The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry hosts guest speaker Sara E. S. Martin, Assistant Professor of Chemistry at The College of Wooster. Her topic will be "Tools for Attenuating Activity of Glycosyltransferases."

The seminar will be preceded by a light reception at 4:30 p.m. in the David Love Lounge.

Sponsored by the Luke E. Steiner Lecture Fund.

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Abstract:

Enzymes are Nature’s catalysts, but too much reactivity can lead to disease. Sometimes we need to put on the breaks to understand an enzyme’s function. Our lab is investigating a new way to make unique heterocycles, known as 7-substituted quinolinones, that could be good starting points for inhibitors of glycosyltransferase enzymes. There are limited ways to construct these heterocycles from simple, commercially available starting materials, and many of the existing methods do not provide access to products with substitution at the 7-position of the quinolinone ring. Existing syntheses rely heavily on oxidation state manipulations or on prefunctionalized starting materials rather than on building up the quinolinone framework from simple and readily accessible starting materials. We are investigating whether 3-substituted anilines can be used in an acylation-cyclization sequence to selectively form exclusively 7-substituted products. Our results indicate that 7-substituted quinolinones are the major products in these reactions, but yields and selectivities differ depending on the nature of the aniline substrate.

The final minutes of the talk will focus on the Phone a STEM Professional assignment, which asks students to conduct an informational interview with a STEM professional and reflect on their experience. I am investigating the effect of the assignment on student career aspirations, confidence in intended career path, and sense of belonging in STEM, all of which are positively influenced by participation in this assignment.