BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.3.1//EN
TZID:America/New_York
X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/New_York
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:281@researchweek.unc.edu
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251020T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251020T130000
DTSTAMP:20251029T172317Z
URL:https://researchweek.unc.edu/events/hettalks-cohen-zhukovitskiy-2/
SUMMARY:Het Talks: Sarah Cohen and Alex Zhukovitskiy
DESCRIPTION:Enjoy presentations by this year’s recipients of the Phillip 
 and Ruth Hettleman Prizes for Scholarly Achievement. The talks will provid
 e an engaging look into these distinguished early career scholars’ work.
  The late Phillip Hettleman\, a member of the Carolina class of 1921\, and
  his wife Ruth established their prestigious named award in 1986 to recogn
 ize the achievements of outstanding junior faculty.\n\nCheck out all of th
 e Hettleman Winner's Presentations throughout the week:\n\nHet Talks: Sara
 h Cohen and Alex Zhukovitskiy\nHet Talks: Lindsey James and Angel Hsu\nHet
  Talks: Marissa Hall and Kathryn Leech\n\n\nThese are virtual\, CLE Credit
  events.\n\nRecorded Webinar:\n\n\n2025 Hettleman Winners\nSarah Cohen\, C
 ell Biology and Physiology\, School of Medicine\nCohen\, a member of the U
 NC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center\, is creating a better understan
 ding of brain health by studying the interactions of organelles — subcel
 lular structures like nuclei and mitochondria that perform specific jobs i
 n cells. Her work focuses on organelle dynamics and fatty acid trafficking
  in and between cells\, particularly in the context of the central nervous
  system.\nHer lab uses cutting-edge multispectral imaging and computationa
 l tools to visualize and quantify these interactions in real time\, reveal
 ing how disruptions in lipid trafficking contribute to neurodegenerative d
 iseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. To do this work\, Cohen and 
 her team developed a versatile fluorescent toolkit that allows researchers
  to visualize dynamic membrane contact sites between organelles. These too
 ls have been widely adopted by labs around the world\, accelerating discov
 eries in cell biology.\n\n\n\nAlex Zhukhovitskiy\, Chemistry\, College of 
 Arts and Sciences\nZhukhovitskiy is reshaping the landscape of polymer che
 mistry through a concept he helped define: polymer backbone editing. He le
 ads a research program that reimagines how polymers — long chains of rep
 eating molecular units — can be transformed at their core. His lab focus
 es on three major areas: skeletal editing of polymer backbones\, supramole
 cular engineering of entanglements\, and the development of new mechanisms
  for controlled polymer synthesis.\n\nZhukhovitskiy’s work on skeletal e
 diting allows chemists to insert\, delete\, or rearrange atoms within the 
 backbone of a polymer\, fundamentally altering its identity and properties
 . His team’s development of novel chemical reactions to convert one clas
 s of polymers into another enables the creation of materials that were pre
 viously inaccessible. In parallel\, his group has devised methods to preci
 sely control entanglements — mechanical connections between polymer chai
 ns — using supramolecular chemistry and has innovated new catalytic stra
 tegies for building nitrogen-rich and semiconducting polymers.
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://researchweek.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/
 2025/07/het-talks-web_cohen-zhukhovitskiy.jpg
CATEGORIES:CLE Credit Event,College of Arts and Sciences,Department of
 Cell Biology and Physiology,Department of Chemistry,Office of the Vice
 Chancellor for Research,School of Medicine,Virtual Event
LOCATION:https://unc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_DN7uUWjSRa-Zi-YX7V83Vg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/New_York
X-LIC-LOCATION:America/New_York
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
DTSTART:20250309T030000
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
END:DAYLIGHT
END:VTIMEZONE
END:VCALENDAR