Department of Biochemistry

Massive worldwide seawater study finds human-made chemicals prolific

tomwt — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 15:59:45 +0000

Massive worldwide seawater study finds human-made chemicals prolific tomwt Tue, 03/31/2026 - 08:59 More CNAS in the Media University of Hawaiʻi News March 30, 2026

UNIVERSITY OF HAWAIʻI - An analysis of more than 2,300 seawater samples from more than 20 field studies around the globe indicates that human-made chemicals—from plastic additives and industrial lubricants to pharmaceuticals and pesticides—are widespread in the marine environment, particularly in coastal and estuarine waters. The study, co-authored by University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa oceanographers and led by biochemists at the University of California, Riverside, represents one of the most comprehensive chemical analyses of coastal oceans to date.

The team analyzed seawater samples collected over a decade from coastal regions from the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Reported in Nature Geoscience, the findings show that industrial chemicals, many of which are rarely monitored, are far more abundant and widespread than previously recognized.

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Daniel Petras

Human-made chemicals now shape ocean chemistry worldwide

tomwt — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 21:29:05 +0000

Human-made chemicals now shape ocean chemistry worldwide tomwt Mon, 03/23/2026 - 14:29 More CNAS in the Media Rodielon Putol | Earth.com March 17, 2026

EARTH.COM - The ocean has always shown clear signs of human impact. You see plastic floating, oil on the surface, and rising temperatures. Those are easy to notice. But there’s another change happening quietly, and it’s only now becoming clear.

Scientists studying seawater from around the world found something worrying. A large share of what we call organic matter in coastal oceans now comes from human-made chemicals.

You won’t see these drifting on the surface. They’re dissolved in the water, spread out, and carried across long distances.

That matters because organic matter helps keep ocean life going. It feeds tiny organisms, supports food chains, and plays a role in controlling carbon. When that balance shifts, the effects can be hard to predict.

Ocean data over a decade
To understand what’s happening, researchers at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) pulled together more than 2,300 seawater samples collected over ten years.

The samples came from over 20 field studies across the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans.

“For decades, scientists have tracked plastic debris floating on the ocean’s surface and measured rising temperatures that signal climate change,” said Daniel Petras, an assistant professor of biochemistry at UCR.

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Daniel Petras

Kelp forests in crisis: How toxic turf algae are taking over

tomwt — Fri, 30 May 2025 15:06:31 +0000

Kelp forests in crisis: How toxic turf algae are taking over tomwt Fri, 05/30/2025 - 08:06 More CNAS in the Media Rodielon Putol | Earth.com May 30, 2025

EARTH.COM - Kelp forests, once a towering and life-filled part of many temperate coastlines, are vanishing fast. In their place, low-growing mats of turf algae are taking over.

This shift isn’t just cosmetic. It’s causing steep losses in biodiversity, disrupting how energy and nutrients flow through reefs, and changing the chemistry of coastal waters in ways scientists are just beginning to understand.

Researchers from Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Maine and the University of California, Riverside have now uncovered a surprising reason why kelp forests struggle to bounce back.

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Daniel Petras

Taking A Bite Out Of Wildlife Crime

tomwt — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 17:09:45 +0000

Taking A Bite Out Of Wildlife Crime tomwt Tue, 11/19/2024 - 09:09 More College News Sarah Nightingale | UCR Magazine November 18, 2024

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Alumni

Biochemist helps describe polymerase-ribosome complex

ilseu — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 22:32:47 +0000

Biochemist helps describe polymerase-ribosome complex ilseu Mon, 08/24/2020 - 15:32 More College News Iqbal Pittalwala | Inside UCR August 24, 2020

Gregor Blaha, an assistant professor of biochemistry at UC Riverside, is a coauthor on a research paperpublished last week in the journal Science that reports on the cryo-electron microscopy structures of several complexes of RNA polymerase bound to the ribosome.

In all living cells, RNA polymerase transcribes DNA into RNA and the ribosome translates the RNA into proteins. RNA polymerase and the ribosome are two of the most well-studied proteins in all of molecular biology, but almost all studies on these proteins look at them individually instead of them working together as they do in the cell. How these proteins interact with one another has puzzled scientists for decades.

"Our work is a breakthrough in the emerging field of transcription-translation coupling, a field that promises to provide a better understanding of gene expression in bacteria,” said Blaha, who provided key material for this study and was involved in the interpretation and discussion of the results. “It opens up new venues to target antibiotic-resistant bacteria.”

To image these complexes, the researchers first isolated all components of these complexes individually, before bringing them together into defined complexes and preparing samples for imaging in a cryo-electron microscope.

Blaha explained that in the imaging process, millions of individual images are collected and then combined into three dimensional representations before the structures of these complexes can be built.

“Then the fun part begins, the analysis of these structures and figuring out what they are telling us,” he said.

The structures show for the first time how transcription and translation may be coordinated on one RNA. According to Blaha, this is significant because polymerase extends the RNA one nucleotide at a time, while the ribosome moves three nucleotides every time it extends the protein it synthesizes by one amino acid. Inevitably both processes need to be coordinated, he said, to allow successful translation of the genetic information from DNA into proteins.

“Although the coupling of transcription and translation has been known since the dawn of molecular biology, only now are the tools available to actually elucidate what brings about the coordination of both,” he said. “This has generated much interest in the community which can best be seen in the increase of publications in the last years — three publications in Science last month alone.”

Now that Blaha and his colleagues have an idea of how transcription and translation are coordinated, they are interested in figuring out how the coordination is actually set up.

Blaha received his doctoral degree in 2001 from the Vienna University of Technology in Austria, following which he was a postdoctoral researcher at Yale University. An expert on the interplay between protein translation and transcription, he joined UCR in 2012.

Besides Blaha, the research paper’s coauthors are scientists at Rutgers University in New Jersey and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor headed by Richard Ebright and Min Su, respectively. Blaha was supported by University of California discretionary funds.

The title of the research paper is “Structural basis of transcription-translational coupling.”

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Thumbnail image: A depiction of a human RNA polymerase from Wikimedia Commons.

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Gregor Blaha

New work advances efforts in finding a cure for acute myeloid leukemia

ilseu — Mon, 11 May 2020 21:24:54 +0000

New work advances efforts in finding a cure for acute myeloid leukemia ilseu Mon, 05/11/2020 - 14:24 More College News IQBAL PITTALWALA | Inside UCR May 11, 2020

Jikui Song, an associate professor of biochemistry at UC Riverside, has published new work in Nature Communications that builds on his lab’s recent success in cracking the structure of DNMT3A, an enzyme that plays a key role in DNA methylation.

DNA methylation is a process involving the transfer of methyl groups to the DNA molecule, which critically influences gene expression, genomic stability and cell differentiation. Mutations of DNMT3A have been linked to a variety of diseases, such as acute myeloid leukemia, or AML, and overgrowth syndrome.

Jikui Song

“DNMT3A mutations have been identified in about 25% AML patients; among these, the arginine-to-histidine mutation at site 882, or R882H, represents the most frequent one,” Song said. “The R882H mutation is associated with increased cell proliferation and correlates with poor clinical outcome. How this mutation impacts the function of DNMT3A and disease progression, however, has not been well understood.”

In the study, Song’s team solved the structures of DNMT3A that carried the R882H mutation to identify the structural defects caused by this mutation. In addition, the team performed biochemical assays to understand how the R882H mutation affects the way DNMT3A works.

“Our study shows that this mutation affects the substrate recognition of DNMT3A in multiple ways,” Song said. “On the one hand, it reduces the activity of DNMT3A toward its native DNA substrates. On the other hand, this mutation also drives DNMT3A to act on non-native substrates. Our work, therefore, explains how this mutation impairs the function of DNMT3A in AML and other related diseases.”

Song, the study’s corresponding author, was joined by graduate student Hiwot Anteneh, the first author of the research paper, and postdoctoral researcher Jian Fang.

This study was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health.

The research paper is titled, “Structural basis for impairment of DNA methylation by the DNMT3A R882H mutation.”

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Jikui Song

Biochemistry student wins Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship

ilseu — Thu, 09 Apr 2020 02:50:06 +0000

Biochemistry student wins Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship ilseu Wed, 04/08/2020 - 19:50 More College News Imran Ghori | Inside UCR April 06, 2020

UC Riverside student Jennifer Le is among about 400 college students across the nation to be awarded the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, one of the most prestigious and competitive awards in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematic fields, or STEM.

From a pool of over 5,000 sophomores and juniors, 1,343 students were nominated by 461 academic institutions to compete for the 2020 Goldwater scholarships, ultimately awarded to 396 recipients. Each scholarship comes with a one-time award of up to $7,500.

Jennifer Le

The nomination letter described her as demonstrating exceptional potential and said she “is on an excellent trajectory to becoming a leading independent investigator.”

Le is also a UCR Chancellor’s Research Fellow. The 20-year-old junior plans to pursue a doctorate in biomedical science with the goal of becoming a professor, mentoring students and conducting research.

She chose to study biochemistry because of the way it connects different areas of science.

“In high school, I remember being excited about it because it explained the complexity of seemingly trivial occurrences and the importance of these occurrences,” Le said.

While maintaining a 3.9 GPA, she’s been a researcher for Jernej Murn, an assistant professor of biochemistry, in his biochemistry lab, and launched a program at Moreno Valley High School mentoring girls pursuing STEM studies.

“I wanted to ensure that other females had the same opportunities as I did, but at an earlier age so that they may feel more confident in their abilities and have a stronger sense of direction for their careers,” said Le, a first generation American whose parents immigrated from Vietnam.

She said the Goldwater scholarship will help alleviate some of the financial burden and allow her to spend more time on her studies.

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