Ouachita junior Tim Horton wins chemistry presentation award at Alpha Chi national convention
April 29, 2013 - Rachel Gregory
Ouachita Baptist University junior Tim Horton, a physics and professional chemistry double major from Arkadelphia, Ark., won the prize for best chemistry presentation at the Alpha Chi National College Honor Society Convention held in Nashville, Tenn., earlier this month. He was one of five Ouachita students who presented their research at the conference.
Horton’s presentation, “Application of Computational Docking to Examine Metabolism
of Chiral Drugs by CYP2C9,” is the result of a summer research project at Ouachita
with Dr. Marty Perry, OBU’s Nell I. Mondy Professor of Chemistry.
“Tim developed a novel approach for quantitatively measuring how different three-dimensional
forms of the same drug interact with proteins in the human body,” Perry said. “This
approach allows for better understanding of drug interactions and the ability to enhance
their effectiveness. Tim has done remarkable work and was very deserving of this recognition.”
Perry was referencing chiral drugs, which make up 50 percent of all the drugs on the
market today. Chiral drugs are composed of the same parts, but are in such an order
that two chiral drugs are mirror images of each other. This means that although chiral
drugs look very similar, they are not completely identical and will react very differently
within the body.
“I think that if we can understand more about how the body discriminates between these
drugs, it can aid us in designing future drugs that fit the profile, so that drugs
will be more effective,” Horton said.
“It’s really helpful to do something that so directly relates to my academic interests,”
Horton said about attending his first national conference. He went on to note that
the conference “felt like a camp experience because of how many other science majors
were present.”
Horton and the four other Ouachita students who presented at the Alpha Chi convention
in Nashville then joined several other OBU students in New Orleans to share their
work at the American Chemical Society National Meeting and Exhibition.
“I was pleased that five of our most talented students represented Ouachita so well,”
Perry said.
“I would encourage anyone who is interested in some topic – whether it’s scientifically
related or not – to pursue platforms, to share it early and as often as you can,”
Horton added.
Hollyn McCarty, another Ouachita student who presented at the conferences, is a senior
chemistry and biology double major from Texarkana, Ark. Her research with Perry and
Dr. Lori Hensley, Ouachita’s Alpha Chi faculty sponsor as well as associate professor
of biology and holder of the J.D. Patterson Chair of Biology, came together in her
presentation, “Computational Analysis of PPARy Similar Proteins.”
Valerie Nickel, a senior chemistry and biology double major from Richardson, Texas,
presented “Influence of a Coiled-Coil Isoleucine Zipper on the Trimerization and Endosomolytic
Activity of the E5-TAT-mCherry Protein.” Earlier this year, Nickel won third place
for her poster presentation at the INBRE research conference. Both presentations were
products of an undergraduate research program she attended at Texas A&M University
this past summer.
Crista Riggs, a junior chemistry and biology double major from Edmond, Okla., presented
“Identifying Proteins that Bind to UBE2Q2 and Exosome Component 7.” Her presentation
resulted from her work at the Oklahoma University Health Sciences summer undergraduate
program.
Taylor Stanford, a senior chemistry major from White Hall, Ark., presented “The Effect
of Spent Media Isolated from Lactobacillus plantarum WCFS1 on Biofilm Formation by
Staphylococcus.” She conducted her research in the National Center for Toxicological
Research summer undergraduate program.
For more information, contact Dr. Lori Hensley at [email protected] or (870) 245-5529.
By Rachel Gregory
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