Congratulations go out to Dr. Marie-Christine Daniel for being selected as one of only five recipients for an AACR career development award this year. Dr. Daniel will be constructing multifunctional nanoparticles to target malignant pancreatic cells. Her work should lead to a dramatic increase in potency and efficacy in pancreatic cancer, while reducing side effects. Best of  luck in this exciting research.

Dr. Mark Perks, awarded a Vertically Integrated Partnerships K-16 Faculty Fellow Subgrant, Partnership Between Montgomery County High School Teachers and UMBC's Department of Chemistry to Transform Chem 101 Recitation Sections at UMBC by the National Science Foundation. The Partnership intends to bring together chemistry Master Science Teachers, MSTs, to complete an effective team with teaching assistants and university faculty.

Dr. Susan Gregurick was awarded a grant for The Effects of counterions on the scattering function of nucleic acids, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Center for Neutron Research. The goal of this project is to formulate a methodology to account for the effects of counterions, when using small angle neutron scattering as a structural probe for nucleic acids. A longer term objective is to devise a robust method that will allow researchers to use small angle neutron scattering, with the reliability of NMR spectroscopy, yet on much larger and more complex macromolecules.

Dr. Susan Gregurick was elected to the Terahertz Network steering committee of the Terahertz Science and Technology Network.

Dr. Joel Liebman was appointed as a Presidential Research Professor, by UMBC, 2006-2009.

Dr. Veronika Szalai was awarded as co-Investigator a grant for MRI: Acquisition of an ICP-MS and an IC by UMBC for Use in Environmental and Human Health Research at UMBC and Howard University by the National Science Foundation. The establishment of ICP-MS and IC capabilities at UMBC in collaboration with Howard University is providing a tool for research on the environment and human health. Two universities, five research centers, eight engineering and science academic departments, and one government agency are all part of the project. The ICP-MS will be used by Dr. Szalai to further her research on the role of metal ions in Alzheimer’s disease.

Sarah E. Evans, 3rd year graduate student (Szalai Group), was selected to attend the 2006 Meeting of Chemistry Nobel Laureates in Lindau, Germany by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, Department of Energy, National Institutes of Health, and National Science Foundation. The meeting’s goal is to promote informal discussion between young researchers and Nobel Laureates in chemistry, physics, and physiology/medicine. In 2006, the meeting will feature 23 talks by Nobel Laureates in chemistry. A total of 60 students from the U.S. will be among 500 students attending the conference this year.

Dr. Katherine Seley-Radtke was named one of the six 2006-2007 Jefferson Science Fellows. The program is a partnership between the U.S. Department of State, the Carnegie Corporation, the MacArthur Foundation, the National Academies of Science and UMBC. Dr. Seley-Radtke will be housed at the U.S. State Department for a year providing scientific expertise on critical policy decisions such as pandemics and the nonproliferation of bioweapons. Upon her return to UMBC, she will remain a consultant for the State Department for an additional five years.

Dr. Katherine Seley-Radtke was awarded funding for Unnatural Base Pairs as DNA Bioprobes; RO1 GM073645 by the National Institutes of General Medical Sciences, National Institutes of Health. This project focuses on the synthesis and biophysical studies of a series of unnatural base pairs that alter the DNA helix. The long term goal is to understand the effects of the expanded and extended heteroaromatic bases on DNA stability, structure and function

Dr. Brian Cullum was awarded funding for Development and Optimization of Multilayered Surface Enhanced Raman Substrates; DAAD19-03-R-0017 by the Army Research Office, U.S. Army. This project focuses on the characterization and optimization of a novel class of surface enhanced Raman substrates recently developed in Dr. Cullum’s laboratory that exhibit enhanced sensitivity and durability and are capable of being used in the trace detection of biological and chemical agents in the field.

Dr. Brian Cullum with Dr. Nirmala Chandrasekharan and Mikella Hankus, submitted U.S. Patent Application No. 20060017917; “Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopic Nanoimager to the United States Patent Office. This application relates to a unique surface enhanced Raman imaging system capable of obtaining dynamic chemical images of samples with nanometer scale spatial resolution.

with Honggang Li submitted U.S. Patent Application No. 20060017918; “Multilayered Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) Substrates to the United States Patent Office. This application relates to a novel fabrication and metal deposition process capable of producing significant signal enhancements over conventional SERS substrates, allowing the trace detection of a wide variety of chemical species.

Dr. William LaCourse and Patrick Wiggington were awarded U.S. Patent No. 7,028,562: Vacuum membrane extraction system by the United States Patent Office. The invention relates to an apparatus for sampling and analysis of gas phase molecules and also relates to methods of sampling and analyzing gas phase molecules above and below liquid and soil surfaces.

Jonathan Bryant, undergraduate (Garvie Group), was awarded funding for Structural studies of the RFX5 dimerization domain by the Office of the Provost, UMBC. This project focuses on the crystallographic and biophysical studies of a key domain in the RFX5 protein, which is essential for regulation of MHC class II genes.

Dr. Michael Summers was voted the 2006 Donald Creighton Memorial Faculty Award by the Graduate Student Association, Dept of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UMBC.

Dr. Michael Summers was awarded funding for NMR Studies of Retroviral Nucleocapsid Proteins; RO1 GM42561-17 by the National Institutes of General Medical Sciences, National Institutes of Health. This project focuses on NMR studies of retroviral nucleocapsid proteins and their interactions with RNA. The long term goal is to understand the molecular determinants of retroviral genome recognition and packaging, and to use this information to develop new inhibitors and to enhance the efficacy of retroviral vectors currently employed in human gene therapy trials.

Dr. Michael Summers was awarded a Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Biological Sciences grant for expanding participation in the biomedical sciences by the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes.

Dr. Ram Hosmane was appointed to the Rapid Access to Intervention Development (RAID) Review Panel by the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Ram Hosmane was elected to the Membership of the Greenebaum Cancer Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine by the University of Maryland Baltimore.

Dr. Lisa Kelly, was elected President of the American Society for Photobiology for 2005-6 by the American Society for Photobiology.

Drs. Lisa Kelly and Bradley Arnold were awarded a contract to Develop stand-off detection methods of energetic materials using back-scattered spectroscopy by The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

Dr. Ralph Pollack was awarded an Improving Teacher Quality grant, ITQ-06-405 by the Maryland Higher Education Commission. Work performed under the grant is to be directed by Dr. Tiffany Gierasch. The Teacher Quality in Chemistry (TQC) Program seeks to improve the number of highly qualified high school chemistry teachers by providing teachers with an intensive, “hands on” chemistry professional development experience.

Dr. Ram Hosmane was awarded a new exploratory grant entitled “Mechanistic Studies of Anti-HIV Activity of a Ring-Expanded Nucleoside” by the National Institutes of Allergies and Infectious Diseaese, National Institutes of Health. Dr. Ram Hosmane was appointed to panel membership of AIDS Discovery & Development Study Section by the National Institutes of Health