Jason Belitsky

  • Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Areas of Study

Education

  • BA, Amherst College, 1997
  • PhD, California Institute of Technology, 2002

Biography

Professor Belitsky was a postdoctoral scholar at UCLA where he trained with Nobel Laureate Sir. J. Fraser Stoddart. At Oberlin he helped found the Center for Learning, Education, and Research in the Sciences (CLEAR). Professor Belitsky teaches general, organic, and biochemistry.

 

Melanins, bioorganic chemistry, chemical biology, supramolecular chemistry.

Melanins, the pigments in human hair, skin, eyes––and even the brain!––are not very well understood on a chemical level, but they have many fascinating chemical properties that contribute to their biological roles, diseases such as skin cancer, and can be developed for non-biological applications.

We are particularly interested in the molecular recognition properties of melanins.  Our lab uses a combination of organic synthesis, biochemical, environmental and materials chemistry approaches to study melanin self-assembly and interactions with other molecules.  This work is supported by a recent grant from the National Science Foundation, entitled “Bioorganic Chemistry of Eumelanin.”

One application that we are pursuing is water purification, which takes advantage of the ability of melanin from natural sources and synthetic analogs to bind to heavy metals and organic pollutants.  In a related project, we are investigating melanin-inspired coatings as colorimetric sensors for metal ions. 

  • Belitsky, J.M. "Aryl boronic acid inhibition of synthetic melanin polymerization" Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters 2010, 20, 4475-4478.
  • Sono, K.*; Lye, D.*; Moore, C.A.*; Boyd, W.C.*; Gorlin, T.A.*; Belitsky, J.M. “Melanin-based coatings as lead-binding agents” Bioinorganic Chemistry and Applications 2012, Article ID 361803.
  • Belitsky, J.M.; Ellowitz, M.Z.*; Lye, D.*; Kilbo, A.L.* “Small molecule modulators of aggregation in synthetic melanin polymerizations” Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters 2012, 22, 5503-5507
  • Belitsky, J.M.; Lye, D.S.*; Gittleman, H.R.*; Gorlin, T.A.*; Gorham, A.N.*; Moore, C.A.*; Chaves, M.B.*; Ellowitz, M.Z.* “Colorimetric metal ion binding of catechol-based coatings inspired by melanin and molecular imprinting” Supramolecular Chemistry 2014, 26, 233-244.
  • Stanhope, L.; Ziegler, L.; Haque, T.; Le, L.; Vinces, M.; Davis, G.K.; Zieffler, A.; Brodfuehrer, P.; Preest, M.; Belitsky, J.M.; Umbanhowar, C., Jr.; Overvoorde, P.J. “Development of a Biological Science Quantitative Reasoning Exam (BioSQuaRE)” CBE–Life Sciences Education 2017, 16:ar66.
  • Aebly, A.H.; Levy, J.N.*; Steger, B.J.*; Quirke, J.C.*; Belitsky, J.M. “Expedient synthesis of eumelanin-inspired 5,6-dihydroxyindole-2-carboxylate ether ester derivatives” RSC Advances 2018, 8, 28323-2832.

Fall 2024

Principles of Chemistry — CHEM 102

Spring 2025

Bioorganic Chemistry — CHEM 254

Notes

Matt Elrod and Jason Belitsky Coauthored Article Published in "ACS Earth and Space Chemistry"

February 26, 2025

Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Matt Elrod recently published an article, "A New Potential Atmospheric Accretion Mechanism: Acid-Catalyzed Hetero-Michael Addition Reactions," in ACS Earth and Space Chemistry. His coauthors are Becca Fenselau ’22, Ali Alotbi ’23, Caroline Lee ’24, Julia Cronin ’25, and Dan Hill ’21, as well as Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Jason Belitsky.

Jason Belitsky Receives Top Poster Award

September 25, 2024

Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Jason Belitsky was awarded a Top Poster Award at the 2024 PanAmerican Society for Pigment Cell Research Annual Meeting. His poster, "Melanin Chemistry in the Undergraduate Laboratory," describes a collaboration between the Belitsky research lab and CHEM 254 (Bioorganic Chemistry), highlighting the contributions of CHEM 254 students.

News

The Forever Impact of Zach Smith ’26

October 4, 2024

Zach Smith ’26 is a chemistry major with a business concentration. This summer, he interned at CoreWater Technologies, an Oberlin-based company whose mission is to eliminate chemicals forever from our drinking water. Here, he discusses what he did, how he got there, and his hopes for the future.

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