Professor Ronald Breslow was a chemist at Columbia University who, in 1958, proposed the theory that vitamin B1 (thiamine) could regulate metabolism pathways in the body by stabilizing a reactive molecule in water. Yet to everyone’s knowledge, a stable carbene usually decomposes instantly in water.
Until recently, the theory was thought to be impossible. Although the idea had some merit, carbenes were unstable and furthermore, no one was able to substantiate that they existed in biology.
Success at Last
According to UC Riverside News, Professor Lavallo’s team wrapped the carbene in a molecule that had been synthesized in a laboratory. This process protected the center from other molecules and from water. The structure that was produced was stable and provided evidence that carbenes can survive in water.
First author Varun Raviprolu graduate student at UCR commented that the team was not initially investigating Dr. Breslow’s theory, but they ultimately confirmed exactly what Dr. Breslow had proposed many years ago. In addition to the biochemical theory, the team’s discovery offered practical implications in that carbenes are used on many occasions as supporting structures in toxic chemicals that produce pharmaceuticals. The researchers stabilize carbenes in water. This may help those reactions to be cleaner, less expensive and safer.
Prof. Raviprolu explained that because water is environmentally friendly, the team’s efforts are a step forward in the direction of greener chemistry and chemistry that occurs naturally in our cells. Prof. Lavallo has spent more than two decades in the design of carbenes.
He again credits Dr. Breslow for proclaiming the theory thirty years ago when it was believed that these molecules could not even be produced. Now they can be bottled in water. He believes that something might be impossible today but could be a possibility in the future.
