News
12/14/2013
Dean's Undergraduate Awards for Excellence Recipients, 2013
It is a pleasure to announce the following students in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department as winners of the 2013 Dean's Undergraduate Award for Excellence; Adam Simon, Alexander Paradyse, Andy Nguyen, Carole Wang, Chao Gao, Ivan Kozachenko, Matthew Agee, Rebekah Dyer, Russell Lewis, and Stephan Mir. Congratulations to all for this stellar achievement.
09/12/2013
Eric Chen wins Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology Grand Prize
Eric Chen, a senior at Canyon Crest Academy and a volunteer in the lab of Prof. Rommie Amaro, won one of four grand prizes in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology. It is the nation's premier research competition for high school students. The winners join a highly selective group of just 14 individual competitors and 14 teams previously named winners of the competition. Eric won the $100,000 Grand Prize in the Individual category for his discovery of potent influenza endonuclease inhibitors, which could be used to develop anti-flu drugs.
09/11/2013
Center for Drug Discovery Innovation Established
Thomas Hermann, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Michael K Gilson, Professor and Chair in Computer-Aided Drug Design at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, will serve as the founding co-Directors of the newly-established Center for Drug Discovery Innovation. The cDDI will foster innovation by stimulating exciting new approaches to the challenges of drug discovery within an academic research environment. It will be a resource assisting UCSD faculty engaged in drug discovery projects anywhere on campus. Research outputs will include advanced computational design methods and systems pharmacology tools and databases; drug delivery platforms; pharmacogenomic insights and integration of clinical and drug-related databases; crystal structures of therapeutically relevant macromolecules; novel drug targets and assay technologies; and bioactive compounds for use as probes, development leads and candidate drugs.
09/10/2013
Dean Mark Thiemens and Chair Seth Cohen elected as AAAS Fellows
Physical Sciences Dean Mark Thiemens and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Chair Seth Cohen have been elected Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. New members will be honored during the 2014 AAAS annual meeting in Chicago February 13-17, 2014. Election as an AAAS Fellow is among the highest honors in American science. Each year the Council elects members whose efforts on behalf of the advancement of science or its applications are scientifically or socially distinguished.
09/09/2013
Prof. Kubiak wins I-APS Award in Photochemistry
Distinguished Professor Clifford P. Kubiak has won the 2013 Inter-American Photochemical Society Award in Photochemistry. It was established in 1988 to recognize outstanding contributions by members of the Society to the advancement of the photochemical and photophysical sciences, recognizing achievements made during the past ten years of the nominee's career. The award will be presented at the annual I-APS Winter Conference in Sarasota, FL, January 2-5, 2014. Previous winners include Miguel Garcia Garibay (UCLA), Peter C. Ford (UCSB), Daniel G. Nocera (MIT) and the late Nicholas J. Turro (Columbia)
09/08/2013
Prof. Figueroa's research highlighted in ACS virtual issue
Research in the lab of Prof. Joshua Figueroa has been highlighted in the first-ever virtual issue on Emerging Investigators in Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry. The virtual issue is devoted to recent developments in synthetic inorganic chemistry by 17 young (received their Ph.D. since 2004) investigators whose research is leading the field in new and exciting directions and whose work has appeared in Inorganic Chemistry, Journal of the American Chemical Society, and Organometallics. These journals encourage continued submission of such high-quality, high impact manuscripts.
09/07/2013
Anthony Rush to Receive 2013 Bruno Zimm Award
Graduate student Anthony Rush, who works in the Gianneschi lab, has been selected as the 2013 Bruno Zimm Award Recipient. The award recognizes research excellence in the field of biophysical chemistry. This prestigious award provides a prize of $1,000.
09/06/2013
Judy Kim wins 2014 Rising Star Award
The ACS Women Chemists Committee has named Judy Kim as one of the ten recipients of its 2014 Rising Star Award. It recognizes exceptional early-to-midcareer women chemists across all areas of chemistry on a national level. The awards were established in 2011 to help promote retention of women in science. Prof. Kim is a member of the UC San Diego Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
09/06/2013
UC San Diego Physical Sciences Division Dean Mark Thiemens appears on the cover of the October 29, 2013 issue of PNAS and in an article on pages <a target="_blank" href="http://www.pnas.org/content/110/44.toc">1766217667</a> as part of the Special Feature on Chemistry and Applications in Nature of Mass Independent Isotope Effects. Robina Shaheen et al. measured snow samples collected near the South Pole that contain a 25-year record of atmospheric sulfate aerosols. Stable isotopes of oxygen in the aerosols revealed that isotopic ratios in upper troposphere ozone rose in connection with El Niño events. Thiemens is a Distinguished Professor and Chancellor's Associates Chair VI in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
09/04/2013
Teresa Jackson honored for 40 years of service
Responsible for managing and maintaining the laboratory systems in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department at UC San Diego, Terri Jackson began as a work study student in 1969. Hailed as an irreplaceable scientific resource, Jackson's dedication and energy are infamous among those who work with her. Terri is probably the most hardworking, thoughtful and helpful individual I've ever met. I can't say enough good things about her, said Morgan Nunn Martinez, a graduate student in the department. The quality of my life has improved greatly from knowing her. I know everyone in our lab feels the same.
09/04/2013
Scientists Solve Mystery of Odd Patterns of Oxygen in Solar Systems Earliest Rock
Cosmochemists at the University of California, San Diego, have solved a long standing mystery in the formation of the solar system: Oxygen, the most abundant element in Earth's crust, follows a strange, anomalous pattern in the oldest, most pristine rocks, one that must result from a different chemical process than the well-understood reactions that form minerals containing oxygen on Earth. By re-creating conditions in the solar nebula, the swirl of gas that coalesced to form our star, the planets and the remnant rocky debris that circles the Sun as asteroids, the researchers demonstrated that a simple chemical reaction, governed by known physical principles, can generate silicate dust with oxygen anomalies that match those found in the oldest rocks in the solar system, they report in the early online edition of <a target="_blank" href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131024143307.htm">Science</a> October 24. Dr. Subrata Chakraborty is first author on the paper done in the Thiemens lab
09/03/2013
Professor Mike Sailor wins Chancellors Award for Excellence in Postdoctoral Scholar Mentoring
The UCSD Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Postdoctoral Scholar Mentoring has been won by Professor Mike Sailor of the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department. Sailor was chosen for the award because of his demonstrated excellence in intellectual leadership, research and mentoring. He was recognized at the 2013 Postdoctoral Scholar Appreciation Lunch September 13th and will be honored on a plaque in the Office of Postdoctoral and Visiting Scholar Affairs, as well as receiving monetary and other recognitions.
09/02/2013
Eric Chen wins Google Science Fair Grand Prize
Eric Chen, a volunteer in the lab of Prof. Rommie Amaro, won the Grand Prize in the Google Science Fair for his work accelerating development of new antiviral drugs that could save lives. Eligible students submitted science projects to a Google-designated website, competing in eleven categories. Among other prizes, he will receive a $50,000 cash scholarship and the opportunity to participate in a National Geography expedition to the Galapagos Archipelago. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/sep/27/tp-rising-star-of-science">San Diego Union Tribune</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/feature/aspiring_scientist_takes_google_science_fair_grand_prize?utm_campaign=thisweek&utm_medium=email&utm_source=tw-2013-10-03">thisweek@ucsandiego</a> <a target="_blank" href="http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nightly-news/53258736/#53258736">NBC Nightly News video link</a>
09/01/2013
Our ACS Student Chapter Receives Top Recognition from National Organization
The UC San Diego Student Chapter of the American Chemical Society has received an Outstanding Chapter Award for its 2012-2013 activities. The 2012-13 award-winning chapters will be recognized in the November/December issue of "inChemistry" magazine and at the ACS Student Chapter Award Ceremony that will be held at the 247th ACS National Meeting in Dallas, TX.
08/31/2013
Amaro receives ACS OpenEye Outstanding Junior Faculty Award in Computational Chemistry
Assistant Professor Rommie Amaro is a 2013 recipient of the ACS OpenEye Outstanding Junior Faculty Award in Computational Chemistry. The Awards are designed to assist new faculty members in gaining visibility within the COMP community. Award certificates and $1,000 prizes will be presented at the Poster session symposia at the Fall 2013 Indianapolis, Indiana ACS National Meeting. Dr. Amaro will present the poster Enabling Chemical Discovery through the Lens of a Computational Microscope.
08/30/2013
Professor Guy Bertrand to receive 2014 ACS Award in Inorganic Chemistry
Distinguished Professor Guy Bertrand of the University of California, San Diego Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has been chosen to receive the 2014 American Chemical Society Award in Inorganic Chemistry. This national award recognizes fundamental research in the field of inorganic chemistry.
08/29/2013
UC San Diego is currently recruiting for the following positions: <a target="_blank" href="https://apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/apply/JPF00413">Tenure-track faculty candidate in Biochemistry (10-621)</a> <a target="_blank" href="https://apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/apply/JPF00415">Tenure-track faculty candidate in Environmental Chemistry (10-623)</a> <a target="_blank" href="https://apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/apply/JPF00414">Tenure-track faculty candidate in Physical Chemistry (10-622)</a> <a target="_blank" href="https://apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/apply/JPF00430">Tenure-track faculty candidate in Chemical and Biochemical Research (10-633)</a> <a target="_blank" href="https://apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/apply/JPF00463">Lecturer with Potential for Security of Employment (LPSOE) Search (10-666)</a> Salary is commensurate with qualifications and based on University of California pay scale. Review of applications will commence on September 23, 2013 and continue until the position is filled. UCSD is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer with a strong institutional commitment to excellence through diversity.
08/29/2013
Chancellor to Celebrate Agreement with French Research Agency for Joint Chemistry Center
Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla and President Alain Fuchs of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), the largest governmental research agency in Europe, will meet Monday, September 9, 2013, to celebrate an agreement to create an international chemical research center on the UC San Diego campus that will aid in the development of new kinds of chemical catalysts for both industry and academe. Under the recently signed four-year agreement, UC San Diego will provide $1.5 million to establish the UCSD-CNRS Joint Research Chemistry Laboratory, a research unit in UC San Diego's Division of Physical Sciences' Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. CNRS will supplement the facility with additional funds each year, as well as pay for the salaries of French researchers working at the laboratory. The latest agreement will expand the research of Distinguished Professor Guy Bertrand, a world leader in the development of organic catalysts, who will direct the UCSD-CNRS Joint Research Chemistry Laboratory. He came to UC San Diego from UC Riverside last year after spending decades in France directing chemical research laboratories and institutes. In addition to signing the agreement with Chancellor Khosla, Fuchs and his delegation are scheduled tonight to bestow France's Legion of Honour on Bertrand. The award, which will be given at a campus ceremony before Bertrand's colleagues, is the highest national decoration in France, a distinction that recognizes eminent personalities who have contributed significantly to the development of relationships with France.
08/29/2013
The National Science Foundation will award $20 million for an innovative program of chemistry research and education on aerosols, natural and human-produced particles that are one of the most complex variables in climate. The initiative is being led by scientists in UC San Diego's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Scripps Institution of Oceanography to study prevailing mysteries about how chemistry influences climate and atmospheric processes. The program will support scientists in the Center for Aerosol Impacts on Climate and the Environment (CAICE), a recently established UC San Diego chemistry center studying the impact on climate that is providing a deeper understanding of regional drought and rainfall patterns as well as changes in global climate. The center investigates the direct effects of aerosols such as sea spray and microscopic biomatter on climate and their indirect effects as they influence cloud formation and precipitation. CAICE research could also have public health applications, providing fundamental knowledge on the abundance and location of fine particulate matter that can affect respiratory health. The center will leverage the expertise of top scientists from nine universities to determine how particles released from the ocean influence world climate.
08/28/2013
Neal Devaraj receives NSF CAREER Award to investigate the chemical origins of life
Prof. Neal Devaraj received an award of $650,000 from the National Science Foundation to investigate how small, reactive molecules may have sparked the earliest forms of life. His project, which began September 1, will develop chemical systems that create fatty-acid vesicles from non-biological molecules. These synthesized vesicles can grow and compete for resources in their environment, activities driven by catalytic reactions that are also a focus of this investigation. Knowledge gained from this work could guide future efforts to synthesize ever more lifelike forms from non-living materials. Successes, and failures, in that effort will reveal key principles governing living systems and suggest ways life on Earth might have begun, which remains a mystery. Devaraj will also work with CREATE, a UC San Diego program to help San Diego youth prepare for college and succeed once admitted. The outreach project will introduce teachers and students to supramolecular chemistry and the study of the origin of life as part of the center's STEM Initiative, which began in July. The National Science Foundation's Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program supports junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.
08/27/2013
UCSD pulls in almost $1 billion for research
The University of California San Diego pulled in almost $1 billion for research during the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2013 maintaining its standing as one of roughly a half-dozen schools nationwide able to bring in that much research money annually, according to a recent article in the San Diego Union Tribune. UC San Diego did especially well getting funds from the federal government, which provides about $40 billion each year to research schools. Almost 65 percent of the university's $985 million came from federal agencies, and the campus remains one of 10 colleges that collectively account for 20 percent of all federal research dollars.
08/21/2013
NEETs are prime suspects in breast cancer proliferation
Two proteins have been identified as prime suspects in the proliferation of breast cancer in a study by an international consortium of researchers from Rice University, the University of North Texas, Denton (UNT); the University of California, San Diego (UCSD); and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The research, which appears this week in <a target="_blank" href=http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/08/14/1313198110.abstract> the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online Early Edition,</a> may offer a path to therapies that could slow or stop tumors from developing. CTBP co-director José Onuchic, Rice's Harry C. and Olga K. Wiess Professor of Physics and Astronomy, co-authored the study with longtime research partner Patricia Jennings, Professor of Chemistry and Bbiochemistry at UCSD; Rachel Nechushtai, a professor at the Alexander Siberman Life Science Institute of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; and Ron Mittler, professor of biological sciences at UNT.
08/19/2013
Three UC San Diego Professors Win $21M from DOD to Lead Innovative Collaborations
Prof. Neal Devaraj is one of the UC San Diego faculty members who have garnered three of 15 Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative awards granted by the Department of Defense this year. The MURI program supports research by teams of investigators that encompass several traditional science and engineering disciplines to accelerate research progress. Neal Devaraj, along with UC San Diego researchers Jeff Hasty, Simpson Joseph, and Lev Tsimring and colleagues from Harvard University and University of Colorado Boulder will combine synthetic materials with biological elements in order to create hybrid artificial cells that mimic the form and function of natural cells. By replacing organizing elements of the cell with artificial constructs, they hope to gain fine control of actions within the cell, then explore the consequences of their manipulations. Devaraj believes their effort will lead to breakthroughs in understanding how to develop and control a wholly synthetic biological " chassis" capable of interfacing with engineered biological systems. In the end, their approach should lead to advanced synthetic cells, which could optimize the production of biochemicals that are useful as drugs or fuels, or that can be assembled along with biological circuits to create highly efficient sensors. <a target="_blank" href="http://physicalsciences.ucsd.edu">See the Physical Sciences Division website.</a>
08/08/2013
Mario Molina wins Presidential Medal of Freedom
Distinguished Professor Mario Molina, who is appointed jointly in the UC San Diego Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a ceremony at the White House. Now in its 50th year, it is the country's highest civilian honor. Professor Molina, is President of the Mario Molina Center for Strategic Studies in Energy and Environment. In 1995, he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Paul J. Crutzen and F. Sherwood Rowland for their work in atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone. Links to <a target="_blank" href="http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/presidential_medal_of_freedom_to_be_awarded_to_two_uc_san_diego_professors">UCSD</a> and <a target="_blank" href="http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/aug/08/molina-nobel/">the San Diego Union Tribune</a>
06/26/2013
Yitzhak Tor named Lattimer Professor
Professor Yitzhak Tor has been selected to hold the George W. and Carol A. Lattimer Campus Professorship. The professorship seeks to stimulate thought about avenues of productive scientific exploration that may result from unique fusions and collaborations. With funding that may be directed to teaching relief, graduate student, postdoctoral and other areas of support, the award provides the opportunity to work on new areas of research and serves as a catalyst to innovation and breakthrough.
06/24/2013
Kamil Godula joins our organic chemistry division in the fall of 2013. He is currently a Project Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Dr. Godula earned his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 2006.
05/29/2013
Shape-shifting Nanoparticles Flip from Sphere to Net in Response to Tumor Signal
Research led by Nathan Gianneschi (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry) in collaboration with David Hall (School of Medicine's Department of Radiology) has led to the design of tiny spherical particles that float easily through the bloodstream after injection, then assemble into a durable scaffold within diseased tissue. An enzyme produced by a specific type of tumor can trigger the transformation of the spheres into netlike structures that accumulate at the site of a cancer, the team reports in the journal<a target="_blank"href=http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.201300823/abstract> Advanced Materials</a> this week. These nanoparticles could be designed to respond to signals inherent to cancers and inflamed tissue. The spheres can also be engineered to carry drugs, or different diagnostic probes. The team is developing nanoparticles that carry an infrared dye, which would enable them to visualize tumors deeper inside the body along with other materials that can be imaged with instruments commonly available in the clinic.
05/21/2013
Kamen Prize won by Dr. Sharon Torigoe and Andro Rios
Dr. Sharon Torigoe (from the lab of Dr. James Kadonaga, Section of Molecular Biology) and Dr. Andro Rios (from the lab of Dr. Yitzhak Tor, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry) have both been chosen to receive the Kamen Prize for 2012-13. The Prize was established in 1978 by friends and family of Professor Martin D. Kamen to recognize the outstanding thesis in biochemistry defended each year at UCSD. Dr. Torigoe won for her dissertation "Identification of the Prenucleosome and Analysis of the Mechanism of ATP-dependent Chromatin assembly." Dr. Rios won for his dissertation "On the origin of the canonical nucleobases: selection pressures and hydrolytic stabilities of N-glycosyl bonds." Professor Kamen was a co-discoverer of carbon 14 while at UC Berkeley in the early 1940s. He came to UCSD in 1960 and continued important work on photosynthetic transport proteins until his retirement. He passed away in 2002. A cash prize of $1,500 will be awarded to each recipient in June, and they are invited to present the Martin D. Kamen Lecture the following academic year.
05/15/2013
Carlos Guerrero selected as 2013-14 Hellman Fellow
Assistant Professor Carlos Guerrero has been selected as a 2013-2014 Hellman Fellow. The Hellman Fellowship Program was established at UCSD in 1995 through the generosity of Chris and Warren Hellman. The program is designed to provide financial support and encouragement to young faculty in the core disciplines who show capacity for great distinction in their research and creative activities.
05/09/2013
DARPA Awards $6 Million to Develop Nanotech Therapies for Traumatic Brain Injuries
DARPA, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has awarded $6 million to a team of researchers to develop nanotechnology therapies for the treatment of traumatic brain injury and associated infections. Led by Professor Michael J. Sailor, Ph.D., of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California San Diego, the award brings together a multi-disciplinary team of renowned experts in laboratory research, translational investigation and clinical medicine, including Erkki Ruoslahti, M.D., Ph.D. of Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, Sangeeta N. Bhatia, M.D., Ph.D. of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Clark C. Chen, M.D., Ph.D. of UC San Diego School of Medicine. According to Chen, The work proposed by this multi-disciplinary team should provide new tools to mitigate the debilitating effects of penetrating brain injuries and offer our warfighters the best chance of meaningful recovery.
05/08/2013
K.C. Nicolaou elected to The Royal Society
K.C. Nicolaou, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UC San Diego, Department Chairman and Darlene Shiley Chair in Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute, and Aline W. and L.S. Skaggs Chair in Chemical Biology at the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology has been named a foreign member of the Royal Society, a fellowship of the world's most eminent scientists. Founded in 1660, it is the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence. Foreign Members are elected for life through a peer-review process on the basis of excellence in science. Professor Nicolaou's laboratory has achieved the total synthesis of many highly complex natural products. His advances have resulted in the preparation of mechanistically based novel antitumor agents such as calicheamicin and taxol, as well as antibiotics, kinase modulators, and marine toxins such as brevetoxin.
04/22/2013
Biological Activity Alters the Ability of Particles from Sea Spray to Seed Clouds
Ocean biology alters the chemical composition of sea spray in ways that influence its ability to form clouds over the ocean. That's the conclusion of a team of scientists using a new approach to study tiny atmospheric particles called aerosols that can influence climate by absorbing or reflecting sunlight and seeding clouds. Kimberly Prather, Distinguished Chair in Atmospheric Chemistry at the University of California, San Diego and Director of the Center for Aerosol Impacts on Climate and the Environment led a team of more than 30 scientists involved in a project reported in the early, online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science the week of April 22. Co-authors from UC San Diego include Timothy Bertram, Douglas Collins, Luis Cuadra-Rodriguez, Timothy Guasco, Matthew Ruppel, Olivia Ryder, Nathan Schoepp and Defeng Zhao from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Grant Deane, Dale Stokes, Lihini Aluwihare, Brian Palenik, Farooq Azam, Gregory Roberts, Lynn Russell, Craig Corriga, Michelle Kim, William Lambert, Robin Modini and Byron Evans Pedler from Scripps Institution of Oceanography; and Mario Molina, who holds a joint appointment. Additional co-authors include scientists from the University of Iowa, Colorado State University, California Institute of Technology, University of the Pacific, UC Davis, Northwestern University and Centre National de Recherches étéorologiques. The National Science Foundations Center for Chemical Innovation supports the Center for Aerosol Impacts on Climate and the Environment (CHE 1038028).
02/21/2013
Professor Emeritus Trevor McMorris passed away Tuesday, February 19th, following a long illness with Parkinsons disease. A member of the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department faculty since 1973, his research focused on the design and synthesis of analogs of natural substances, such as the antitumor agent illudin and the plant hormone brassinolide. Retired since 2001, he was known as one of the departments best teachers. A memorial will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, April 19th, in the Large Conference Room of Neural Circuits and Behavior (building 805, formerly the Center for Molecular Genetics).
02/19/2013
Five Chemistry and Biochemistry students awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowships
We proudly announce that the National Science Foundation has selected five Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry students to receive 2013 Graduate Research Fellowships: Brandon Barnett (Figueroa Lab), Steven Chabolla (joint, Kubiak and Tezcan Labs), Charles Mokhtarzahed (Figueroa Lab), Joel Rivera (Continetti Lab), and Lane Votapka (Amaro Lab). Also, the following Chemistry and Biochemistry graduate students received honorable mentions: Derek Rhoades (Nicolaou Lab), Mark Reineke (Kubiak Lab), Jessica Peters (Toor Lab), Lewis Churchfield (Tezcan Lab), and Andrea Carlini (Gianneschi Lab).
02/18/2013
Ten thousand students taught by Professor Charles Perrin
Distinguished Professor Charles Perrin, now entering his 50th year teaching organic chemistry at UC San Diego, has taught approximately 10,000 students. Organic chemistry is the study of carbon, which is essential to all living organisms. Modern health science could not exist without this field. Required for entry to a good medical school, o-chem is widely believed to be one of the most difficult courses on campus. Yet Perrin continues to be one of the most popular teachers with a long history of excellent evaluations.
02/17/2013
Centenary Award won by Susan Taylor
Distinguished Professor Susan S. Taylor, who holds appointments in the Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry and of Pharmacology at UC San Diego and is an HHMI Investigator, is to be awarded the Biochemical Society's Centenary Award for 2014. The Centenary Award is given annually to a biochemist of distinction from any part of the world. The award was introduced in 2011 to replace the Society's Jubilee Lecture. The winner of the award presents the Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins Memorial Lecture, which will be published in Biochemical Society Transactions. The Lecturer will receive an honorarium of £3000 and a medal.
02/16/2013
Aerosols influence intercontinental rainfall
The rain and snow that fall in the Sierra Nevada get their initial spur half a world away, according to a team of researchers led by UC San Diego climate scientists. UC San Diego Distinguished Chair in Atmospheric Chemistry Kimberly Prather and colleagues analyzed aerosols - bits of dust, biomatter and pollution that fell to Earth during winter rainstorms in the Sierra Nevada. They found that the particles were part of a melange of aerosols kicked up from deserts as far away as North Africa two weeks earlier. The CalWater field campaign, funded by the California Energy Commission and led by the UC San Diego Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and NOAA, could help western states better understand the future of such resources as climate change influences how much and how often dust travels around the world.The scientists also concluded that the aerosols serve to seed clouds and spur the precipitation that California counts on for its water supply and hydropower. Jessie Creamean, a postdoctoral associate at NOAAs Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo., co-authored the paper appearing in the journal Science with Kaitlyn Suski, a graduate student advised by Prather.In addition to Creamean, Suski, and Prather, study coauthors include Daniel Rosenfeld of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Alberto Cazorla of UC San Diego, Paul DeMott of Colorado State University, Ryan Sullivan of Carnegie Mellon University, Allen White, F. Martin Ralph of NOAA, Patrick Minnis of NASAs Langley Research Center, and Jennifer Comstock and Jason Tomlinson of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash.
02/15/2013
Climate Clues Dug From South Pole Snow Pit
Particles from the upper atmosphere trapped in a deep pile of Antarctic snow hold clear chemical traces of global meteorological events, a team from the University of California, San Diego and a colleague from France have found. Anomalies in oxygen found in sulfate particles coincide with several episodes of the world-wide disruption of weather known as El Niño and can be distinguished from similar signals left by the eruption of huge volcanoes, the team reports in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published the week of February 25. "Our ability to link of reliable chemical signatures to well-known events will make it possible to reconstruct similar short-term fluctuations in atmospheric conditions from the paleohistory preserved in polar ice, " said Mark Thiemens, Dean of the Division of Physical Sciences and Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, who directed the research and dug up much of the snow. Thiemens, graduate student Justin McCabe and colleague Joel Savarino of Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l'Environnment in Grenoble, France, excavated a pit 6 meters deep in the snow near the South Pole, with shovels. Additional authors include Mariana Abauanza and Teresa Jackson, both members of Thiemens' research group at UC San Diego. The National Science Foundation funded the work through the Atmospheric Chemistry Program and Office of Polar Programs. The collaboration between Savarino and the UC San Diego researchers was made possible by grants from Agence Nationale de la Recherche and the Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique exchange program.
02/14/2013
Faculty positions for Kerri Pratt and Andy Ault
The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UC San Diego is proud to announce that Kerri Pratt and Andy Ault of the Prather Group have accepted faculty positions at the University of Michigan. Congratulations Andy and Kerri!
02/13/2013
The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry is proud to announce that Distinguished Professor Charles Perrin is beginning his 50th year of teaching at UCSD. Among the honors received over his exceptional career or are election as a Fellow of the American Associate for the advancement of Science (1984) "For contributions to physical-organic chemistry and elucidation of mechanisms of aromatic substitution" and UCSD's Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award (1994).
02/12/2013
Computational identification of a transiently open L1/S3 pocket for reactivation of mutant p53
Scientists in the lab of Rommie Amaro, Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UC San Diego, along with collaborators at UC Irvine, have used computational methods to identify a transiently open binding pocket in the p53 core domain. Reactivation of mutant p53 by small molecules is an exciting potential cancer therapy. Although several compounds restore wild-type function to mutant p53, their binding sites and mechanisms of action are elusive. This work rationalizes, for the first time, known p53 reactivation compounds and exploits this new pocket to find novel compounds that restore p53 function in mammalian cell assays. The results indicate a general strategy wherein the new "L1/S3 pocket" as a target for pharmaceutical reactivation of p53 mutants. The tumor suppressor p53 is the most frequently mutated gene in human cancer.
02/11/2013
Partho Ghosh elected Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology
Professor Partho Ghosh of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego has been elected to Fellowship in the <a target="_blank" href=http://academy.asm.org/>American Academy of Microbiology</a>. The Academy is the honorific leadership group within the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), the world's oldest and largest life science organization. The mission of the Academy is to recognize scientists for outstanding contributions to microbiology and provide microbiological expertise in the service of science and the public. Newly elected Fellows will be recognized at the Academy Fellows Luncheon at the 113th ASM General Meeting in Denver this May.
01/30/2013
Urey Hall Chemists Reveal History of Two Mysterious Space Rocks
Two unusual space rocks that survived their fiery falls through Earth's atmosphere have ended up in the Urey Hall chemistry laboratory of Distinguished Professor Mark Thiemens, Dean of the Physical Sciences Division at UCSD. Thiemens' group identified one as a new class of Martian meteorite that likely originated from the Red Planet's crust. The 2.1-billion-year-old rock, which was presumably blasted off Mars into space when an asteroid hit the planet, landed in Northwest Africa and is one of 110 known meteorites from Mars. Thiemens and UC San Diego chemists Morgan Nunn and Robina Shaheen were part of a team of scientists from the University of New Mexico and the Carnegie Institution of Washington that analyzed the meteorite and discovered its unusual properties. The team reported this month in the journal Science that the meteorite has ten times more water than any other Martian meteorite and a chemical composition that suggests it was formed from rapidly cooled lava a common characteristic of many types of lunar and terrestrial rock samples, but not of any other known Martian meteorites. The scientists said its unusual composition of cemented fragments of basalt dominated with feldspar and pyroxene suggests it came from the Martian crust. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2013/01/02/science.1228858.full.pdf?sid=0b8c6c01-ba75-4dd0-80f0-5dc2147ef094">Science</a>