New! 2025 Chemistry & Biochemistry Departmental Magazine

2 years ago

  • Awards, Grants, & Recognition
  • Faculty
  • General
  • Graduate
  • Research
  • Student
  • Top Stories
  • Undergraduate

We are excited to share the highlights of the many achievements within the UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry community through our new 20-page color departmental magazine. Click here to view the magazine. We […]

New! 2025 Chemistry & Biochemistry Departmental Magazine
March 11

Houk group collaborates with David Baker’s group on a breakthrough in enzyme design – The design of effective serine hydrolases from scratch

2 years ago

  • Alumni & Friends
  • Faculty
  • Recent Research
  • Research

2024 Nobel Laureate Professor David Baker (University of Washington), along with 20 of his coworkers, and Professor Ken Houk and his former UCLA graduate student, Dr. Cooper Jamieson (Ph.D. ’21, […]

Houk group collaborates with David Baker’s group on a breakthrough in enzyme design – The design of effective serine hydrolases from scratch
February 20

Garg and Houk groups report diradicaloid coupling in Nature

2 years ago

  • Recent Research
  • Research

UCLA organic chemistry laboratories led by Distinguished Professors Neil Garg and Ken Houk have reported a groundbreaking study in Nature.   The groups demonstrate that two highly strained reactants, a cyclic allene […]

Garg and Houk groups report diradicaloid coupling in Nature
February 12

The Houk and Tang groups discover an organocatalytic Diels-Alderase in Nature

2 years ago

  • Recent Research
  • Research

Iminium-catalyzed cycloadditions are a hallmark of organocatalysis, a concept that David MacMillan famously coined as “LUMO-catalysis” when he and Benjamin List were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their […]

The Houk and Tang groups discover an organocatalytic Diels-Alderase in Nature
February 6

Faculty in the News – Michael Jung

2 years ago

  • Faculty
  • Research

Distinguished Professor Michael Jung and his UCLA collaborators are featured in a recent UCLA Newsroom article for their groundbreaking research on a potential cure for baldness. Jung played a pivotal […]

Faculty in the News – Michael Jung
February 5

New copper-dependent enzyme catalyzes unprecedented halogenation reactions

2 years ago

  • Recent Research
  • Research

The Yi Tang group has discovered a new type of metal-containing enzyme from a natural fungus that can perform surprising halogenation reactions on organic molecules. The study, published in Nature, represents […]

New copper-dependent enzyme catalyzes unprecedented halogenation reactions
January 29

Thorium film could replace crystals in atomic clocks of the near future

2 years ago

  • Recent Research
  • Research

Professor Anastassia Alexandrova is part of a team of UCLA physicists who have developed a new film that requires much less of the rare thorium-229 and is significantly less radioactive. […]

Thorium film could replace crystals in atomic clocks of the near future
January 23

Plastic supercapacitors could solve energy storage problems

2 years ago

  • Recent Research
  • Research

Professor Richard Kaner, professional researcher Dr. Maher El-Kady, and Materials Science and Engineering alumnus Dr. Musibau Francis Jimoh lead a team of UCLA chemists who have developed a novel, textured, […]

Plastic supercapacitors could solve energy storage problems
January 21