Western Washington University Assistant Professor of Chemistry Clint Spiegel has been awarded a three-year, $390,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to research potential treatments for hemophilia A, a hereditary genetic blood disorder that affects millions of people around the world.

Western Washington University’s College of Sciences and Technology will continue its “Wizards @ Western” youth lecture series with “Lights and Colors and Waves…Oh My!” at 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 17, in Science, Mathematics and Technology Education Room 150 on WWU’s campus.

The event is free and open to the public, and is geared toward children in grades 4-8.

Six faculty members from the Western Washington University Department of Chemistry (Mark Bussell, Tim Clark, Steven Emory, John Gilbertson, Greg O'Neil and Jim Vyvyan) each presented a paper at the 239th American Chemical Society National Meeting held in San Francisco

Department of Chemistry undergraduate student Tosten Haugerud, working with assistant professor Emily Borda (Chemistry), gave an oral presentation at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching in Philadelphia, held from March 21 to 24.

Clint Spiegel (Chemistry) recently was awarded a grant for $44,661 by the Research Corporation to continue his work on the structure and function of the bacterial ribosome. Understanding the molecular basis of ribosome function is important for understanding how genetic information is expressed and has direct implications in the development of novel antibiotic approaches.

John Gilbertson (Chemistry) recently received a Single Investigator Cottrell College Science Award for $44,965 from the Research Corporation to continue his work on developing environmentally friendly small molecules that mimic the biologically important enzyme nitrogenase. These target molecules are important in studying the production of ammonia (a necessary nutrient in growing crops that is responsible for feeding more than 40 percent of the world's population).

Workers are still plugging away on the addition to the Chemistry Building on the Western Washington University campus.

For more information on this project, check out "The Shape of Things to Come" from Facilities Management.

Photos by Michael Leese | WWU intern