Mekedlawit Setegne & Ramen
Mekedlawit Setegne is a senior at Brown College. She is majoring in Chemistry. Last year, Mekedlawit joined Professor Zachary Ball's lab at the BRC. While at Ball Lab, Mekedlawit had a chance to work on the efficient synthesis of a small boronic acid to be used for a copper catalyzed protein modification reaction. Her work focused mostly on organic synthesis while dabbling in chemical biology. Her first complete project involved the synthesis of a bifunctional boronate, that once attached on to a protein, is useful for purification and further modification. Her second and ongoing project has been to synthesize a boronate reagent that can be cleaved off simply by irradiation. During her time in the lab, she has been able to solidify topics learned in her chemistry classes in a way taking tests and reading books never could have. While she is wrapping up her time at Rice and the Ball lab, she is excited to start her next journey as a Chemistry PhD student. Research has been something she never expected to get into during her time at Rice, but it has completely transformed her perception of the world and science. Moving forward, she hopes to focus on more biological chemistry and help develop molecules and reactions that can be used to address issues of human disease.
RELEASE DATE:
Friday, April 26, 2019