A Florida State University neuroscientist has earned a national award for research on gustation, the scientific term for the sense of taste, and how it shapes eating behavior.

Associate Professor of Biological Science and Neuroscience Roberto Vincis has earned the 2026 Ajinomoto Award for Young Investigators in Gustation from the Association for Chemoreception Sciences, or AChemS, in recognition of his research into sensory systems with the aim to understand gustation’s influence on eating behavior.

His work focuses on how taste influences what we eat, and it informs a wide range of topics, from how and why people develop eating disorders to why they may overconsume ultra-processed foods.

“Learning how the brain integrates information from what we consume and experience really gets at the fundamental components of why some foods are good for us and others aren’t,” Vincis said. “Winning this award validates that my lab’s research is relevant and impactful because our peers recognize it as such.”

Since 1998, the Ajinomoto Award has been conferred annually to an outstanding junior scientist and emerging leader in gustation. Its awarding body, AChemS, is the preeminent organization dedicated to the advancement of chemoreception science, which includes smell and taste. Vincis is the first from FSU to earn this honor, which is supported by the Ajinomoto Group, a multi-billion-dollar food and biotechnology corporation credited with developing the first umami-flavored seasoning in 1909.

Vincis was presented with the honor Wednesday during the annual AChemS conference in St. Petersburg, Florida. As an awardee, he will also deliver a lecture at the conference that broadly covers the Vincis Laboratory’s investigation of the neurological mechanisms behind the role of taste in eating behavior and preferences.

“Dr. Vincis’ research investigates the neural circuits and computational processes of brain regions that regulate food intake and shape dietary preferences, which are key factors in understanding eating disorders,” said Lisa Eckel, director of FSU’s Program in Neuroscience. “The chemical senses have long been a hallmark of excellence within the program, and this recognition further elevates the stature of this distinguished community of scientists.”

Humans’ perception of taste generally falls into five categories — sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami — each triggered by specific chemicals. For example, ingesting alkaloid molecules like the caffeine in coffee and dark chocolate will leave a bitter taste in your mouth. Chewing adds a layer of sensation, as the action releases gaseous chemicals, which then hit the nose. Somatosensory components like temperature and texture also factor into what and how much someone consumes.

“All of these sensory modalities give rise to the percept we call flavor, and our daily consumption is highly dependent on this initial sensation,” said Vincis, who, in addition to traditional research methods, employs machine learning techniques to analyze neural activity from different brain regions. “Neurons don’t speak in English, so by decoding neurons’ specific language as they receive sensory information, we can understand how certain eating behaviors develop.”

Theoretically, people eat when they are hungry, stop when they feel full and only select nutritious foods and beverages. Examining the reality of humans’ experiences reveals a different picture that includes the impact of ultra-processed foods and wide-ranging public health concerns such as obesity and eating disorders. Vincis’ work strives to explain this gap in biological theory and real-world occurrences.

“We use the term ‘maladaptive’ to describe nutrition-related behaviors that will cause long-term problems,” Vincis said. “For example, ultra-processed foods can lead to overeating because they are packaged with very rewarding olfactory and sensory cues. When we taste these foods, we feel good, but they are devoid of nutrients. This is how sensory information from your oral cavity can hijack your brain, similar to the way a drug hijacks neural reward pathways for dopamine to drive addiction.”

Ultra-processed foods like soft drinks and many packaged snack options are industrially manufactured and include a high number of ingredients not found in a common household kitchen. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, approximately 70 percent of packaged products in the nation’s food supply could be considered ultra-processed, and children get more than 60 percent of their calories from such foods. Due to their addictiveness, caloric density and lack of nutrients, the prevalence of ultra-processed foods is known by nutrition scientists, epidemiologists and major health organizations such as FDA to be a significant contributor to rising rates of obesity, heart disease and cancer, among others.

“The National Institutes of Health and Food and Drug Administration consider research on nutrition-related behavior to be a public priority at this stage,” Vincis said. “Earning the Ajinomoto Award means we are on the right track and is likely to help us secure future funding and fellowships so that we may continue our work.”

Florida State University has been a prime contributor to chemosensory research for more than 50 years and has served as a home base for generations of the field’s leaders including the late James C. Smith — a chemosensory research legend, FSU Robert O. Lawton Professor and alumnus of the FSU Department of Psychology — who was among the cofounders of AChemS in 1978.

To learn more about Vincis’ research and its scientific impact, visit the Vincis Laboratory website. Visit the FSU Program in Neuroscience website to learn more about this  interdisciplinary program.

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Florida State University recognized the research contributions and creative work of associate professors with this year’s Developing Scholar Awards.

The awards are sponsored by the Council on Research and Creativity, and they include funding to promote the awardee’s program of research and creativity. Faculty were nominated by their respective academic departments.

“These faculty members exemplify excellence in scholarship, and we congratulate them on this well-earned recognition,” said Vice President for Research Stacey S. Patterson. “FSU is honored to celebrate their accomplishments and to support their ongoing research and creative work.”

This year’s awardees are:

David Braithwaite, Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences
In his “Queen of the Sciences” lab, Braithwaite investigates mathematical thinking and logical reasoning and how people learn and develop these skills. Using behavior studies and computational modeling, he aims to improve our understanding of cognitive processes involved in math and logic to advance psychological theory and improve education.

Ravinder Nagpal, Department of Health, Nutrition, and Food Science, Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences
Nagpal researches the role of the gut microbiome in age-related intestinal and neurocognitive health. His research examines how beneficial and pathogenic microbes and their metabolites function, with the goal of developing nutritional and pharmacological interventions to improve the microbiome and reduce conditions such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease.

Joel Smith, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, College of Arts and Sciences
The Smith Lab is focused on improving synthetic approaches to assemble some of nature’s most complex molecules. Smith and his team investigate the most concise way to assemble naturally occurring molecules, which often inspires the invention of brand-new chemical reactions and improves the synthesis, function, and translational potential of organic molecules and transformations.

Qian Yin, Department of Biological Science, College of Arts & Sciences
Yin studies how individual proteins or protein assemblies intervene in related biological processes such as membrane transport, the innate immune response, and host-pathogen interactions. Her work illuminates the interactions among inflammation, infection, cellular cleanup processes and rearrangement of protein filaments in cells. A recent focus is on the endomembrane system, which is the focal point of both antimicrobial defense and cell maintenance.

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Leading researchers from academia and industry are at Florida State University this week for the Florida Quantum Conference, a three-day event exploring the latest breakthroughs in quantum science and engineering. 

 This conference is the inaugural edition of what is planned as an annual event held at institutions around the state. 

 “This conference is a milestone for FSU,” said President Richard McCullough. “Just a few years ago, we began convening a relatively small group of faculty and partners for what we called the Dirac Quantum Discussions. Those early conversations created momentum, sparked new collaborations and made it clear there was real energy around quantum.” 

 To capitalize on that momentum, FSU joined 13 other universities to establish the Florida Alliance for Quantum Technology, a collaboration to make the State of Florida a leader in quantum technologies, accelerating commercialization and contributing to national defense. 

 Realizing the potential technological breakthrough promised by quantum science and engineering, or QSE, will require intense collaborative efforts among university researchers and industry — a need that the conference is helping to meet. 

 Conference attendees come from preeminent research institutions, industry and national laboratories. Presentations include topics such as quantum fluids and solids and their applications, leveraging quantum computers and machine learning to simulate biomolecular processes, commercializing quantum in Florida and more. 

 “As can be seen from some talks at this conference, quantum technologies are growing very rapidly,” said Professor Michael Shatruk, director of the FSU Quantum Initiative. “We are already discussing possible applications of such technologies for simulating properties of new materials, achieving more robust and secure communication, or increasing by orders of magnitude the sensitivity of biomedical devices. We hope these ambitious goals will be seeing their realization in the not-so-distant future.” 

 The Florida Quantum Conference continues through Saturday at the Kroto Auditorium in the FSU Chemical Sciences Laboratory. 

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A Florida State University chemist has developed a method to rapidly assemble significantly complex natural molecules with potential in biomedical applications, opening the door for novel drug therapies based on the molecule’s structure.

James Frederich, the Werner Herz Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and his team are the first to fully synthesize fusicoccadiene, a precursor to an emerging treatment in cancer chemotherapy. Their work was recently published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

“The Frederich Laboratory specializes in the synthesis of architecturally complex natural products that we believe have special translational potential, especially in medicine, but are currently inaccessible in a practical manner,” Frederich said. “We build complex structures from scratch by extending existing chemical methods and developing entirely new ones.”

The functions of biomolecules, or the critical roles that proteins, lipids and other molecules serve in driving life-sustaining cellular processes, are directly determined by their structure. By studying architecturally complex substances from the natural world — like fusicoccum amygdali, the fungus that produces fusicoccadiene — scientists can alter molecules and then translate those chemical structures into starting points for drug discovery.

What it is

Fusicoccadiene is the hydrocarbon precursor molecule to fusicoccanes, a family of natural molecules stemming from fungi that hold significant potential in biomedical applications. Several fusicoccanes, including fusicoccin A and cotylenin A, can induce cell death in cancer cells by sensitizing them to intrinsic cell death mechanisms.

While the structure of fusicoccadiene — a 5-8-5 system of rings — is critical in the translation to novel drug therapies, it’s also extraordinarily complex and difficult to synthesize in labs. This system comprises two 5-membered rings fused to a central 8-membered ring that makes up the molecule’s core.

“Realizing the synthetic blueprint to prepare fusicoccadiene was very challenging,” Frederich said. “This synthesis is the culmination of several doctoral thesis projects spanning almost a decade. Chemical synthesis requires great resolve from both students and principal investigators, and it requires a special creativity.”

How it’s made

The synthetic technique used in the Frederich Lab to prepare fusicoccadiene includes converting one compound of a polyene progenitor into a different compound using light to facilitate the chemical processes. After the molecule is produced, researchers perform modifications that allow them to alter the molecular structure at precise, site-specific locations to yield desired compounds and specific spatial arrangements, producing different functionalities and applications.

“Instead of designing a molecule for target-specific endpoints, we envisioned an assembly scheme that could capture new, non-natural compositions of matter for future iterations of the molecule that can be used in medicine,” Frederich said. “Our approach focuses on direct construction of the 5-8-5 nucleus in the early stages of molecular formation. We then leverage a range of certain reactions to decorate the periphery of the structure with a range of functionality.”

Why it matters

While the process of taking a freshly synthesized molecule from a lab and transforming it into a patient-ready treatment can take years, labs like Frederich’s perform the critical first steps of testing various structures, enabling certain functionalities, and otherwise altering natural molecules to form the foundation of effective medicines of the future.

“Dr. Frederich’s research catalyzes the inheritance of our department’s legacy and strengths in the areas of natural product and synthetic organic chemistry and bridges our rich history into the exciting new Initiative on Molecular BioDesign, leading to a vibrant and long-sought modern platform for FSU drug discovery,” said Wei Yang, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry chair.

This work was supported by funding from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health, and the endowed Werner Herz fund.

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FSU Health brings together researchers, educators and clinical partners under one umbrella to transform health and health care in Florida. To learn more, visit fsuhealth.fsu.edu.

For more on Frederich’s work and research conducted in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, visit chem.fsu.edu.

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The National Academy of Inventors, or NAI, has named five Florida State University faculty members as 2026 NAI Senior Members.

NAI Senior Members are active faculty, scientists and administrators with success in patents, licensing and commercialization and have produced technologies that have had significant impact on the welfare of society. There are more than 945 Senior Members holding over 11,000 U.S. patents.

This year’s class of NAI Senior Members is the largest to date, hailing from 82 NAI Member Institutions across the globe and collectively holding over 2,000 U.S. patents. FSU’s 2026 inductees are Pradeep Bhide, Ava Bienkiewicz, Christian Bleiholder, Yan-Yan Hu and Ulf Trociewitz. The university now counts 10 Senior Members among its faculty.

“This recognition from the National Academy of Inventors is a testament to the inventiveness and impact of these faculty members,” said Vice President for Research Stacey S. Patterson. “Their research is making positive change in the world, and I’m proud to celebrate their achievements.”

The 2026 class of Senior Members will be honored during the Senior Member Induction Ceremony at NAI’s 15th Annual Conference June 1-4 in Los Angeles.

Pradeep Bhide

Bhide is a professor in the College of Medicine and director of the Florida Institute for Pediatric Rare Diseases. As the Jim and Betty Ann Rodgers Eminent Scholar Chair of Developmental Neuroscience, he directs interdisciplinary teams of physicians, scientists and genetic counselors who leverage gene therapy and precision medicine approaches to improve outcomes for children affected by rare diseases. His work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense and private foundations, and his comprehensive approach to developing innovative diagnostic and therapeutic technologies has earned national recognition.

In 2024, Bhide helped launch the Sunshine Genetics Pilot Program, which allows Florida families to opt in to no-cost whole genome sequencing for newborns to identify serious but treatable conditions before symptoms appear. As director of the Institute for Pediatric Rare Diseases, Bhide remains committed to advancing translational research, expanding public outreach and training the next generation of healthcare professionals dedicated to combatting pediatric rare diseases.

Ava Bienkiewicz

Bienkiewicz is an associate professor in the College of Medicine, where she integrates research and teaching in the doctoral, M.D., and physician assistant programs in the Department of Biomedical Sciences. Her research focuses on protein structure, stability and biomolecular interactions in the context of human disease and therapeutic intervention.

Bienkiewicz’s work centers on intrinsically disordered proteins and their roles in neurodegenerative and vascular injury-related conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease, stroke and traumatic brain injury. By investigating protein misfolding and structure-function relationships, her research seeks to uncover molecular mechanisms that drive neuronal degeneration and survival.

She leads collaborative research efforts that translate fundamental molecular discoveries into medically relevant applications. Her work contributes to the development of new therapeutic strategies aimed at improving outcomes for patients affected by neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular diseases.

Christian Bleiholder

Bleiholder is a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, where he leads an interdisciplinary laboratory that integrates physical chemistry, analytical chemistry and biophysics to address longstanding challenges in protein structure analysis.

His research centers on advancing analytical chemistry methods, such as tandem‑trapped ion mobility spectrometry, or tandem‑TIMS, a powerful tool that reveals how proteins fold, assemble and change shape. His lab combines experimental and computational approaches to connect protein structure across multiple scales, opening new windows into complex systems such as monoclonal antibodies and protein assemblies linked to neurodegenerative disease and biotherapeutics.

Bleiholder has received multiple honors for his work, including a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, a Postdoctoral Research Award from the American Chemical Society, and a fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

Yan-Yan Hu

Yan‑Yan Hu is a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and a faculty affiliate of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. Her work sits at the crossroads of chemistry, materials science and the MagLab’s world‑class magnetic resonance capabilities.

Her research is focused on advancing solid‑state NMR and MRI techniques to reveal how energy and biomaterials function at the atomic level. Her discoveries have reshaped understanding of ion transport and structure in solid‑state batteries and other energy‑storage materials, with results published in leading journals such as Nature Materials, Science Advances and Angewandte Chemie.

Hu has earned major honors including a National Science Foundation CAREER Award and the Marion Milligan Mason Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She has also served in editorial roles for journals such as Materials Today Chemistry, Journal of Magnetic Resonance, and Chemistry of Materials.

Ulf Trociewitz

Trociewitz is a research faculty member at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, where he serves as senior personnel and deputy in magnet technology within the Applied Superconductivity Center. His research focuses on the development of high-temperature superconducting magnets and materials designed for ultra-high magnetic fields and exceptional homogeneity, particularly for nuclear magnetic resonance applications.

He holds six patents and has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed publications in international journals, reflecting his significant contributions to superconducting magnet innovation. His work supports the advancement of next-generation research instrumentation critical to scientific discovery in chemistry, biology and materials science.

He leads a $1.2 million, four-year research project funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to develop ultra-high-field NMR magnets using multifilament high-temperature superconductors. Through his research, Trociewitz continues to push the technological boundaries of magnet design, strengthening the nation’s leadership in advanced scientific infrastructure.

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A Florida State University researcher has received a prestigious international award recognizing his work developing the next generation of pharmaceuticals by creating new strategies for synthesizing complex molecules from scratch.

Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Joel M. Smith is the first from FSU to earn a Grantee Award from pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co. In addition to highlighting the significance of his research, the award provides $150,000 in support to the Smith Laboratory as it continues to explore new ways of synthesizing complex molecules, laying the scientific foundation for creation of novel small-molecule drugs to treat various neurological disorders such as migraines, severe depression and Parkinson’s disease.

“I feel an immense sense of gratitude, not only to Lilly but also to my family, the FSU community, and the students and postdoctoral researchers who have driven the lab’s discoveries,” Smith said. “This award is significant because it recognizes the importance of the lab’s work, as well as the department and university’s forward momentum toward greater scientific achievement.”

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A Florida State University researcher has been awarded an international fellowship to develop new materials that contain quantum bits — the elementary units of quantum technologies — with eventual applications ranging from health care to cybersecurity.

Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Michael Shatruk has earned a 2025 Novo Nordisk Fellowship. Through 752,000 Danish kroner in funding, or about $117,000, the fellowship will allow Shatruk to study quantum molecule-based materials using advanced equipment housed at the Technical University of Denmark in Copenhagen through early May.

“Quantum technologies are poised to revolutionize many areas, including computing, drug development and medical sensing,” Shatruk said. “This fellowship will allow me to carry out research on quantum materials with extensive use of electron-diffraction crystallography, a rare and cutting-edge method for determining the crystal structures of sub-micron particles, which are less than one-thousandth of a millimeter in size.”

Based in Denmark, Novo Nordisk is a global pharmaceutical company specializing in medical treatments for serious chronic diseases. As the producer of half of the world’s insulin, Novo Nordisk is a global leader in diabetes care and notable for developing insulin pens as well as GLP-1 weight loss medications such as Ozempic and Wegovy. Novo Nordisk is also Denmark’s largest private sponsor of fundamental research and supports a wide array of work across scientific disciplines, including Shatruk’s discovery of new quantum materials.

“Dr. Shatruk’s research is highly innovative and rich with transformative insights and effective realizations,” said Wei Yang, chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. “In the past decade, scholar development has been a major departmental focus, and Dr. Shatruk’s fellowship, which centers on improving quantum science and technology, is a testimony to FSU’s synergistic efforts.”

“Quantum” refers to the smallest possible unit of a material and is often associated with quantum computing, which can perform large tasks faster and more efficiently than classical computing through cutting-edge processing chips. The average laptop or phone has plenty of computing power for everyday use like internet surfing and building spreadsheets, for example.

However, industries involving artificial intelligence, health care, and scientific research often need to process large quantities of data to explore multiple possibilities at once — quantum computing’s specialty. Quantum chips can “think” more complexly than typical computers as a result of qubits, or atomic-sized particles engineered for their unique ability to represent multiple values simultaneously.

“While in Denmark, I plan to work on the systems that create two-dimensional arrays of qubits, which are the building blocks of chips used in quantum devices,” Shatruk said. “The focus of my project is to study molecular spin qubits placed in the nodes of metal-organic frameworks, or MOFs, to increase computing stability and power. The discovery of MOFs was recognized with the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, so it is fun to work in this field immediately after it received such great recognition.”

MOFs are crystalline structures that are built from metallic ions connected by organic molecules to form a porous material that is readily customizable for specific tasks, including the slow, controlled release of drugs in the body. By integrating MOFs in quantum chips, Shatruk aims to target stability issues in current quantum technology. Most MOFs are smaller than one micron, while a single strand of human hair is about 70 microns in diameter. “Large” MOF crystals are still under one millimeter in size.

“Unfortunately, it is difficult to grow large MOF crystals, so many of them cannot be studied using traditional single-crystal X-ray crystallography methods,” Shatruk said. “The electron-diffraction crystallography machinery in Denmark will help determine the atomic structures of MOFs, even if large crystals cannot be grown, because it enables crystal structure determination on sub-micron particles.”

In 2023, Shatruk became the founding director of the FSU Initiative in Quantum Science and Engineering. With an initial investment of more than $20 million from FSU over three years, the initiative aims to accelerate the discovery of novel quantum phenomena that can impact the design of quantum-related systems.

Visit the FSU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry website to learn more about Shatruk’s work and research. Visit quantum.fsu.edu to learn more about the FSU Initiative in Quantum Science.

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In medicine, security, nuclear safety and scientific research, X-rays are essential tools for seeing what remains hidden.

The materials used to create X-ray detectors can be rigid, expensive and laborious to produce. But new research led by FSU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Professor Biwu Ma is creating lower-cost, adaptable materials that could revolutionize X-ray detection technologies.

In two separate research studies, Ma’s group offers solutions to long-standing challenges in X-ray imaging. In the first study, published in Small, the team developed a new material that generates electric signals when exposed to X-rays, enabling direct X-ray detection. In the second study, published in Angewandte Chemie, the researchers used a related material to produce low-cost scintillators, which are materials that emit visible light when exposed to X-rays or other high-energy radiation.

“We have traditionally relied on inorganic materials for X-ray detection, but they are often rigid, expensive to manufacture and energy-intensive to produce, and they have many limitations,” Ma said. “What we have been trying to develop is a new class of materials that can address the issues and challenges faced by existing materials.”

In these studies, researchers created new hybrid materials composed of both organic and inorganic components, known as organic metal halide complexes (OMHCs) and organic metal halide hybrids (OMHHs). By tailoring the structures of these materials at the molecular level, the team enabled different forms of X-ray detection. This research represents a major step toward developing lower-cost, scalable and flexible X-ray detector technologies capable of overcoming key limitations of conventional inorganic systems.

Glassy OMHC films for direct X-ray detectors

Commercially available direct X-ray detectors are constructed using inorganic semiconductors, made from non-carbon materials, such as cadmium telluride (CdTe) and cadmium zinc telluride (CdZnTe). These materials contain toxic elements and require energy-intensive processing, making them expensive.

In the first study, the team demonstrated, for the first time, the use of OMHCs as a material for making direct X-ray detectors. These are materials composed of carbon-based semiconducting molecules that are bonded to metal halides, which are compounds made of metal and a halogen element. The specific OMHC compound developed by the team was created out of zinc, bromine, and a carbon-based molecule, enabling efficient X-ray absorption and electron transport within a single material.

Using a melt-processing approach, similar to melting plastics and allowing them to cool into a desired shape, the researchers transformed OMHC molecular crystals into amorphous, glass-like materials that can be molded into ready-to-use forms. They used these materials to make direct X-ray detectors that convert incoming X-rays into electrical signals.

Results

The resulting detectors produced strong electrical responses even at low X-ray exposure levels, making them more effective than detectors made from traditional materials. The team also evaluated the long-term stability of detectors made with the new material. After storing the detectors for four months under ambient conditions, testing showed they retained 98% of their initial performance.

OMHCs offer additional practical advantages. They are less expensive to produce than materials currently used in commercially available X-ray detectors because they can be synthesized from abundant and non-toxic raw materials. Moreover, the simple melt-processing method also makes device fabrication easier and more scalable than existing approaches.

“This is actually the first time these OMHC materials have been used to fabricate direct X-ray detectors,” said Ma. “They can be prepared in a low-cost way while delivering high performance. From a sustainability perspective, this new class of materials offer tremendous advantages over conventional materials.”

Bright, fast and flexible scintillators: X-ray components on fabric

In the second study, the team developed a new version of OMHH-based scintillators that exhibit high light yield and fast response, meaning they emit strong visible light and respond almost instantly when exposed to X-rays. OMHHs are similar to OMHCs, but a different type of chemical bond brings together organic components and metal halides into a single material.

The work builds on the team’s years of effort in the area since 2020, when they demonstrated the first ecofriendly OMHH scintillators. Earlier versions of OMHH scintillators relied on slow crystal growth processes that limited their size and flexibility, and their light emission faded relatively slowly. This latest generation of OMHH scintillators overcomes both challenges by eliminating the need for crystal growth and by dramatically speeding up the light response.

Results

By carefully designing the molecular structure, the team created a new amorphous OMHH material that shows fast response in nanoseconds. Unlike earlier versions of OMHH scintillators, in which light emission comes from metal halide centers and lingers for longer periods, the new material emits from the organic components of the material, exhibiting a faster response while maintaining excellent X-ray absorption and high light output.

Fast-response scintillators are especially important for advanced radiation detection and imaging. Their rapid light emission allows for clearer images, improved timing accuracy and reduced signal overlap, which are critical for applications such as medical imaging, security screening and real-time radiation monitoring.

The amorphous nature of the material also allows it to be easily processed into thin films and coatings. Using this approach, the team created fabric-based X-ray scintillators that can be integrated into clothing, enabling wearable and portable radiation detectors. These flexible scintillating fabrics represent a significant departure from traditional rigid detectors and open new possibilities for comfortable, adaptable and low-cost X-ray detection technologies.

Why it matters

While the two studies focused on different X-ray detection approaches, both used similar material design strategies to address major challenges in developing next-generation X-ray detection technologies.

FSU has begun filing patents to commercialize the technologies developed in Ma’s group and test them in real-world conditions. These advancements offer exciting and cost-effective solutions for next-generation X-ray detection technologies. Commercialization of these materials could benefit many fields, including medical imaging, security scanning, nuclear safety and more.

In addition to the team’s internal efforts, the group has collaborated with research institutions and industrial partners to explore diverse applications of these materials. These collaborations include Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) for photon-counting computed tomography, the University of Antwerp for luminescent dosimeters for radiotherapy, the University at Buffalo for pixelated X-ray imagers, and Qrona Technologies for X-ray microscopy technologies.

“The materials are very unique and were developed here at FSU,” Ma said. “We believe our materials and devices have tremendous potential to outperform existing technologies and address key challenges in the field.”

The research has been supported by federal funding from the National Science Foundation Division of Materials Research and Innovation and Technology Ecosystems. The lead authors of the two publications are Oluwadara Joshua Olasupo, who recently graduated with a Ph.D., and Tarannuma Ferdous Manny, a fourth-year graduate student. Collaborators from TU Delft and the University at Buffalo also contributed to the work. The research additionally involved high school students through the FSU Young Scholars Program.

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Florida State University researchers have discovered a pathway within a certain type of molecule that limits chemical reactions by redirecting light energy. The study could help develop more efficient reactions for pharmaceuticals and other products.

The researchers examined ligand-to-metal photocatalysts. Ligands are a molecule bound to a larger molecule, in this case, to a metal. Photocatalysts are materials that use light to accelerate a chemical reaction.

Theoretically, these molecules should be readily able to harness light energy toward chemical reactivity. But in experiments, chemists only found inefficient reactions.

The FSU research published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society shows why: The molecule quickly moves into a less energetic state before the absorbed energy can break chemical bonds. The energy is drained too quickly into the wrong place, so bond-breaking is limited.

“Even though the molecule is absorbing the light and it’s getting the energy, it doesn’t always do the thing that you want it to do, which is to rip itself in half and catalyze some photochemical reaction,” said co-author Bryan Kudisch, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

How it works

When molecules absorb energy from light, that energy has to go somewhere. Sometimes it causes a chemical reaction. In other cases, it dissipates as heat or radiates light back; that is, it glows.

But ligand-to-metal charge transfer molecules didn’t behave as expected. When combined with other reactive materials and exposed to light, they produced chemical reactions, but at much lower efficiency than expected. They also didn’t radiate much heat or light. That posed a mystery: where was the energy from that light going?

The answer: the electron configuration within the material was moving. Instead of breaking chemical bonds, the electrons rearranged to move to a lower energy state.

“Whenever you give something a lot of energy, the thing that it wants to do is get rid of it,” said co-author Rachel Weiss, a graduate researcher. “The two ways that this system has is to either break the bond or rearrange its electrons, and it just tends to go in the rearranging pathway much more often.”

In the examples the researchers examined, molecules rearranged their electrons in about 85% of cases.

Why it matters

The electron-rearrangement pathway doesn’t directly allow for more efficient reactions in applied settings such as manufacturing. But understanding how this reaction works is crucial for future research that could lead to more efficient chemical processing.

“Right now, we don’t know what determines the path these molecules use, but it implies we can make these reactions five or ten times faster,” Kudisch said.

In the context of pharmaceutical manufacturing, for example, in which companies are producing millions of doses of medicine for patients, cutting the time for a single reaction represents a major increase in efficiency.

“The economics of making a molecule depends on how much time is needed for a reaction to occur,” he said. “The faster your reactions are, the more products you can make.”

Support

The research was supported by the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund and by FSU.

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A Florida State University researcher has been honored for her work developing new materials that enable more efficient energy storage and produce cleaner energy for daily use, ranging from phones and laptops to electric cars and renewable energy systems.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Yan Zeng has earned a 2025 Materials Today Rising Star Award in recognition of her contributions to the field of energy conversion and storage, including her work in designing sodium-ion batteries for electric vehicles. This year, she is one of nine researchers worldwide to receive this distinction and is the first-ever honoree from FSU.

“It is an honor to be recognized by the community, and I feel thankful to everyone who has supported my work,” Zeng said. “It is especially meaningful because it recognizes our early efforts in energy conversion and storage research; the award encourages me to keep pushing this work forward and continue to grow as a researcher.”

First granted by the Materials Today Family of Journals in 2018, the Materials Today Rising Star Awards recognize early career researchers who are poised to become future leaders in the fields of materials science and engineering, highlighting the exceptional potential of their works’ real-world impact.

“Our goal in the Zeng Research Lab is to create better materials for storing energy, which ultimately affects everyday technologies,” Zeng said. “Even though the chemistry is complex, the goal is simple: make energy safer, cleaner, and more reliable for everyone.”

In early 2024, Zeng joined the U.S. Department of Energy’s $50 million Low-cost Earth-abundant Na-ion Storage Consortium, or LENS Consortium, which aims to discover, develop, and demonstrate a new class of sodium-ion batteries for use in electric vehicles.

Most electric vehicles use lithium-ion batteries. While these cut down on emissions, lithium poses several risks, both environmental and economic. Mining lithium often requires large amounts of water in arid areas; this process not only damages ecosystems, but manufacturing lithium-ion batteries is also energy intensive and produces considerable greenhouse gas emissions. These challenges, among others, contribute to the supply chain risks associated with lithium.

Sodium-ion batteries, on the other hand, show promise as an eco-friendly and affordable alternative. By swapping sodium for lithium, Zeng’s research hopes to reduce reliance on critical elements, or chemicals that are in high demand but limited supply. However, sodium is heavier than lithium, which means sodium-ion batteries provide less energy than lithium-ion batteries of the same weight and size. Zeng aims to push past this barrier by designing brand-new element and structure combinations that will allow sodium-ion batteries to not only compete with but outperform their lithium-ion counterparts.

“I am most inspired by the possibility of discovering entirely new materials that could transform energy technologies,” Zeng said. “The combination of creative chemistry, data-driven tools, and curiosity-driven exploration keeps the work exciting every day. My lab leverages artificial intelligence and automation to accelerate discovery and optimization, opening up opportunities to uncover design principles and innovations.”

Zeng’s approach to creating and optimizing new materials is unique for its integration of automation and AI to accelerate the research process. For example, an automated robotic arm is used to complete some of the lab’s repetitive work, such as carrying out individual chemical reactions. After each successful synthesization, or creation of a new substance, Zeng employs AI as a springboard for new ideas, considering what types of tweaks could optimize the new material.

“Designing solid-state materials has been challenging due to chemical complexity, and gaining empirical knowledge via human repetitive work is very costly and time consuming,” said Wei Yang, chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. “Dr. Zeng is a pioneer in her field for integrating AI with robotics, a method that has attracted tremendous national and international attention.”

To learn more about Zeng’s work and research, visit the FSU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry website.

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A research team at Florida State University’s Institute of Molecular Biophysics and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has discovered how a protein found in the human body interacts with RNA in a way that could lead to new treatments for tissue scarring also known as fibrosis.

The researchers studied a special protein called LARP6, which plays a role in how our bodies produce type I collagen, a key building block in tissues like skin and bones. This protein is important because it’s linked to diseases where too much collagen is made, such as fibrosis.

They discovered a new part of the protein that helps it recognize and stick to the RNA very precisely, like two puzzle pieces fitting perfectly. The study gives scientists a clearer picture of how LARP6 might be targeted in treatments for diseases involving collagen overproduction.

The work was published in Nucleic Acids Research.

“In the simplest terms, we’re trying to figure out how two molecules, just like LEGO pieces, fit together,” said principal investigator Robert Silvers, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. “But it’s obviously much more complicated than that, because we’re not just considering the structure of the LEGO pieces and how they fit together, but also how different parts of the LEGO pieces move around, and that all ties directly into functionality.”

LARPs, or La-related proteins, are a superfamily of proteins common in all plants and animals. They bind RNA, the molecule that carries genetic information, helps build proteins and regulates the function of DNA. LARP6 is one of five main human LARP proteins and is involved in the regulation and biosynthesis of collagen. Compared to other LARPs, there has been very little research into how LARP6 interacts with RNA on a molecular level.

“Our new ‘LEGO piece’ uses a different kind of interaction with its RNA,” said Silvers. “It utilizes a different set of rules and the protein uses a different RNA binding site altogether.”

The team was introduced to this unusual LARP by Branco Stefanovic, a professor in the FSU College of Medicine, who has spent much of his career researching fibrosis. They attempted multiple methods of observing the protein, such as X-ray crystallography, before landing on NMR spectroscopy.

“In NMR spectroscopy, we can look at the complex in solution close to its natural environment under physiological conditions,” said Silvers. “NMR spectroscopy is ideal as we can study the dynamics of a molecule as well as its structure.”

NMR spectroscopy is a method that uses the magnetic properties of certain nuclei to reveal a molecule’s detailed structure and properties. It proved especially useful because LARP6 is unstable until it binds with RNA.

Using NMR spectroscopy, the researchers found that the way LARP6 binds to RNA is directly involved in the biosynthesis of type I collagen, the protein involved in fibrosis. This discovery could help scientists develop a treatment for fibrosis in the future.

“Because of its function, the complex between LARP6 and RNA is something that we potentially can develop a drug for, to work against fibrosis,” said Silvers. “There is currently no drug, to my knowledge, that can slow down or stop the progression of fibrosis.”

This research was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

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Florida State University researchers have created a new crystalline material with unusual magnetic patterns that could be used for breakthroughs in data storage and quantum technologies.

In a study published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the research team showed that when two materials with neighboring chemical compositions but different structure types are combined, they can form a new material that exhibits a third structure type with highly unusual magnetic properties.

Atoms in magnetic materials act as extremely small magnets, due to the property known as atomic spin. The spin can be imagined as an arrow indicating the direction of the tiny magnetic field produced by each atom. When many such spins add up, they can produce bulk magnetism by aligning their magnetic fields in the same or opposite directions. This is what happens in traditional magnets, such as those that are used in our computers and cell phones.

The FSU research team showed that their approach can be used to generate much more complex patterns of spins. These patterns are important because they determine a material’s overall magnetic properties. In contrast to the traditional magnets, the spins in this new material form repeating swirls, also known as spin textures.

How it works

The researchers combined two chemically similar compounds with different symmetries in their crystal structures. This structural mismatch leads to “frustration,” which indicates that both structure types become inherently unstable at the boundary between two chemical compositions.

“We thought that maybe this structural frustration would translate into magnetic frustration,’” said co-author Michael Shatruk, a professor in the FSU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. “If the structures are in competition, maybe that will cause the spins to twist. Let’s find some structures that are chemically very close but have different symmetries.”

They combined a compound of manganese, cobalt and germanium with a compound of manganese, cobalt and arsenic. Germanium and arsenic are neighbors in the periodic table.

After the mixture solidified into crystals, the research team examined the product and found the distinctive cycloidal spin textures that they were seeking. Such swirls of spins are known as skyrmion-like spin textures, and the search for more ways to find and manipulate skyrmion-hosting materials is a cutting-edge research area within chemistry and physics.

To determine this skyrmion-like magnetic structure, the team collected single-crystal neutron diffraction data on the TOPAZ instrument at the Spallation Neutron Source, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science user facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Why it matters

This research could be used to develop hard drives with greater information density or improve electron-transport efficiency. Because using magnets to move skyrmions takes little energy, incorporating materials with these magnetic patterns into electronic devices could reduce power consumption. In massive supercomputers with thousands of processors, these lower power loads can lead to huge savings in electrical and cooling costs.

The research could also help point scientists and engineers toward promising materials that can help develop fault-tolerant quantum computing, which can protect fragile quantum information and operate reliably despite errors and noise — the holy grail of quantum information processing.

“With single-crystal neutron diffraction data from TOPAZ and new data-reduction and machine-learning tools from our LDRD project, we can now solve very complex magnetic structures with much greater confidence,” said Xiaoping Wang, a distinguished neutron scattering scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. “That capability lets us move from simply finding unusual spin textures to intentionally designing and optimizing them for future information and quantum technologies.”

‘Chemical Thinking’ and materials by design

Previous research into skyrmions and related complex spin textures has been more like a hunt: considering different materials where these magnetic shapes were likely to be present and measuring their properties to confirm.

This study took a different approach. By creating a new material and leveraging the innovative idea of structural frustration, the researchers sought to better understand the principles that lead to the development of new magnetic patterns.

“It’s chemical thinking, because we’re thinking about how the balance between these structures affects them and the relation between them, and then how it might translate to the relation between atomic spins,” Shatruk said.

That understanding of the fundamental science at work could point to promising directions for future research.

“The idea is to be able to predict where these complex spin textures will appear,” said co-author Ian Campbell, a graduate student in Shatruk’s lab. “Traditionally, physicists will hunt for known materials that already exhibit the symmetry they’re seeking and measure their properties. But that limits the range of possibilities. We’re trying to develop a predictive ability to say, ‘If we add these two things together, we’ll form a completely new material with these desired properties.’”

A benefit of that approach is the ability to expand the ingredient list for making materials that contain skyrmion-like spin textures, allowing for cheaper, easier-to-grow crystals and a more robust supply chain for future technologies that might benefit from such materials.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Fellowship

Campbell completed part of this work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, or ORNL, while on an FSU-supported fellowship.

“That experience was instrumental for this research,” he said. “Being at Oak Ridge allowed me to build connections with the scientists there and use their expertise to help with some of the problems we had to solve to complete this study.”

FSU has been a sponsoring member of Oak Ridge Associated Universities since 1951 and is also a core university partner of the national laboratory.

Through that partnership, FSU faculty members, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students have the opportunity to visit ORNL to use their facilities and develop research collaborations with ORNL staff members.

Collaboration and support

Other co-authors on this paper were YiXu Wang, Zachary P. Tener, Judith K. Clark, Jacnel Graterol with the FSU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Andrei Rogalev and Fabrice Wilhelm from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility; Hu Zhang and Yi Long from the University of Science and Technology Beijing; Richard Dronskowski from RWTH Aachen University; and Xiaoping Wang from Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation. The study used facilities at Florida State University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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