Biocatalysis expertise earns UI study spot

Iowa City Press Citizen
October 1, 2003

The University of Iowa is one of three institutions that will participate in a five-year, $17 million study meant to improve the efficiency of industrial production while also benefiting the environment.

Funding is provided by a National Science Foundation grant awarded to the Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis, headquartered at the University of Kansas. The center's mission is to help industries make products more environmentally friendly and economically viable.

Catalysts, substances used to accelerate chemical reactions, are used in the production of such things as medicines, food products and gasoline.

"We would like to help industries develop new methods, like how they use solvents, to make their products in a more efficient way that produces less by-products and is environmentally friendly," said John Rosazza, director of UI's Center for Biocatalysis and Bioprocessing.

UI and Washington University in St. Louis serve as core partners. Rosazza will serve as an associate director of the Kansas-based CEBC.

UI researchers will focus on biocatalysis, an area of long-standing expertise at the university.

"Biocatalysts are ways of using living catalysts to do things biologists want to do without creating the harmful byproducts that some chemicals do," Rosazza said.

Biocatalysts are catalysts derived from nature and include substances such as bacterial enzymes that are able to transform abundant starting materials into useful pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. Rosazza hopes that the UI projects will ultimately lead to improvements and expansion of the use of biocatalysts.

In addition to the focus on catalysis research, the CEBC also will develop hands-on opportunities for undergraduates and graduates students.

The three universities collectively will provide $2 million to the center, while 15 major chemical companies are expected to join CEBC as industrial partners who will pay membership fees and will have the first opportunity to implement new CEBC technologies.