SMU sophomore Hilary Hopkins conducts biofuels research through the University’s Undergraduate Research Assistantship program.

Hilary Hopkins is an SMU sophomore majoring in biochemistry, with a minor in English. As a pre-medical student studying for a career in pediatrics, she plans to become a key player in children’s health.

But as an undergraduate researcher, she’s tapping into the chemical structure of a fungus that could become a key player in the future of sustainable fuels.

Hopkins was one of 14 students in SMU’s new Summer Research Assistantships (SRAs) program. SRAs allow students to work full-time during summer months on research projects in disciplines across the University.

> Learn how to apply for a research assistantship

She experiments with a protein known as Envoy. Envoy comes from the fungus Trichoderma reesei and regulates its secretion of cellulolytic enzymes. These enzymes help convert cellulose to glucose, an important step in the manufacture of bio-ethanol. And they have significant applications in biofuel production, specifically in the conversion of cellulosic biomass.

Cellulosic biomass comprises as much as 75 percent of all plant material, but current methods of converting this biomass into fuels are expensive and unwieldy. An efficient and low-cost conversion method could help turn materials ranging from plant waste to sawdust to switchgrass into clean and inexpensive energy sources.

“The Envoy protein is very useful in the conversion of biomass to biofuels.” Hopkins says. Properly used and understood, “it could have a very big impact on that industry,” she adds.

Hopkins has performed experiments to determine how Envoy dimerizes – how it forms bonds with other molecules. Currently, she is working on determining Envoy’s structure using X-ray crystallography.

The SRA program is an outgrowth of SMU’s Undergraduate Research Assistantship (URA) program, which provides funding for undergraduate students who want to pursue their research interests as part-time work. Students must submit a research proposal and receive faculty approval to participate, and they must write a summary of their experience at the project’s end. Support may be renewed for subsequent academic terms, with approval.

Hopkins learned about the SRA program from her research adviser, Assistant Professor of Chemistry Brian Zoltowski. She started working for him in the Spring 2012 term and plans to continue “for the next few years at least.”

SMU allows undergraduates to get a head start on their careers “in a way that’s not possible at larger universities,” Zoltowski says. “Hilary had the benefit of starting in my lab as a first-year student, whereas most universities don’t allow undergraduates to work in labs until they are juniors and seniors. The research environment at SMU allows students like Hilary to grow into an understanding of how research is conducted and to make a meaningful impact on important scientific studies.”

> Read more about Dr. Zoltowski’s research

Zoltowski credits his own career advancement to similar opportunities he received as an undergraduate at the University of Southern Mississippi. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell in 2008. “I actually got to where I am today by being able to start as a researcher at a younger age at a smaller university,” he says. His adviser, John Pojman (now at LSU), “focused on teaching us how to think and do science from a laboratory perspective,” he says.

“I hope to provide similar insight and experiences for my students here with the unique support of SMU for undergraduate research.”

As for Hopkins, “it’s exciting to me – and really beneficial – to see how my studies apply directly to my lab work,” she says.

It also makes her mother and father proud, she adds. “My parents are so excited about this. But they do have a fun time trying to figure out what I do!”

As one of SMU’s Biomedical Researchers In Training Experience (BRITE) Scholars, Hopkins is considering applying to BRITE partner UT-Southwestern for her medical study. But wherever she goes for her graduate education, she plans to continue doing research, she says.

“It is important to me, and I want it to be a big part of my life and work going forward.”

Emily Harry is generating new inhibitors of beta-lactamase, a bacterial enzyme responsible for the degradation of penicillin and the resultant bacterial resistance.

SMU senior Emily Harry is generating new inhibitors of beta-lactamase, a bacterial enzyme responsible for the degradation of penicillin and the resultant bacterial resistance to this antibiotic.

This undergraduate research, performed in the laboratory of SMU Professor John Buynak, has involved collaborations with Merck Inc., Case Western Reserve University, and a number of other academic and industrial laboratories. The new inhibitors can be co-administered, together with beta-lactam antibiotics (like penicillins and cephalosporins) to kill resistant strains.

The research requires numerous skills, beginning with understanding what type of structural modification is desired, knowing enough synthetic chemistry to put the pieces together, handling the chemicals, and identifying and purifying the products of the synthetic reactions.

Emily uses state-of-the-art analytical instrumentation, such as the Chemistry Department’s nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers, to perform analyses and determine structure.

Professor Buynak characterizes her as one of the most patient researchers to work in the lab in the past ten years. “Emily has the inherent fascination with scientific discovery that is needed for success. She is always willing to go the extra mile to do the experiment right, regardless of how much effort and time it might require. Working with her is enjoyable.”

The compounds that Emily has prepared are some of the most potent inhibitors of the bacterial enzymes that have been prepared to date. Results from her research will be presented at upcoming international meetings. Her research is supported from Dr. Buynak’s research funds in addition to the university’s URA program.

Emily was able to attend the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) last year in San Francisco. Dr. Buynak hopes to send her to the upcoming American Chemical Society meeting in Boston.

“I want her to be able to see how science is done and how the fields of chemistry, biology, and medicine interface.”

SMU senior Joseph Hashem discusses findings on his latest work.

SMU senior Joseph Hashem has been working in the Optoelectronics Laboratory in the Physics Department with an Undergraduate Research Assistantship since his junior year. This is a state-of-the- art laboratory that builds optical-electronics components for particle physics detectors. The most notable of these experiments is the ATLAS Experiment, part of the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland.

Joseph became very interested in the project “after learning about the research being done in the lab while I was taking Dr. Jingbo Ye’s Electricity and Magnetism course.” This ready ability to learn from and then work with professors on their research projects is a key emphasis of the SMU program.

Joseph has been working to calibrate an instrument used to measure exceedingly small electrical currents corresponding to about one trillionth the current that flows through a 60-watt light-bulb. Measuring such small currents generally requires a calibration of laboratory instruments by an external company, and this can become expensive. For the Optoelectronics Lab, such precision is required by studies of the radiation effects on application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs).

As a Hamilton Scholar in 2009-10, Joseph developed a method to use Ohm’s Law to perform this calibration. This has been an important contribution to the lab according to Professor Ye, who supervises the research. Before this calibration, “we could not estimate the measurement precision in our tests.” The overall ASIC research is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy for particle physics experiments.

Joseph has submitted his results as a paper to the American Journal of Physics this spring. This has “given me valuable research experience,” says Joseph, and it was an important element in propelling him to graduate school next year.