News | Chemistry at Illinois

Jonathan Sweedler stands next to Fan Lam in a hallway on the Illinois campus.

Professors Jonathan Sweedler, Fan Lam to study Alzheimer’s disease

01/19/2023 - A new National Institutes of Health grant will fund this Beckman Institute research that will use a unique combination of imaging techniques to study Alzheimer’s disease on a scale that has never...

Colorful computer-generated illustration of the influenza virus’ surface (brown) glycoprotein, hemagglutinin (green, blue), attacked by an antibody (in gold) and surrendering, which prevents the virus from infecting human cells.

2022 SCS Science Image Challenge winners, finalists

01/18/2023 - The School of Chemical Sciences will recognize the winners and finalists of the 2022 Science Image Challenge during an Award Ceremony at 4 p.m. on Feb. 9, 2023, in the Chemistry Library in Noyes...

Professor Hee-Sun Han, right, and grad student Alex Schrader stand next to automated microscopic equipment they created.

Hee-Sun Han leading Spatial Omics Initiative at Illinois

01/16/2023 - Researchers in the Han group are developing a single molecule resolution spatial omics platform and new analytical methods that extract unique biological insights from spatial omics data.

Head shot of Angad Mehta on a dark background

Angad Mehta awarded Scialog, USDA funding for mitigating zoonotic threats

01/06/2023 - The Research Corporation for Science Advancement and the U.S. Department of Agriculture funded seven new team projects in the second year of Scialog: Mitigating Zoonotic Threats. The Mehta research...

Portrait of Timothy Fan standing next to Paul Hergenrother in the lobby of the Carl R. Woese Institute of Genomic Biology.

First test of anti-cancer agent PAC-1 in human clinical trials shows promise

12/22/2022 - Illinois chemistry professor Paul Hergenrother and Illinois professor of veterinary clinical medicine Dr. Timothy Fan found that the compound PAC-1 has therapeutic potential in pet dogs with...

Student researchers stand and sit side by side in a lab with a wipe off board behind them with chemical equations from their research.

Research targets an enzyme essential to coronaviruses for potential antiviral, vaccine development

12/22/2022 - Platform developed by a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign research team led by chemistry professor Angad Mehta can be adapted to a range of current and emerging RNA viruses for development of...

Portrait of Stephen Kocheril in the atrium of the CLSL building on the UIUC campus.

Alum Stephen Kocheril developing expertise in cryogenic ion trapping

12/15/2022 - A PhD candidate at Brown University, Kocheril graduated from Illinois in the Class of 2016 and recently returned to his alma mater to present his doctoral research as the recipient of the Brown...

Portrait of Prof. Wilfred van der Donk, on left, sitting on a desk with graduate student Weixin Tang standing to the right. Framed documents and a wipe off board are on walls behind them.

Alum Weixin Tang (PhD, '15) selected a 2022 Packard Fellow

12/06/2022 - The Packard Fellowships in Science and Engineering are awarded to innovative early-career scientists and engineers pursuing new areas of research. Tang is an alum of Professor Wilfred van der Donk's...

Head shot of Jonathan Sweedler in an outdoor setting with trees in background.

Researchers explore differences between healthy and Type 2 diabetes-affected pancreatic islets

11/30/2022 - In this study led by Professor Jonathan Sweedler, researchers used pancreatic islets from healthy human donors, prediabetic patients, and patients who had Type 2 diabetes to learn more about how...

John Katzenellenbogen stands to the left of Benita Katzenellenbogen in a lab with shelves in the background.

Experts boost activity of potential therapeutic target in triple-negative breast cancer

11/30/2022 - Benita Katzenellenbogen, a professor of molecular and integrative physiology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and John Katzenellenbogen, professor of Chemistry at Illinois, led a study...

Photo of the iBioFab instrument in the IGB lab.

IGB team discovers new natural products at an unprecedented speed and scale

11/29/2022 - Illinois researchers in chemistry and chemical and biomolecular engineering have discovered and characterized new compounds that have the potential to fight antibiotic resistant bacteria. The...

Lloyd Munjanja, on left, is pictured with a pool and people in the background as he assists Martin Gruebele, on right, who is in swimming gear.

In the news: Prof. Martin Gruebele competes in Deca-Ultratriathlon World Championship

11/28/2022 - A long-time runner and biker, the Illinois chemistry professor was supported in the competition in Switzerland by a crew that included Lloyd Munjanja, an assistant dean in the College of LAS who is...

Portrait of Qian Chen on a dark background

Previously unseen processes reveal path to better rechargeable battery performance

11/18/2022 - A new study led by Qian Chen, an Illinois professor of materials science and engineering and chemistry, applies a new electron microscopy technique, called four-dimensional scanning transmission...

Photo of researchers standing side by side in the lab with blue wall behind them and an all-white-colored molecular structure projected onto the wall.

Artificial intelligence and molecule machine join forces to generalize automated chemistry

11/17/2022 - A group of Illinois researchers including chemistry professor Martin Burke, affiliate professor Charles Schroeder, chemistry postdoctoral researcher Vandana Rathore, and chemistry graduate student...

East Central Illinois ACS conference gives undergraduates opportunity to share research

11/07/2022 - The annual fall conference features oral and poster presentations highlighting the research of undergraduate students in the chemical sciences at UIUC and other institutions and also features keynote...