Accomplishments: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Mary Blankenship (Sciences and Brookings Institute) was featured as a guest columnist in the Las Vegas Sun for her opinion editorial, "Lincoln Memorial Reminds Us Who We Are and Can Still Be."  She is a student with a double major in chemistry and math as well as a Brookings public policy minor. 
Hui Zhang (Chemistry and Biochemistry) was awarded a new National Institutes of Health R15 grant for $437,202 titled "Regulation of Stem Cell Protein Stability by Novel Ubiquitin Ligases". This grant earned excellent scores to support research in embryonic stem cells. 
Artem V. Gelis (Chemistry and Biochemistry) has been awarded a U.S. patent granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for the technology, "Immobilization of Organic Radioactive and Non-radioactive Liquid Waste in a Composite Matrix." A method for immobilizing liquid radioactive waste is provided, the method having the steps of mixing…
Jun Yong Kang (Chemistry and Biochemistry) and his research team (Hai Huang and Jeffery Ash) published a research article, "Tf2O-Promoted Activating Strategy of Phosphate Analogues: Synthesis of Mixed Phosphates and Phosphinate," in Organic Letters. This research reports an efficient, mild synthetic method of phosphates and mixed phosphonates.…
Katherine Thornock Luebke (Chemistry and Biochemistry) won an award for best poster presentation at the annual Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development (DNN R&D) University Program Review (UPR) meeting in June. Luebke's poster…
Hui Zhang (Chemistry and Biochemistry) and a team of UNLV biochemistry researchers recently published a paper in the journal Nature Communications. The paper is entitled “Methylated DNMT1 and E2F are Targeted for Proteolysis by L3MBTL3 and CRL4DCAF5 Ubiquitin Ligase”. Lysine-specific methylation of histones is a major epigenetic modification…
Jun Yong Kang and Hai Huang (both Chemistry and Biochemistry), as well as computational study collaborators at the University of Colorado, Denver, published a research article, "Direct Aryloxylation/Alkyloxylation of Dialkyl Phosphonates for the Synthesis of Mixed Phosphonates," in Angewandte Chemie. This research demonstrates a new synthetic…
Hong Sun (Chemistry and Biochemistry) and her laboratory's research were featured in the most recent issue of Research Features for their model on target acid sphingomyelinase (ASM) for anti-cancer therapy. Titled, "Acid Sphingomyelinase – A Novel Target for Anti-Cancer and Degenerative Diseases?," their research explores how ASM…
Ken Czerwinski (Chemistry and Biochemistry) has accepted an invitation from the director of the Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to serve as an expert on a study mandated by Congress on the treatment of low-level radioactive waste at the Hanford site in Washington state.…
David Hatchett (Chemistry and Biochemistry) was recently awarded a $232,936 research grant from National Security Technologies. The funding will support his “Metals Separation Project.”  
MaryKay Orgill (Chemistry and Biochemistry) was shocked by the news of the Oct. 1 incident on the Las Vegas Strip. How she reacted and some of her students' responses were featured recently in Chemical & Engineering News.   The morning after the incident, Orgill decided to talk to her class about how the mass shooting…
Jun Kang (Chemistry and Biochemistry) and the Division of Research and Economic Development have partnered with the reagent company Kerafast to market and distribute two novel reagents. The agreement allows Kerafast, a global supplier of biological research tools, to market two reagents that generate phosphorus- and nitrogen-containing compounds…