Faculty Research in the News
Dr. Berl Oakley (Irving S. Johnson Distinguished Professor of Molecular Biology) recently co-authored an article in Angewandte Chemie, a high impact factor chemistry journal, entitled Conversion of Polyethylenes into Fungal Secondary Metabolites. In this research, Dr. Oakley and his collaborative research team catalytically convert polyethylenes to dicarboxylic acids, which are used by engineered strains of the fungus Aspergillus nidulans to produce potentially medically valuable secondary metabolites with unexpected efficiency.
The websites phys.org, Newswise and ChemistryViews have published pieces about the potential of this important work to breakdown plastic waste into pharmacologically useful compounds.
Conversion of Polyethylenes into Fungal Secondary Metabolites
Christian Rabot, Yuhao Chen, Swati Bijlani, Yi-Ming Chiang, C. Elizabeth Oakley, Berl R. Oakley, Travis J. Williams, Clay C. C. Wang
Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2022