NEWS
2026
March 12: Delighted to see our work on the cover of J Phys Chem B!
Illuminating how electrochemical gradients manifest in electrophysiology assays. This work reveals how electrical and chemical conductance profiles reveal the flux limiting steps in ion channel permeation. It also demonstrates how flushing over concentration gradients can reveal when binding becomes flux limiting. Thanks to a great team: Hannah Weckel-Dahman, Ryan Carlsen, and Alex Daum
Feb 2026: Was honored to present our vision for methane solutions as one of 10 
speakers in the 2026 season opening Changemakers Event for Run Up For Air, a phenomenal non-profit in Utah raising support and awareness around the importance of clean air.
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