Kamalesh Sirkar
New Jersey Institute of Technology, NJ·Engineering
Making a drug often takes two to twenty chemical steps. After each step, the wanted molecule has to be separated from unwanted ones, often while dissolved in an organic solvent.
- Fields
Engineering
Materials Science
Chemistry
- Topics
membrane separations
organic solvent nanofiltration
organic solvent ultrafiltration
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Aug 2027
What they work on
- Develop a method to modify commercially available membranes so they block molecules at sequentially lower molecular weight cutoffs, from 3,000 Da down to 200 Da, for purifying drug molecules in organic solvents.
- Characterize each modified membrane by its solute rejection profile, its solvent flux (how fast solvent passes through) and material characterization techniques, to assess its use for organic solvent nanofiltration and ultrafiltration.
- Develop membranes, devices and processes with industry partners to manufacture pharmaceuticals, biopharmaceuticals, and delivery vehicles for small-molecule drugs and gene therapy, focusing on organic solvent-based streams.
- Study high-pressure membrane processes that remove trace pollutants from wastewater so it can be recycled and reused.
More about the research
Membranes, thin films that let some molecules pass and hold others back, can do this separation without large amounts of heat or chemicals. They are also used in food and beverage processing, drinking water and wastewater treatment, and recovering valuable chemicals from waste. The PI's grants focus on designing membranes and membrane processes for pharmaceutical manufacturing and water treatment.
Why it matters
Drug manufacturers could purify each step of a multi-step synthesis more efficiently with membranes tuned to successively smaller molecule sizes in organic solvents. The membrane work also targets more efficient production of biopharmaceuticals and gene therapy carriers, removal of trace pollutants so wastewater can be reused, and suits that protect against toxic gases and chemical warfare agents.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
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Vanderbilt University, TN·Engineering
Identify, synthesize and test new polymer membranes that separate water from polar organic solvents by pervaporation, using ring-opening metathesis polymerization and spin coating.
Oishi Sanyal
West Virginia University, WV·Engineering·Early-career
Attach the natural enzyme laccase to lab-made polyelectrolyte membranes using several surface-anchoring techniques, creating a hybrid platform that breaks down the forever chemical PFOA in water.
Seokjhin Kim
Oklahoma State University, OK·Engineering
Determine how catalytic atomic layer deposition heals molecular-scale defects in zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF) membranes, monitored in real time during gas separation testing.
The school
New Jersey Institute of Technology: 12 labs on PI Pages, $172M a year on research, 74 research doctorates a year.
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