NIH grant supports Neufeldt’s fundamental research into chemical reactions

A natural physicist zeroing in on metal impetuses is the most recent Montana State University specialist to have their work perceived and subsidized through a National Institutes of Health program with an accentuation on examining wide logical inquiries.

Sharon Neufeldt, an associate teacher in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in MSU's College of Letters and Science, gotten the Maximizing Investigators' Research Award through the NIH's National Institute of General Medical Sciences in September to help her basic examination into creating and expanding the productivity of natural synthetic responses.

While basically making one of a kind responses might be reason for festivity among her understudies and individual researchers, Neufeldt said the NIH uphold avows that this line of exploration holds opportunities for more extensive ramifications to general wellbeing.

“One always wants to feel like the work they’re doing is meaningful to somebody other than themselves,” she said.

In practical terms, creating more efficient reactions could translate into quicker development of new pharmaceuticals and potentially lower costs for consumers, Neufeldt said.

“A lot of the work that my group has ended up doing and being interested in is relevant to the NIH,” Neufeldt explained. “What we’re trying to do is ultimately develop new ways to make molecules.”

For the type of chemistry studied in Neufeldt's lab, a pair of organic molecules in the presence of a metal catalyst will normally react in a predictable way. However, Neufeldt’s research group is engineering catalysts to alter the outcome of the reaction to result in unconventional products, hoping to develop ways to increase the yield or decrease the steps needed to create compounds. These catalysts comprised individual metal atoms ringed by small organic molecules called ligands that tune which properties are expressed in chemical reactions. By altering these ligands, Neufeldt's group can influence what happens in metal-catalyzed reactions.