Professor Michael Teitell (BS biochemistry ’85) has been named director of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. “Mike is a wonderful colleague and collaborator” said UCLA biochemistry professor Dr. Carla Koehler. She and Teitell have collaborated on many important research projects including, in 2010 the discovery of a protein that shuttles RNA into cell mitochondria, […]

On August 3, 2017, the department hosted a reception for all undergraduate and high school students who conduct research in faculty labs.  The student researchers gathered with their faculty mentors, graduate student and postdoc mentors, and other faculty and students at the reception in the Young Hall Student Center. Department Chair Professor Catherine Clarke thanked […]

Professor Paula Diaconescu is playing a leading role in a new UCLA NSF-funded program to train graduate students on issues of sustainable food, energy and water. Thanks to a five-year, $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Research Traineeship program, the UCLA initiative will train graduate students to address environmental and climate challenges. “Meeting […]

UCLA chemistry lecturer and author Eric Scerri’s public lecture at the Royal Institution of Great Britain is featured in the British newspaper The Wharf. Scerri’s July 20th lecture at the Royal Institution in Mayfair, London was titled “The periodic table: Its story and significance”. He is a world authority on the history and philosophy of […]

Professor Alexander Spokoyny has received a highly prestigious Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA or R35) award from the NIH/NIGMS. The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded Spokoyny, an assistant professor of chemistry, $1.8 million over five years to work on atomically-precise nanomaterials. The MIRA program […]

Professor and Vice Chair James Bowie has been selected as a 2018 Fellow by the Biophysical Society. Bowie is being honored for his “seminal contributions to our understanding of the folding and stability of membrane proteins”. A pioneer in developing techniques for studying membrane protein folding, Bowie’s research has provided important insights into the physical forces […]

We are sad to report that Carol West, wife of UCLA biochemistry professor emeritus Charles West, passed away on July 21, 2017. Carol died peacefully at her home at the age of 88 in Houston, Texas following a stroke.   Born on October 28, 1928, in Anna, Illinois, Carol was raised on a peach and […]

Professor Patrick Harran discussed his research on the molecule DZ-2384 in a recent interview with science journalist Robyn Williams on the popular radio program. The Australian Broadcasting Corp’s “The Science Show” is considered by many to be the world’s best science broadcast program. Harran was interviewed for the one-hour radio show when Williams recently visited […]