Three CSU Sacramento chemistry students, Dustin Dimas (MS Chemistry, 2018), Grace Paragas (MS Chemistry, 2016) and Kara Zeman (BS Biochemistry, expected spring 2019), together with their advisor, Katherine McReynolds, published a paper in a special Carbohydrates edition of the open access journal Pharmaceuticals (Pharmaceuticals 2019, 12, 39). In the paper, the McReynolds group reports a new, efficient synthetic method to make carbohydrate-based molecules. The key is using a laboratory grade microwave. The green chemistry techniques used reduce the amount of time and materials needed to make biologically-important molecules, while also producing more of the desired products than usual methods. McReynolds won a CSUPERB Research Development grant to jump-start the project and won a follow-on National Institutes of Health grant to support the group's work. Dr. McReynolds is the current chair of CSUPERB's Strategic Planning Council and Faculty Consensus Group.