July 2019 July 25: Professor Contel publishes “Metal-based antibody drug conjugates. Potential and challenges in their application as targeted therapies in cancer” in the Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry. July 17: Professor Davenport publishes “The solvatochromic response of benzo[a]fluorenone in aprotic solvents compared with benzo[b]fluorenone and 9‐fluorenone” in the Journal of Physical Organic Chemistry. July 9: It is with great sadness that the Department of Chemistry must report the passing of Professor Emeritus Irving Alan Kaye on May 11, 2019, just 12 days shy of his 103rd birthday. Kaye was born in Brooklyn, earned an A.B. from City College (1935), a master’s degree from NYU (1939), and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Michigan State College (now University) (1942). He became an instructor at Brooklyn College in 1945 and was promoted to full professor in 1965. During his tenure at the college, he taught organic chemistry and carried out research in synthetic organic chemistry and the development of organic laboratory techniques. He was among the first generation of faculty to carry out scientific research at Brooklyn College, and is remembered by his colleagues for providing support and inspiration for their own research efforts. He maintained his commitment to the department and the college long after his retirement, and he will be missed. June 2019 June 13: Professor Contel publishes “Preclinical evaluation of an unconventional ruthenium‐gold‐based chemotherapeutic: RANCE‐1, in clear cell renal cell carcinoma” in Cancer Medicine. June 5: Professor Murelli publishes “Importance of Lipophilicity for Potent Anti-Herpes Simplex Virus-1 Activity of α-Hydroxytropolones” in MedChemComm. June 4: The department is recruiting a senior laboratory technician. Visit the official job posting for more information and to apply for the position. The closing date is June 25, 2019. May 2019 May 29: Professor Greer publishes “On the Mechanism of Visible-Light Photooxidative Demethylation of Toluidine Blue O” in the Journal of Physical Chemistry A. Congratulations to Jose Robinson-Duggon, who worked on this project while visiting our department. May 29: Our graduate student Sarah Belh (Greer’s lab) wins the Eastern Analytical Symposium Graduate Student Research Award. Congratulations, Sarah! May 23: Professor Murelli publishes “Spectrophotometric determination of α-hydroxytropolone pKa values: A structure-acidity relationship study” in Tetrahedron Letters. Our student John Stasiak is the first author of the publication. Congratulations, John! April 2019 April 29: Professor Torrente‘s research on Lou Gehrig’s disease is featured on CUNY’s SUM. April 16: The Chemistry Department congratulates Jiye Son from the CUNY Graduate Center Chemistry Ph.D. Program who successfully defended her doctoral thesis titled “Design and Application of Matrix Metalloproteinase-9 responsive Peptide Nanostructures.” Jiye has been working for the past four years under the supervision of Professor Maria Contel (Brooklyn College) and Professor Rein Ulijn (CUNY Advanced Science Research Center ASRC). Great work, Jiye! April 15: Professor Contel publishes “Heterometallic Compounds as Anticancer Agents,” a book chapter in Metal-Based Anticancer Agents. April 10: Professor Torrente publishes “Characterizing Histone Post-translational Modification Alterations in Yeast Neurodegenerative Proteinopathy Models” in the JoVE Journal of Visualized Experiments. April 8: Professors Contel and Jarzecki publish “Preparation of Titanocene‐Gold Compounds Based on Highly Active Gold‐NHeterocyclic Carbene Anticancer Agents. Preliminary in vitro Studies in Renal and Prostate Cancer Cell lines” in ChemMedChem. April 3: On this month’s Chemistry Career Blog Jacob Fernandez-Gallardo talks about his experiences working on research in medicinal chemistry and his current work in forensic chemistry for the Spanish government. Learn about his role in testing substances for narcotics, and developing techniques to test for new psychoactive substances (aka “designer drugs”). April 2: Professor Guillermo Gerona-Navarro is the recipient of the 2019 Henry Wasser Award from the CUNY Academy for the Humanities and Sciences. March 2019 March 27: Professor Aneta Mieszawska publishes “A Tripeptide-Stabilized Nanoemulsion of Oleic Acid” in the JoVE Journal of Visualized Experiments. March 22: Professor Guillermo Gerona-Navarro publishes “Peptidomimetics Targeting Protein-Protein Interactions for Therapeutic Development” in Protein and Peptide Letters. March 22: Congratulations to our excellent graduate students: Samantha Cobos (Torrente‘s lab) the recipient of the Early Research Initiative Provost’s Pre-Dissertation Research Fellowship for the Sciences and Alex Berkowitz (Murelli‘s lab) the recipient of the K. Rose Award, both from the CUNY Graduate Center. March 15: In honor of International Women’s Day (March 8, 2019), healthcare company GlaxoSmithKline asked three of its scientists—including CUNY alumna and contributor to the Chemistry Career Blog, Bonnie Kruft—to talk about their experiences. March 14: Professor Ryan Murelli publishes “Troponoid Atropisomerism: Studies on the Configurational Stability of Tropone-Amide Chiral Axes” in Organic Letters March 12: The faculty of the Department of Chemistry gets together for a group picture: From left to right: Azaria Eisenberg, Mark Kobrak, Emilio Gallicchio, Joann Mathias, Laura Juszczak, Maria Contel, Brian Gibney, Mariana Torrente, Alec Greer, Aneta Mieszawska, Ryan Murelli, Guillermo Gerona-Navarro, Terry Dowd, Malgorzata Ciszkowska, Andrzej Jarzecki, Lesley Davenport, Lenny Metlitsky. Richard Magliozzo (not in the picture). March 11: Professor Mark Kobrak publishes “Extraction of Acids and Bases from Aqueous Phase to a Pseudoprotic Ionic Liquid” in the journal Molecules as an invited contribution to the special issue “Ionic Liquids in Chemical Separations: Promise and Prospects.” March 5: Congratulations to Professor Brian Gibney on receiving the 2019 Outreach Volunteer Award from the American Chemical Society. March 5: This month’s Chemistry Career Blog entry features Hualin Li, a senior consultant at Ernst & Young LLP. Learn how his skills as a computational scientist made it possible for him to move into a new career as a Wall Street quant, and find out about the roles data scientists can play in finance. February 2019 February 21: The Chemistry Department mourns the passing of undergraduate student Mariam Qayyum. Mariam (who was 20 years old) was a student with many interests, double-majoring in chemistry and in English. In addition, Mariam worked in one of our stockrooms, assisting a chief laboratory technician, Isanna Agrest, who describes her as a very clever, extremely nice, and hard-working person. Faculty, students, and personnel from the Chemistry and English departments and the rest of the college were extremely saddened by her passing. We all join the family and friends of Mariam in remembering her. February 20: This month, the department’s Career Blog features Dr. Bonnie Kruft, director of data science strategy at GlaxoSmithKline. Learn how the connections between chemistry, biology, and computer science are changing the way the pharmaceutical industry hunts for new medicines, and how you can prepare for opportunities to work in data science. January 2019 January 24: Professor Aneta Mieszawska publishes “Nano-Based Systems and Biomacromolecules as Carriers for Metallodrugs in Anticancer Therapy” in Inorganics January 8: Professor Maria Contel publishes “Trastuzumab gold-conjugates: synthetic approach and in vitro evaluation of anticancer activities in breast cancer cell lines” in Chemical Communications
