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Undergraduate Research at UMass Dartmouth
Figure 1. The initial steps of nanotube self-assembly, as investigated in this study. First single dipeptide monomers were studied,
followed by their dimers, and finally their hexamers
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In my time in the Mayes Research Group, I have been
able to develop my skills in many different areas. I
have evolved from an undergraduate student running
calculations as directed by Dr. Mayes to a graduate
student coming up with ways to advance our project
on my own and analyzing results comprehensively. I
have become confident in using many computational
programs, such as GAMESS, NAMD, and Spartan16.
Just as important as the computational chemistry
skills that I became proficient in, I learned how to
think and work like a researcher in a collaborative
environment. I learned how to view a problem from
different points of view and use these points of view
to better understand how to approach my research.
I have had the opportunity improve my presentation
skills, by sharing my research on several different
platforms. I have presented research posters on this
research at on- and off-campus conferences, given
research talks at chemistry department seminars,
and even published a paper. These are all skills that I
will use in my future as a chemist, and I am thankful
to have gotten to learn them first-hand as a student.
Dipeptide nanomaterials are relatively new and
unique biomaterial with many potential applications.
Their organic nature, rigidity, and flexibility make
them safe yet strong, lending them to applications
such as biosensing, tissue engineering, and biological
scaffolds. Their semiconductor properties make
them potential alternatives as biological scaffolds
in solar cells. During the past several years, these
dipeptide nanomaterials have risen in scientific
interest and their properties have been investigated
on both macro- and microscales. However, much
is still unknown about the self-assembly of these
dipeptide nanostructures.
This research aims to understand the early self-assembly
of aromatic dipeptide nanotubes using a
variety of quantum computational methods. Four
dipeptides are considered in this work: linear dityrosine
(YY), cyclic YY, linear tryptophan-tyrosine (WY),
and cyclic WY. This research was partially funded
through a grant from the OUR. All calculations were
run on the Massachusetts Green High Performance