Ursinus College Investment Club Newsletter, Spring 2018

Inside this issue: A Note to Our Readers and Donor Recognition Quantitative Strategies with Matt Yuros ’12, TFS Capital Inside Institutional Investments with Michael Fleming ’97, Vanguard Bitcoin: Is It A Bubble? with Dr. William Luther, Kenyon College Portfolio Performance, the First Year Looking Forwar

Dr. Harold C. Smith Fund of Ursinus College Official Prospectus, April 24, 2018

This prospectus contains investment strategy and performance for the following stocks in the managed fund: Garmin Ltd., Masimo, Micron Technologies, SEI Investments, Waste Management and Stamps.com

A Chemical Strategy for Intracellular Arming of an Endogenous Broad-Spectrum Antiviral Nucleotide

The naturally occurring nucleotide 3′-deoxy-3′,4′-didehydro-cytidine-5′-triphosphate (ddhCTP) was recently found to exert potent and broad-spectrum antiviral activity. However, nucleoside 5′-triphosphates in general are not cell-permeable, which precludes the direct use of ddhCTP as a therapeutic. To harness the therapeutic potential of this endogenous antiviral nucleotide, we synthesized phosphoramidate prodrug HLB-0532247 (1) and found it to result in dramatically elevated levels of ddhCTP in cells. We compared 1 and 3′-deoxy-3′,4′-didehydro-cytidine (ddhC) and found that 1 more effectively reduces titers of Zika and West Nile viruses in cell culture with minimal nonspecific toxicity to host cells. We conclude that 1 is a promising antiviral agent based on a novel strategy of facilitating elevated levels of the endogenous ddhCTP antiviral nucleotide