UNCW Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

• Marine and Atmospheric Chemistry
• Chemistry at the Interface of Biology
• Biochemistry
• Synthesis
• Computational Chemistry
• Chemical Education
• Radiation Chemistry

Marine and Atmospheric Chemistry  (Go to Top)

Dr. Robert Kieber, our graduate coordinator, is currently working on air sea exchange processes especially as they relate to global warming issues, trace metal speciation in estuarine and atmospheric waters, and photochemically mediated processes and their impact on environmental systems. Dr. Stephen Skrabal's research interests focus on dissolved trace metals in various estuarine systems and the oceans, speciation, biogeochemistry and fluxes of dissolved copper and zinc, and benthic fluxes of nutrients in estuarine sediments.  Dr. Joan Willey is interested in the chemical composition and reactions in rainwater, including trace metal speciation, redox reactions and nutrient fluxes, and in the impacts of atmospheric deposition on the chemistry of surface seawater.  She is also working on the speciation and cycling of mercury in the Cape Fear River Estuary in southeastern North Carolina.  Dr. Brooks Avery studies processes controlling the remineralization (break down of organic carbon to CO₂ and methane) and fluxes of organic carbon in sediments, the water column and atmosphere.  The main goal of his research is to quantify these fluxes and produce predictive models to understand how various environments and processes impact regional and global carbon cycling and eventually global warming. 

Chemistry at the Interface of Biology (Go to Top)

Chemistry at the interface of biology is a rapidly growing area in our department with several different research themes.  Dr. Dan Baden, the Director of the Center for Marine Science, is interested in structure/activity relationships of harmful algal bloom toxins as they interact with receptors in biological systems.  In addition, Dr. Baden studies analytical methodologies based on natural product ligands and receptors and solid and liquid phase measurement of dissociation constants and dynamic equilibria in biological systems.  Dr. Jeff Wright, whose research laboratory is located at the Center for Marine Science, works in the general area of bioorganic chemistry.  In particular, Dr. Wright is interested in the isolation and identification of bioactive compounds from marine organisms.  In addition, Dr. Wright works on the identification and analysis of naturally occurring marine toxins. 

Dr. Pamela Seaton works on the isolation, synthesis, and structure elucidation of bioactive marine lipids.  Dr. Sridhar Varadarajan designs and investigates cytotoxic compounds that can be targeted to specific cells.  Such compounds have potential applications in diabetes and cancer therapy.

Dr. Rob Hancock is interested in medical and biological applications of metal ion chemistry. This includes metalloenzymes such as carbonic anhydrase, the development of sensors for studying the role of zinc in brain disorders, and development of novel imaging agents for medical applications. Technniques used, in collaboration with Dr. Bart Jones, include fluorimetry and electrochemistry.

Biochemistry  (Go to Top)

Dr. Chris Halkides is actively researching structures of signal transduction proteins, protein modification mimicking phosphorylation, and NMR studies of low barrier hydrogen bonds.  Using a combination of experimental techniques and computer simulations, Dr. Paulo Almeida is interested in protein-induced domain formation in model membranes, interaction of peptide toxins with lipid vesicles, and folding of peptides into membranes.  Dr. Sridhar Varadarajan studies the DNA-alkylation profile of sequence- and groove-specific DNA methylating agents. He is interested in developing compounds that form cytotoxic, non-mutagenic DNA lesions. Dr. Antje Almeida researches the mechanisms that underlie the target specificity of antimicrobial peptides. These peptides are employed by a wide variety of organisms as a first defense against bacterial infection. She investigates how antimicrobial action is modulated by both peptide structure and the lipid composition of the target membrane.

Synthesis  (Go to Top)

Creation of new compounds using designed chemical synthesis is a very important part of chemistry.  To characterize the molecules synthesized in our laboratories we have a 400 MHz Bruker NMR spectrometer with broadband probe (for studying ¹H, ¹³C, ³¹P, ²⁹Si, etc.), FT-IR spectrometer, several HP 1100 HPLCs, GC, and GC-MS.  Currently three professors are actively engaged in synthesis projects.

Dr. S. Bart Jones is working on the electrochemistry of organometallic species such as (MeCp₂ZrH₂)₂ (shown below), determination of acidity of Cp protons in CpReL₁L₂L₃ species, and trace analysis method development using electrochemistry, spectroscopy and chromatography.  Dr. Pamela Seaton's interests in synthesis center around the NMR characterization of bioactive heterocycles.  Dr. Rob Hancock collaborates with Dr. Pamela Seaton on the synthesis of organic complexing agents for use as sensors for metal ions in biology, the environment, and medical applications.  Dr. Sridhar Varadarajan synthesizes DNA-methylating molecules and links them to targeting moieties in order to direct these DNA damaging compounds to specific cells.  Dr. John Tyrell's research interests focus on catalysis and aromatic substitution reactions. 

Computational Chemistry   (Go to Top)

Computational chemistry spans all fields of chemistry and is an active focus of research by several members of the department.  Dr. Ned Martin carries out computation of NMR shielding patterns around anisotropic groups, modeling through-space effects to explain observed phenomena such as stereorecognition or NMR shielding, and modeling solvent-solute interactions of C₆₀ in organic solvents.  Dr. Mike Messina is a theoretical chemist working on studies of the quantum dynamics of laser-molecule interactions, computation algorithms for predicting rate constants and activation energies from limited experimental data, and theoretical studies of solvation of the hydrogen atom in liquids.  Dr. Rob Hancock is using Density Functional and Hartree-Foch calculations on complexes of metal ions to understand metal ion complexing reactions in aqueous solutions, with an eye on understanding the roles of metal ions in biology and medicine.

Chemical Education  (Go to Top)

The Department prides itself in the use of technology to teach chemistry. We feel that we are one of the national leaders in this area as a result of the active research of Dr. Charles R. Ward and Dr. Jimmy Reeves. The chemical education effort in the department is divided into four areas:

(1) the use of technology in the classroom to improve teaching and learning in chemistry (Numina Project),

(2) the use of online data acquisition in general chemistry experiments where laboratories use notebook computers to record and analyze the results of experiments,

(3) the development of distance learning courses in chemistry that includes the development of laboratory experiments that can be done at a distance, and

(4) the creation of an online library of reusable media for instruction in chemistry, physics, biology, earth science, mathematics, and computer science (iLumina Project).  This is a multidisciplinary project that also involves faculty and staff from Mathematics and Statistics, Computer Science, Biological Sciences, and Randall Library..