Research News


NSF Funding for Caltech-Led "Cloud Laboratory" Leverages AI to Explore Chemical Dark Matter: A Conversation with Hosea Nelson

Nelson has been selected to lead a team that will receive $17 million from the National Science Foundation to create a "programmable cloud laboratory," an automated lab that will allow scientists and artificial intelligence agents to conduct experiments remotely, analyzing and storing data online.

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Caltech Joins the Genesis Mission

Two new multi-institution collaborations led by Caltech scientists have been selected to receive first-round funding from the U.S. Department of Energy as part of the Genesis Mission, a national effort to use AI to accelerate scientific discovery. The two new projects, led by Caltech professors Theo Agapie and Victoria Orphan, are the latest in a large-scale effort at the Institute to use AI and machine learning in combination with advanced scientific instrumentation to explore areas of science previously considered too labor-intensive or computationally expensive to tackle

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Clemons Lab

Structures of Bacterial and Human Phosphoglycosyltransferases Bound to a Common Inhibitor Inform Selective Therapeutics

Researchers in the Clemons lab, in collaboration with the Kurosu lab at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center, have taken an important step toward designing more precise antibiotics and anticancer drugs by studying two related enzymes found in bacteria and humans. Using cryo‑electron microscopy, they determined how both enzymes, MraY (in bacteria) and DPAGT1 (in humans), bind to the same promising drug molecule, revealing subtle but important differences in how the compound fits into each target. These differences highlight ways to modify the drug so it selectively targets one enzyme over the other, potentially enabling treatments that kill bacteria or cancer cells while minimizing side effects. The work provides a blueprint for designing next‑generation therapeutics by directly comparing how similar proteins interact with the same inhibitor.

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Additional Research:

  • Finding New Ways to Kill Bacteria: New Insights into the Transporter MurJ
  • Structural basis of metalloid transport by the arsenite efflux pump ArsB

Datta Lab

Just the Right Amount: Microbial Nutrients Drive Success and Failure of Antibiotics

Antibiotics are medical marvels that have transformed once deadly bacterial infections into manageable conditions. But with a rise in antibiotic resistance that renders existing treatments ineffective, new agents are urgently needed. Scientists at Caltech and Princeton University have now shed fresh light on why antibiotics that work well in laboratory tests often fail against real infections in humans.

By studying antibiotic and bacterial interactions in environments resembling those found in the body, they have revealed that microbial nutrients, such as glucose, play a crucial role in antibiotic efficacy. Their findings provide a unique framework for developing novel medications and investigating antibiotic resistance.

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Additional Research:

  • Morphodynamics of surface-attached active drops

Demirer Lab

Improving Plants with a Tool Borrowed from Birds

In a rapidly changing climate landscape, the plants we rely on for food, textiles, and more face a multitude of challenges, including rising temperatures, drought, and disease. Caltech's Gözde Demirer, the Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, uses genetic engineering tools to make crops more resilient to such threats and enhance plant health. Now, she and a team of Caltech researchers have found a new solution to an old problem in an unlikely source: the zebra finch.

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Additional Research:

  • Sentinel plants enable quantitative monitoring of bioavailable nitrate in soils and microbial environments

Ismagilov Lab

A Training Device to Build Technical Skills and Expand Access to High-Performance Diagnostic Testing

The Ismagilov lab and collaborators have developed a low-cost device that trains and assists people with minimal laboratory experience to perform complex laboratory procedures. The invention could help address a chronic shortage of trained personnel that currently limits the reach of healthcare in both developing and developed countries.

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Manthiram Lab

A Greener Route to Making Epoxides

The Manthiram's lab has figured out how to drive a series of chemical reactions that produce the epoxide propylene oxide using a much greener process and the inexpensive, Earth-abundant catalyst, lanthanum cobaltite.

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Peters Group

New Hybrid Quantum–Classical Computing Approach Used to Study Chemical Systems

Professor Sandeep Sharma and colleagues from IBM and the RIKEN Center for Computational Science in Japan are giving us a glimpse of the future of computing. The team has used quantum computing in combination with classical distributed computing to attack a notably challenging problem in quantum chemistry—determining the electronic energy levels of a relatively complex molecule. The work demonstrates the promise of such a quantum–classical hybrid approach for advancing not only quantum chemistry but also fields such as materials science, nanotechnology, and drug discovery, where insight into the electronic fingerprint of materials can reveal how they will behave.

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