Claire Kooy

• Assisted graduate student Ezequiel Cruz Rosa under Dr. Bill Baker in isolating and characterizing a fungal secondary metabolite with tuberculosis-inhibiting properties 12 hours per week.
• Operated HPLC systems for compound purity analysis, adjusting mobile phase compositions to optimize peak separation.
• Characterized isolated compounds by integrating ¹H NMR spectroscopic data with high-resolution mass spectrometry to determine molecular formulas and establish structural frameworks.
• Maintained and monitored fungal cultures grown on sterilized rice substrates, incorporating epigenetic modifiers to induce secondary metabolite production while ensuring strict aseptic technique and accurate documentation.

• Assisted graduate student Zahra Rab Nawaz under Dr. Chavdar Slavov in synthesizing and isolating organic compounds 12 hours a week.
• Isolated and purified organic reaction products using silica gel column chromatography, ensuring sample purity for spectroscopic analysis
• Employed TLC visualization to track compound separation and verify product identity

• Assisted graduate student Bethany Burns under Dr. Christina Richards in analyzing and library DNA from Florida sea grass 8 hours per week.

• Safely used liquid nitrogen to prepare seagrass samples from 10 different locations for DNA

extraction and analysis.

• Utilized micropipettes, centrifuges, and vortex mixers to extract DNA from crushed seagrass

samples.