help restrict the spread of influenza not only shorten the sickness, but save lives. This summer Daniel Mermelstein ’14, Carmen Montagnon ’13 and Alvin Wu ’13 are conducting research under Assistant Professor of Chemistry Adam Van Wynsberghe to examine the chemical interactions that these important drugs rely on to combat the flu.

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.

Assistant Professors of Chemistry Nicole L. Snyder and Adam Van Wynsberghe have each received a Cottrell College Science Award from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement. These grants each supply $35,000 for the investigators’ research programs and include funds for equipment, supplies, and faculty and student stipends. Fifty-seven of these awards were funded nationally in 2010.