Researchers at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory have shown how higher magnetic fields can improve analysis of the molecules linked to Alzheimer’s disease, a finding that could aid the development of future treatments.

In a study published in Solid State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, the researchers showed how a high-magnitude magnetic field can improve the accuracy of measurements that show the chemical composition of amyloid beta fragments, small pieces of proteins that have been shown to play a critical role in Alzheimer’s disease. They were able to analyze amyloid proteins even when they were structurally complex and mixed with lipids, creating conditions that more closely resemble the human brain than traditional laboratory samples.

By better understanding the composition and structure of these molecules, scientists can design compounds that may disrupt disease progression and lead to more effective treatments.

“The current treatment plans for Alzheimer’s disease are not working well enough,” said study co-author Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering. “This disease follows a complex process. We are looking into the mess of molecules implicated in memory loss, investigating how they promote toxic compounds in the brain and trying to stop them.”

How it works: finding a way to block Alzheimer’s disease

Researchers are still studying the exact mechanisms that cause Alzheimer’s disease, but amyloid beta proteins are believed to play a central role in the disease. These proteins are found clumped together among neurons inside affected brains. Studies have shown them to be a good benchmark for tracking disease progression and a potential target for treatment.

By mapping the structure of amyloid beta catalyzed by lipids, researchers can develop compounds that could effectively bind to its surface and fully stop them from killing neuronal cells within the brain.

“It’s like an incredibly complex puzzle piece,” Ramamoorthy said. “We want to create another puzzle piece that can match with it and stop it from binding with something within the brain responsible for memory.”

 What they did

To find the edges of that puzzle piece, Ramamoorthy and the research team used a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer. NMR spectrometers work by placing a sample in a strong magnetic field and applying radio waves to excite atomic nuclei. By measuring how the atomic nuclei absorb and re-emit these radio waves, scientists can determine properties like the chemical composition of molecules.

Instead of clean samples, researchers analyzed amyloid beta interacting with a lipid found in the membrane of neural cells. That emulated the tangled mix of cells found within the brain.

They measured samples with a 600-megahertz spectrometer and a 1,100-megahertz spectrometer and compared the results. Researchers already knew that a higher magnetic field would enhance the spectral resolution of amyloid beta proteins. This study showed that an NMR spectrometer using a higher magnetic field could also better identify discrete parts of amyloid beta within a realistic sample.

Even though the protein-lipid mix looks chaotic overall, the improved measurements revealed distinct, well-ordered segments within the combined samples and evidence of a central core inside amyloid proteins.

“When you have these amorphous collections of different cell types, they are not well-ordered. When you try to take a picture, it looks very blurry,” Ramamoorthy said. “We were able to zoom in and get a look at the structured regions within the protein.”

Why it matters and future research

The study shows that a higher magnetic field NMR spectrometer can identify information from amyloid proteins that exist in a diverse mixture of cell types. Scientists studying Alzheimer’s disease are no longer limited to ideal samples. They can study complex mixtures and still get atomic-level clues.

The researchers plan to use the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory’s 1.5-gigahertz NMR spectrometer for future research.

“This is the only place in the world where such an ultra-high magnetic field (1.5-GHz) NMR spectrometer is available,” Ramamoorthy said. “We want to push the challenges and overcome the hurdles in developing potential drugs to treat Alzheimer’s and related diseases, and these resources are crucial for this work.”

FSU postdoctoral researcher Jhinuk Saha and University of Wisconsin researcher Thirupathi Ravula were co-authors on this study. This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIDDK), the National Science Foundation, and Florida State University. The research used NHMFL at FSU and the National Magnetic Resonance Facility at the University of Wisconsin.

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Soon after the development of the first computers, engineers and programmers began tinkering with them to create games. Turning a calculating machine into a device for fun pushed the capabilities of the new technology, stimulated creative thinking and inspired interest from the public.

From their origins in the 1950s and 1960s, video games have come a long way. They’re now an industry that generates more than $180 billion annually around the world. Faculty at Florida State University are innovating in this rapidly evolving field, studying how games can reduce mental health stigma, improve language learning, train child welfare professionals and create new opportunities for science communication.

Games and human behavior

At the College of Communication and Information (CCI), researchers are investigating the cultural impacts of video games and how they can affect perceptions of mental illness. In 2025, Professor Nicholas Sellers authored a book chapter titled “GAMES FOR GOOD: Exploring the Potential for Traditional Video Game Narratives to Reduce Mental Health Stigma.”

The chapter is based on a study published in Frontiers, conducted by Sellers and Associate Professor Arienne Ferchaud. The study examined whether playing or watching a video game character experiencing mental illness affected participants’ attitudes toward mental health.

Researchers found that players who directly engaged with the game felt more connected to the character and demonstrated lower levels of stigma, which may help remove impediments to treatment.

“One of the main barriers to seeking treatment is the stigma around mental health. If we can find ways to destigmatize mental illness, we can remove that barrier and encourage treatment when necessary,” Ferchaud said. “Video games are an effective medium for representation because of their interactivity, allowing players to ‘practice’ interactions in a way that is not possible in non-interactive media.”

Other CCI researchers are also exploring applications of video games in the classroom. In a multi-institutional research study published in ACM Journals, Professor Sana Tibi co-led research examining whether collaborative video games can help English as a Second Language (ESL) students develop language skills. The study paired native English speakers and ESL students in a game that required communication and cooperation to complete tasks.

Other research is examining games as a communication medium that intrinsically involves decision making from the audience. Gabrielle Lamura, a doctoral student at FSU, explored horror and morality in video games in her paper, “Moral Dilemmas: Horror Video Games Narrative Mechanics,” which she presented at a 2025 National Communication Association conference.

Some of her other projects are examining how environmental factors and game mechanics influence player behavior and a review of morality and moral decision making in games.

At the FSU College of Music, Assistant Professor Julianne Grasso researches music in multimedia, especially video games, examining how musical themes associated with characters and places develop during a game’s narrative.

“Video game music is interesting for the ways that it seems to function as background and yet has such an effect on us,” Grasso said. “It’s similar to film music in that it can affect how we perceive the emotions and meanings of the scenes we are watching, but video game music goes one step further in influencing ultimately how players interact with virtual environments.”

As technology developed, game designers gained a greater ability to add richness and interactivity to in-game sounds and music, changing how users perceived their experience. Early adaptive audio has evolved so musical directors in modern games have a wide number of parameters they can adjust to fit their creative goals.

“In a film, we might get tense, dissonant music to accompany a suspenseful scene and help the audience feel what characters feel. In a game, that same kind of music might be used as a signal for the player to watch out for danger and to act accordingly,” she said.

From screen to reality: Practical applications of video game technology

The Florida Institute for Child Welfare (FICW) collaborated with different contractors to launch two new virtual reality (VR) tools that help social workers train for a critical job in low-stakes virtual environments.

“We are working to create real-world practice opportunities for both current child welfare professionals and students preparing to enter the field,” said FICW Associate Director of Professional Development Kristina Finch. “Through our immersive VR platforms, including the Accenture Avenues headset experiences and our AI-powered virtual home environment being developed with MeetKai, participants can build and strengthen the skills needed to effectively engage with children and families while promoting safety and well-being.”

These interactive simulations provide controlled environments where College of Social Work students can develop skills before practicing in real-world settings. These AI-powered tools allow students to practice observing environmental factors in a virtual setting, helping students connect classroom instruction with real-world practice.

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A Florida State University computational scientist is paving the way for future medical breakthroughs by developing mathematical models and simulations to predict the behavior of a unique drug-delivery method, which aims to deploy treatments directly to targeted sites in the body.

Florida State University Associate Professor of Scientific Computing Bryan Quaife is part of a multi-institutional team of engineers, mathematicians and computational scientists who are conducting foundational research essential to the design of a drug-delivery system that could reduce medication side effects while increasing treatment efficacy. Their research expands upon work proposing the use of magnetic particles to guide cell-like drug carriers toward a specific target, like a tumor.

This work, which was published in Physical Review Letters, the American Physical Society’s flagship publication, reveals how tiny particles moving inside microscopic drug carriers can gradually stress and eventually rupture the enclosing membrane. These findings could help engineers design smarter drug delivery systems to protect therapeutic cargo during transport and release it on demand at the desired location.

“Our paper shows how mathematical models and computations can reveal processes that are difficult to measure experimentally,” Quaife said. “We needed to study how magnetic force affects the cell-like membrane that transports a drug to a specific site to prevent it from rupturing inside the body. Many measurements — such as the membrane’s ‘floppiness’ and the amount of magnetic force its internal walls can withstand — can’t be taken at such a small scale. I filled in the gaps by developing computer code that predicts experimental outcomes.”

How it works

Medicines like pills and injections circulate throughout the body, which can dilute potency and lead to side effects. For example, chemotherapy drugs are administered to kill cancer cells, but they often also cause severe exhaustion, nausea, hair loss, increased infection risk and anemia. By transporting drugs directly to the site they’re meant to treat, researchers aim to enhance drug efficiency while alleviating unnecessary strain on the body and potentially reducing debilitating side effects.

Researchers first encapsulate a magnetic particle and cargo, such as a drug molecule, within an artificial cell membrane called a vesicle. In this scenario, the vesicle is like a car, the magnetic particle provides the driving force, and the cargo are the passengers being transported. A magnet field outside the body guides the vesicle to the desired location where a specific stimulus, such as light, deteriorates the vesicle membrane and releases the drug into the body. The technique can be used in cases that benefit from pinpoint accuracy in treatment, such as delivering a drug directly to a tumor or to sites of localized inflammation.

“Beyond biochemical targeting, one targeted drug delivery approach is like a truck pulling a trailer, using a particle or microrobot to move the drug where they want it to go,” said On Shun Pak, a co-author on this work and associate professor of mechanical engineering and applied mathematics at Santa Clara University, California. “However, attaching and manipulating cargo can be challenging at the microscale. We instead employ a microparticle encapsulated within a drug carrier to generate propulsion from the inside, rather than towing it from the outside.”

This magnet-driven method was first explored last year in the journal Nanoscale by a research team including Pak, Yuan-Nan Young, professor of mathematical sciences at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and Jie Feng, assistant professor of mechanical science and engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Many aspects of the drug delivery system they conceptualized were too small for scientific instruments to measure without destroying the experiment. Young, who led this subsequent research, connected with Quaife to explore the underlying mechanisms using customized, sophisticated computer codes.

“The particle-driven vesicle configuration is so unique and challenging that it’s impossible to simulate using common commercial software,” Young said. “In the beginning stages, Bryan’s expertise helped us identify magnetic-driven drug delivery as something that’s actually possible. After the code was implemented, we did more analytic calculations to determine how the process can work without rupturing the membrane entirely.”

Why it matters

In addition to medicine, this research could eventually lead to new forms of environmental remediation. By swapping a drug for another type of active agent, the vesicle system could potentially be used to neutralize contaminants in water systems or clean up oil spills, especially in areas that are difficult to reach by traditional means.

“This is highly collaborative work at the intersection of fluid dynamics, soft matter and biophysics,” Quaife said. “Experiments informed decisions we made while developing the code, but when we discovered new things through computation and modeling, we relayed that back to the experimentalists. This allowed us to have a full-circle loop among the experiments, analysis, modeling and computation.”

Additional co-authors on this National Science Foundation-funded work include Hervé Nganguia, associate professor of mathematics at Towson University and Howard Stone, the Neil A. Omenn ’68 University Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University.

Visit the FSU Department of Scientific Computing website to learn more about the department’s research.

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Florida State University researchers have identified key differences in the root causes of long-term sea-surface temperature changes across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, a finding that could help guide future research on ocean variability.

Research by Assistant Professor of meteorology Michael Diamond and FSU meteorology graduate alumnus Anthony Freveletti found that long-term temperature changes in the Pacific Oceans are driven primarily by internal ocean variability, while those in the Atlantic are largely the result of human emissions.

The study, conducted with Assistant Professor Robert Jnglin Wills from the ETH Zürich Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, was published this spring in Geophysical Research Letters.

“We know that important sources of natural variability in Earth’s climate system exist, and our ability to distinguish between these natural and human-forced sources of temperature variability is key to projecting future temperatures and their related impacts on society,” Diamond said.

Historical temperature swings in the Atlantic Ocean have long been considered one of those natural sources of variability in Earth’s climate.

Long-term shifts between increasing and decreasing Atlantic sea-surface temperatures were typically thought to be driven by the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, a system of currents in the Atlantic Ocean that’s part of the network of natural ocean currents moving water around the world.

“Our findings contradict this theory, as we found that long-term changes in the Atlantic are more directly related to anthropogenic — human produced — causes such as greenhouse gases and aerosols,” Freveletti said.

While most variability in global oceanic sea-surface temperatures were often thought to be driven by natural causes, the team’s findings suggest that only the oscillations in the Pacific are primarily driven by natural climate processes.

Most people, for example, are familiar with El Niño and La Niña, two opposing climate patterns in the tropical Pacific that occur every two to seven years on average. The Pacific Decadal Oscillation, which Freveletti and Diamond studied, is a similar climate pattern that fluctuates over much longer periods, typically every 20 to 30 years.

Using the programming language Python for data analysis, the team applied a new statistical method called rotated low-frequency component analysis, or RLFCA, to climate model datasets from 1920 through 2025. RLFCA is an adaptation of a low-frequency component analysis method previously developed by Wills that identifies and extracts patterns of temperature change based on how quickly they evolve over time.

“Since human emissions build up in the atmosphere over many years, the temperature changes they cause develop gradually over time,” Freveletti said. “In contrast, natural fluctuations driven by factors such as ocean currents, wind patterns and air pressure occur more rapidly. Our analysis effectively separates these forced and unforced changes within those data trends by identifying which patterns are fast-evolving and which are slow-evolving.”

Freveletti expanded upon this method by adding a “rotational” step that reorganizes identified patterns with known external influences, calculated by climate models, helping distinguish the causes of temperature variability.

The team found that what looked like natural variability in the Atlantic Ocean was actually an overlap between air pollution and aerosols shading and cooling the sea surface and greenhouse gas emissions warming the entire globe.

“Our results show a complex interplay of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions is responsible for historical temperature patterns in the Atlantic Ocean that led to various weather phenomena, such as a spike in hurricane frequency since 1990,” Diamond said. “We should not expect to return to an inactive hurricane era by chance alone; the future of human emissions will be the most important driver of Atlantic temperatures going forward.”

While natural climate patterns like El Niño and La Niña can affect weather, ecosystems and economies through variability in rainfall, temperature and storm activity, their effects are temporary. Greenhouse gas emissions, by contrast, accumulate over time and have longer-lasting impacts. The researchers said their findings could help inform infrastructure planning along the Atlantic coast, including measures to reduce risks to  coastal communities.

Visit the Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science website to learn more about FSU research.

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Florida State University, through FSU Health, has awarded $250,000 to the five inaugural recipients of its Clinical Catalyst Grant Program, an initiative that brings together FSU researchers and local clinical providers to address healthcare challenges through collaborative projects. 

“Clinical Catalyst creates an exciting opportunity for our research teams to join forces with local clinical providers and accelerate progress on some of the most urgent issues affecting patient care in our community,” said Vice President for Research Stacey S. Patterson.  

FSU launched Clinical Catalyst to give clinicians an opportunity to share ideas for addressing healthcare needs identified through their daily work. The program also supports the broader goals of FSU Health by bringing additional resources and opportunities to healthcare in the region. 

The 2025-2026 Clinical Catalyst awardees are: 

• Accessible and Engaging Non-Pharmacologic Management of Chronic Pain Combining Music Therapy and Brain Stimulation: Kevin Johnson from the FSU College of Medicine and his team are partnering with Dr. Gilbert Chandler from Tallahassee Orthopedic Clinic to explore a promising, non-drug approach to chronic musculoskeletal pain by combining music therapy with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. 

• Building a New Care Pathway: ICAN-Guided Nutrition Support for Aging Adults in Clinical Settings: Julia Sheffler at the FSU College of Medicine and a multidisciplinary team of nutrition and exercise experts are collaborating with Dr. Cielo Rose from Capital Health Plan’s Nancy Van Vessem Center for Healthy Aging to build a structured nutrition and lifestyle program designed to better support older adults in clinical settings. 

• Feasibility, Acceptability, and Preliminary Efficacy of Vagus Nerve Stimulation for Stroke Aphasia: Sladjana Lukic from the FSU School of Communication Science and Disorders, in partnership with Dr. Narlin Beaty at Tallahassee Neurological Clinic, is exploring an innovative approach that could help stroke survivors regain language abilities by reactivating critical neural networks. 

• Redesigning Post-Mastectomy Bras: Investigating Design Innovations to Reduce Seroma and Hematoma Formation and Enhance Patient Satisfaction: Jessica Ridgway Clayton from the FSU Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship is working with Dr. Shlermine Everidge from TMH Physician Partners, to develop improved bras for mastectomy patients to support recovery, improve comfort and enhance patient satisfaction. 

• Increasing the Uptake of Advanced Care Directives in Hospital and Clinical Settings: Miles Taylor from the FSU Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy, in collaboration with Dr. R. Kelley Myers from the Tallahassee Memorial Family Medicine Residency Program, aims to make end-of-life planning easier and more accessible for patients and families while helping reduce unnecessary medical treatments and costs. 

“These projects reflect the strength of interdisciplinary collaboration at FSU and our shared commitment to delivering innovative ideas that can make a meaningful difference in clinical practice and patient outcomes,” Patterson said.  

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

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Florida State University physicists are part of a team that has discovered unusual superconducting states in parts of graphene, with the potential to drive unexpected quantum technologies.

Assistant Professor of Physics Cyprian Lewandowski and postdoctoral researcher Phong Võ Tiến are part of an international collaboration that has uncovered new aspects of superconductivity and topology in rhombohedral graphene, a system comprising just a few layers of carbon atoms stacked like the treads of a staircase shape known as chiral stacking. The work was published in Nature Physics.

“The rhombohedral graphene system seems to capture many of the intriguing electronic phenomena that scientists have seen previously in other atomically thin systems, but they were previously not as ideal for technical applications due to the intrinsic complexity of the devices or replicability issues,” Lewandowski said. “In physics, once we identify a generic phenomenon, we try to distill it to its essential form to understand the underlying mechanism. This rhombohedral system allows us to do that. We’ve identified the natural occurrence of this effect and can build upon and optimize it to achieve properties only before seen in more complicated systems.”

Atomically thin flakes of rhombohedral graphene can be isolated from naturally occurring graphite crystals. In this structure, at a low energy, electrons are localized almost exclusively onto specific atoms on the top and bottom surfaces. By contrast, very little charge resides in the bulk of the material.

Congregating a large density of electrons onto the outer surfaces leads to interesting emergent quantum properties, as charges are forced to collectively “make choices” about how they reside on the surfaces while simultaneously repelling each other. The team found that superconductivity emerges directly from this dual-surface configuration, where electron and hole carriers on opposite surfaces conspire to form a superconducting state.

Collaborating on impactful science

FSU was joined in the collaboration by experimentalist teams led by co-principal investigators Matthew Yankowitz, associate professor of physics at the University of Washington in Seattle, and Joshua Folk, professor of physics at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Together, the team combined material and structure assembly expertise required to build highly sensitive and optimized electronic devices, measurement expertise to probe ultra-sensitive superconducting states that emerged from them, and theoretical expertise to turn experimental data into a coherent understanding of superconductivity in this novel platform.

“An added complexity of this system is that negative and positive charges coexist,” Yankowitz said.  “On one surface, the charges are electrons and therefore negatively charged. On the other surface, they behave like particles called holes, which are effectively positive. This work is advancing our fundamental understanding of the interplay of strongly correlated and topological phases, which could be an avenue toward the development of future quantum technologies.”

In addition to superconductivity, the team observed a quantum anomalous Hall effect — a topological state in which an electrical current flows without resistance along the edges of the material.

“Cyprian is applying his brilliant theoretical insights to cutting-edge problems in the science of quantum materials,” said Mike Shatruk, director of the FSU Initiative in Quantum Science and Engineering. “If the two phenomena of superconducting behavior and topological states can eventually be made to co-exist, theory predicts appearance of so-called Majorana zero modes, which are candidate building blocks for fault-tolerant quantum computing; they’re inherently protected from local noise and decoherence that destroy quantum information.”

Next-generation quantum devices

One of the team’s guiding goals is to eventually translate the research into the realm of quantum engineering for the development of next-generation devices and detectors. Another significant aspect of the system is that there are two electronic layers of charges separated vertically, a geometry that previously had to be manually constructed. Discovering such material states that occur naturally can lead to exciting new avenues in fundamental physics and potential technological applications.

“In the 20th century, scientists gained a lot of our modern understanding of condensed-matter physics and phase transitions by working with helium, and I would argue that rhombohedral graphene may be serving the same purpose here in teaching us about unique crystalline phases of matter,” said Lewandowski, who utilizes the FSU Research Computing Center and the National Science Foundation-funded, FSU-headquartered National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in his work.

This research was supported by funding from the U.S. Army Research Office, the U.S. Department of Energy, NSF and FSU. Other contributors include scientists from the National Institute for Materials Science in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.

Visit the FSU Department of Physics website to learn more about Lewandowski’s work and research. For more details on quantum science and engineering at FSU, visit the FSU Quantum Initiative website.

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Florida State University research published today in Science Advances demonstrates a new framework for predicting the motion of kilometer-scale underwater waves that complicate satellite readings of the ocean.

By accurately modeling these subsurface waves, scientists can remove their interference from NASA’s Surface Water and Ocean Topography, or SWOT, satellite, improving the satellite’s signal and allowing for observations of the Earth’s ocean circulation that are about 60 percent more accurate.

“SWOT is giving us the clearest view we have ever had of the ocean’s fine-scale circulation, the small eddies and currents that govern how much heat and carbon the ocean draws down from the atmosphere,” said study lead author Yadidya Badarvada, a researcher at FSU’s Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies who completed the work at FSU and while a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan. “But those measurements have been partially obscured by internal tides, which mimic the very features we are trying to observe. What this work shows is that the interference we assumed was too chaotic to fix is actually predictable, once you have a model that accurately tracks the evolving ocean state.”

How it works

The SWOT satellite orbits Earth more than 500 miles above the planet’s surface.

Jointly operated by NASA and the French space agency CNES, this satellite observes the surface of the ocean, rivers and lakes to provide high-resolution data used by meteorologists, oceanographers, hydrologists and other scientists. SWOT imaging helps answer questions about the path of rivers, the aftermath of tsunamis and other water features on the planet’s surface.

But finding the ground truth on the planet from the sky can be difficult. Complicating SWOT’s readings over the ocean are internal tides traveling beneath the ocean surface, whose signals overlap with the very features scientists are trying to observe.

Known as internal tides, these underwater waves have historically been the major challenge for measuring sea surface height. These “non-phase-locked” internal tides did not appear to have a predictable pattern, and researchers thought their interference was too chaotic to be corrected using standard statistical or sensing tools.

What they did

To solve this problem, the researchers developed a new framework based on the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model, or HYCOM, a three-dimensional depiction of the ocean state at fine resolution in real time. This existing, operational U.S. Navy ocean forecast system is the result of decades of development from researchers across institutions, including FSU’s Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies.

HYCOM works by continuously combining a physics-based simulation of the ocean with a real-time stream of observational data, a technique called data assimilation. Every day, the model takes in measurements from orbiting satellites that track sea surface height and temperature, robotic floats that drift through the ocean interior measuring temperature and salinity at depth, moored buoys and ship-based instruments. The model uses all of this incoming information to constantly correct its simulation, keeping it as close to the true state of the ocean as possible.

Because HYCOM explicitly simulates the forces that drive tides, including their interaction with seafloor ridges and seamounts, the internal tide field emerges directly from the model’s own ocean physics rather than being estimated separately.

By separating HYCOM’s internal tide predictions into predictable and chaotic components, the team could identify and remove both from SWOT’s measurements. Because SWOT data were never fed into HYCOM, the comparison was a genuine independent test. The result was a 59 percent improvement over the best correction method currently applied to the satellite.

Why it matters

The improved model could help SWOT provide a more accurate picture of the ocean’s surface and currents, which are crucial to our understanding of how the ocean functions. Without accurately observing them from space, scientists cannot track the ocean’s capacity to buffer rising temperatures or verify the models used to project future warming. The work has applications in forecasting, navigation, infrastructure planning and more.

“We can’t deploy buoys across the entire globe to take measurements,” Badarvada said. “The information from SWOT fills a huge gap in our understanding of the physics and dynamics that govern the ocean and how it transports heat and nutrients on a massive scale. We used a model the Navy built to navigate the ocean and ended up giving NASA’s most advanced ocean satellite significantly clearer eyes. That kind of unexpected overlap between defense science and Earth observation is exactly what this project has been about.”

Researchers from the University of Michigan, Oregon State University, Naval Research Laboratory, University of Southern Mississippi, and the French company CLS Group were co-authors on this study. This research was supported by the Office of Naval Research, NASA and the French space agency CNES.

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Signaling immense esteem for his innovative work as a longtime real estate finance scholar, the American Real Estate Society (ARES) recently awarded Florida State University’s G. Stacy Sirmans with the annual James A. Graaskamp Award, one of the academic association’s highest career honors.

“There are a lot of people who would qualify for that award, so I was very honored and surprised to receive it,” said Sirmans, the J. Harold and Barbara M. Chastain Eminent Scholar in Real Estate at FSU’s Herbert Wertheim College of Business.

But Sirmans’ academic colleagues – both down the hall and across the nation – are not surprised by his selection. They say Sirman’s accomplishments embody the academic association’s intention for the award: honoring scholars with research advancements that redefine thinking within the discipline.

“Stacy is widely recognized for his influential contributions to real estate finance, housing economics, mortgage markets and property valuation. His work has shaped the foundation of the field and continues to inform both academic research and professional practice,” said Henry J. Munneke, the Roy Adams Dorsey Distinguished Chair in Real Estate and an associate dean at the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business.

Advancing the field with relevant research

From his early work co-authoring seminal research on rampant assumption financing among home buyers to more recent studies analyzing the effect of climate-change beliefs on risk pricing in the marketplace, Sirmans’ work often breaks new ground. The knowledge he generates then provides insights other scholars rely on as they further examine real estate implications.

“Our job is to create and establish theories and then create the empirical work to support those, to prove them or disprove them, and then eventually that filters into business,” said Sirmans, who also has served as the academic director of the FSU Real Estate Center. “Our job basically is to answer unanswered questions.”

Among Sirmans’ significant co-authored research contributions over the years:

• Climate-change opinions, disaster risk and single-family housing price growth (2025)
• Agree to disagree: NAV dispersion in REITs (2025)
• The role of tenant characteristics in retail cap rate variation (2022)
• The capitalization of insurance premiums in house prices (2015)
• Determinants of house prices: A quantile regression approach (2008)
• The value of housing characteristics: A meta-analysis (2006)
• The composition of hedonic pricing models (2005)
• The effect of anchor tenant loss on shopping center rents (1994)
• The historical perspective of real estate returns (1987)
• Assumption financing and selling price of single-family homes (1983)

Sirmans’ persistent productivity outpaces most others in his field. He recently secured the No. 16 place worldwide among real estate scholars who have published the greatest amount of research in the top three real estate journals over the past five years, as determined by the annual Real Estate Academic Leadership Rankings in the Journal of Real Estate Literature. He ranked in the Top 10 several times in previous years for research productivity on this and other lists, rising to No. 7 globally. His successes play a large part in FSU’s real estate faculty this year placing No. 2 among faculties worldwide for its volume of research in top-tier journals.

Sirmans has forged a “remarkable career of consistent and innovative research output,” said Mariya Letdin, Kyle Riva Associate Professor of Real Estate and a colleague of Sirmans at the Wertheim College. She hailed his “outsized contributions” in hedonic house pricing models, residential mortgages and, more recently, real estate investment trusts, and said his “continued enthusiasm and productivity are truly unique in the field.”

Additionally, his breadth of work has been cited thousands of times by real estate researchers and includes foundational papers for the core real estate areas of housing markets, brokerage and finance, said colleague Tingyu Zhou, FSU’s Dean and Kathy Gatzlaff Associate Professor of Real Estate. Along with the Graaskamp Award, Sirmans received, in 2017, the ARES David Ricardo Medal, given to a thought leader with an extensive record of publications in top journals that have also influenced new research, teaching, public policy and practice.

“These are among the highest honors in the field and reflect the lasting influence of his research,” Zhou said.

Sirmans also received top research honors from his Wertheim College peers across different disciplines, earning the college’s 2023 Distinguished Faculty Research Award and 2019 Outstanding Senior Faculty Research Award. He has also been instrumental in building the college’s Top 10 national standings in real estate, teaching a senior-level finance course in the undergraduate real estate program, which ranks No. 6 among public schools, and a graduate-level finance course for the MBA real estate specialization, which ranks No. 8 among public MBA programs with a real estate specialty.

Known as a scholar and a gentleman

What sets Sirmans apart from many other accomplished scholars, most said, is his collaborative spirit and generosity.

“Stacy is the consummate colleague,” said Dean Gatzlaff, professor emeritus of real estate and namesake of Zhou’s associate professorship who worked with Sirmans for more than 30 years. “He’s approachable, he’s collegial, he’s willing to listen, and he’s careful with his advice. He has always been incredibly supportive of the program’s initiatives and the work of other faculty.”

Zhou said colleagues turn to Sirmans for “conceptual clarity,” saying, “He has a rare ability to take an early-stage idea, identify the core economic question, and position it in a way that leads to a clear and publishable contribution in top journals.”

Letdin called Sirmans the “ultimate team player,” always game to review papers, chair committees, mentor all levels of students or pick up guests at the airport. “He is always happy to pitch in, and no task is too big or too small for him to offer help,” she said.

This kind support extends beyond Florida State University.

Justin Benefield, the Thomas H. Lowder Endowed Chair in Real Estate and professor of finance at Auburn University’s Raymond J. Harbert College of Business, first met Sirmans by chance in 2003, when they both boarded an airport shuttle in San Jose, Calif., headed to the same event more than an hour away in Monterey. At the time, Sirmans had already developed a glowing reputation as a well-respected real estate scholar, and Benefield had just begun his academic career. Enroute to his first-ever academic conference, Benefield focused on preparations to present his first-ever academic paper.

“Needless to say, I was nervous,” Benefield said. “Stacy spent the entire ride engaging me in conversation, giving me advice, distracting me and generally putting me at ease. He then showed up at my presentation the next morning. He had no reason to spend that much time on a nervous doctoral student from the backwoods of Alabama, but he did; and I am only one on a long list of folks with similar stories.”

Sirmans said while growing up, he never dreamed of becoming a university professor. One of 10 children raised on a farm in the small town of Pearson in Southeast Georgia, he said his hard work began at an early age.

“There were five of us still at home – small kids – when our father passed away. So, our mother basically raised us,” he said. “The main thing it taught me was how to work, and so I sort of carried that through with everything I do. You started a job, started early, finished late. If something broke, you didn’t have the resources to just call somebody and fix it. You figured out how to fix it.”

Sirmans said this tenacity has served him well throughout his life, especially as he tackled advanced degrees.

“I started college and didn’t apply myself, so I did not do very well initially. But I couldn’t quit, because you don’t quit,” Sirmans said. After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business at Valdosta State University, Sirmans headed to the University of Georgia for his Ph.D. in finance.

“That first year almost killed me,” he said, but – again – giving up was not an option for him. “So, I just kept going, and all worked out perfectly. I’m in the perfect occupation. This is exactly the place that I needed to be.” Sirmans taught at Emory and Clemson universities and served as a visiting scholar to the former Federal Home Loan Bank Board before choosing to join FSU’s faculty ranks 36 years ago.

Shaped by a legacy of collaboration 

Sirmans credits much of his good fortune to the company he keeps. “One thing that helped me a lot growing up, and through all matter of circumstances, was always hanging around people who were smarter than me,” he said.

His older brother, the late scholar C.F. Sirmans, became his primary role model. The two first collaborated as teenagers, earning money by playing in a popular band that traveled throughout the Southeast, featuring Stacy on keyboards and C.F. on guitar. As time went on, keeping the band intact meant wherever C.F. moved, Stacy soon followed. C.F. became the first to pursue an academic career; Stacy eventually joined him at the University of Georgia, and then both ascended to the top ranks of world-class real estate finance scholars. The pair continued to co-author research studies until two years ago when C.F., by then serving as professor emeritus at FSU, passed away.

These days, Stacy Sirmans finds opportunities to collaborate on research studies with another family member – his son, Stace Sirmans – who serves on the finance faculty at Auburn University. Stacy Sirmans also continues to play keyboards. His band, The Bushmen, plays set lists of mostly classic rock with select country standards. The group plays private parties, including an occasional academic conference when it is held near the Atlantic Coast. Sirmans devotes the rest of his free time to his family, including six grandkids living in Tallahassee or Auburn.

After more than four decades teaching and researching, mostly in Tallahassee, the FSU scholar cannot imagine a better vocation or workplace. He praises the strengths of his faculty colleagues and said he appreciates the ongoing Wertheim College administration’s support and especially the new opportunities for all made possible by the recent $65 million philanthropic investment by Dr. Herbert Wertheim and the newly opened Herbert Wertheim Center for Business Excellence, the college’s $160 million home facility.

Staying true to his steadfast spirit, Sirmans said he has no plans to retire any time soon.

“Oh, I still enjoy it immensely,” he said about his academic responsibilities. “Well, I don’t even call it work.”

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A Florida State University faculty member has been recognized for his continued service to a national professional organization focused on the study of polymers, substances found in everything from plastics to spiderwebs.

Justin Kennemur, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, has been awarded the 2026 Distinguished Service Award from the American Chemical Society’s Division of Polymer Chemistry, or POLY, for his service to the division, including his elected role as secretary from January 2023 to December 2025. He is the first faculty member from FSU to receive the award.

“I feel incredibly humbled to have earned this award,” Kennemur said. “It takes a village for POLY to operate at the level it does. I’d be remiss if I didn’t share this award with all of the active people in POLY who contribute to its mission, vision and goals.”

POLY is the premier professional organization promoting polymer science and its value to society. The organization supports thousands of members advancing the broader field and practitioners as they meet the global challenges of today and tomorrow by connecting them to peers through conferences, workshops and educational opportunities to share their research and progress the field of polymer chemistry. The Distinguished Service Award recognizes a member of the organization whose service and professional accomplishments have made a significant and lasting impact on POLY.

“This organization serves as a melting pot by which students, industry scientists, government workers, and academics in the field of polymer science can collaborate, learn and create a network of like-minded professionals to encourage the growth of polymer research,” Kennemur said. “We work toward a common vision of promoting polymer science and its values to society.”

Polymers are found in a range of man-made and natural materials from rubbers and textiles to tree bark and tentacles. They’re composed of macromolecules, large molecules made up of repeating structures of basic chemical building blocks known as monomers. Kennemur’s research focuses on constructing complex chemical compounds using polymeric materials, such as those found in plastics and elastomers, to develop innovative materials for clean energy technologies like fuel cells and sustainable alternatives to conventional plastics.

“Both synthetic and natural polymers are everywhere, and we can see their impact within every facet of industry,” Kennemur said. “Construction, transportation, outer space exploration, not to mention skin, hair, feathers, wood: any material that isn’t a mineral or a metal is likely a polymer. Even your DNA is a polymer.”

The Kennemur Research Group takes inspiration from organic chemistry concepts in the natural world, like complex polymers found naturally in starch or collagen, to develop synthetic techniques that advance polymer chemistry, especially in the development of sustainable plastics that can be reused and recycled more effectively. Kennemur previously created eco-friendly plastics from pine sap, a more renewable material than the crude oil typically used to manufacture synthetic plastic. He intends to synthesize novel polymers to build even more sustainable materials, further minimizing the impact of single-use plastics.

“Make no mistake — plastics have revolutionized society in many positive ways, but we have become too complacent in using them once and throwing them out without a clear path toward their reuse,” Kennemur said. “We need more sustainable solutions so we can go back to appreciating plastics for the fantastic materials they are with less environmental pollution and potential health impacts.”

Kennemur received his doctorate in chemistry from North Carolina State University in 2010 before completing postdoctoral polymer research at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He joined FSU’s faculty in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in 2014, and he remains a member of the American Chemical Society with specific involvement in its Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering as well as POLY.

“Dr. Kennemur is a star and an emerging leader in polymer chemistry who has made a name for himself through his innovative research,” said Wei Yang, chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and a professor of biochemistry. “He’s also an outstanding teacher of organic chemistry and a great graduate mentor.”

Since joining FSU’s faculty, Kennemur has earned the William R. Jones Outstanding Mentor Award from the Florida Education Fund and the FSU Developing Scholar Award, and his research has been funded by institutions such as the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the ACS Petroleum Research Fund. In May, he was elected an associate member of the Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine of Florida.

Visit the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry website to learn more about Kennemur’s work and research.

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Seven distinguished faculty members from Florida State University have been elected as new members of the Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine of Florida (ASEMFL).

Membership in ASEMFL is one of the highest honors for scholars in the state, recognizing researchers who live and work in Florida and have made outstanding contributions to science, engineering and medicine nationally and globally. FSU now has 38 elected faculty members of the organization, including President Richard McCullough.

“This recognition of seven of our faculty members underscores the world-class caliber of research and scholarship taking place at Florida State University,” McCullough said. “Election to ASEMFL is a testament to their dedication, innovation, and profound impact on their respective fields. From pioneering advancements in magnetics and particle physics to revolutionary breakthroughs in healthcare technology, quantum materials, dyslexia research, and anxiety treatment, these scholars embody FSU’s commitment to academic excellence and societal impact.”

The newly elected FSU members are:

• Kathleen Amm: Amm is director of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (National MagLab), headquartered at FSU. An FSU alumna, she is an expert in superconductivity and
  magnet technology with more than 20 years of experience leading industrial and national laboratory programs, including prior leadership at GE Research and Brookhaven National Laboratory. Her work focuses on high magnetic field science and engineering with applications in medical and energy.
• Suvranu De: De serves as the Google Endowed Dean for the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and is a professor of mechanical engineering. His pioneering research focuses on multiscale modeling, virtual reality for healthcare, noninvasive neuroimaging and artificial intelligence. He is an elected fellow of multiple professional societies, including the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
• Jorge Piekarewicz: Piekarewicz is a a Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physics whose research centers on the behavior of nuclear matter under extreme conditions of density. His work bridges the gap between terrestrial experiments and astronomical observations, using physical observables to understand the complex interior and properties of neutron stars.
• Harrison Prosper: Prosper is the Kirby W. Kemper Endowed Professor of Physics and a Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor. He is internationally recognized for his contributions to high-energy physics, particularly through his work with the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. His research has contributed to discoveries involving the gluon, top quark and the Higgs boson, as well as advancements in using Bayesian statistics and machine learning in high-energy physics analysis.
• Mike Shatruk: Shatruk is an inorganic materials chemist specializing in solid-state and molecular magnetism and the discovery of new quantum materials. As the founding director of the FSU Quantum Science Initiative, Shatruk works at the boundary between materials chemistry and physics to uncover correlations between crystal structure and magnetic properties of quantum materials. His research, supported by numerous grants, utilizes advanced X-ray and neutron scattering methods to explore intermetallic magnets, stimuli-responsive materials and molecular qubits that could revolutionize optoelectronic devices, quantum technologies, computing and medical sensing. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
• Rick Wagner: Wagner is a Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of Psychology and holds the W. Russell and Eugenia Morcom Chair. He also serves as an associate director of the Florida Center for Reading Research. His research focuses reading acquisition and dyslexia, advancing the scientific understanding of phonological processing and reading disabilities.
• Brad Schmidt: Schmidt is a Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology. He also directs the Anxiety and Behavioral Health Clinic at FSU. He is an internationally recognized expert on the nature, causes, treatment and prevention of anxiety psychopathology, PTSD, substance use and suicide prevention, and he has published more than 575 peer-reviewed articles.

The new inductees will be formally recognized at the ASEMFL annual meeting in November. For more information about the academy and its members, visit the ASEMFL website.

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A team of researchers from Florida State University and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory is looking to nature to find microbes that can be used to create new antibiotics to treat the growing threat of drug-resistant bacteria.

Infection from so-called “super bugs” is a leading cause of death globally. Drug resistant bacteria contribute to nearly five million deaths every year, according to the World Health Organization. As more pathogens develop resistance, that number is expected to jump nearly 70% in the next 25 years.

The team of FSU and MagLab researchers will screen soil microbes from around the world to hunt for sources of new antibacterial drugs. The Novo Nordisk Foundation is funding the project as part of an international drug discovery initiative.

“People have been searching for new antibiotics for many years, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to discover novel compounds. Our goal is to revolutionize the drug discovery pipeline,” said Xiangpeng Li, an assistant professor in the FSU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. “If we don’t do anything, antibiotic resistance will be a huge problem for the human race.”

Buried treasure: Potential medical marvels in the soil

Molecules made by microbes have long been used to treat bacterial infections. The first antibiotic, penicillin, was developed from mold nearly 100 years ago. Common antibiotics like streptomycin are produced by bacteria.

The researchers will test soil samples supplied by Rob Spencer, a biogeochemist and professor in the Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science. He studies the carbon cycle, and particularly the rapidly changing environments of the Arctic and tropics.

“It’s common to think about soils as just dirt, but they are essential for our nutrient, carbon and water cycles, and microbes in soils hold huge potential for discovery of new drugs,” Spencer said.

His samples from extreme environments like the polar regions hold particular promise because they have not been extensively examined.

“Those samples might contain very novel microbes,” Li said. “They have been frozen for maybe tens to hundreds of thousands of years. We are more likely to find new things.”

How it works

To find sources for potential new antibacterial drugs, the team has the ambitious goal of screening a billion microbes.

Li specializes in droplet microfluidics, manipulating tiny drops of fluid about the width of a human hair through troughs etched on a silicone disc to rapidly conduct chemical screening. His microfluidics system will quickly process tens of thousands of droplets at a time.

“Typically, when we search for new compounds from nature, it’s a rather arduous process working with individually isolated microbes, but with the speed of microfluidics and the analytical power of the Ion Cyclotron Resonance Facility, we can sample all of the microbes from a variety of environments all at once. It’s a very exciting collaboration,” said Edward Kalkreuter, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

Inside the droplets, soil microbial cells will be combined with a common antibiotic-resistant bacterium called Klebsiella pneumoniae and a fluorescent color-coded tag to allow for rapid sorting.

Then the MagLab’s Ion Cyclotron Resonance Facility, or ICR, will identify bioactive molecules from the soil microbes.

“You might have a soil sample and it kills the Klebsiella, but you don’t know what those molecules are. So that’s where we come in,” said ICR Director Kicki Håkansson.

The lab’s powerful ICR mass spectrometers will analyze the droplets that show antimicrobial activity to determine which molecules are responsible for the antibacterial properties. The precision analysis will also be crucial for making sure the discovery is indeed new.

“We’re looking for signals that have not been discovered before. We don’t want to rediscover penicillin,” Li said. “To do that, we annotate the molecular composition of each signal and compare it against databases of known compounds.”

Taking on that data analysis challenge will be the team’s fifth member, Ryan Rodgers, a researcher at the ICR.

International collaboration

The researchers will also share data and ideas with 21 other research groups around the world as part of an international drug discovery consortium with additional funding provided by the Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust. This coordinated investment and collaborative effort will accelerate the search for new medications that are crucial to addressing this growing crisis.

“This new approach allows us to look very thoroughly at compounds that haven’t been looked at,” Håkansson said. “And if we find something, this could be transformative, which is what’s really exciting.”

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 Florida State University chemists have synthesized new molecules derived from bacteria found in a Pacific Ocean sea sponge, a breakthrough for the future of drug development, particularly for rare forms of cancer.

“Around 50 percent of approved drugs are either natural products or derivatives of natural products,” said Zackary Firestone, a fourth-year doctoral student in FSU’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and the study’s lead author. “Synthetic access to these molecules is important because it allows for easier procurement for biological testing as well as the making of new derivatives.”

The research team is the first to successfully synthesize two new marine natural products: tetradehydrohalicyclamine B and epi-tetradehydrohalicyclamine B. Both were isolated from bacteria that lives in symbiosis with Acanthostrongylophora ingens, a Pacific-dwelling sea sponge.

Sea sponges and their cohabitant bacteria are an important source of biologically active molecules. The chemists who realize these natural marine products’ potential through chemical synthesis play a foundational role in evaluating their merit as new medicinal leads for various diseases. The findings were published earlier this year in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, ACS’ flagship scholarly journal.

How it works

Discovered in 2018, tetradehydrohalicyclamine B can inhibit proteasomes, large, barrel-shaped protein complexes that perform waste-management activities within cells by disposing of damaged proteins.

Some rare cancers, like multiple myeloma and mantle cell lymphoma, produce an abundance of toxic proteins, meaning the cancer’s survival and spread rates are heavily dependent on the cancer cell’s ability to dispose of this additional waste. Proteasome inhibitors are an important form of cancer therapy: They enable a buildup of toxic proteins, which places cancer cells under so much stress that they die off, slowing or stopping the spread in its tracks.

Epi-tetradehydrohalicyclamine B, discovered in 2019, hasn’t yet been the subject of published biological study. However, due to its unique structure, the molecule has attracted considerable attention among organic synthetic chemists for its pharmaceutical potential.

Both molecules are derived from bacteria growing in Acanthostrongylophora ingens, a sea sponge primarily found off the coast of Indonesia. As the source for a variety of bioactive molecules, the sponge is in high global demand by researchers. These samples are individually collected by trained scuba divers and often frozen immediately to prevent chemical degradation before shipment. Laboratory synthesis of key molecules within the sponge will expand research activity without limits instilled by natural sea sponge populations.

“These complex molecules have shown promise in medicinal applications, but gathering large quantities of them is difficult and expensive,” Firestone said. “We make these molecules from materials you can buy from suppliers, giving researchers easier access to the molecules as well as the ability to modify them to improve their properties.”

Why it matters

Whether as a drug molecule or a natural product, the precise molecular geometry is critical for interacting with the target protein. The first syntheses of tetradehydrohalicyclamine B and epi-tetradehydrohalicyclamine B resulted in two mirror image geometries, only one of which was biologically active. Firestone is now the first to synthesize these molecules with only the desired geometry, which will allow researchers to better evaluate how these substances’ structures interact with endogenous human targets like the proteasome.

“I really enjoy the problem-solving aspect of making molecules,” Firestone said. “In some ways, it feels like a puzzle where you’re trying to use a plethora of available reactions to build a complex molecule in the most efficient way possible.”

A legacy of molecular synthesis

Firestone’s work is part of a broader research program in the Smith Laboratory, an organic synthesis research lab led by Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Joel M. Smith.

The lab explores new ways of synthesizing complex molecules, laying the scientific foundation for the creation of novel small-molecule drugs. While the Smith Laboratory centers its efforts on neurological disorders such as migraines, severe depression, and Parkinson’s disease, Firestone’s research is poised to have eventual applications in cancer treatment.

“Zack is a tenacious synthetic chemist,” Smith said. “In addition to intellect, he’s extraordinarily resilient and disciplined when it comes to doing great science. This makes him exceedingly adept at tackling difficult synthetic problems with a thoughtful and diligent approach, setting him up for a very successful future, both at FSU and beyond.”

FSU’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has a legacy of molecular synthesis and drug development. The late chemist and FSU Professor Robert Holton synthesized the groundbreaking cancer drug Taxol, bypassing the limitations involved in extracting the cancer-inhibiting agent paclitaxel from the bark of the Pacific Yew tree, and allowing for more than a million patients to benefit from the medication.

For more information about Firestone’s work and research in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, visit chem.fsu.edu.

FSU researchers Thiago A. Grigolo and Filipe G. Pernichelle were coauthors of this study. This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health and by the National Science Foundation.

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