Gold is worth more than money.
Soon it could help to make the pharmaceutical industry greener thanks to the work of Amanda Jones, an assistant professor of chemistry at Wake Forest University.
Jones received a $390,000 NSF Career Award to improve the efficiency of powerful and environmentally friendly gold catalysts for use in the pharmaceutical industry.
She explained gold can be used to speed up reactions pharmaceutical researchers use to make different types of drugs and medicine.
Researchers have traditionally used toxic mercury salts for these types of reactions. Jones said gold catalysts not only offer a green alternative to mercury salts but also have been shown to facilitate many reactions that mercury salts can't.
The current problem with using gold catalysts for making new pharmaceuticals is scientists know very little about how they work. Jones said scientists only began researching gold catalysts in the late 1990s and do not yet have a cheap enough formula to use them for pharmaceutical production on a large scale.
Wake Forest chemistry professor Amanda Jones (far) works with graduate student Carolin Griebel (near) in Salem Hall.
The prestigious NSF CAREER Award funding the research is given to the nation's top junior faculty who demonstrate excellence as teacher-scholars. It encourages excellent teaching, mentorship and community outreach. In line with these objectives, Jones will help train a new generation of chemists at Wake Forest by giving them hands-on research experience.
In addition to her work in the lab and classroom, Jones is also developing reading clubs for elementary and middle school children as a way to encourage early and life-long engagement with science.
She said The Tripods, a science fiction series by the British author John Christopher, played a big role in her decision to pursue a career in science.