NEWS
2025
Dec 2025: PacifiChem 2025
Excited to share our kinetic modeling methods at Crossing the Biological Membrane: Frontiers in the Study of Membrane Transport with an amazing lineup of speakers (well done Rui, Greg and Toby!)
and our lipid droplet work at Lipids on the Move: From Membrane Biophysics to Synthetic Lipid Nanoparticles and Artificial Organelles (same to QC, Chang Yu, Toshifumi, and Haibo – thank you so much for the invitation).
Dec 10, 2025: Congratulations Orion on a fantastic 2nd year seminar. Reaction Path Analysis….check. Can’t wait to see this work out in print.
…on to MsRKM solution space reduction…
Nov/Dec 2025: Congrats Jay on landing a data analytics position with Sartorius!!
Nov 30, 2025: Swanson Group collaborator on methane capture, Mary Lidstrom, featured in Washington Post article “These very hungry microbes devour a powerful pollutant”
Oct 30, 2025: Congrats Josh Peterson on a successful proposal exam – go team methane…time to track down those reductants.
Oct 27, 2025: Congrats Alex Daum on a successful proposal exam – excited to see you conquer ion channel kinetic models with MsRKM like you conquered this hike – yes, we love the Utah mountains.
Sep 25, 2025: Professors Swanson and Lidstrom featured in a Carbon Technology Research Foundation webinar – Nature to the Rescue: How Science and Biology Are Tackling Methane
Sep 2025: Professor Swanson presents at International EMBO Workshop – Lipid Droplets: Cell-Biological Control of Metabolism
Sep 15, 2025: Professor Swanson featured in Quanta Magazine’s The Microbial Masters of Earth’s Climate, part of a larger series on How We Came to Know Earth: the achievement of climate science
Aug 5, 2025: Our work on polarization in lipid droplets published in the Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation
Jul 2025: Professor Swanson presents at CECAM’s Flagship Workshop – Advancing simulation, analysis and prediction of complex chemical systems using modern chemical graph theory and computational topology
Apr 15, 2025: Swanson Group featured as subject experts on alternatives to Windfall Bio in Carbon Pulse’s article on biological solutions to methane mitigation.
Feb 11, 2025: International Day of Women and Girls in Science – Professor Swanson featured in Carbon Technology Research Foundation article “Women in Science play world leading role in greenhouse gas removal”
2024
Nov 2024: Delighted to introduce Multiscale Responsive Kinetic Modeling (MsRKM). Congrats Hannah, Ryan, Alex and kinetic modeling team!!
Oct 17, 2024: Delightful visit to the talented team of lipid researchers at the University of Graz
Aug, 1 2024: Maxwell He presents his summer REU work (and group pizza party…)
- Josh and Pooja present their first posters
- Ryan, Gabe, and Hannah present posters
- Hannah invited to present short talk
- Gabe wins Best Movie contest!
Jul 21-25, 2024: Professor Swanson and Jay Braun present at FASEB Lipid Droplet Meeting
Jul 20-26, 2024: Gabe and Hannah head to Comp Chem GRC for posters/presentations
Jul 17-19, 2024: Professor Swanson presents at the 2024 Cottrell Scholar Conference with a focus on Scientific Communication
Jul 16-20, 2024: Professor Swanson co-chairs TSRC Proton Transport in Biology
Jul 16, 2024: Telluride Science Town Talks series continues with Dr. Jessica Swanson. Her subject is titled “Methane: Supercharging Nature’s Solution to Reverse Climate Change.” The resulting podcast of the same title can be found here.
Jun 16-20, 2024: Professor Swanson presents lipid droplet work at the 2024 Biological Membranes Conference
May 21, 2024: Delighted to host Victor Batista for the HEC Theory Seminar!
May 14, 2024: Professor Swanson presents pitch for next-gen methanotrophic bioreactors at Wilkes Summit
May 6-8, 2024: Professor Swanson presents MsRKM at Simons Symposium: Challenges in Biomolecular Simulations
May 2, 2024: Delighted to see our second lasso cover in JPCB
Apr 25, 2024: Professor Swanson talks with Katie Mullaly and Lynn Peek from Cool Science Radio about methanotrophic bioreactors
Apr 22, 2024: Swanson & Lidstrom Labs make it to the final round for the Wilkes Center Climate Launch Prize
Apr 3, 2024: Gabe’s second paper on lasso peptides and our quest to find transferable folding reaction coordinates.
Feb 21, 2024: Lasso Peptides make the cover of JACS. The UofU coverage can be found here.
Feb 20, 2024: Lidstrom Group featured for Mission to Mitigate Methane
Feb 15, 2024: Swanson Group attends Bezos Earth Fund Workshop on Greenhouse Gas Removal
Feb 6, 2024: Jessica Swanson is named a 2024 Cottrell Scholar by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement. UofU coverage found here and here.
Jan 7, 2024: Swanson Group featured in local news: Not a mythical creature, but maybe a planet saver: methanotrophs and climate change
Jan 4, 2024: Jay Braun presents his research to biochemistry department RIP
2023
Dec 7, 2023: Pooja Rao presents 3rd Year research proposal
Dec 4, 2023: Swanson Group’s methane mitigation research featured in @THEU
Dec 4, 2023: Wilkes Center Podcast features Swanson Group’s methane research
Dec 3, 2023: Hannah Burton begins hosting the “Mad Scientist” Pre-K program at the Salt Lake County Library – Whitmore
Nov 21, 2023: Pooja Rao welcomes BYU students
Nov 21, 2023: Professor Swanson gives a seminar at the University of Wisconsin, Madison
Nov 10, 2023: Maya Rabbitt presents current undergraduate thesis to faculty and colleagues
Nov 9, 2023: Josh Peterson presents 2nd Year Seminar
Oct 17, 2023: Dr. Swanson speaks at National Academy workshop – Atmospheric Methane Removal: Needs, Challenges and Opportunities. Video found here.
Sep 9, 2023: Gabe da Hora presents a group poster at Annual Bioscience Symposium – Biophysics via Multiscale Molecular Modeling and Simulations
Sep 9, 2023: Hannah Burton speaks at Annual Bioscience Symposium – Predicting Protein Behavior with an MKM
Sep 2023: Swanson, Lidstrom and Rosenzweig funded by the Carbon Research Technology Foundation
Social Media Links:
Carbon Technology Research Foundation | CtrfoundationUk/status
Sep 2023: Professor Swanson presents at EMBO Lipid Droplets: Metabolic Hubs in Health and Disease Conference (Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Spain)
Aug 2023: Professor Swanson presents at Biophysical Society – Proton Reactions: From Basic Science to Biomedical Applications (Tahoe, CA)
Aug 17, 2023: Gabe da Hora delivers an oral presentation on ACS 2023 Fall – Buruli Ulcer Disease: Unveiling Toxin Pathogenicity through Enhanced Sampling Simulations
Jul 2023: John Nguyen and Gabe da Hora publish second mycolactone paper in Toxins
Jun 2023: Hannah Burton and Gabe da Hora are selected to be Chemistry NSF-REU Student Mentors
Apr 24, 2023: Pooja Rao presents 2nd Year oral exam
Apr 20, 2023: Tyler Southam receives the Craig & Linda Lee Curie Club Graduate Teaching Award
Mar 25, 2023: Hannah Burton gives a presentation at the UofU Mathematical Biology Seminar – Development of the Multiscale Kinetic Model to describe non-steady-state conditions
Mar 21, 2023: Hannah Burton gives a presentation and receives award for best presenter at the 2023 Graduate Research Symposium
Mar 21, 2023: Gabe da Hora gives a keynote presentation at the 2023 Graduate Research Conference
Jan 21, 2023: Hannah presents 3rd year research proposal
2022
Nov 15, 2022: Pooja Rao presents 2nd Year Seminar
Nov 2022: Professor Swanson presents at Lipids at Wayne State
Nov 2022: Gabe da Hora and John Nguyen publish first mycolactone paper in Biophysical Journal
Oct 10, 2022: Tyler Southam presents 3rd year research proposal
Sep 2022: Hannah Burton receives NSF-GRFP Honorable mention
Sep 2022: Jay Braun has his work on sterol ester-rich lipid droplets published in Membranes
Aug 2022: Pooja Rao selected for an Honorable Mention in the PITCH (Program for Interdisciplinary Training in CHemical Biology) Competition
Jul 2022: Hannah Burton Hosts the University of Utah Youth Chemistry Camp
Jun 2022: Professor Swanson presents at FASEB Lipid Droplets Conference (Ashville, NC)
Jun 2022: Professor Swanson presents at Molecular Biophysics of Membranes (Tahoe, CA)
Jun 2022: Professor Swanson presents at Biological Membranes and Membrane Proteins: Challenges for Theory and Experiment (Santa Fe, NM)
May 2022: Professor Swanson presents at ACS (San Diego, CA)
Apr 8, 2022: Hannah Burton, Jay Braun and John Nguyen present a poster at the UofU Chemistry Recruiting Poster Session – Probing the impact of the membrane on the mechanism of transport
Apr 22, 2022: Tyler Southam presents 3rd year oral exam
May 2022: Hannah Burton presents 3rd year oral exam
May 2022: Professor Swanson presents at Biophysical Society Meeting (San Francisco, CA)
Feb 25, 2022: Gabe da Hora and Myongin Oh receive the Outstanding Evaluator Award at the 2022 Graduate Research Conference
Feb 23, 2022: Hannah Burton presents at the 2022 Graduate Research Conference – Differentiating transmembrane forces for predictive kinetic analysis
Jan 1, 2022: Hannah Burton accepts role as Coordinator for Henry Eyring Theoretical Chemistry Seminar
2021
Nov 2021: Hannah Burton presents 2nd Year Seminar
Oct 18, 2021: Tyler Southam presents 2nd Year Seminar
Oct 2021: John Nguyen presents 3rd year research proposal
Jun 24, 2021: Hannah Burton presents at Telluride Workshop on Proton Transfer in Biology – Voltage dependent simulations of Cl-/H+ exchange in ClC
Apr 2021: John Nguyen presents 3rd Year oral exam
2020
Sep 7, 2020: Gabe da Hora receives 2nd Best Poster Award in the ChemTheo category from the LatinXChem Conference – Using Metadynamics Simulations to Understand Mycolactone Toxin Membrane Permeation
Jun 2020: John Nguyen presents 2nd Year Seminar