When Jeffrey D. Rimer, Abraham E. Dukler Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Houston, was introduced to The Welch Foundation’s Catalyst for Discovery Grant Program, he immediately recognized that it was a “perfect fit” to expand his collaborative work on unconventional crystal formation into areas where fundamental chemistry could drive major real-world impact, particularly in pharmaceutical manufacturing, but also in biology and industrial catalysis.
With the Catalyst grant, the Welch Center for Advanced Bioactive Materials Crystallization was born. The Center’s most fundamental mission is to improve scientific understanding of how crystals form.
Polymorphism is the concept that a single compound can crystallize into multiple structures with dramatically different properties, and it poses a major challenge for drug development.
“Some pharmaceutical ingredients can crystallize five, 10, or more different polymorphs. Controlling crystal structure is critical because one specific polymorph may be very effective for a particular drug treatment, while other polymorphs may be significantly less impactful. You need to understand how these crystals form to make a desired product,” explained Dr. Rimer. “Our thought process was that this is a perfect application for thinking about how to control nucleation.”
By targeting the earliest stages of crystal nucleation—the stage wherein an initial clustering (nucleus) will develop into a crystal form—the Center aims to develop predictive models and insight into how to control these systems so that specific crystal forms can be reliably produced.
The Center is focusing primarily on “nonclassical” pathways of nucleation and crystal growth, complex processes that depart from traditional crystallization models and remain poorly understood. Understanding these nonclassical systems has emerged in the crystallization community as the next frontier.
“It’s kind of ironic that we call these nonclassical because the more examples we see, it looks like the nonclassical pathways might actually be the more conventional or at least the more frequently encountered route. We might have to revisit what we call classical and nonclassical,” said Dr. Rimer.
Another defining feature of the Center’s research is its exploration of non-conventional strategies to control crystallization.
These include the use of molecular modifiers to influence nucleation, the design of nanoparticles with structured interfaces to direct crystal formation, and the creation of charged polymer coacervates that serve as confined environments for controlled crystallization. Complementing these experimental efforts is a strong emphasis on integrating theory, computation, and simulation to move beyond trial-and-error approaches and toward robust predictive models. This is where Professor Rimer’s collaborators, Peter G. Vekilov, Alamgir Karim, T. Randall Lee, Jeremy C. Palmer, Gül Zerze, and Francisco Robles, come in to solve this problem from all angles.
“The support from The Welch Foundation has been critical in bringing our people together. We are using most of the funding to support multi-PI teams and dedicated student researchers. The Catalyst grant has broken down the common barriers associated with personnel resource sharing,” Rimer said.
This collaborative strength has also laid the foundation for long-term impact beyond the grant period, including the development of an industry-facing consortium, with strong interest from pharmaceutical partners.
“We want to be able to show The Welch Foundation the impact of its investment. And the team of investigators we have been able to put together, thanks to the Welch Catalyst grant, played a big role when we had our first Industrial Advisory Board for the Center. They described our collaboration as invigorating. It made a big impact in convincing them that what we offer would benefit their companies.”
Through the future plan to establish a consortium, the Center seeks to translate fundamental chemical insight into practical strategies for controlling crystallization across medicine, biology, and industry—demonstrating the unique and enduring value of the Welch support.
“All of us feel very fortunate for The Welch Foundation. It really gives researchers in Texas such an advantage. To find funding elsewhere, we would have had to alter our goals to fit within a certain box. Because Welch is focused on fundamental chemistry, it gives us a lot of latitude to pull together creative, cross-cutting ideas. The Welch Catalyst grant has allowed us to design the type of interdisciplinary center that we long envisioned.”