Catalysis plays a crucial role across numerous fields, ranging from industrial processes to the production of pharmaceutical drugs. However, the precise ways in which catalysis functions remain largely mysterious.

This is the puzzle that Jennifer Hirschi, an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Binghamton University, is dedicated to solving. She recently secured a $1.93 million Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA R35) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to explore the fundamental mechanisms behind catalytic reactions.

“I’m particularly interested in how chemical bonds are broken and formed during these transformations. Gaining a clear understanding of this could enable us to create new types of catalytic reactions, develop better catalysts, and improve chemical selectivity,” Hirschi explained.

Over the past year, Hirschi collaborated with Frances Arnold, a Nobel Prize-winning chemical engineer from the California Institute of Technology, publishing two papers on biocatalysis. With the support of the MIRA R35 grant, Hirschi will continue her work on biocatalysis and photoredox catalysis, alongside postdoctoral researcher Sharath Chandra-Mallojjala. Her expertise in kinetic isotope effects bridges experimental and computational chemistry to reveal how catalytic processes operate at the atomic scale and how they might be optimized.

“In pharmaceutical manufacturing, they can transform simple, readily available chemicals into valuable medicines,” she noted.

Hirschi’s lab concentrates on two innovative catalysis approaches: photoredox catalysis, which uses blue light to drive chemical reactions, and biocatalysis, which employs engineered enzymes. Blue light supplies just the right energy to activate chemical bonds, making these methods more sustainable than traditional catalysts that often rely on rare and heavy metals like palladium and platinum.

Yet, a major challenge remains: the exact mechanisms behind these novel catalytic methods are not well understood.

Even basic organic chemistry mechanisms are still actively being researched. When Hirschi began investigating photoredox and biocatalysis mechanisms two years ago, the field was largely unexplored.

A deeper understanding of these mechanisms could empower future scientists to better control chemical reactions, with significant implications for drug development and industrial applications. Because these new catalysts use light and enzymes instead of heavy metals, they may also offer environmental benefits a growing priority in the chemistry community.

“Currently, most industrial catalytic processes depend on heavy metals, but these resources are finite. We need to discover alternative methods,” Hirschi emphasized. “That’s why this research is so important.

Source: https://www.binghamton.edu/news/story/3915/light-of-transformation-research-explores-the-inner-workings-of-chemical-change