Sonia Adamidis, Dr. Amy Brown Savitz, and Afua Boateng

Sonia Adamidis and Afua Boateng, both senior biology majors, were awarded the Sigma Zeta Research Award for their project titled “Amphipathic Dimers: a New Class of Antibiotics” by the National Officers of Sigma Zeta.

Sigma Zeta is a national undergraduate honor society that encourages and fosters scholarly activity and recognizes academic scholarship in the natural and computer sciences and mathematics. The Sigma Zeta Research Awards were initiated by the 2011 National Convention to help support quality research by Sigma Zeta members.

The award was a pleasant surprise for the students, who conducted the research under the guidance of Neumann University chemistry professor Dr. Amy Brown Savitz.

The premise of their research was to use biomimetics to design compounds that would mimic natural products in order to find a new antibiotic. Adamidis stated, “I was really excited. It’s a field I want to enter into and to be recognized was just wonderful. Since tenth grade I always said I wanted to do research and it was a great opportunity to get hands-on experience. I really want to get into the pharmaceutical industry.”

Boateng, on the other hand, intends to become a physician’s assistant and understands the importance and complexity of developing new antibiotics. “Basically we were doing complementary work to see if we could put different compounds together,” Boateng said.

“This award came at a great time. We were feeling a little disappointed with our research. It didn’t want to work and we had to keep changing conditions,” Adamidis explained.

Adamidis and Boateng have been asked to present their research at a Sigma Zeta conference in April.

Adamidis and Boateng were inducted into Neumann University’s Sigma Zeta Honor Society during their junior year; Adamidis serves as president and Boateng, vice-president.