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Lauren Sites ’08 (West Chester, Pa.) and Sarah Martinak ’08 (Endicot, N.Y.) are two tenacious, motivated students who know that the more research experience they can get during their undergraduate careers, the better off they will be in finding the job of their dreams.
So when they heard about the EXCEL Scholars program — in Martinak’s case as a high school senior and for Sites, during her first semester on campus — they knew they had to get involved.
“There was no way I was going to let that opportunity pass,” says Martinak, a chemistry major. “Everyone I talked to about becoming involved has said, ‘Wow! That is such a great opportunity, especially as a freshman’.”
In Lafayette’s distinctive EXCEL Scholars program, students conduct research with faculty while earning a stipend. The program has helped to make Lafayette a national leader in undergraduate research. Many of the more than 160 students who participate each year share their work through articles in academic journals and/or conference presentations.
Martinak and Sites, a biochemistry major, began asking professors if they needed summer research aides. They found what they were looking for in a project guided by Chip Nataro, assistant professor of chemistry, that looks at the properties of a group of compounds called ferrofenalphospenese ligands.
“The compounds bond to some kinds of metal atoms and are used in a number of different catalytic applications,” Nataro says. “They’re a really hot series of compounds right now because they are used to make what are known as chiral catalysts.”
Nataro explains that chiral compounds have historical significance because they are found in the drug thalidomide, which was prescribed to pregnant women in the 1960s and 1970s to ease morning sickness and help them sleep. The drug had the unexpected result of causing birth defects in their babies.
“The drug has a chiral center and essentially it can be described anecdotally as a right hand substituting a left hand,” he says. “Both are the same functionally. They have the same fingers and can do the same thing, but it’s the wrong position. With thalidomide, one component of the drug did everything they wanted it to; unfortunately, the other caused birth defects. And the drug contains both forms, which are exactly the same chemically.”
Since the discovery of the dual forms of the chrial compound, chemists have found a way, using these chiral catalysts, to exclusively create the “right hand” form and exclusively the “left-hand” form.
“Many drugs that are made have this chiral center and many things need this chiral center,” Nataro adds. “Essentially, we are doing some fundamental studies to look at how these changes affect their properties. People who use the ligands know they do great things, but no one has really looked too in-depth at why they do these great things and we are trying to answer that question.”
To that end, Sites and Martinak have spent numerous hours in the lab conducting experiments with the special compounds.
“We take the ferrofenalphospenese ligands, combine them with platinum and palladium to make two separate compounds, then study the electrochemistry,” Sites says. “Electrochemistry allows us to see the oxidation reduction potential, which is kind of an idea of how easily the electrons in the structure come off and go back onto the molecule. If you can see how easily the electrons come off and onto the molecule, it is helpful to determine how the molecule will bind to other molecules.”
Sites adds that given the billions of known chemicals and compounds, the more that can be understood about any of them, the better scientists can understand how they interact — especially when the purpose is using a catalyst to create a reaction.
“What we’re doing is definitely one very small part in a large picture,” Martinak says. “At times it’s hard to see the big picture. Sometimes when I’ve done the research, I don’t get a chance to really stop and analyze everything we’ve done, where we were going and its purpose to the real world, which is something I like to see in my work. So definitely the biggest challenge was trying to see how I am benefiting the world.”
Nataro agrees the work Sites and Martink are doing primarily is laying a foundation for future scientists to build upon. Nonetheless, the research is benefiting the students in numerous ways.
“They are learning a lot of different things; certainly they’ve learned techniques they haven’t seen in any classes and with that they are learning to use a lot of instrumentation they haven’t seen in their classes,” he says. “This is also exposing them to concepts that they will be coming across in future class work.”
Additionally, Sites and Martinak will get experience presenting, which will serve them beyond Lafayette.
“We give a talk over the summer where they get to stand up in front of all the scary professors and talk about their work. That is something that takes time to develop and the more you do it, the better off you’re going to be, so getting an early start is definitely beneficial,” says Nataro.
More importantly, he hopes to take the students to a national symposium in Newport, R.I., in March.
The students agree that the EXCEL work has been everything they hoped for.
“Because I’m a first-year student, I had only taken two chemistry classes, so I didn’t have that much under my belt,” Sites says. “So the chiral thing was totally new to me. In the beginning, there was a lot to swallow, but [this fall] I will have had these experiences, which I think will really help me and give me a step ahead on other classes.”
Martinak agrees, adding, “I don’t really realize what I’m picking up during the day, but a few times I’ve thought back on what I’ve done and I definitely have an advantage over students who are not here during the summer because they are not getting the lab techniques and the one-on-one experience with a professor.”
Beyond learning how to conduct complicated experiments, they are discovering things about why they wanted to pursue chemistry in the first place.
“Every day is something new, something different, and something you didn’t expect,” Sites says.
“It’s just the biggest thrill, knowing that we’re basically making compounds that have never been made before, so that in itself is interesting to me — that we’re delving into this one area of science that no one else has,” Martinak adds.
Martinak is a member of the student chapter of American Chemical Society and volunteers at Easton Hospital. She graduated from Union Endicott High School.
Sites also is member of the American Chemical Society chapter and has served as a volunteer. She graduated from West Chester East High School.
As a national leader in undergraduate research, Lafayette sends one of the largest contingents to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research each year. Thirty-nine students were accepted to present their research at this year’s conference.