News

Kamillah Kassam, a graduate member of the Hargrove lab, has penned an impactful editorial featured in a recent Journal of Chemical Education. Kamillah has been a dedicated member of Diversity and Inclusion committees in Chemistry as well as throughout the University. We encourage you to read her piece, "Moving Beyond Politics: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Respect", and take a moment to enjoy the cover that she designed.  Both the Editorial and Cover Art are part of the ACS-wide DEIR Cover Art Program. read more about "Issues of equity are not political, they’re humanistic" »

DURHAM, N.C. -- Over-the-counter pain relievers, physical therapy, steroid injections -- some people have tried it all and are still dealing with knee pain. Often knee pain comes from the progressive wear and tear of cartilage known as osteoarthritis, which affects nearly one in six adults -- 867 million people -- worldwide. For those who want to avoid replacing the entire knee joint, there may soon be another option that could help patients get back on their feet fast, pain-free, and stay that way. Writing in the journal… read more about Stiff, Achy Knees? Lab-Made Cartilage Gel Outperforms the Real Thing »

Dr. Jake Lindale has been awarded the international Raymond Andrew prize for outstanding thesis in magnetic resonance!  In the clinic, magnetic resonance techniques are used to peer inside the body and monitor molecular changes associated with diseases such as cancer or Alzheimer’s, without using harmful radiation like X-rays and CT scans do. There’s just one major limitation: the technique’s low signal-to-noise ratio means that molecules that are too few or fleeting can be hard to detect. Jake's… read more about Jake Lindale Receives International Raymond Andrew Prize for Outstanding Thesis! »

Duke chemistry Ph.D. Jake Lindale has been awarded the international Raymond Andrew prize for outstanding thesis in magnetic resonance. In the clinic, magnetic resonance techniques are used to peer inside the body and monitor molecular changes associated with diseases such as cancer or Alzheimer’s, without using harmful radiation like X-rays and CT scans do. There’s just one major limitation: the technique’s low signal-to-noise ratio means that molecules that are too few or fleeting can be hard to detect. Lindale’s… read more about Duke Chemistry PhD Wins International Prize for Outstanding Thesis »

Name: Amanda Hargrove Position: Associate Professor of Chemistry Years at Duke: 8 What she does at Duke: In her role as a researcher, Amanda Hargrove, a 2020 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowand an American Chemical Society 2022 Rising Star Award winner, heads a lab that studies a specific type of RNA molecule and its potential role in breakthrough therapies. In every cell, ribonucleic acid, or RNA, plays a critical role in… read more about Blue Devil of the Week: Friend to Students, Enemy of Disease »

Set deep within the Blue Ridge mountains, far from Duke’s campus, a group of almost 40 campers huddled around the campfire ready to discuss the day’s activities. Archery, board games and hiking had kept them busy. But now it was evening, and they were tired and ready to eat s’mores and share typical campfire stories — like dealing with academic stress and deciding on a career path. Well, maybe not so typical, as these weren’t just any campers, but Duke sophomores on a meditative retreat. Soon, they would go back to their… read more about Students Explore Life’s Most Important Questions Through New Program for Sophomores »

The Derbyshire lab has recently published a research article in Cell iScience investigating the activity of acyltransferase (AT) domains in a polyketide synthase from the apicomplexan parasite Toxoplasma gondii. Their work identifies a single amino acid in these domains responsible for protein activity which was able to be controlled through mutational studies, effectively serving as an "on-off" switch for AT activity.  Read more about their exciting work here! read more about Derbyshire Lab investigates the activity of AT domains from the parasite Toxoplasma gondii »

Anna Truong, a graduate student in Prof. Emily Derbyshire's lab, has received a 2022-2023 Fulbright Award! The Fulbright US Student Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program and is designed to facilitate cultural exchange and increase mutual understanding between people of the US and those of other countries. Mutations in Kelch 13 (K13) of the malaria parasite Plasmodium are notoriously associated with artemisinin resistance, an immense global health threat.  … read more about Anna Truong Receives Fulbright Award »

One important academic lesson of the pandemic was that despite COVID restrictions, many Duke undergraduate students continued to conduct valuable research in collaboration with faculty members. This week, that research was showcased when three juniors were named Faculty Scholars, the university’s highest honor for students presented by faculty. The awards went to Patrick Duan, for research studying historical dynamics of racial and ethnic minorities; Jenny (Yijian) Huang, for developing new statistical methodology for… read more about Three Juniors Selected as Faculty Scholars for Excellence in Research »

As a double major in Chemistry and Classical Languages, senior Sophia Dort realized that though she had taken many courses in both the sciences and the humanities, they rarely overlapped. “When I saw an opportunity to take a class that was focused on medicine, but looking at it from a humanities point of view, I was pretty excited,” she said, explaining how she ended up taking a new course on Medicine and Human Flourishing this spring. The course, cross-listed between Classical Studies, Global Health and Ethics, is part… read more about Class of 2022: Sophia Dort, Reflecting on her Study of ‘Medicine and Human Flourishing’ »

Six members of Duke’s Class of 2023 have been named to the second class of Nakayama Scholars.  The Nakayama Public Service Scholarship is part of the university’s efforts to encourage students to use their Duke experience to engage with the large challenges facing communities around the world. The students represent multiple disciplines across Duke’s academic departments as well as a variety of future careers.  Juniors Alexandra Bennion, Bentley Choi, Garrett Goodman, Shreyas Hallur, Andrew Liu and Nellie Sun… read more about Duke Names Second Class of Nakayama Scholars »

Alexa Robertson (B.S. Biology; minor Dance and Chemistry ’22) has already completed her required courses for the pre-med track. And during her sophomore year, she was an undergraduate research assistant with Duke’s Kwatra Lab, where scientists focus on finding targeted therapies for adults diagnosed with glioblastoma, one of the most aggressive and common brain tumors. Robertson combines her medical pursuits with her interest in disability rights through volunteer work in special education at a local elementary school… read more about Dance and Medicine Creating a Well-Rounded Scholar »

Graduate and professional programs across the university scored highly in U.S. News and World Report’s list of “2023 Best Graduate Schools.” The Duke University School of Nursing ranked second overall in the country. In addition, several MSN Nurse Practitioner specialty programs were highly ranked: Family (first) Adult-Gerontology Primary Care (first) Nursing Administration (first) Psychiatric/Mental Health Across the Life Span (first) Adult-Gerontology Acute Care (second) Duke was ranked second… read more about Duke Graduate Programs Get High Marks in 2022 US News Rankings »

We are thrilled to announce that Dr. Ivan Moreno-Hernandez will join the Department as an Assistant Professor to further expand our physical chemistry program! Ivan, currently a postdoctoral scholar with Prof. Paul Alivisatos at the University of California, Berkeley, will focus on observing the ion-intercalation dynamics of nanoscale battery materials, electrocatalyst restructuring during operation, and material deposition at nanoscale heterogeneous interfaces.  We look forward to formally welcoming… read more about Dr. Ivan Moreno-Hernandez to Join Department in July! »

Professor Michael J. Therien has been named the 2022 recipient of the Robert Burns Woodward Career Award in Porphyrin Chemistry. This lifetime achievement award, which is awarded every other year, is presented by the International Conference on Porphyrins and Phthalocyanines (ICPP). Therien, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, will receive his award in July during the society’s conference (ICPP-12) in Madrid, Spain. read more about Therien Receives Lifetime Achievement Honor »

Ayden Case, a Duke senior from Knoxville, Tennessee, has been awarded the prestigious Gates Cambridge scholarship. The scholarship covers a student’s tuition and living expenses while completing a graduate degree at the University of Cambridge in England. At Cambridge, Case will investigate the role of regulatory T cells in heart disease as part of a Ph.D. in Medicine before returning to the United States to attend medical school. The Gates Cambridge Scholarship program began in 2000 with a grant of $210 million from the… read more about Chemistry Major Awarded Gates Cambridge Scholarship »

DURHAM, N.C. – Remember flip-phones? Our smartphones may one day look just as obsolete thanks to spintronics, an incipient field of research promising to revolutionize the way our electronic devices send and receive signals. In most current technologies, data is encoded as a zero or a one, depending on the number of electrons that reach a capacitor. With spintronics, data is also transferred according to the direction in which these electrons spin. In a new study appearing this week in the Proceedings of the National… read more about New Super-Conducting Technology Takes Data Beyond Zeroes and Ones »