Professor Gerard Wong and bioengineering Ph.D. students William Schmidt and Rena Yang are part of a UCLA-led research team that has discovered that bacteria are present inside the most common type of kidney stone, revealing a previously unrecognized component involved in their formation. From UCLA Health Newswise (By Enrique Rivero) Researchers Discover a Previously Unknown […]

In 2024, Professor Neil Garg’s lab, teaming up with Professor Ken Houk, violated Bredt’s rule, a 100-year-old rule stating that molecules cannot have a carbon-carbon double bond at the “bridgehead” position (the ring junction of a bridged bicyclic molecule). Now, they’ve developed the chemistry of more cage-shaped molecules that contain unusually weak double-bonds called cubene and quadricyclene.  […]

Researcher Dr. Maher El-Kady (Kaner group) was recently interviewed by Asharq Al-Awsat, one of the world’s leading international Arabic newspapers, for two feature stories on the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the global impact of the Nobel Prizes on scientific discovery. The first article examined the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which recognized Saudi-Jordanian […]

Inventions by six members of the UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry community are featured in the Fall 2025, UCLA Magazine article “The Top 25 Bruinventions of the 21st Century (So Far).” Professor Michael Jung — Pelage hair-loss treatment (2025) and the prostate cancer drugs Xtandi and Erleada (2012, 2018). Professor Emeritus James Bowie and former lab […]

Professor Soumitra Athavale and alumna Dr. Melissa Ramirez (Ph.D. ’21, Garg and Houk groups), currently an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, are two of four recipients nationwide of the 2025 American Chemical Society (ACS) Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable (GCIPR) Ignition grants. The ACS GCIPR Ignition Grants program, launched in 2016, […]

MATTEO PARFUMS founder Matthew J. Sánchez ‘17 has been named to the 2026 Forbes “30 Under 30” list in the Retail & eCommerce category. The honor highlights his rapid rise in the fragrance and beauty industry and the innovative approach that has defined his company’s growth.  A first-generation college graduate, he is one of the […]

Professor Justin Caram is one of 11 Cottrell Scholars selected by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA) for an inaugural RCSA Bridge Award.  The award will support his project titled “Single Nanocrystal Spectroscopy in the Shortwave Infrared”. According to the RCSA announcement, this emergency initiative is meant to help stabilize strong research programs that have experienced disruptions due […]

Professor Craig Merlic, a leader in laboratory safety education and practice, contributed to the newly released “ACS Discovery Report: Laboratory Safety,” which highlights ongoing efforts to improve laboratory safety and cites work from the UC Center for Laboratory Safety. The American Chemical Society (ACS) Discovery Report examines the current state of laboratory safety in academic […]