Judith C. Amburgey-Peters

Judith C. Amburgey-Peters, Associate Professor of Chemistry, received her B.S. in Chemistry from Georgetown College in 1988 and her Ph.D. from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1993. She took a two-year postdoctoral position at the University of Maryland at Baltimore Medical School carrying out protein structure determination using high field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. After one year with a small contract company in Kentucky, where she also utilized NMR for structure determination, Judy came to Wooster in 1996. Her research interests are at the interface of organic and biological chemistry, which center around developing a model system to study the complex interactions between proteins, metal ions, and membrane surfaces. Judy teaches organic chemistry, biochemistry, and Introduction to Independent Study courses, as well as participates in the Women in Science program.

Dr. Amburgey-Peters worked the fall semester of 2000 in the College of Pharmacy's Division of Medicinal Chemistry at The Ohio State University. With Dr. Robert W. Curley, Jr., she investigated a new, potentially more efficient synthetic route to a vitamin A derivative that has shown promising anti-tumor activity on breast cancer cells in mice.

Recent publications:

J. C. Amburgey-Peters and L. W. Haynes; The Addition of Bromine to 1,2-Diphenylethene; J. Chem. Ed. 2005, 82, 1051-1052.

M. C. Wiles*, D. L. Elwell, H. M. Keener, J. C. Amburgey, and D. C. Borger, and L. B. Willett; Volatile Fatty Acid Emissions During Composting of Swine Waste Amended with Sawdust as a Measure of Potential Odor. Compost Science and Utilization, 9 (1), 27-37 (2001).

M. C. Wiles*, J. C. Amburgey, D. C. Borger, L. B. Willett, H. M. Keener, and D. L. Elwell; Volatile Fatty Acid Emission as Measurement of Perceived Odor from Swine Waste Compost Amended with Sawdust; Research and Revies: Poultry and Swine, 171, 60-62 (1999).

A. C. Drohat, J. C. Amburgey, F. Abildgaard, M. R. Starich, D. Baldiserri, and D. J. Weber; Solution Structure of Rat Apo-S100B (bb) As Determined by NMR Spectroscopy; Biochemistry, 35, 11577-11588 (1996).

J. C. Amburgey, F. Abildgaard, M. R. Starich, S. Shah, D. C. Hilt, and D. J. Weber; 1H, 13C and 15N NMR Assignments and Solution Secondary Structure of Rat Apo-S100b; J. Biomol. NMR , 6, 171-179 (1995).

J. C. Amburgey, S. W. Shuey, L. G. Pedersen, and R. G. Hiskey; Small Molecule Analogs of Phospholipid-Metal Ion Binding Sites: Synthesis and Molecular Modeling of Cyclohexane- 1,2,4-triol Trisphosphates; Bioorganic Chemistry, 22, 172-197 (1994).

J. C. Amburgey, N.-W. Huh, L. G. Pedersen, and R. G. Hiskey; Small Molecule Analogs of Phospholipid-Metal Ion Binding Sites: Potentiometric and Spectroscopic Studies of Mg(II) and Ca(II) Complexes of Cyclohexane-1,2,4-triol Trisphosphates; Bioorganic Chemistry, 22, 198-215 (1994).

S. W. Shuey, D. W. Deerfield, J. C. Amburgey, S. E. Cabaniss, N.-W. Huh, L. G. Pedersen, and R. G. Hiskey; Cyclohexanediol Bisphosphates as Models for Phospholipid-Metal Ion Binding Sites; Bioorganic Chemistry, 21, 95-108 (1993).

Invited Lectures and Papers/Posters Presented at Professional Meetings:

Judith C. Amburgey-Peters; Synthesis and Characterization of Cyclohexyl Phosphoserine Compounds as Analogs for Phosphatidylserine; Department of Chemistry, Michigan State University, August 2006.

Paul A. Bonvallet and Judith C. Amburgey-Peters; Casting Away the Cookbook: Bringing Independent Experimental Design into an Organic Chemistry Laboratory Experiment; 233rd Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Chicago, IL, March 2007.

Nicholas Amato* and Judith C. Amburgey-Peters; Purification of Cyclohexyl (CBZ-L-Ser-Bzl) Phosphodiester: Precursor to a Proposed Phospholipid Analog (PLA) of Phosphatidylserine; 233rd Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Chicago, IL, March 2007.

Allyson M. Buytendyk* and Judith C. Amburgey-Peters; Synthesis of Cyclohexyl Carbobenzyloxy-L-Serine Benzyl Ester Phosphodiester: A Precursor to the Phospholipid Analog Cyclohexyl Phosphoserine; 233rd Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Chicago, IL, March 2007.

Judith C. Amburgey-Peters; Designer Molecules: Modeling Mother Nature; Faculty at Large, The College of Wooster, November 2005.

Judith C. Amburgey-Peters; Active Learning: Does it work anywhere? Can it work at Wooster?; The College of Wooster, Teaching Matters, September 2004.

Judith C. Amburgey-Peters; Writing Workshop for FYS Faculty: The Research Paper; The College of Wooster, October 2004.

J. C. Amburgey-Peters; Writing in the Sciences: Instruction, Evaluation, Progress; The College of Wooster, Science Round Table, February 2005.

J. C. Amburgey-Peters; Learning Communities in Organic Chemistry: What Are They and Are They Working?; Science Roundtable, The College of Wooster, January 2004.

* Wooster undergraduate.