Ana R. Guadalupe - US grants

The long term goal of this proposal is the development of sensitive, selective and reliable electrochemical bioprobes for the measurement of metabolites of physiological relevance. At the research level, those probes can be used to study the relationship between periodic fluctuations of metabolites and the development of disorders in the human body. At an application level, the development of those devices can result in the decentralization of clinical laboratories by providing the physicians and ambulatory patients a fast, reliable, easy and low cost way of analyzing for metabolites. In a short term, this proposal will address the issues of energetics and reactivity of several redox mediators with various dehydrogenases. The redox mediators are [Ru(phendione)x(bpy)y]2+, where x= 3,2,1 and y= 0,1,2; [Ru(phendione)(phen-R,R')L]2+, where L is bpy-R" or phen-R"; and [Co(phen-R,R')3]2+. The R' is -H, -CH3, -OH, -Cl, -NH2, -NR3+, (R=H) or R' = -phi, -phi-SO3 (R =R'). R" is either a -NH2 or a -COOH group. The enzymes are lactate, malate, alcohol, glycerol and lipoamide dehydrogenases. Two strategies will be explored: first, the mediated NADH oxidation in the presence of the dehydrogenases under study and, secondly, the NADH oxidation aided by lipoamide dehydrogenase coupled to the other dehydrogenases. Thermodynamic and kinetic parameters will be determined using standard electrochemical techniques in homogeneous solutions. How those parameters are affected by the immobilization of the mediator, the cofactor and the enzyme at electrode surfaces will also be studied. Three strategies for the surface immobilization of the best systems will be evaluated based on their response output and analytical characteristics. Those are screen-printed electrodes, strategically layering of thin polymeric films at electrode surfaces and liquid membrane probes. The effect of variables such as pH, ionic strength and concentration of all sensing components on the reaction rate will be evaluated, in both homogeneous solutions and as surface confined systems. That knowledge will allow a better control of the sensor's output.

This Chemistry Division award provides support for a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site in the Chemistry Department, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, directed by Dr. Ana R. Guadalupe. Ten students will participate each year over the next three years in an 8-week summer program. The students will be exposed to a variety of research topics across all the fields of chemistry, and through a series of orientation lectures, seminars, and workshops they will be introduced to safety practices, ethical issues, modern chemical instrumentation, communication and presentation skills, and use of the internet. Students will be required to report research results at an undergraduate research symposium

The University of Puerto Rico's UPR goals are to meet Puerto Rico's PR demands for excellent, highly trained science and technology S&T professionals, and assist in meeting the nation's need for diverse S&T perspectives. To those ends, UPR is being funded through NSF's AGEP program to attain the following:

Increase the average number of STEM Ph.D.'s to 40 per year

Increase enrollment in STEM Ph.D. programs by 25%

Increase the number of stateside students in UPR STEM Ph.D. programs by 22

Increase the number of women in engineering and chemical physics by 10

Increase the number of STEM Ph.D. graduates opting for academic careers by 15

Institutionalize PR-AGEP's policies and practices.

To attain the objectives, UPR will build on PR-AGEP Phase I successes by doing the following:

Enhancing PR-AGEP Phase I "bridging"

TA, scholarly productivity, and peer mentoring workshops,

Continuing the recruitment of minority and female students by systematically working with PR and Mainland U.S. REU programs,

Establishing a centralized tracking form to follow the progress of each graduate student,

Providing twenty awards of $20,000 each year to attract talented students into academia and areas with a particular shortage, and

Completing the institutionalization of workshops, the tracking system, and recruitment guidelines.

This project seeks to make the responsible conduct of research (RCR) education pervasive and continuous at the University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras by preparing current and succeeding generations of researchers to understand and use the social, moral, and ethical perimeters of research, from inception through dissemination. The project works with graduate students, postdoctoral scientists, and graduate faculty hired within the past 5 years in a variety of ways, including on-line delivery of bilingual modules, workshops for new faculty members and graduate students, faculty and student participation in creating and sustaining an RCR environment and RCR topics in required courses and seminars. The RCR training focuses on four themes: essentials of research ethics and societal implications; mentor-trainee relationships and responsibilities; best practices across the professions, and regulatory and support environments. Students at two partner UPR institutions will participate in all RCR activities, and faculty at those institutions will serve on the Advisory Committee. Formative and summative evaluation will be used, with a major element of outcomes measurement being pre- and post-tests using the Defining Issues Test from the University of Minnesota.

The Maximizing Yield Through Integration (MYTI): Science and Math Education in the Context of a Disposing Society brings together NSF awards from the Math and Science Partnership (MSP), Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT), Center for Research and Education in Science and Technology (CREST), Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER), Undergraduate Mentoring in Environmental Biology (UMEB) and Geo-Internships via the Innovation through Institutional Integration themes of integrating research and education, broadening participation, and critical junctures. Led by the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras (UPRRP), the project establishes a Center for Science and Mathematics Education (CSME) to integrate research and education by incorporating existing NSF-funded programs in the broad area of environmental sciences and science education. The CSME will provide support to conduct research on science education and establish outreach opportunities with partnering K-12 schools, thus instituting a model for developing educational research incorporating up-to-date research from NSF-funded programs. The Center will provide the infrastructure for the following: cooperative teaching approaches; pilot studies; internet resources; research in science education, including statistical support; and assessment tools, including a variety of surveys. The Center will provide the infrastructure for developing cooperative teaching approaches, supporting pilot studies, support for internet resources and for research in science education, including statistics support, building survey support, and other assessment tools. MYTI will broaden the participation of underrepresented minorities by increasing the number of Hispanic teachers and faculty that are proficient in the best teaching practices in mathematics and science education and improve the attitude of students at a critical juncture (7-12) towards STEM. It will ultimately develop 48 master teachers, 18 during the first three years and 30 more teachers during years 4-5, who will serve in 25 partnering schools/towns throughout Puerto Rico. In addition, it will support 12 scientists from UPRRP who will pursue science education as a scholarly activity. By utilizing funded NSF projects that are at different points on the educational continuum, CSME will have a holistic effect on the pipeline, leading to increased numbers (yields) of students, particularly students underrepresented in STEM disciplines, entering careers in STEM fields.