Academic Venture Fund Supplemental Grants
The Future of Pharma is Sustainable
Developing cleaner, greener pharmaceuticals
AVF project: Many vital medicines are unsustainable to mass-produce, demanding complex, energy-intensive manufacturing processes and leaving toxic wastes. This team is finding new ways to make drug manufacturing more efficient and sustainable. Partnering with Boston-area Snapdragon Chemistry, the researchers are testing a new chemical synthesis process – recently discovered in Song Lin’s lab – that converts cheap, abundant natural resources like carbon dioxide into pharmaceuticals in a single operation. Combining this discovery with continuous-flow processes suitable for commercialization promises cleaner, greener pharmaceuticals.
With the supplemental grant, two students will help develop the new chemical processes in Cornell labs and at Snapdragon Chemistry. They will also create education modules based on the research, using their experience to teach high school students the importance of sustainability in academic research and industrial manufacturing.
Topics: Energy, Environment and Sustainability; Health, Nutrition and Medicine
The Team
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Song Lin, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
College of Arts and Sciences
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Hector Abruña, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
College of Arts and Sciences
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Abraham Stroock, Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
College of Engineering
- Community Partner: Snapdragon Chemistry
Academic Venture Fund Supplemental Grants
Supporting undergraduate participation in cutting-edge, community-engaged projects funded by the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability