Research Students Fritzinger, Pellegrino, and Sokirniy Present at UMBC Undergraduate Research Symposium

On Saturday October 25th three Ursinus students along with two Chemistry faculty traveled to the 17th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium in the Chemical and Biological Sciences at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.  Approximately 275 undergraduates presented their research in all areas of chemistry, biology and biochemistry. Both Drs. Julia Koeppe and Eric Williamsen served as judges.

Freshman science major, Nathan Fritzinger, presented  a poster entitled “Protein–Protein Interactions between the Lectin-like Domain of Thrombomodulin and Complement Component 3“ based upon  his research work with BCMB major Dan DeHelian (’15). This work is done in Dr. Koeppe’s lab. Dan and Nathan did a significant portion of this work this summer as part of the HHMI-sponsored FUTURE program where an advanced research student mentors an in-coming student.   

Two students who work in Dr. Amanda Reig’s lab also presented posters. BCMB major Jenna Pellegrino (’17) presented a poster entitled “Characterization of Rubrerythrin and Symerythrin Model Proteins”. Her co-authors were former BCMB majors Sabrina Cimerol (’12) and Rachel Polinski (’14).  BCMB major Ivan Sokirniy (’15) presented “Semiqunone Stabilization via De Novo Design Protein Scaffold “. Also contributing to this work are graduated Chemistry major Kristen Biernat (’14), and collaborators Ulas Gözde and William F. DeGrado from the University of California, San Francisco. For the quality of the work and his presentation, Ivan was awarded second place in his poster session.