College of Chemistry

How is directed evolution changing the world?

October 30, 2018

How Frances Arnold changed the world

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.

Patent awarded for DNA-targeting complex at heart of CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing

October 30, 2018

CRISPR-CAS9 patent awarded to UC Berkeley and Jennifer DoudnaThe 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.

Alumna Lucy Ziurys wins the 2019 Laboratory Astrophysics Prize

October 26, 2018

Alumna Lucy Ziurys receives the 2019 Laboratory Astrophysics Prize

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.

CBE Professor Nitash Balsara is recognized for his research by the Secretary of Energy

October 11, 2018

Professor Nitash Balsara receives award 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 Labs names alumna Mercedes Taylor one of the first Jill Hruby Fellows

October 11, 2018

Berkeley alumna Mercedes TaylorSandia 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.

Asst Professor Ke Xu recipient of high-risk, high-reward research grants from the NIH

October 10, 2018

Asst Professor Ke Xu recipient of high-risk, high-reward research grants from the NIH

Assistant professors Ke Xu of chemistry and Denis Titov of molecular and cell biology — were among 89 recipients of “high-risk, high-reward” grants announced last week by the National Institutes of Health.

Harvesting solar fuels through a bacterium’s unusual appetite for gold

October 5, 2018

CRISPR/Cas12a system. Photo courtesy C&EN, Illusciences.

M. thermoacetica first made its debut as the first non-photosensitive bacterium to carry out artificial photosynthesis in a study led by Peidong Yang, a professor in UC Berkeley’s College of Chemistry. By attaching light-absorbing nanoparticles made of cadmium sulfide (CdS) to the bacterial membrane exterior, the researchers turned M. thermoacetica into a tiny photosynthesis machine, converting sunlight and carbon dioxide into useful chemicals.

Professor Jennifer Doudna speaks at UH Hilo about her CRISPR discovery

September 22, 2018

Jennifer Doudna gives lecture in Hilo, Hawaii.

Professor Jennifer Doudna ( seen here with (left) UH Hilo Interim Chancelor Marcia Sakai and (right) UH Hilo Chancelor Emerita Rose Tseng presented the inaugural UH Hilo Rose and Raymond Tseng Distinguished Lecture. view video here

John Hartwig awarded 2018 Tetrahedron Prize for Creativity in Organic Chemistry

September 27, 2018

image: John Hartwig and Stephen BuchwaldJohn Hartwig and Stephen Buchwald

Elsevier and the Board of Executive Editors of Elsevier’s Tetrahedron journal series have announced that the 2018 Tetrahedron Prize for Creativity in Organic Chemistry has been awarded to Professors Stephen L....

Atom Computing receives VC funding to create a radical new paradigm in quantum computing

September 27, 2018

JAtom Computers acquires VC funding for development

The promise of Quantum Computers will unlock a new dimension of computing capabilities that are not possible today with classical computers, regardless of the size, compute power, or parallelization.