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Molecular solutions
to real-life challenges
We’re transcending scientific boundaries to address societal challenges
The traditional disciplines of chemistry and biochemistry are evolving and maturing. In response, the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Arizona State University has reorganized into the new School of Molecular Sciences. The School is defining a new approach to research and academics in the molecular sciences and creating a use-inspired environment in which to train a new generation of undergraduate and graduate students for success in an increasingly post-disciplinary scientific world.
In the News
September 19, 2018
O'Keeffe wins Aminoff Prize in crystallography
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has announced that ASU Regents' Professor O’Keeffe and Yaghi, of the University of California, Berkeley, have won the prestigious Gregori Aminoff Prize in Crystallography for 2019, “for their fundamental contributions to the development of reticular chemistry."
July 19, 2018
Stephanopoulos receives NSF CAREER Award
Nick Stephanopoulos, assistant professor in Arizona State University's School of Molecular Sciences and member of the Biodesign Institute’s Center for Molecular Design and Biomimetics, has been named as a recipient of a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award.
April 11, 2018
Two SMS juniors win Goldwater Scholarship
Arizona State University juniors Humza Zubair and Meilin Zhu have won Goldwater Scholarships, the most prestigious national award for undergraduates in math, science and engineering. They are both are both students in the School of Molecular Sciences and Barrett, The Honors College.
Our Programs, Students and Faculty
Students receive a strong background in modern chemistry and biochemistry in a use-inspired environment that prepares them for a wide variety of careers. Students can also get involved in transdisciplinary research and learn how molecular science addresses contemporary societal problems.
Graduate students in the School of Molecular Sciences train in fundamental molecular science and learn how to contribute to important mission-based research from the molecular perspective. Our programs are designed to train students to be leaders in contemporary molecular science.
The faculty in the School of Molecular Sciences include the best in their fields. Our faculty have a strong track record and international reputation for interdisciplinary work that extends the traditional boundaries of chemistry and biochemistry, and for publications in the highest-level scientific journals.
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Energy Efficient Carbon Dioxide Sequestration
In response to global warming, sequestration of carbon dioxide is an issue of high technological importance. Existing thermally activated methods to chemically trap and release carbon dioxide have a high energy cost, which limits their utility. ASU researchers have developed a new method for trap and release of carbon dioxide that is electrochemically activated. Trap and release process is reversible over many cycles, and both reactions occur rapidly with no energetic requirement. The work from the research groups of Ian Gould and Dan Buttry was published recently in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.5b02220
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Mechanism of Action of the First Membrane-Integral Kinase Determined Using XFEL
The mechanism of the action of diacylgylcerol has been determined in a joint project between scientists at ASU and Trinity College Dublin. Diacylglycerol is the smallest known kinase and is one of the research targets for the NIH funded Center for Membrane Proteins in Infectious Diseases at ASU. The structures of a complex showing the enzyme in action, the wild type enzyme and several mutants were determined using the X-ray free-electron laser nanocrystallography. The work included contributions from Petra Fromme and Wei Liu's research group and was published in Nature Communications. doi:10.1038/ncomms10140
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ASU Team Develops Rapid Method for Determination of Bacterial Antibiotic Resistance
The resistance of bacteria to antibiotics is a growing issue in health care. Conventional methods of determining bacteria's antibiotic resistance in a patient often takes days. ASU scientists have now developed a technique that can sort antibiotic-resistant from "susceptible" bacteria in a matter of minutes. The new technology uses microscale electric field gradients, acting on extremely small samples in a microscopically small channel in a chip made from glass and silicone polymer. The microchannel features sawtooth shapes that allow researchers to sort and concentrate microbes based on their unique electrical properties. The work from the Mark Hayes research group was recently published in The Analyst. doi: 10.1039/C5AN00906E
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ASU Scientists Determine Structure of Important Drug Target Using Groundbreaking Approach
Using femtosecond crystallography, a revolutionary new technology for structural biology, ASU researchers in collaboration with an international team of researchers obtained the structure of the signaling protein arrestin when bound to the G protein-coupled receptor rhodopsin. The ASU researchers were involved in the crystallization and biophysical characterization of the rhodopsin-arrestin constructs and crystals, X-ray data collection and evaluation, as well as development of the devices that deliver the stream of nanocrystals. The work included contributions from Petra Fromme's group and was recently published in Nature. doi:10.1038/nature14656
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Novel Structures Built from DNA Emerge
DNA origami allows endlessly varied molecular forms to be constructed in multiple dimensions. In a new study in Nature Nanotechnology from the Hao Yan and Yan Liu research groups, complex nano-forms displaying arbitrary wireframe architectures were created using new design rules. "Earlier design methods used strategies including parallel arrangement of DNA helices to approximate arbitrary shapes, but precise fine-tuning of DNA wireframe architectures that connect vertices in 3D space has required a new approach," Yan says. doi: 10.1038/nnano.2015.162
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ASU Scientists Trace Cancer-Causing Chemical in Drinking Water Back to Methadone
ASU scientists have found that methadone can enter waterways from environmental waste and pose a health risk. The danger of methadone waste doesn't come from the drug itself, but from a chemical reaction with a common wastewater disinfectant that forms the carcinogen N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA). NDMA is commonly found in drinking water well above the health reference level for cancer, and is of current concern to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The work from the Pierre Herckes lab and Paul Westerhoff from Environmental Engineering was published in Environmental Science & Technology Letters and was also discussed on the PBS website and in newshour. doi:10.1021/acs.estlett.5b00096
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Protein Interactions Enhance Activity of an Oxygen-tolerant, H2 Producing Catalyst
ASU researchers have designed a new biohybrid catalyst for the production of H2 by functionalizing myoglobin, a natural protein, with cobalt porphyrin. This work from Giovanna Ghirlanda's lab was recently featured on the inside cover of Chemical Communications . The hybrid catalyst, CoMyo, is able to efficiently function under aerobic conditions, a property uncommon to H2 production systems. Incorporation into myoglobin enhances the activity of the cobalt porphyrin 4 fold by providing critical secondary-shell interactions to the catalyst. doi:10.1039/C4CC06700B
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ASU Researchers Discover New Processing Pathway for Non-Coding RNA
The Julian Chen group recently reported a novel mechanism that processes the telomerase RNA precursor into its mature form. This mechanism is distinct from that employed in vertebrates and other eukaryotes. The fungal telomerase RNA precursor hijacks the machinery used to remove mRNA introns and blocks the joining of two RNA fragments by simply changing the first residue of the intron from G to A. As Chen says, "It's amazing how nature continues to surprise us by grabbing bits and pieces from other systems to make a new method for RNA processing." The work was recently published in Nature Communications. doi:10.1038/ncomms7105.
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Artificial Leaf Jumps Developmental Hurdle
ASU scientists together with colleagues at Argonne National Laboratory, have reported advances towards a functional artificial leaf that can generate hydrogen using light energy. Society requires a renewable source of hydrogen that is widely distributed, abundant, inexpensive and environmentally clean. "Initially, our artificial leaf did not work very well, and our diagnostic studies on why indicated that a step where a fast chemical reaction had to interact with a slow chemical reaction was not efficient," said Tom Moore. The group took a closer look at how nature had overcome a related problem and designed an artificial relay based on the natural one and were rewarded with a major improvement. The work from the groups of Devens Gust, Ana Moore, Tom Moore and Vladimiro Mujica appeared in Nature Chemistry. doi:10.1038/nchem.1862
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Dielectrophoretic Sorting of Membrane Protein Nanocrystals
Femtosecond nanocrystallography is an emerging technique with which structural information of membrane proteins is obtained without the need to grow large crystals. ASU researchers have demonstrate a microfluidic device capable of sorting membrane protein crystals based on size using dielectrophoresis. Microfluidic integration, continuous sorting, and nanometer-sized crystal fractions make this method ideal for direct coupling to femtosecond nanocrystallography. The work from the groups of Alexandra Ros and Petra Fromme was published in ACS Nano. doi: 10.1021/nn402515q
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Earlier Detection of Bone Loss May be in the Future
NASA-funded research at ASU uses isotope analysis rather than X-ray for measurement of bone density. “Osteoporosis, a disease in which bones grow weaker, threatens more than half of Americans over age 50,” explained Ariel Anbar. The researchers report a new technique that is well known to earth scientists but is rarely used in biomedicine, where bone loss is detected by carefully analyzing the isotopes of the chemical element calcium that are naturally present in urine. “The paper suggests an exciting new approach to the problem,” said Rafael Fonseca, chair of the Department of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona. The work from Ariel Anbar's group was published in PNAS. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1119587109
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Untangling The Mysteries of Spider Silk
In collaboration with scientists at Argonne National Lab, ASU researchers have used high-energy X-rays to study the structure of orb spiders’ dragline silk, the chief thread that allows them to dangle precipitously off branches and window frames. "Spider silk has a unique combination of mechanical strength and elasticity that make it one of the toughest materials we know," said Jeff Yarger. Powerful X-ray techniques were used to provide detailed insights into both the amorphous and crystalline regions of the spider silk. The work from Jeff Yarger's group was recently published in Physical Review Letters. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.178102
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Photosystem 1 Photoinactivation Mechanism Revealed
Kevin Redding's group have characterized the photoinactivation process in the menD1 mutant of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii that cannot synthesize PhQ in Photosystem I. The addition of exogenous phylloquinone can restore activity to the photoinactivated photosystem and confer resistance to further photoinactivation. This process also occurs with PS1 purified from the menB phylloquinone biosynthesis mutant of Synechocystis PCC 6803, demonstrating that it is a general phenomenon in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic PS1. The work was published in Biochemistry. doi:10.1021/bi201131r
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DNA Packaging
Nucleosomes represent the basic unit of DNA packaging. Unwrapping the DNA from the histone core, unpackaging the DNA, is essential for gene expression, replication and repair of damaged regions of the DNA. ASU researchers in collaboration with scientists from Northwestern University have now measured the timescales for unpacking and repacking using fluorescence resonance energy transfer. Spontaneous unwrapping occurs roughly 4 times per second although nucleosomal DNA that is closer to the nucleosome core unpackages much slower. The work from the Marcia Levitus group was published in the Journal of Molecular Biology. doi:10.1016/j.jmb.2011.05.044
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Minerals Catalyze Fundamental Organic Chemical Reactions
Reactions among minerals and organic compounds in hydrothermal environments are critical components of the Earth's deep carbon cycle, they provide energy for the deep biosphere, and may have implications for the origins of life. However, very little is known about how minerals influence organic reactions. ASU researchers have now shown the mineral Sphalerite can catalyze a fundamental organic reaction of high technological interest, i.e. carbon-hydrogen bond activation. The reaction can be highly specific and requires only the mineral and hot water as the solvent. The work from the research groups of Hilairy Hartnett, Ian Gould and Everett Shock was published in PNAS. doi:10.1073/pnas.1324222111
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Molecules as Mini-Computers
A photochromic triad molecule has been developed by ASU scientists that acts as a unimolecular, multifunctional, and reconfigurable logic system and performs multiple binary functions including AND, XOR (exclusive OR), INH (inhibit), half-adder, half-subtractor, multiplexer, demultiplexer, encoder, decoder, keypad lock, and a logical reversible transfer gate. The achieved level of functional integration in a single molecular system through implementation of logic gate arrays without the need of physical gate-to-gate connections is unprecedented. The work from the research groups of Devens Gust, Ana Moore and Tom Moore was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. doi:10.1021/ja045577l
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Energy innovation: Tapping the power of the sun
Gary Moore, assistant professor in the School of Molecular Sciences and a member of the Biodesign Institute’s Center for Applied Structural Discovery, with students Ana Bieler, Diana Khusnutdinova and Sam Jacob, has developed a new polymeric photocathode material that catalyzes conversion of water into hydrogen, thus combining solar energy capture, conversion and storage to generate into chemical fuels that can be used on demand. DOI: 10.1021/acsami.6b01557
