Accomplishments: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Zhange Feng (Chemistry and Biochemistry) has been awarded $2.1 M from the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management to develop a comprehensive training system to prepare a large number of collegiate students as an emerging workforce for soil and groundwater remediation. It includes an enhanced curriculum through hands-on…
Kelly Tseng (Life Sciences) was an invited speaker at the 2024 Southwest Regional Meeting of the Society of Developmental Biology. Her talk was titled "Eyeing Regrowth: Mechanisms Regulating Retinal Repair During Development." She presented her research group's findings on the mechanisms regulating eye stem cells and regeneration. Group…
Hong Sun and Hui Zhang (both Chemistry and Biochemistry) laboratories recently published a research article titled, “A Methylation-Phosphorylation Switch Controls EZH2 Stability and Hematopoiesis,” in eLife, Feb 12, 2024. This research revealed how the stability of mammalian PRC2/EZH2, the major epigenetic regulator that…
Katherine Betts, Kushanie Heenkenda, Bryan Jacome, Sohyo Kim, Michael Tover, and Zhange Feng (all Chemistry and Biochemistry) published a study, "Refractive Laser Beam Measuring Diffusion Coefficient of Concentrated Battery Electrolytes," that offers a universal optical method to measure diffusion coefficient, a key transport property in battery…
Program director Artem Gelis (Radiochemistry) has been selected to receive a Secretary's Honor Award from U.S. Department of Energy for his contributions to the International Molybdenum-99 Conversion Team during his career with the DOE. The Achievement Award is one of about 20 awards given annually from the Department of Energy and will…
The inaugural student-driven UNLV Triathlon Club competed in their first Collegiate Division triathlon Saturday, Oct. 29, 2023. Club president Levi Thomas (Kinesiology), treasurer Ashlyn Thomas (Nutrition), and members Emilo Benitez (Kinesiology), Liahm Blank (Biology), Julio Carrion (Biology), and Juliano El-Hajj (Biology) all completed the BBSC…
Łukasz J. Sznajder (Chemistry and Biochemistry) participated in an international study conducted in Poland, France, and the U.S. Their research has been focused on the molecular mechanism underlying RNA alternative splicing transition from ‘fetal’ to ‘adult’ mRNA pattern in developing skeletal muscles. They identified the family of RNA helicases (…
Members of the Radiochemistry program were recently published in the journal Inorganic Chemistry with an article titled, "Structural Investigation of Technetium Dibutylphosphate Species Using X-ray Absorption Fine Structure Spectroscopy."  First author, Jonathan George, is a master's student in Radiochemistry through the Department of…
Published: VirB, a key transcriptional regulator of Shigella virulence, requires a CTP ligand for its regulatory activities Professor Helen J. Wing (Life Sciences) and a team of researchers published their findings in a top-ranked microbiology journal, mBIO, and received the honor of "editors pick" in the journal. The paper lists Taylor Gerson, a…
David King (Chemistry and Biochemistry) was awarded a $20,000 grant under the Nevada NASA Space Grant Consortium for the 2023-24 year to support his project in flame retardant polymer research under his advisor Pradip K. Bhowmik. The goal of his project is to continue investigation on polymeric fire retardants as a safer and environmentally…
Harry Jang (Chemistry) recently was published in ACS Omega for his work titled, "Synthesis and Morphological Control of UO2F2 Particulates."  Jang is a supported by the Consortium of Nuclear Security Technologies (CONNECT), a partnership with the University of Texas at San Antonio awarded by the Minority Serving Institutes Partnership Program…
Spectra Undergraduate Research Journal by the office of undergraduate research (OUR) solicits student submissions for its Spectra Undergraduate Research Journal Cover Artwork Award to have a student-designed cover for each spring and fall issue. The competitive award intends to foster student participation in the undergraduate research publication…