Associate Professor of Chemistry Tim Elgren published a paper on "Catecholase Activity Associated with Copper-S100B" in Biochemistry. This is a project funded originally by the Institute of Neurological Disorder and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health, a Cotrell Award from the Research Corporation and the Petroleum Research Fund of the American Chemical Society. Three undergraduate co-authors contributed to this project with summer research, senior thesis projects and a senior Fellowship project completed by Kim Kelly '96.
Elgren describes the research: "We have characterized the reactivity of the copper-bound form of S100-B, a ubiquitous protein found in mammalian brain. We have shown that this form of the protein is capable of catalyzing the oxidation of catecholamines,
such as adrenaline and noradrenaline, to form insoluble dopaminergic melanins. This particular reactivity may have implications in the oxidative damage associated with Parkinson's disease in which high levels of copper and the presence of insoluble dopaminergic melanins have been tied to progression of the disease."