Metal-organic frameworks are compounds that are set to solve some tough challenges: producing water in the desert, removing greenhouse gases from the air and storing dangerous gases more safely.
November 6, 2018
Jnana Therapeutics
Jnana Therapeutics today announced that UC Berkeley Chemistry alum Joanne Kotz, Ph.D., a company co-founder, has been named Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Kotz has served as Jnana's president since December 2017.
November 5, 2018
The College of Chemistry at UC Berkeley has retained the world’s No.1 spot in the 2019 U.S. News and World Report Education rankings as the best global university for chemistry. The U.S. News & World Report’s fifth annual Best Global University Rankings, made public last week, focuses on the publication of academic research and on reputation. This year, 1,250 universities in 75 countries were evaluated.
November 2, 2018
Now, researchers from the Department of Energy's Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), Berkeley Lab, and the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability at Technical University of Denmark (DTU Biosustain) have found a way to engineer the fatty membranes of cells. The researchers boosted the cells' ability to produce high amounts of fluid fats, so-called unsaturated lipids. This increased the membrane respiration as well as the cellular growth rate.
Paul Alivisatos, UC Berkeley's Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost and Samsung Distinguished Professor of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, has been awarded the 2018 Wilhelm Exner Medal for his pioneering research in nanoscience.
November 1, 2018
Richmond Sarpong, Professor of Chemistry and Executive Associate Dean, has been recognized with the 2019 Mukaiyama award from the Society of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan (SSOCJ) along with Professor Shunsuke of Chiba Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. The award is intended to recognize and encourage outstanding contributions to synthetic organic chemistry. Professor Sarpong will deliver an award lecture at the SSOCJ headquarters in Tokyo next year.
October 31, 2018
According to Berkeley Neuroscience News, the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute (HWNI) has announced that the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub has awarded HWNI member, and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Professor, David Schaffer with an intercampus research award to collaborate with researchers from UCSF and Stanford.
October 30, 2018
The College of Chemistry is pleased to announce the addition of Dr. Rui Wang as assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE) commencing January 2019. Dr. Wang’s lab will be housed in the Pitzer Center for Theoretical Chemistry. Martin Head-Gordon, Kenneth S. Pitzer Distinguished Professor of Chemistry commented, "As Director of the Pitzer Center, I am thrilled to see CBE further developing its research strengths in polymer and soft materials theory with the hiring of Rui Wang. All eight existing faculty members of the Center look forward to welcoming Rui to our community, and enjoying scientific interactions with him."
Life is a tornado, and I am a leaf,” Frances Arnold says. As the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering & Biochemistry at California Institute of Technology, Arnold’s schedule was already packed. Now she’s trying to figure out how to juggle her teaching responsibilities and the lectures she promised to give with writing her Nobel address, preparing for the trip to Stockholm, and tending to the massive influx of press interviews, invitations, congratulatory emails, and Twitter shout-outs that have come with winning the Nobel Prize.
UC Berkeley
The University of California announced today that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted U.S. Patent Number 10,113,167, covering unique RNA guides that, when combined with the Cas9 protein, are effective at homing in on and editing genes. These RNA/protein combinations act like precision-targeted gene-editing scissors.
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering alumna Professor Frances Arnold (Ph.D. ChemE, '85) gave the commencement speech for the College of Chemistry in the spring of 2018. Professor Arnold was announced as a 2018 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry in October, 2018. She is the Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering and Biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology.
October 26, 2018
The Laboratory Astrophysics Division (LAD) of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) is awarding its 2019 Laboratory Astrophysics Prize to Professor Lucy Ziurys (Ph.D. Chem, '84) of the University of Arizona for her outstanding contributions to rotational spectroscopy of transient molecules and radio astronomy.
The 2016 Millennium Technology Prize winner Frances Arnold won the 2018 Nobel prize in chemistry and is now the third person to have won these two prestigious prizes. Professor Arnold, who is on the faculty at the California Institute of Technology, won the Nobel prize for her career-long work in directed evolution."
October 25, 2018
Berkeley News
IGI researchers, including Bruce Conklin of UCSF and Jennifer Doudna of UC Berkeley, discuss the promise of CRIRSP-Cas9 'genome surgery.'
October 24, 2018
Robert Bergman, the Gerald E. K. Branch Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Chemistry and Professor of the Graduate School, presented the 65th lecture in honor of Gilbert Newton Lewis (Dean of the College from 1912-1941). The talk was entitled: "The Application of Physical Organic Methods to the Investigation of Organometallic Reaction Mechanisms: A Nostalgia Trip through some Organotransition Metal Chemistry of the Late 20th Century."
October 22, 2018
Each spring graduate students are invited to nominate faculty members for the Faculty Award for Outstanding Mentorship of Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs.) Typically each nomination is supported by several GSIs who have worked with the honoree. The award, sponsored by the Graduate Council’s Advisory Committee for GSI Affairs and the GSI Teaching & Resource Center, is presented as a surprise in the faculty member’s classroom, with the GSIs and other departmental faculty and staff present in the fall.
October 18, 2018
An ancient group of microbes that contains some of the smallest life forms on Earth also has the smallest CRISPR gene-editing machinery discovered to date.
October 17, 2018
The American Cancer Society will bestow its highest honor – the Medal of Honor – to five individuals on Oct. 18 in Washington DC. The Medal of Honor is awarded to distinguished individuals who have made valuable contributions in the fight against cancer. The 2018 recipients include the Honorable Joseph R. Biden Jr., for Cancer Control; Emmanuelle Charpentier, PhD, for Basic Research; Jennifer Doudna, PhD, for Basic Research; Charis Eng, MD, PhD, for Clinical Research; and Michael J. Thun MD, MS, for Cancer Control Science.
October 11, 2018
Nitash Balsara is one of a group of scientists who have received a U.S. Secretary of Energy Achievement Award in Scientific and Operational Leadership for his research work with the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research Strategic and Operations (JCESR). JCESR is a DOE project working on advancements in battery technology.
Sandia National Laboratories has named College of Chemistry alumna, Mercedes Taylor ( Ph.D., Chem, 2018) and Chen Wang its first Jill Hruby Fellows. The honorees have each been awarded a three-year postdoctoral fellowship in technical leadership, comprising national security-relevant research with an executive mentor.