Organic/Inorganic/Materials Seminar Series
3rd Year Talks – Winter 2025
February 21, 2025
110 Willamette Hall
3:00pm – Ifra Ansari
Toward Long-Term Neuromodulation: Improving PEDOT:PSS for Stable Neural Interfaces
3:30pm – Allison LaSalvia
Oxidative addition of Si-X to Pd (0) complexes
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Physical Chemistry Seminar Series
Professor Marina Guenza, University of Oregon
February 17, 2024 —2:00pm
Tykeson 140
Research in the Guenza group
I will present an overview of the research in the Guenza group. The goal of our research is the design and implementation of theoretical approaches that coarse-grain structure and dynamics of molecular liquids. Our theoretical models are based on statistical mechanics and liquid state theory, and are applied to study a number of key systems and related questions in material science and biophysics.
Organic/Inorganic/Materials Seminar Series
3rd Year Talks – Winter 2025
February 14, 2025
110 Willamette Hall
3:00pm – Andrew Lee
Crown Ether Self-Assemblies, and Aqueous Anion Supramolecular Chemistry
3:30pm – Victor Salpino
Accessing Novel Carbon Materials using Post-Functional Transformations of [n]Cycloparaphenylenes Derivatives
Join us on Monday, February 10th from 5:30 – 7:00 pm in the Willamette Atrium for the 2025 Chemistry and Biochemistry Research Showcase!
The UO Chemistry Club will be hosting this annual event with FREE pizza, beverages, and a poster session – featuring faculty research and opportunities for undergrads.
Everyone is welcome to attend!
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Physical Chemistry Seminar Series
Professor James Prell, University of Oregon
February 10, 2025—2:00pm
Tykeson 140
Measuring Energy Landscapes for Biomolecules with Native Mass Spectrometry
Advances in instrumentation for structural biology and bioanalytical chemistry have enabled the study of ever larger and more dynamic biomolecules and biomolecular complexes. Native ion mobility-mass spectrometry offers advantages for interrogating small, heterogeneous, and dynamic samples while preserving much high-order structure even as analytes are transferred from buffered aqueous solution into the gas phase. Deliberate, precisely controlled heating of the resulting ions inside the mass spectrometer can result in collision-induced dissociation and/or unfolding (CID/U) of non-covalent complexes, revealing structural information that can be exceptionally difficult to access with conventional techniques. However, to date, a quantitative understanding of CID and CIU as a function of acceleration potentials, gas pressure and identity, and other factors has been lacking.
Our recently introduced software suite (IonSPA) can quantitatively predict ion heating, cooling, and motion in such experiments and be used to determine dissociation and unfolding barriers, which are crucial information for interpreting experimental data in terms of structures and chemical properties of the solution-phase biomolecules. We further show that this model can be used to reconcile data acquired using very different instrumentation from a variety of vendors, a key step in tethering these readily available experiments to a universal physical chemistry framework.
Organic/Inorganic/Materials Seminar Series
3rd Year Talks – Winter 2025
January 17, 2025
110 Willamette Hall
3:00pm – Christopher Griffin
Influence of Carboxylate-Pt (IV)-based Compounds on Nucleolar Response Pathways
3:30pm – Leif Lindberg
Platinum Compounds with Electronically Tunable Conjugated Ligands
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Physical Chemistry Seminar Series
Physical Chemistry Rotation Talks
Thursday, December 12, 2024
2:00pm in Pacific Hall, Room 30
Hosted by Julia Widom
SPEAKERS
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Organic/Inorganic/Materials Seminar Series
O-I-M Faculty Introductions – Fall 2024
Friday, December 6, 2024
3:00 pm, WIL 110
Christopher Hendon
Assistant Professor
Chemistry and Biochemistry
Hendon Lab
Celeste Melamed
Assistant Professor – Fall 2025
Chemistry and Biochemistry
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Physical Chemistry Seminar Series
Professor Andrew H. Marcus, University of Oregon
December 2, 2024 — 2:00pm
Tykeson 140
Title: Studies of local DNA structure and dynamics by nonlinear spectroscopy and single-molecule optical approaches
DNA contains the ‘genetic information’ that is encoded as specific DNA base sequences, and which is ‘read’ and ‘processed’ by proteins that interact with DNA at specific sites. The local conformations of DNA bases and sugar-phosphate backbones near single-stranded (ss) – double-stranded (ds) DNA junctions undergo thermally activated fluctuations (termed DNA ‘breathing’) within an unknown distribution of macrostates to permit the proper binding of proteins involved in core biochemical processes.
In this talk, I will discuss novel spectroscopic methods and analyses – both at the ensemble and single-molecule levels – to study structural and dynamic properties of exciton-coupled molecular dimer-labeled DNA constructs in which the dimer probes are inserted at key positions involved in protein-DNA complex assembly and function. The exciton-coupled dimer probes act as ‘sensors’ of the local conformations adopted by the DNA bases and backbones immediately adjacent to the probes. These methods can be used to study the biochemical mechanisms of protein-DNA recognition, complex assembly, and function in biological processes.
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Organic/Inorganic/Materials Seminar Series
Ben Bythell, Hazardous Materials Manager, Chemical Safety Officer
November 22, 2024
3:00 pm, WIL 110
Q & A Session to Follow
Hosted by the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
Title: Hazardous Waste Determinations and New TSCA Legislation at University of Oregon
New federal TSCA legislation for dichloromethane/ methylene chloride (DCM) requires the University of Oregon and other research-use employers to generate a monitoring program to ensure employee safety. I shall discuss why the law has changed, how the monitoring program will help keep you safe, and what this means for your research and teaching.
Hazardous waste determinations are legally required to occur at the point of generation, i.e., by the lab generator. Most labs do a great job of labeling hazardous waste containers with an accurately filled-in tag. Each lab (PI-responsible) must document how hazardous waste determinations occur for each major process. i.e., with SOPS, SDSs, and chemical knowledge. Dr. Bythell will guide you and your students through completing this process using an online form (~ 2 minutes to complete). I will cover how this reduces lab (PI and institutional) liability, how often to fill in the form, and how to avoid unnecessary work/duplication. Dr. Bythell will audit each of these hazardous waste determination documents promptly and provide PIs, students, and staff copies to show legal compliance has occurred.
