Neville Forlemu: DIRECTORY

Dr. Neville Forlemu was born in 1980, in Kumba, Southwest Region of Cameroon. In 2001, he received his BSc. in biochemistry, then spent two years as an entrepreneur running a chemical and provision store. In 2009, he obtained his doctoral degree under the direction of Professor Kathryn Thomasson (UND) on studying macromolecular functional complexes using Brownian dynamics simulations. During graduate school, he received numerous awards including Biophysical Society travel grants, the Dr. Severson Award for Excellence in Research (2007), Dr. Severson-Dr Coon Award for Excellence in Teaching (2007) and $50,000 research grant as UNCF-MERCK Science Fellow (2008). He then spent a year at Mount Sinai School of Medicine as a post-doctoral fellow under the direction of Professor Martha Filizola on structural study of the serotonin-metabotropic receptor complexes.

The passion for teaching took him to Shorter University in the fall of 2010 where he taught chemistry. In 2012, Forlemu joined the faculty at Georgia Gwinnett College, where he presently serves as a part-time faculty mentor and associate professor of chemistry. He has mentored numerous undergraduate research students as well as underprivileged high school students through the ACS SEED program.

His research interests include molecular modeling and development of novel antimalarial therapies (chloroquine mimetics and fluorinated sulfonamides), and molecular dynamics simulations of the aggregation of cyclic peptides with lipid bilayers.

• Post-doctoral fellowship – computational biophysical chemistry – Mount Sinai School of Medicine
• Doctorate – physical chemistry – University of North Dakota 
• Bachelor’s – biochemistry – University of Buea

Chemistry Research: The Forlemu research group investigates functional protein-ligand and lipid peptide complexes, using molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations.

Chemical Education: Developing teaching tools and methodologies (games, computer simulations, flipped classroom, backward design and POGIL activities) to keep 21st century students engaged and at the center of the learning process

Publications

• Neville Forlemu, Cedrick Dizala Mukinay, Rotimi Babalola, and Joseph Sloop. “Targeting the Plasmodium Falciparum Folate Pathway: Molecular Modeling of the Affinity of Sulfonamide Derivatives and Isoforms of Dihydrofolate Reductase Thymidylate Synthase” J. Und. Chem. Res., 2017, 16(2), 68-71.
• Forlemu, N., Watkins, P. and Sloop, J. (2017) Molecular Docking of Selective Binding Affinity of Sulfonamide Derivatives as Potential Anti-malarial Agents Targeting the Glycolytic Enzymes: GAPDH, Aldolase and TPI. Open Journal of Biophysics, 7, 41-57.
• Neville Y. Forlemu, Leonard E. Anagho, David P. Purcell. Nursing Chemistry Course Scheduling and Student Performance: Implications for administrators and students. Innovations, 2016.
• David P. Purcell, Neville Y. Forlemu, Leonard E. Anagho. Mathematics Competency for Beginning Chemistry Students Through Dimensional Analysis. J. Nurs Educ, 2017, 56(1), 22-26.
• Nicoleta Alexandru and Neville Forlemu. Towards the Selective Inhibition of Glycolytic Pathway Enzymes: A Computational Analysis of Plasmodium Falciparum and Human Triosephosphate Isomerase Ligand Interactions. IJURCA, 2016, 8, 1-12.
• Igor V. Uporov, Neville Y. Forlemu, Rahul Nori, Tsvetan Aleksandrov, Boris A. Sango, Sandeep Pothuganti, Yvonne Bongfen, and Kathryn A. Thomasson. Introducing DInaMo: A Package for Calculating Protein Circular Dichroism Using Classical Electromagnetic Theory. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2015, 16(9), 21237-21276. doi:10.3390/ijms160921237

Presentations

• Neville Forlemu; Simon Mwongela, Patrick Coppock, Aja Mallia. Do cyclotides aggregate with lipid bilayers? Experimental and computational characterization of the interaction between cyclotide, cyclotide mimetics, and lipid bilayers. 2019 American Chemical Society National Meeting, Orlando, Florida, April 1 to April 4.
• Tyler Sawyer; Neville Forlemu, and Ajay Mallia. Synthesis, gelation and computational studies of pyridine and acridine based cholesteryl carbamates CREATE Symposium, Georgia Gwinnett College, Lawrenceville, GA, April 9.
• Tyler Sawyer; Neville Forlemu, and Ajay Mallia. Synthesis, gelation and computational studies of pyridine and acridine based cholesteryl carbamates 2019 American Chemical Society National Meeting, Orlando, Florida, April 1 to April 4.
• Emile Bongkiyung; Joseph Sloop; Neville Forlemu. Folate Pathway as Target for Antimalarial Activity: Molecular Docking of Sulfonamides with Plasmodium and Dihydrofolate Reductase – Thymidylate Synthase (DHFR-TS). The 2019 Annual Meeting of the Georgia Academy of Science, University of North Georgia.
• Tyler Sawyer; Neville Forlemu, and Ajay Mallia. Synthesis, gelation and computational studies of pyridine and acridine based cholesteryl carbamates. The 2019 Annual Meeting of the Georgia Academy of Science, University of North Georgia.
• Neville Forlemu. Modeling the Three-Dimensional Structure of Proteins and Peptides: Guest Lecture for Rebekah Ward Bioinformatics class: Georgia Gwinnett College.
• Emily Xu and Neville Forlemu. Homology modeling of Plasmodium falciparum dihydropteroate synthase: 2018 American Chemical Society Georgia Section Research Symposium. Kennesaw State University, October 27 (The winning poster of the evening).
• Ashu Eyongeri.; Joseph Sloop., Neville Forlemu. Sulfonamides as potential antimalarial targets: Modeling the impact of fluorine substitution on ligand affinity. The 70th Southeastern Regional meeting of the American Chemical Society, October 31, 2018, Augusta.
• Ashu Eyongeri.; Joseph Sloop., Neville Forlemu. Sulfonamides as potential antimalarial targets: Modeling the impact of fluorine substitution on ligand affinity. Herty Medal Undergraduate Research Symposium, September 21, 2018, Georgia Gwinnett College, Lawrenceville, GA (Second place poster).
• Emile Bongkiyung E., Joseph Sloop, Neville Y. Forlemu. The Folate Pathway as Target for Antimalarial Activity: Molecular Docking of Sulfonamides with Plasmodium and Bacterial Dihydropteroate Synthase. Herty Medal Undergraduate Research Symposium, September 21, 2018, Georgia Gwinnett College, Lawrenceville, GA.
• Emily Xu and Neville Forlemu. Molecular modeling of Plasmodium falciparum dihydropteroate synthase: a potential target for antimalarial drug activity. Herty Medal Undergraduate Research Symposium, September 21, 2018, Georgia Gwinnett College, Lawrenceville, GA.

• Awarded $100,000 in research grant funding as principal investigator (PI) or co-PI since joining GGC
• 2012/2013 Nominated For GGC Teaching Excellence
• UNCF-MERCK Science Fellow, awarded $50,000 in research grants