Two grants from Villum Fonden for Chemistry

By Lilian Skytte, lilsky@sdu.dk, 9/28/2023

Associate Professor Stefan Vogel has received DKK 1.999.850 for the project “Encoding Chemistry - Green Chemistry in Biomimetic Nanoreactors” – (EnCode). Targeted at combinatorial drug discovery, the project will focus on introducing nanoreactors as a new tool for getting combinatorial compound libraries into play for discovery projects. This chemistry is exclusively performed in water and may allow potentially to eliminate or reduce the use of organic solvents in industrial production processes for pharmaceutical compounds.

In more detail the project is aimed at DNA-programmed and encoded chemistry in discrete programmed lipid nanoreactors (PLNs) addressing atto- and zeptoliter volumes. Leakage free compartmentalization is a very fundamental design aspect in nature to control chemical reaction sequences spatially and temporally in all living organisms. The spatial segregation of chemical reactions ensures optimal conditions for the regulation of multi-step chemical or enzymatic cascade reactions in cellular environments. It has long been a dream of chemists and synthetic biologist alike to mimic, understand and monitor such multi-step processes on the single compartment level. The projects key impact would be to provide a green chemistry platform for aqueous combinatorial synthetic and enzymatic chemistry in ultraminiaturized format using only minute amounts of chemical building blocks or enzymes.

Associate Professor Himanshu Khandelia has received DKK 1.989.500 for the project “Using bacteria to sense and remove nano plastics”. Human health issues as well as potential removal of nano plastics from the environment is at the center of this project. Using bacteria to remove potentially harmful plastics from drinking water and the environment, this project will be of great use to the broader industry and society.

The project will focus on human health and drinking water. Micro- and nanoplastic particles are present in salt, fish, beer and drinking water. Most nanoplastic research has focused on larger (> 200 nm) particles, which are easily detectable. Such > 200 nm nanoparticles are likely to harmlessly pass through humans. Little is known about the impact of sub-50nm particles because they are difficult to (1) detect in water or cells owing to their small size and (2) produce and functionalize in the laboratory.

Here, we propose a unique method to detect and trap sub-50 nm nanoplastics using bacteria which stick to plastic surfaces. Such bacteria use specialised machinery to stick to plastic. We will combine simulations, molecular biology methods and analytical chemistry techniques to engineer this bacterial machinery for detection and removal of sub-50 nm nanoplastics from water. Our research can lead to a cleaner biosphere, and enable future investigations into the occurrence, toxicity and cellular interactions of sub-50 nm nanoplastics, which may cause health concerns in humans and animals.