By News Director Jared Atha
Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford recently obtained its first United States Patent, making it one of only four universities in the state that hold U.S. Patents.
The inventors named in the patent are SWOSU Department of Chemistry and Physics Chair and Bernhardt Professor of Chemistry Dr. Tim Hubin; former faculty member in SWOSU Pharmaceutical Sciences M. O. Faruk Khan; and collaborators Babu Tekwani at the University of Mississippi and Steve Archibald at the University in Hull in the United Kingdom.
The patent includes the synthesis of a large class of novel macrocyclic compounds originating in the labs of Hubin and Archibald. These compounds contain multiple nitrogen atoms arranged in ring structures that are further structurally reinforced by additional carbon-chain bridges between nitrogen atoms. These structures allow extremely strong binding to transition metal ions like iron, copper, manganese and many others.