Update: The application for the Summer Research Program is now open!
Our next seminar is Wednesday, April 5th, 2:00-3:30PM via Zoom.
All seminars are listed here.
We are still in the process of selecting presenters for the spring semester and more seminars will be added to the schedule. *Unless otherwise specified, the seminars listed below will be held in the Highland Campus Accelerator in CR-1101 from 6:00PM-7:30PM on the day listed. Refreshments will be provided. Please continue to visit this page for updates.
Seminar Schedule:
Thursday, February 16th: Professor Hang Ren | UT Austin | Department of Chemistry
Thursday, March 9th: Professor Huiliang (Evan) Wang | UT Austin | Cellular and Biomolecular Engineering
Wednesday, March 22nd: Professor Jonathan Sessler | UT Austin | Department of Chemistry
Wednesday, April 5th: Professor Christy Landes | Rice University | Department of Chemistry
(*From 2:00-3:30PM, via Zoom online)
Thursday, April 20th: Professor Kami Hull | UT Austin | Department of Chemistry
Refreshments are provided for each seminar by courtesy of the ACC Chemistry Society.
Spring 2023 - CREATE Seminar Series
Arrival at HLC
Parking for CREATE seminars is available in the visitor parking lot near the corner of Highland Mall Blvd and Jonathan Dr.
Please use the East Entrance of Building 1000 and proceed down the Social Staircase. The Accelerator will be on the right.
Please click the maps to expand them.
For more info, please contact CREATE@cm.utexas.edu
Wednesday, March 22nd from 6:00-7:30
Professor Jonathan L Sessler | Professor | Biomedical Engineering
"Texas-Inspired Drug Discovery Efforts"
This lecture will present the development of expanded porphyrins as potential drug leads. The presentation will begin with a personal story of a 3x cancer survivor and how with the assistance of great coworkers and collaborators an effort has been made to fight back against this disease by studying the chemistry and anti-cancer biology of gadolinium(III) texaphyrins.
Texaphyrins were the first of the so-called expanded porphyrins--larger analogues of heme pigments--to stabilize a 1:1 complex with a metal cation. Subsequently, and continuing as a focus today, an effort has been made in our laboratories and those of
many others to create additional expanded porphyrins. Hundreds
are now known. Several from our laboratory have proved useful at
stabilizing actinide cation complexes.
Recently, efforts have been made to create so-called immunogenic
cell death promoters designed to prevent cancer recurrence based
on redox-active gold(I) carbenes. An introduction to this new
research direction will be included in this lecture, as well new work
involving the development of expanded porphyrins and ExJade as
ligands for the lanthanides and actinides.
Thursday, March 9th from 6:00-7:30
Professor Huiliang (Evan) Wang | Assistant Professor | Biomedical Engineering
"Ultrasound triggered liposome light source for noninvasive optogenetics"
Optogenetics has revolutionized neuroscience understanding by allowing spatiotemporal control over cell-type specific neurons in neural circuits. However, visible light cannot be directly delivered to deep brain tissue, due to the severe dissipation and scattering of photons. As a result, invasive craniotomy is usually required to implant optical fibers in the brain for in vivo optogenetic stimulation, resulting in permanent damage and chronic gliosis in brain tissue. To achieve non-invasive optogenetics with high temporal resolution and excellent biocompatibility, we have developed focused ultrasound triggered nanoscopic light sources (Lipo@IR780/L012) for deep brain photon delivery. Synchronized and stable blue light emission was generated under FUS irradiation
due to the activation of chemiluminescent L012 via nearby
reactive oxygen species generated by IR780. In vitro tests
revealed that Lipo@IR780/L012 could be triggered by FUS
for light emission at different frequencies and hence
activate opsin-expressing spiking HEK cells under the FUS
irradiation. In vivo optogenetic stimulation further
demonstrated that motor cortex neurons could be
noninvasively and reversibly activated under the repetitive
FUS stimulation after i.v. injection of lipid nanoparticles to
achieve limb motions control.
Thursday, February 16th from 6:00-7:30
Professor Hang Ren | Assistant Professor | Department of Chemistry
"Revealing the heterogeneity in metal dissolution reaction via colocalized electrochemical and structural imaging"
Electrochemical metal dissolution reactions are fundamentally important in battery and corrosion processes. Their kinetics is highly dependent on surface structures and the presence of passive films. In this talk, I will present the study on the initiation of metal dissolution reactions on Ag and Ni, representing model systems for oxide-free and oxide-covered metals, respectively. The local dissolution kinetics is voltammetrically mapped via scanning electrochemical cell microscopy (SECCM). Co-localized characterization of crystal orientation reveals slower dissolution on {111} close-packed
planes. The local dissolution kinetics on grain boundaries
can also be directly measured, which shows a faster
dissolution rate on some but not all grain boundaries. The
dependence of passive film breakdown on the thickness of
the passive film is also revealed, which is obtained from
colocalized TOF-SIMS mapping. We demonstrate that
correlative electrochemical and structural imaging are
powerful tools for studying heterogeneity at complex
electrochemical interfaces.