Chemical Biology

Many groups throughout the department conduct research at the interface of Chemistry and Biology. These researchers identify problems in proteomics, genomics, metabolomics, systems biology, medicine and the brain and utilize small molecules, polymers, and computation to help solve them. Problems can be fundamental in nature or applied.

Students in this tract are educated across disciplines enabling them to be maximally effective. They learn to use chemical tools to solve biology, or biology and medicine to inform and apply chemical research.

At UCLA this research is highly collaborative between groups. It also takes advantage of strong collaborations with the David Geffen School of Medicine and in Life Sciences.

Professor Anne M. Andrews

Professor Anne Andrews’s Lab seeks to understand how neurotransmitters, particularly serotonin, encode information related to anxiety, mood, and stress responsiveness. Nanoscale aptamer-field-effect transistor sensors, microelectrode voltammetry, and microdialysis methods are developed to probe neurochemical signaling at high spatial, temporal, and chemical resolution in vivo. Genetics, pharmacology, and developmental timing are used to investigate the etiology and treatment of anxiety and mood disorders and to advance personalized predictive medicine.

Professor Soumitra Athavale

The Athavale group has broad interest in synthetic organic chemistry, (bio)molecular evolution and chemical biology, with research encompassing four main themes: (1) synthetic methodology and biocatalysis, (2) design principles of synthetic evolutionary systems, (3) fundamental relationships in enzyme structure and function, and (4) engineering enzymes as next-generation therapeutics.

Professor Keriann M. Backus

In the area of chemical biology, the Backus Group combines chemical probe synthesis with activity based protein profiling and chemical proteomics to develop chemical tools to manipulate the human immune system. Research within the group spans chemical biology, organic synthesis, pharmacology, immunology, biochemistry and systems biology.

Professor James U. Bowie

Professor James Bowie and his group are fascinated by protein structure, folding and stabilization. This interest has led them into three main areas: (1) learning how membrane proteins fold and how they can be stabilized; (2) the structures and biological functions of a biological polymer they discovered that is formed by a very common protein module called a SAM domain; and (3) developing and stabilizing enzyme pathways for the production of biofuels.

Professor Guillaume F. Chanfreau

Professor Guillaume Chanfreau’s laboratory is interested in gene expression regulation in eukaryotic cells, with a particular emphasis on post-transcriptional steps. Within this large field, they are focusing on understanding how cells degrade RNAs that arise from malfunctions in gene expression pathways (“RNA surveillance”). In particular, they are analyzing the functions of the double-stranded RNA endonuclease RNase III and of the nonsense-mediated decay pathway in RNA surveillance, and how these enzymes regulate gene expression.

Professor Catherine F. Clarke

Professor Catherine Clarke and the Clarke lab study the biosynthesis and functional roles of coenzyme Q (ubiquinone or Q). Q functions in mitochondrial respiratory electron transport and as a lipid soluble antioxidant. The group is using the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae (bakers yeast) to elucidate the biosynthetic metabolism of Q. Their experimental approach employs a combination of molecular genetics, lipid chemistry and biochemistry to delineate the steps responsible for Q biosynthesis.

Professor Steven G. Clarke

A major interest of Professor Steven Clarke’s Laboratory is understanding the biochemistry of the aging process. The group is particularly interested in the generation of age-damaged proteins by spontaneous chemical reactions and the physiological role of cellular enzymes that can reverse at least some portion of the damage. They have focused their efforts on the degradation of aspartic acid and asparagine residues and the subsequent metabolism of their racemized and isomerized derivatives. The group is presently determining the biological role of protein methyltransferases that can initiate the conversion of D-aspartyl residues to the L-configuration as well as the conversion of isopeptide linkages to normal peptide bonds. Such “repair” reactions may greatly increase the useful lifetime of cellular proteins and may help insure organismal survival. View Professor Clarke’s YouTube Lecture

Professor Robert T. Clubb

Professor Robert Clubb investigates the molecular basis of bacterial pathogenesis. In particular, they study how microbes display and assemble cell wall attached surface proteins, and how they acquire essential nutrients from their host during infections. The group’s study could lead to creating new inhibitors of bacterial infections.

Professor Stuart Conway

The Conway Group uses organic chemistry to develop biologically active small molecules for medicinal chemistry and chemical biology studies in living systems. They have a strong interest in developing probes that modulate epigenetics processes, which are relevant for cancer and neglected tropical diseases. They also have expertise in developing pro-drugs that are activated in hypoxia, and imaging tools that enable the study of the tumor microenvironment..

Professor Albert J. Courey

Professor Albert Courey and his group study the molecular basis of cell development. During embryogenesis, a cluster of apparently undifferentiated cells is transformed into an ordered array of differentiated tissues. Using Drosophila as a model system, his research group combines biochemical and genetic approaches to study the molecular basis of this amazing transformation. Essentially all the regulatory circuits they study are conserved throughout the animal kingdom. Therefore, their studies have important implications for human health and development.

Professor Timothy J. Deming

The Deming group is focused on synthesis, processing, characterization and evaluation of biological and biomimetic materials based on polypeptides. His group utilizes innovative chemistry techniques to synthesize materials with properties that rival the complexity found in biological systems.

Professor David S. Eisenberg

Professor David Eisenberg and his research group focus on protein interactions. In their experiments they study the structural basis for conversion of normal proteins to the amyloid state and conversion of prions to the infectious state. In bioinformatic work, they derive information on protein interactions from genomic and proteomic data, and design inhibitors of amyloid toxicity.

Professor Juli Feigon

Professor Juli Feigon and her research group study nucleic acid structure and specific recognition of nucleic acids by proteins. Her group focuses on determining the three-dimensional structures of DNA and RNA, and on investigating their interactions with various proteins and ligands, and to study nucleic acid folding.

Professor Neil K. Garg

The Garg Lab develops synthetic strategies and methods that enable the synthesis of complex bioactive molecules.   Our specific interests lie primarily in three main areas: (a) transition metal-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions of unconventional electrophiles, (b) the use of historically-avoided strained intermediates, such as cyclic allenes and alkynes, in organic synthesis, and (c) the total synthesis of complex small molecules, such as drugs and natural products We also enjoy the opportunity to collaborate in areas such as natural product biosynthesis, green chemistry, solar cell technologies, THC detection, and studies of fundamental reactivity.

Professor William M. Gelbart

Professor William Gelbart directs a research program, with Professor Charles M. Knobler, which features the interplay between a range of theoretical and experimental approaches to elucidating the physics of viral infectivity. Differences between the life cycles of DNA and RNA viruses — in particular, how their genomes are packaged into and released from virus particles — are investigated in terms of the differences between DNA and RNA molecules as physical objects. The tools and methods range from the statistical mechanics of simple models to in vitro systems consisting of a few purified components and to cell culture studies.

Professor Patrick G. Harran

Professor Patrick Harran and his group explore new strategies for building complex small molecules. This includes both natural products and designed molecules. Structures having unique biological functions are of particular interest. The group uses its core strengths in synthesis to drive collaborative research in biology, pharmacology and medicine.

Professor Kendall N. Houk

Professor Ken Houk’s group is the Saul Winstein Chair in Organic Chemistry. His group develops qualitative rules to understand reactivity, models complex organic reactions with computational methods, and experimentally tests the predictions of theory. Current interests include the computational design of enzymes to catalyze unnatural reactions, the quantitative modeling of stereospecific reactions used in synthesis, mechanisms and selectivities of organometallic reactions, studies of mechanisms and dynamics of cycloaddition reactions. especially bioorthogonal cycloadditions, the design, synthesis, and reactions of hemicarcerands and other host-guest complexes, and the computational design of organic materials for photovoltaic devices.

Professor Michael E. Jung

Professor Mike Jung has switched his group fully to synthetic medicinal chemistry and already has two drugs on the market, Xtandi and Erleada, both for last-stage prostate cancer. He has 15 active collaborations with biologists both at UCLA and elsewhere. At the moment two of his new drugs are in phase 1 clinical trials, one for glioblastoma and one for solid tumors.

Professor Kalli Kappel

The Kappel Lab investigates how RNA and protein sequences encode molecular and cellular functions, with a focus on how RNA-binding proteins regulate RNA metabolism. To do this, the lab takes two integrated approaches: (1) developing high-throughput experimental methods — especially utilizing imaging and sequencing technologies — to map multiscale structures and function for large libraries of protein and RNA sequences; and (2) using machine learning and computational biophysical methods to build predictive sequence-structure-function models from large-scale datasets.

Professor Carla M. Koehler

Professor Carla Koehler and her research group encompass two major areas: Understanding the mechanism of protein import into mitochondria and determining the process by which defects in mitochondrial protein translocation lead to disease.

Professor Sriram Kosuri

The Kosuri laboratory develops methods to vastly increase our ability to empirically explore relationships between DNA sequence and biological function. This is being acheived by developing and combining three related technologies: DNA synthesis, DNA sequencing, and genome engineering. The ability to synthesize thousands to millions of designed DNA sequences and to link those sequences to phenotypes or readouts of various cellular functions makes it possible to probe the sequence-function relationships underlying diverse biological phenomena on unprecedented scales. This is allowing new discoveries on broad ranging systems from bacteria to humans.

Professor Ohyun Kwon

Professor Ohyun Kwon’s research revolves around the development of new synthetic methodologies, target-oriented synthesis (TOS) of natural products, and diversity-oriented synthesis (DOS) of small molecule probes for chemical biological applications. The methodology research involves phosphine catalysis, the development of novel chiral phosphines, asymmetric catalysis, and pericyclic reactions of nitrodienes.

Professor Michael Robert Lawson

Normal and problematic mRNAs are translated differently by ribosomes, with the former being released for translation again and the latter targeted for decay. The Lawson lab aims to understand the interactions between ribosomes, mRNA sequence and structure, and specialized decay factors that drive these decisions, using a range of biochemical and structural techniques. Ultimately, a better understanding of these mechanisms could lead to new treatments for the 11% of heritable human diseases associated with premature stop codons.

Professor Chong Liu

Professor Chong Liu’s research group is an inorganic chemistry lab with specific interests in electrochemical systems for energy, biology, and environments. Combining his expertise in inorganic chemistry, nanomaterials, and electrochemistry, his research group aims to address some of the challenging questions in catalysis, energy conversion, CO2/N2 fixation, and microbiota. Their research focus includes advanced bioelectrochemical systems of CO2/N2 fixation as well as electrochemical nanodevices enabling the study of biological, medical, environmental applications.

Professor Joseph A. Loo

The research interests of Professor Joseph Loo’s group include the development and application of bioanalytical methods for the structural characterization of proteins and post-translational modifications, proteomics-based research, and the elucidation of disease. The composition and structure of noncovalently-bound protein-protein and protein-ligand interactions are studied by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry and ion mobility.

Professor Heather D. Maynard

The Maynard group focuses on polymer chemistry and nano medicine. We design and synthesize polymeric mimics of natural molecules with the purpose of stabilizing proteins and siRNA. These materials are applied to wound healing, diabetes, and for the treatment of cancer. We also prepare polymers for conjugation of proteins to surfaces in specific orientations for diagnostics and biomaterials that control cell behavior.

Professor Craig A. Merlic

Professor Craig Merlic develops novel synthetic methods based on organometallic reactions and applies these to natural product synthesis.