College of Chemistry

Photosynthesis, Key to Life on Earth, Starts with a Single Photon

June 16, 2023
by Aliyah Kovner | Berkeley Lab

Illustration of photon activating photosynthesis

Illustration: Jenny Nuss/Berkeley Lab

Using a complex cast of metal-studded pigments, proteins, enzymes, and co-enzymes, photosynthetic organisms can convert the energy in light into the chemical energy for life. And now, thanks to a study published in Nature...

Microbes provide sustainable hydrocarbons for petrochemical industry

January 7, 2022
By Robert Sanders | UC Berkeley media relations

Illustration of a bio-petroleum process

Researchers from UC Berkeley and the NSF Center for Sustainable Polymers have developed a chemical technology that combines fermentation and chemical refining (center panels) to produce petroleum-like liquids (right) from renewable plants (left). (Image by John Beumer, courtesy of NSF Center for Sustainable Polymers)

If the petrochemical industry is ever to wean...

College of Chemistry breaks ground on new state-of-the-art building – Heathcock Hall

May 6, 2024
College of Chemistry Press Release
The College of Chemistry celebrated the groundbreaking of its new research and teaching facility, Heathcock Hall, on Thursday, May 2.

Targeting tryptophan: New technique opens door to novel drug synthesis

March 28, 2024
Bob Sanders | UC Berkeley
Chemists have devised a novel method to selectively tag tryptophan residues within proteins, potentially leading to the development of new types of drugs and engineered proteins.

Markita Landry receives 2018 DARPA Young Faculty Award

July 18, 2018
Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Markita Landry has been awarded a prestigious two-year Department Of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Young Faculty Award for her project Brain Chemical Signaling: A New Input Signal for Brain-Computer Interfaces.

Molecular Sciences Software Institute launches open-source data sharing project for COVID-19

May 26, 2020
Virginia Tech Press release
The Molecular Sciences Software Institute has launched an open-source website that will allow biomolecular scientists from around the world to share computer-aided drug-testing simulations targeting the protein at the center of COVID-19.

New AI Speeds Discovery in Synthetic Biology

October 8, 2020
Cami Rosso | Psychology Today
Synthetic biology, like artificial intelligence (AI) machine learning, is a relatively modern field that applies emerging technologies to achieve innovation. Now scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) in California have merged the two fields by creating a machine learning algorithm for synthetic biology called ART (Automated Recommendation Tool),

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Surprisingly simple explanation for alien comet ‘Oumuamua’s weird orbit

March 29, 2023
By Robert Sanders | UC Berkeley media relations

An artist’s depiction of the interstellar comet ‘Oumuamua

An artist’s depiction of the interstellar comet ‘Oumuamua, as it warmed up in its approach to the sun and outgassed hydrogen (white mist), which slightly altered its orbit. The comet, which is most likely pancake-shaped, is the first known object other than dust grains to visit our solar...

College History

COLLEGE HISTORY 150th Anniversary Celebration Video

For our 150th Anniversary, check out our video below as we celebrate the past, present, and future of UC Berkeley's College of Chemistry: