Chemistry

Home » Archives for May 2020

May 2020

Archives for May 2020

Zhao Group Published in Nature Communications

by

The Zhao Group is a polymer chemistry research group, focusing on responsive, functional soft and hybrid materials.

The group recently published their work “Breaking translational symmetry via polymer chain overcrowding in molecular bottlebrush crystallization” in Nature Communication.

The research focuses on  the fundamental laws in crystallization is translational symmetry. This piece reports on the spontaneous formation of spherical hollow crystals with broken translational symmetry in crystalline molecular bottlebrush (mBB) polymers. This study unravels a new principle of spontaneous translational symmetry breaking, providing a general route towards designing versatile nanostructures.

First Publication from Bailey Lab

by

The Bailey Lab just published their first review article “Site directed mutagenesis as a precision tool to enable synthetic biology with engineered modular polyketide synthases” in Synthetic and Systems Biotechnology. 

This article is an overview on a way to target genetic changes to change as little as one amino acid to change the function of polyketide synthases.  

“Polyketides have a correspondence between their sequence and the structure of the small molecules they create, which are often important pharmaceuticals,” said Assistant Professor Constance Bailey. “Finding ways to subtly alter the structure of the metabolite that forms is a way to enable the discovery of new important drugs.”

The group reviews examples of targeted point mutagenesis to one or a few residues harbored within the PKS that alter domain specificity or selectivity, affect protein stability and interdomain communication, and promote more complex catalytic reactivity.

Learn More

Calhoun Lab Publishes Online Detection Method for Microfluidics

by

The Calhoun Lab published their article “Total Internal Reflection Transient Absorption Microscopy: An Online Detection Method for Microfluidics” in The Journal of Physical Chemistry A. Brandon Colon, a graduate student in the Calhoun Lab, is the primary author of this work.

Microreactors have garnered widespread attention for their tunability and precise control of synthetic parameters to efficiently produce target species. Despite associated advances, a lack of on-line detection and optimization methods has stalled the progression of microfluidic reactors.

“Here we employ and characterize a total internal reflection transient absorption microscopy (TIRTAM) instrument to image excited state dynamics on a continuous flow device,” Colon said. “The experiments presented demonstrate the capability to discriminate between different chromophores as well as in differentiating the effects of local chemical environments that a chromophore experiences.”

This work presents the first such on-line transient absorption measurements and provides a new direction for the advancement and optimization of chemical reactions in microfluidic devices. 

Learn More