Chemistry World Blog

The First International Symposium on Advancing the Chemical Sciences kicked off on Wednesday, focusing on challenges in organic chemistry and chemical biology. Set in the grand Fairmont Hotel in central San Francisco, around 200 delegates were treated to a spectacular line up of plenary speakers covering a broad range of organic chemistry and chemical biology. Day one saw outstanding talks covering hydrogen-bonded catalysis (Jacobsen), iridium-catalysed asymmetric hydrogenation (Pfaltz), C-H oxidation (White), carbohydrate chemistry and biology (Seeberger, Hsieh-Wilson), rapid formation of molecular complexity (Sorensen) and the use of transition metal catalysis for the formation of pharmaceutically interesting compounds (Buchwald).

Robert Eagling (Editor, Chemical Science) and James Milne (Editorial Director) with the ISACS 1 speakers

Day two continued in an equally impressive fashion with further insights into new concepts in organocatalysis (MacMillan, Maruoka). After the break, the focus moved to chemical biology, with talks on activity-based proteomics (Cravatt) and reprogramming the code of life (Chin). There was a further shift in subject after lunch with molecular switches, motors and molecular recognition all covered (Feringa, Hunter). The second day ended with talks on new synthetic methods to lactones (Dong) and the latest developments in gold catalysis (Toste).

David MacMillan

Jason Chin discusses reprogramming the code of life

There was plenty of high quality science on the final day, with cutting edge catalysis (Ooi) backed up by high quality chemical biology (Du Bois, Bertozzi).

The vibe at the conference was one of excitement and positivity. The Fairmont hotel is a stunning venue and acted as the perfect back drop to the outstanding scientific talks. The new ISACS conferences have certainly arrived with a bang. Next stop Budapest…

Robert Eagling

The recent swine flu outbreak has highlighted the need for quicker ways to identify flu strains. Now scientists in Australia have used high resolution mass spectrometry to rapidly and easily characterise the virus.

Kevin Downard, at the University of Sydney, and colleagues used the technique to measure the mass of peptides found in flu viruses that had been broken down (digested) by enzymes. Because each digested virus strain has a unique selection of peptides, Downward could identify (type) the strain from its accurate mass signature.

Downard says it is the most rapid and direct surveillance method to characterise the influenza virus with fine molecular detail. Read the full paper in Analyst at http://www.rsc.org/publishing/journals/AN/article.asp?doi=B912234F

Joanne Thomson

Sometimes I wonder how top scientists survive to become professors – their childhood chemical exploits seem so dangerous! Take Jonathan Sessler, for example. He’s an associate editor for ChemComm, a great scientist and founder of a couple of companies yet as a child he synthesised nitroglycerine and blew up half his dad’s home lab. As he tells Michael Brown in the latest Chemical Technology interview: ‘When my dad came home, he said that all good chemists end up blowing themselves up.’

Then there’s Gary Hieftje, ex-chairman of the Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry editorial board, who, aged 10, put secretly plumbed a gas line into his parents’ basement so he could blow glass. Thankfully, he didn’t blow up the house.

And I was slightly alarmed to read in a recent Chemical Biology interview that, as a young child, Russell Cox, now an upstanding member of the Natural Product Reports editorial board, filled an air-raid shelter in a friend’s garden half an inch deep with methylated spirits and set fire to it. Rather surprisingly, his friend’s mum failed to notice.

Read the full interviews with these lucky-to-be-alive chemists on the Chemical Technology and Chemical Biology websites.

Jonathan Sessler Interview: Discovering the Texas molecule
Gary Hieftje Interview: Having a gas
Russell Cox Interview: Fired up about fungi

I do love a good crime drama but the way TV forensic scientists can generate case-cracking results almost instantly is somewhat misleading. Forensic examination of a crime scene can be a time-consuming and difficult process but thankfully UK scientists are on the case.

Scientists at the University of Southampton and the Laboratory of the Government Chemist, Teddington, are working on a technique that could allow DNA evidence to be profiled at the scene of a crime.

Meanwhile, a new fingerprinting method discovered by scientists at Loughborough University could help forensic scientists detect prints on almost any surface, including clingfilm.

So while catching criminals will never be as glamorous as it is on TV, these techniques could make it easier and quicker – leaving plenty of time for our crime fighters to tune into the next episode of CSI.

The work, published in Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry and ChemComm, has been highlighted in Chemical Biology and Chemical Technology.

References
Rapid typing of STRs in the human genome by HyBeacon® melting
Nittaya Gale, David J. French, Rebecca L. Howard, David G. McDowell, Paul G. Debenham and Tom Brown, Org. Biomol. Chem., 2008, DOI: 10.1039/b813431f

Fingerprint and inkjet-trace imaging using disulfur dinitride
Paul F. Kelly, Roberto S. P. King and Roger J. Mortimer, Chem. Commun., 2008, DOI: 10.1039/b815742a

US scientists have whipped up a new centrifuge using a common kitchen utensil. The egg beater, modified by George Whitesides and colleagues at Harvard University, Cambridge, can separate plasma from blood, enabling point-of-care disease detection in developing countries.

The work, highlighted in Chemical Technology, forms part of Lab on a Chip’s Microfluidics and Point-of-Care Testing theme issue, due for publication in December. The issue, guest edited by Samuel Sia (Columbia University) and Larry Kricka (University of Pennsylvania) will capture some of the latest areas of interest and technological approaches from leading researchers towards point-of-care microfluidic-based diagnostics.

Reference:
Egg beater as centrifuge: isolating human blood plasma from whole blood in resource-poor settings
Amy P. Wong, Malancha Gupta, Sergey S. Shevkoplyas and George M. Whitesides, Lab Chip, 2008, DOI: 10.1039/b809830c

There has been a watery theme running through some of the recent stories published in Chemical Technology.

In Like water off a duck’s back, James Hodge describes the new technology used to build an artificial water strider insect that could lead to a new type of aquatic vehicle.

In Surf’s up for Science, Sarah Corcoran describes Hawaiian scientists’ new green way to make chemicals based on sun and surfing. Who says business and pleasure can’t mix?

And finally, there’s some fishy research going on at Matís-Icelandic Food Research in Reykjavik, although there’s no disputing their scientific results. In How fresh is your fish? Sarah Corcoran reports on a new method that can detect spoilage bacteria on fish that make it smell bad.

Dip into these and more stories on the Chemical Technology homepage. And don’t forget to sign up for e-alerts.

The ECHC organisers arranged for us all to attend an organ concert yesterday evening in Our Lady´s Cathedral. Organist Peter Van de Velde was really impressive. My favourite was Toccata en fuga in d-minor (Bach), which boomed through the huge cathedral and left the audience in complete silence – not a common occurrence at conferences these days, what with all the mobile phone rings and camera clicks. But back to the science part….
Yesterday afternoon saw some good talks, including one on carbazole synthesis by Hans-Joachim Knölker. He told the audience to pick up a copy of OBC issue 14, which features his recent communication on the first total synthesis of clausine L and pityriazole, so I had increased traffic to my journals stand in the afternoon teabreak. Alfredo Ricci started today´s session off with a comparison of organocatalytic versus metal-catalysed indole functionalisation. Wim Dehaen described his efforts to make indolocarbazoles but apparently my body makes them very easily each time I eat some of my favourite vegetables, sprouts and cabbage. The thought is making me hungry – I´m off for a sandwich.

I´m Joanne and I am here in Antwerp, Belgium, on behalf of OBC and ChemComm at the 23rd European Colloquium on Hetercyclic Chemistry. After a very smooth journey here (I love Eurostar), things almost turned sour as I tried to board an OAP bus tour, mistaking it for the conference shuttle bus. However, I made it to the venue in the end despite the best attempts by the bus driver to get us lost in the leafy, out-of-town campus. The evening reception was a great way to meet some of the 400 or so delegates. After an hour and a half discussing microwaves with Oliver Kappe (he published a great ChemSocRev review on the topic recently) and beer with the guys from Bayer Cropscience, it was time for the surprisingly long bus journey back to the city centre. Lets just say the route doesn´t feature the city´s best areas.
The lectures started properly today. I particularly enjoyed the presentation by Eddy Freyne (Ortho Biotech). He provided some rather depressing statistics about cancer – there are about ten million incidences and six million deaths from the disease each year – but things are looking good for the company´s kinase inhibitor, JNJ-26483327, which is currently in phase 1 clinical trials.
The only bad thing so far is this crazy keyboard – all the keys are in the wrong place! This blog has taken me ages to write but hopefully I will find the time later in the conference to keep you updated on my trip.

I’m Joanne Thomson, assistant editor of PCCP, and I’ve spent the past 4 days in sunny Budapest at the Molecular Quantum Mechanics conference in honour of Professor Peter Pulay. The invited speakers list reads like a who’s who of quantum mechanics and I have been thoroughly impressed by the all the presentations so far. Of particular note for me was the presentation by Professor Peter Gill (Australian National University), one of PCCP’s International Advisory Editorial Board members, in which electron correlation was likened to 2 people dancing on a dancefloor. Another rather thought-provoking talk, which was a deviation from the main theme of the conference, was Professor Ian Mills’ (University of Reading) discussion about Metrology, the science of measurement. How do we know that what we consider as the base units of measurement (mass, length, thermodynamic temperature etc.) are actually the correct values? Is it time to redefine each base unit so that each unit is referenced to one of the fundamental constants of physics?
There is plenty of food for thought at this fascinating conference. It is clear that the remarkable career of Professor Pulay has been a tremendous influence in the research of all the speakers, and long may it continue.