Undergraduate researchers have a bright future!
Two undergraduate researchers, Alexa Cabrera and Assma Ali, have published a report in the journal Computational and Theoretical Chemistry with Profs. Yermolina and Papadantonakis. Alexa Cabrera is a 2022 graduate and will join our PhD program next year in organic chemistry. Assma Ali (pre-med) was supported by an Educational and Research Training Collaborative (ERTEC) at the University of Illinois Chicago. Their paper is focused on the activation barrier of adenine methylation by methane diazonium ion at the N3 site. The low activation barrier (2.45 kcal/mol) to obtain the toxic but not mutagenic 3-ethyl adenine, makes this moiety extremely important in designing anti-cancer drugs.