Date Thesis Awarded

5-2015

Access Type

Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only

Degree Name

Bachelors of Science (BS)

Department

Chemistry

Advisor

Douglas Young

Committee Members

Lisa Landino

William McNamara

Mark Forsyth

Abstract

The current biological toolkit has been vital in advancing our understanding of the world. That being said, the toolkit has limitations. As such, chemical biologists have been developing novel means to probe biological systems using chemical techniques. Bioorthogonal chemistry represents a new avenue to address biological questions that cannot be answered using current techniques. Herein, we describe a novel technique to probe proteins-of-interest using unnatural amino acid (UAA) mutagenesis. We have found that our UAAs allow us to access bioorthogonal chemistries for the conjugation of fluorophores to UAA-containing proteins. Additionally, we have extended these findings towards the application of protein immobilization. Finally, we used microwave technology to investigate novel means to transform bacterial cells with exogenous DNA.

Recommended Citation

Maza, Johnathan C., "Development of Novel Chemical Techniques to Address Biological Questions" (2015). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 144.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/144