Spring 2024 Newsletter

Message from the Chair

A Community of Scientists 

Greetings! Welcome to our Spring 2024 Newsletter … being released in summer! As this is my last annual chair letter, it is coming out a bit late due to finishing my four-year term as department chair followed by some international travel, for both work and play. First and foremost, I’d like to offer my congratulations to Prof. Greg O’Neil, who has agreed to be our next department chair with unanimous support. A couple of months in, and I’m very impressed (and pleased) with the smooth transition. While we are in a great place as a department and community, there will surely be hurdles for our department to face in the future; I intend to offer any advice and support that Greg and the department may need, although I’m confident that we’re in good hands. 

We have two new additions this year to our community, and their impacts on our programs have been both immediate and positive. Prof. Sierra Cullati joined our Biochemistry division as a tenure track Assistant Professor. Prof. Cullati has been busy teaching in our Biochemistry lecture series with fresh ideas while getting her lab operational. Sierra’s research focus is largely on phosphorylation-mediated cellular signaling as it relates to DNA damage repair and accurate cellular division, using budding yeast as a model organism. Crystal Cline also joined our department as a new Program Coordinator. Crystal worked previously for Western at the Poulsbo campus (where she worked with Heather Purcell), and recently moved to Bellingham to join Heather in the front office. In my last year as Department Chair, it has been a pleasure working with both Crystal and Heather on the various department activities and projects that keep our program vibrant and productive. We also said goodbye to Margo Nanneman, who worked as a Program Coordinator in our department for a year before pursuing graduate studies. While Margo was only with us for a short time, they made substantive changes to various aspects of our departmental activities that were well received. Lastly, our Chemistry Community said goodbye to Dr. Kenny Childers, who was a postdoctoral fellow in my research group for five years. Working with Kenny will undoubtedly be a highlight of my career, as we developed a magic formula that allowed our group to be the most productive and influential in the field of blood coagulation as it has ever been. Kenny was also an exceptional mentor to many students, both in our own group as well as to several others in the Biochemistry division. Kenny has moved on to a tenure-track position at Cal State Fullerton, where he’ll be able to continue being a positive influence on his students. I look forward to seeing how his career progresses! 

This year, we celebrate 80 new graduates across six different degrees in our department, which is an encouraging sign that enrollment trends in Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Chemistry Education are doing well. Not only are we thriving as a community with enrollment and degrees, but we are also continuing to have a high level of student engagement, inclusion, and academic success. Students and faculty continue to attend regional, national, and international meetings to present their research findings. Faculty-directed research with students continues to yield high quality publications and federal grants to support their activities. During the 2023-2024 academic year, we also had a number of notable awards for our faculty in teaching, scholarship, and student mentorship. Prof. Tim Kowalczyk was named a Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar, Prof. Amanda Murphy received the Arlan Norman Award for Excellence in Student Mentoring, and Prof. Robert Berger received the Peter Elich Award for Excellence in Teaching. It is an honor and privilege to continue working with such great colleagues and students year after year.  

As this is the last year of my term as chair, I’ve been reflective of the last four while traveling this year in the name of science. I was fortunate to visit Montreal, Ellensburg, Chapel Hill, Philadelphia, San Diego, and Madison to give presentations on our group’s research highlights that we’ve amassed over the last several years. At each stop, I was able to rekindle some relationships while also making new ones; I’m always thankful for how diverse and international our scientific community can be, and being able to connect on collaborative research problems and landmark discoveries is, in many ways, a luxury to have as a profession. One of the most pernicious misconceptions commonly held by students who may consider a career in STEM is that it is somewhat isolating; the truth of the matter is that a career in science, especially an academic one, is intrinsically a social enterprise. In the Winter of 2024, I elected to give a departmental seminar, which I hadn’t done in almost eight years. While I was excited to present our research as I had been doing all year, I also wanted to use this seminar to teach some ‘lessons learned’ during my career in science. The first lesson that I highlighted at the outset was the following: “Science is very social and is most successfully done as part of a community. The most important person in your community is your mentor. Pick someone who will not only support you while you’re training, but far after that through your career.” My success in science, and in life, is directly correlated with always having caring, attentive mentors. As a thought exercise, I listed all the mentors that made positive impacts on me, and this list is simply too long to share here, but the salient point still remains: we should all actively seek impactful mentors, ask them for help and guidance, learn from them, and then aspire to carry forward that mentorship mantra for the next generation of scientists. It is my belief that this is the ultimate changemaker, and one of the most important roles we play as faculty members. Looking forward, I hope to continue to leave positive impacts on the students I have the fortune of working with. I only ask that you keep in touch. 

New Faculty and Staff

Sierra Cullati, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry

Sierra was very excited to land her dream job by joining the department in Fall 2023. She earned a BS in Biochemistry and a BS in Ecology from Florida Institute of Technology, then went on to do her PhD in Biochemistry at Dartmouth, where she developed a passion for both kinase signaling and undergraduate teaching. Her postdoc in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at Vanderbilt gave her the opportunity to learn fission yeast genetics in addition to more kinase biochemistry. Sierra’s research now focuses on the biochemical logic of casein kinase signaling in vitro and in vivo. She loves helping students learn biochemistry in the lab and in the classroom as they continue to mature as scientists. Outside of the lab, she enjoys cooking and hiking, accompanied by her husband Erik and golden retriever Sagan.

Crystal Cline, Program Coordinator

Originally from a little town in Wyoming, 70 miles east of Yellowstone National Park, Crystal’s heart has always been with the PNW and knew someday it would be home. She has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Wyoming (the other UW) which has served her well in working with students, staff and faculty. Crystal returned to WWU in November 2023 as a Program Coordinator after a brief stint outside of higher education, thankful to build on her 10+ years of work in higher education and to be a part of the Chemistry Department. Outside of serving the Chemistry Department, you can find her on the local hiking trails, SUPing, swimming, and training for Triathlons.

Student/Alumni Highlights and Accomplishments

• A global research team including B.S. Biochemistry major Hosanna Abbay, B.S. Chemistry major Henry Thornes, and Prof. Tim Kowalczyk was featured in a Team Profile by the chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition. The profile illustrated the power of drawing from multiple disciplinary perspectives alongside practical considerations for remote collaboration.
• Senior B.S. Chemistry major Kaden Hekker was selected as a Western Innovation Training Fellow. The fellowship provides a full-time summer stipend and funding for one year of research costs combined with structured training in solution-focused innovation, technology commercialization, and STEM entrpreneurship.
• Current B.S. Chemistry senior Aimee Long received a prestigious Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) from the Division of Organic Chemistry (DOC) of the American Chemical Society.
• A group of Chemistry students (see picture) attended and presented at the Spring 2024 American Chemical Society National Meeting in New Orleans.
• Current post-doc in the Spiegel research group Kenneth Childers will be moving to Fullerton, CA for a tenure-track position at California State University, Fullerton. In addition to teaching biochemistry lab and lecture, Kenny will be forming a research lab composed of undergraduate and graduate students studying protein biochemistry with applications toward cardiovascular and thrombotic disorders.
• A contingent of WWU students and faculty attended the 2024 Volcano Conference in chemical biology in Pack Forest, WA in February. 
• Ryan Hackler's (B.S. Chemistry, 2014) company Aeternal Upcycling Inc. received a $1.5 million grant from the Department of Energy in support of their plastic upcycling technologies.

WWU Chem Club

This year really felt like the return to "normal" with the Chem Club being able to host many of its traditional in-person events again. Social events this year ranged from tie-dyeing of t-shirts and lab coats, the 2^nd Annual Bake-Off, movie nights to relax before finals, a game night in the SMATE library, and most recently, Costume Bowling. This year also saw the return of demo shows and community outreach in the winter and spring, including our largest ever Wizards at Western show entertaining an audience of ~200 before we set off the fire alarm. Fortunately, we were able to do the last demo outside for the folks that stuck around to see the fire department arrive to confirm there was not actually a fire. 

You can follow the club’s activities through our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/wwuchem). If you are interested in sharing your career path with current students, we are always looking for alumni to be panelists at the College to Career event near the start of spring quarter. Alumni and friends of the department are also welcome at the annual picnic, Saturday May 27^th, 11am-3pm at the picnic shelter in Whatcom Falls Park.

Faculty Promotions and New Roles

Congratulations to Prof. Steven Emory who was promoted to Full Professor.

Staff/Faculty Awards and Honors

• Prof. Tim Kowalczyk was named one of eight new Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholars for 2023. The award honors young faculty in the chemical sciences who have created an outstanding independent body of scholarship and are deeply committed to education with undergraduates. Each Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar receives research grant of $75,000. Prof. Kowalczyk's project supported by the award is entitled "Excited-State Electronic Structure Driven Design of Photoactive Organic Materials".
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  Prof. Amanda Murphy received the 2024 Arlan Norman Award for Excellence in Student Mentoring. The award recognizes a faculty member in the College of Science and Engineering for excellence in mentoring student research.
• Prof. Rob Berger received the 2024 Peter J. Elich Excellence in Teaching Award. The award recognizes a faculty member from either the College of Humanities and Social Sciences or the College of Science and Engineering for their exemplary teaching practices.

Grant Funding and Research Highlights

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  Profs. Jeanine Amacher, John Antos, and Jay McCarty were awarded a 3-year R15 grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences ($382,912) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate bacterial sortase enzymes to start May 2024. This award builds on previous collaborative work from this research team to improve our understanding of the activity of bacterial sortases towards the development of next-generation tools in protein engineering. Specifically, the PIs will use a combined protein biochemistry, chemical biology, and computational approach to characterize the role of the transmembrane domains in both sortases and their substrates in activity, develop a bacterial peptide display assay to better understand sortase specificity, and investigate sortases from understudied classes (e.g. SrtB) of this important enzyme family. Profs. Amacher, Antos, and McCarty anticipate that this work will support the research of over a dozen undergraduates and Master's students over the award period, and look forward to continued discoveries and exciting science!

• Prof. Tim Kowalczyk was selected as a 2023 Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar. This national recognition, awarded by the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, is accompanied by a five-year, $75,000 grant which will support Prof. Kowalczyk's research program at the intersection of computational chemistry, materials, and energy science. The grant will create summer research opportunities for undergraduates to contribute to the development and application of excited-state electronic structure methods to simulate light absorption and energy transfer processes in photoactive organic materials.  Prof. Kowalczyk is the ninth Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar on the WWU Chemistry faculty; this newest award reflects the department's sustained national reputation for primarily undergraduate chemistry research and education.
• Prof. Ying Bao with her collaborator, Dr. Xiao Li from University of North Texas (UNT), received a grant from the National Science Foundation for the project titled “Topological Defects and Dynamic Motion of Symmetry-breaking Tadpole Particles in Liquid Crystal Medium”.  One of the fastest growing technology markets is related to miniaturized actuators or microactuators, which are small-scale active devices capable of generating mechanical motion of solids or fluids by converting one form of energy into kinetic energy. There are a lot of efforts on using nano- to micro-scale colloidal particles for microacutators to assemble into complex patterns and autonomous behavior in response to energy inputs from chemical fuels or external fields.  However, those particles were often symmetric, which restrict the complexity and controllability of the particle motion and thus limit the discovery of new mechanism that may arise with asymmetric particles.  With this award, the Bao group will develop approaches on fabricating asymmetric particles composed of a spherical head and highly asymmetrical tail features, called tadpole particles and the Li group will explore the impacts of the asymmetric features on particle-induced topological defects and motions in anisotropic liquid crystal medium. The project will provide an interdisciplinary platform involving chemistry, physics, and engineering to develop the potential for local targeting, with applications such as drug delivery and bioimaging on specific cells and initiation of site-specific reactions by carrying catalysts. In addition, due to the collaborative nature of this proposal, undergraduate students from WWU will be exposed to the research-intensive institutional culture through summer rotations at a R1 institution (UNT) and will gain valuable experiences by collaborating with faculty and students in different academic environments.
• Prof. John Gilbertson received a grant from the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund ($70,000; see press release) and was featured in a news item highlighting his group's work on reducing greenhouse gases. Prof. Gilbertson's R15 award ("Bioinspired Structure/Function Studies that Leverage Proton-Responsive Secondary Coordination Spheres and Ligand-Based Redox Sites") from the National Institutes of Health was also renewed ($388,066). The aim of the research described in this renewal proposal is to continue to develop unique and innovative bioinspired complexes to translate metalloenzyme active site reactivity and selectivity into the realm of synthetic constructs.  We are interested in the study of biologically relevant reactions, such as the denitrification of nitrate and nitrite.  Nitrate and nitrite are known water pollutants and in the case of nitrite, a suspected carcinogen.  We plan to explore key reactions in denitrification through the continued development of bioinspired metal ligand complexes containing secondary coordination spheres capable of enticing anion complexation and merging those with ligand-based redox-active sites within a single metal-ligand construct.
• Profs. Michael Larsen, Amanda Murphy, and David Rider along with Profs. Mark Peyron and John Misasi (WWU Engineering) received a grant from the National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation Program (NSF-MRI) for the acquisition of a Differential Scanning Calorimeter ($173, 150).

REU Program

Once again, Prof. Jeanine Amacher led a National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (NSF-REU) program over the summer. Profs. O'Neil, Rider, Larsen, Spiegel, Gilbertson, Smirnov, Kowlaczyk, Vyvyan, Antos, Amacher, and Murphy hosted eleven (11) students: Kyle Vittali (San Diego Miramar College), Angel Rivera (Ana G. Mendez University), Alan Garza (Lawrence University), Selena Lu (Laney College), Richelle Eary (Highline College), Kelly VanDamme (Caspar College), Katie Snyder (Central Washington University), Celine Sanchez (Trine University), Julian Flanagan (Carleton College), Devin Andaluz (WWU), and Caleb Doherty (WWU). At the end-of-summer symposium, students gave poster presentations of their research (see picture at right). The symposium also featured three external speakers: Dr. Pinar Gurel (Associate Principal Scientist at Alkermes), Prof. Kami Hull (University of Texas, Austin), and Prof. Devin Schweppe (University of Washington). 

Seagen Scholars Program

For Summer 2023, the Seagen (now Pfizer) Scholars Program supported eight (8) undergraduates and two (2) master's students (split between Chemistry and Biology Departments) to conduct/continue molecular biosciences-related research. At the end of the program, Chemistry student participants (Nathan Avery, Keavy Lynch, Caroline Ceravolo, and Catie Bodinger) along with Profs. Clint Spiegel and Mike Larsen visited Seagen where students gave presentations to Seagen staff about their research.

Professor Mark Bussell - Fulbright Scholar

Prof. Mark Bussell was a Fulbright Scholar in Budapest, Hungary in Fall 2024 where he carried out catalysis research related to the production of sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) at the Institute of Materials and Environmental Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship program of international education and cultural exchange for faculty and students. Mark’s wife (Kristi Lemm, Psychology) also received a Fulbright Scholar Award and taught in the Institute of Psychology of Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. Mark’s research focused on nickel phosphide (Ni₂P) and Pd-substituted Ni₂P catalysts supported on phosphorus-modified alumina (P-Al₂O₃) for converting model triglyceride compounds to hydrocarbons suitable for use in aviation fuels. Outside of research and teaching, Mark and Kristi participated in a variety of Fulbright-sponsored cultural activities throughout Hungary and also took time to travel to Austria, Slovakia, and Romania (Transylvania region).

Publications

WWU undergraduate students (*), WWU graduate students (†)

Amacher, JF; Antos, JM. "Sortases: structure, mechanism, and implications for protein engineering" Trends Biochem Sci. 2024, published online ahead of print.

†Vogel, BA; *Blount, JM; *Kodama, HM; *Goodwin-Rice, NJ; *Andaluz, DJ; †Jackson, SN; Antos, JM; Amacher, JF. "A unique binding mode of P1′ Leu-containing target sequences for Streptococcus pyogenes sortase A results in alternative cleavage". RSC Chem. Biol. 2024, 5, 30-40.

Godse, S; Sapar, T; Amacher, JF. "An idea to explore: Engaging high school students in structure-function studies of bacterial sortase enzymes and inhibitors - A comprehensive computational experimental pipeline". Biochem. Mol. Biol. Educ. 2023, doi: 10.1002/bmb.21769.

*Anunobi, MO; Berger, RF. "Energetic stability and band-edge orbitals of layered inorganic perovskite compounds for solar energy conversion". J. Phys. Chem. C 2023, 127, 20217-20225.

Baiz, CR; Berger, RF; Donald, KJ; de Paula, JC; Fried, SD; Rubenstein, B; Stokes, GY; Takematsu, K; Londergan, C. "Lowering Activation Barriers to Success in Physical Chemistry (LABSIP): A community project". J. Phys. Chem. A 2024, 128, 3-9.

†Lewine, HR; *Teigen, AG; *Trausch, AM; *Lindblom, KM; Seda, T; Reinheimer, EW; Kowalczyk, T; Gilbertson, JD. "Sequential Deoxygenation of CO2 and NO2– via Redox-Control of a Pyridinediimine Ligand with a Hemilabile Phosphine". Inorg. Chem. 2023, 62, 15173–15179.

Frey, L; Oliveira, O; Sharma, A; Guntermann, R; Fernandes, SPS; Cid-Seara, KM; *Abbay, H; *Thornes, H; Rocha, J; Döblinger, M; Kowalczyk, T; Rao, A; Salonen, LM; Medina, DD. "Building Blocks and COFs Formed in Concert-Three Component Synthesis of Pyrene-Fused Azaacene Covalent Organic Framework in the Bulk as Films". Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2023, 62, e2023028072.

†Talusig, JM; Murphy, AR. "Synthesis and Characterization of Highly Thiolated Silk Fibroin". Macromol. Chem. Phys., 2023, 2300340.

†Santen, RM; *Owens, KM; *Echague, KC; Murphy, AR. "Chemical Modification of Silk Proteins via Palladium-Mediated Suzuki-Miyaura Reactions”. Macromol. Chem. Phys., 2023, 2300307.

†Schwans, CL; *Clark, TD; O'Neil, GW. "Hydroxyl-Directed Regio- and Diastereoselective Allylic Sulfone Reductions with [Sm(H₂O)_n]I₂". J. Org. Chem. 2024, 89, 692-700.

†Clover, AW; *Jones, AP; Berger, RF; Kaminsky, W; O'Neil, GW. "Regioselective Fluorohydrin Synthesis from Allylsilanes and Evidence for a Silicon-Fluorine Gauche Effect". J. Org. Chem. 2024, 89, 4309-4318.

O'Neil, GW; *Keller, A; Balila, J; Golden, S; Sipila, N; Stone, B; Nelson, RK; Reddy, CM. "Monitoring Changes to Alkenone Biosynthesis in Commercial Tisochrysis Lutea Microalgae". ACS Omega 2024, 14, 16374-16383.

†Holliday, HM; *Bone, KI; *Sabio, R; Vyvyan, JR. "Enantioselective Synthesis of the Guaipyridine Alkaloid (+)- and (-)-Cananodine". ACS Omega, 2024, 9, 7904-7909.

†Croney, KA; McCarty, J. "Exploring Product Release from Yeast Cytosine Deaminase with Metadynamics" J. Phys. Chem. B, 2024, 128, 3102-3112.

*Houck, HE; *McConnell, KA; †Klingler, CJ; *Koenig, AL; *Himka, GK; Larsen, MB. “Postpolymerization Modification by Nucleophilic Addition to Styrenic Carbodiimides” ACS Macro Letters 2023, 12, 1112-1117.

*Johnson, J; Olson, MB; †Parker, I; †Hoffstetter, I; Lemkau, K. "Widespread Production of Polyunsaturated Aldehydes by Benthic Diatoms of the North Pacific Ocean’s Salish Sea" J. Chem. Ecol. doi: 10.1007/s10886-024-01496-9 

†Bowker, R. H.; Savithra, G. H. L.; †*Carillo, B. A.; *Huback, K.; *McDonald, T.; Brock, S. L.; Bussell, M. E. "Effect of Particle Size on the Sulfur Resistance of Nickel Phosphide Hydrodesulfurization Catalysts" J. Catal. 2023, 425, 70-79.