TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER OPPORTUNITY: Organic Compounds Containing High Enantiomer Excesses (TOP2-250)

NASA’s Technology Transfer Program solicits inquiries from companies interested in obtaining license rights to commercialize, manufacture and market the following technology. License rights may be issued on an exclusive or nonexclusive basis and may include specific fields of use. NASA provides no funding in conjunction with these potential licenses. THE TECHNOLOGY: NASA has developed a novel approach for producing sugars and sugar acids enriched with one of the two enantiomers of individual compounds. This approach can also be adapted for other compounds such as amino acids. All objects, including chemical compounds, have mirror images, some of which cannot be superimposed. In the case of chemical compounds, these non-superimposable mirror images are called enantiomers and are widely used in biological processes. NASAs method produces high enantiomer excesses from simple and relatively inexpensive precursors (formaldehyde and simple salts) and hardware components without the need and expense of using (at some stage) biological sources. Unlike the commercial production of most rare enantiomers, this innovation employs conditions that are extremely common, non-biological and relatively inexpensive to set-up. Chemical compounds are called chiral if their mirror images (enantiomers) cannot be superimposed on each other, similar to a left and right hand. Some important biological compounds, such as amino acids in proteins and sugars in RNA and DNA, are found exclusively as only one of the two possible enantiomers. These critical biological polymers cannot work if both enantiomers are present. NASAs unique innovation creates excesses of one enantiomer or the other during synthesis of compounds from simple and inexpensive originators: the excesses can range up to more than 7 to 1. These excesses were measured with a common gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer but can also be measured with a polarimeter. The excesses are permanent and the products can be removed and isolated for any desired research or commercial purpose. In this method a commercially purchased neodymium magnet was used to obtain the magnetic strength of 0.3T, and judging from some of the large excesses, a lower magnetic strength can be used. This abiotic synthesis should make the cost of other organic enantiomers cheaper in the majority of cases and substantially less in others, resulting in a significant savings in the production of single enantiomers for business as well as for research in general. To express interest in this opportunity, please submit a license application through NASA’s Automated Technology Licensing Application System (ATLAS) by visiting https://technology.nasa.gov/patent/TOP2-250 If you have any questions, please contact Ames Research Center [email protected] with the title of this Technology Transfer Opportunity as listed in this FBO notice and your preferred contact information. For more information about licensing other NASA-developed technologies, please visit the NASA Technology Transfer Portal at https://technology.nasa.gov/ These responses are provided to members of NASA’s Technology Transfer Program for the purpose of promoting public awareness of NASA-developed technology products, and conducting preliminary market research to determine public interest in and potential for future licensing opportunities. No follow-on procurement is expected to result from responses to this Notice.