Kara Bren

So great and honored to see our Bren Lab girls, Karishma @karishma11.bsky.social and Alana meet their Academic Grandpa, Prof. Harry B Gray at GRC Metals in Biology, 2026 presenting their cool work on cytochrome c proteins!!🥂🎓

Happy to have our brand new Bren lab members here!!! 🎉

Welcome Rohith and Liz, excited to see some cool science our new grads will create!!🥂🥳

Now official: we’re looking for postdocs for 2026 and beyond. If you want to use your synbio skills and the growing Microbe-Mineral Atlas to build cutting-edge biomining technologies read more below:

docs.google.com/document/d/1...

And apply here:

academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30906

Evaluation of biocatalysts for artificial photosynthesis Catalyzing the light-driven reduction of carbon dioxide and/or protons is an important approach to storing light energy in the form of chemical fuels …

Happy to share our recent publication presenting methods for photocatalytic hydrogen and carbon dioxide reduction using biomolecular catalysts! Check it out by following this link! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Proud of Maria Fernanda Lizarazo for earning a DAAD Scholarship and spending the summer doing research in Germany 🇩🇪 Welcome back to Bren Lab! ✨

Proton Reduction with a Cobalt-Doped Thiomolybdate Cluster: A Structural and Functional Model of Co-Doped MoS2 A heterometallic thiomolybdate cluster, Cp*3CoMo2S4 (Cp* = 1,2,3,4,5-pentamethylcyclopentadienide) has been synthesized and identified as a molecular electrocatalyst for proton reduction in dimethylformamide. Compared with its homometallic congener (Cp*3Mo3S4), cobalt incorporation improves activity by lowering the overpotential for proton reduction, consistent with the contrasting catalytic performance of MoS2 and its Co-doped derivative. Isolation of the reduced form of Cp*3CoMo2S4 and subsequent reactivity studies provide insight into the reaction pathway. These findings establish Cp*3CoMo2S4 as a molecular model for extended sulfide materials.

Congrats @kayekuphal.bsky.social on an exciting collaboration with the @matsonlab.bsky.social, exploring some really cool cluster chemistry with electrocatalysis! 👏🎉

Check out their latest work here!
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Cheering on Hafsa Irfan for her summer internship at Biogen, North Carolina, where she contributed to drug development and analysis. Way to go Hafsa!! 👏👩‍🔬

Shout-out to @karishma11.bsky.social for being awarded the Samuel A. and Ellen F. Lattimore Department Fellowship this year!! Huge congrats!! ✨🙌

Kudos to Alana Huynh for receiving the Robert and Marian Flaherty DeRight Department Fellowship this year!! Well done!!🥂👏

Kara Brem giving her talk

Kara Brem gives the second plenary of the morning on bionanosystems for solar hydrogen production #ISF2025

Congratulations Ellen! @matsonlab.bsky.social

My quote of the day

Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.

Haile Selassie

ICBIC 2025, Long Beach California Join the prestigious International Conference on Biological Inorganic Chemistry (ICBIC) in Long Beach, California in 2025. Discover the latest advancements in the field of biological inorganic chemist...

The International Conference on Biological Inorganic Chemistry (ICBIC) is taking place in Long Beach, CA from July 28 - Aug 1! There is still time to register and submit an abstract! www.icbic21.org

My quote of the day

A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.

Colin Powell

End of Quals season celebration in the Bren Lab!

Alana and Karishma passed their 2nd year oral exam!!!🎉

Group of five people at a conference

@brenlab.bsky.social at CanBIC-9

University of Rochester (@urochester.bsky.social) Official Bluesky account for the University of Rochester A University of thinkers, makers, researchers, performers, healers—pushing boundaries to Make the World #EverBetter About Us: https://www.roch...

We are very happy to welcome Prof. Tom Driver to the @urochester.bsky.social chemistry faculty starting July 1 2025! He will be bringing his expertise in synthetic methodology and drug development while enhancing our high-throughput experimentation capabilities. www.sas.rochester.edu/chm/people/f...

This #ChemSciHOT article from Ellen Matson looks at how the location of a dopant dictates the proton–coupled electron transfer mechanism in vanadium-substituted polyoxotungstates and it's also part of our 15th anniversary community collection! Read the full paper online now: doi.org/10.1039/D4SC...

A quote on a red background, "... consensus ... is not the result of opinion polls ... or a negotiated agreement ...." Attributed to H. Holden Thorp, Editor-in-chief, Science journals.

"One concept that creates misunderstanding is 'scientific consensus.' It’s time to stop using this shorthand and make clear what it really means," argues @holdenthorp.bsky.social in a new #ScienceEditorial. scim.ag/4jH2WxK

Congratulations!

YouTube video by Espo Sports and Movie clips Purple Rain purify yourself in Lake Minnetonka

Purple Rain. youtu.be/S38O7MB8Dwk?...

Communicating science for advocacy March 25, 2025 | 3 p.m. Eastern

Scientists – interested in ways to share your work to non-scientists and decision makers? Please join this webinar on Tues Mar 25 3PM ET from @asbmb.bsky.social, where I'll be joined by @amyjhawkins.bsky.social (U Utah) and Sean Gallagher (AAAS). Register at www.asbmb.org/meetings-eve...

Why AI won’t replace scientists capable of making disruptive conceptual breakthroughs - they pose questions that challenge, rather than align with, the training data set

thomwolf.io/blog/scienti...

Opinion | Sorry, R.F.K.: There Is No Autism Mystery Greater awareness, not vaccines, has driven an increase in diagnoses.

Excited to have an op-ed in the @nytimes.com today about rising rates of autism diagnosis, how that fits my own experiences, and why it's a bad idea to relitigate the vaccine debate. #actuallyautistic @ericmgarcia.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/03/20/o...

Way to go!!!

Amphiphilic, phosphonic acid-capped cadmium selenide quantum dots sensitize a thiomolybdate catalyst for hydrogen production Combining a molecular thiomolybdate cluster, [Mo3S13]2−, with cadmium selenide quantum dots capped with tetraethyleneglycol monomethyl ether phosphonate (TEGPA) ligands results in a highly active…

Take a look at another article by members of the #ChemSky community:

'Amphiphilic, phosphonic acid-capped cadmium selenide quantum dots sensitize a thiomolybdate catalyst for hydrogen production'

@karabren.bsky.social, @brenlab.bsky.social, @matsonlab.bsky.social

Open access in @chemicalscience.rsc.org !

I'm pleased to share our latest paper with our wonderful collaborators in the Lombardi lab on a biocatalyst for selective CO2 reduction: pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

Were you fired by President Trump? | House Committee on Science, Space and Technology The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology

democrats-science.house.gov/sciencefirings