Accomplishments: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Matt Sheridan and Ao Li (both Chemistry and Biochemistry) published their research paper, "Reversible Amine-to-Imine Chemistry at a Covalent Organic Framework for Sustainable Uranium Redox Separation," in the journal of ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering. This publication is a collaboration with Soochow and Fudan university focused on…
Jessica Grifaldo (Life Sciences), Erin Cassin (Life Sciences), Dengxun Lai (Life Sciences), Landon Netherton (Life Sciences), Efren Heredia (Chemistry), Ryan Doss (Life Sciences), and Monika Karney (Life Sciences) all won prizes for their oral or poster presentations at the Regional American Society for Microbiology Meeting that was held in the…
Doctoral student Paula Ramirez (Radiochemistry) has been selected for a fellowship under the Department of Energy's University Nuclear Leadership Program (UNLP), becoming the eighth student from 51ԹϺ to win the prestigious award. The highly competitive graduate fellowship program will fully fund Ramirez's research over a three-year period…
Łukasz Sznajder (Biochemistry) received a High Priority, Short-Term Project Award from the Myotonic Dystrophy Foundation to study myotonic dystrophy type 2 (DM2). DM2 has garnered less attention than myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1), lacking approved treatments or clinical trials. The uncertainty persists in applying DM1 therapeutic strategies to…
Zhange Feng (Chemistry and Biochemistry) has been awarded $2.1 M from the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management to develop a comprehensive training system to prepare a large number of collegiate students as an emerging workforce for soil and groundwater remediation. It includes an enhanced curriculum through hands-on…
Kelly Tseng (Life Sciences) was an invited speaker at the 2024 Southwest Regional Meeting of the Society of Developmental Biology. Her talk was titled "Eyeing Regrowth: Mechanisms Regulating Retinal Repair During Development." She presented her research group's findings on the mechanisms regulating eye stem cells and regeneration. Group…
Hong Sun and Hui Zhang (both Chemistry and Biochemistry) laboratories recently published a research article titled, “A Methylation-Phosphorylation Switch Controls EZH2 Stability and Hematopoiesis,” in eLife, Feb 12, 2024. This research revealed how the stability of mammalian PRC2/EZH2, the major epigenetic regulator that…
Katherine Betts, Kushanie Heenkenda, Bryan Jacome, Sohyo Kim, Michael Tover, and Zhange Feng (all Chemistry and Biochemistry) published a study, "Refractive Laser Beam Measuring Diffusion Coefficient of Concentrated Battery Electrolytes," that offers a universal optical method to measure diffusion coefficient, a key transport property in battery…
Program director Artem Gelis (Radiochemistry) has been selected to receive a Secretary's Honor Award from U.S. Department of Energy for his contributions to the International Molybdenum-99 Conversion Team during his career with the DOE. The Achievement Award is one of about 20 awards given annually from the Department of Energy and will…
The inaugural student-driven 51ԹϺ Triathlon Club competed in their first Collegiate Division triathlon Saturday, Oct. 29, 2023. Club president Levi Thomas (Kinesiology), treasurer Ashlyn Thomas (Nutrition), and members Emilo Benitez (Kinesiology), Liahm Blank (Biology), Julio Carrion (Biology), and Juliano El-Hajj (Biology) all completed the BBSC…
Łukasz J. Sznajder (Chemistry and Biochemistry) participated in an international study conducted in Poland, France, and the U.S. Their research has been focused on the molecular mechanism underlying RNA alternative splicing transition from ‘fetal’ to ‘adult’ mRNA pattern in developing skeletal muscles. They identified the family of RNA helicases (…
Members of the Radiochemistry program were recently published in the journal Inorganic Chemistry with an article titled, "Structural Investigation of Technetium Dibutylphosphate Species Using X-ray Absorption Fine Structure Spectroscopy."  First author, Jonathan George, is a master's student in Radiochemistry through the Department of…