REU Site: Research Addressing Problems in Biological Chemistry

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This Research Experience for Undergraduate (RE) site award to Boston University, located in Boston, MA, supports the training of 10 students for 10 weeks. This program, funded by the Division of Chemistry in the Mathematical and Physical Science Directorate, engages participants in chemistry research projects emphasizing problems in biological chemistry at the molecular level. Alongside a full immersion laboratory experience, the program provides participants with extensive mentoring and professional development opportunities. Participants take part in a dual-mentoring plan, with graduate students and other undergraduate researchers. The students gain contemporary scientific presentation skills and engage with numerous visiting speakers. This program trains participants in research culture and stimulates talented young scientists to pursue research careers in STEM fields. Research projects available to participants cover a wide range of endeavors at the interface of chemistry and biology, including the design and synthesis of new nanomaterials for diagnostics and drug delivery, investigation of protein-protein interactions, design and synthesis of organic molecules, spectroscopic detection and identification of human pathogens, computational modeling of protein aggregation, and many others. This program's recruitment efforts place an emphasis on recruiting students from community colleges and four-year colleges with limited research opportunities. Through targeted recruitment, extensive professional development, and individual research projects, this site promotes STEM careers to talented students at a early stage.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.