Å·ÃÀAV

Major: Biochemistry

Research Group: and Megan Nuñez Lab

Summer Research Internship: Hamilton Lab

Graduate Program: Department of Chemistry, Stanford University

As a member of Professor Eric Kool's research group at Stanford University, I have had several different projects involving various aspects of nucleic acids chemistry. Currently, I am working on the development of a treatment to improve the recovery of RNA from formalin-preserved samples, something that has previously been a challenging and unreliable task.

We are trying to approach this problem through a chemical understanding of how formaldehyde reacts with RNA, and how we might promote the reverse reaction while leaving the RNA itself intact.

The background that I obtained with my biochemistry major and chemistry research at Å·ÃÀAV has enabled my success at Stanford. Having already done research at Å·ÃÀAV, I was prepared to read scientific literature, think critically, and work independently.

Being a ) also helped me tremendously to be more effective and confident as a teaching assistant for undergraduate students. In addition, the things that I learned in organic chemistry and biochemistry classes are relevant to the work I do now - I often pull out my biochemistry notes as a starting point when I'm trying to understand the chemistry of some biological process. In my current research, I use a mixture of chemical and biochemical techniques, from setting up reactions to running gels to isolate RNA. My experience as a biochemistry major who worked in a chemistry lab at Å·ÃÀAV has enabled me to work comfortably with different techniques and across disciplines.

Publications:

• . Emily M. Harcourt, Thomas Ehrenschwender, Pedro J. Batista, Howard Y. Chang, and Eric T. Kool. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2013, 135 (51), pp 19079–19082. Publication Date (Web): December 11, 2013
• Emily M. Harcourt, Shifra R. Yonis, Daniel E. Lynch and Darren G. Hamilton. Organometallics, 2008, 27 (7), pp 1653–1656. Publication Date Web): March 5, 2008