The Miniature Brain Machinery (MBM) program announces new trainees beginning in January 2020. Each new trainee represents an underrepresented demographic in our field.

By folding snippets of DNA into the shape of a five-pointed star using structural DNA nanotechnology, researchers have created a trap that captures Dengue virus as it floats in the bloodstream. Once sprung, the trap – which is non-toxic and is naturally cleared from the body – lights up. It’s the most sensitive test for the mosquito-borne diseases yet devised.

Research from the University of Illinois and the University of California, Davis has chemists one step closer to recreating nature’s most efficient machinery for generating hydrogen gas. This new development may help clear the path for the hydrogen fuel industry to move into a larger role in the global push toward more environmentally friendly energy sources.

Eight faculty members at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have been named to the 2019 Highly Cited Resear

To alleviate migraine pain, people are commonly treated with opioids. But, while opioid treatment can provide temporary pain relief for episodic migraines, prolonged use can increase the frequency and severity of painful migraines.

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Northwestern University have made it possible to observe and simulate the self-assembly of crystalline materials at a much higher resolution than before.

Scientists have simulated every atom of a light-harvesting structure in a photosynthetic bacterium that generates energy for the organism.

The Moore group recently published a paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society that describes a new way of synthesizing ring polymers.

With the goal of advancing the understanding of the neurochemistry of addiction, the Neuroproteomics and Neurometabolomics Center on Cell-Cell Signaling at the University of Illinois, has had its funding renewed by the National Institute on Drug Abuse with a $6 million grant.

The Discovery Fund, established in 2018 and supported by a generous gift from chemistry alumni Ving Lee (Ph.D., ‘75, Rinehart) and May Lee (Ph.D., ‘76, Rinehart), provides funding for innovative research in the Department of Chemistry.

In February, the Department of Chemistry celebrated the dedication of an American Chemical Society (ACS) National Historic Chemical Landmark in honor of Illinois alumnus St. Elmo Brady, who, in 1916, became the first African American to receive a Ph.D. in chemistry in the United States. Central to the celebration were representatives from Tougaloo College, Howard University, Fisk University, and Tuskegee University—four Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) whose chemistry programs Brady founded after he left Illinois.

Steven Zimmerman, graduate student Ephraim Morado, and their colleagues are attempting to create a more environmentally-friendly form of polyurethane, a frequently-used polymer that is difficult to recycle.

Professor Martin Burke will receive the 2019 iCON Innovator Award at the iCON Award Dinner on September 26, 2019. This award recognizes those scientists who demonstrate leadership potential at the frontier of knowledge in the life sciences and conduct research that is anticipated to enhance economic development in the State of Illinois.

A collaboration between the Sweedler and the Rodriguez-Zas labs at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and the Pradhan lab at the University of Illinois at Chicago has identified genes that are involved in opioid-induced hyperalgesia, an abnormally increased sensitivity to pain.

The Pan Research Group has recently developed a probe made of nanoparticles by crosslinking biliverdin molecules, which are pigments that exist naturally in the body.