Department of Chemistry

Associate Professor Mark Wilson, University of Toronto “Advancing nanocrystal-sensitized, triplet-fusion upconversion (photochemistry)” The ability to efficiently up-convert broadband, low-intensity light would be an enabling technology for volumetric 3D printing, background-free biomedical imaging, and sensitizing silicon-based cameras to the short-wave infrared. Our approach uses colloidal quantum dots to absorb low-energy photons and sensitize the spin-triplet excitonic […]

Professor Matthias Heyden, Arizona State University “Making Sense of the “Jiggling and Wiggling of Atoms” in Molecular Simulations” Vibrational spectroscopies at mid-infrared frequencies provide excellent probes to characterize functional groups and their immediate chemical environment. However, from a thermodynamic and dynamic point of view, only the ground state of these vibrations is significantly populated at […]

Associate Professor Sarah Slavoff, Yale University "Dark Matter of the Human Proteome" Advanced methods in next-generation sequencing and proteogenomics have revealed thousands of previously invisible human protein-coding genes, increasing the known size of the human proteome by as much as 40%. This previously unannotated proteomic “dark matter” includes small open reading frames (smORFs) encoding polypeptides […]

Professor Michael Freeman, University of Minnesota “Biosynthetic insights into α-N-methylated peptide natural products” Ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs) provide biosynthetic routes to peptide modifications not often observed in primary metabolism. We have recently discovered RiPP pathways that install peptide backbone α-N-methylations conferring therapeutically useful peptide properties including membrane permeability, increased target specificity, and […]

Professor Todd Hyster, Cornell University “Photoenzymatic Catalysis - Using Light to Reveal New Enzyme Functions” Enzymes are exquisite catalysts for chemical synthesis, capable of providing unparalleled levels of chemo-, regio-, diastereo- and enantioselectivity. Unfortunately, biocatalysts are often limited to the reactivity patterns found in nature. In this talk, I will share my groups efforts to […]

Professor Phillip Milner, Cornell University “Simplifying Synthesis at the Interface of Organic and Materials Chemistry” Porous framework materials, including metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), are highly tunable materials with myriad potential applications ranging from chemical separations to gas storage to catalysis. This is due to the unusual local environment offered by their pores. Herein we will discuss […]

Professor John Lukesh, Wake Forest University “New Investigative Tools for Probing the Chemical Biology of Reactive Sulfur Species” Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) has been historically dismissed as a highly toxic industrial and environmental pollutant. This limited viewpoint began to shift, however, in the mid 1990s when it was suggested that H2S may play a key role […]