UCLA

2020 Summer Seminar Series: Research Spotlight Edition
2020-09-11 15:30 (America/Los_Angeles)
“Unraveling the complexity of Coenzyme Q Biosynthesis and Trafficking” by Michael Guile (C. Clarke lab)
and
“CryoEM structure of amyloid disaggregant EGCG bound to Alzheimer’s brain-derived fibrils of tau” by Paul Seidler, PhD (Eisenberg lab)
and
“Structure of the Fiber Core of Orb2A, A Functional Amyloid, Revealed by Micro-electron Diffraction” by Jeanette Bowler (Eisenberg lab)
and
“Microbial proteomics: Relating metabolism and protein modification” by Janine Fu (Loo lab)

Dissertation Seminar: Scott McConnell
2020-09-04 13:00

Chem 278 Kaner Research Group Seminar
2020-07-15 16:30
Stephanie Aguilar, PhD candidate
“Perfluorophenylazide Photochemistry for Modification of Materials”

2020 Virtual Graduation Celebration - Bachelor's of Science Degree Candidates
2020-06-13 14:00
The Departmental 2020 Virtual Graduation Celebration for our 299 bachelor’s of science degree candidates can be viewed here no later than Saturday, June 13, 2020 at 2:00 pm Pacific Time. The virtual celebration will not be “live,” so the content can be accessed at anytime.
https://virtualgrad.marchingorder.com/ucla/x
The College of Letters & Sciences Live Virtual Commencement
Additionally, the College of Letters & Sciences will be hosting a live virtual event on Friday, June 12, 2020 at 3:00PM Pacific Time (Info Here).
As a means to properly honor our students at a Departmental Commencement Ceremony, we have elected to offer a full in-person graduation ceremony for our students at a date to be determined.
Our hope is that the ceremony will take place in the 2020 calendar year if the current pandemic allows. However, attendance at our 2021 Departmental Commencement Ceremony will also be an option available to our students.
When possible, we will provide further details regarding the in-person celebration.

2020 Virtual Graduation Celebration - Ph.D. and Masters Degree Candidates
2020-06-13 12:00
The Departmental 2020 Virtual Graduation Celebration for our 30 graduating Ph.D. degree candidates and two master of science candidates can be viewed here no later than Saturday, June 13, 2020 at 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time. The virtual celebration will not be “live,” so it can be accessed at anytime.
As a means to properly honor the Class of 2020 at a Departmental Commencement Ceremony, we have elected to offer a full in-person graduation ceremony for our students at a date to be determined.
Our hope is that the ceremony will take place in the 2020 calendar year if the current pandemic allows. However, attendance at our 2021 Departmental Commencement Ceremony will also be an option available to our students.
When possible, we will provide further details regarding the in-person celebration.
The College of Letters & Sciences Live Virtual Commencement – June 12, 2020 – Livestreaming at 3 pm PDTThe UCLA College’s Virtual Celebration for students graduating from all academic programs in the UCLA College of Letters and Science will be livestreamed on Friday, June 12, 2020 at https://college.ucla.edu/commencement. Viewers need only a web browser and Internet access to attend. There is no registration necessary. The celebration will include individual slides that recognize each graduating student, congratulatory messages from elected leaders and the President of the University of California, and links to the College’s social media accounts where we will be celebrating our graduates with the hashtags #UCLACollege2020 and #UCLA2020. After the initial airing, the College’s Virtual Celebration will be available on the website for repeat viewing. Separate links will be available for Spanish and Chinese language versions of the celebration.

UCLA College’s Virtual Celebration
2020-06-12 15:00
Graduating members of the College’s Class of 2020 as well as family members and friends will be able to view the livestreamed airing of UCLA College’s Virtual Celebration by going to https://college.ucla.edu/commencement at 3:00pm PDT on Friday, June 12, 2020. Viewers need only a web browser and Internet access to attend. There is no registration necessary.
Anyone in the general public who visits the site also will be able to view the College’s main celebration livestreamed on June 12 at 3 pm PDT. After the initial airing, the College’s Virtual Celebration will be available on the website for repeat viewing. Separate links will be available for both the Spanish language version of the celebration, as well as the Chinese version of the celebration.
Beginning June 12, 2020, graduates and their families may visit https://college.ucla.edu/commencement at any time to find the individual slides that recognize each graduating student, view congratulatory messages from elected leaders and the President of the University of California, and find links to the College’s social media accounts where we will be celebrating our graduates with the hashtags #UCLACollege2020 and #UCLA2020.
This Virtual Celebration is for students graduating from all academic programs in the UCLA College of Letters and Science. To find more information about a particular professional school or academic department celebration, please visit https://www.commencement.ucla.edu/ for links and information about other virtual celebrations happening across campus.

The 2020 Organic Graduate Symposium
2020-06-12 08:45
On Friday, June 12, the 2020 Organic Graduate Symposium featured research talks by fifteen of this year’s UCLA chemistry graduate students. The Organic Graduate Symposium is a daylong event that provides a forum for organic chemistry graduate students who are within one year of obtaining their Ph.D. to present their dissertation research at UCLA to their peers, researchers, and faculty. The Organic Graduate Symposium is open to the UCLA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry affiliates and their families.

Chem 218: Understanding the Effect of Composition and Nanostructure on Magnetic and Magnetoelectric Materials - Ty Karaba
2020-06-11 12:00
Understanding the Effect of Composition and Nanostructure on Magnetic and Magnetoelectric Materials
Abstract: The efficient control of magnetism at small scales is becoming increasingly important in the miniaturization and development of new technologies. However, conventional methods for this control become less efficient at smaller scales. Multiferroic composites are systems in which magnetization can be varied with electric field without the flow of current. This allows for more efficient existing devices, and opens up new types of technologies not possible without multiferroics. I will first discuss the development of new materials for the magnetostrictive component of these composites, optimizing for use in a multiferroic antenna. Using sol-gel chemistry, we explore how material composition and film quality can affect the magnetic properties of yttrium iron garnet based materials, with a goal of reducing high frequency losses and increasing magnetostriction. We look at how doping heavier transition metal and lanthanide ions into yttrium iron garnet affects the static and dynamic magnetic properties using magnetometry and ferromagnetic resonance. Second, I will investigate how the nanoscale structure of the multiferroic composite affects the magnetoelectric coupling. Here, we synthesize a mesoporous cobalt ferrite matrix, the magnetostrictive component, the surface of which is then conformally coated with a piezoelectric via atomic layer deposition. We then control the amount of residual porosity of the composite by varying the thickness of piezoelectric deposited. We find that the amount of magnetoelectric coupling is enhanced with larger residual porosities, with this porosity allowing for larger strains. We also see that the changing the ferroelectric material can greatly enhance this coupling. In summary, understanding how composition and structure affect the properties of these composites is crucially important when designing new multiferroic devices.

Chem 268: Amy and Edward Miracco
2020-06-05 15:30
Dr. Amy Miracco: “A 360-degree perspective of academic-industry partnerships”
and
Dr. Ed Miracco: “Breaking into Biotech -and- What if mRNA could be medicine?”

Chem 218: Lipid and Acoustic Strategies for Chemical Patterning and Gene Delivery - Jason Belling
2020-06-04 12:00
Lipid and Acoustic Strategies for Chemical Patterning and Gene Delivery
Supported lipid membranes are versatile biomimetic coatings for the chemical functionalization of inorganic surfaces. Developing simple and effective fabrication strategies to form supported lipid membranes with micropatterned geometries is a long-standing challenge. We demonstrate how the combination of chemical lift-off lithography (CLL) and easily prepared lipid bicelle nanostructures can yield micropatterned, supported lipid membranes on gold surfaces with high pattern resolution, conformal character, and biofunctionality. We further showed that bicelles can be used as a passivation strategy to reduce fouling in microfluidics designed for intracellular delivery. Of note, constricted microfluidic geometries that deform cells to a fraction of their diameter have emerged as a promising technology that facilitates high-performance gene editing. Unfortunately, these technologies are inherently limited by device lifetime due to the accumulation of cellular debris and eventual clogging. As these microfluidic technologies transition from conceptual prototypes to functional tools, there is a need to develop next-generation platforms with high-throughput and long lifespan. Towards this goal, we report the design and application of lipid-coated microfluidic and acoustofluidic platforms that are able to deliver plasmid rapidly and safely to model and human primary cell types. Our lipid-coated microfluidic system demonstrated a dramatic reduction in fouling, with blocking efficiency towards nonspecific protein adsorption and cell adhesion as compared to bare polydimethylsiloxane and glass microfluidic devices. We explored the application of our lipid layer by coating constricted microfluidic channels designed for the intracellular delivery of biomolecular cargo. We observed significant reductions in the accumulation of cell debris and delivery of large dextran molecules and plasmid while retaining high viability. In parallel, we developed an acoustofluidic method to deliver plasmids to immortalized and primary human cell types, based on the permeabilization of cell membranes with acoustic waves and shearing against the walls of glass microcapillaries. This acoustofluidic-mediated approach achieves fast and efficient intracellular delivery of an enhanced green fluorescent protein–expressing plasmid to cells at a scalable throughput of 200,000 cells/min in a single channel. Analyses of intracellular delivery and nuclear membrane rupture revealed mechanisms underlying acoustofluidic delivery and successful gene expression. Collectively, our studies show that these technologies are promising platforms for gene delivery and useful tools for investigating membrane repair.

Chem 268: Jeffery Liu
2020-05-29 15:30
“Phosphoproteomics Reveals Spatial and Temporal Signal Transduction by Brain Opioid Receptor”

Chem 218: Nanoscale vibrational spectroscopy of gold-cyanide self-assemblies: From monolayers to crystallites - Kristopher Barr
2020-05-28 12:00
Nanoscale vibrational spectroscopy of gold-cyanide self-assemblies: From monolayers to crystallites
My thesis work focuses on the integration of scanning tunneling microscopy with infrared spectroscopy, to provide unprecedented Ångstrom-scale resolution in surface imaging with spatially correlated chemical specificity. Scanning probe techniques generally lack chemical information. Inspired by recent advances coupling optical spectroscopies with scanning probe microscopies, I have developed a nanoscale infrared spectroscopic method applying scanning tunneling microscope probe tips as nanoantennas to obtain multiplexed molecular vibrational signals utilizing a Fourier transform interferometer at room temperature and ambient pressure. The sensitivity of the tunneling junction and nanoscale probe area enables the measurement of vibrational spectra orders of magnitude below the diffraction limit. I substantiated the effectiveness of this instrument by designing an air- and temperature-stable model system characterized by infrared absorption that couples to the electronic states of the gold substrate. Specifically, aurous cyanide (AuCN) self-assembled monolayers satisfy these requirements with the added benefit that its IR absorption lies outside of the carbon dioxide and water windows, thereby maintaining a high signal-to-noise ratio for these experiments. These atomically pristine hexagonal close-packed AuCN monolayers exhibit a strong absorption at 2140 cm−1. Upon thermal annealing, the surface rearranges into a ribbon structure with a blue-shifted absorption to 2230 cm−1. The unique vibrational contrast in AuCN monolayers resulting from thermally induced structural changes serves as an ideal model system for the new infrared scanning tunneling microscope (IR-STM). Upon prolonged vapor deposition, the self-assembled cyanide monolayers reconfigure into large-scale AuCN crystals, giving two distinct morphologies and significantly different vibrational modes, compared to the AuCN monolayer structures. Once again, temperature can tune gold-cyanide orientation and long-range ordering. This work provides new insights for controlled surface-mediated crystal growth in AuCN systems. Ultimately, combining with the chemical information gained from the developed IR-STM, surface-mediated growth will enable new methodologies for fabricating next-generation nanoscale semiconductors. Nanoscale semiconductors based on AuCN that are similar to nanoribbon structures have been demonstrated to be useful for nanoelectronics as well as in catalytic applications.

Chem 268: Shiho Tanaka
2020-05-22 15:30
“Power of Biophysical Analyses in Drug Discovery”

Chem 268: Kate Liu
2020-05-15 15:30
“Mass Spectrometry in Quantitative Proteomics and Biopharmaceutical Characterization”

Chem 268: Kat Ellis-Guardiola
2020-05-08 15:30
“Probing Mechanisms of Bacterial Heme Acquisition from Hemoglobin”

Chem 268: Eric J. Deeds
2020-05-01 15:30
“Robustness and kinetic trapping in proteasome assembly”

2019 Seaborg Symposium & Medal Award Dinner
2019-11-23 13:00
“The Nanotechnology Revolution”
On Saturday, November 23, 2019,

the UCLA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistrywill award the 2019 Glenn T. Seaborg Medal to

Dr. Paul Alivisatos
Professor of Chemistry and Materials Science & Engineering,
University of California, Berkeley
Poster Session – UCLA CNSI Lobby – 12:00 to 1:00 pm
Symposium – UCLA CNSI Auditorium – 1:00 to 5:30 pm
Reception & Medal Award Dinner – UCLA Covel Commons

Grand Horizon Ballroom – 6:00 to 9:00 pm
Please visit www.seaborg.ucla.edu for more information.
Questions? Contact Marla Gonzalez, marla@chem.ucla.edu, (310) 825-7071.

2019 Seaborg Industrial Lecture Symposium
2019-04-27 12:00
2019 Seaborg Industrial Lecture Symposium
Sponsored by Alpha Chi Sigma

UCLA’s Alpha Chi Sigma Undergraduate Student Chapter is expanding the annual Junior Seaborg Award Banquet to include the inaugural 2019 SEABORG INDUSTRIAL LECTURE SYMPOSIUM on Saturday, April 27, 2019. The Symposium’s objective is to raise UCLA’s profile among recruiting chemical companies and is open to anyone who is interested in learning more from researchers working in the industry.
Dr. Sean M. Smith
3M Company
Fluoromaterials Development at 3M
Sean Smith received his B.A. from Simpson College, a small liberal arts school in Indianola, IA, before obtaining his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Nebraska under the advisement of Professor James Takacs. He then moved to Cambridge, MA and worked under the direction of Professor Stephen Buchwald at MIT as a Postdoctoral Associate. In 2014, Sean accepted a position in the Corporate Research Laboratories at 3M Corporate Headquarters in Saint Paul, Minnesota where his research has primarily focused on the development of sustainable fluoromaterials technologies such as high performance heat transfer fluids, fluoropolymers, and additives.
Dr. Mari Rosen
The Dow Chemical Company
Chromium Catalysts with Phospholane Ligands for Ethylene Tetramerization
Mari Rosen is currently a chemist at Dow in the Chemical Science group in Core R&D. Her research at Dow is in the area of organometallic chemistry and homogeneous catalysis, with a focus on new catalyst development for industrial processes. Mari received her Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from Northwestern University with Chad Mirkin and she received a B.A. in Chemistry and Russian from Amherst College.
Dr. Staci Wegener
BASF Corporation
Introduction to Polyurethane – The Versatile Polymer
Staci Wegener received a B.S. in Chemistry from Saginaw Valley State University and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University where she studied supported vanadium oxide catalysts under the direction of Tobin Marks and Peter Stair. She joined BASF in 2012 and has held various positions in R&D, business development, and marketing. Staci currently the Infrastructure Market Segment Manager in the Performance Materials unit at BASF.

2018 Seaborg Symposium & Medal Award Dinner
2018-11-10 12:00
The UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
is pleased to announce that
The 2018 Glenn T. Seaborg Medalwill be awarded to
Professor Emeritus Robert Glaeser
Professor Robert GlaeserUniversity of California, Berkeley
and
Professor Richard HendersonNobel Laureate Chemistry 2017MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge
Please visit www.seaborg.ucla.edu for more information.
Questions? Please contact Penny Jennings, penny@chem.ucla.edu, 310-825-9809.

2017 Seaborg Symposium, Poster Session & Medal Dinner
2017-11-18 12:00
“Viruses, from Self-Assembly to Vaccines”
On Saturday, November 18, 2017,
the UCLA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
will award the 2017 Glenn T. Seaborg Medal to
Professor William Gelbart
UCLA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Poster Session – UCLA CNSI Lobby – 12:00 to 1:00 pm
Symposium – UCLA CNSI Auditorium – 1:00 to 5:45 pm
Reception & Dinner – UCLA Covel Commons
Grand Horizon Ballroom – 6:30 to 9:30 pm
To learn more visit www.seaborg.ucla.edu.
Questions? Contact Penny Jennings, penny@chem.ucla.edu, 310-825-9809.

UCLA Student Organization for Cultural Diversity in Science Lectureship
2017-10-19 17:00

UCLA Student Organization for Cultural Diversity in Science Lectureship
2017-02-23 17:00
Procter&Gamble
UCLA Student Organization for Cultural Diversity in Science Lectureship Series
“The Catalytic, Formal Homo-Nazarov Cyclization as a Promising Template for Diversity-Oriented Synthesis”
Abstract. A critical challenge in the field of organic synthesis is assembling large collections of diverse compounds for use as chemical building blocks, biological probes, therapeutics or organic materials. Toward this end, the catalytic, formal homo-Nazarov cyclization, an intramolecular ring-opening cyclization strategy, represents a promising template for accessing chemical diversity. Herein, several derivations of these cyclization strategies to distinct molecular skeletons will be discussed. These strategies will highlight chemical modularity and versatility along a “mix-and-match” approach to access broader chemical space. Finally, specific applications of the methods toward the synthesis of biologically-relevant molecules and natural products will be showcased.

2016 Seaborg Medal Award Dinner
2016-11-12 18:30
The UCLA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
will award the 2016 Glenn T. Seaborg Medal to
Professor Michael E. Jung

UCLA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Seaborg Medal Award Dinner Banquet
on Saturday, November 12, 2016
6:30 to 7:30 p.m. – Reception – Luskin Center Centennial Terrace
7:30 to 8:30 p.m. – Dinner – Luskin Center Centennial Ballroom
8:30 p.m. to 9:15 p.m. – Award CeremonyStudent Poster Session AwardsSeaborg Medal PresentationAcceptance Remarks
Registration is required. Click here to register.
Visit www.seaborg.ucla.edu for more information.

Computational Investigations of Organic Reactions on Graphene, Fullerenes and Carbon Nanotubes
2014-08-21 12:00
Abstract: In the past thirty years, carbon-based nanomaterials, including fullerenes, carbon nanotubes and graphene, have spurred great interest due to their unique physical and chemical properties. Fullerenes and carbon nanotubes have been well studied, while studies of graphene, a relatively new material, are less advanced. A variety of chemical modification strategies have been successfully established on fullerenes and carbon nanotubes, and important functional changes have been demonstrated. Some attempts have been made to transfer these chemical modifications onto more inert graphene, yet very few give satisfactory results. I will describe density functional theory calculations to study one of the functionalization approaches, cycloaddition reactions, on carbon allotropes, especially graphene. Ideally graphene is composed solely of sp2 carbons in extended conjugation. These extended π systems can function either as 2π or 4π components in cycloaddition reactions. We have explored 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions, Diels-Alder reactions, (2+2) cycloadditions, (4+4) cycloadditions and (1+2) cycloadditions on a series of graphene models. We also assessed non-covalent interactions of aromatics and small π system with graphene. Our work provides clear predictions of the energetics of the adduct formation on different sites of graphene, increasing understanding of graphene chemistry and guiding experiments carried out by collaborators.

Special Organic Seminar: "Challenges in Regiocontrol of Benzyne Reactions"
2014-08-18 15:00
Special Organic Seminar
“Challenges in Regiocontrol of Benzyne Reactions”
Abstract. Benzyne (= ortho-Benzyne) is one of the most important reactive intermediates bearing a triple bond in a benzene ring. Numerous benzyne reactions have been developed during the last three decades while a mild benzyne generation using a fluoride ion has been recognized as an extraordinary useful method. However, it is also true that chemists have suffered from low regioselectivities of unsymmetrically substituted benzynes. Therefore, specific directing groups that have a strong effect on controlling the orientation of the cycloaddition reactions and also can be converted into any other substituents after the cycloaddition have been long desired. In this seminar, I would like to present some of our recent work on regioselectivity control of benzyne reactions using substituent effect of silyl and boryl groups. The origin of regiochemistry would be theoretically explained by DFT (density functional theory) calculation at the B3LYP/6-31G(d) level and NBO (Natural Bond Orbital) analysis.

Evolution of Novel Components of the Bacterial Flagellar Motor
2014-07-24 11:00

Celebration of the 100th Birthday of Saul Winstein
2012-10-06 10:00
The celebration goes on all day at CNSI, 10am to 5 pm, followed by a reception and banquet at the UCLA Faculty Center, 5 pm to 10 pm.

2012 Chemistry & Biochemistry Graduation Ceremony
2012-06-16 17:00

Exploring Substrate Specificity in Sortase Enzymes
2012-05-18 15:30
Biochemistry Midstream Graduate Seminar

Manipulating Photochemical Processes Through Confinement and Weak Interactions
2012-05-17 17:00
Refreshments to be served at 4:30 pm
