UCLA researchers led by Professor Soumitra Athavale have taught enzymes an entirely new reaction mechanism—a radical hydrogenation process that nature itself never discovered. Hydrogenation — the process of adding hydrogen atoms to carbon–carbon double bonds — is one of the cornerstones of modern chemistry, enabling the synthesis of everything from medicines and fragrances to fuels […]

Victoria Barber receives American Lung Association Indoor Air Award Grant Professor Victoria “Tori” Barber has been awarded an Indoor Air Research Award Grant from the American Lung Association. Barber received the grant for her research project titled “Evaluating Health Effects of Re-emitted Smoke Volatile Organic Compounds,” which provides $100,000 per year for three years. During […]

In a recent collaborative study published in PNAS, Distinguished Research Professor Raphael Levine helped uncover how sunlight photodissociates  nitrogen molecules, offering new insights into the evolution of planetary atmospheres. Working with experimentalists led by Professor Mark Thiemens at the University of California, San Diego, Levine and coworkers developed the theoretical framework that explains how nitrogen’s […]

Professor Elizabeth Villa (University of California, San Diego), known for her pioneering research in cryogenic electron tomography (cryoET), visited UCLA on October 20 to give the Fall 2025 Chemistry & Biochemistry Distinguished Lecture. Enthusiastic students, postdoctoral researchers, staff and faculty members attended the lecture in the Dongwon Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall in the Mani […]

The UCLA Graduate Biochemistry Student Association (gBSA) hosted its annual Trivia Night and Costume Contest on October 24, 2025, bringing together graduate students from across the biosciences for an evening of friendly competition, creative costumes, and community building, as the first event of the academic year. gBSA is a student-run organization that organizes social, outreach, […]

Professor Kyoko Nozaki (University of Tokyo), known for her pioneering research in organometallic catalysis and polymer chemistry, visited UCLA on October 15 to give the inaugural Jeffrey I. Zink Invited Inorganic Lecture. Faculty members, students, postdoctoral researchers, and staff attended the lecture in the Dongwon Yoo Seminar & Conference Hall in the Mani L. Bhaumik […]

Professors Gerard Wong and Paul S. Weiss, together with Wong group postdoctoral researcher Dr. Calvin Lee and bioengineering Ph.D. student William Schmidt, are part of a research team that has discovered how harmful bacteria identify where to cluster and cause infection. This finding could lead to new treatments for life-threatening infections in people with cystic […]

Chemistry & Biochemistry faculty members recently contributed to a new University of California report, Expanding Opportunity: Chemistry, Math, and the Future of STEM at UC. Based on systemwide data, published research, and interviews with faculty and staff from all nine undergraduate UC campuses, this report—prepared by the University of California Office of the President’s (UCOP) […]