McKenzie Clemens
Undergraduate College/University: Alfred University
I worked with Dr. Ying Gu in the summer of 2010 on a project to study the time dependency of the effects of LPS and C-reactive protein/oxLDL cholesterol complex on cytokine and MMP levels in human blood cultures. We used ELISA, gelatin zymographs and casein zymographs to study the cytokine and MMP levels in monocytes, macrophages and neutrophils taken from human blood.
I did my undergraduate studies at Alfred University and earned a BA in chemistry and biology last May. While at AU I worked on an organic chemistry project synthesizing benzophenones with suspected activity against apicoplast parasites (like Plasmodium falciparum and Toxoplasma gondii). During the summer of my junior year (2008) I participated in the Nuclear Chemistry Summer School program at Brookhaven National lab. Last summer (2009) I worked at Syracuse University with Dr. Robert Doyle. I worked on a project to biosynthesize coenzyme Q10 using yeast and then purify the CoQ10 to be used in supplements. As for awards, I was given the ACS senior chemistry student award at AU. I also received a research grant from Alfred for use during my senior year, and those are difficult to get so the research money was presented at an awards ceremony.
