Invention and Innovation: The Beginning of PolyAspirin
Faige Seligman
Issue date: 12/21/09 Section: Science
Once again, Stern College for Women's Chemistry Club has brought in a distinguished and fascinating speaker. Dr. Kathryn Uhrich, Professor and Dean of Math and Physical Sciences at Rutgers University, visited Stern on December 8 to speak about her unique scientific experiences. Dr. Uhrich is known for inventing PolyAspirin, a clever new drug that meshes the ideas of biodegradability, bioavailability, and minimal waste with organic chemistry to yield an incredible new product.
PolyAspirin, in a nutshell, is the polymer form of aspirin; aspirin consists of acetylsalicylic acid monomers while PolyAspirin is a polymer, or long chain, of salicylic acid. As a polymer, its properties differ somewhat from the monomer version, and these differences can be exploited to human advantage. PolyAspirin can be used to make biodegradable, safe, edible food wraps that retard bacterial growth, since it is antiseptic; it can be used to coat metal medical devices that must be placed in the human body; it can be used in surgical sutures, cardiac stints, localized pain relief, and myriads more applications-PolyAspirin may truly be the drug of the future, with uses in fields ranging from food safety to surgery and beyond.
During her talk, Dr. Uhrich went over the history of aspirin, beginning with people long ago, such as Hippocrates, who used extracts of willow to ease pain, headaches, and fevers. Scientists now know that the substance responsible for these pain-relieving properties in the willow was salicin, a compound that can be easily made into acetylsalicylic acid, also known as aspirin. Dr. Uhrich relayed to the gathered budding and veteran scientists how she had come up with the idea of PolyAspirin: she had been teaching an organic chemistry lecture and had been explaining to her students how acetylsalicylic acid is made, when she experienced a flash of inspiration. She thought, why not join the salicylic acid together in a chain, instead of just adding the acetyl group? She then went back to her lab and began what would become one of her biggest and most successful projects with her undergraduates and graduate students.
Dr. Uhrich also went on to found one of several companies, Polymerix Corporation, which sold the new drug, as she felt that it was the role of companies, rather than universities, to market and sell drugs.
As new ideas and inventions in science often do, PolyAspirin has opened up a whole new way of looking at drug synthesis. Thanks to Dr. Uhrich's flash of insight and consequent hard work, entire vistas now exist wherein one can think of all sorts of polymeric drugs with major advantages to human health and well-being.
PolyAspirin, in a nutshell, is the polymer form of aspirin; aspirin consists of acetylsalicylic acid monomers while PolyAspirin is a polymer, or long chain, of salicylic acid. As a polymer, its properties differ somewhat from the monomer version, and these differences can be exploited to human advantage. PolyAspirin can be used to make biodegradable, safe, edible food wraps that retard bacterial growth, since it is antiseptic; it can be used to coat metal medical devices that must be placed in the human body; it can be used in surgical sutures, cardiac stints, localized pain relief, and myriads more applications-PolyAspirin may truly be the drug of the future, with uses in fields ranging from food safety to surgery and beyond.
During her talk, Dr. Uhrich went over the history of aspirin, beginning with people long ago, such as Hippocrates, who used extracts of willow to ease pain, headaches, and fevers. Scientists now know that the substance responsible for these pain-relieving properties in the willow was salicin, a compound that can be easily made into acetylsalicylic acid, also known as aspirin. Dr. Uhrich relayed to the gathered budding and veteran scientists how she had come up with the idea of PolyAspirin: she had been teaching an organic chemistry lecture and had been explaining to her students how acetylsalicylic acid is made, when she experienced a flash of inspiration. She thought, why not join the salicylic acid together in a chain, instead of just adding the acetyl group? She then went back to her lab and began what would become one of her biggest and most successful projects with her undergraduates and graduate students.
Dr. Uhrich also went on to found one of several companies, Polymerix Corporation, which sold the new drug, as she felt that it was the role of companies, rather than universities, to market and sell drugs.
As new ideas and inventions in science often do, PolyAspirin has opened up a whole new way of looking at drug synthesis. Thanks to Dr. Uhrich's flash of insight and consequent hard work, entire vistas now exist wherein one can think of all sorts of polymeric drugs with major advantages to human health and well-being.
Be the first to comment on this story