$250K grant for chemistry research largest ever for College of Arts & Sciences

August 14, 2024

Grant secured by chemistry professor to be used for enzyme research

Dr. Evan Reynolds, a Campbell University associate professor of chemistry, received a $250,000 National Science Foundation grant this summer to study new methods for sustainable chemical synthesis using thiamin diphosphate-dependent enzymes.

The grant is the largest ever received within the College of Arts & Sciences.

In addition to the research, the grant also supports the promotion and retention of diverse talent in STEM education. Reynolds' team will include underrepresented and minority students, and the project will be incorporated into a course-based undergraduate research experience.

"That part of it was really important to me," said Reynolds, who is half Honduran. "If you look at the numbers of graduates in STEM fields, minority students are underrepresented. For example, Hispanic workers make up 17 percent of the nation's workforce but only 8 percent of STEM workers."

As for the research, Reynolds' project will be funded by the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate Launching Early-Career Academic Pathways program and managed by the Broadening Participation program. Their work will study "the application of thiamin diphosphate-dependent enzymes towards current challenges in chemical synthesis."

In layman's terms, enzymes are proteins in living organisms that speed up chemical reactions. Thiamin diphosphate (or ThDP) is a specific molecule that acts like an "essential helper" for certain enzymes. When an enzyme has TdDP, it becomes better at doing its job. After the enzyme finishes its work, you get a new, more complex molecule that can be used for various purposes, like in medicine or food. The process is considered crucial in biology and chemistry, because it allows cells to create complex molecules that they need to survive and function. Scientists also use these enzymes in labs to create new chemicals that can be used in medicines, vitamins and other products.

"Our goal is to basically create new synthetic processes that are promoted by enzymes," said Reynolds, a University of Virginia graduate who earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from UNC-Chapel Hill. "Enzymes operate within cells, which makes them kind of inherently environmentally friendly. They're also inherently selective. They generally create one type of product and a very specific conformation of that product, which can still be challenging to do with chemical synthesis methods. So we're trying to use enzymes to do chemical reactions that are useful in the lab."

The challenge, he said, is that enzymes have adapted to only do what they do in nature.

"We hope to basically create new reactions that aren't found in nature, but use enzymes to do those reactions," he said. "There are many approaches to accomplishing that, but basically our approach is taking advantage of enzymes which have a general reactive group that does one specific thing in nature, but there are other things that reactive group could potentially do."

According to the NSF, Reynolds and his team's research could potentially "expand the scope of reactions available to thiamine-dependent enzymes, making them more broadly useful for chemical synthesis."

Money from the grant will be used for reagents (substances or compounds added to a system to cause a chemical reaction) and supplies, and a big component of the funds will support the students involved in the research. Reynolds will be able to pay up to 10 students for their work over the next two summers, and the grant will fund travel to conferences where the team will present their work. The students chosen will be recruited from the Growing Alliances in STEM (GAINS) mentoring program Reynolds coordinated at Campbell.

Also significant is the Facilities and Administrative Recovery recovery portion of the grant. When a researcher prepares a grant proposal, they include estimates for direct costs to conduct the research. F&A recovery funds support costs of conducting research that cannot be attributed to specific projects, but indirectly support research as a whole at an institution.

The grant marks the highest F&A Recovery costs ever received by the College of Arts & Sciences.

"The significance of this F&A recovery cannot be overstated, as these funds are crucial for supporting the College's infrastructure," said Vincenzo Cassella, director for the Office of Sponsored Research and Programs at Campbell. "This includes maintaining research facilities, administrative support and other essential services that enable our continued academic and research excellence."

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