Chemist Receives €1.5 Million ERC Starting Grant to Pioneer Metal-Free Catalysis
Wuppertal, Germany – november 21, 2024 – Dr. Mario Wiesenfeldt has been awarded a prestigious ERC Starting Grant from teh European Research council to develop a novel approach to chemical catalysis, perhaps revolutionizing drug manufacturing. Dr. Wiesenfeldt joined Bergische University of Wuppertal as a junior professor on September 1, 2025, and will use the funding to establish a research group within the faculty of mathematics and natural science.
The “Orthocat” project, backed by the grant, aims to create catalysts that function without relying on increasingly scarce and environmentally problematic rare metals. Current drug production frequently enough utilizes metal-based catalysts to accelerate chemical reactions, but these catalysts can be inhibited by active ingredients and leave behind toxic residues requiring costly and wasteful removal processes.
Dr. Wiesenfeldt’s research utilizes visible light to power organocatalysts – metal-free alternatives – under mild conditions, avoiding the need for high temperatures. A key challenge lies in achieving selectivity, ensuring reactions occur at the desired location within complex molecules.
“The great challenge is the selectivity,” explains Dr. Wiesenfeldt. “Most of the active ingredient candidates have several possible reaction centers. Without a targeted control, the reaction in the wrong place could result in unusable by-products. In the project, we solve this by forming a light-absorbing mini composite wiht a very specific part of the molecule, a so-called EDA complex. The rest remains unaffected.”
ERC Starting Grants support promising early-career researchers of any nationality with two to seven years of professional experience post-doctorate. applications are evaluated solely on the basis of scientific excellence and are open to all disciplines. The grants are designed to foster autonomous careers and groundbreaking research.
