January 2016:
Mark Boerneke has been nominated by the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry as the UC San Diego candidate for the highly competitive Irving S. Sigal Postdoctoral Fellowship of the American Chemical Society. Well deserved, Mark! Congratulations!
Lulu Myjak and Leena Oubeid join the lab as new undergraduate researchers. They will work with Mark and Shi on RNA switches and nanoarchitectures. Welcome!
February 2016:
Mark's and Sergey's paper on crystal structure-guided design of self-assembling RNA nanotriangles has been accepted for publication as a Hot Paper in Angewandte Chemie. Excellent job!
April 2016:
Mark's and Sergey's RNA nanotechnology paper in Angewandte Chemie has already received a recommendation in F1000Prime as being of special significance for the field!
May 2016:
Shi Chen defended his Masters thesis! Shi is the first student from the Materials Science and Engineering program to graduate from the lab. Congratulations! He will continue research on self-assembling RNA nanoarchitectures as a PhD student in our lab.
With great timing for Shi's future research, the lab receives a 3-year grant from the National Science Foundation, Division of Chemistry, to develop self-assembling RNA nanosensors.
June 2016:
Mark Boerneke defended his thesis! Mark is the 7th PhD student to graduate from the lab. Congratulations! Before departing for a postdoctoral research position at UNC, Chapel Hill, Mark will teach a course in the CHEM140 series as a UCSD Summer Graduate Teaching Scholar for which he was selected last year.
July 2016:
EIleen Tran and Brian Charrette defended their Masters theses! Brian is off to start on a position as a chemist at Norac Pharma in Azusa. Congratulations to both!
August 2016:
Thomas gives a plenary lecture on Crystal Structure-Guided Design of RNA Nanoarchitectures at the RNA Nanotechnology Fusion Conference in Wokefield Park, Berkshire, UK.
September 2016:
Alba Monferrer-i-Sureda and Lulu Myjak are new Masters students who will do their thesis work in our lab. Alba's research will expand our RNA nanotechnology effort to RNA/DNA hybrid structures. Lulu was previously an undergraduate intern and will continue research on a new viral RNA target. She will be joined in her efforts by Cyrus De Rozieres who started his first rotation in the Biochemistry Track of our graduate program. Welcome to all!
October 2016:
Brian's MS thesis research on ligand optimization by improving shape complementarity at a binding pocket of an RNA conformational switch in the HCV IRES has been accepted for publication in ACS Chemical Biology. The paper contains some cool synthetic chemistry to prepare a spiro-cyclopropyl quinazoline through a very concise route. Congratulations!
November 2016:
Thomas's review on Small Molecules Targeting Viral RNA is published in WIREs RNA. The paper discusses recent progress in the discovery of small molecule inhibitors of HIV, HCV, SARS CoV and influenza A, and provides a perspective on targeting RNA of insect-borne flaviviruses (Dengue, Zika, West Nile) and filoviruses (Ebola, Marburg).
December 2016:
Austin Yu, who previously spent time as a rotation student in our lab, has joined the group as a new graduate student in the Chemical Biology track. He will join forces with Lulu to investigate a new viral RNA target. Welcome Austin!
