REU Site: Membrane Biochemistry and Bioinspired Synthesis

伍斯特理工学院（WPI）的阿恩·格里克教授、肖恩·伯德特教授及其同事主持了REU网站：膜生物化学和生物启发合成。该网站由化学部的REU网站计划资助，为2年制和4年制大学的学生提供了参加为期10周的夏季研究体验的机会，旨在让他们接触到膜生物化学和生物启发化学合成的有影响力的研究。该计划的框架旨在为REU学生提供充分参与科学发现各个方面的机会：项目概念，执行，故障排除，解释和传播。REU学生嵌入并与致力于解决科学前沿挑战性问题的跨学科研究人员社区互动。为了帮助每年夏天聚集不同学生群体的过程，来自美国48个州的三所大学的化学教师与WPI集团合作：美属维尔京群岛大学，安克雷奇和费尔班克斯的阿拉斯加大学。 所有这些学校都为大量代表性不足的学生提供服务。REU学生从事膜生物化学和生物启发化学合成领域的项目。合成项目涉及对映选择性碳-碳键形成的阴离子结合机理研究和作为分子储存和释放主体材料的多孔金属有机框架。膜生物化学项目涉及金属离子通过转运蛋白的渗透、膜组成和C. elegans，以及其他项目中醚脂质对膜形态的影响。

Professors Arne Gericke, Shawn Burdette, and colleagues at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) host the REU Site: Membrane Biochemistry and Bioinspired Synthesis. Funded by the REU Sites Program of the Division of Chemistry, this site provides Students from 2- and 4-yr colleges with the opportunity to participate in a 10-week summer research experience that is designed to expose them to impactful research in membrane biochemistry and bioinspired chemical synthesis. The framework of the program is designed to provide the REU students with the opportunity to be fully engaged in all aspects of the scientific discovery: project conception, execution, troubleshooting, interpretation and dissemination. The REU students are embedded in and interact with an interdisciplinary community of researchers dedicated to tackling challenging problems at the forefront of science. To aid in the process of assembling a diverse group of students each summer, chemistry faculty from three institutions that are separated from the contiguous 48 US States partner with the WPI group: the University of the US Virgin Islands, and the Universities of Alaska at Anchorage and at Fairbanks. All of these schools serve large populations of underrepresented students.The REU students pursue projects in the areas of membrane biochemistry and bioinspired chemical synthesis. The synthetic projects involve mechanistic studies of anion binding for enantioselective carbon-carbon bond formations and porous metal organic frameworks as host materials for molecular storage and release. The membrane biochemistry projects are concerned with metal ion permeation through transport proteins, membrane composition and stress survival in C. elegans, and the effect of ether lipids on membrane morphology among other projects.