News Archive - Michelle Franklin

Using Infrared Heat Transfer to Modify Chemical Reactions

In a joint experimental-theoretical work, a team of researchers, including theorists from UC San Diego, have shown for the first time that heat transfer in the form of infrared radiation can influence chemical reactions more strongly than traditional convection and conduction methods.

Itay Budin and Christopher Obara Named Allen Distinguished Investigators

UC San Diego Assistant Professors Itay Budin and Christopher Obara have been named Allen Distinguished Investigators by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. The pair will receive $1.5 million over three years to develop visualization and tracking techniques to observe key cellular functions in unprecedented detail.

Scientists Uncover Key Step in How Diazotrophs “Fix” Nitrogen

There are only two ways of fixing nitrogen, one industrial and one biological. To better understand a key component of the biological process, University of California San Diego Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Akif Tezcan and Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Mark Herzik took a multi-pronged approach. Their work appears in Nature.

Uncovering Clues to a Natural Gene-Editing Technique

Diversity-generating retroelements are found in the genomes of microorganisms across the globe — from the arctic permafrost to Yellowstone’s hot springs and the human gut. DGRs are able to accelerate the evolution of proteins to help microorganisms adapt to changing environments. Using cryogenic electron microscopy, Partho Ghosh’s lab at UC San Diego has figured out the first steps of this accelerated evolution by visualizing the relevant proteins and RNA.

Visualizing a Key Step in How an NRPS Enzyme Produces an Antibiotic

Nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) enzymes are essential in creating important medications, such as penicillin and cyclosporine. Because of their large size, complex design and changing shapes, NRPS enzymes are difficult to study. In recent years, the lab of UC San Diego Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Michael Burkart has developed crosslinking tools to trap the enzyme at specific steps, freezing them in place, making them easier to visualize.

The Future of Computing is Physics

Since its founding, UC San Diego has been at the forefront of physics research. And while you may wonder how neutrinos affect your everyday life, basic physics research shows up in the world in amazing ways, including health care and computer technology. Ivan Schuller and Oleg Shpyrko talk about artificial intelligence, the future of computing and why physics researchers play the long game.

On the Origin of Life: How the First Cell Membranes Came to Exist

Few questions have captivated humankind more than the origin of life on Earth. How did the first living cells come to exist? How did these early protocells develop the structural membranes necessary for cells to thrive and assemble into complex organisms? New research from UC San Diego has uncovered a plausible explanation involving the reaction between two simple molecules.

Explaining Science Through Dance

Science can be difficult to explain to the public. Explaining a theoretical science concept to high school students requires a new way of thinking altogether, which is precisely what researchers at UC San Diego did when they orchestrated a dance with high school students at Orange Glen High School in Escondido as a way to explain topological insulators. The experiment was led by former graduate student Matthew Du and UC San Diego Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Joel Yuen-Zhou.

New Model Brings Insight to Cell Organelle’s Structure and Function

A team of researchers, including two from UC San Diego, have developed a physical model that shows that the structure and dynamics of the ER arise from a balance of tension-driven shrinking and the active pulling of new tubules.

Wei Xiong Recognized with Two National Awards

Wei Xiong and his team of researchers study novel light-matter interactions as a way to control and understand how the structure and dynamics of materials change when they interact with photons. In recognition of this work, Xiong, who is a Kent Wilson Faculty Scholar in UC San Diego’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, has been named a Brown Investigator and a Blavatnik Award finalist.