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Combinatorial discovery
Chemistry's Marc Porter is coordinating the new Combinatorial Discovery
Initiative, which has faculty from four colleges and 10 departments.
- About the same time that Marc Porter, professor of chemistry and director
of the Microanalytical Instrumentation Center, was giving a presentation
to the advisory board of the Institute for Physical Research and Technology
(IPRT), a call for proposals was sent out by Iowa State's President’s
Office for new academic initiatives.
The IPRT advisory board, which consists of individuals from such industrial
giants as ALCOA, General Mills, General Motors, Dow Corning Corporation,
Boeing Company, and The Gillette Company, provides insight into future industrial
technical directions and issues. The group also identifies new technical
opportunities for IPRT that will enhance the organization’s industrial
outreach, familiarizes IPRT with new directions in industry, and directs
IPRT in the development of research plans.
So when Porter presented to the IPRT advisory board on behalf of the Microanalytical
Instrumentation Center, he was asked prepare a list of visionary ideas that
his organization could tackle with high impact in the future.
"We had several ideas of what we thought we should be doing in terms
of not only basic research, but also how industrial collaborations could
be used to enhance our educational goals," Porter said. "The advisory
board strongly recommended concepts on the forefront of combinatorial discovery
be pursued as a University-wide initiative, and several of the members indicated
strong interest in an affiliate membership."
Truth be known, Porter and his colleagues (Surya Mallapragada, Ed Yeung,
Balaji Narasimhan, Keith Woo and George Kraus) were hoping the IPRT advisory
board would go in that direction.
"Several research groups on campus were already doing various aspects
of this. There was just no concerted effort in this direction," he
said.
With that endorsement in hand, Porter and other faculty members throughout
the University teamed together and submitted a proposal for the University's
academic initiative program.
Last August, the Combinatorial Discovery Initiative was one of five academic
initiatives to be funded campus-wide.
This innovative chemistry method, primarily used to-date in the pharmaceutical
industry, randomly assembles combinations of compounds for rapid testing
over hours or days, instead of weeks or years required with the traditional
"one-at-a-time" approach.
The new initiative will seek to discover and test new materials for a wide
range of uses, particularly nano (high-performance) materials, biomaterials
(synthetic materials that mimic living systems) and catalysts, using the
combinatorial method.
"The concept works so well in the pharmaceutical industry, there seems
to be a great opportunity to apply it in other areas," Porter said.
"We can conceivably develop new catalysts, new adhesives, new lubricants
and new ideas.
"We can generically apply combinatorial methods to lots of areas in
experimental science, even the discovery of new knowledge."
While Porter is the coordinator of the Combinatorial Discovery Initiative,
the new academic initiative includes faculty members from 10 academic departments
and four colleges including the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the
College of Agriculture, the College of Veterinary Medicine and the College
of Engineering. Faculty members from the LAS departments of biochemistry,
biophysics and molecular biology; physics and astronomy; chemistry; and
computer science are involved.
The initiative will take advantage of two new state-of-the-art research
facilities and exceptional scientific staff housed in the W.M. Keck Laboratory
for the Fabrication of Microminiaturized Analytical Instrumentation and
the Roy J. Carver Laboratory for Ultrahigh Resolution Biological Microscopy.
The initial steps for the fledgling organization are "to develop and
grow a couple of high impact projects" according to Porter.
"Virtually all of the federal funding agencies have announced major
programs in this area," Porter said.
Examples of these programs include the National Institute of Health's program
in drug discovery for the treatment of Alzheimer's Disease. The National
Science Foundation (NSF) has programs on engineering microsystems as well
as kinetics, catalysis and molecular processes. The Department of Defense
also has several programs in these areas.
"We also plan to pursue support from the many nanoscience initiatives
and training grant programs, including the NSF-IGERT," Porter said.
"We want to provide not only long-term support for this program, but
also include focus on educational opportunities such as internships for
our students with our industrial and international affiliates."
Porter and his faculty associates predict that many programs funded by the
Combinatorial Discovery Initiative will experience tremendous growth, tripling
in magnitude within five years and extending well beyond the core stakeholder
departments and research centers.
"We believe that this initiative will provide a vehicle for sustained
growth and excellence for Iowa in the new millennium," Porter said.
Faculty members involved in the Combinatorial Discovery Initiative include:
Gordon Miller, Li Cao, George Kraus, Keith Woo, Nicola Pohl, Richard Larock,
Robert Angelici, Victor Lin, Valerie Sheares, Balaji Narasimhan, Kurt Hebert,
Surya Mallapragada, Joseph Shinar, Steve Martin, Mike Olsen, Edward Yeung,
Vladimir Tsukruk, Patricia Thiel, Greg Luecke, Sam Houk, Paul Canfield,
Joshua Otaigbe, Marit Nilsen-Hamilton, Glenn Schrader.
Around LAS
November 4-17, 2002
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