Elite Results: Strategies

Discovering Safer Health Solutions

Somewhere along the way, Chemical Engineering Assistant Professor Jimmy Lawrence realized that plastics—or rather the art of stitching molecules together—were the driving force behind most inventions.

From hair products to clothes to water bottles, plastics are deeply embedded in our daily lives. But Lawrence’s interest in plastics goes well beyond commercialized products. Lawrence, holder of the M.F. Gautreaux/Albemarle Foundation Professorship, is an expert in polymers, or substances composed of large molecules (like plastics).

Lawrence shared, “How do we care about the fundamental part of strategies to bring all kinds of molecules to make polymers, but also figure out how we can use this to impart to society in a meaningful way? My job here at LSU is to bridge two worlds together, and chemical engineering is one of the disciplines that gives us the best shot at doing that.”

One such innovation Lawrence has pursued is safer and more effective Magnetic Resonance Imaging technology. Lawrence, along with a team of researchers, has been working to understand how polymers—or plastics—could play a role in changing how patients receive MRIs.

MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields to generate images of the body, but trying to see the difference between water in the fat tissue and water around the other tissues can be challenging. To combat that, patients are typically injected with contrasting agents that make the picture clearer. These agents are a type of metal encapsulated by molecules, and while the small molecules surrounding the metal compound are there to protect the patient, they don’t leave the body’s system.

“Over a number of years, research has shown that this metal will eventually reach and deposit in the brain and bone marrow and the kidneys,” he explained. “And so it is not recommended that people take an MRI too often. But what about pregnant women? What about our babies? How about people with kidney disease?”

Lawrence has made it his professional mission to understand how his work plays a part in addressing these questions—and creating solutions. He credits the generous support available through the professorship he holds with sparking in him the courage to explore and innovate in a way he may not have without it.

Philanthropic investments provide solutions-oriented faculty like Lawrence with the essential resources required to push the boundaries of human understanding, turning their ambitious visions into groundbreaking realities.

“What (support from donors does) is it allows the professor to be more courageous in trying ideas that may not be generally accepted or you can challenge a conventional way of doing things, right? I think this is where I think the president’s (Scholarship First Agenda) priorities were correct,” Lawrence said.