An ISU professor who discovered a commercially accepted way to separate chiral molecules will receive an international award for his work.

Daniel Armstrong, professor of chemistry, received an international award for his paper on chiral molecules and research efforts.

The award will be presented to Armstrong at the International Symposium on Chirality in Shizuoka, Japan, held Oct. 20 to 23, from the Societa Chimica Italiana, Armstrong said.

During the conference, Armstrong will present information about chirality molecules to scientists from around the world.

Chiral molecules are right and left-handed mirror imaged molecules, Armstrong said.

“All living things are chiral and composed of chiral molecules,” he said. “For example, left-handed amino acids and right-handed sugars are chiral.”

Armstrong developed a way to separate chiral molecules that has now been commercially accepted in the pharmaceutical industry around the world.

“Ninety percent of your medicines today are chiral,” Armstrong said. “If your body can tell a difference between the chiral molecules in the drug, then you get side effects from the drug.”

In 1992 the Food and Drug Administration started regulating chiral drugs, he said. The separation process was invented and all the pharmaceutical companies have to use this process or their drug won’t be accepted by the FDA.

“This is an example of academic research that changed the laws of the land,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong started working on his separation process before he came to Iowa State four years ago, he said.

“I’ve been working on this process for 20 years,” he said. “It wasn’t anyone’s goal to develop a commercial separation process, it just happened.”

Richard Larock, professor of chemistry, has worked with Armstrong’s research of chiral compounds since Armstrong came to Iowa State.

“My graduate students would synthesize a new compound and if they were chiral, his group would come over and work on the separation process,” Larock said.

Larock said he feels Armstrong is one of the world leaders in the separation process of chiral molecules.

“This award is very nice for someone who has earned it,” Larock said. “This will bring recognition to him and the chemistry department. He is still a relatively young guy who will get better in his research with age.”

This isn’t Armstrong’s first award.

“I’ve received 10 to 15 awards,” he said. “People like the American Chemical Society read through my papers on my research and nominate me for my efforts in the chiral field.”

Armstrong has authored over 300 publications and a book called “Use of Ordered Media in Chemical Separations,” he said.

Besides researching chiral molecules, Armstrong gives presentations across the United States on things that are chiral, such as pesticides and herbicides, he said.Armstrong said he gave a presentation to the horticulture department last year on pesticides and herbicides.

“What’s so interesting is since people spray herbicides and pesticides, they are spraying 50 percent too much, which affects the environment and Iowa each year,” he said.