A team led by Seth Childers and Lingfeng Liu in the Department of Chemistry has received a DI2 Moonshot Award (The Dietrich Innovation Initiative) to launch a first-of-its-kind Chemical Biology major. The new program will feature courses spanning drug discovery, chemical tools to study and control biology, biophysical chemistry, omics technologies, and synthetic biology. Central to the initiative is a new CURE (Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience) lab that engages undergraduates in authentic, team-based research engineering proteins and biological circuits with broad applications such as in precision medicine, environmental monitoring of toxic algae blooms, and the protection of crops from pathogens. The program also includes a hands-on summer camp that immerses high school students in chemical biology research, with undergraduates having opportunities sharing and mentoring through their own projects.
