New Paper Out in the Journal of Chemical Physics

The latest paper from the Sirianni Lab came out last week in the Journal of Chemical Physics, entitled "A Spin-Flip Study of the Diradical Isomers of Pyrrole, Furan, and Thiophene." This paper is the result of a continued collaboration with Prof. Carol A. Parish & company at the University of Richmond. Check out the full paper on the JCP website and the popular summary in the JCP Publishing Showcase on Kudos for more!

Kets in the Wild @ MERCURY '24

Nico, Niya, & Dr. Dom attended the 22nd MERCURY Conference on Computational Chemistry on the campus of the University of California, Merced from July 15th through July 19th 2024.

At the conference, Nico & Niya both presented posters highlighting their current progress towards their senior theses. In Nico's poster, "On the Nose: Exploring the Noncovalent Driving Forces of DNA Intercalation for Ru-Based Chemotherapeutic Agents," he showed that current-generation organoruthenium chemotherapeutic agents may struggle to intercalate into DNA thanks to an unfavorable electrostatic repulsion with the dipole moment of guanine nucleobases. In Niya's poster, "Exploring Non-covalent Driving Forces for the Bergman cyclization of Functionalized Enediynes," she showed that by engineering a favorable intramolecular interaction between functional groups on the alkyne termini of (Z)-enediyne precursors, the activation barrier for their Bergman cyclization may be reduced by almost 50%. Both Nico's & Niya's results made a big splash at the conference, and their presentations were praised by all of the big wigs in attendance!

While at the conference, the WildKets also broadened our networks with the rest of the MERCURY faculty and students in attendance, including our good friends Dr. Jeff Schriber & Liam Gallagher from Iona College. We even got the chance to go visit Yosemite National Park together!

Unfortunately conference bliss turned into a travel nightmare when our return travel got caught in the Crowdstrike chaos...

Fortunately the travel wasn't all bad --- while we were stranded in Atlanta overnight, we got to do laundry to have clean clothes, get a full night's sleep in the last available hotel in the city, eat cheddar bay biscuits at one of the only Red Lobster's still open for business (conveniently located across the street from our hotel), and visit Dr. Dom's old stomping grouds at Georgia Tech! Nico & Niya even got to meet & talk about their science with Dr. Dom's doctoral advisor, Prof. C. David Sherrill, who was kind enough to give us a ride from campus to the MARTA station so we could take the train to the airport!

Finally, after 58 total hours of travel, we got back to Buffalo in one piece. Huge thanks to Dean Heather & Provost Brogan for helping us get back home safely and for all of their support. Fingers crossed that next year's travel to Pittsburgh for MERCURY '25 is less eventful!

Dr. Dom & the WildKets Profiled in the Daemen Voice

Two back-to-back profiles were published in the Daemen Voice, our university's marketing & communication bulletin, profiling Dr. Dom, the WildKets, and the incredible work showcased by Jill, Carlos, & Aleks at MERCURY this past summer. Check out the articles by using the buttons below!

Dr. Dom Gives Inaugural F'23 Tri-Beta Seminar

Dr. Dom gave the first department seminar of the Fall 2023 semester hosted by Daemen's Theta Upsilon chapter of Tri-Beta, the national biological honors society. Check out his slides here!

First Paper for the Sirianni Lab Published in JACS

Dr. Dom and collaborators from the University of Richmond, Cornell University, and Southern Methodist University (SMU) published their paper, "Variations on the Bergman Cyclization Theme: Electrocyclizations of Ionic Penta-, Hepta, and Octadiynes" in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), among the most prestigious and impactful journals in all of chemistry worldwide. Read the full, open-access paper here and check out Dr. Dom's blog post about the project for more details on the project and the entire process!

WildKets Attend MERCURY '23

Three WildKets (Aleks Selyuzhitskiy, Jill Baltzley, and Carlos Vargas III) attended the 2023 MERCURY conference along with Dr. Dom at Furman University's campus in Greenville, SC, from 7/19--7/21. Each student presented a one-minute promotional talk to the entire conference (>130 atendees!) and gave a poster during one of two hour-and-15-minute poster sessions.

Dr. Dom Profiled in the Insight

One of Dr. Dom's CHE 110 & 111 students, Mia Schiffmacher, profiled one of the research directions in the Sirianni Lab in the Daemen student newspaper, the Insight. To read more, check out the full article here!

Dr. Dom Talks @ LABSIP '22

Dr. Dom gave a flash talk at the inaugural LABSIP (Lowering Activation Barriers to Success in Physical Chemistry) virtual conference on 17 November, 2022, where he presented on his development of a simulated pressure-volume (P-V) work lab activity for CHE 303L. Check it out below! (Dr. Dom's talk runs from 32:12 - 38:22)