Graduate Students Receive MEDI Fellowships

Seven students have received ACS Division of Medicinal Chemistry 2006 Predoctoral Fellowships. Each student will receive $24,000 toward graduate studies during the 2006-07 academic year.

Sarah A. (Jewell) Fowler, a graduate student in Helen E. Blackwell's lab at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, is working on the synthesis of peptoids for secondary structure determination and evaluation of biological activity. Her project specifically aims to develop peptoids as quorum-sensing modulators in gram-positive bacteria. Fowler received her B.S. in chemistry from Alma College, in Michigan, in 2003. Her fellowship is sponsored by Sanofi-Aventis.

Omid Khakshoor received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in chemistry from Sharif University of Technology, in Iran. He is currently a third-year graduate student in James S. Nowick's lab at the University of California, Irvine. Khakshoor is studying the interactions between β-sheet proteins and macrocyclic peptides, with the goal of controlling the β-sheet interactions between proteins. His fellowship is sponsored by Novartis.

Benjamin James Leslie graduated with a B.A. in chemistry from Colgate University, Hamilton, N.Y., in 2003. A fourth-year graduate student in organic chemistry in Paul J. Hergenrother's lab at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Leslie's research focuses on the synthesis of small molecules to use as modulators of cellular processes in disease states. His fellowship is sponsored by Eli Lilly & Co.

Andrew W. Patterson is a fourth-year graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, working with Jonathan A. Ellman. Patterson received his B.S. in chemistry from Rice University in 2003. Currently, he is working on the development and application of the substrate activity screening method for the identification of nonpeptidic protease inhibitors, as well as applying tert-butanesulfinamide-based methods for asymmetric amine synthesis toward the synthesis of α,α-disubstituted propargylamines. His fellowship is sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Megan Pomianek earned an interdisciplinary degree in chemistry and biology from Loyola College, in Maryland, in 2004. She is currently a third-year graduate student in the lab of Martin F. Semmelhack at Princeton University. Her research centers on bacterial quorum sensing and involves computer-aided design and synthesis as well as high-throughput screening to develop potent small molecules effective in quorum-sensing modulation. Her fellowship is sponsored by Amgen.

Matthew Volgraf received his B.A. in chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 2003. Currently a fourth-year graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, under the direction of Dirk Trauner, Volgraf's research focuses on the development of light-sensitive ionotropic glutamate receptors for the control of neural activity in vivo. His fellowship is sponsored by Wyeth Research.

Pauline Wyrembak graduated from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., in 2003 with a B.A. in chemistry and molecular biology and biochemistry. She is currently a third-year graduate student in Andrew D. Hamilton's lab at Yale University. Her research project focuses on the design, synthesis, and evaluation of small-molecule inhibitors of a protein-DNA interaction involved in carcinogenesis. Wyrembak's fellowship is sponsored by Pfizer Global Research & Development.