Chemistry & Biochemistry

Research Areas

• Analytical Chemistry


Analytical Chemistry at SDSU

The Analytical Chemistry Group at SDSU is led by faculty members with expertise in each of five major areas of analytical instrumentation and methodology: separations (Chris Harrison), magnetic resonance (Greg Holland), microfluidic assays (Juan Hu), and microscopy (Youngkwang Lee), and mass spectrometry (Laura-Isobel McCall), laser spectroscopy (William Tong).

These groups have a diverse range of interests coupled with these specialties:

• Harrison: capillary electrophoretic separations, with a focus on biologically important compounds;
• Holland: NMR spectroscopy and other approaches to analyze biological and biologically-inspired materials;
• Hu: microfluidic sampling to develop analytical techniques and models to study cell membrane permeability;
• Lee: spectroscopic biosensors that allow single-molecule analysis of signaling reactions and development of functional nanostructure/biomolecule hybrids;
• McCall: chemical cartography that allows whole-organism mapping to investigate disease causation and treatment;
• Tong: low detection limit studies of compounds with applications ranging from human health to homeland security.

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• Biochemistry


Biochemistry at SDSU

Research in the Biochemistry group includes studies of:

• molecular interactions in virus replication and activity (Rees Garmann).
• NF-κB regulation, muscle motors, and antibodies (Tom Huxford);
• protein design (John Love).
• biochemical mechanisms of human disease (Christal Sohl);
• transfer RNA biogenesis and disease (Manal Swairjo);
• signal transduction (Peter van der Geer);

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• Chemical Education


Chemical Education at SDSU

Chemical Education is the study of how we learn chemistry, whether it's physical concepts of matter, laboratory skills, pattern recognition in organic reaction mechanisms, or other tools and tricks that we use to acquire and pass on our understanding of molecular systems. Chemical education research at SDSU is carried out by:

• Regis Komperda's group studies the measurement of motivation, student and instructor strategies, and learning environment, all to help develop and quantitatively assess evidence-based teaching methods.

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• Inorganic Chemistry


Inorganic Chemistry at SDSU

The inorganic chemistry research program at SDSU includes investigations in environmental chemistry, the synthesis of optically active organometallics, and the characterization of bioinorganic compounds. Much of this work bridges the traditional divisions of inorganic, organic, and materials chemistry.

• Jing Gu (photoactive materials for renewable energy)
• Yong Yan (new materials for chemical catalysis)

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• Organic Chemistry


Organic Chemistry at SDSU

The study of organic chemistry at SDSU spans the development of new methodologies, synthesis of organometallic and organoboron compounds, bioorganic photoactivity, and catalysis. Research groups in this area at SDSU are listed below.

• Byron Purse: unnatural nucleosides, fluorescent probes, medicinal chemistry, self-assembly, molecular recognition
• B. Mikael Bergdahl: asymmetric total synthesis of natural products, organometallic chemistry, bioorganic chemistry and chiral synthesis with the emphasis on catalysis and asymmetric induction.
• Thomas Cole: boron/organometallic chemistry; computational organic chemistry.

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• Physical Chemistry


Physical Chemistry at SDSU

Physical Chemistry is the study of those fundamental laws that govern the behavior of all molecules. If you're a chemist, and you want to understand what you're doing, then you're a physical chemist. P-chem and p-chem-ish labs at SDSU include:

• Yuezhi Mao's group, developing computational methods, especially as related to noncovalent and weak interactions;
• David Pullman's group, studying chemistry of nanomaterials and surfaces by experimental and and computational methods;
• Andrew Cooksy's group, investigating the properties of reactive chemical intermediates in combustion, interstellar chemistry, and biochemistry;
• Greg Holland's group, using magnetic resonance spectroscopy to probe the properties of biomaterials.

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