New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) chemist Pier Alexandre Champagne has received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award to advance the understanding of sulfur-containing molecules that are key to cellular defense and health but transform so quickly into different compounds — within fractions of a second — that scientists have struggled to understand them.
The $785,000 award will support Champagne’s project to develop new tools to produce these quick-changing molecules for study, while using advanced computational methods to predict their behavior. In addition, the award will support educational initiatives to enhance organic chemistry learning.
“Sulfur compounds are surprisingly prevalent and important in biology,” said Champagne, an assistant professor in NJIT’s Department of Chemistry and Environmental Science. “They serve as signaling agents, as modulators of enzymatic activity and even as antioxidants. However, many of these compounds are so-called ‘reactive sulfur species’ — meaning they are transient, often unstable molecules that we’ve not been able to isolate in order to study their properties.” To read the full story.