Jan Henric Bacurio

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Educational Background:

• Bachelor of Science in Chemistry – University of the Philippines – Diliman (2012)

Affiliations:

• American Chemical Society: 2021 – Present
• UCONN Chemistry Joint Safety Team: 2021 – Present, (Secretary: 2021)
• Phi Lambda Upsilon (Honorary Chemical Society): 2021 – Present (President)
• UCONN Badminton club

Awards/Distinctions:

• GSS Community Service Award (2nd Place)
• Summer Doctoral Dissertation Award
• Outstanding Service and Research Award
• Dean Ross MacKinnon Endowment for CLAS Graduate Fellows
• PLU Student Travel Grant
• 2022 Merck Research Award for Underrepresented Chemist of Color (Finalist)
• UCONN Graduate School Conference Participation Award
• ACS Toxicology Travel Award
• Mentorship Excellence Award presented by Office of Undergraduate Research (Nominated)
• Teaching Excellence Award (Spring 2019 and Fall 2019)

Research Experience:

Before UConn, I worked as a natural products chemist who specializes in the isolation and elucidation of plant-based compounds that could be used as potential drug leads.

Currently, I am working on endogenous DNA damages such as Fapy-dG and DNA-peptide crosslink (DpC) to see how mutagenic and toxic these lesions are in human cells and to identify which translesion synthesis (TLS) and regular human DNA polymerases are responsible for the bypass of the damage.

Plans after graduation:

• To work in a pharmaceutical company that focuses on doing research on human diseases specifically cancer; or
• Do a post-doc in a national lab (human diseases)

About Me:

• Hobbies/Interests: traveling; watching anime, horror, and sci-fi movies/series; EATING; badminton
• Fun fact: I collected more than 100 plants inside my room during pandemic!

Contact me:

jan.bacurio@uconn.edu