Eight University of Delaware students will conduct research in chemistry and biochemistry this summer as members of the 2016 class of Plastino Alumni Undergraduate Research Fellows.

The program, now in its 10th year, was established by David A. Plastino, who graduated from UD in 1978 with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and biochemistry. Most years, six students have been selected to participate, but additional support was provided this year by some faculty mentors, allowing the program to expand.

Plastino, who as an undergraduate conducted research under the supervision of John E. Bulkowski, associate professor emeritus of chemistry and biochemistry, has had a career in investment banking. He has established both the research fellows program and the Plastino Scholars Program, which awards grants to undergraduates to support self-designed, off-campus projects, at the University.

The new class of Plastino Alumni Undergraduate Research Fellows, their supervising faculty member and the name of their research project are:

Arvind Annamalai — “Structural Contexts of Phosphorylation and OGIcNAcylation,” with Neal Zondlo, professor of chemistry and biochemistry.

Griffen Desroches — “Synthesis and Characterization of New Rare Earth Intermetallics,” with Svilen Bobev, professor of chemistry and biochemistry.

Matthew Hurlock — “Investigation of ATPase Activity in Nod2 and Nod2 Walker Mutants,” with Catherine Grimes, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry.

Hannah Wastyk — “Biochemical Characterization of innate immune Receptor, Nod2 and its Chaperone, Hsp70,” also with Grimes.

Zachary Jones — “Chemoenzymatic Synthesis of Bioorthogonal UDP N-acetylmuramic Acid Derivatives to Label the Peptidoglycans of S. aureus and B. subtilis,” also with Grimes.

Alex Manders — “Enantiospecific Allylic Vinylations to form Quaternary Stereocenters,” with Mary Watson, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry.

Jacob Piane — “Late-Stage Functionalization via Suzuki Cross Couplings of Unactivated Amines,” also with Watson.

Lucas Onisk — “Characterization of the Active site of Vanadium Chloroperoxidase and its Peroxo-Intermediate by Dynamic Nuclear Polarization Enhanced MAS NMR Spectroscopy,” with Tatyana Polenova, professor of chemistry and biochemistry.