Edward Behrman, professor emeritus, chemistry and biochemistry, may have emeritus status, but he is still doing high-impact research in his eighth-floor Biosciences lab every day.

Behrman is one of just five senior scientists from across the country named a recipient of the 2016 Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation Senior Scientist Mentor Program Award. The award provides a $20,000 grant to emeritus faculty in the chemical sciences to support undergraduate research conducted under their guidance. This is fortunate for undergraduates, who will now have an opportunity to do meaningful research in Behrman’s lab.

Behrman is part of an interdisciplinary team awarded a five-year, $2,608,207 NIH grant in 2015 building on earlier research done by microbiologist Brian Ahmer, Behrman and colleagues, who identified a potential way to attack Salmonella. Joined by biochemists Venkat Gopalan, Vicki Wysocki and microbiologist Kelly Wrighton, they study a nearly unique metabolic pathway in Salmonella.

“Each of us work on different approaches,” Behrman says. “My job is to synthesize the required molecules, which are not commercially available. They are all conjugates between amino acids and sugars. These sugar-amino acid conjugates are known as Amadori rearrangement products, the first of which is fructose-asparagine, a well-known precursor of acrylamide in fried foods. 

“As the pathway is rare in the microbial world, it offers a window for the development of drugs to kill Salmonella selectively," Behrman says. "The Dreyfus award will support the efforts of undergraduates in my laboratory to carry out these syntheses.”

“Many emeritus faculty no longer teach courses nor take on graduate students," says Dr. Mark Cardillo, executive director of the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation. "Their wealth of experience and knowledge, however, makes them a unique and valuable educational resource for undergraduates. This program provides for the development of a relationship where these senior scientists guide the students in perhaps their first research experience to generate new knowledge.”

The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation is a leading non-profit organization devoted to the advancement of the chemical sciences, established in 1946 by chemist, inventor and businessman Camille Dreyfus.