Welcome to the Collins Lab
Our group's primary focus is the development and application of biocatalysts for the selective oxyfuntionalization of small molecules. We employ a number of whole-cell-based systems for the production of chiral building blocks used in the chemoenzymatic synthesis of natural products and funtionalized organic materials.
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Chemistry at
The Chemistry Department at Whitman College is host to a number of dedicated and talented teacher-scholars who provide cutting edge research opportunities for Whitman undergraduates.
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Lab News
3.25.22 - Grace Newman '23 named 2022-2023 Goldwater Scholar!
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The Collins Lab's very own Grace Newman was name one of this year's Goldwater Scholars. Congratulations Grace! We are all very proud your accomplishments.
Here is the announcement from Whitman.edu. Here is a writeup on Grace in The Whitman Wire! |
3.30.22 Faculty-Student Summer Research Awards announced
Congratulations to Courtney Hull '24 and Aurora Anderson '24 for being Whitman Faculty-Student Summer Research Fellowships! The funding will support the synthesis of new substrates for screening against dioxygenase enzymes.
3.8.22 - Quantitative 1H-NMR analysis reveals steric and electronic effects on the substrate specificity of benzoate dioxygenase in Ralstonia eutropha B9 has been published!
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Our work on identifying new, non-native substrates for benzoate dioxygenase in R. eutropha B9 has been published in the Journal of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology Link
Congratulations James Bent '21 and Zack Clark '19, Whitman undergraduate coauthors on the work. |
12.10.21 New students join the lab
Sophomores Aurora Anderson '24 and Courtney Hull '24 joined the group. Welcome Courtney and Aurora!
11.12.21 - Collins Lab at Murdock College Science Research Program Conference 2021
Grace Newman '23 (left) and Grace Kim '23 (right) presented their work at the 2021 Murdock Conference.
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3.20.21 Faculty-Student Summer Research Awards
Congratulations to Grace Newman '23 and Grace Kim '23 for being Whitman Faculty-Student Summer Research Fellowships! The funding will go to support work on discovering new, non-native substrates for benzoate dioxygenase.
4.1.20 - Collins Lab awarded a grant from The M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust.
The Collins Lab received a grant from The Murdock College Research Program for Natural Sciences - Physical Sciences. Thanks to all the group members past and present that made this possible!
2.28.20 - Collins Lab presents at Volcano Conference
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If you have to pick one last conference to attend before a pandemic hits, The Volcano Conference in Chemical Biology would be at the top of the list!
Zane Boyer presented a poster and James Bent gave his first talk. The conference was also attended by members of the Gotz, Biswas, and and Machonkin Labs. |
11.10.19 - Whitman undergraduates represent at Murdock College Science Research Program Conference 2019.
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Whitman College was well-represented at the most recent Murdock College Science Research Program Conference (11.7.19-11.9.19 in Vancouver, WA). A total of 22 Whitman undergraduates attended the conference and presented their research. They were joined by Assistant Professors Mark Hendricks, Michael Coronado, Britney Moss, and Jonathan Collins. James Bent '21 from the Collins lab took home the poster prize for the biochemistry division. Congratulations James!!!
Thanks to the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust for hosting the conference and supporting undergraduate research at Whitman College! |
11.6.19 - Perry students from Collins and Hendricks labs highlighted in article on summer research!
Summer research by Perry Fellows Kaia Martin '2, Jack Chen '19, James Bent '21, and Zane Boyer '21 has been profiled in a recent article on the Whitman web page.
10.8.19 - A Chemoenzymatic Formal Synthesis of Expoxyquinols A and B has been published!
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Our recent work on the chemoenzymatic synthesis of epoxyquinoid natural products has bee published as an eFirst article in Synlett. Link
Congratulations to Madeleine Duncan '19, a Whitman undergraduate coauthor, and Chris Gerry (Amherst). |