Boron chemistry pays off (3/19/2008)

A University of Alberta organic chemist has won one of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowships for his work into making more efficient synthetic chemistry.

Dennis Hall, professor in the faculty of science, is the latest in a string of researchers to win this prestigious award, considered one of Canada's premier science and engineering research awards.

Hall's work focuses on a family of compounds known as boronic acids and esters, as part of a diverse research program with potential applications ranging from medicine to industrial processes.

Boronic acids, composed of the semi-metallic element boron, were neglected for a long time because other compounds could perform many of the same functions, says Hall. However, the relatively low toxicity of boronic acid has brought it into favour as chemists search for more environmentally-friendly approaches to their craft.

"I was attracted by the fact that (the compounds) are so versatile," he said. "They're molecular jacks of all trades."

Working in a highly competitive field, Hall has discovered significant new uses for these compounds while also making major theoretical contributions. One of Hall's recent discoveries is that certain boronic acids are particularly good catalysts for making amides (important compounds whose functions include bonding peptides together, which in turn form proteins). Amides appear in more than a quarter of all pharmaceutical drugs, but traditional methods to manufacture them are complicated and generate a lot of waste, some of it toxic. Hall's work helps further efforts of making chemistry more environmentally friendly by increasing the efficiency of chemical processes and producing less waste.

"It is really worthwhile to develop the same reaction as other elements with boron because it is less toxic," he said.

Hall's method, in contrast to more toxic ones, can be performed easily at room temperature and leaves only water as a byproduct. It's such a simple process that he speculates it could even yield clues about the origins of life by showing how amino acids first assembled to become proteins in the presence of boric acid.

Hall also makes extensive use of a powerful technique called combinatorial chemistry, which uses tools and processes that make it possible to create and evaluate libraries of related molecules, rather than designing them one by one through trial and error. The pharmaceutical industry makes extensive use of this approach in drug development.

Announced today in Ottawa, winners receive additional funding to support their research, and their universities receive a salary contribution to fund a replacement for the fellow's teaching and administrative duties, thus allowing the winners to focus on their research for two years.

"Our NSERC Steacie winners have delivered results that have earned them a well-deserved international reputation for highly original and influential research in their fields," said Suzanne Fortier, president of NSERC. "These fellowships will allow the winners to devote their full time and attention to their work, in effect supercharging their research while freeing them from their other duties."

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by the University of Alberta

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