Research Groups
Meet Our Faculty Researchers
Faculty at 亚洲色情 embody the teacher-scholar model, conducting research alongside graduate and undergraduate students in the lab as well as in the classroom. Research groups in the department investigate questions in organic, inorganic, materials, polymer, protein, analytical, and physical chemistry, with findings regularly published in leading peer-reviewed journals and presented at local and national conferences. Faculty research is supported by funding from the American Chemical Society-Petroleum Research Fund, the Illinois Space Grant Consortium, and the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, among others. Faculty often have research opportunities in their labs, and students interested in learning more are encouraged to contact faculty directly about potential involvement.
Cataracts, the leading cause of blindness worldwide, arise from changes in lens crystallins鈥攑roteins that normally maintain extraordinary stability through native assembly. Crystallins belong to a broader class of extremely long-lived proteins, alongside dentin, collagen, and components of the electron transport chain. Our research explores the mechanisms that allow these proteins to remain stable for decades and how breakdowns in those systems contribute to disease. Specifically, we aim to identify the chemical and physical changes in crystallins that drive age-related cataract formation. By clarifying these mechanisms, we seek to deepen understanding of protein aging and open new avenues for therapeutic development. Because the human lens is a uniquely complex protein system, our work relies on a multidisciplinary toolkit spanning analytical chemistry, biophysics, and chemical biology. By probing how crystallins achieve such long-term stability, we hope to uncover general design principles that can guide the development of more effective therapeutics and biomaterials.
My group鈥檚 research is primarily in computational chemistry. We study relative stabilities and conformational energies of organic molecules and hydrogen-bonded complexes. We perform calculations to model solvation effects on molecular geometries and spectra, both using continuum solvation models and explicit solvent molecules. We are interested in metal oxide clusters, small carbohydrate molecules and mycotoxin molecules, as well as predicting energy profiles for reaction mechanisms. We collaborate with experimental groups, to provide insights into results obtained by those groups.
Our group鈥檚 research can be divided into two major areas. The first research area involves the synthesis and characterization of structures with at least one dimension less than 1000 nanometers in size. These small structures can have characteristics (e.g. optical and catalytic properties) that distinguish them from both individual molecules and extended solid structures. Nanostructures such as colloidal gold, palladium, and copper oxides are synthesized by a variety of wet chemical methods and then characterized by spectroscopic and other analysis techniques. The second research area involves the development of new demonstrations and activities for use in chemical educational settings, such as in classrooms, labs, and STEM outreach events. These events cover a variety of topics, but of particular interest are those that are cost-effective, address the Principles of Green Chemistry, and are sustainable.
My research is in two different areas of inorganic chemistry: the synthesis and characterization of polymers that incorporate metals into their structures, and the formation and analysis of metal powders made by the action of ultrasound on solutions containing volatile metal compounds. My students and I are making polymers that have metals incorporated into the structure. One current project is the synthesis of polymers that contain the porphyrin subunit as part of the structure.
Another area of current research is the synthesis of metal powders using ultrasound. Ultrasonic irradiation of a solution causes acoustic cavitation, where small bubbles of gas and vapor expand and then violently collapse, causing the contents of the bubble to be heated to very high temperatures. When the solution contains a volatile metal compound the result is a metal powder where the metal is glass-like rather than crystalline.
We study protein-protein and protein-membrane interactions involved in cellular processes such as autophagy and secretion. Autophagy is a process that sequesters cellular components by an extension of the degradative organelle, the lysosome in mammalian cells and the vacuole in yeast, for removal and degradation. We employ molecular techniques to generate null and point mutants of genes encoding autophagy-related proteins in Komagataella pastoris, as well as green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged autophagy-related proteins to examine the role of these proteins in autophagy. We examine molecular interactions between proteins and subcellular compartments using morphological and biochemical techniques including fluorescence microscopy, subcellular fractionation, and immunoblot analysis. By careful design, mutagenesis can be used to identify structural motifs in the encoded proteins that are important for the molecular interactions required for the membrane fusion events of autophagy. These studies will provide insight into the normal modes of autophagy that will allow us to understand how some disease states, including cancer, may be associated with or caused by defects in the process.
The Kregel group is focused on the development of mass spectrometry hardware and techniques to study questions of societal importance. Key application areas include improving the spatial resolution of mass spectrometry based atmospheric measurements, increasing undergraduate understanding of mass spectrometry instrumentation, and investigating the electronic structure of gas-phase anions relevant to solar energy production and organic photoredox catalysis.
My group is exploring stress responses in Fusarium verticillioides, a filamentous fungus that infects corn. In addition to causing crop losses, this fungus produces mycotoxins known as fumonisins, which cause disease in mammals that consume contaminated grain.
We have found that temperature shifts cause dramatic changes in intracellular levels of trehalose, a disaccharide known to stabilize membrane and protein structure. A strain of F. verticillioides lacking trehalose due to deletion of the gene encoding trehalose-6-phosphate synthase causes less disease symptoms on maize and produces significantly less fumonisins than wild type. This strain (DTPS1) is also more sensitive to the harmful effects of abiotic stresses, such as desiccation and reactive oxygen species. Expression of a catalytically inactive form of T6P synthase in the DTPS1 strain partially rescues the stress-sensitive phenotype, in spite of the absence of trehalose in these strains (R22G & Y99V). This indicates an important secondary function of T6P synthase arising from a protein site distinct from the active site. We continue to explore the origins of the DTPS1 phenotypes and are also characterizing strains lacking genes coding for hydrophobin proteins.
Dr. Montag鈥檚 research lies at the dynamic intersection of Organic Chemistry and Chemical Education. His current work centers on designing innovative first and second semester laboratory experiments that enhance student learning by strengthening content retention, motivation, confidence, and scientific communication skills. Recent experiments include performing the imine condensation reaction with fruit juice as a solvent and the bromination reaction of bibenzyl with LED photoreactors at various wavelengths. In the classroom, he is actively investigating the role of gamification in Organic Chemistry and examining how game-inspired teaching strategies can transform and improve student engagement and achievement.
My research group is focused on the development of a wide variety of polymeric materials capable of showing antimicrobial properties and drug-release potential. We are studying the antimicrobial activities of novel polymeric materials based on norbornene derivatives towards a range of bacterial colonies (E.Coli, BacillusSubtilis, and Salmonella Typhimurium). Typically, the polymers are prepared via Ring Opening Metathesis Polymerization (ROMP) using Grubb鈥檚 type catalytic system. We are also looking into catalyst-free polymerization strategies. As we go further, we will be looking into more architectural diversity. We are also dedicated towards the development of polymeric scaffolds/networks for drug-delivery applications. The drug moiety is covalently bonded to the polymeric scaffold/network and can be released on the application of a stimulus, for e.g. acidic pH. The results from these basic research areas will broaden the horizon over structural diversity and help us correlate structure-property relationships.
Dr. Schnupf鈥檚 research interest is the area of computational/theoretical chemistry, developing novel computational techniques to solve problems in the field of carbohydrate and protein chemistry, focusing on structure-energy relationships, polymer property prediction, and enzymatic biomass conversion. Current research projects aim to model the structural behavior of carbohydrate fragments in solution applying DFT methodology in combination with implicit solvent methods (and in some cases explicit solvent). Specific projects focus on mapping the glycosidic bond region in the presence of an implicit solvent as a function of the glycosidic f/y dihedral angles and as a function of the primary and secondary hydroxyl group orientations to identify preferred conformations, and the behavior of Vh and double helixes in solution. Another aim of his ongoing projects is the hydrophobic interaction/structuring of water around planar regions of proteins and small molecules. This interaction is responsible for the wetting and de-wetting behavior around flat/hydrophobic areas of biomolecules.
Interested in Joining a Research Group?
Faculty often have openings for graduate and undergraduate students in their labs. Students interested in research opportunities are encouraged to reach out to faculty directly to discuss potential involvement in their work.