Assistant Professor of Chemistry Nicole L. Snyder and her collaborator X. Peter Zhang of the University of Southern Florida received a joint grant from the American Chemical Societies Petroleum Research Foundation to work on a project titled "Bio-Inspired Catalysts." As a part of this grant, Snyder and James Greisler '10 will spend eight weeks this summer preparing a number of carbohydrate analogs that will be coupled to porphyrins in Zhang's lab using a specialized process developed by the Zhang group. 

The final products, called "carbophyrins," will be studied for their ability to serve as catalysts in organic reactions and as therapeutic agents that can be used in photodynamic therapy, a process that has been used to treat cancer.