Jonathan Rueffer
Science Editor
On Tuesday, Feb. 3, The College of Wooster Chemistry Department welcomed Associate Professor of Chemistry Dr. Sara Martin to talk about her current research in a talk titled “Molecular Makeovers: From Simple Precursors to Bio‑Relevant Heterocycles.” The seminar was part of the Chemistry and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (BCMB) Seminar Series, which invites Wooster faculty to present their research conducted while on leave.
“Professor seminars like this one are important to the chemistry community because they do a great job introducing different niche chemistry topics and research avenues for students,” said Kate Carson ’27.
After a few department-related and Chemistry Club announcements, Dr. Martin began by talking about her background in education and her interests in teaching and research. Her presentation was divided into three parts: her postdoctoral research, her current projects at Wooster and the future directions of her lab.
Dr. Martin’s postdoctoral research focused on developing new inhibitors for an enzyme called O-linked N-acetylglucosamine transferase (OGT). OGT plays an essential role in mammalian development, acting as a nutrient and stress sensor, and its misregulation is associated with certain disease pathologies. To study OGT, researchers need molecules that can temporarily turn off the target enzyme, which is why Dr. Martin synthetically created and tested multiple OGT inhibitors. All inhibitors shared three key features: being cell permeable, having no obvious cellular toxicity and having strong binding to OGT. This continuous process of development led Dr. Martin and her team to a single best inhibitor molecule, which was published shortly before she came to Wooster.
There were two key ideas that emerged from this work that shaped her future research. First, quinolinones, a type of ring‑shaped molecule, might serve as useful starting points for designing new enzyme inhibitors, and secondly, quinolinones are difficult to make when a chemical group is placed specifically at the 7‑position on the ring.
The second part of the seminar focused on Dr. Martin’s ongoing work at Wooster, which focuses on how to make 7‑substituted quinolinones. Quinolinones are present in many bioactive molecules, such as antidepressants. Previous studies had shown ways to make quinolinones from simple, commercially available starting materials, but didn’t address the 7‑substituted versions. This motivated her to pose the question of what happens when meta-substituted anilines are used and, if the whole group is rotated, will there be a mixture of products?
To answer this, she used Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, a technique that allows chemists to determine the structure of molecules by looking at how atoms interact with magnetic fields. Initial 1D NMR experiments were unable to definitely assign proton locations to find where the substitution occurred, so she turned to a more refined 1D NMR, which was able to reveal which hydrogen atoms are close to each other in 3‑D space.
The final part of her presentation focused on the subsequent research directions that involve identifying and understanding the mechanisms behind these results. As there is no straightforward answer, one of her approaches has been to work together with Dr. Feierabend for explicit computations for clues about the 7-substituted major product. Dr. Martin is also currently working with Independent Study (I.S.) students to find conditions that could enable the research to be expanded to coumarins (oxygen-based analogues).
“I think it’s inspirational as a student in the department to see how student work continues to contribute to research that Dr. Martin has been doing for years,” said Carson.
Dr. Martin concluded her talk by outlining upcoming directions for the project and thanking the many Wooster students that have worked with her over the years.