A Central College professor and seven students have had their research on the synthesis indirubin, an isomer of indigo, published in RSC Advances, a peer-reviewed journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
James Shriver, professor of chemistry; Kaylie Kaller, Class of 2022; Ally Kinsey, Class of 2021; Katelyn Wang, Class of 2021; Summer Sterrenberg, Class of 2024; Madison Van Vors, Class of 2024; Joshua Cheek, Class of 2021; and John Horner, Class of 2021; authored the research paper “A tunable synthesis of indigoids: targeting indirubin through temperature” in the broad-topic chemistry journal in February.
Their research focuses on tuning the selectivity for conversion of indoxyl from indigo to indirubin by careful control of reaction conditions. The Shriver research group discovered that subtle variation in temperature can shift the preference from indigo to indirubin dramatically across a range of compounds, expanding on their previous discovery related to indirubins. Indirubin is emerging as a promising pharmaceutical platform, with its derivatives being studied for their anti-cancer properties, potential to treat diabetes and anti-inflammatory response.
“The research relied significantly on the new nuclear magnetic resonate machine in the Vermeer Science Center. The research ran a 14-day carbon NMR experiment for a newly created compound with low solubility that was needed for characterization. This experiment would have been difficult, if not impossible, to run at a larger school, due to the long instrument run time,” Shriver says. “The research opportunities for faculty and students have greatly expanded with this new equipment!”
A grant by the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust and the Fred Maytag Family Foundation funded the purchase of the new 400 MHz NMR for Central in 2021. Funding for undergraduates was provided by The Moore Family Foundation, the Arthur J. Bosch Endowment for Student Research and the John Wesselink Endowment. The paper was published February 15.
With more than 50,000 members, the Royal Society of Chemistry is one of the world’s leading chemistry communities. Its members and publications work to shape the future of chemical sciences — for the benefit of science and humanity — through promotion, support and celebration of chemistry.
Shriver has been a professor at Central since 2003. His areas of expertise include organic chemistry, synthesis of dyes and supramolecular chemistry.
