TIL the University of Chicago has a Botany Pond It's a shame there isn't a Chemistry Pond, you could have a big open reactor, some stir bars within, whiteboards explaining the chemistry and some condensers recirculating solvent

Congrats to my student mentee, Ananthu, for this terrific publication in @jacs.acspublications.org on synthetic modeling of Mo-dependent C–H hydroxylases! It is also a landmark for my lab, as it marks our 100th paper since we started @uic-chemistry.bsky.social in 2012! pubs.acs.org/jacsat/artic...

The Role of Terminal Heavy Chalcogenide Ligands in Enabling Hydride Transfer Reactivity of W═E (E = S, Se) Models for Molybdenum Hydroxylases

Abstract. Whereas molybdenum-dependent hydroxylases in the xanthine oxidase family catalyze site-selective C–H hydroxylation reactions using terminal molyb

pubs.acs.org

How did early life repair its genetic material before proteins? A new Nature Communications study co-authored by Jack Szostak uncovers a novel ribozyme ligase requiring a 3'-terminal phosphate to stitch RNA. Read: shorturl.at/RSF6U #RNAWorld

The Dong Lab breaks new ground in JACS! Graduate student Zining Zhang introduces a strategy for late-stage carbonyl removal via sequential double C–C bond cleavage, streamlining complex synthesis. Read: shorturl.at/coYoN #OrganicSynthesis #JACS #UChiChem

Metal nitride nanocrystals were long thought impossible to synthesize—until now. The Talapin Lab and Argonne National Lab break a fundamental boundary in Nature, paving the way for flexible electronics and advanced nanomaterials: shorturl.at/vivPu #MaterialsScience #Nanotech #UChiChem

Congratulations to Professor Stuart Rowan who has been named as interim dean of the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago! 🔗 Read more: ms.spr.ly/6047vIdXc

“It affirms the value of my efforts and inspires me to continue embracing new challenges and opportunities," said Abdoulaye Djire (Texas A&M University) on his recent Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award https://ow.ly/XW8750Zmxxk

National award honors Djire’s excellence in research and teaching - Engineering News

Dr. Abdoulaye Djire has been selected as a recipient of the prestigious Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, a national honor recognizing exceptional early-career faculty.

ow.ly

I married up. 😁 🙇‍♂️ 🧪 www.eni.com/en-IT/strate...

Eni Award: our prize for energy and environmental science

An international award for research and technological innovation in the energy and environmental fields.

eni.com

Now online @natcatal.nature.com ! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Direct copper-catalysed deaminative cyanation of aliphatic primary amines - Nature Catalysis

Direct deaminative cyanation of aliphatic amines is hampered by inert C–N bonds and oxidative instability. Now a copper-catalysed, preactivation-free approach enabled by anomeric amide activation is r...

nature.com

Mark Levin@levinchem.bsky.social · 10mo ago

New @chemrxiv.org, a collaboration with @honggen-wang.bsky.social and group alum, now asst prof. Myojeong Kim: the first true catalytic interception of isodiazene-generated primary-amine-derived radicals. The key is an N-F reagent that enables productive chain carrying! doi.org/10.26434/che...

Huge congratulations to Prof. Jiwoong Park on being named the James Franck Professor in the Department of Chemistry, the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, and the College at the University of Chicago. #UChicagoChemistry #PritzkerMolecularEngineering #Nanotechnology #JiwoongPark

lmao, just what we need - ten 100-page reviews written without human involvement, great idea folks

Brittany Trang@brittanytrang.com · last mo.

Breaking: Anthropic releases Claude Science, an application it hopes does for science what Claude Code did for software. Read more from me and @matthewherper.bsky.social: 🧪 #science #research #AI

Chemical biology royalty here at Stanford for the annual @onoinitiative.bsky.social symposium, here are just a few of legends:

1/ Mitochondrial Na⁺ links metabolism, Ca2+ signaling and disease. We know how it gets in, how it gets out, and proteins that use it. But: we've never actually seen Na⁺ in single mitochondria in live cells. We started with an unusual observation, went down a rabbit hole & found some cool biology .

We're honoring the memory and legacy of Peter Littlewood, a physicist, scientific leader and long-serving member of our board of trustees. https://bit.ly/3Sh5D0H

The biggest celebration for the United States 250th anniversary is the opening of the OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY. ❤️🤍💙

I did a thing: chicagomaroon.com/52978/viewpo...

We are delighted to announce Nobuhiro Yanai (@nobuhiroyanai.bsky.social) as our newest Associate Editor for Chemical Science! Nobuhiro is a Professor at the University of Tokyo (@utokyoofficial.bsky.social). Find out more about Professor Yanai here: www.rsc.org/people/nobuh...

Congrats to graduating senior Rocio Portal on her co-first author paper with Alex Krupinski, now on ChemRxiv! Electrochemical Alkyne Semihydrogenation and Carbonyl Reduction with a Bifunctional Cu Complex | ChemRxiv chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10....

I wrote a quick post on my much neglected Substack about how attending seminars is hard when also having to manage school pickups. open.substack.com/pub/nealmank...

Departmental seminars could be more family friendly

Today I want to reflect on departmental seminars, which are getting harder for me to attend for work/life balance reasons I’ll explain below.

open.substack.com

I would classify myself generally as skeptical of review articles, but (with obvious bias) I am hopeful that this one is unusual, in a good way! We tried to put in one place a bunch of important ideas that have been driving the lab's thinking recently. pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Shape-Conserving Atom Replacements

Recent advances have made possible the replacement of individual atoms within a molecular skeleton while preserving the integrity of the surrounding framework. These skeletal editing reactions are emerging as powerful tools for molecular optimization, as they directly mirror tactics central to structure–activity-relationship studies and therefore have the potential to accelerate progress in discovery chemistry settings. This review introduces a comprehensive framework for categorizing atom replacement reactions in aromatic systems, while also delineating strategies that enable these transformations. Important heuristics related to shape-conservation are discussed, including notions of skeletal rotation, introduction of vestigial substituents, and retrosynthetic simplicity. Examples of reactions which obey these principles are analyzed, focusing first on C-to-N replacement in aromatic systems (“benzene to pyridine” and related reactions) before moving to other classes of aromatic and aliphatic replacement reactions.

pubs.acs.org

👀 Out now in @chemicalscience.rsc.org! With @shafaatlab.bsky.social, we study electronic structure and magnetic coupling in a protein model of CODH, revealing covalency changes across states of the Ni–Fe–S cluster: 👉 doi.org/10.1039/D6SC00023A #compchem #chemsky #compchemsky @uclacb.bsky.social

A protein-based model of carbon monoxide dehydrogenase exhibits tunable covalency across cluster oxidation and ligand-bound states

The nickel-containing carbon monoxide dehydrogenase (CODH) uses a unique heterometallic [NiFe4S4] cluster active site, called the C-cluster, to catalyze the reversible reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2...

doi.org

Rebecca Willett’s leadership in interdisciplinary collaboration—spanning AI, statistics, and mathematics—has earned her the Arthur L. Kelly Faculty Prize for Exceptional Service. physicalsciences.uchicago.edu/news/article...

Our more recent paper is hot off the press in @jacs.acspublications.org Great team effort and a preview of what the future looks like for our group.... pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

A Rapid Binder Discovery Workflow for Engineering Mini-Protein Degraders

Developing molecules that selectively bind targets of interest remains a critical bottleneck in biological research and biotechnology. Here, we present a workflow that leverages the Phage-Assisted Non-Continuous Selection for Binders (PANCS-Binders) technology for rapid de novo binder discovery. To directly assess the speed and utility of the approach, we pursued three cancer-related targets: NSD3, NMNAT2, and CSF1R. Within 26 days, the PANCS-Binders workflow yielded sequence- and function-verified binders for all three targets with nano-to-micromolar affinities. By incorporating an NSD3 binder into an engineered E3 ligase, RNF8, we developed an NSD3 degrader that potently depleted endogenous NSD3 and inhibited colorectal cancer cell proliferation. We then applied this degrader to reveal previously unknown NSD3 dependencies in ovarian cancer cell lines, uncovering new therapeutic vulnerabilities. Together, our work establishes a robust workflow for accelerated binder discovery and demonstrates how binders can expedite chemical biology discovery and biotechnology development.

pubs.acs.org

Bryan Dickinson@chembiobryan.bsky.social · 7mo ago

1/ Check out our newest paper where we ask: How fast can we experimentally discover binders from scratch? And we mean scratch: a blinded study. TLDR: 26 days. And the binders work…and led to new cancer biology. We’re coming for you AI…. chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...

Very exciting to see that Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Chuan He (University of Chicago) was elected as a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences! https://news.uchicago.edu/story/two-uchicago-scientists-elected-national-academy-sciences-2026

Two UChicago scientists elected to National Academy of Sciences in 2026

Two UChicago scientists elected to National Academy of Sciences in 2026 Apr 30, 2026 Two University of Chicago scholars have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, joining other scientists and researchers chosen in “recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in origina…

news.uchicago.edu

Last week, several undergraduate students from our group completed their honors thesis defenses. Congratulations to Celeste, Justin, Melody, and Kayla on this milestone! We are so proud of your hard work and wish you all the best in your next chapter!

Precision is the heart of nanotech. @UChicago President and renowned chemist Paul Alivisatos + a UC Berkeley team just published a definitive look at photochemical propulsion in ACSNano. The Result: A new blueprint for bridging the gap between chemical energy and mechanical work. shorturl.at/hyAS8

The Ferguson Lab, in collab with the Liu Lab at UMich, has borrowed a survival trick from the tardigrade, and their discovery may offer a transformative roadmap for bio-preservation and cold-chain independence.Link: shorturl.at/NCqkJ #NatureCommunications #Biopreservation #MolecularEngineering

We are thrilled to announce that the World Association of Theoretical and Computational Chemists (WATOC) has named Professor Laura Gagliardi the recipient of the 2026 Schrödinger Medal, one of the field's highest honors. Link: shorturl.at/qxazC #schrodingermedal #uchicago #quantumchemistry

Professor Laura Gagliardi Receives Prestigious Schrödinger Medal

Marking the centenary of the Schrödinger equation, the 2026 award honors Gagliardi’s transformative work in climate solutions and multireference quantum theory

shorturl.at

The countdown is on for "MXene: The Next Horizon," the 4th International Conference hosted at the University of Chicago this August. If you want to be part of the conversation shaping the future of nanomaterials, now is the time to act, as abstract submissions close: May 15, 2026 - shorturl.at/fp1nX