Jhenny F. Galan

Instructional Assistant Professor
Division of Foundational Sciences, Chemistry

Jhenny F. Galan


E-mail: galanj@tamu.edu
Phone: +1 (409) 741.4326

MAIN Academic Complex, Office 408B


CV


Learn more about Jhenny F. Galan

Get To Know Jhenny F. Galan

What in your life drew you to your current field of study?

As someone trained in a high school focused on math and science, my natural inclination was to pursue a degree in science but chemistry was not one of my choices. I started out as a Biology major in College. However, after my freshman year, I developed a lot of interest in Chemistry and eventually decided to change my major to Chemistry. I was fascinated by the fact that Chemistry allows one to develop and design new materials as well as understand a lot of mechanisms and processes. My appreciation of Chemistry grew throughout my undergraduate career and decided to pursue a PhD in Chemistry. Exposure to different aspects chemistry lead me to focus on Physical Chemistry in graduate school with specializations in computational chemistry and biological macromolecular structure and function.

What do you hope your students gain from studying or working with you?

Whether in a classroom or experiential teaching environment, I would like my students to be able to reflect on what they have learned as well as synthesize and correlate various aspects of what they have learned. Ultimately, they should be able to think independently, come up with sensible analysis of various phenomena or issues, and evolve in integrating their ideas.

What are you passionate about in your personal life?

Traveling with family and friends.

Expertise

Structure-function relationship studies of protein systems using all-atom and coarse-grain molecular dynamics simulations

Testing and validation of coarse-grain forcefield for proteins

Computational studies of the membrane translocation ability of heteroaromatic foldamers and its implications in drug delivery

Understanding conformational preferences of aromatic oligoamide foldamers using theoretical methods

Computational Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, Biophysical Chemistry

Education
Ph.D. Physical and Computational Chemistry, University of Connecticut, 2006
B.S.
Chemistry, University of the Philippines, 1996
Courses Taught

CHEM 101: Fundamentals of Chemistry I

CHEM 101 HNR: Fundamentals of Chemistry I Honors

CHEM 102: Fundamentals of Chemistry II

CHEM 102 HNR: Fundamentals of Chemistry II Honors

CHEM 322: Physical Chemistry for Engineers

CHEM 489: Physical Chemistry Laboratory

MARS 360: Biochemistry

MARS 428: Coastal Development and Human Health

Publications

Galinato, M. G. I*., Fogle, R. S. III., Stetz, A., Galan, J. F*. Modulating the nitrite reductase activity of globins by varying the heme substituents: Using myoglobin as a model system. Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, 154, 7-20, 2016.

Galan, Jhenny F., Germany, E., Pawlowski, A., Strickland, L., Galinato, M.G. Theoretical and Spectroscopic Analysis of N,N’-Diphenylurea and N,N’-Dimethyl-N,N’-diphenylurea Conformations. Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 118, 5304-5315, 2014

Galinato, M.G., Fogle III, R. S. and Galan, Jhenny F. Binding interaction of hypocrellin B to myoglobin: a spectroscopic and computational study. Spectrochimica Acta A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy, 115, 337-344, 2013

Galan, Jhenny F., Tang, Chi N., Chakrabarty, Shubhasis, Liu, Zhiwei, Moyna, Guillermo, and Pophristic, Vojislava. Conformational Preferences of Furan- and Thiophene-based Arylamides: A Combined Computational and Experimental Study. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 15, 11883-11892, 2013

Chen, M. S., Sandberg, D. J., Babu, K. R., Bubis, J., Surya, A., Ramos, L.S., Galan, J.F., Sandberg, M., Birge, R. and Knox, B.E. Conserved residues in the extracellular loops of short-wavelength cone visual pigments, Biochemistry, 50 (32), 6763-6773, 2011

Galan, Jhenny F., Brown, Jodian, Wildin, Jayme L., Liu, Zhiwei, Liu, Dahui, Moyna, Guillermo, and Pophristic, Vojislava. Intramolecular Hydrogen Bonding in ortho-Substituted Arylamide Oligomers: A Computational and Experimental Study of ortho-Fluoro and ortho-Chloro N-methylbenzamides. Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 113(38), 12809-12815, 2009.

Galan, Jhenny F., Gao, J. , Pabuwal, V. , Meek, P.J. and Li, Z. Application of Network Theory in Understanding and Predicting Protein Structure and Function. Current Proteomics, 5, 181-190, 2008

Amora, Tabitha, Ramos, Lavoisier, Galan, Jhenny F. and Birge, Robert, R. Spectral Tuning of Deep Red Cone Pigments. Biochemistry, 47(16), 4614-4620, 2008

Rangarajan, Rekha, Galan, Jhenny F., Whited, Gregg, and Birge, Robert R.   The Mechanism of Spectral Tuning of Green-Absorbing Proteorhodopsin, Biochemistry, 46 (44), 12679-12686, 2007

Hillebrecht, Jason R., Galan, Jhenny F., Rangarajan, Rekha, Ramos, Lavoisier R., McCleary, Kristina N., Ward, Donald E., Stuart, Jeffrey A. and Birge, Robert R. Structure, Function and Wavelength Selection in Blue-Absorbing Proteorhodopsin, Biochemistry, 45 ( 6 ),1579-1590, 2006.  

Presentations

November 10-13, 2016: Modulating the nitrite reductase activity of globins by varying the heme substituents. Poster Presentation. ACS 72nd Annual Southwest Regional Meeting, Galveston, TX.

June 15-19, 2016: Oceans and One Health: A Unique Pre-Health Curriculum Tailored for Student Success. Poster Presentation. NAAHP (National Association of Advisors for the Health Professions) National Meeting. Minneapolis, MN.

August 4-8, 2015: Conformational Properties of Aromatic Foldamers: Toward the Rational Design of Functional Structures. Oral Presentation. International Conference for Young Chemists, Penang, Malaysia.

August 10-14, 2014: Conformational Preferences and Dynamics of Aromatic Oligourea Foldamers. Oral Presentation. 248th Fall ACS National Meeting, San Francisco, CA.

June 2-7, 2013: Conformational Preferences of Aromatic Oligourea Foldamers. Poster Presentations. Gordon Research Conference: Computational Aspects -Biomolecular NMR, West Dover, VT
 
October 26-28, 2012: Conformational Preferences of Furan- and Thiophene-based Arylamides: A Combined Computational and Experimental Study, Oral Presentation. Southwestern Theoretical Chemistry Conference, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX.

August 16-20, 2009: Intramolecular hydrogen bonding in ortho-substituted arylamide oligomers : A model compound study. Oral presentation at the Fall ACS National Meeting, Washington, D.C.

August 16-20, 2009: Coarse-grain molecular dynamics of proteins: characterization and testing. Oral presentation at the Fall ACS National Meeting, Washington, D.C.