Funding

Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, “Characterizing and Modulating Bacterial Quorum Sensing Systems with Synthetic Peptides”, 11/2023 – 11/2028, $75,000

“Elucidating the Interplay between the ComRS and the ComABCDE Quorum Sensing Circuitries in Streptococci” (PI: Yftah Tal-Gan) NSF Standard Grant, Participant Support for Lafayette College-University of Nevada, Reno Student Exchange Program, 7/2018 – 6/2023, $16,500

National Science Foundation (NSF) “CAREER:  Designing Quorum Sensing Modulators for Lactobacillus plantarum to Probe Interspecies and Host-Microbe Interactions” 2021 – 2026, $496,758

National Science Foundation (NSF) “Chemical Biology Approaches to Interrogate Interspecies Communication in Streptococci” (PI: Yftah Tal-Gan) Participant Support for Moravian College-University of Nevada, Reno Student Exchange Program, 2018 – 2021, $15,000

Publications

Gorgan, M., Vanunu-Ofri, S., Engler, E. R., Yehuda, A., Hutnick, E., Hayouka, Z., Bertucci, M. A., The importance of the PapR7 C-terminus and amide protons in mediating quorum sensing in Bacillus cereus. Research in Microbiology, 2023, 174, 8, 104139.

Bertucci, M. A. and Hamacher, A. The Institute for Future PUI Faculty (IFPF) and its impact on participant motivation and perception of being a chemistry faculty member at a Primarily Undergraduate Institution (PUI). J. Chem. Educ., 2023, 100, 2, 619 – 626.

Milly, T. A., Buttner, A .R., Rieth, N., Hutnick, E., Engler, E. R., Campanella, A. R., Lella, M., Bertucci, M. A and Tal-Gan, Y., Optimizing CSP1 analogs for modulating quorum sensing in Streptococcus pneumoniae with bulky, hydrophobic nonproteogenic amino acid substitutions. RSC Chemical Biology, 2022, 3, 301 – 311.

Milly, T. A., Engler, E. R., Chichura, K .S., Buttner, A .R., Koirala, B., Tal-Gan, Y. and Bertucci, M. A., Harnessing multiple, non‐proteogenic substitutions to optimize CSP:ComD hydrophobic interactions in group1 Streptococcus pneumoniae. ChemBioChem, 2021, 22 (11), 1940 – 1947.

Bertucci, M.A. and Smith, K.J., The future of peptide science: Recognizing the American Peptide Society’s Young Investigators. Peptide Science, 2020 112: e24211. (Guest Editor for Special Issue)

Schmucker, D. J., Dunbar, S. R., Shepherd, T. D., Bertucci, M.A. n→pi* Interactions in N-Acyl Homoserine Lactone (AHL) Derivatives and Their Effects on Hydrolysis Rates. J. Phys. Chem. A., 2019, 123 (13), 2537 – 2543.

Koirala, B., Hillman, R. A., Tiwold, E. K., Bertucci, M. A., Tal-Gan, Y. Defining the Hydrophobic Interactions that Drive Competence Stimulating Peptide (CSP):ComD Binding in Streptococcus pneumoniae. Beilstein J. Org. Chem., 2018, 14, 1769 – 1777.

Hillman, R. A., Nadraws, J. W., Bertucci, M. A. The Hydrocarbon Staple & Beyond:  Recent Advances Towards Stapled Peptide Therapeutics that Target Protein-Protein Interactions. Curr. Top. Med. Chem., 2018, 18, 611 – 624.

Bertucci, M. A. and March, K., Non-Natural D-Amino Acids to Control Bacterial Virulence. Proceedings of the 24th American Peptide Symposium, 2015, 51 – 53.

Bertucci, M. A., Lee, S. J., Gagné, M. R., Selective Transamidation of 3-oxo-N-Acyl Homoserine Lactones by Hydrazine Derivatives. Org. Biomol. Chem., 2014, 12, 7197 – 7200.

Bertucci, M. A., Lee, S. J., Gagné, M. R., Thiourea-catalyzed aminolysis of N-acyl homoserine lactones. Chem. Commun., 2013, 49, 2055-2057.

Alluri, S. S.; Wang, C.; Bertucci, M. A Novel Enantioselective Synthesis of Spiro-Oxindoles: Analogs of Horsifiline and Spirotryprostatin. Saarbrücken: Lambert Academic Publishing, 2010.