The words "laser beam" often conjure up images of high-powered energy weapons or concert light shows, but lasers have many other applications and fighting the deadliest types of flu may soon be added to the list.

University of Georgia researchers are refining a nanotechnology-based method that uses laser light beams to more accurately predict emerging influenza strains-particularly strains with a risk of high mortality. The work will be funded by the National Institutes of Health and will total $1,124,914 over the next four years.

In antiquity, Greek and Roman marble sculpture was not pristine white but colorfully painted. Members of the UGA community now have a unique example of once-polychrome ancient sculpture on campus for scientific study.

Nanoparticles have shown great promise in the targeted delivery of drugs to cells, but researchers at the University of Georgia have refined the drug delivery process further by using nanoparticles to deliver drugs to a specific organelle within cells.

By targeting mitochondria, often called "the powerhouse of cells," the researchers increased the effectiveness of mitochondria-acting therapeutics used to treat cancer, Alzheimer's disease and obesity in studies conducted with cultured cells.

The study of an oxygen-sensing bacterial regulatory protein by chemistry researchers at the University of Georgia has provided molecular insight into the oxygen sensing mechanism, which could ultimately lead to a better understanding of the ageing process and new treatments for human diseases such cancer, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

Judy I-Chia Wu, a recent doctoral graduate from the department of chemistry, was one of six young chemists recently honored by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.

Gregory H. Robinson, Franklin Professor and Distinguished Research Professor of Chemistry at the University of Georgia, has been honored with a national award from the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society.

If you want to increase your car's gas mileage or build a more powerful handheld electronic device, don't bend steel or slice silicon chips. Manipulate nanomaterials and molecules instead.

"Using ultraviolet light, chemists have reversibly immobilized molecules on surfaces (J. Am. Chem. Soc., DOI: 10.1021/ja302970x). The technique could be used to develop repairable microarrays or to study how biochemical events on surfaces progress with time. 

Gregory H. Robinson, Franklin Professor and Distinguished Research Professor of Chemistry at the University of Georgia, is one of a select group of international academics awarded a 2012 Humboldt Research Award from Germany's Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

The award is valued at 60,000 euro (approximately $80,000), and Robinson is the second UGA chemist to receive the award in as many years.

Five graduate students in the Department of Chemistry have been awarded the 2012 Outstanding Teaching Award. These awards are conferred annually by the UGA Center for Teaching and Learning. The recipients, (left-to-right in photo) Daniel Sexton, Matthew Davidson, Timothy Pope, Robert Gilliard and Christopher Nealon, are recognized for their outstanding contributions to instruction by students serving as teaching assistants in the classroom or laboratory.