Professor wins NIH grant to conduct research in organometallic chemistry
St. Olaf College Assistant Professor of Chemistry Dipannita Kalyani will use a $280,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to conduct research in organometallic chemistry.
Current pharmaceuticals and medicine often require expensive starting materials and/or long, tedious, energy-intensive steps to create. Kalyani’s research aims to address these challenges.
“We will be developing new methods — chemical reactions — that could ultimately allow the making of common compounds used in medicine in a more efficient way,” she says.
As one of the world’s leading supporters of biomedical research, the NIH seeks to expand and develop technology that improves health.
The grant will fund Kalyani’s research for three years. During that time, St. Olaf students will work with her on the project.
“My focus is on organometallic chemistry and so much of what I plan to do involves using this branch of chemistry in new ways to hopefully contribute toward the synthesis of pharmaceuticals in less expensive ways,” Kalyani says.