Associate Professor
Chemistry & Biochemistry

Jennifer Poutsma

757-683-4101

CHEMISTRY BUILDING 4501 ELKHORN AVE
NORFOLK, 23529

Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, (1997)

B.S. in Chemistry, University of Chicago, (1991)

Contracts, Grants and Sponsored Research

Poutsma, J. L. "Collaborative Research: Intrinsic Gas-phase Properties of Peptides: Thermochemistry, Fragmentation Mechanisms, H/D exchange and IRMPD Spectroscopy" $40,000. Federal. September 1, 2018 - August 31, 2021
Poutsma, J. L. "Collaborative Research: Gas Phase Properties of Non-Protein Amino Acids; Thermochemistry, H/D Exchange, and Peptide Fragmentation Studies" $30,042. Federal. September 1, 2015 - August 31, 2018
Poutsma, J. L. "Fragmentation Mechanisms, H/D exchange and IRMPD Spectroscopy of Non-Protein Amino Acids and Non-Protein Amino Acid-Containing Peptides" $45,654. Federal. September 1, 2015 - August 31, 2018
Ramjee, B., Wallach, J. and Poutsma, J. L. "Incorporating instrumentation, technology and inquiry-based activities into foundational general and organic laboratory courses" $199,770. Federal. -
Poutsma, J. L. "Investigations of Dihydrofolate Reductases Using Molecular Dynamics Simulations" $185,262. Federal. March 2006 - February 2008
Poutsma, J. L. "Examination of the Mechanisms of the Schmidt and Modified-Schmidt Reactions" $80,000. Other. January 2005 - August 2007
Poutsma, J. L. "Investigations of Biological and Organic Systems Using Computational Methods" $303,900. Other. October 2005 - September 2006
Poutsma, J. L. "An Investigation of 2-Aminoethoxydiphenyl Borate and Analogs as Store-Operated Calcium Entry Channel Inhibitors" $10,000. State. January 2003 - December 2005
Poutsma, J. L. "The Mechanism and Source of Stereoselectivity for a Reaction between a Hydroxy Alkyl Azide and a Substituted Cyclohexanone" $25,000. Other. September 2001 - September 2003
Poutsma, J. L. "Investigation of the Loop Motions of Dihydrofalate Reductase" $5,000. Â鶹´«Ã½. June 2001 - August 2001

Expertise

Computational Chemistry
Physical Organic Chemistry

Research Interests

Dr. Poutsma’s group focuses on the application of computational chemistry to problems in organic, inorganic and biochemistry. Currently, the organic projects involve calculating the proton affinities of peptides, the mechanisms of mass spectrometry fragmentation and the mechanisms of peptide hydrogen/deuterium exchange. The goal of these projects is to expand our understanding of peptide fragmentation in order to improve the software used to predict protein sequence from mass spectrometry data.

The inorganic project involves calculating the mechanisms of small aluminumoxide clusters with methane. The biochemistry projects focus on protein folding and are in conjunction with Dr. Lesley Greene of Â鶹´«Ã½.

Articles

Arrington, J. V., Straus, R., Reynolds, P. F., Poutsma, J. L., Marluff, E. M. and Poutsma, J. C. (2012). Gas-Phase Hydrogen Deuterium Exchange of Lysine Homologs. Int. J. Mass Spectrom 330-332 , pp. 200-206.
Ribelin, T., Katz, C. E., English, D., Smith, S., Manukyan, A. K., Day, A. K., Neuenswander, B., Poutsma, J. L. and Aube, J. (2008). Highly Stereoselective Ring Expansion Reactions Mediated by Attractive, Non-Bonded Cation-Interactions. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 47 , pp. 6233-6235.
Katz, C. E., Ribelin, T., Withrow, D., Basseri, Y., Manukyan, A. K., Bermudez, A., Smith, S., Nuera, C. G., Day, V. W., Powell, D. R., Poutsma, J. L. and Aube, J. (2008). Non-Bonded, Attractive Cation-Ï€Interactions in Azide-Mediated Asymmetric Ring Expansion Reactions. J. Org. Chem. 73 , pp. 3318-3327.
Grecian, S., Desai, P., Mossman, C., Poutsma, J. L. and Aube, J. (2007). Reactions of Cyclopropanone Acetals with Alkyl Azides: Carbonyl Addition versus Ring-Opening Pathways. J. Org. Chem. 72 , pp. 9439-9447.
Manukyan, A. K. and Poutsma, J. L. (2006). The Effect of Solvent on the Stereoselectivity of Reactions between Hydroxyalkyl Azides and Ketones. Theochem 766 , pp. 105-112.
Schroeder, O. E., Carper, E., Wind, J. J., Poutsma, J. L., Etzkorn, F. and Poutsma, J. C. (2006). Theoretical and Experimental Investigation of the Energetics of Cis-Trans Proline Isomerization in Peptide Models. J. Phys. Chem. A 110 , pp. 6522-6530.
LeTourneau, H., Birsch, R., Korbeck, G. and Poutsma, J. L. (2005). Study of the Dative Bond in 2-aminoethoxydiphenyl Borate at Vatious Levels of Theory: Another Poor Performance of the B3LYP method for B-N Dative Bonds. J. Phys. Chem. A 109 , pp. 12014-12019.
Hewlett, N. D., Aube, J. and Poutsma, J. L. (2004). Ab Initio Approach to Understanding the Stereoselectivity of Reactions between Hydroxyalkyl Azides and Ketones. J. Org. Chem. 69 , pp. 3439-3446.
Snowden, M., Bermudez, A., Kelly, D. R. and Poutsma, J. L. (2004). The Preference for anti over gauche Migration in the Baeyer-Villiger Reaction. J. Org. Chem. 69 , pp. 7148-7156.

Presentations

Arcoria, P., Poutsma, J. C., Wysocki, V. H., Somogyi, A. and Poutsma, J. L. (April , 2017). Gas-​phase transition states of proline tripeptides Poster ACS National Meeting San Francisco.
Kowalczyk, E. and Poutsma, J. L. (March 23, 2015). Why do Ala, Ala, Lys protonated tripeptides preferentially rearrange to the protonated Lys-Ala-Ala sequence in the gas phase? Oral Presentation ACS National Meeting Denver, CO.
Poutsma, J. L. (October , 2013). The Use of Thermal Unfolding Molecular Dynamics Simulations to Study Protein Folding Oral Presentation Virginia Commonwealth University.
Poutsma, J. L. (June , 2012). Failure of gas phase calculations to reproduce solvent experimental data in the Schmidt reaction Oral Presentation Reaction Mechanisms Conference Columbia, Missouri.
Poutsma, J. L. (June , 2010). Mechanisms of the Schmidt Reaction with Various Azides and Solvent Effects Poster Reaction Mechanism Conference Amherst, MA.
Poutsma, J. L. (August , 2009). Binding cooperativity in R67DHFR 238th ACS National Meeting Washington, D.C..
Poutsma, J. L. (March , 2009). Molecular dynamics and structural studies of cyclopentane modified peptide nucleic acids 237th ACS National Meeting Salt Lake City, UT.
Poutsma, J. L. and Shi, C. (August , 2008). Molecular dynamics simulations of R67 dihydrofolate reductase: Investigation into the cooperative binding 236th ACS National Meeting Philadelphia, PA.
Poutsma, J. L. (June , 2008). The Use of Cation-Ï€ and Cation-n Interactions to Determine Stereoselectivity in Modified Schmidt Reactions Houk65 Symposium Los Angeles, CA.
Poutsma, J. L. and Manukyan, A. K. (August , 2007). Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Peptide Nucleic Acids Modified with Cycloalkanes 234th ACS National Meeting Boston, MA.
Schroeder, O. E., Carper, E., Wind, J. J., Poutsma, J. C., Etzkorn, F. and Poutsma, J. L. (July , 2006). Theoretical and Experimental Investigation of the Energetics of Cis-Trans Proline Isomerization in Peptide Models Reaction Mechanism Conference College Park, MD.
Schroeder, O. E., Carper, E., Wind, J. J., Poutsma, J. C., Etzkorn, F. and Poutsma, J. L. (May , 2006). Theoretical and Experimental Investigation of the Energetics of Cis-Trans Proline Isomerization in Peptide Models ASMS National Meeting Seattle, WA.
Poutsma, J. L. (June , 2005). Study of the Dative Bond in 2-Aminoethoxydiphenyl Borate at Various Physical Organic Gordon Conference Holderness, NH.
Poutsma, J. L. (March , 2005). Ab Initio Study of the Stereoselectivity of Schmidt-Type Reactions American Chemical Society National Meeting San Diego, CA.
Poutsma, J. L. (July , 2004). Reactions between Hydroxyalkyl Azides and Ketones Organic Chemistry Workshop Greenlake, WI.
  • 2015: Shining Star Recognition, Â鶹´«Ã½
  • 2011: Shining Star Award, Â鶹´«Ã½
  • 2009: Most Inspiring Faculty Award, Â鶹´«Ã½
  • 1998: NRSA Postdoctoral Fellowship, NIH

Organizational Chart