b'Sea Lettuce is a BLAST:Using Bioinformatics to Find Aquaporin Genes in Ulva mutabilisArbrianna S. GoolsbySponsor: Dr. GosnellAquaporins are integral membrane proteins that selectively transport water across the cell membranes in which they are embedded.This project focuses on finding potential aquaporin genes in the sea lettuce Ulva mutabilis using the BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) program. Ulva mutabilis is often grown in marine aquariums and is the only species of macro algae in the genus Ulva whose entire genome has been sequenced to date.The BLAST algorithm is a bioinformatics tool that finds homologous proteins by comparing (aligning) their amino acid sequences.The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) contains over forty known algal aquaporin gene sequences.These sequences were used in a BLAST analysis to find potential aquaporin genes in Ulva mutabilis.Two sequences were identified that align closely with known algal aquaporin sequences.Engineered Myoglobin BasedNano-construct Nano-polymer SynthesisKevin John EppesSponsor: Dr. SreenilayamBiocatalysis is the use of enzymes and proteins to perform chemical transformations. Enzymes and proteins are increasingly used in organic reactions due to excellent chemo-, regio- and stereoselectivity, environmental sustainability, milder reaction conditions, improved productivity, simplified work-streams, and greater economic saving potential. Generally, many of these biocatalytic reactions are performed in aqueous buffer solutions so that the enzymes and proteins remain in their natural form, which is also their active form. These aqueous solutions present problems for many organic reactions. These range from low solubility of organic compounds in an aqueous medium, low turnover numbers, and solvent reagent incompatibility. This experiment performs a 3-step construction of engineered myoglobin protein-polymer nano construct (biocatalyst). This process consists of a cationization of the biocatalyst using an amine, electrostatic attachment of negatively charged detergent, and lyophilization to remove water and generate the nano-construct. Once immobilized, the biocatalyst is ready to be used for various organic transformations. All organic transformations (C-X bond forming reactions, where X= C, N, S, Si, B, etc.) will be performed in both aqueous and non-aqueous media (both ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvents) and then compared based on % conversion and turn over numbers. Another focus of this study is around the recovery and reusability of the biocatalyst in these reactions and study the reaction kinetics. Another avenue we are exploring is the utility of these types of immobilized non-natural biocatalysts and Deep Eutectic solvent combinations in performing multi-component organic transformations.25'