Joseph Cotruvo, Jr.

Recognized for:
Discovering and engineering biomolecules to sustainably harvest and purify rare metals, which are used in advanced technology, from electronic waste and the environment.

Areas of Research Interest and Expertise:
Bioinorganic chemistry, sustainability, lanthanide and actinide biochemistry, separation science, chemical biology

Previous Positions:

AB, Chemistry, Princeton University
PhD, Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Advisor: JoAnne Stubbe)
Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, Berkeley (Advisor: Christopher J. Chang)
Assistant Professor of Chemistry, The Pennsylvania State University
Associate Professor of Chemistry, The Pennsylvania State University

Research Summary:

Rare earth elements are vital to the global economy – from powerful magnets in electric vehicles and smartphones to cancer therapeutics. Joseph Cotruvo, Jr., PhD, is developing an unconventional approach to secure the supply of these metals: genetically engineering proteins, molecules that drive chemical reactions in biology. Cotruvo was the first to demonstrate how to use proteins to recover, sense, and separate rare earths. Cotruvo’s work in large part has established the now thriving field of rare-earth biochemistry, and it has catalyzed commercial endeavors to sustainably mine, purify, and recycle rare earths and myriad other technology metals, such as lithium.

“My group learns from biology to develop sustainable methods to purify the valuable metals on which modern technology relies. I am humbled to be part of this cohort of young scientists working to address the biggest scientific challenges of our time.”

Key Publications:

1. J.A. Mattocks, J.J. Jung, C.-Y. Lin, Z. Dong, N.H. Yennawar, E.R. Featherston, C.S. Kang-Yun, T.A. Hamilton, D.M. Park, A.K. Boal, J.A. Cotruvo, Jr. Enhanced rare-earth separation with a metal-sensitive lanmodulin dimer. Nature, 2023.
2. J. Park, M.B. Cleary, D. Li, J.A. Mattocks, J. Xu, H. Wang, S. Mukhopadhyay, E.M. Gale, J.A. Cotruvo, Jr. A genetically encoded fluorescent sensor for manganese(II), engineered from lanmodulin. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 2022.
3. J.A. Mattocks, J.V. Ho, J.A. Cotruvo, Jr. A selective, protein-based fluorescent sensor with picomolar affinity for rare earth elements. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2019.
4. J.A. Cotruvo, Jr., E.R. Featherston, J.A. Mattocks, J.V. Ho, T.N. Laremore. Lanmodulin: A highly selective lanthanide-binding protein from a lanthanide-utilizing bacterium. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2018. 

Other Honors:

2024 Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry, American Chemical Society
2022 Ed Stiefel Young Investigator Award, Metals in Biology GRC
2021 Sloan Research Fellow, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
2020 Early Career Award, Department of Energy Office of Science
2020 CAREER Award, National Science Foundation
2018 New Investigator Award, Charles E. Kaufman Foundation

In the Media:

C&E News – Protein captures lanthanide traces

Nature – How a protein differentiates between rare-earth elements

C&E News and ACS Central Science – Unlocking the lanthanome

Scientific American – Soil microbe could clean up nuclear waste

The Naked Scientists – Rare earths: where to find them?

MINE magazine – Protein-powered rare earth sorting: a scientific breakthrough

Eos – New sensor aids rare earth extraction from acid mine drainage

New Scientist – Bacterium from oak trees could help process rare earth elements

C&E News – Protein enables better lanthanide separations