ABSTRACTS

2019 National McNair Scholars Conference at UCLA


Researcher: Phuoc Tran

Presentation Title: The Effect of 1,4-Dioxane on the Mixture of L-and D-Serine

Research Focus: Inorganic Chemistry and Chemical Biology

School: San José State University

Presentation Type: Poster Presentation

The connections and shapes of the molecules in our body are very similar to a puzzle. All molecules present in the body have different shapes, and their different shapes allow them to bind (connect) to other biological molecules such as proteins to result in our body being fully functional. The concept of chirality is very important in the field of medicine and pharmaceutical because the molecules in the drugs need to be able to selectively bind and compatible with the different proteins in the body in order to help the body resist and overcome the sickness. The purpose of drugs is to be active, beneficial, and help the body to be cured from illnesses/diseases. This is an important concept applicable to drug molecules since they are often defined as chiral compounds. Therefore, the focus in our research group is to use lanthanide (III) complexes, [Tb(DPA)3]3- (where DPA = 2,6-pyridinedicarboxylate), as a probing technique to identify the chirality of the given biological materials such as amino acids. For our project specifically, we investigate the influence and effect of how the solvent 1,4-dioxane have on the mixture of L- and D-serine by using steady-state and time-resolved luminescence spectroscopic techniques as well as circularly polarized luminescence spectroscopy (CPL).