Before geoengineering to mitigate climate change, researchers must consider some fundamental chemistry

by University of Pennsylvania

Some scientists have proposed planetary-scale solutions to address climate change, such

 as geoengineering using sulfur compounds to create a sunshield in the upper atmosphere

. New research suggests there's a good deal more chemistry to understand before

 proceeding. Credit: Francisco laboratory

It's a tempting thought: With climate change so difficult to manage and nations unwilling to take decisive action, what if we could mitigate its effects by setting up a kind of chemical umbrella—a layer of sulfuric acid in the upper atmosphere that could reflect the sun's radiation and cool the Earth?

According to a new study in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, a collaboration among Penn scientists and two groups in Spain, atmospheric conditions in the stratosphere pose a challenge to generating sulfuric acid, making its production less efficient than might have previously been expected. Thus more groundwork exploring the chemistry of how sulfuric acid and its building blocks will react in the upper atmosphere is required in order to confidently move forward with this climate geoengineering strategy, the researchers say.

"These fundamental insights highlight the importance of understanding the photochemistry involved in geoengineering," says Joseph S. Francisco, an atmospheric chemist in Penn's School of Arts & Sciences and a co-corresponding author on the study. "That's critically important and it's something that's been ignored."

Using sulfuric acid to blunt the sun's rays as a means of curbing climate change impacts is based on a natural phenomenon: When volcanoes erupt, the sulfur they emit creates localized—or sometimes even far-reaching—cooling clouds that filter the sun. But those clouds emerge in the troposphere, which ranges from the Earth's surface to about 10 kilometers up. Geoengineering using sulfuric acid would happen a good deal higher, in the stratosphere, from about 10 to 20 kilometers above the planet.

Conditions change as the altitude increases. Notably, the air becomes drier, and the energy of the sun's rays becomes stronger. In the new work, Francisco, his postdoc Tarek Trabelsi, and colleagues from Spain's Rocasolano Institute of Physical Chemistry and the University of València partnered to explore how these variables affected the chemical reactions involved in making sulfuric acid.

The major inputs are sulfur dioxide (SO2), which reacts with hydroxyl radicals (OH), a kind of atmospheric "detergent," to create HOSO2. HOSO2 reacts with oxygen to create sulfur trioxide (SO3), which then reacts with water vapor to create sulfuric acid. Aerosols formed from the sulfuric acid have the ability to reflect sunlight.

These reactions are well characterized; together, they are responsible for creating acid rain in the troposphere. But whether that chemistry would work in the stratosphere and achieve the same efficiency was unknown.

To find out, the team used quantum chemistry—an approach that considers the ground, transition, and excited states of atoms and molecules—to consider how HOSO2 and SO3 would behave in the stratosphere's conditions of high light and low humidity. Though geoengineering approaches factor in the ability of these two molecules to reflect sunlight, the researchers found that when HOSO2 is produced in the stratosphere, solar radiation causes the molecule to quickly photolyze, essentially breaking apart into its component parts, including sulfur dioxide, which is harmful to humans in high concentrations.

Research by the Penn-led group indicated that HOSO2 would photolyze, or break apart, in the stratosphere, likely reducing the efficiency of producing sulfuric acid at those altitudes. Credit: Francisco laboratory

"One of the implications of this finding is, if you put sulfur dioxide up there, it's going to just be recycling around," Francisco says. "So it opens the door to whether we have a full understanding of atmospheric sulfur chemistry up in the stratosphere."

Declining HOSO2 would also blunt the efficiency of producing sulfuric acid, the researchers note, possibly lessening the effectiveness of a chemical sunshade.

In contrast, the researchers found that SO3 levels remained quite stable in stratospheric conditions. "We know it reacts with water, but we don't know a lot else about how it might react," says Francisco. "Will the atmosphere find a way to get rid of the SO3 or will it collect somewhere and start initiating new chemistry elsewhere?"

Indeed, the researchers note that it's crucial to understand what other reactions these molecules could be entering into in the stratosphere. "This work points to a cautionary note: If the SO3 chemistry is different, then how does it interact with the other chemistry that's currently going on in the stratosphere," he says. "We need to consider whether there are any kind of chemical concerns that we need to think about up front."

The findings also highlight the need for a Plan B if the atmospheric chemistry doesn't play out as expected. "It raises a fundamentally important question," Francisco says. "If we put the sulfur dioxide in, can we get it out of the stratosphere?"

Francisco's group is working on continuing to apply cutting-edge quantum methodologies to examine how photochemistry interacts with atmospheric models to generate a more complete understanding of various geoengineering scenarios.

"This is the first time that you're taking results from fundamental physics and chemistry and mapping them into climate models to look at the three-dimensional atmospheric impact," Francisco says.

And while some scientists are already proposing to trial a geoengineering approach using SO2, Francisco and his colleagues underscore that the outcomes depend on some aspects of sulfur chemistry that remain unknown.

"This brings to the forefront the need to make the community aware that there's more fundamental chemistry that we need before we start to understand the full chemical impact of this approach," Francisco says.Mechanism deciphered: How organic acids are formed in the atmosphere\

More information: Javier Carmona-García et al, Photochemistry of HOSO2 and SO3 and Implications for the Production of Sulfuric Acid, Journal of the American Chemical Society (2021). DOI: 10.1021/jacs.1c10153

Journal information: Journal of the American Chemical Society 

Provided by University of Pennsylvania 

 

New HS curriculum teaches color chemistry and AI simultaneously

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY

North Carolina State University researchers have developed a weeklong high school curriculum that helps students quickly grasp concepts in both color chemistry and artificial intelligence – while sparking their curiosity about science and the world around them.

To test whether a short high school science module could effectively teach students something about both chemistry – a notoriously thorny subject – and artificial intelligence (AI), the researchers designed a relatively simple experiment involving pH levels, which reflect the acidity or alkalinity of a liquid solution. 

When testing pH levels on a test strip, color conversion charts provide a handy reference: more acidic solutions turn test strips red when a lot of acidity is present and turn test strips yellow and green as acid levels weaken. Test strips turn deep purple when liquids are highly alkaline and turn blue and dark green as alkaline levels decline. Numerical ranges of pH span from 0 to 14, with 7 being neutral – about the level of the tap water in your home – and the lower amounts reflecting greater acidity with higher numbers reflecting greater alkalinity.

“We wanted to answer the question: ‘Can we use machine learning to more accurately read pH strips than visually?’” said Yang Zhang, assistant professor of textile engineering, chemistry and science and a co-corresponding author of a paper describing the work. “It turns out that the student-trained AI predictive model was about 5.5 times more precise than visual interpretations.”

The students used their cellphone cameras to take pictures of pH test strips after wetting them in a variety of everyday liquids – beverages, pond or lake water, cosmetics and the like – and predicted their pH values visually. They also received test strips from the instructors with known pH levels taken with sophisticated instrumentation and predicted those visually.

“We wanted students to think about the real-world implications of this type of testing, for example in underdeveloped places where drinking water might be an issue,” Zhang said. “You might not have a sophisticated instrument, but you really want to know if the pH level is less than 5 versus a 7.”

Students entered data into free machine learning software called Orange, which has no lines of code, making it easy for novices to work with. They worked to convert test strip images and pH values into predictions, with machine learning improving accuracy as it learned to delineate the more subtle changes in test-strip color with the corresponding pH values. Students then compared their machine learning pH level predictions with their visual predictions and found that the AI predictions, though not perfect, were much closer to the true pH value than their visual predictions.

The researchers also surveyed the students before and after the weeklong curriculum and found that they reported being more motivated to learn and more knowledgeable about both chemistry and AI.

“Students could see the relevance of cutting-edge technology when applied to real-world problems and scientific advancements,” said Shiyan Jiang, assistant professor of learning design and technology at NC State and co-corresponding author of the paper. “This practical application not only enhances their understanding of complex science concepts but also inspires them to explore innovative solutions, fostering a deeper appreciation for the intersection of cutting-edge technology and science, in particular chemistry.”

“On the chemistry side, there are a lot of similar color chemistry concepts we can teach this way,” Zhang said. “We can also scale this curriculum up to include more students.”

NC State graduate students Jeanne McClure, Jiahui Chen and Yunshu Liu co-authored the paper. The work was supported by the National Science Foundation (grants CHE-2246548, DRL-1949110 and DRL-2025090) and the National Institutes of Health (grants R21GM141675 and R01GM143397).

-kulikowski-

Note to editors: The paper abstract follows.

“Integrating Machine Learning and Color Chemistry: Developing a High-School Curriculum Towards Real-World Problem-Solving”

Authors: Shiyan Jiang, Jeanne McClure, Jiahui Chen, Yunshu Liu and Yang Zhang, NC State University

Published: Dec. 7, 2023 in Journal of Chemical Education

DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.3c00589

Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming our world, making it imperative to educate the next generation about both the potential benefits and challenges associated with AI. This study presents a cross-disciplinary curriculum that connects AI and chemistry disciplines in the high school classroom. Particularly, we leverage machine learning (ML), an important and simple application of AI to instruct students to build an ML-based virtual pH meter for high-precision pH read-outs. We used a “codeless” and free ML neural network building software – Orange, along with a simple chemical topic of pH to show the connection between AI and chemistry for high-schoolers who might have rudimentary backgrounds in both disciplines. The goal of this curriculum is to promote student interest and drive in the analytical chemistry domain and offer insights into how the interconnection between chemistry and ML can benefit high-school students in science learning. The activity involves students using pH strips to measure the pH of various solutions with local relevancy and then building an ML neural network model to predict the pH value based on color changes of pH strips. The integrated curriculum increased student interest in chemistry and ML and demonstrated the relevance of science to their daily lives and global issues. This approach is transformative in developing a broad spectrum of integration topics between chemistry and ML and understanding their global impacts.

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JOURNAL

Journal of Chemical Education

DOI

10.1021/acs.jchemed.3c00589 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Integrating Machine Learning and Color Chemistry: Developing a High-School Curriculum Towards Real-World Problem-Solving

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

7-Dec-2023

TalTech chemists' new method is a significant step towards greener pharmaceutical industry

ESTONIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL

Research News

 

IMAGE: PROFESSOR AT TALTECH'S DIVISION OF CHEMISTRY RIINA AAV view more 

CREDIT: TALTECH

The rapid changes in the chemical industry are connected one hand with the depletion of natural resources and deepening of environmental concerns, on the other hand with the growth of environmental awareness. Green, environmentally friendly chemistry is playing an increasingly important role in the sustainable chemical industry.

The TalTech Supramolecular Chemistry Group led by Professor Riina Aav published a research article on the applications of mechanochemistry titled "Mechanochemical Synthesis of Amides with Uronium-Based Coupling Reagents: A Method for Hexa-amidation of Biotin[6]uril" in the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering.

Mechanochemistry is a branch of chemistry that studies the effects induced by mechanical action on chemical reactions. Since these reactions take place efficiently in the solid-state phase and do not require the use of solvents that generate toxic residues, it is becoming an increasingly important branch of chemistry, especially in the field of green and sustainable technology..

The TalTech Supramolecular Chemistry Group led by Professor Riina Aav published a research article on the applications of mechanochemistry titled "Mechanochemical Synthesis of Amides with Uronium-Based Coupling Reagents: A Method for Hexa-amidation of Biotin[6]uril" in the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering.

Mechanochemistry is a branch of chemistry that studies the effects induced by mechanical action on chemical reactions. Since these reactions take place efficiently in the solid-state phase and do not require the use of solvents that generate toxic residues, it is becoming an increasingly important branch of chemistry, especially in the field of green and sustainable technology.

One of the authors of the article, TalTech Professor of Chemistry Riina Aav says, "Our Supramolecular Chemistry research group is currently one of the most active research groups in this field in Estonia, investigating in depth how to expand the possible applications of the mechanochemical method in the chemicals industry. As chemists, we see this method in particular as a good solution for environmentally friendly synthesis. This means that it is now possible to produce chemicals much faster and completely residue-free."

Twenty five per cent of pharmaceuticals produced in the chemical industry contain an amide bond. Such pharmaceuticals include e.g. drugs for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases (atorvastatin or Lipitor®), analgesics (Ibuprofen analogues), antibiotics (penicillin and chloramphenicol or Oftan Akvakol), as well as cancer drugs (methotrexate and, inter alia therapeutic peptides such as carfilzomib (KYPROLIS)). Until now, such drugs have conventionally been produced in the chemical industry using solvents. A mechanochemical process involves grinding of chemical substances without the need to use solvents. This means, however, that no toxic waste characteristic of solvent-based production is generated, and in addition, the whole process can take place tens of times faster (e.g. the required active ingredient is created within an hour, whereas the analogous solvent-based reaction requires 24-hours).

"I would like to point out that we were able to replace the organic catalysts used so far with an inorganic one to achieve the result, because dissolution of components is not necessary in mechanochemical synthesis. This further reduced our carbon footprint. We also studied the mechanism of the mechanochemical process, and the results show that the formation pathways of amides or peptides, which are essential for the manufacture of pharmaceutical products, are similar to the ones involved in protein formation in our bodies. The mechanochemical method developed by us is much simpler - the necessary elements are ground and the product obtained is washed with water," a co-author and senior researcher Dzmitry Kananovich, says.

It is a faster and and much more environmentally friendly chemical process compared to the solvent-based method. In addition, this method can be used to produce new molecular receptors biotin[6]urils, which scientists plan to apply as "chemical noses" upon developing residue capturing molecular containers.

"The developed method is great news for chemical and pharmaceutical industry, who are interested in sustainable and residue-free chemical technology solutions not only in the production of medicines, but also food supplements, detergents and other products. Our research group is a member of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology action "Mechanochemistry for Sustainable Industry", which will hopefully ensure practical application of the mechanochemical methods in the chemical industry in the near future," Riina Aav says.

###

Source: ACS Sustainable Chemistry "Mechanochemical Synthesis of Amides with Uronium-Based Coupling Reagents: A Method for Hexa-amidation of Biotin[6]uril" 06.10.2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.0c05558

Additional information: Professor at TalTech's Division of Chemistry Riina Aav, riina.aav@taltech.ee

Kersti Vähi, TalTech Research Communications Officer

Heavy water tastes sweet

INSTITUTE OF ORGANIC CHEMISTRY AND BIOCHEMISTRY OF THE CZECH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES (IOCB PRAGUE)

Research News

 

IMAGE: DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE BEHAVIOR OF THE TRANSMEMBRANE PART OF THE HUMAN SWEET TASTE RECEPTOR IN H2O VS D2O BASE ON ANALYSIS OF THREE INDEPENDENT MICROSECOND TRAJECTORIES. view more 

CREDIT: CARMELO TEMPRA / IOCB PRAGUE

Ordinary pure water has no distinct taste, but how about heavy water - does it taste sweet, as anecdotal evidence going back to 1930s may have indicated? And if yes - why, when D2O is chemically practically identical to H2O, of which it is a stable naturally-occurring isotope? These questions arose shortly after heavy water was isolated almost 100 years ago, but they had not been satisfactorily answered until now. Now, researchers Pavel Jungwirth and Phil Mason with students Carmelo Tempra and Victor Cruces Chamorro at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IOCB Prague), together with the group of Masha Niv at the Hebrew University and Maik Behrens at the Technical University of Munich, found answers to these questions using molecular dynamics simulations, cell-based experiments, mouse models, and human subjects. In their research article published in Communications Biology, they show conclusively that, unlike ordinary water, heavy water tastes sweet to humans but not to mice, with this effect being mediated by the human sweet taste receptor.

Heavy water (D2O) differs from normal water (H2O) by an H-D isotopic substitution only, and as such, should not be chemically distinct. Leaving aside a trivial 10% change in density due to the doubled mass of D compared to H, differences in properties of D2O vs H2O, such as pH or melting and boiling points, are indeed very small. These differences are solely due to nuclear quantum effects, namely, changes in zero-point vibrations, which lead to a slightly stronger hydrogen bonding in D2O than in H2O.

"Despite the fact that the two isotopes are nominally chemically identical, we have shown conclusively that humans can distinguish by taste (which is based on chemical sensing) between H2O and D2O, with the latter having a distinct sweet taste," commented Pavel Jungwirth on the principal result of their study. In their work, the authors complement taste experiments on human subjects with tests on mice and on HEK 293T cells transfected with the human sweet taste receptor TAS1R2/TAS1R3, and with molecular modelling. The results consistently point to the fact that the sweet taste of heavy water is mediated in humans by the TAS1R2/TAS1R3 receptor. Future studies should be able to elucidate the precise sites and mechanisms of action, as well as the reason why D2O activates TAS1R2/TAS1R3 in particular, resulting in a sweet (but not other) taste.

While clearly not a practical sweetener, heavy water provides a glimpse into the wide-open chemical space of sweet molecules. Since heavy water has been used in medical procedures, the finding that it can elicit responses of the sweet taste receptor, which is located not only on the tongue but also in other tissues of the human body, represents an important information for clinicians and their patients. Moreover, due to wide application of D2O in chemical structure determination, chemists will benefit from being aware of the present observations.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that 86 years ago, Science published a short letter by H. C. Urey, Nobelist for the discovery of deuterium (H. C. Urey & G. Failla, Science, 81, 273, 1935. http://doi.org/10.1126/science.81.2098.273-a), stating authoritatively that D2O is undistinguishable from H2O by taste, which had a strong albeit misleading effect on the ongoing discussion about the subject.

"Our study thus resolves an old controversy concerning the sweet taste of heavy water using state-of-the-art experimental and computer modelling approaches, demonstrating that a small nuclear quantum effect can have a pronounced influence on such a basic biological function as taste recognition," concludes Pavel Jungwirth.

CAPTION

Artist's view of heavy water eliciting sweet taste in humans.

CREDIT

Graphic design: Tomáš Bello? / IOCB Prague

Original paper: Sweet taste of heavy water. Natalie Ben Abu, Philip E. Mason, Hadar Klein, Nitzan Dubovski, Yaron Ben Shoshan-Galeczki, Einav Malach, Veronika Pra�ienková, Lenka Maletínská, Carmelo Tempra, Victor Cruces Chamorro, Josef Cvačka, Maik Behrens, Masha Y. Niv and Pavel Jungwirth. Communications Biology 2021. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-01964-y

Professor Pavel Jungwirth, DSc. (born 1966, Prague) is a Czech physical chemist, educator, and popularizer of science. He studied physics in Prague at Charles University, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, where he specialized in chemical physics. He did his PhD work in computational chemistry at the J. Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences under the guidance of Professor R. Zahradník. He has spent several years abroad as a postdoc and later as a visiting professor, primarily at the University of California, Irvine, the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Currently, Pavel Jungwirth heads a research team at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (https://jungwirth.group.uochb.cz) holding the position of Distinguished Chair. He is also an external member of the Department of Chemical Physics and Optics at the Charles University Faculty of Mathematics and Physics.

Pavel Jungwirth has published more than 300 original papers in international journals, including Science, Nature Chemistry, and PNAS, with over 15,000 citations. He is an executive editor of the Journal of Physical Chemistry, which is published by the American Chemical Society. He is also the president of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic, and has received numerous awards, among them the Spiers Memorial Prize of the British Royal Society of Chemistry, the Jaroslav Heyrovský Honorary Medal for Merit in the Chemical Sciences from the Czech Academy of Sciences, and the Humboldt Research Award. Pavel Jungwirth's popular-science contributions regularly appear on the pages of the weekly Respekt, and he is a frequent Czech Radio and TV guest.

The Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences / IOCB Prague (https://www.uochb.cz/) is a leading internationally recognized scientific institution whose primary mission is the pursuit of basic research in chemical biology and medicinal chemistry, organic and materials chemistry, chemistry of natural substances, biochemistry and molecular biology, physical chemistry, theoretical chemistry, and analytical chemistry. An integral part of the IOCB Prague's mission is the implementation of the results of basic research in practice. Emphasis on interdisciplinary research gives rise to a wide range of applications in medicine, pharmacy, and other fields.

CAPTION

Prof. Pavel Jungwirth, IOCB Prague

CREDIT

Tomáš Bello? / IOCB Prague

‘Click’ chemistry may help treat dogs with bone cancer, MU study finds

The scientific discovery, which recently earned a Nobel Prize in chemistry, may efficiently deliver radioactive cancer treatments to tumors while reducing side effects.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA

 

IMAGE: JEFFREY BRYAN view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI

COLUMBIA, Mo. – In September, researchers from California and Denmark were awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their development of ‘click’ chemistry, a process in which molecules snap together like LEGO, making them a potentially more efficient transportation device in delivering pharmaceuticals to cancer tumors.

Now, in a recent study, a researcher at the University of Missouri has successfully shown for the first time how click chemistry can be used to more efficiently deliver drugs to treat tumors in large dogs with bone cancer – a process that had previously only been successful in small mice.

“If you want to attack a tumor using the immune system, an antibody is an extremely specific way to deliver a drug or radioactive payload to the tumor, but the problem with antibodies is they are huge molecules that circulate in the bloodstream for days or even weeks,” said Jeffrey Bryan, an associate professor in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine and author on the study. “If you put a drug or radioactive molecule onto the antibody, you leave radioactivity circulating in the bloodstream for a long time, which can spread to and negatively impact organs, bone marrow and the liver while not getting as much dose to the specific tumor as you were hoping for.”

The goal with click chemistry is to maximize the delivery of therapeutic drugs specifically to the cancer tumor to increase effectiveness while minimizing the circulation of those drugs throughout the bloodstream and causing dangerous side effects.

From mice to man’s best friend

For years, many chemists assumed that while click chemistry has been successful in mice, the strategy would not work in large dogs or people because the size of the body might be too big for the two sides of therapy-delivering molecules to find each other and snap, or ‘click,’ together. Bryan collaborated with Brian Zeglis, an associate professor at Hunter College in New York who specializes in click chemistry, to conduct the first-ever successful ‘proof-of-concept’ study at the MU College of Veterinary Medicine. Using click chemistry, doses of radiopharmaceuticals were delivered specifically to the tumors in five dogs that weighed more than 100 pounds and had bone cancer.

“It is a huge step forward for the field to show that this worked in a human-sized body,” Bryan said. “Going forward, this may pave the way for click chemistry to be used to help humans with cancer in the future.”

Bryan has been researching veterinary and comparative oncology for nearly two decades. He said some dogs with one known bone tumor have additional bone tumors hiding in their body’s skeleton. An additional benefit of studies involving imaging scans and click chemistry is the ability to discover if additional cancer tumors are located in a dog’s skeleton and impacting their health.

“Osteosarcoma, a common form of bone cancer, impacts both dogs and people, and it causes severe pain, limping, swelling in the limbs, and treating the bone tumors with various radiation therapy and immune therapy approaches to take away the pain is something I am passionate about here at MU," Bryan said. "Everything we learn about treating these dogs can be translated to help humans down the road.”

A leader in treating cancer – for people and pets

The MU College of Veterinary Medicine, which earned more than $14 million in federal research funding last year from the National Institutes of Health, is the site of clinical trials for cancer that attract people and their pets from California, Florida, New York and states across the country.

“It is heartwarming to be a part of it because the patients’ families realize it is not just about better outcomes for their specific dog, but they are also contributing to better outcomes for other dogs in the future and hopefully better health outcomes for people as we translate these advances from the dogs to the human side,” Bryan said.

While this was a successful ‘proof-of-concept’ imaging study involving click chemistry, Bryan’s long-term goal is to develop a therapy using radiopharmaceuticals, potentially involving an antibody-targeting molecule, to treat dogs with bone cancer that may not be well enough for other treatments that involve surgery.

“This research is also an example of precision medicine, a key part of MU’s NextGen Precision Health initiative, because we are using the molecules associated with the specific tumor to deliver the therapeutic dose of treatment,” Bryan said. “We collaborate with the MU Research Reactor, the Molecular Imaging and Theranostics Center, and Washington University in St. Louis, so it is a team effort.”

In 2020, Bryan collaborated with ELIAS Animal Health to create a precision medicine approach – a vaccine from a dog’s own tumor – to target and kill cancer cells in dogs suffering from osteosarcoma. The success of the treatment in dogs led the Food and Drug Administration to grant a rare fast-track designation for ELIAS Animal Health’s parent organization, TVAX Biomedical, to study the ELIAS immunotherapy approach to treat glioblastoma multiforme, a cancerous brain tumor in humans.

“The last dog that participated in that study just died a few weeks ago, five years out from their original diagnosis of bone cancer, and the dog never relapsed with its cancer, so the dog was able to live the rest of its life cancer-free due to the immunotherapy,” Bryan said. “Our overall goal is to come up with different tools in our toolbox to effectively help treat dogs with cancer, and one day even people, too.”

“Pretargeted PET of Osteodestructive Lesions in Dogs” was published in Molecular Pharmaceutics. Funding was provided by Hunter College.

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JOURNAL

Molecular Pharmaceutics

DOI

10.1021/acs.molpharmaceut.2c00220 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Pretargeted PET of Osteodestructive Lesions in Dogs

Breaking inert bonds: Multicomponent catalysts pave the way for green chemistry and green carbon science

Peer-Reviewed Publication

INDUSTRIAL CHEMISTRY & MATERIALS

 

IMAGE: THE RECENT PROGRESS IN MULTICOMPONENT CATALYST DESIGN FOR CO2/N2/NOX ELECTROREDUCTION IS SUMMARIZED FROM THREE MODELS. view more 

CREDIT: BUXING HAN AND XIAOFU SUN, INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

The chemical industry has played a significant role in the development of society, but its impact on the environment has become a growing concern. Green chemistry and chemical engineering have opened up possibilities for sustainability through the transformation of renewable feedstocks into environmentally friendly chemicals. However, the inert bonds in molecules such as CO2 and N2 present challenges to their activation and conversion.

Electrochemical conversion provides a promising carbon-neutral route to upgrading green chemical sources with inert bonds to chemicals and fuels under ambient conditions. Multicomponent electrocatalysts have advantages over monocomponent catalysts, such as better stability, increased activity, and expanded reaction processes. Multicomponent electrocatalysts offer a promising solution to the challenge of sustainability in the chemical industry. A group of researchers published their review on Industrial Chemistry & Materials in Jan. 2023.

"The chemical industry has played a crucial role in society's historical evolution, but it also presents emerging environmental concerns and skyrocketing CO2 emissions," said corresponding author Buxing Han, the member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a professor at Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS). "We were motivated to explore the possibilities of green chemistry and chemical engineering to transform renewable feedstocks, such as CO2 and NOx, into environmentally friendly chemicals, including syngas, hydrocarbons, oxygenates, and ammonia."

"However, these inert bonds, such as the C=O bond in CO2, pose challenges to their activation and conversion. We wanted to explore electrochemical conversion as a universal carbon-neutral route to efficiently upgrade green chemical sources with inert bonds to chemicals and fuels under ambient conditions harnessing clean energy," said co-corresponding author Prof. Xiaofu Sun, ICCAS. "Multicomponent electrocatalysts offer advantages over monocomponent catalysts in terms of stability, activity, and reaction processes. So, we explored the use of multicomponent catalysts in the electroreduction of small molecules such as CO2, N2, and NOx. We developed three models for multicomponent catalysts: Type I, Type II, and Type III, which we discuss in our paper."

Type I involves a non-catalytic active component that can activate or protect another catalytic component. Type II involves all catalytic components providing active intermediates for electrochemical conversion. Type III involves one component providing the substrate for the other through conversion or adsorption.

"Each of these models has its own advantages and disadvantages, depending on the specific reaction and catalyst. We explored the use of these models in our paper to show their effectiveness in the electroreduction of small molecules," Han said. "And we also discussed future directions for applying multicomponent electrocatalysts in the industrial utilization of renewable chemical sources through highly efficient activation and conversion of inert bonds."

What are the key challenges that need to be addressed in the development and utilization of multicomponent electrocatalysts for the activation and conversion of renewable chemical sources? "One key challenge is improving the selectivity and efficiency of the electrocatalysts, as well as increasing their stability and activity," Sun said. "Another challenge is understanding the fundamental mechanisms of the electroreduction reactions and how they are influenced by the multicomponent catalysts."

"More importantly, there is a need for further research and development to scale up and integrate these electrochemical processes into industrial applications. Many promising research projects are undergoing in our lab." Han said.

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Industrial Chemistry & Materials is a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary academic journal published by Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) with APCs currently waived. Icm publishes significant innovative research and major technological breakthroughs in all aspects of industrial chemistry and materials, especially the important innovation of the low-carbon chemical industry, energy, and functional materials.

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JOURNAL

Industrial Chemistry and Materials

DOI

10.1039/D2IM00056C 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Literature review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Multicomponent catalyst design for CO2/N2/NOx electroreduction

GREEN CHEMISTRY

Nobel in chemistry honors ‘greener’ way to build molecules

By DAVID KEYTON, FRANK JORDANS and CHRISTINA LARSON

today

1 of 12

Goran K Hansson, Permanent Secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, centre, announces the winners of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, in Stockholm, Sweden, Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021. Professor Pernilla Wittung-Stafhede, is seated at left and Professor Peter Somfai at right. Two scientists have won the Nobel Prize for chemistry for finding an “ingenious” new way to build molecules that can be used to make everything from medicines to food flavorings. Benjamin List of Germany and Scotland-born David W.C. MacMillan developed “asymmetric organocatalysis.” Goran Hansson of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said Wednesday that work has already had a significant impact on pharmaceutical research. 

(Claudio Bresciani/TT New Agency via AP)

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Two scientists won the Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday for finding an ingenious and environmentally cleaner way to build molecules — an approach now used to make a variety of compounds, including medicines and pesticides.

The work of Benjamin List and David W.C. MacMillan has allowed scientists to produce those molecules more cheaply, efficiently, safely and with significantly less hazardous waste.

“It’s already benefiting humankind greatly,” said Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede, a member of the Nobel panel.

It was the second day in a row that a Nobel rewarded work that had environmental implications. The physics prize honored developments that expanded our understanding of climate change, just weeks before the start of global climate negotiations in Scotland.

The chemistry prize focused on the making of molecules. That requires linking atoms together in specific arrangements, an often difficult and slow task. Until the beginning of the millennium, chemists had only two methods — or catalysts — to speed up the process, using either complicated enzymes or metal catalysts.

That all changed when List, of the Max Planck Institute in Germany, and MacMillan, of Princeton University in New Jersey, independently reported that small organic molecules can be used to do the job. The new tools have been important for developing medicines and minimizing drug manufacturing glitches, including problems that can cause harmful side effects.

Johan Åqvist, chair of the Nobel panel, called the method as “simple as it is ingenious.”

“The fact is that many people have wondered why we didn’t think of it earlier,” he added.

MacMillan said that winning the prize left him “stunned, shocked, happy, very proud.”

“I grew up in Scotland, a working-class kid. My dad’s a steelworker. My mom was a home help. … I was lucky enough to get a chance to come to America, to do my Ph.D.,” he said.

David W.C. MacMillan, one of two winners of the Nobel Prize for chemistry, smiles as he is interviewed outside the Frick Chemistry Laboratory and Department of Chemistry at Princeton University, Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021, in Princeton, N.J. The work of Benjamin List of Germany and Scotland-born David W.C. MacMillan were awarded for finding an "ingenious" and environmentally cleaner way to build molecules that can be used to make everything from medicines to food flavorings. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

In fact, he said at a news conference in Princeton, he was planning to follow his older brother into physics, but the physics classes in college were at 8 a.m. in a cold and leaky classroom in rainy Scotland, while the chemistry courses were two hours later in warmer, drier spaces. As he told that story, he said he could hear his wife pleading with him not to share it.

His said the inspiration for his Nobel-winning work came when thinking about the dirty process of making chemicals — one that requires precautions he likened to those taken at nuclear power plants.

If he could devise a way of making medicines faster by completely different means that didn’t require vats of metal catalysts, the process would be safer for both workers and the planet, he reasoned.

List said he did not initially know MacMillan was working on the same subject and figured his own hunch might just be a “stupid idea” — until it worked. At that eureka moment, “I did feel that this could be something big,” the 53-year-old said.

H.N. Cheng, president of the American Chemical Society, said the laureates developed “new magic wands.”

Before the their work, “the standard catalysts frequently used were metals, which frequently have environmental downsides,” Cheng said. “They accumulate, they leach, they may be hazardous.”

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The catalysts that MacMillan and List pioneered “are organic, so they will degrade faster, and they are also cheaper,” he said.

The Nobel panel noted that their contributions made the production of key drugs easier, including an antiviral and an anti-anxiety medication.

“One way to look at their work is like molecular carpentry,” said John Lorsch, director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

“They’ve found ways to not only speed up the chemical joining,” he said, “but to make sure it only goes in either the right-handed or left-handed direction.”

The ability to control the orientation in which new atoms are added to molecules is important. Failing to do so can result in side effects in drugs, the Nobel panel explained, citing the catastrophic example of thalidomide, which caused severe birth defects in children.


German scientist Benjamin List arrives at the Max-Planck-Institute for Coal Research in Muelheim, Germany, Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021 after he was informed about winining the Nobel Prize for chemistry. Two scientists have won the Nobel Prize for chemistry for finding an "ingenious" new way to build molecules that can be used to make everything from medicines to food flavorings. Benjamin List of Germany and Scotland-born David W.C. MacMillan developed "asymmetric organocatalysis." (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Since the scientists’ discovery, the tool has been further refined, making it many times more efficient.

Peter Somfai, another member of the committee, stressed the importance of the discovery for the world economy.

“It has been estimated that catalysis is responsible for about 35% of the world’s GDP, which is a pretty impressive figure,” he said. “If we have a more environmentally friendly alternative, it’s expected that that will make a difference.”

The NIH supported List’s research with a grant in 2002. MacMillan’s work has received funding from NIH since 2000, for a total of around $14.5 million to date.

“It’s a great example of supporting basic science that you don’t necessarily know where it’s going to go” but can have major impact, said Francis Collins, NIH director.

The Nobel comes with a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor,, or more than $1.14 million. The money comes from a bequest left by the prize’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who died in 1895.

Over the coming days, Nobels will be awarded in literature, peace and economics.

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Jordans reported from Berlin and Larson from Washington. Associated Press journalists Mike Corder in Amsterdam and Ted Shaffrey in Princeton, New Jersey, contributed.

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Read more stories about Nobel Prizes past and present at https://www.apnews.com/NobelPrizes.