Department of Chemistry

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Chemistry Major (BS) MB3 - Biochemistry Track (BS) Forensic Chemistry (BS/MS) Environmental Science (BS/MS) Chemistry Education (BS/MS) Chemistry Minor Pre-Pharmacy Departmental Honors Program

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Kelly M. Elkins

	Assistant Professor Forensic Chemistry Office: 530 Smith Phone: (410)704-6217 E-mail: kmelkins@towson.edu
Education	B.A. Chemistry (1997) Keene State College, magna cum laude B.S. Biology (1997) Keene State College, magna cum laude M.A. Chemistry (2001) Clark University Ph.D. Chemistry (2003) Clark University Fulbright Scholar (2001-2002) European Media Laboratory (Heidelberg, Germany) Postdoctoral Fellow (2003-2004) MIT
Teaching	General Chemistry I (CHEM 131) General Chemistry I Lab (CHEM 131L) Forensic Chemistry (FRSC 367)
Research	My lab is focused on solving problems of interest to forensic scientists expecially developing and evaluating new methods for DNA recovery from forensic evidence and trace DNA recovery, application of chemical tools to differentiating body fluids, and synthesis and application of nanoparticles to fingerprinting for lifestyle anaylsis. My research also includes studies of metal-ion specificity in ligand binding sites, metal-ion coordination in proteins and enviromentally-relevant materials, and protein design.
Selected Publications	Elkins, K.M. Forensic DNA Biology: A Laboratory Manual, Elsevier Academic Press 2012. Link to Publisher Elkins, K.M.; Kadunc, R.E.* “An Undergraduate Laboratory Experiment for Upper-Level Forensic Science Courses: The Use of TPOX Single Locus Primers to Amplify Human DNA by Real-time PCR with SYBR Green Detection” J. Chem. Educ. 2012, 89, 784-790. Link to Full Article Elkins, K.M.; Traudt, E.M.; Dickerson, M.A. “Fluorescence Characterization of the Interaction Suwannee River Fulvic Acid with the Herbicide 2-(2,4-dichlorophenoxy )propionic acid in the Absence and Presence of Aluminum” J. Inorg. Biochem. 2011, 105, 1469-1476. Link to Full Article Elkins, K.M. “Rapid Presumptive ‘Fingerprinting’ of Body Fluids by ATR FT-IR Spectroscopy” J. Forensic Sci. 2011, 56, 1580-1587. Link to Full Article Elkins, K.M. “Designing PCR primer multiplexes in the forensic laboratory” J. Chem. Educ. 2011, 88, 1422–1427. Link to Full Article Elkins, K.M. “An in silico DNA cloning experiment for the biochemistry laboratory” Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education 2011, 39, 211-215. Link to Full Article Elkins, K.M.; Kadunc, R.E.; Mann, G.R.; McLaughlin, S.E.* “Comparison of quantity and quality of DNA recovered from burn samples in which burn temperatures and conditions were varied” Internet Journal of Forensic Science 2010, 4. Link to Full Article Bongini, R.E.; Culver, S.B.; Elkins, K.M. “Engineering Aluminum Binding Affinity in an Isolated EF-hand from Troponin C: A Computational Site-directed Mutagenesis Study” J. Inorg. Biochem. 2007, 101, 1251-1264. Link to Full Article

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Department of Chemistry
Smith Hall 543
Towson University
8000 York Road
Towson, MD 21252