The man who turned the science of glow-in-the-dark stars into ways to detect disease, University of Houston Huffington-Woestemeyer Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Richard Willson, has been elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a significant honor recognizing individuals who have made substantial contributions to the chemical sciences.
Since 1841 when 77 scientists – including doctors, academics, manufacturers and entrepreneurs – formed the Chemical Society of London, with dialysis inventor Thomas Graham as their first President, the Royal Society of Chemistry has maintained its mission to advance excellence in the chemical sciences. Today the society has evolved in ways the founders likely never envisioned, with 54,000 members across the world, an internationally renowned not-for-profit publishing business and a reputation as an influential champion for the chemical sciences.
Royal fellow
Throughout his career, Willson has developed innovative methods to purify, detect and measure substances, improving medicine production, optimizing industrial processes and advancing medical testing. And he's done it all through creative approaches rarely used by other scientists, using materials found in everyday items like reflective vests and glow sticks to develop techniques to detect viruses and other biological threats.
Perhaps it was fated, or at the very least, in the stars, but one night in 2012, when Willson was putting his young daughter to bed, he fixed his gaze on a glow-in-the-dark star on her ceiling. The mind of this scientist/dad wandered to detectable particles for medical testing.
He had long thought the technology of the home pregnancy test was almost mystical.
"The home pregnancy test format is one of the most remarkable technical developments that anybody ever made," Willson said. After all, he said, you can buy them inexpensively and they allow people – at home, with no medical training – to measure human chorionic gonadotropin (the pregnancy hormone) with high reliability, at parts-per-billion concentrations.
The dream becomes reality
Willson believed that he and his group of doctoral students could go even farther, creating a test with glowing nanoparticles rather than one that just changes color. The glowing phosphor would make the particles even more detectable and the test more accurate. These thoughts and dreams of Willsons would ultimately lead to using glow-in-the-dark nanoparticles for diagnostics like a rapid COVID test launched during the pandemic.
In 2024, he led a project on antibody measurement as part of a $10 million effort by the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals, to find new and better ways to make medicines, like vaccines and treatments, so the process can become faster, cheaper and more effective. In typical Willson fashion the team is using fluorescent materials to develop a mix-and-read antibody measurement system to determine the amount of antibody present in a sample.
Willson has said it is hard to overstate the importance of antibodies, the molecular soldiers produced by immune cells that seize upon foreign invaders in the body, such as pollen or bacteria, and mark them for elimination. Since the development of making antibodies in the lab over 20 years ago, their popularity in medical treatments has soared, and approximately six of the top 10 selling drugs in the world are antibodies.
It's this kind of thinking that drew the Royal Society of Chemistry to Willson.
"This designation is awarded to those who have demonstrated excellence through patents, scientific publications, discoveries, or other notable achievements. Fellows include award-winning scientists and Nobel laureates, underscoring the prestige associated with this recognition," said the society.
"I am very grateful to the university, colleagues, students, and staff, for providing a wonderful environment for my work," said Willson.
