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Welcome to the Heffern Lab!

The Heffern lab is a young, multidisciplinary team of researchers, seeking to solve problems at the interface of bioinorganic chemistry and hormone biology.  Stay tuned to our fun adventures in the lab’s early years!


Latest News

Oct 15, 2024 Marie gave an outstanding promotion talk! Congratulations again on the tenure!

Oct 8, 2024 We’re thrilled to begin working in our brand-new lab space! Check out the photo from the News!

Sep 16, 2024 Congratulations to Nora Spuler on being awarded the 2024 UC Davis NIH/NIGMS T32 grant for the chemical biology program! With this funding Nora will continue research in the Heffern Lab while performing a cross-training with Dr. Valentina Medici at the UC Davis School of Medicine.

July 1, 2024 A big congratulations to Marie for receiving tenure and being promoted to Associate Professor!

Jun 14, 2024 Congratulations to Amanda Caceres for winning the Keefer award!

Jun 14, 2024 Amanda Liu received AMPAC Undergraduate Research Summer Award in Chemistry. Congratulations!

Jun 12, 2024 Sam passed her QE and is now officially a PhD candidate. Congratulations!

Jun 10, 2024 Big congratulations to Marie on being awarded 2024 Dean’s Faculty Fellows for the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis!

May 17, 2024 Jacob is officially a PhD candidate! Congratulations!

March 15, 2024 Congratulations to Jacob for winning the ACS Pharmacology & Translational Science Poster Award at the Miller Symposium!

March 15, 2024 Congratulations to Amanda on being awarded the R.B. Miller Research, Service, and Mentorship Award at the Miller Symposium!

January 1, 2024 Welcome to Manish Bhatta and Nora Spuler, the newest members of the Heffern lab!

December 5, 2023 Richard successfully presented his M.S. exit seminar! Congratulations!!

September 25, 2023 Big welcome to Dr. Jennifer Park, who is the newest postdoctoral scholar to join the lab!

July 10, 2023 Interested in learning more about characterizing metal-biomolecule interactions by mass spectrometry? Check out our latest review led by published in Trends in Biochemical Sciences here! (See PDF here)

May 30, 2023 Congratulations to Amanda for being selected as an ARCS Scholar for the Northern California Chapter!

May 23, 2023 Congratulations to Estely for an excellent 3rd-year seminar! Not only that, but Estely was selected among the Merck Research Awardees for Underrepresented Chemists of Color! Stay tuned for her talk at the Award Symposium at the Fall 2023 ACS National Meeting!

May 19, 2023 We are happy to share our review highlighting bioinorganic intersections between plant-based diets and metabolic diseases. Check it out here!

May 1, 2023 Congratulations to our undergraduate, Christian, who was just awarded the prestigious MARC Fellowship!

April 28, 2023 Bravo, Amanda, on a beautiful third-year seminar! An added congratulations for winning the ACS Chemical Neuroscience Poster Award at the Miller Symposium!

April 18, 2023 Sam wowed us with his exit seminar! We will miss you but are excited for your new position as a postdoc in the Kelleher lab at Northwestern University!

April 4, 2023 The Heffern lab welcomes its newest lab member, Aizelle Argete!

February 10, 2023 Vanessa gave an amazing exit seminar! Congratulations on starting your new position at Agenus!

February 5, 2023 Marie was awarded the ACS Jonathan Sessler Award for Emerging Leaders in Medicinal and Bioinorganic Chemistry! Stay tuned for the celebratory symposium at the Fall 2023 American Chemical Society Meeting!

February 3, 2023 Big congratulations to Nate for giving a great exit seminar and starting his new position at One Skin!

See more news and updates in the “News” tab or follow Marie on Twitter at @marieheffern.