Linzixuan (Rhoda) Zhang, a doctoral candidate within the MIT Division of Chemical Engineering, not too long ago received the 2024 Collegiate Inventors Competitors, medaling in each the Graduate and Individuals’s Alternative classes for growing supplies to stabilize vitamins in meals with the objective of bettering international well being.
The annual competitors, organized by the Nationwide Inventors Corridor of Fame and United States Patent and Trademark Workplace (USPTO), celebrates faculty and college scholar inventors. The finalists current their innovations to a panel of final-round judges composed of Nationwide Inventors Corridor of Fame inductees and USPTO officers.
No stranger to having her work within the limelight, Zhang is a three-time winner of the Koch Institute Picture Awards in 2022, 2023, and 2024, in addition to a 2022 fellow on the MIT Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Meals Methods Lab.
“Rhoda is an exceptionally devoted and artistic scholar. Her well-deserved award acknowledges the potential of her analysis on nutrient stabilization, which might have a big influence on society,” says Ana Jaklenec, one among Zhang’s advisors and a principal investigator at MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Most cancers Analysis. Zhang can also be suggested by David H. Koch (1962) Institute Professor Robert Langer.
Frameworks for international well being
In a world the place practically 2 billion individuals undergo from micronutrient deficiencies, notably iron, the urgency for efficient options has by no means been higher. Iron deficiency is particularly dangerous for weak populations reminiscent of youngsters and pregnant girls, since it will probably result in weakened immune methods and developmental delays.
The World Well being Group has highlighted meals fortification as a cheap technique, but many present strategies fall quick. Iron and different vitamins can break down throughout processing or cooking, and artificial components typically include excessive prices and environmental drawbacks.
Zhang, alongside along with her teammate, Xin Yang, a postdoc affiliate at Koch Institute, got down to innovate new applied sciences for nutrient fortification which are efficient, accessible, and sustainable, resulting in the invention dietary metal-organic frameworks (NuMOFs) and the next launch of MOFe Espresso, the world’s first iron-fortified espresso. NuMOFs not solely shield important vitamins reminiscent of iron whereas in meals for lengthy intervals of time, but additionally make them extra simply absorbed and used as soon as consumed.
The inspiration for the espresso got here from the success of iodized salt, which considerably decreased iodine deficiency worldwide. As a result of espresso and tea are related to low iron absorption, iron fortification would straight deal with the problem.
Nevertheless, replicating the success of iodized salt for iron fortification has been extraordinarily difficult as a result of micronutrient’s excessive reactivity and the instability of iron(II) salts. As researchers with backgrounds in materials science, chemistry, and meals expertise, Zhang and Yang leveraged their experience to develop an answer that might overcome these technical obstacles.
The fortified espresso serves as a sensible instance of how NuMOFs may also help individuals enhance their iron consumption by participating in a behavior that’s already a part of their each day routine, with important potential advantages for girls, who’re disproportionately affected by iron deficiency. The workforce plans to increase the expertise to include extra vitamins to deal with a wider array of dietary deficiencies and enhance well being fairness globally.
Quick-track to addressing international well being enhancements
Trying forward, Zhang and Yang within the Jaklenec Group are centered on each product commercialization and ongoing analysis, refining MOFe Espresso to reinforce nutrient stability and guaranteeing the product stays palatable whereas maximizing iron absorption.
Successful the CIC competitors signifies that Zhang, Yang, and the workforce can fast-track their patent software with the USPTO. The workforce hopes that their fast-tracked patent will permit them to draw extra potential traders and companions, which is essential for scaling their efforts. A faster patent course of additionally signifies that the workforce can carry the expertise to market quicker, serving to enhance international vitamin and well being for individuals who want it most.
“Our objective is to make an actual distinction in addressing micronutrient deficiencies world wide,” says Zhang.
