The June 2008 issue of Nature Chemical Biology summarizes the impact of recent laboratory research of Ben Shen, professor in the Pharmaceutical Sciences Division and Department of Chemistry, on polyunsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis. The full paper may be found in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, 130 (20), pp. 6336-6337, 2008. The work was supported in part by a grant from Martek Biosciences Boulder Corporation.