Welcome to Uchida Lab
Research at the Uchida Lab lies at the interface of biochemistry, inorganic chemistry, and materials chemistry. We draw inspiration from nature to design advanced materials with properties that extend beyond what is currently available. For example, viral capsids are remarkable structures that self-assemble from a minimal set of protein building blocks into highly functional, organized architectures. The overarching goal of the Uchida Lab is to understand the mechanisms underlying the self-assembly of biomolecules into hierarchical structures, such as viral capsids, and to harness these principles to engineer innovative protein-based materials with applications in biotechnology and biomedicine.
Utilization of virus capsids as a platform of bio-inspired materials synthesis across multiple length scales
Lab News
2026
January
Our work on redox-mediated reversible assembly of virus-like particles into higher-order structures has been published in ACS Applied Biomaterials. Paulina, the first author of this paper, was an undergraduate researcher in our lab when she conducted this work and prepared the manuscript. This publication highlights the impact of undergraduate research in our group. Congratulations to everyone who contributed to this project!
January 10
Melanie and Melissa presented our collaborative project with the Kihara Lab at Purdue University on the engineering of Decoration (Dec) protein mutants at the 2026 Northern Regional CSU Biotechnology Symposium, held at Sacramento State University. They received the Most Ambitious Project Award. Congratulations to everyone who contributed to this project!
2025
October 24
Our lab was well-represented at the 2025 ACS Western Regional Meeting thanks to Arlet and Izzy. They presented on bringing between P22 VLPs and decoration proteins. They had a great time at the conference talking with researchers who were especially interested by the AI component of the study.
Arlet has received the Student Travel Award from the San Joaquin Valley Section of the ACS to attend the 2025 ACS Western Regional Meeting in San Jose, CA. She will present a poster at the meeting. Congratulations, Arlet!
May
Congratulations to Aditi, Ian, and Malaika on their graduation! We wish you all the best in your future endeavors!
May 9
Izzy, Melanie, Melissa, Rubi, Ryan, and Skye presented posters at the 1st Annual College of Science and Math Culminating Experiences Symposium.
Jan 10 - 11
Arlet, Ian, Malaika, and Parth presented posters at the 37th Annual CSU Biotechnology Symposium in Anaheim.
CONTACT
5241 N. Maple Ave, Fresno, CA 93740
Science 1, Rm 374
Tel: 559.278.2237