The fall semester of 2021 was my first semester back to an in person class setting after the pandemic shutdown in 2020. During the first few weeks of school I wanted to make sure that I got as much help as I could in Chemistry, because I knew it was going to be my most challenging class, so I made sure to attend my professor’s office hours every time I got the chance. One day my professor Dr. Mohammad Abdul Halim talked to me about the research that he was conducting at our school.
The study was to find out if using short protein chains called, cell penetrating peptides, to stop the replication of the Covid-19 virus in the body, would be a better than the current vaccines that were available. However, to find out which peptide sequence would work best against the virus we would need to individually test 200 or more possible candidates, which would take a lot of time, money, and people.
My role in this study was to gather information on how twenty different peptides reacted with the Covid-19 virus, and create 3D models of the interactions.
I used different programs to perform computational chemistry which helped solve complex chemical problems using computer simulations quickly. Using this process I was able to save time and resources to find the best candidate by using technology first instead of doing in lab testing. I then created 3D models of the interactions using BIOVIA
My results showed that the computational chemistry process I used can help us discover solutions efficiently. I also gained experience in collecting and organizing data, creating a scientific research presentation, and collaborating with other researchers on a team
