Prof. Magne O. Sydnes
Department of Chemistry, University of BergenSpeech Title: Designing Greener Antibiotics
Abstract: Pharmaceuticals are an important cornerstone in modern health care. With an increasing world population that lives longer, the use of pharmaceuticals is on the rise. Also, taking into account the drugs used in farming, the accumulation of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in the environment is on a dramatic rise due to long half-lives and lack of removal during wastewater treatment. In addition, to the positive health effects that modern pharmaceuticals have brought, this comes with a severe side effect that we do not exactly know the full effect off – exposure of non-target organisms in the environment to our full range of pharmaceuticals.
This takes place since conventional wastewater treatment plants do not sufficiently remove most of the APIs in use. Our research is focused on how we can make biologically active compounds more susceptible to degradation after use and before they reach the environment. The talk will highlight our efforts to develop strategies for photodecomposition (Scheme 1) [1].
Scheme 1. Schematic presentation of our strategy.
Reference
[1] Håheim, K. S.; Sang, L. N. V.; Sydnes, M. O. Progress in Designing Greener Antibiotics. ChemSusChem 2025, 18, e202500788..