NSF funds Chemistry Professor’s research on Biologically Active Compounds

Morgantown, WV, November 10, 2006:  Current research efforts in the C. Eugene Bennett Department of Chemistry in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University may be used to develop new medical treatments.

Dr. Bjorn Soderberg has been awarded a $330,000 grant by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop new and unusual compounds which may have analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, anti-glaucoma and anti-tuberculosis properties.

Dr. Soderberg will use chemical reactions recently discovered by his research team at WVU to make, or synthesize, a variety of organic compounds. Specifically in this research, the organic molecules contain a chain of carbon atoms connected by a nitrogen atom. The resulting compounds have the potential to be biologically active and may be used as the foundation for various medications to treat human ailments.

“There is a substantial research effort in this area of chemistry driven by the significant importance of this type of compound in biology, pharmacology, and toxicology,” explained Soderberg. Toxicology is the study of aversive reactions of certain chemicals, or poisoning, in living organisms.

“Novel Reductive N-Heteroannulations” is Dr. Soderberg’s current study, but he also has been awarded more than 25 other research grants. He earned his M.S. and Ph.D. at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden and joined the WVU faculty in 1994. The National Science Foundation is an independent U.S. government agency that supports fundamental research and education.

For more information, please contact Dr. Bjorn Soderberg at Bjorn.Soderberg@mail.wvu.edu.

W-V-U