Zhuo Chen (陈茁) Bioconjugates Her Way to the ACS in DC

Zhuo Chen (陈茁) had a very productive summer indeed! Having just published a second time in the journal Small with the brilliant Qin group here at UT Dallas, she moved fast to wrap up a manuscript, which just appeared in the journal Bioconjugate Chemistry, entitled “Fluorescent Functionalization Across Quaternary Structure in a Virus-Like Particle.” In it, she demonstrated the considerable substrate scope of the Haddleton-Baker reaction* on the virus-like particle (VLP) Qβ (Qbeta). Not only that, she showed the resulting particle was brigly fluorescent and could be monitored in cells. We also discuss some of the problems with this in vitro monitoring and ways to turn these problems into opportunities.

THEN she won an award to present her work from the Fall 2017 Graduate Student Symposium Planning Committee, funded by Bioconjugate Chemistry, at the ACS National Meeting in Washington DC! Keep an eye out for her interview, which will appear in Bioconjugate Chemistry.

*That may not be a named reaction, though it should be, and we are going to start using it in subsequent papers.