Faculty Profile: Dr. Rooney

Dr. Mary Rooney joined the Chemistry team three years ago after earning her Master’s Degree and PhD from The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Coming from a didactic family; her mother an elementary school teacher and her father a Professor of Engineering here at Hofstra, she has always known she would teach. Graduating Hofstra in 2016 with a BA in the majors of chemistry, classics and mathematics, she knows what students in our department are navigating. She finds it rewarding to be able to give her students advice, as she was once exactly in their shoes.

Dr. Rooney is currently teaching Foundations of Biochemistry and General Chemistry, but she has many interests outside of Chemistry. An eclectic scholar, her favorite classes were often non-empirical in nature. Her favorites included her Greek drama class and on-site archaeological dig and ancient. The latter she attended the summer following graduation when she and some of her friends traveled to Italy to the dig site at Mt. Vesuvius. 

During her time at The College William and Mary, Dr. Rooney researched antimicrobial peptides and how they interact with cell membranes. Now, she wants to specifically test copper tripeptide-1, a small peptide found in human plasma that may play a role in tissue regeneration, and how it interacts with lipids in cell membranes. She was inspired to take up this research again while shopping for a new moisturizer; she was confused as to why so many products included a copper-bound peptide when copper ions are known to cause oxidative damage. She hopes that this research will produce a better understanding of copper tripeptide-1 and its regenerative properties. 

When Dr. Rooney isn’t teaching or in the lab, she can be found reading an Agatha Christie mystery or watching The Lord of the Rings.