Carnegie Mellon University
March 11, 2021

Carnegie Mellon University Licenses Innovative Green Chemistry Technology

Ben Panko

Carnegie Mellon University has announced a licensing agreement with the start-up Sudoc, LLC to market the innovative TAML catalyst technology developed by Teresa Heinz Professor in Green Chemistry Terrence J. Collins.

Terry Collins, the head of Carnegie Mellon's Institute for Green Science, has for over three decades led the work on developing TAML catalysts. Together with his teams, Collins has made a series of breakthroughs that have resulted in a family of catalysts that have the remarkable oxidation capabilities needed to remove harmful chemicals from the environment and then vanish once their work is done.

“Given the ever-expanding number of toxic chemicals in common use today (over 300,000) and the large number of chemicals that don’t degrade and persist in our ecosystem for decades, I am delighted to see Sudoc introducing new products that can outperform these toxic chemicals, but disappear when their work is done," said Collins, who co-founded Sudoc.

“Carnegie Mellon University has supported an incredible body of research into a sustainable chemistry that could revolutionize how we think about a wide range of products and services," said Roger Berry, CEO and co-founder of Sudoc. "We can look forward to a wide and expanding array of opportunities, ranging from the creation of new cleaning products to the development of new environmental treatment solutions. The potential for this technology to transform the planet for the better is astonishing.”

“Carnegie Mellon is proud to support Dr. Collins and his teams and is delighted to find a group of investors and entrepreneurs in Sudoc so well-suited to carrying out the commercialization efforts needed to bring this remarkable chemistry to market," said Robert Wooldridge, Carnegie Mellon's associate vice president and head of the Center for Technology Transfer and Enterprise Creation. "This invention has incredible commercial promise, but, even more importantly, TAML catalysts can reverse the adverse impact of toxic chemicals on living beings.”

Sudoc was formed in 2020 with operations in Cambridge, Mass., Charlottesville, Va., and Pittsburgh and is developing a range of products that will, among other applications, treat mold, clean wastewater and mineralize waste pharmaceuticals. By outperforming other technologies that currently perform these functions, Sudoc’s products will help to remove these harmful chemicals from our planet. To guarantee its commitment to the public good, Sudoc’s largest shareholder is a pair of trusts that will over time fund research into the problem of endocrine disrupting chemicals — toxic chemicals that disrupt the hormone systems of living beings, reducing human fertility, inducing diseases and adversely affect behavior.