The University of California Riverside has a strong tradition in modern analytical chemistry with a special emphasis in bioanalytical chemistry. Analytical chemists develop new methods and instrumentation for chemical measurements in complex systems. The UCR Analytical Chemistry Graduate Program is designed to provide students with a sound grounding in analytical chemistry while tailoring their course of study to individual research interests. Bioanalytical chemistry focuses on chemical measurements relevant to living systems including characterization of biological macromolecules (proteins, DNA and polysaccharides) and the analysis of disease markers and drug metabolism. Bioanalytical chemists in the pharmaceutical industry play critical roles in the process of drug discovery and development.
At UCR, graduate study in analytical chemistry covers a wide range of instrumental methods and exciting applications. Graduate students working in the Cheng, Julian ,Larive, Rabenstein, Wang and Zhong research groups have the opportunity to gain expertise in a variety of important instrumental methods including mass spectrometry, surface plasmon resonance, NMR spectroscopy, separations and biosensors to address a variety of interesting and important problems.Although their primary focus is in another area, Professors Bardeen, Bartels, Mulchandani and Zhang have research projects that may also be of interest to analytical students. In addition to the instrumentation housed in the individual faculty research groups, a number of UCR facilities maintain state-of-the-art instruments and other resources relevant for analytical chemistry research.
Quan Jason Cheng Biosensors, functional biomaterials, surface plasmon resonance imaging and spectroscopy. Novel supported lipid membranes and their applications in biosensing. Protein and lipid microarray techniques with SPR detection.
Ryan Julian Novel applications with biomolecules and other macromolecules of molecular recognition, gas phase separations, ion chemistry, spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry.
Cynthia Larive Our group builds nanoliter NMR probes for on-line CE separations of heparin oligosaccharides and pharmaceutical impurities. Ligand-protein binding is investigated using NMR diffusion and NOE methods. We use 1H NMR, LC-NMR and LC-MS for analysis of biofluids or tissue extracts in metabonomics studies of complex biological systems.
Ashok Mulchandani
Dallas Rabenstein NMR studies of peptides, proteins, carbohydrates and red blood cells and binding of peptides by glycosaminoglycans; analytical applications of NMR; biological chemistry of sulfur and selenium; development of NMR methods and techniques, characterization of heparin and heparan sulfates.
Yinsheng Wang Biological applications of mass spectrometry; reactive oxygen species induced nucleic acid damage.
Wenwan Zhong The research in our group focuses on developing novel bio-analytical techniques with unique specificity and sensitivity for high-throughput detection of viruses and investigation of virus-host interactions
Christopher J. Bardeen The Bardeen Lab uses time-resolved laser spectroscopy and advanced microscopy methods to look at dynamics in complex chemical systems. Areas of research include DNA motion in living cells and energy transport in organic semiconductors.
Ludwig Bartels The Bartels Group investigates dynamic processes of individual molecules at metal surfaces by means of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) as well as other techniques (ultra-fast lasers, TEM, etc.). Recent work addressed nanorobots, nanoscale templating and the stability of molectronic structures.
Jerome Schultz
Yadong Yin The Yin lab explores the chemistry, physics, and materials science of colloidal inorganic nanostructures, with a goal towards applications in catalytic, electronic, photonic and biomedical applications.
Francisco Zaera Surface chemistry with emphasis on heterogeneous catalysis and materials science; use of several surface sensitive techniques including RAIRS, TPD, XPS, ISS, AES, LEED and SIMS together with molecular beams for kinetic measurements.
Jingsong Zhang Studies of elementary photochemical processes and reaction dynamics of small molecules and free radicals in atmospheric chemistry and combustion chemistry, use of laser spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and molecular beam techniques.
Graduates of the UCR Analytical Chemistry program find excellent job opportunities in the Chemical, Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical industries. For example, the following list contains companies that have employed recent UCR Ph.D. graduates and postdoctoral researchers.
