Student Presenter(s): Caroline Fernandez, Jaycee Rae Greer, Radu Ramses Mihnea Nestor, Tiffany Brooks Roberts, Christina Renee Varady, Komal Javed, Sameer S. Kazi Krushang Kamleshkumar, Selena Shiwprasad, Sarah Nicolle Souza, Christine Marie Lopresti, Ka Wai Wai Wen Pandya
Faculty Mentor: Ana Petrovic
Department: Biological and Chemical Sciences
School/College: College of Arts and Sciences, New York City

Sucrose, commonly referred to as table or cane sugar, is one of the common nutritional sources of energy that is released upon its digestion of glucose and fructose, followed by their subsequent catabolism. The rate of digestion of sucrose in aqueous media can be followed by measuring the angle of rotation of polarized light passing through the solution. While sucrose is dextrorotatory, the resulting mixture of glucose and fructose is slightly levorotatory, because the levorotatory fructose has a greater molar rotation than the dextrorotatory glucose.

Herein, we present efforts to reproduce the experimentally obtained kinetics data via molecular modeling of glucose, fructose, and sucrose. In this molecular modeling effort, we highlight the importance of a) properly setting bonding within the model structures as well as b) conducting a comprehensive survey of the conformational space of models in a suitable solvent environment.