Dr. Jack Breen’s Lab

About Our Research

Research in my group’s lab is focused on developing new fluorescence methods to quantify phosphate and nitrate in seawater. Since 2017, we have been a part of the RI C-AIM project.

C-AIM is an National Science Foundation-sponsored collaboration of engineers, scientists, designers, and communicators from eight higher education institutions in Rhode Island that are  developing new approaches to assess, predict, and respond to the effects of climate change on coastal ecosystems. We participate in Research Thrust 3 for which the goal is to develop new platforms to detect chemical and biochemical interactions for a more accurate assessment of the changing environment of Narragansett Bay.

Our Research Students

From left to right, Dr. Jack Breen, Emily Curylo, Jenna Kornicki, Jared DiBella, and Tom Koch

Our Recent Graduates

Chemistry and Biochemistry Providence College Laboratory, Lab, Students and Professor Dr. John 'Jack' Breen III, Ph.D, Brianna Abbott '17 — Brianna Abbott ’17, a double major in chemistry and English at PC, is now a science writer at the Wall Street Journal.

Tim Rigdon ’20 – chemist at Ocean Spray

Maureen Pontarelli ’20 – biochemist at GlaxoSmithKline

Tom Koch ’20 – taking a gap year before medical school

Emily Curylo ’20 – teacher at St. Raphael Academy

Jenna Kornicki ’20 – student in the College of Engineering at Columbia University

Publications

M.D. Symes, D.A. Lutterman, T. S. Teets, B. L. Anderson, J. J. Breen, and D.G. Nocera, “Photo-active cobalt cubane model of an oxygen-evolving catalyst, ChemSusChem, 6 (1), 65-69 (2013). [https://doi.org/10.1002/cssc.201200682]

E. S. Mohn*, J.-M. Lee*, C. Beaver*, G. Tobbe*, S. M. McCarthy*, E. O’Neil, B. D. Smith, and J. J. Breen, “Interactions of cytochrome c with N-acylated phosphatidylethanolamine lipids”, The Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 2014, 118 (37), 8287–8292.[DOI: 10.1021/jp502063e] *undergraduate co-authors

A. M. Ullman, Y. Liu, M. Huynh, D. K. Bediako, H. Wang, B. L. Anderson, D. C. Powers, J. J. Breen, H. D. Abruña, and D. G. Nocera, “Water oxidation catalysis by Co(II) Impurities in Co(III)₄O₄ cubanes” Journal of the American Chemical Society 136 (50), 17681-17688 (2014) [http://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ja5110393]

B. M. Abbott*, J.-M. Lee*, E. S. Mohn*, Mary M. Barden*, K. R. Overly, and J. J. Breen, “Probing the extended lipid anchorage with cytochrome c and liposomes containing diacylphosphidylglycerol lipids”, Biochimica Biophysica Acta (BBA) Biomembranes, 2018, 1860, 1187- 1192. [DOI 10.1016/j.bbamem.2018.02.011] *undergraduate co-authors