Anderson Lab at UChicago Chemistry

UChicago Chemistry Alum Lucas Berard (SB '25) Extends University’s 20-Year Fulbright Legacy As one of only five College graduates currently conducting Fulbright research abroad, Berard is utilizing synthetic chemistry in Vienna to tackle the global crisis of antibiotic resistance.

Celebrating 20 years of @UChicago Fulbright excellence! 🎓

Chemistry alum Lucas Berard (SB '25) is in Vienna using synthetic chemistry to silence superbugs. 🧪🇦🇹

Read how our graduates are synthesizing the future: lnkd.in/gR6HS-35

#UChicago #Fulbright #STEM

Privileged to get to work with this fantastic group of female scientists this international day of women and girls in science as well as every day.

Congratulations to Professor Bozhi Tian on receiving the 2026 Marian and Stuart Rice Research Award! Designed to support innovative research ventures, this $100,000 award recognizes Professor Tian’s groundbreaking work in bioelectronic medicine. physicalsciences.uchicago.edu/news/article...

Congratulations to Justin Caram (UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry), Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar, on receiving an inaugural Research Corporation for Science Advancement Bridge Award!

https://www.chemistry.ucla.edu/news/justin-caram-receives-an-inaugural-rcsa-bridge-award/

Sergey Pronin (UC Irvine) “New Methods & Strategies in the Synthesis of Natural Products” Studies in the synthesis of terpenoid natural products and how they ins...

Welcome back PhD alum Sergey Pronin (’10) this Friday! The UC Irvine professor returns to Kent 120 (12:45pm) to share his latest work in synthesis.

events.uchicago.edu/chem/event/2...

Honored to be featured by ChemSci! I always love reviewing and try my hardest to make sure my reviews are of high quality (which has definitely been a learning process).

The federal government is murdering our neighbors in broad daylight and carrying out a mission of terror against the Twin Cities. Schools and businesses are closed and people are staying home because they’re afraid of ICE. This is America in 2026: at war against its own people.

Catalytically competent nickel(I)–isocyanide compounds for cross-coupling reactions Nature Catalysis, Published online: 14 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41929-025-01473-9Nickel-catalysed cross-coupling reactions generally use Ni(II) or Ni(0) precatalysts. Here the authors report thermally stable dinuclear Ni(I) complexes with commercial isocyanide ligands for the efficient catalysis in Kumada, Suzuki–Miyaura and Buchwald–Hartwig cross-coupling reactions.

New online! Catalytically competent nickel(I)–isocyanide compounds for cross-coupling reactions

Managing Director Department PSD Chemistry: Staff Leadership About the Department One of the first departments founded at the University of Chicago was the Department of Chemistry. Since its inception, the Department o...

The University of Chicago Department of Chemistry is currently seeking a Managing Director to Lead Department of Chemistry Operations.

Follow the link for full job description, qualifications and benefits- tinyurl.com/3p3r8rn9

Scanning nitrogen in sp3-rich scaffolds enabled by carbonyl-to-nitrogen atom swap Abstract: Saturated nitrogen heterocycles (SNHs) are prevalent in small-molecule drugs, and the position of the nitrogen atom strongly influences biological activity and physicochemical properties of ...

The Guangbin Dong lab just introduced a precise "atom swap" method to exchange carbonyl oxygen for nitrogen in sp³-rich scaffolds, renewing how we approach nitrogen scanning, from laborious multi-step reconstructions to direct skeletal editing. Read more: shorturl.at/zOTDH

Correlating Protein Dynamics and Catalytic Activity of a Model Hydrogenase Using Paramagnetic and Biological Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Rational catalyst design remains a significant challenge, with electronic structure, steric, and electrostatic effects known to contribute to activity. Recently, dynamics has been recognized as anothe...

Congratulations to Henry & all-- major thanks to the PNNL & OSU teams! This was a true collaborative effort that we're excited to see out. Give it a read if you're interested in paramagnetic Ni NMR, regular NMR, or catalyst dynamics-- there's even some machine learning! pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Top reaction scheme shows iminoanilines converting to 2H indazoles through FeCl3-catalyzed dehydrocoupling. Bottom scheme shows how N-N coupling can be used as a skeletal editing route to carry out CH for NR swaps in common bioactive indoles.

N-N coupling through Fe-catalyzed N-H dehydrocoupling! Check out our latest V2 on chemrxiv where we show you can catalyze PCET reactions using mild reagents below the thermodynamic limit of initial H• abstraction, make hard-to-access 2H-indazoles, and even skeletal edit! chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...

Smiling man in a striped shirt stands against a muted background. Text overlay reads: "Controlling innate immunity, from the bench to the bedside." A geometric logo sits above the text.

From vaccines to quantum research, UChicago PME Prof. Aaron Esser-Kahn is pioneering ways to harness the body’s innate immunity that makes vaccines safer and more effective – while lending his expertise to cutting-edge quantum research. #Engineering #Science

ms.spr.ly/63324tU33e

Ashley Arcidiacono, PhD, (2023 #AOBPostdoc), Camille Bridgewater (2022 #BSP) and Sarah King, PhD, (2020 #BYI) jointly #published in JACS: "Watching Polarons Dance: Coherent Carrier Phonon Coupling in Hematite Revealed by Transient Absorption Spectroscopy." https://ow.ly/T3Ea50XHV77

Telecom-Luminescent and Room Temperature Coherent Tetrathiafulvalene-Based Qubits in Spin-Rich Solids One of the main challenges facing quantum information science (QIS) is the development of robust qubits that can be operated under ambient conditions. Current state-of-the-art anionic nitrogen-vacancy...

Excited to share our and first-author Lauren's last paper of 2025. This is a big advance for TTFtt-based qubits, demonstrating spin coherence in a concentrated crystal and showing the first evidence for optical spin-polarization and spin-dependent relaxation.

pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

Organelles do NOT have a single uniform pH.
And if you think they must, because “protons diffuse fast,” this paper is for you.
A thread on why that assumption is wrong; and what we found instead. 🧵 1/n

Bozhi Tian, The Artistic Scientist - The People Issue 2025 - Chicago Reader Bozhi Tian, the artistic scientist, believes passionately in the role of imagination in scientific advancement.

Prof. Bozhi Tian is changing lives with his creative approach to medical technology. His team is inventing new devices—including flexible skin patches that use living cells to heal, and light-driven pacemakers—that are making healthcare smarter and more personal.

Chuan He listens to the quiet chemistry of RNA. Small molecular marks, vast biological consequences. Professor of Chemistry, University of Chicago. @nationalacademies.org

Nobel Laureate Jack Szostak has spent his life circling one of the oldest questions in science. How does life begin. Not as metaphor, but as chemistry that somehow learns to copy itself and change. @nationalacademies.org @krishnanyamuna.bsky.social More: explorers.com/jack-szostak/

Professor @krishnanyamuna.bsky.social builds molecular reporters that survive inside living cells to send back data. Her inspired work at U of Chicago shows us the chemical maps of our own biology. It is delicate work with heavy implications. She is watching life happen from the inside out.

Molecular organohalides as general precursors for direct synthesis of two-dimensional transition metal carbide MXenes - Nature Synthesis Ti-, Zr- and Nb-based MXenes with Cl, Br or mixed terminations can be synthesized by a bottom-up, atom-economic route directly from metals and molecular organohalides. The reactivity of organohalide p...

Now online:

Article by Dmitri V. Talapin & co-workers

Molecular organohalides as general precursors for direct synthesis of two-dimensional transition metal carbide MXenes

www.nature.com/articles/s44... ($)
#Chemsky

PANCS-spec-Binders: A system for rapidly discovering isoform- or epitope-specific binders Proteins that bind to a target protein of interest, termed "binders," are essential components of biological research reagents and therapeutics. Target proteins present multiple binding surfaces with ...

Check out our newest work! This is a story on how to get selectivity in binders - both isoform and site selectivity. Read the paper or enjoy this brief Skytorial of what we did!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

1/n

Wishing the happiest of birthdays to our very good friend Harry Gray, PhD, from all of us at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation!

Manipulating dynamic covalent bonds through direct photoisomerization The wide availability, ease of manipulation, and access to spatiotemporal control make light an attractive stimulus for controlling dynamic covalent chemistries/networks. In this work, a series of pho...

Published in Chemical Science, the Stuart Rowan and Scott Snyder labs at UChicago have found a way to instantly control material stiffness using light! 💡 They manipulate polymer bonds (DCCs) with a new strategy for on-demand stiffening. ➡️ See the work: doi.org/10.1039/D5SC...

The Reticular Revolution: UChicago Chemists Move from Discovery to Design with Metal-Organic Frameworks Harnessing Atomic-Level Precision and Computational Intelligence to Build Materials of the Future

Following the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry recognizing the monumental impact of Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs), UChicago Chemists are leading the effort to custom-build materials atom by atom, fundamentally defining the future of the New Energy Economy.

Led by Frederick George Keyes Professor of Chemistry Danna Freedman, the MIT Quantum Initiative is taking shape, leveraging quantum breakthroughs to drive the future of scientific and technological progress.

chemistry.mit.edu/chemistry-ne...

Thank you so much for this support! This is coming at a critical time for us and the community. We are extremely grateful.

Above the Energy Gap Law: Heavy Chalcogenide Substitution in NIR II-Emissive Diradicaloid Qubits Near-infrared (NIR, 700–1700 nm)- and telecom (∼1260–1625 nm)-emissive molecules are good candidates for biological imaging and quantum sensing applications, respectively; however, bright low energy e...

NIR lumiphores, now with more Se! Check out the groups latest paper in @pubs.acs.org Central Science. Lauren showed us how you can expand the use of heavy chalcogenides to shift emission deep into the NIR-II region (>1300 nm) while keeping good PLQYs.

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

UChicago scientists create novel, ultrathin material to make transistors Molecule and semiconductor combination could open new avenues for technology, discovery

Published in @science.org, UChicago's Jiwoong Park Group has made a molecular engineering advance, creating a novel, ion-coupled bilayer transistor that precisely controls electricity at the atomic level. Their work promises improved efficiency for future electronics. Read more: shorturl.at/EeBpJ

Do you study lipids or lipidation, but don't know where to send your newest work?

Send us your fat papers, phat papers, and even phatty acid papers. While the special issue is not saturated, it's filling up fast, and won't be unsaturated forever!

Phase separate with us and build community!