News

These awards are given for demonstrated research excellence in all areas of chemistry for work carried out at UBC.

Dr. José Rodríguez Núñez has received a 2017-2018 UBC Killam Teaching Prize. Killam Teaching Prizes recognize outstanding contributions in teaching and the ability to motivate students and stimulate critical thinking, sustained teaching excellence and development of innovative approaches to teaching methodology and curricula. Congratulations Dr.Núñez!

Dr. Perrin and his group have been highlighted in Chemical and Engineering News for their synthesis of α-amanitin, a bicyclic octapeptide produced by the death-cap mushroom, and one of the deadliest known peptide toxins. Now that they have a synthetic route for making α-amanitin, they plan to use it to make antibody-drug conjugates and to study the chemical biology of the toxin.

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Dr. Bertram has been awarded a UBC Killam Research Prize. This award recognizes outstanding research and scholarly contributions. Allan's achievement will be recognized at UBC's annual Awards Reception in the spring. Congratulations Dr. Bertram!

The Macromolecular Science and Engineering division (MSED) has selected Tannaz Ebrahimi from the Mehrkhodavandi group as the winner of the 2017 edition of the MSED Graduate Award.

Host defence peptides (HDPs) are polypeptide sequences found ubiquitously in nature that have garnered significant attention as alternatives to antibiotics. Originally appreciated for their direct antibacterial effect, recent work has revealed that many HDPs possess antibiofilm activity, anticancer activity and/or the ability to modulate the immune response of the host. Curiously, HDPs with potent activity in one arena are often weakly active with respect to other activities described for...

Congratulations to the Hein lab, who’s recent publication in the Journal of the American Chemical Society was just selected for a Spotlight review. This collaborative study brought together leaders in both synthetic (Richmond Sarpong) and computational (Dean Tantillo) to perform a detailed investigation on the mechanism of a “metal-free” heterocycloisomerization that forms annulated aminopyrroles. Through kinetic isotope effect studies and unexpected rate differences among starting materials...

Congratulations to the Love and Schafer Groups! A collaborative effort between these two groups dealing with C-H bond activation towards organophosphate synthesis makes the cover of Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. This work showcases the potential application of a metal complex for the synthesis of agrochemically relevant molecules and highlights the ability to form new metal–carbon and boron–oxygen bonds by addition of a simple borane (BH2R). Dr. Renee Man (Department of Chemistry, Nagoya University)...

Another successful Graduate Student Forum was held on April 11th 2017, funded by the CGSS and organized by the Graduate Student Initiative Committee.