The Kravis Department of Integrated Sciences supports the College’s values of engaging students in first-hand research, oftentimes leading to publications and presentations at professional conferences. Here are some examples of recent student research in the department:

In Prof. Paul Nerenberg’s research group, Luca Ciaramitaro (CMC ’28) and Scarlett Welch (CMC ’28) performed molecular dynamics simulations of engineered mutants of the NanoBiT bioluminescent reporter protein to determine the molecular basis for binding specificity between the two units (LgBiT and SmBiT) in collaboration with Prof. Colin Rathbun. Their goal is to enable the rational development of “orthogonal” LgBiT-SmBiT pairs for use in both in vitro and in vivo experiments. Amanda Kerner (CMC ’28) performed simulations of a short 4-residue proline-rich peptide and a longer peptide containing two such 4-residue regions derived from the Tau protein, with the goals of assessing current protein force field and water combinations and explaining FRET, CD, and NMR data obtained for these systems under a variety of experimental conditions. This work is currently in preparation for submission to the Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling. Finally, Christopher Turner (Pomona ’27) reparameterized a small molecule force field (GAFF2) and developed an alchemical free energy protocol to generate accurate predictions of nitrogen solubility in cryogenic liquid alkanes, relevant to elucidating the chemical compositions of hydrocarbon lakes on Saturn’s moon Titan.

Alexander Bartholomew (CMC ’28) worked with Prof. Shibu Yooseph on a novel computational analysis of a previously published colorectal cancer (CRC) gut microbiome dataset. The goal of this project was to study inter-individual variation in the gut microbiome and how this variation impacts identification of tissue type and cancer status in CRC. The analysis included the use of methods for dealing with microbial taxonomy profile data and machine learning approaches for classification of tissue types. This work will be presented as a poster at the European Conference on Computational Biology 2026.

Avia Tuguldur (CMC ’28) worked with Profs. Shaun Lee and Shibu Yooseph on a comparative genome analysis of two bacterial strains (E. coli Nissle 1917 and E. coli DH5a) with a goal of understanding the differences in their Type III Secretion System 2 and iron acquisition genes. This computational work is part of a larger lab project to use E. coli Nissle 1917 for bacterial engineered therapy. Avia’s analysis results were presented as a poster at the 10th Conference on Beneficial Microbes at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

In Prof. Raberg’s MUCC Lab, Scarlett Welch (CMC ‘28) and Luca Ciaramitaro (CMC ‘28) researched climate change on geologic timescales in the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. They piloted the MUCC Lab’s use of ATR-FTIR analyses on lake sediments, including troubleshooting, developing a protocol, and developing a data processing pipeline. They used this method to generate a record of Biogenic Silica from Paradise Pond, CO stretching back more than 10,000 years, which will aid in broader efforts to understand hydroclimate change in the Rockies. They also participated in a successful 5-day field expedition to collect sediment cores from Walker Lake, CA.