Nicholas Lue

FlK is an enzyme found in the soil bacterium Streptomyces cattleya, in which it confers resistance to the toxic metabolite fluoroacetate by breaking down its activated form, fluoroacetyl-CoA. Interestingly, FlK has evolved to discriminate between fluoroacetyl-CoA and its nonfluorinated analogue, the metabolically crucial acetyl-CoA, displaying a million-fold higher catalytic efficiency for the former. Although previous work has elucidated some of the mechanisms of fluorine specificity in FlK, the role of the arginine residue at site 120 (Arg120) has not yet been explored. Recent research suggests that Arg120s positively charged side […]

William Tokumaru

One of the most promising ways to create a universal quantum computer is using trapped ions. We confine ions in electromagnetic fields and store quantum information in them by addressing their internal and motional states with lasers. However, electric field noise emanating from the surface causes anomalous heating in these ions, creating noise which impedes quantum processing. One possible source of this is hydrocarbon contamination on the surface. My research will focus on identifying and characterizing the molecular structure of the contamination by probing its molecular bonds using a Fourier […]

Travis Bartley

According to the 20th century theorist Mikhail Bakhtin, the distinguishing feature of the novel lies in its ability to incorporate multiple dialects and forms of language into itself and better mirror the diversity of language that naturally occurs in reality. In his argument for this theory, Bakhtin relies on a cultural analysis of the genres development and ignores the impact of technological innovation in media that may have crucially affected the development of the genre. My project seeks to analyze Bakhtins theory in relation to similar studies that incorporate the […]

Rosella Bearden

In Spring of 2011, prisoners inside Pelican Bay State Prison contacted prisoner-rights and anti-prison activist organizations announcing prisoners would be beginning a rolling hunger strike and that they needed support making sure their voices and demands were heard and acted on outside prison walls. The Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity coalition (PHSS)- originating in the Bay Area and made up of grassroots organizations, family members, formerly incarcerated people, lawyers, and individuals- to amplify the voices of CA prisoners on hunger strike was formed. Though the hunger strike has ended, the demands […]

Marina Blum

Measles was once a nearly ubiquitous childhood plague, a rite of passage with sometimes deadly outcomes. However, the disease has all but disappeared in the vaccination era – few people cross paths with the measles, few know anyone who has been infected. The veritable erasure of the disease from public life stems from widespread use of the measles vaccine, whose success effectively revolutionized societys relationship with measles from one of grudging resignation, to a near ignorance. It is the nature and details of this change in perception that I will […]

Zhengzheng Hu

The Game of Chomp (also called Northeast) is a two-player game on a rectangular chocolate bar consisting of m-by-n squares. Players take turns eating chocolate squares on the board. If a player eats a square, they must eat all squares lying above (north) and to the right (east) of that piece. Whichever player eats the lowest left corner chocolate square (poisoned) loses (Gale). For my project, I am trying to apply Sprague-Grundy value from Game Theory and Young diagrams from Algebra to characterize winning strategies for Chomp or provide evidence […]

Kathryn Boden

Over the past two decades Tibetan Buddhism and modern Science have been seriously engaging each other in topics of consciousness, origins, and happiness. The excitement of the possible convergence between science and spirituality in a conversation that has been historically polarized between secular and religious values has overshadowed investigative research that aims to understand the quality and impact of the interaction. To start this process, I will look at the lasting effects of two programs; Science For Monks (SFM) and the Emory Tibet Science Initiative (ETSI) on Tibetan Buddhist communities […]

Denny Cha

Ubiquitin is a protein that serves as a molecular tag for either degradation of its targets by the 26S proteasomes or for a wide variety of other functions such as DNA repair, transcription, endocytosis, membrane transport, or protein localization in a proteasome independent manner by covalently attaching to its target proteins. Deubiquitinases (DUBs) are proteins that mediate ubiquitin removal and processing to play regulatory roles in multiple cellular processes. The deubiquitinase (DUB) Usp44 is a critical regulator of cell division that acts as a tumor suppressor by preventing premature anaphase […]

Scarlet Cummings

How do issues of authorship and originality function within fine art and cinema? What are the similarities between painting and film? What are the fundamental differences, especially those relating to the meaning and worth of emulation within the two mediums? My research will attempt to answer these questions using two case studies: Orson Welles’ 1973 film F for Fake, and the paintings of the infamous Elmyr de Hory, Hungarian art forger extraordinaire who imitated the style of countless painters (Degas, Derain, Dufy, Matisse, Modigliani, Picasso, and Vlaminck to name a […]

Alexander Flores

During the middle ages the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus was wildly popular throughout Europe, and was translated into nearly every vernacular language. This non-canonical religious text contained a piece of theology that has fallen into obscurity, Christs harrowing, or descent, into Hell. In Middle English the Harrowing of Hell occurs as a narrative poem in three manuscripts, spanning the late 13th century to the early 14th century. A striking aspect of these poems is that they appear to straddle the line between what we consider poetry and drama. The poems […]