image: University of Houston chemistry professor Judy Wu has received a $1.96 million federal grant to study how light transforms small molecules.
Credit: University of Houston
A University of Houston computational chemist has received a $1.96 million federal grant to study how light transforms small molecules, work that could open new avenues for storing and using chemical energy, and for designing materials that change when exposed to light.
The National Institutes of Health grant, awarded Sept. 15, will support chemistry professor Judy Wu and her team as they develop molecular “blueprints” to control how molecules change shape and reactivity upon absorbing light. The four-year project aims to deliver conceptual tools that experimental chemists can use to develop light-controlled therapies, drug delivery systems and next-generation photochemical materials.
“Light doesn’t just energize a molecule, it changes the rules the molecule follows,” Wu said. “Our goal is to decode those rules and give chemists a blueprint for designing molecules that behave predictably and usefully when they interact with light.”
How It Works
Certain molecules change shape when exposed to light, such as the retinal molecule, which converts light into vision. During these processes, the molecule is converted from a low-energy, stable state to a high-energy, metastable state, storing chemical energy.
The stored energy can then be released to trigger chemical signals or reactions. Wu’s research focuses on understanding these short-lived time periods — a long-standing challenge in physical organic chemistry.
By establishing predictive models for light-activated reactivity, her team hopes to accelerate the development of targeted drug delivery systems, molecular photoswitches for medical imaging and therapy, and smart materials that can change properties when irradiated by light.
“Many transformative technologies rely on molecules that change shape or properties when they absorb light,” Wu said. “If we know how to design these molecules, we can control how much energy they store, how fast they release the captured energy and what transformations they can initiate.”
Why It Matters
Unlike experimental labs that synthesize and test molecules in the wet lab, Wu’s team conducts research entirely through computational quantum chemistry modeling.
Wu is drawn to what she calls “small-data chemistry,” the deep, mechanistic study of individual molecules rather than large datasets. She compares molecules to people with distinct personalities. Each behaves differently in the excited state, and understanding those nuances can uncover chemical insights that large-scale statistical models might overlook.
“We don’t reduce thousands of molecules into dots on a plot,” Wu said. “There is extraordinary insight you can gain simply from looking closely at a molecule.”