Welcome to the Chemistry and Biochemistry Graduate Program at UToledo!
Our Ph.D. program, one of the largest in Ohio, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2018. The achievements of our students are recognized nationally and internationally. We offer unique research opportunities and our research programs aim to explore challenging scientific questions in various fields of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
We provide you with a comprehensive selection of research programs, including Analytical, Biological and Biochemical, Inorganic, Materials, Organic, Physical, Photo and Cellular Chemistry. Our faculty members are highly recognized nationally and internationally for their quality of research, and our Department is equipped with cutting-edge instrumentation.
Currently, 90 excellent graduate students are part of our program, annually publishing approximately 50 peer-reviewed manuscripts in highly respected journals.
The success of our students is our top priority!
- November 2019: Kazi Lingkon in Dr. John Bellizzi's group purified, characterized and determined the crystal structure of a thermophilic halogenating enzyme from a soil bacteria natural product biosynthetic gene cluster with potential applications for regioselective aryl halide synthesis (https://doi.org/10.1002/cbic.201900667).
- August 2019: Heidi Fresenius and Dr. Matthew highlighted Dr. Wohlever's in-vitro assay for monitoring protein extraction from a lipid bilayer in their recent review. ("Sorting out how Msp1 maintains mitochondrial membrane proteostasis": https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mito.2019.07.011).
- June 2019: Abhishek Vartak of Dr. Sucheck's group synthesized an immunotherapeutic that protected against type-1 diabetes transfer in an animal model. ("Development of a Bioconjugate Platform for Modifying the Immune Response of Autoreactive Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes Involved in Type 1 Diabetes": https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.9b00332).
- May 2019: Farzana Hossain and Dr. Peter Andreana wrote a review focusing on "Developments in Carbohydrate-Based Cancer Therapeutics" (https://doi.org/10.3390/ph12020084).
- April 2019: Dr. Mohit Kapoor and graduate student Pratibha Chand-Thakuri developed an attractive approach to C-H arylation of benzylamines enabled by addition of CO2 as a transient directing group (https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.9b03375).
- April 2019: Mithilia Tennakoon from Dr. Ajith's lab showed molecular descriptions of Statin-induced perturbation to crucial signaling pathways in cells (http://molpharm.aspetjournals.org/content/95/4/361.long).
- April 2019: Graduate students Ronald Emmons and Nipunika H. Godage, developed multiple sample preparation strategies for the analysis of organic pollutants from the coal industry in environmental waters (http://www.chromatographyonline.com/exploring-efficiency-various-extraction-approaches-determination-crude-4-methylcyclohexylmethanol-mc).
- February 2019: Padam Prasad Acharya in Dr. Zhu's group synthesized an analogue of derhodinosylurdamycin A, which showed better activities than the natural molecule against a wide-range of human cancer cell lines (Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry, Issue 10, 2019, 17, 2691-2704).
- October 2018: Ahmad Rohanifar in Dr. Kirchhoff’s research group developed a novel method for the direct solid-phase microextraction of heavy metals without derivatization (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0039914018306052).
Contact the Graduate and Recruitment committee: UTCHEM@utoledo.edu
In her own words, hear from graduate student Heidi Fresenius about her time and experiences in the UToledo Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Graduate Program:
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