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Professor simplifies Tylenol production
Upward-bound students gain experience working
with A&M-Kingsville researcher
He patented drugs to treat male pattern baldness and
prostate enlargement, and now Texas A&M University-Kingsville
chemistry professor Apurba Bhattacharya has applied for a patent
to develop a new synthesis of acetaminophen, the world's most prescribed
drug.
Working with graduate students and even several high
school students this summer, Bhattacharya tested a process that
almost entirely eliminates the need for a solvent to manufacture
acetaminophen, best known as Tylenol.
A solvent - like water - is used in chemical processes
to dissolve substances and make them react with each other.
But many solvents are harmful to the environment.
Bhattacharya's innovation decreases costs and also
reduces the number of steps it takes to create the chemical composition
of Tylenol, which is chemically known as N-acetyl-p-aminophenol.
The process falls under "green chemistry,"
meaning it's not only cost-effective, but safer for the environment,
because less waste is created.
Yield will increase
The new method also will mean manufacturers will be
able to increase their yield by 90 percent.
"You have to make it sensible for the environment
and sensible in dollars and cents," Bhattacharya said.
The title of the patent application is "Surfactant
Mediated Dual Catalysis of Organic Syntheses in a Solvent Minimized
Environment."
Bhattacharya said the process could eventually be
applied to other reactions.
Although most of his experience stems from work with
private industry, Bhattacharya took the teaching and research position
with A&M-Kingsville to touch people's lives directly.
And he got that chance this summer, when several high
school students in the Upward Bound program helped Bhattacharya
and his graduate students run the process to see if it would work.
Upward Bound is a program open to students who come
from low-income families or are potential first-generation college
students.
It's not often that high school students get to help
with research that eventually turns into a patented product, said
A&M-Kingsville Upward Bound director Randa Lawson.
"But that's something they can put on their resumes
for life," Lawson said.
Upward Bound students
This summer's Upward Bound students lived on campus
for six weeks and worked on whatever their assigned professor was
studying.
Upward Bound student Ashley Garcia, 17, said she gained
a lot of hands-on knowledge about how chemistry works.
She helped take samples, measured out chemicals and
watched reactions.
"It's a lot harder than I thought. You actually
have to draw out the molecules," Garcia said. "You just
can't throw stuff together. Everything has to be measured precisely."
Ashley, a senior at Bishop High School, plans to major
in chemistry or business in college.
Once the patent goes through, which usually takes
about two years, A&M-Kingsville's parent institution, Texas
A&M University in College Station, will search for a company
to take the research and turn it into a marketable product, said
Terry A. Young, director of the Technology Licensing Office at A&M.
Research-oriented
"Most university research is embryonic. We don't
do products, we do research," Young said.
"We need a commercial partner willing to take
this forward, but they are not willing to invest time, effort and
resources unless they know that the investment is protected from
competition . . . That's where patent law comes into play."
Graduate student Nishant Joshi said this was the first
time he got to work with research that could be patented.
He helped supervise the high school students and also
assisted Bhattacharya with reactions.
"A (patent), it really means a lot. It can change
anyone's life," Joshi said.
Bhattacharya has 22 patents under his belt. This patent
is special to him, not only because of its far reaching possibilities
for the pharmaceutical industry, but also because of the Upward
Bound students.
"These students who were involved, they're going
to go for their master's, their Ph.D.'s," he said.
"And I'll have left my signature here. It shows
you are only limited by your imagination."
Medical Reporter Joy Victory can be contacted at 886-3764
or victoryj@caller.com.
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