The Program for Research Initiatives for Science Majors

PRISM

The Program for Research Initiatives for Science Majors

at John Jay College, CUNY

A program supported by CSTEP (New York State Education Department), Title V (US Department of Education), with additional financial support through LSAMP (NSF).

Annual Progress Report: July 1, 2007 – June 30, 2008

Senior Personnel: Anthony Carpi, Lawrence Kobilinsky, Ronald Pilette

Other Personnel: Katrina Cruz, Adanna Grandison

Report Date: October 2008

2007-2008 Year Progress

As detailed in our first annual progress report for 2006-2007, PRISM was established in fall 2006 to promote the expansion of undergraduate research in the science programs at John Jay College. In that first year, thirteen students shared in $21,000 of funding, an increase of 350% over the last year before PRISM was founded. Now having completed its second year of operation, the program has greatly expanded and has had a profound influence on promoting undergraduate science research. In the 2007-2008 academic year, twenty students shared in $34,250 of stipend support. This represents an increase of over 50% in terms of the number of students funded and stipends provided from the previous year. Four students participated in non-funded research (each will be funded this year), and eightparticipated in our post-second year research training course. Additionally, many more science majors were exposed to PRISM via attendance at one or more PRISM events held throughout the year. More than half of graduating forensic science majors engaged in funded mentored research through PRISM.

The quality of undergraduate research continues at a high level. Students engaged in research averaged over 300 hours each in their time commitment. Two students won second prizes in their respective science categories at the Annual CSTEP Statewide Conference (CSTEP is comprised of 50 colleges and universities located in New York State). PRISM students also presented their work at six additional meetings outside of the College and three meetings at the College. In addition, four PRISM students won competitive research scholarships through John Jay College in recognition of the quality of their work.

The first of what will be an annual event, the John Jay College PRISM Undergraduate Research Symposium, was held on May 9, 2008. It was attended by over 60 students, faculty, and administrators including the President and Provost of the College. The event featured an invited talk from a former John Jay College undergraduate student, Dr. Marcel Roberts, who recently earned his PhD in Analytical Chemistry from Boston College. Nineteen PRISM students presented posters and one student, Nicole DeLuca, gave a talk as winner of the prize for outstanding undergraduate research.

The goals set forth in last year’s report were met: more students were involved and received greater funding, faculty participation increased substantially, visibility within the College community was dramatically increased culminating with the Undergraduate Research Symposium mentioned previously, a promotional brochure was designed and printed, an information board was put in place, and six poster display cases for student research were put in place as well.

Near-Term Goals

Despite the overall success of our efforts these past two years, there is still much that can be done. We wish to consolidate our efforts so that the success of the past two years will continue. We do not see the number of students continuing to rise significantly since nearly half of all students who graduated from the science program this past year were engaged in research through PRISM. Given that the Forensic Science program also maintains an alternate capstone experience for students, an external laboratory internship, we project that PRISM will continue to serve approximately half of students in the program, with the remainder participating in the external internship program. One goal we have for the coming year is to reach our potential students earlier and more effectively. To this end, we will recruit several outstanding first-year students with the goal of placing them with mentors several months or more earlier than has been the case to this point. We plan to add training for students in laboratory safety in year three of the program as well as expand the supplies that the program provides student researchers, including laboratory notebooks, USB data drives, and other resources. We will also begin outreach to several of the CUNY community colleges to identify potential undergraduate researchers who often miss out on undergraduate research opportunities as they rarely have such opportunities in their junior college years and often do not learn about these opportunities in a timely fashion when they transfer to senior colleges. Further, our goals are to continue to expand the support we provide to those students participating in research. Toward that end, a grant application was submitted to the CUNY Coordinated Undergraduate Education program to support our 2nd Undergraduate Research Symposium and offer comprehensive GRE preparation specifically tailored to the needs of our students. Additionally, a collaborative grant with the Borough of Manhattan Community College was submitted to the U.S. Department of Education. Additional grant opportunities are also being explored.

Funded Research Students

NameMentorSource/ Amount Funded

Chadwick, EkaterinaG. ProniCSTEP- $2,000

DeLuca, NicoleD. FriedlandTitle V- $2,000

Ekstrom, MartaN. PetracoCSTEP- $2,000; Title V- $500

Gunderson, LaurenP. DiaczukTitle V -$1,000

Guzzetta, MelissaR. StrippTitle V- $500

Heslin, JaimieA. CarpiTitle V- $3,000

Hung, Fan KeiY. HeTitle V- $500

Lai, GuidaY. HeTitle V- $500

Louis, MarioN. PetracoCSTEP- $1,000; Title V- $500

Martin, KellieN. PetracoCSTEP- $1,000

McCord, TroyG. ProniTitle V-$1,000; LSAMP -$750

Panikkaveetil, NishaM. WallaceTitle V- $1,000

Pohl, JeremyY. HeTitle V- $2,000

Pontacq, EugeniaD. FriedlandLSAMP - $4,000

Quinones, JasonA. CarpiLSAMP- $2,000

Sanchez, AnaD. FriedlandLSAMP - $5,000

Scimeca. DanielleN. PetracoCSTEP- $1,500

Yermakova, AnastasiyaM. WallaceCSTEP- $1,500

Young, AnnaY. HeTitle V- $500

Yuen, AmyY. HeTitle V- $500

Non- funded Research Students

NameMentor

Canzius, AliciaG. Proni

Cho, JungN. Lents

Ho, AnthonyN. Lents/ A. Carpi

Noro, KanoD. Friedland

PRISM Graduates 2008

Name Mentor

DeLuca, NicoleD. Friedland

Gunderson, LaurenP. Diaczuk

Guzzetta, MelissaR. Stripp

Heslin, JaimieA. Carpi

Hung, Fan-Kei Y. He

Lai, GuidaY. He

Louis, MarioN. Petraco

McCord, TroyG. Proni

Panikkaveetil, NishaM. Wallace

Pohl, JeremyY. He

Sanchez, AnaD. Friedland

Yermakova, AnastasiyaM. Wallace

Young, AnnaY. He

Yuen, AmyY. He

Post- Second Year Research Trainees (Diana Friedland, Instructor) 2007

This training course covered a variety of topics in over 30 hours of class and laboratory meetings. Classroom and laboratory topics included Ethics in Science & Medicine; Responsible Conduct in Scientific Research; Introduction to Literature Searching for the Scientist; Introduction to Protocol/ Experimental Design; Introduction to Protein Chemistry; Introduction to Data Analysis Techniques and Introduction to Laboratory Techniques for Bio-Chemical Research. Students also visited the Mutter Museum of Pathology in Philadelphia.

NameAttendance

Cardona, SandraRegular

Cuellar, Carlos2 Absences (labs)

Goni, SummayyaRegular

Ho. AnthonyRegular

Noro, KanaRegular

Pontacq, Eugenia3 Absences (protocol design & labs)

Quinones, JasonRegular

Siu. EllenRegular

Patent (08A0019)

He, Y., Pohl, J., Engel, R., Zhang, H.-B., (2008)“Ionic Liquid Based Solid Phase Microextraction (SPME) Fiber and Preparation Methods”

Awards

Jeremy Pohl wasselected as a recipient of a 2008 Eastern Analytical Symposium (EAS) Student Award.

Nicole DeLuca was selected as the recipient of the 2007-2008 Outstanding Science Undergraduate Research Student at John Jay College

Presentations and Publications

1. PRISM Fall Information Days,John Jay College, New York City. (October 30 & 31, 2007):

Heslin, J., Carpi, A., Petraco, N. "The Reduction of Mercury in Soil".

Sanchez, A., Friedland, D.E. "PAP: Pokeweed Antiviral Protein".

1. NEAFS Rye, N.Y. (November 1, 2007)

Gunderson, L., Diaczuk, P.

1. CSTEP January Information Day, John Jay College, New York City. (January 24, 2008)

Heslin, J., Carpi, A., Petraco, N. "The Reduction of Mercury in Soil".

Sanchez, A.,Friedland, D.E. “Depurination using Pokeweed Antiviral Protein".

1. AAFS (February 21, 2008)

Gunderson, L., Diaczuk, P.

1. Pittcon, New Orleans, Louisiana (March 2-6 2008)

He, Y., Young, A., Lai, G., Hung, B., Yuen, A. “Determination of Chloroanilines in Environmental Waters Using Hollow Fiber Supported Liquid-liquid Microextraction”.

1. CSTEP Statewide Conference, Bolton Landing, NY (April 4-6, 2008)

Chadwick, E. “Chiral Recognition of a Fish Pheromone by CD-sensitive dimeric zinc porphyrin host”. 2Nd place winner.

Louis, M, Petraco, N. (2008) “Statistical Discrimination of Gasoline”.

Ekstrom, M, Petraco, N. (2008) “Time Series Analysis of Footwear Accidental Marks”.

Sanchez, A., Friedland, D.E., "Depurination of RNA by Pokeweed Antiviral Protein (PAP): Fluorometric Determination of Released Adenine". 2Nd place winner.

1. LSAMP Urban University Conference,City College of New York, N.Y. (April 11-12, 2008)

McCord,T. M., Canzius, A., Proni, G., Petrovic, A. G., Berova, N., Balaban, T. S. (2008) “Configuration Determination of a Light Harvesting Porphyrin by Circular Dichroism Tweezer Methodology”

Quinones, J., Carpi, A."Understanding the Depth Profile of Mercury

Emissions from Sand and Its Relevance to Long-Range Environmental

Effects”.

Sanchez, A., Friedland, D.E., "Depurination of RNA by Pokeweed Antiviral Protein (PAP): Fluorometric Determination of Adenine Released”.

Pontacq, E. V., DeLuca, N., Sanchez, A., Chaparro, J., “Purification Of PAP, & Investigation Of PAP-RNA, PAP-eIF Interactions Via Fluorescence Spectroscopy”.

Pontacq, E. V., DeLuca, N., Sanchez, A., Chaparro, J. “Purification Of PAP, & Investigation Of PAP-RNA, PAP-eIF Interactions Via Fluorescence Spectroscopy”.

1. ACS Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting (MARM), Bayside, Queens, New York, NY (May 17-21, 2008)

McCord,T. M., Canzius, A., Proni, G., Petrovic, A. G., Berova, N., Balaban, T. S. (2008) “Configuration Determination of a Light Harvesting Porphyrin by Circular Dichroism Tweezer Methodology”.

Chadwick, E., Proni, G., Petrovic, A. G., Berova, N., Huang, L., Ouedraogo, Y., Plazas-Mayorca, M. D., Ablin, K., Wehmschulte, R. J., Nesnas, N. (2008) “Absolute Configuration Determination of a Biologically Active Diol”.

Noro, K., DeGrazia, J., and Friedland, D. E. "Pokeweed Antiviral Protein (PAP): Understanding its Role in Plant Related Forensics".

DeLuca, N., Friedland, D. (2008) “Detection of rRNA by Pokeweed Antiviral Protein: Fluorescence Detection of Adenine Release”.

1. ACS- Undergraduate Research Symposium, Queens, NY, (May 17, 2008)

DeLuca, N., Friedland, D. (2008) “Detection of rRNA by Pokeweed Antiviral Protein: Fluorescence Detection of Adenine Release”.

1. John Jay College PRISM Undergraduate Research Symposium, John Jay College, New York City, N.Y. (May 9, 2008)

DeLuca, N., Friedland, D. “Depurination Using Pokeweed Antiviral Protein”. (Oral presentation)

Heslin, J., Petraco, N., Carpi, A. "Modeling the Reduction of Mercury in Soil using Gaussian Software”.

Sanchez, A., Pontacq, E. V., DeLuca, N., Chaparro, J.“Purification of PAP & PAP-eIF, PAP-RNA and PAP-eIF-RNA Interactions Via Fluorescence Spectroscopy”.

Yermakova, A., Wallace, M. “Comparison of DNA Profiles Obtained from Low Copy Number DNA: Determined using Conventional and miniSTR Primers”.

Panikkaveetil, N., Wallace, M. “DNA Extraction from Deodorant Sticks”.

McCord,T. M., Canzius, A., Proni, G., Petrovic, A. G., Berova, N., Balaban, T. S. “Configuration Determination of a Light Harvesting Porphyrin by Circular Dichroism Tweezer Methodology”.

Chadwick, E., Proni, G., Petrovic, A. G., Berova, N., Huang, L., Ouedraogo, Y., Plazas-Mayorca, M. D., Ablin, K., Wehmschulte, R. J., Nesnas, N. “Absolute Configuration Determination of a Biologically Active Diol”.

Quinones, J., Carpi, A. “Understanding the Depth Profile of Mercury Emissions from Sand and Its Relevance to Long-Range Environmental Effects”.

He, Y., Young, A., Lai, G., Hung, B., Yuen, A. “Determination of Chloroanilines in Environmental Waters Using Hollow Fiber Supported Liquid-liquid Microextraction”.

Louis, M, Petraco, N. (2008) “Statistical Discrimination of Gasoline”.

Ekstrom, M, Petraco, N. (2008) “Time Series Analysis of Footwear Accidental Marks”.

Pohl, J., He, Y., Engel, R., Zhang, H.-B., “Ionic Liquid Based Solid Phase Microextraction (SPME) Fiber and Preparation Methods”

Conferences Attended with Presentations by PRISM Students

15th Annual CSTEP Conference, Lake George, NY, April 4-6, 2008 – the two second place prizes in science categories were awarded to PRISM students (50 colleges and universities participating).

LSAMP - Urban University Conference Series 2007, New York City, NY, April 11-12, 2008.

55th Annual ACS Undergraduate Research Symposium, New York City, NY, May 17-21, 2008.

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