Author: Jake Price Major: Chemistry & Biology

In the fall of 2018, I began researching in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department under Dr. Roger Koeppe II. Throughout the past two years, I have been investigating the behavior of peptides within various lipid bilayer membranes. My specific project has revolved around the insertion of the amino acids arginine and glutamic acid into a model peptide in an attempt to understand how these residues affect the behavior of the peptide within lipid bilayers. Many proteins have been well studied and their functions well-understood, but it is not always clear how specific amino acids contribute to these functions. The foundational information gained by studying the effects of specific amino acids within a model peptide will hopefully be useful in the future when investigating the structure and function of larger bioactive proteins. 

With research in this field it can be important to be flexible and see where the results take you. My mentor, Dr. Koeppe, started me off by suggesting the peptide with arginine and glutamic acid substitutions and a few different lipids to use. Within a few weeks and with the help of a graduate student at the time, Jenny, I had some pretty interesting results. Without getting too technical, one set of my initial results suggested that my peptide had some sort of multi-state behavior in a couple of the lipids tested. While I didn’t realize the significance of this initially, Dr. Koeppe mentioned that he had only seen this a couple of other times during his career. For the next year and a half I ran with these results, and I now have some work that is close to being worthy of publishing. Unfortunately, the campus shutting down has caused a few setbacks, but I hope to continue working on the project post-graduation. 

This research has not only been interesting to learn about, but it has also brought me to places I’ve never been before. This past February I had the opportunity to travel to San Diego, CA to present my research at the Biophysical Society Annual Meeting along with Dr. Koeppe and my two other lab mates. I was looking forward to sharing my research with other chemists, but I actually ended up learning quite a bit about my own work. The questions that people asked made me question my research and look further into the reason for me methods and the interpretation of my results. With my thesis defense being a couple of months later, this conference was incredibly helpful for clearing up my presentation and preparing for questions that my committee had. 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, my research was cut a bit short. Although this has been my final semester at the U of A, I still plan on staying in Fayetteville to finish up the research. I will be applying to medical schools throughout this gap year and hopefully be able to find a job during the meantime. With any luck, the campus will be open by the time the fall semester rolls around, and I will be able to publish within 2021. The two years I have spent doing this research have been incredible, mainly thanks to the support and mentorship Dr. Koeppe, Jenny, and my two lab mates have shown me.