Program

The 2025 program is now available for Download. This year's Keynote presentation is Osvaldo Gutierrez - “Development of Fe-catalyzed Radical Cross-coupling Reactions”,

Conference Schedule

Session A (Rm 1001) 9:30 am – noon (Chemical Biology)

A1. PsychedelCLicKs – Understanding Mechanism of Action through Clickable Psychedelics

Amy Chabroux, Andras Domokos, Lauren S. Arias, Arabo A. Avanes, Joseph Benetatos, Loren L. Looger, David E. Olson

A2. Structure-Activity Relationships of Ibogaine Derivatives: Targeting SERT for Anti-Addiction Therapeutics

Abinaya Senthil, Arabo A. Avanes, Andras Domokos, Amy Chabroux, David E. Olson

A3. Identification and Verification of ADAR Guide Strands for Difficult-to-Edit Sequence Contexts

Anthony D. Surkov, Natalie M. Dugan, Prince J. Salvador, Casey S. Jacobsen, Peter A. Beal

A4. Discovery of ADAR Guide RNAs via Large Library Screen for Correcting the C-Terminal MeCP2 Frameshift Mutation Linked to Rett Syndrome

Isaac Yang, Prince Salvador, Sherry Lin, Megan Chinn, Sukanya Mozumder, Victorio Jauregi-Matos, Peter A. Beal

A5. Structural and Functional Characterization of Hydra vulgaris ADAR

Srinidhi Venkatesh, Dr. Sukanya Mozumder, Andrew Fisher

A6. Exploring dsRBDs Binding Domains Through Site-Directed Mutagenesis

Queenie Nguyen, Ysabella Mello, Sukanya Mozumder, Peter A. Beal, Andrew J. Fisher

A7. Developing a Robust and Modular Plasmid Toolkit to Assess Biosynthetic Pathways in E. coli

Yuma Mizutani, Alex McGill, Shota Atsumi

A8. Efficient and Effective, E. Coli: Unlocking Rare Sugar Biosynthesis

Mohan Singhal, Dileep Sai Kumar Palur, Bryant Luu, Jayce E. Taylor, John Didzbalis. Justin B. Siegel, Shota Atsumi

A9. Characterizing C-peptide and Serum Albumin Protein Aggregation Using Single-Molecule, Super-Resolution Fluorescence Microscopy

Ryan Hauss, Emily Liu, Justine Renata Reyes Retana Lopez, Estely Carranza, Marie Heffern, Whitney Duim

A10. Supercomplexes at the Origin of Eukaryotes

Malik Hassan, Andrew Hale, James A. Letts

A11. Effects of Chaotropes and Kosmotropes on the Catalysis of Aspartate Aminotransferase and D-Serine Deaminase

Jackson Englade, Luc-Tanton Tran, Lindsay Liu, Michael D. Toney

Session B (Rm 1002) 9:30 am – noon (Organic/Inorganic Chemistry)

B1. Electrochemical Synthesis of ZnO/Cu₂O Thin Films for Photovoltaic Applications

Alexander Mardar, Zainab Najaf, Frank E. Osterloh

B2. Strain-Release Pentafluorosulfanylation: Enabling the Synthesis of SF5-Containing Drug Derivatives to Explore Concepts in "Hybrid Bioisosterism"

Ansh Hiten Patel, Jón Atiba Buldt, Cody Ross Pitts

B3. A Novel Exploration: Determining the Effects of Cu Doping in EuZn2-xCuxSb2

Zane Harlan, Chris Miramontez, Susan Kauzlarich

B4. Syntheses and Electron Transfer Reactions of Cationic Redox-Active Bis(imino)pyridine Aluminum (III) Complexes for Non-Aqueous Redox Flow Batteries

Trevor Houchins, Samuel Bhutto, Louise Berben

B5. Evaluating Ligand Effects on Lewis Acidity and Catalytic Potential in Aluminum Diiminepyridine Complexes

Rhea Dhalla, Rohit Kumar, Louise Berben

B6. Synthesis and Electron Transfer Reaction of a Redox-Active Aluminum Complex

RéJenai Cloy, Louise Berben

B7. Synthesis of Neuraminidase Inhibitor-based Probes For Efficient Isolation of Influenza Virus

Maya Santos, Erick Munoz, Anand Kumar Agrahari, Xi Chen

B8. Design, Synthesis, and Evaluation of N,N-Dimethyltryptamine Analogs for Hallucinogenic Potential

Wyatt E. Burns, Anna M. M. Vernier, David E. Olson

B9. Synthesis of Novel Ionizable Silyl Lipid Nanoparticles and Evaluation for Nucleic Acid Delivery

Wendy Tran, Leah Patterson, Annaliese Franz

B10. Perpetual Biomanufacturing of Viral Particles by Cyborg Mammalian Cells

Nhu Bui, Jared Lee-Kin, Cheemeng Tan

Session C (Rm 1003) 9:30 am – noon (Physical/Analytical/Computational Chemistry)

C1. Rotational Spectroscopy of Radical Derivatives of Cyanopropene

Madison R. Smith, Chisom Adaobi-Dim Tiu, Kyle N. Crabtree

C2. Rotational Spectroscopy and Interpretation of Triethylphosphine

Gwendolyn Dillon, Daniel Farb, Kyle N. Crabtree

C3. Velocity Map Imaging of Haloalkanes

Caroline Olivia Talavera, Jonathan Tsao, Ruaridh Forbes

C4. Improving the Computational Efficiency of Geometry Optimization for Larger Systems

Emma Leff, Lee-Ping Wang

C5. Investigation of the Hall effect in Mn2P

Siyi Xu, Yunshu Shi, Xiangdong Zhu, Valentin Taufour

C6. Does Change of Glycosylation Affect Cellular Metabolism

Jaime F. Silva, Riya Gogte, Michael Russelle Alvarez, Carlito B. Lebrilla

C7. Tissue and Serum Glycoproteomics Using Advanced LC-MS/MS Methods Reveal Glycopeptide Biomarkers for Glioblastoma and Meningioma

Anirudh Yadlapati, Michael Russelle Alvarez, Atit Silsirivanit, Riya Gogte, Carlito B. Lebrilla

C8. Characterization of Nicotinamidase Intermediates via SABRE-based NMR and EPR Spectroscopy

Isabella Acosta, Melissa M. Bollmeyer, Angela A. Shiau, R. David Britt

C9. Structural Analysis of the L-type Voltage-gated Calcium Channel (CaV1.2) C-terminal Proximal and Distal Domains

Kyoka Ide, Effibe O. Ahoulou, Deepak K. Yadav, David E. Anderson, Aritra Bej, James B. Ames

C10. Establishing targeted contrast agents for 19F MRI of tumor immune cells

Ashley Scott, Lauren Ohman, Angelique Louie

Keynote Address 1:15 AM – 2:15 PM: Prof Osvaldo Gutierrez

 (Professor in Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCLA)

Abstract: Osvaldo was born in Mexico and raised in Sacramento, California. He attended Sacramento City College and transferred to UCLA in 2006 where he worked as an undergraduate at the laboratories of Prof. Houk where his research focused on the use of quantum mechanical calculations to study organocatalysis. He obtained his B.S./M.S. in 2009 and completed his Ph.D. in 2012 (UC Davis) under the guidance of Prof. Tantillo. From 2012-2016 he worked as a postdoc with Prof. Kozlowski at the University of Pennsylvania where he used computational and experimental tools to study transition metal-catalyzed processes. In 2016 he started his independent position at the University of Maryland College Park as an Assistant Professor, and then promoted to Associate Professor in Summer 2021. In the Fall 2021, he moved to Texas A&M University where he recently got promoted to Full Professor (Fall 2024). In January 2025, he returned to UCLA as Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and as the inaugural UCLA’s CSRC Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) Senior Director of STEM. His research combined computational and experimental approaches to advance our understanding of iron- and photo-catalyzed reaction mechanisms. In addition to research interests, Osvaldo is involved in a series of initiatives to increase diversity in STEM including serving as president of the Alliance for Diversity in Science and Engineering (ADSE) and organizer of the annual Young Researchers Conference (YRC) and Breaking Barriers Through Chemistry (BBTC) and, as HSI STEM Director, leads efforts at UCLA to implement and champion HSI STEM initiatives that promote undergraduate student, graduate student, and faculty success in wide-ranging STEM fields with a focus on Latina/o/x equity and inclusion.

In his seminar, Prof Gutierrez will present high-level quantum mechanical calculations, rigorously calibrated against experimental data, to interrogate the mechanisms and to guide the development of new catalysts and reagents for currently sluggish or unselective reactions. In particular, he will focus on our use of combined experimental and computational tools to understand and develop new (asymmetric) iron-catalyzed decoupled cross-coupling reactions. The title of his seminar is “Development and Understanding Fe-Catalyzed Radical Cross-Coupling Reactions”.