Graduate students from Romania and Greece won the poster prizes sponsored by NJC at the recent European Conference on Chemistry for Life Sciences, the 4th in the series, held in Budapest.
Árpád Csog (Univ. Babes Bolyai, Kolozsvár, Romania) was selected for his poster entitled “Heavy Metal Phytoaccumulation by Aquatic Plants (Cabomba Aquatica, Vallisneria Spiralis, Echinodorus Cordifolius)“. Common aquarium plants like fanwort, tape grass and marble queen were shown to remove copper, zinc and cadmium from water. As these plants are easily cultivated and controlled, they show potential for the phytoremediation of contaminated waters. In this project, carried out in the group of Professor Kornelia Majdik, the defense response of the plants to the toxic effect of the heavy metals will also be studied.
(Left: Winner Árpád Csog with conference organiser Prof. Tamás Kiss.)
Dionysios Vourtsis (Univ. Patras, Greece) was selected for his poster entitled “A Solution NMR Study of Native and Mutated Forms of the Anthrax Lethal Factor Catalytic Site Polypeptide“. The group of Dr. Georgias A. Spyroulias is interested in elucidating the structural basis of ALF–substrate interactions. The biophysical characterization and backbone assignments of the enzyme’s core protease domain revealed a stable, well-folded structure even in the absence of Zn(II). The NMR structure of the metal-free catalytic core polypeptide exhibits great similarities with the crystal structures of the corresponding polypeptide. An NMR study of the metallated polypeptide is the next objective of this project.
(Right: Winner Dionysios Vourtsis.)
Congratulations to the deserving winners, and many thanks to the conference organisers and the volunteer jury members for their hard work!
