{"id":32193,"date":"2025-03-25T14:05:12","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T13:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/?p=32193"},"modified":"2025-03-25T14:05:14","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T13:05:14","slug":"the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/","title":{"rendered":"The University of Bern and RIKEN develop greener chemistry for pharmaceutical production"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>As sustainability becomes a growing priority across industries, the chemical sector is under pressure to reduce its reliance on rare and expensive metals such as palladium. The new research, published in <em>Nature Synthesis<\/em> and funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, demonstrates that organosodium reagents, once considered too reactive for practical use, can now be safely and effectively employed in combination with iron catalysis to perform key chemical transformations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The breakthrough was made possible through a close collaboration between the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unibe.ch\/index_eng.html\">University of Bern<\/a> and Japan\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.riken.jp\/en\/\">RIKEN<\/a> Institute, combining expertise in organometallic chemistry and catalysis to overcome longstanding challenges in sustainable molecule synthesis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The team, led by Prof. Dr. Eva Hevia from the Department of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dcbp.unibe.ch\/research\/research_groups\/sorted_by_research_themes\/index_eng.html\">Chemistry, Biochemistry<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dcbp.unibe.ch\/research\/research_groups\/sorted_by_research_themes\/index_eng.html#Domain-2\">Pharmaceutical Sciences<\/a> at the University of Bern, collaborated closely with the Japanese experts in organic chemistry and catalysis. Together, they developed a cross-coupling reaction\u2014a process that allows different molecular components to bond\u2014using sodium as a reagent and iron as a catalyst. This approach not only enhances efficiency but also significantly reduces the environmental footprint compared to traditional methods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cReactions catalyzed by metals are essential for the production of pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and materials,\u201d explained Dr. Andreu Tortajada, co-author of the study. \u201cReplacing precious metals like palladium with sustainable alternatives such as iron is a game-changer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The results open new possibilities for the chemical industry to move toward more resilient and sustainable production models, especially in light of growing concerns over global supply chain disruptions and metal scarcity. The researchers believe the method could also benefit other fields, including materials science and energy technology. Hevia\u2019s team plans to further investigate the potential of organosodium chemistry, aiming to unlock new applications and redefine how complex organic molecules are synthesized at scale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A team of researchers from the University of Bern and Japan\u2019s RIKEN Institute has achieved a major breakthrough in sustainable chemistry by developing a novel method to synthesize organic molecules using sodium and iron\u2014two abundant, non-toxic metals. The innovation could pave the way for more environmentally friendly production of pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":32194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[833],"tags":[912,949,911,899],"class_list":["post-32193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-science","tag-biotech","tag-education-en","tag-pharma","tag-sustainability"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>UNIBE and RIKEN develop greener chemistry for pharmaceuticals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A team of researchers from the University of Bern and Japan\u2019s RIKEN Institute has achieved a major breakthrough in sustainable chemistry.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UNIBE and RIKEN develop greener chemistry for pharmaceuticals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A team of researchers from the University of Bern and Japan\u2019s RIKEN Institute has achieved a major breakthrough in sustainable chemistry.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Greater Geneva Bern area\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-25T13:05:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-25T13:05:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/app\/uploads\/2025\/03\/UNIBE-Sustainability-1180x811-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1180\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"811\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Pierre-Yves Oehrli\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Pierre-Yves Oehrli\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Pierre-Yves Oehrli\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.ggba.swiss\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/0b2e6d04131e3d01237dcb741fa33d41\"},\"headline\":\"The University of Bern and RIKEN develop greener chemistry for pharmaceutical production\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-25T13:05:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-25T13:05:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/\"},\"wordCount\":301,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/app\/uploads\/2025\/03\/UNIBE-Sustainability-1180x811-1.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Biotech\",\"Education\",\"Pharma\",\"Sustainability\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Life sciences\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/\",\"name\":\"UNIBE and RIKEN develop greener chemistry for pharmaceuticals\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.ggba.swiss\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/app\/uploads\/2025\/03\/UNIBE-Sustainability-1180x811-1.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-25T13:05:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-25T13:05:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.ggba.swiss\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/0b2e6d04131e3d01237dcb741fa33d41\"},\"description\":\"A team of researchers from the University of Bern and Japan\u2019s RIKEN Institute has achieved a major breakthrough in sustainable chemistry.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/app\/uploads\/2025\/03\/UNIBE-Sustainability-1180x811-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/app\/uploads\/2025\/03\/UNIBE-Sustainability-1180x811-1.png\",\"width\":1180,\"height\":811,\"caption\":\"Dr. Andreu Tortajada, Prof. Dr. Eva Hevia, and David Anderson of the University of Bern\u2019s Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences contributed to the development of a more sustainable method for organic synthesis using sodium and iron. | \u00a9 zvg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The University of Bern and RIKEN develop greener chemistry for pharmaceutical production\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.ggba.swiss\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.ggba.swiss\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Greater Geneva Bern area\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/staging.ggba.swiss\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.ggba.swiss\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/0b2e6d04131e3d01237dcb741fa33d41\",\"name\":\"Pierre-Yves Oehrli\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/author\/pierre-yves-oehrli\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UNIBE and RIKEN develop greener chemistry for pharmaceuticals","description":"A team of researchers from the University of Bern and Japan\u2019s RIKEN Institute has achieved a major breakthrough in sustainable chemistry.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"UNIBE and RIKEN develop greener chemistry for pharmaceuticals","og_description":"A team of researchers from the University of Bern and Japan\u2019s RIKEN Institute has achieved a major breakthrough in sustainable chemistry.","og_url":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/","og_site_name":"Greater Geneva Bern area","article_published_time":"2025-03-25T13:05:12+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-03-25T13:05:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1180,"height":811,"url":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/app\/uploads\/2025\/03\/UNIBE-Sustainability-1180x811-1.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Pierre-Yves Oehrli","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Pierre-Yves Oehrli","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/"},"author":{"name":"Pierre-Yves Oehrli","@id":"https:\/\/staging.ggba.swiss\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/0b2e6d04131e3d01237dcb741fa33d41"},"headline":"The University of Bern and RIKEN develop greener chemistry for pharmaceutical production","datePublished":"2025-03-25T13:05:12+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-25T13:05:14+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/"},"wordCount":301,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/app\/uploads\/2025\/03\/UNIBE-Sustainability-1180x811-1.png","keywords":["Biotech","Education","Pharma","Sustainability"],"articleSection":["Life sciences"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/","url":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/","name":"UNIBE and RIKEN develop greener chemistry for pharmaceuticals","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.ggba.swiss\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/app\/uploads\/2025\/03\/UNIBE-Sustainability-1180x811-1.png","datePublished":"2025-03-25T13:05:12+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-25T13:05:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.ggba.swiss\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/0b2e6d04131e3d01237dcb741fa33d41"},"description":"A team of researchers from the University of Bern and Japan\u2019s RIKEN Institute has achieved a major breakthrough in sustainable chemistry.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/app\/uploads\/2025\/03\/UNIBE-Sustainability-1180x811-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/app\/uploads\/2025\/03\/UNIBE-Sustainability-1180x811-1.png","width":1180,"height":811,"caption":"Dr. Andreu Tortajada, Prof. Dr. Eva Hevia, and David Anderson of the University of Bern\u2019s Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences contributed to the development of a more sustainable method for organic synthesis using sodium and iron. | \u00a9 zvg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/the-university-of-bern-and-riken-develop-greener-chemistry-for-pharmaceutical-production\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The University of Bern and RIKEN develop greener chemistry for pharmaceutical production"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/staging.ggba.swiss\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/staging.ggba.swiss\/en\/","name":"Greater Geneva Bern area","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/staging.ggba.swiss\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/staging.ggba.swiss\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/0b2e6d04131e3d01237dcb741fa33d41","name":"Pierre-Yves Oehrli","url":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/author\/pierre-yves-oehrli\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32197,"href":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32193\/revisions\/32197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ggba.swiss\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}