The 10th Annual Chemistry Research Symposium
Basic information
The 10th Annual Chemistry Research Symposium (CRS) will be held in the French Family Science Center on Monday, October 13, 2025. There will be keynote speakers, talks from current graduate students, poster presentations, a continental breakfast and catered lunch, and more! This is a great way to learn about research going on in other labs around the department and—if you’re new—to get a good feel for the Duke Chem culture as you embark on your graduate career.
Schedule
| Time | Event | Location |
| 9:00 AM | Continental Breakfast | Atrium |
| 9:45 AM | Welcome | Bonk Lecture Hall |
| 10:00 AM | Session I | Bonk Lecture Hall |
| 10:30 AM | Break | Atrium |
| 10:45 AM | Keynote: Evert Njomen | Bonk Lecture Hall |
| 11:30 AM | Keynote: Edwin Alfonzo | Bonk Lecture Hall |
| 12:15 PM | Lunch | Atrium, Lawn |
| 1:15 PM | Session II | Bonk Lecture Hall |
| 2:00 PM | Break | Atrium |
| 2:15 PM | Session III | Bonk Lecture Hall |
| 3:00 PM | Break | Atrium |
| 3:15 PM | Keynote: Drew Folk | Bonk Lecture Hall |
| 4:15 PM | Poster Session | FFSC 1st Floor |
Keynote Titles and Abstracts
Dr. Evert Njomen – Strategies Toward the Undrugged Proteome. Dr. Njomen is a new Assistant Professor of Chemistry whose work aims to expand the bounds of druggability by developing chemical probes to uncover complex biology and inspire next-generation therapeutics. Her talk will focus on small-molecule and chemoproteomic strategies to narrow the gap between the disease-relevant and druggable proteome, and on how these approaches have revealed ligandable sites within protein classes once considered inaccessible. The presentation will conclude by outlining how these discoveries have shape proposed research in the Njomen Lab.
Dr. Edwin Alfonzo – Three short stories on oxygen, sulfur, and nitrogen. In this talk, I will share three short stories about the elements mentioned in the title. I will start by describing my graduate work that aimed to create a unified route to lignans, oxygen-rich natural products. Lignans have long been of interest to society due to their proven biological activities in humans, warranting their synthesis and study as bona fide therapeutics for various malignancies. I will then transition to my work at AstraZeneca, a position I did not plan on holding, but it nonetheless presented itself to me in a time of uncertainty: the COVID-19 pandemic. There, I developed selective, catalytic methodologies for the functionalization of thioethers, sulfur-containing molecules, aimed at improving the synthesis of a clinical candidate the company had been developing for the treatment of various cancers. Finally, I will close by talking about enzymes and their ability to learn new talents (new-to-nature reactions). Specifically, I will describe my efforts on evolving hemoproteins, enzymes that natively perform oxidations using oxygen and a heme cofactor, for the functionalization of abiotic boronic acids to amines using a reactive nitrogen species, known as nitrenes. I will conclude by outlining my vision at Duke: to develop new catalytic strategies that expand the chemistries enzymes can perform, advancing sustainable methods for synthesis.
Dr. Drew Folk – From Benchtop to Bedside: Drug Development in Small Pharma. Bringing therapies to patients with rare diseases is a high-risk endeavour often overlooked by large pharma. However, with a clear unmet need and potential for high rewards, this space is often pioneered by small pharmaceutical companies operating with a focused objective. This seminar explores the drug development process through the lens of Glycomine, a clinical-stage biotech company advancing an investigational therapy for PMM2-CDG — the most common congenital disorder of glycosylation. Glycomine’s program highlights the key scientific, regulatory, business, and logistical challenges facing a drug development program and the adaptability and innovation required to keep moving forward with limited resources and accelerated timelines.
Session I Titles and Abstracts
Hassan Alkhunaizi – Molecular design principles for promoting long-range triplet exciton transport
A central challenge in the engineering of high-efficiency solar cells is extending the spatial range and temporal lifetime of the photoexcited singlet excitons. Converting the energy to triplet excitons is a promising direction due to the longer lifetime of triplets compared to singlets. However, triplet excitons suffer from a stronger distance dependence of their transfer rate: the rate of Dexter energy transfer (DET), the mechanism that underpins triplet exciton transfer, decreases exponentially with distance, whereas singlet exciton transfer (SET) rates decay as 1/R6. In this study, we explore whether the advantages of SET and DET may be simultaneously exploited to enhance energy transfer. As a proof-of-principle, we construct a molecular wire model with non-vanishing spin-orbit coupling (SOC) between the lowest-lying singlet and triplet excited states of the optically bright molecular sites. Such a design opens a new channel to effectively transport triplet excitons through a mixed singlet-triplet excited-state manifold. Compared to the wire model with only DET, we find that the inclusion of a singlet manifold significantly improves the net transport rate. We hypothesize that, provided that the SOC is sufficiently large relative to the singlet-triplet energy gap, triplet excitons in our model utilize the lowest-lying singlet excited state of each molecular unit as an effective pathway to exhibit long-range DET and soften its distance dependance.
Conner Soderstedt – Oxidized Overlayers of Ruthenium and Iridium as Electrocatalysts for Anodic Reactions
Noble metal oxides are materials that are incredibly rare on earth but also have incredible properties that make them useful for chemical transformations and renewable energy. In this work, we discovered a way to grow these expensive materials on inexpensive supports that not only made better use of the material but also had synergistic effects that improved their properties. A key finding was that ruthenium oxide grown on titanium oxide, the same material that sunscreen is composed of, resulted in a catalyst that was over 100 times more active than a catalyst composed of 100% ruthenium oxide. These findings have the potential to greatly reduce the use of rare elements in important applications such as renewable energy and chemical transformations, and highlight the potential for nanoscience to address societal needs.
Session II Titles and Abstracts
David Shea – Enantio-, Diastereo-, and Regioselective Reductive Coupling of Azatrienes with Azadienes
The allyl functional group is a versatile lynchpin in synthetic organic chemistry. Catalytic enantioselective methods for the introduction of allyl pronucleophiles to carbonyls and imines are well developed, yet enantioselective conjugate allylations of enones and enimines remain largely undeveloped. These reactions must overcome the innately favored 1,2-addition pathway, while also addressing challenges in nucleophile site selectivity and stereocontrol. Reported examples are rare and primarily rely on doubly activated enones, require electron-donating groups such as amides and esters, or have strict selectivity limitations with respect to the substrates. This work introduces a highly selective conjugate allylation of α,β-unsaturated imines using azatriene pronucleophiles under copper-hydride catalysis. Ligand selection enables the catalyst to control for 1,2- or conjugate addition while simultaneously delivering the products in high enantio- and diastereopurity. Furthermore, the synthetic utility of these products is developed through product functionalization providing new opportunities for the construction of complex chiral building blocks.
Brady Slinger – Platinum(II)-Catalyzed Cyclopropanation of Vinyl Arenes and Dienes Employing Aryl Diazirines as Carbene Precursors
Diazirines, owing to their enhanced stability relative to organic diazo compounds, are attractive but as yet unrealized precursors for metal-catalyzed cyclopropanation/carbene transfer. The development of a simple abiological catalyst for diazirine to alkene carbene transfer would significantly expand the scope of carbenes accessible in catalytic transformations. PtCl2(NCC6F5)2 catalyzes the reaction of electron-rich vinyl arenes with aryl diazirines in chloroform at 45 °C for 12 h to form 1,2-diarylcyclopropanes in >75% yield with cis/trans = 3.0 – 10.0. The method is similarly applicable to the cyclopropanation of 1-aryl-1,3-butadienes, albeit with diminished diastereoselectivity (cis/trans = 0.9 – 2.6). Kinetic studies, control experiments, and prior knowledge support a mechanism for diazirine to alkene carbene transfer involving nucleophilic attack of diazirine on a platinum bis(vinyl arene) complex followed by C–N oxidative addition and nitrogen extrusion to form an electrophilic dichloroplatinum carbene complex. Addition of vinyl arene across the Pt=C bond through a polarized transition state would form a platinacyclobutane(IV) complex that undergoes alkene-promoted reductive elimination to release cyclopropane.
Sam Huang – Enantioselective 1,3-Aminooxygenation of Cyclopropanes by Dual Photo/Copper Catalysis
Here we present the first enantioselective 1,3-aminooxygenation of cyclopropanes achieved by a photoinduced copper-catalyzed ring-opening approach. This method enables the efficient and direct incorporation of various amines, yielding enantioenriched 1,3-aminolactones in one step. Our approach leverages an acridinium photocatalyst in conjunction with chiral copper catalysis, successfully addressing the challenge in enantioselective control in current cyclopropane difunctionalization reactions. This novel dual-catalysis strategy is effective to deliver high yields and enantioselectivity in the synthesis of valuable 1,3-aminooxy frameworks, thereby providing a versatile and efficient pathway for the construction of high-value 1,3-aminooxy containing molecules.
Session III Titles and Abstracts
Natalie Labbe – Data Independent Acquisition (DIA) Strategy for Measuring Protein Stability Using Stability of Proteins from Rates of Oxidation (SPROX)
The stability of proteins from rates of oxidation (SPROX) technique is a mass spectrometry-based approach for making protein folding stability measurements on the proteomic scale. Described here is a new experimental workflow for SPROX that involves a data independent acquisition (DIA) strategy. Using the proteins in an E.coli lysate, we determined transition midpoints could be calculated with reasonable accuracy using the new DIA-SPROX workflow. Using the proteins in a S.cerevisiae cell lysate and cyclosporine A (CsA), a well-studied ligand, we also assessed the new workflow’s ability to detect protein-ligand interactions. By combining results from two DIA data processing software, we identified known protein targets of CsA with a low false positive rate. We also found the proteomic coverage obtained using DIA-SPROX is comparable to that in conventional SPROX experiments in terms of number of proteins assayed, but complementary to such conventional SPROX experiments in terms of the actual proteins identified.
Gaini Ibrashev – Investigating The Function Of Heat Shock Protein 90 Of Malaria
Plasmodium falciparum, the protozoan parasite responsible for the most pathogenic form of malaria, has evolved mechanisms to survive harsh environmental conditions. Essential to its survival is heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90), a key regulator of protein homeostasis that functions by folding critical yet largely unknown parasite proteins. This study aims to explore the response of P. falciparum towards Hsp90 inhibition across global and nascent proteomes to uncover its clients and obtain a deeper understanding of its role in parasite survival. Although PfHsp90 has been explored as an antimalarial target using established small-molecule inhibitors, their poor selectivity for parasite Hsp90 over the human homolog leads to significant toxicity. To address this limitation, this study further aims to screen a chemical library exceeding 3 billion compounds against both parasitic and human Hsp90 proteins to identify novel and species-selective PfHsp90 inhibitors. The outcomes of this study will improve our understanding of parasite biology and reveal novel potential antimalarial agents.
Yueqi Chen – Thiol Exchange- and Mass Spectrometry-Based Proteomic Method for Thermodynamic Measurements of Protein Folding Stability
Protein folding stability is a key biophysical property that is closely connected to biological function, disease phenotypes, and drug discovery. The SPROX approach, originally developed by the Fitzgerald group, is one of the few mass spectrometry-based approaches that enables evaluation of thermodynamic parameters associated with protein folding reactions (e.g., global folding free energies (DGgf values) and m-values (dDGgf/d[denaturant] values)). Presented here is a novel SPROX-like approach that utilizes the thiol-reactive agents, iodoacetamide, to replace the methionine reactive agent, hydrogen peroxide, in SPROX. This new method, which includes a novel data analysis strategy, not only expands the number of proteins and protein folding domains for which the above thermodynamic measurements can be determined, but also makes possible evaluation of the pKa values associated with Cys residues. The described approach also enables determination of folding free energies associated with both the local and global unfolding reactions involving Cys residues across the proteome.
Poster Session Titles and Abstracts
Gabriella Krisanic – Transdermal Delivery of Temozolomide via Resorbable, 3D-Printed Microneedle Array Patches for Treatment of Skin Cancer
Skin cancer is the most prevalent form of cancer, affecting 1 in 5 Americans in their lifetime. Common treatments include surgical removal of the tumor followed by radiation and chemotherapy, but these approaches are associated with a wide range of undesirable side effects and overall poor therapeutic efficacy. In recent years, transdermal delivery of therapeutics via microneedle array patches (MAPs) has emerged as an alternative to systemic drug delivery. As a minimally invasive approach to drug delivery, MAPs enable localized, rapid administration of therapeutics, limiting off-target effects and increasing drug availability in the tumor site through avoidance of first-pass metabolism. Herein, this work reports a 3D-printed, polymeric MAP loaded with temozolomide (TMZ), a first-line chemotherapeutic for melanoma. Investigation into drug loading and crosslinker composition will allow for development of a tunable device with improved control over both the profile of drug release as well as mechanical properties.
Hoseong Ryu –Design and synthesis of the stabilized α-helix mimicking the REV1-interacting motif of Pol κ to improve chemotherapy through the translesion synthesis inhibition
Translesion synthesis (TLS) is a DNA damage tolerance pathway that allows cancer cells to bypass DNA damage sites and continue synthesizing nucleic acids. TLS is a major contributor to cancer cell survival and the development of drug resistance. Therefore, inhibiting TLS can be an effective approach for the treatment of refractory cancer. REV1 plays a critical role in the assembly of TLS DNA polymerases through protein-protein interactions. In the interaction between REV1 and polymerase κ (Pol κ), the α-helix domain on Pol κ largely governs their binding affinity. This observation has led us to hypothesize that the α-helix mimicking the Pol κ motif can disrupt the REV1-Pol κ interaction, suppressing polymerase complex formation. With the technique of stabilizing helical structures, an α-helix targeting REV1 has been synthesized.
Maddiy Segal – Synthesis and Solvent Free Digital Light Processing 3D Printing of Degradable Poly(Allyl Glycidyl Ether Succinate) (PAGES)
Poly(allyl glycidyl ether succinate) (PAGES) is a novel, ultra-low-viscosity polyester that enables high-resolution (100 μm), solvent-free 3D printing on standard DLP and CLIP platforms, producing parts with exceptional dimensional accuracy and virtually no shrinkage. Its printability, combined with tunable mechanical properties and controlled water degradability, makes PAGES a versatile resin system for precision additive manufacturing across a variety of industries.
Ge Song – NepoIP/MM: Toward accurate biomolecular simulation with a ML/MM model
Machine learning force fields offer the ability to simulate biomolecules with Quantum Mechanical (QM) accuracy while significantly reducing computational costs, attracting growing attention in biophysics. Meanwhile, a hybrid machine learning/molecular mechanics (ML/MM) model offers a more realistic approach to describing complex biomolecular systems in solution. However, multiscale models with electrostatic embedding require accounting for the polarization of the ML region induced by the MM environment. To address this, we adapt the state-of-the-art NequIP architecture into a polarizable machine learning force field, NepoIP, enabling the modeling of polarization effects based on the external electrostatic potential. We found that the nanosecond MD simulations based on NepoIP/MM show excellent agreement with the reference QM/MM level. Moreover, we show that a single NepoIP model can be transferable across different MM force fields, as well as extremely different MM environment of water and proteins, laying the foundation for developing a general machine
Taylor Thorsen – Ultrasensitive Colorimetric Lateral Flow Assay Using Magneto-Plasmonic Gold Nanostars
The colorimetric lateral flow immunoassay (LFI) is a significant tool for point-of-care (POC) diagnostics. The LFI is a paper-based device that provides rapid results within 10-20 minutes. Its low cost, portability, and simplicity make it valuable for at-home detection. Traditional LFIs have a visual output, where a positive diagnosis is dictated through the appearance of a test line against a control line. This signal is generated through gold nanospheres (GNSPs), selected due to their colloidal stability and optical brightness. However, their spherical shape limits their capabilities for enhanced visual sensitivity. Gold nanostars (GNS) contain a high-spiked morphology, resulting in intense light absorption and scattering at the sharp tips of the structure. This feature allows for increased optical brightness, leading to improved colorimetric visibility. But, to further enhance visual sensitivity, a magnetic core can be incorporated into the morphology. This modification enables rapid magnetic concentration of the nanoparticles from larger sample volumes, leading to an increase in analyte-bound particles.
In this study, we synthesized magneto-plasmonic gold nanostars (mpGNS) for use within a colorimetric LFI targeting the Rift Valley fever virus antigen. mpGNS combines the strong optical properties of the nanostar morphology with magnetic responsiveness generated by the core. With the utilization of a pre-concentration step, a high number of antigen-bound mpGNS can be extracted from magnetic purification from a large sample volume. This modification was shown to significantly improve the visual sensitivity of the test line, resulting in a limit of detection over 1000-fold lower than that of conventional GNSP-based LFIs.
Matt Bonacci – Title and Abstract coming soon
