Montana State faculty member wins competitive Young Faculty Award to advance research into mimicking biological processes

BOZEMAN - James Crawford, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering at Montana State University, has won a highly competitive early-career award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, that will advance his research on engineered materials that mimic biological processes. Crawford, a faculty member in MSU's Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering, is one of 21 researchers to be recognized nationally with DARPA's Young Faculty Award this year.

"We are excited to see James earn this national recognition so early in his faculty career," said Christine Foreman, dean of MSU's engineering college. "This award will give him and his students opportunities to advance discoveries with potential benefits for energy, industry and the environment."

The two-year award is for $347,329, with an additional $476,228 contingent on a third year materializing at DARPA's discretion. The award will help Crawford advance his research project titled "Rapid discovery of biomimetic metal-organic framework membranes."

Metal-organic frameworks are porous, engineered materials that can mimic biological processes to selectively capture, separate or transform molecules for industrial and environmental applications. Crawford explained that the goal of this project is to imitate processes found in nature using solid-state materials that are better suited to harsh industrial environments. For example, this could include converting a potent greenhouse gas, methane, into an energy dense, liquid product, methanol, through an enzyme-inspired partial oxidation process. Methanol is a chemical that can be used as a fuel, chemical or raw material in downstream processes. Partial oxidation of methane could provide an alternative to burning off stranded natural gas from oil and gas wells, producing a useful liquid that is easier to store and transport, Crawford explained.

"Enzymes are these really capable machines in biology that selectively generate products of major societal interest," Crawford said.

But there's a catch. Biological enzymes often cannot withstand the higher temperatures required for industrial chemical reactions.

"Most enzymes start to fail above 60 degrees Celsius [140 degrees Fahrenheit]," Crawford said. "So, when a chemical process exceeds this thermal limit, we see the enzyme stop functioning."

He said that higher temperatures can cause an enzyme's structure to "unfold," destroying the active site responsible for its chemical function.

"Materials that can tolerate higher temperatures and do not require precise pH and solvent control but still emulate the important chemical environment of the enzyme, could lead to unexplored chemical pathways," he said. "The enzymes we are interested in mimicking each have a metal component that is involved in the chemistry. If we can zoom in and see it, we can try and copy it with metal-organic frameworks."

Crawford said he is particularly interested in mimicking three biological enzymes: carbonic anhydrase, particulate methane monooxygenase and urease.

In nature, the enzyme carbonic anhydrase can capture the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide; the particulate enzyme methane monooxygenase is involved in converting methane to methanol; and urease breaks down urea in a process that promotes the formation of calcium carbonate, which can be used to seal wells deep underground. The latter is a process being pioneered at MSU's Center for Biofilm Engineering, which is housed in MSU's engineering college. Crawford is affiliated with the CBE.

"Dr. Crawford's research has the potential to make a significant scientific impact and address important societal challenges," said Ryan Anderson, head of MSU's chemical and biological engineering department. "He pairs this high-impact work with a strong commitment to mentoring our undergraduate and graduate students."

Crawford and his students are developing a software called MOFZyme, which uses information about enzymes to identify promising metal-organic frameworks from a database of more than 100,000 candidate materials.

Conventional catalyst research involves a time-consuming synthesis, testing and characterization feedback loop, he said. The proposed approach attempts to use biology as a rational starting point to develop solid-state catalysts that perform known and novel chemical reactions.

The software, once fully developed, could narrow 100,000 potential metal-organic framework candidates down to roughly 10, before his team conducts more sophisticated calculations and experiments to determine their effectiveness as catalysts. Looking forward, Crawford's team hopes to leverage learnings from this project to synthesize so-far undiscovered materials based on their biomimetic approach.