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The Weeks Group

The Weeks Group

The Weeks Laboratory develops high-throughput RNA structure analysis technologies and then applies them to compelling, and otherwise intractable, problems in biology. Current work focuses on (i) RNA genome structure of human viruses, (ii) facile development of RNA-directed drugs, and (iii) functions of biomedically important ribonucleoprotein complexes, especially in living cells.

  

The Lin Group

The Lin Group

The Lin Group conducts research on a variety of interdisciplinary projects that address important societal issues such as the environment and sustainability, alternative energy sources, and human disease. We design metal-organic frameworks and related materials for a variety of applications such as heterogeneous asymmetric catalysis, photocatalysis, gas storage, and electrochemistry.

The Lin Group also develops new hybrid nanomaterials for biological and biomedical applications. These biocompatible and biodegradable nanomaterials are being evaluated as contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), optical imaging (OI), and computed tomography (CT) and as targeted therapies for the treatment of cancer. Exposure to these very diverse projects prepares the students and postdocs in the Lin group to take on challenging research problems in their independent careers.

 

Chemistry Commencement

Commencement 2012

Congratulations to all students who were recognized at this year's Chemistry Commencement ceremony. Chemistry is considered one of the most demanding degrees offered at Carolina.

Professor and Department Chair Matthew Redindo delivered the welcome address, after which followed the doctoral hooding ceremony, presided over by Professor Mark Schoenfisch, Director of Graduate Studies. Miss Eva Archer then delivered the undergraduate student commencement address.

Dr. Marcey Waters, Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies presented the undergraduate student awards. Congratulations to all winners.

Francis P. Venable Medal
Matthew Detter
Sophie Liu

Emmett Gladstone Rand Premedical Scholarship
Ryan Gardner
Kathryn Magee
Garrick Talmadge

David L. Stern Scholarships in Chemistry
Xiaoling Zang

Merck Index Award
Stephen Barilovits IV
Srikar Bongu

Carrie Ann Largent Award
Sean Doris
Teresa Long

Hypercube Scholar Award
Hannah Gavin

 

Bacanu Receives Goldwater Scholarship

Alexandru BacanuAlexandru Bacanu, a junior working with John P. Barker Distinguished Professor Dr. Michael Rubenstein, has won a 2012 Goldwater Scholarship.

Congress established the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program in 1986 to honor the late Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona, who served in the U.S. Senate for 30 years. They award scholarships to outstanding college sophomores and juniors who intend to pursue careers in mathematics, the natural sciences or engineering.

Congratulations, Alexandru!

You can read about the work Alexandru has been doing with Dr. Rubinstein in the Spring 2012 issue of Carlolina Scientific.

 

Rational Discovery of Potent HIV Inhibitors

The cellular RNA interference (RNAi) pathway can durably inactivate pathogenic genes. However, prediction of optimal target sites is notoriously inaccurate, especially when applied to viruses like HIV. As reported in Molecular Therapy, a team led by MD-PhD student Justin Low and Professor Kevin Weeks has shown that, if the structure of an RNA is decoded using the SHAPE technologies invented in the Weeks laboratory, then simple physical chemistry-based rules yield strong predictions for HIV replication inhibitors.

Research Image

The research team has now identified many of the most potent RNAi-based inhibitors directed against HIV described to date, several of which are appropriate for pre-clinical investigation.

 

DeSimone in National Academy of Sciences

Joseph DeSimoneChancellor's Eminent Professor of Chemistry Joseph DeSimone has been elected into the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors that a U.S. scientist or engineer can receive.

DeSimone is one of 84 new members and 21 foreign associates from 14 countries elected into the academy. He is the 12th UNC-Chapel Hill faculty member to be elected to the academy, a private organization of scientists and engineers dedicated to advancing science and technology and their use for the public good.

 

NSF Graduate Research Fellows

Nicholas Pinkin, Dennis Ashford, Sophie Liu, Travis LaJoie, Njamkou Noucti, Matt Smola, Mary Aiken and Robert Sharpe, from left to right below, are this year's recipients of grants from the The National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship Program, (GRFP).

NSF Research Fellows

GRFP helps ensure the vitality of the human resource base of science and engineering in the United States and reinforces its diversity. The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master's and doctoral degrees at accredited US institutions.

 

Nanocomposites for Hydrogen Production

As described in Advanced Materials, the Lin Group has developed a new metal-organic framework (MOF)-templated method for the synthesis of a mixed metal oxide nanocomposite with interesting photophysical properties. Fe-containing nanoscale MOFs are coated with amorphous titania, which are then are calcined to produce crystalline composite octahedral nanoshells with hematite Fe2O3 nanoparticles embedded in anatase TiO2.

Research Image

This material enables photocatalytic hydrogen production from water using visible light, which cannot be achieved by either Fe2O3 or TiO2 alone or a mixture of the two. This versatile MOF-templated nanocomposite synthesis procedure could be readily modified, by varying the type of MOF and the coating material, to prepare new materials with desirable synergistic properties.