UCLA

Chem 248 Organic Chemistry Student Seminar: Lorena Yu Liao
2025-04-14 15:00 - 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Collaboratory Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall YH4222

Physical Chemistry Seminar 228: Prof. Neil Lin
2025-04-14 16:00 - 17:00 | Collaboratory Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall YH4222

CHEM 263: Seminars in Chemical Biology - Prof. Benita Sjogren
2025-04-15 16:00 - 17:00 | Collaboratory Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall YH4222

Jeffrey I. Zink Inorganic Chemistry Seminar Series – Prof. Marcel Schreier
2025-04-16 16:00 - 17:00 | Collaboratory Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall YH4222

Houk-Jung Organic Colloquium (Chem 247) – Prof. Eric Nacsa
2025-04-17 16:00 - 17:00 | Collaboratory Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall YH4222
Title: New Electron-Transfer Concepts in Organic Synthesis
Abstract: The Nacsa Group uses electron transfer techniques to address challenges in organic synthesis. Our lab works in two main areas. The first uses electrochemistry to develop new approaches for dehydration reactions, such as the synthesis of amides and esters from carboxylic acids, with an emphasis on catalysis. Dehydrative transformations are workhorse operations in pharmaceutical R&D, but owing to the wasteful reagents overwhelmingly used to accomplish them, industry has long called for methods that avoid these reagents. We have identified new electrochemical strategies for the substitution of carboxylic acids that meet these demands. Our second program leverages radical-mediated migration events, usually initiated by photoinduced electron transfer, as key design elements in complexity-generating transformations. We have shown that olefin difunctionalizations underpinned by this approach can access product classes and achieve stereoselectivities that have otherwise proven challenging or impossible. More recently, we have discovered a novel and enabling methods for metal-free amination of aromatics from sulfonamides.

Dickerson Biochemistry Seminar Series – Maya Cornejo and Shervin Sadeghi Nia – Midstream Presentation
2025-04-18 15:30 - 17:00 | Collaboratory Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall YH4222

MACS Careers in Chemistry Seminar Series | Dr. Crystal Shih Byers | Curie.Bio
2025-04-18 16:00 - 17:00 | Young Hall 2033

CHEM 263: Seminars in Chemical Biology - Rebecca Jenkins
2025-04-22 16:00 - 17:00 | Collaboratory Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall YH4222

Jeffrey I. Zink Inorganic Chemistry Seminar Series – Prof. Raul Sanchez Hernandez
2025-04-23 16:00 - 17:00 | Collaboratory Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall YH4222

Houk-Jung Colloquium (Chem 247) - Prof. Marvin Parsram
2025-04-24 16:00 - 17:00 | Collaboratory Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall YH4222
Title: Anaerobic Heteroatom Transfer Reactions Promoted by Photoexcited 1,3-Dipoles
Abstract: Heteroatom units, such as carbonyls, alcohols, and amines, are prevalent motifs in many medicinally important compounds. Methods to incorporate these important functional groups at the expense of hydrocarbons rely on the use of non-commercial heteroatom transfer agents, precious transition metals, and/or costly engineered enzymes. Also, these methods often require exogenous oxidants to promote the C–heteroatom bonding event, which greatly limits substrate scope. Our laboratory focuses on the employment of economical 1,3-dipoles as versatile reagents that can serve as the hydrocarbon activator and the heteroatom atom source for the heteroatom incorporation of aliphatic systems under benign visible-light irradiation. Our contributions involve the cleavage of alkenes leading to valuable carbonyl derivatives and the direct C–H oxidation of hydrocarbons via anaerobic oxygen-atom transfer from photoexcited nitroarenes. Using photoexcited azoxys, an anaerobic nitrogen atom transfer event can occur leading to the aziridination of alkenes. Mechanistic studies reveal that the 1,3-dipoles are the sole photo-absorbing species, which leads to the formation of diradical intermediates that are responsible for heteroatom transfer events.

MACS Careers in Chemistry Seminar Series | Dr. Joyann Barber | Pfizer
2025-04-25 16:00 - 17:00 | Young Hall 2033

Chem 248 Organic Chemistry Student Seminar: Miranda Li
2025-04-28 15:00 - 16:00 | Collaboratory Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall YH4222

Physical Chemistry Seminar 228: Prof. Andrew Musser
2025-04-28 16:00 - 17:00 | Collaboratory Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall YH4222

Jeffrey I. Zink Inorganic Chemistry Seminar Series – Prof. Mu-Hyun Baik
2025-04-29 16:00 - 17:00 | Collaboratory Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall YH4222

Chem 263: Seminars in Chemical Biology - Kaitlin Hartung
2025-04-29 16:00 - 17:30 | CA

Jeffrey I. Zink Inorganic Chemistry Seminar Series – Prof. Holger Kleinke
2025-04-30 16:00 - 17:00 | Collaboratory Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall YH4222

Houk-Jung Organic Colloquium (Chem 247)-- Prof. Donna Huryn
2025-05-01 16:00 - 17:00 | Collaboratory Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall YH4222
Title: Development of Allosteric Inhibitors of VCP/ p97 to Interrogate Novel Biology and Fuel Cancer Drug Discovery
Abstract: Clinical success in targeting the protein degradation pathway using proteasome inhibitors has spurred efforts to evaluate other aspects of this system as approaches to cancer therapy. Among those, the AAA ATPase, p97/ VCP, a master regulator of protein homeostasis, has recently emerged as a promising target. While there is pre-clinical validation that inhibition of p97 will have anti-tumor effects, a number of key questions still remain about its potential as a target for therapeutic efficacy, as well as its fundamental biology. Through the auspices of the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI’s) Chemical Biology Consortium, we developed multiple series of novel, potent allosteric inhibitors of p97. We solved the first high-resolution structure of p97 bound to an inhibitor using cryo-electron microscopy, and are using our molecules to decipher the complex biology of p97 and to develop new experimental therapeutics.

Dickerson Biochemistry Seminar Series – Theodosia Bartashevitch and Erin Kim – Midstream Presentation
2025-05-02 15:30 - 17:00 | Collaboratory Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall YH4222

MACS Careers in Chemistry Seminar Series | Dr. John-Paul Cherry | Patterson + Sheridan LLP
2025-05-02 16:00 - 17:00 | Young Hall 2033

Physical Chemistry Seminar 228: Prof. Andrea Liu
2025-05-05 16:00 - 17:00 | Collaboratory Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall YH4222

Chem 263: Seminars in Chemical Biology - Jess Soule
2025-05-06 16:00 - 17:30 | Collaboratory Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall YH4222

Jeffrey I. Zink Inorganic Chemistry Seminar Series – Prof. Brandon Greene
2025-05-07 16:00 - 17:00 | Collaboratory Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall YH4222

Dickerson Biochemistry Seminar Series – Mai Abdusamad and Haley Marie De Ocampo – Midstream Presentation
2025-05-09 15:30 - 17:00 | Collaboratory Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall YH4222

Physical Chemistry Seminar 228: Prof. Songi Han
2025-05-12 16:00 - 17:00 | Collaboratory Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall YH4222

Faculty & Staff Event (Please do not schedule other department events on this day)
2025-05-13 | CA

Jeffrey I. Zink Inorganic Chemistry Seminar Series – Prof. Christopher Chang
2025-05-14 16:00 - 17:00 | Collaboratory Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall YH4222

Dickerson Biochemistry Seminar Series – Prof. Wendy Gilbert – Yale University
2025-05-16 15:30 - 17:00 | Collaboratory Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall YH4222

Physical Chemistry Seminar 228: Prof. Shenshen Wang
2025-05-19 16:00 - 17:00 | Collaboratory Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall YH4222

Chem 263: Seminars in Chemical Biology - Prof. Joseph Genereux
2025-05-20 16:00 - 17:30 | CA

Houk-Jung Organic Colloquium (Chem 247) -- Prof. Shauna Paradine
2025-05-22 16:00 - 17:00 | Collaboratory Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall YH4222
Title: Catalytic strategies for the selective construction of sp3-rich organic scaffolds
Abstract: The topological complexity of sp3-rich scaffolds imparts specific beneficial properties into organic small molecules and enables refined tuning of a molecule’s properties. However, this complexity amplifies both reactivity and selectivity challenges, making the development of versatile methods to construct and diversify these structures difficult. By combining fundamental advances in transition metal catalysis with organic synthesis, we aim to discover new reactions to solve unmet challenges in the construction of functional sp3-rich organic scaffolds. In one area, we have found that identifying “unconventional” ligand platforms for palladium catalysis leads to new reactivity and selectivity in olefin heteroannulation reactions. In another area, we have found that copper complexes can promote a range of oxidative radical addition reactions.
