Aerial view of UCSD campus looking South

Geisel Library - Nobel Laureates at UCSD

Discovery of new atmospheric reaction garners prize

Urey Hall Addition

Pacific Hall

Natural Sciences Building

The crystal structure of a group II intron in the pre-catalytic state

Geisel Library Walk

York Hall

Structure of an inhibitor of hepatitis C virus protein synthesis bound to its target in the viral ribonucleic acid (RNA) genome

ANCA probe staining amyloid plaques derived from Alzheimer’s-related Aβ peptides fluoresces as green and as yellow when derived from prion proteins (PrP^SC)

Price Center

Generation of bio-resistive surface coatings on amyloids inhibits harmful protein-amyloid interactions associated with Alzheimer disease

Proposed schematic models of the interfacial binding surface of four different members of the Phospholipase A2 superfamily

Urey Hall and Pacific Hall

Characterization of the "inhibitor binding pocket" in the catalytic domain of the calcium-independent phospholipase A2 with residues within a 5 A raidus of the inhibitor shown

A Crystalline Singlet Phosphinonitrene: a Nitrogen Atom Transfer Agent

Mayer Hall

Drug candidate in orange envelope bound to UPPS

Possible binding modes for phospholipase A2 via its membrane interaction site, another allosteric site, and its catalytic site

News

Green Chemistry Commitment

In celebration of Earth Month, the UCSD Chemistry & Biochemistry Department is pleased to announce our “Green Chemistry Commitment”. More Information...

The Xiong group, in collaboration with the Yuen-Zhou group publish paper in PNAS

The Xiong group, in collaboration with the Yuen-Zhou group and scientists at Naval Research Laboratory, reported the first coherent two-dimensional infrared (2D IR) spectroscopy of molecular polariton, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. Molecular vibrational-polaritons are hybrid states between molecular vibrations and photons. While they are highly promising for new opportunities to manipulate molecular potential energy landscapes and concomitantly modify reaction pathways, amongst many others, their fundamental physical properties remain elusive. By conducting experimental and theoretical studies of 2D IR spectroscopy, this work uniquely resolves excitation of polaritons and unexpected dark states in a state-selective manner, revealing otherwise hidden interactions between them. Valuable physical insights such as existence of hidden dark states, and ultrafast interactions between darks states and bright polariton states, are unambiguously measured. These results have significant implications in harvesting the creation of molecular vibrational polaritons for novel infrared photonic devices, lasing, molecular quantum simulation, as well as new chemistry by tailoring potential energy landscapes. A graduate student Bo Xiang from Xiong group and a postdoctoral fellow Raphael Ribeiro led the experimental and theoretical efforts, respectively. More Information...

Jessica Moreton, 2nd place winner of the UCSD Grad SLAM contest

Congratulations to Jessica Moreton (Cohen lab) on placing 2nd in the UCSD Grad SLAM contest!

Mark Kalaj (Cohen lab) awarded the NDSEG

Congratulations to Mark Kalaj (Cohen lab) on being awarded the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship (NDSEG)!!

Congratulations to the 2018 Recipients of the NSF-GRFP!

We proudly announce that the National Science Foundation has selected Glen Junor from the Bertrand Lab, Liora Mael from the Grassian lab, Christian Seitz from the Amaro lab and Terra Sztain-Pedone from the Burkart lab in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry as recipients of the 2018 Graduate Research Fellowship!

Vicki Grassian elected Chair of Chemistry Section of the AAAS

Vicki Grassian has been elected Chair-Elect of the Chemistry Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She begins her term as Chair Elect on February 20th 2018 following the AAAS annual meeting. This position begins a three year chair line succession of Chair-Elect, Chair, and Retiring Chair. Vicki has been a Fellow of AAAS since 2005. The Association for the Advancement of Science is the world's largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science. For results of the election of AAAS officers see: More Information...

Daniela Rhodes to Give DeLuca Lecture at UC San Diego

Nanyang Technological University Professor Daniela Rhodes will deliver the Marlene A. DeLuca Lecture at the University of California San Diego on Thursday, February 22. In her lecture, entitled “G-quadruplexes: the Cinderella of Nucleic Acid Structures”, Rhodes will summarize recent evidence for the in vivo presence and function of DNA and RNA G-quadruplexes in various cellular pathways including DNA replication, gene expression and telomere maintenance. The lecture begins at 4:00 p.m. in the Leichtag Family Foundation Biomedical Research Building Auditorium (Room 107). The lecture is free and open to the public. Light refreshments before the start of the lecture.

More....

Message from the Chair

Partho Ghosh, Chair       Thank you for visiting the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Ours is a vibrant and dynamic Department that combines research on the most consequential and revelatory scientific areas with education aimed at building our future leaders and informed citizens.

      The research we engage in is marked by its breadth — from atomic to cellular, from origins of life to climate change, from single molecules to systems level, from sustainable energy to cancer cures, from nanomaterials to solar systems, from infectious diseases to semiconductors, from RNA splicing to condensed phases, from protein structure to three-body problems, from lipid maps to stable carbenes, and so on. Along with these areas, we also engage in understanding how best to communicate scientific knowledge to our students. All these research efforts are made possible by the approximately $33M of sponsored research funds raised yearly by our faculty, and the array of advanced technologies acquired by our faculty to probe ever deeper into fundamental questions. Our faculty has been acknowledged for their creativity. We have Nobel Prize winners, members of the National Academy of Sciences, and HHMI Investigators among others.

      Research is but one facet of our efforts. The other central facet is teaching. In this, we seek not only to convey the wisdom of ages but also the excitement of new scientific findings. The changes in our daily lives that these discoveries are making are enormous, and the pace at which these discoveries are being made is ever increasing. This means that one of our fundamental tasks is to help students understand what lies at the forefront of knowledge, so that they can understand how best to address current and future problems. We find the daily engagement with students to be energizing, and view scientific breakthroughs to be on equal footing with those moments in which we are able to convey an idea so that a student “gets it.” We teach 22,000 undergraduates and 2,000 graduate students in our courses. We have 1,000 undergraduate majors along with 40 Masters and 200 PhD students, and we train more than 100 Postdoctoral Researchers.

      The Department recognizes that science is carried out in a societal context, and values diversity, equity, and inclusion among its faculty, researchers, and students. Indeed, our faculty is one of the most diverse among Chemistry departments. However, we recognize much work remains to be done and we continue to work towards increasing diversity throughout the Department.

      I hope you will take some time to look around and learn about the superb research and teaching going on in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

Partho Ghosh, Chair