Seminars

Scott Reed, Ph.D. Abstract Generative AI is rapidly moving beyond the chat window. For chemistry, its greatest potential may lie not in answering questions, but in supporting the knowledge work chemists already do: interpreting structures and spectra, reasoning through mechanisms, creating scientific figures, preparing instructional materials, searching chemical information, and...

Loren Hough, Ph.D. Abstract I’ll be telling two distinct, but related, stories about cellular roles of disordered or dynamics structures. The first will be focusing our computational and experimental efforts to probe the role of coiled-coil domains in phase separation. We have shown that coiled-coil interactions can readily promote phase...

Wei Yang, Ph.D Abstract Biomolecules aimlessly fluctuate in their functional environments and occasionally undergo characteristic activated transitions; these rare conformational events usually play pivotal roles in biological functions. Understanding rare activated events at the atomistic level, especially mapping the corresponding free energy landscapes via molecular dynamics (MD) simulation, has been...

Prof. Hailing Jin, PhD Abstract Dr. Jin’s research focuses on RNA regulation, extracellular vesicles, and antimicrobial peptides in plant–microbe interactions, with applications in eco-friendly disease control for sustainable crop protection. Dr. Jin’s laboratory discovered that diverse classes of RNA, including small RNAs, mRNAs, and other noncoding RNAs, can traffic bidirectionally...

Prof.Sehoon Park Abstract In the first part of this seminar, we present our recent developments in transition metal (Rh, Co)- catalyzed (asymmetric) double hydroboration of quinolines and pyridines.1-4 Particular emphasis is placed on highly challenging, unprecedented ligand-controlled regiodivergent double hydroboration of pyridines. As a catalytic platform, this methodology enables the...

Brisa Peña-Castellanos, PhD Abstract The heart is a highly organized, electrically synchronized, and mechanically active organ, yet many biomaterials used for cardiac tissue engineering are electrically insulating. This mismatch presents a fundamental challenge: even when biomaterials support cell survival and organization, they may fail to recreate the electrical and mechanical...

C. Andrew Frank, Ph.D. Abstract Neurons require large amounts of energy to transmit signals and maintain communication with their targets. A fundamental question is how different cells meet these energetic demands while preserving reliable function. Our laboratory studies this problem using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, a powerful model for...

When: February 6, 2025 Where : North Classroom 1535 Time: 11:00 am - 12:00pm