May 2013 – NJC Blog

Archive for May, 2013

NJC at CanBIC-4 in Ontario

30 May 2013

Stockey Centre for the Performing Arts in Parry Sound, location for the CanBIC conferences

I arrived in Parry Sound on Georgian Bay, after flying into Toronto and taking a long bus ride up north, to promote NJC at the 4th Georgian Bay International Conference on Bioinorganic Chemistry. NJC was a major sponsor this year, providing support for the student volunteers who are “on call” to ensure that the conference runs smoothly.

This year’s event brought together about 140 scientists: about two-thirds from North America with the other participants being mainly from Europe and Japan.

This is not a conference for the weak-of-heart: the conference organisers (Martin Stillman, Nagao Kobayashi, C Frank Shaw III) put together a very full and challenging program combining science and fun in a beautiful natural setting.

Conference organizers Frank, Martin and Nagao, windblown on the Island Queen cruise boat.

Georgian Bay shore behind Stockey Centre

The science consisted of 90 talks (3 parallel sessions over 3 days), which ranged from the physical techniques, synthesis and properties, to medical applications. Ed Solomon‘s plenary lecture on copper–dioxygen reactivity closed the conference, while over 30 posters completed the program.

My favourite talks were those given by Wojciech Bal (U Warsaw) on nickel toxicity, Kyung-Bin Cho (Ewha Womans U) on rebound reactions in non-heme systems, Andrew Cammidge (U East Anglia) on Pcs-Por hybrids, Peter Caravan (Harvard Medical School) on MRI probes, Tim Storr (Simon Fraser U) on treating Alzheimer’s disease, Danny Leznoff (also at SFU) on metallo-Pcs, Jennifer Wytko (U Strasbourg) on porphyrin wires and Ian Butler (McGill U) on analysing artists’ pigments.
The fun included a boat cruise on the bay (a welcome and relaxing break), two music recitals in the evening, and an after-conference all-day outing to Killbear Provincial Park for hiking, kayaking and a BBQ. (More on the outing in an upcoming post, with photos.)

Hole in the Wall passage in Georgian Bay

The cruise on the Island Queen was a welcome and relaxing break—staying warm inside the boat with occasional forays outside for photo ops.

The CanBIC conferences also feature music, provided by Katie Stillman on violin and Miaomiao Yu on piano. These two young talented musicians have played together for many years, which was evident from their perfect harmony in pieces ranging from Mozart to 20th century composers.

After this informal and small conference out in the woods, next week will be a complete change of scenery as I’m off to the 96th Canadian Society of Chemistry conference in Quebec City. Check back for my comments on this event.

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Meet Our Authors – May 2013

30 May 2013

Explore and find out a little bit more about the people behind the research article! We have profiled some of our authors so you can learn more about them, their work and check out their latest entries.

The first of author is Brigida BOCHICCHO who is the assistant professor at the Department of Science, Università del la Basilicata, Potenza, Italy. Brigida‘s research interests are in the area of Protein-inspired (bio)materials.

Her NJC paper deals with the self-assembly behavior of some elastin-derived polypeptides rich in proline and proline-modified residues in order to investigate the role of proline in the self- assembly of elastin. This work constitutes the basis for the proper design of elastin-inspired drugs with tailored conformational properties.

If she could solve any scientific problem in any field, it would be: “The early recognition of Alzheimer disease onset in humans through chemical tools.” says Brigida.

Effect of proline analogues on the conformation of elastin peptides by Antonietta Pepe, Maria Antonietta Crudele and Brigida Bochicchio; New J. Chem., 2013,37, 1326-1335, DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ41001C; From themed collection Prolines.

The next author who accepted to answer some questions for us was Samuel COUVE-BONNAIRE, assistant professor at the University of Rouen, France. His current research interests concern Organometallic chemistry, Fluorine chemistry, Asymmetric synthesis and Peptidomimetics. The article by Samuel and his co-authors looks into the new efficient asymmetric synthesis that has been developed to obtain the relevant fluorinated pseudodipeptide Ala-Ψ[(Z)CFCH]-Pro. Outside the laboratory, Samuel likes to spend time with his family and to play badminton (leisure and competition).

Straightforward asymmetric synthesis of Ala-Ψ[CFCH]-Pro, a proline-containing pseudodipeptide bearing a fluoroolefin as a peptide bond mimic by Guillaume Dutheuil, Camille Pierry, Emilie Villiers, Samuel Couve-Bonnaire and Xavier Pannecoucke , New J. Chem., 2013,37, 1320-1325; DOI: 10.1039/C2NJ40891K, From themed collection Prolines

Professor Roberto CAO from the University of Havana, Cuba is our last interviewed author. He research interests focus on Nanosciences, especially self-assembled monolayers on metal surfaces including supramolecular interactions.

“The NJC is a “fresh” journal, very dynamic, that includes all topics of Chemistry. The last few years it has been increased in papers devoted to Nanosciences” commented Roberto on choosing the NJC journal.

When asked which scientific problem he would like to solve, Robert replied: ”Cancer. We are now working on gold nanoparticles linked to monoclonal antibodies that can target different types of cancer.”

Besides his research activity, Roberto enjoys reading historic novels and swiming in the Caribbean sea, next to his house.

An unusual self-assembly of a deuteroporphyrin 4-aminothiophenol derivative on Au(111) surfaces by Rudy Martin, Roberto Cao, Franz-Peter Montforts and Paul-Ludwig M. Noeske , New J. Chem., 2013, 37, 1610-1615

DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ00118K

This month’s issue of NJC includes an online collection of articles on the exciting topic of prolines and derivatives, from synthesis to biological activities. Look out the online themed collection here.

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Antifungal activity of phosphonium ionic liquids

10 May 2013

Due to their toxic nature the ionic liquids became an interesting subject of development for new applications.

In this NJC paper quaternary phosphonium ionic liquids are discussed in light of their potential use as an antifungal compounds. The authors Diego O. Hartmann and Cristina Silva Pereira (University of Lisbon, Portugal) aimed this paper at investigating toxicity of several alkylphosphonium chlrorides versus a fungus, Aspergillus nidulans at a molecular level. They describe the use of qRT-PCR to analyse the expression of Aspergillus nidulans genes after exposure to alkyltributylphosphonium chlorides. The results indicate cell wall damage as the common mechanism of toxicity amongst these ionic liquids, while plasma membrane permeabilisation is dependent on the alkyl substituent length. The work provides an important basic insight to apply phosphonium type ionic liquids as an antifungal medicine.

A molecular analysis of the toxicity of alkyltributylphosphonium chlorides in Aspergillus nidulans by Diego O. Hartmann and Cristina Silva Pereira , New J. Chem., 2013, 37, 1569-1577, DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ00167A

Interested in reading further? Why not download the full article now, FREE to access for a period of 4 weeks!

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We invite you to visit the May issue of NJC

02 May 2013

A focus article by Ernest Giralt and co-workers opens the May issue on the uses of ion mobility coupled to mass spectrometry (IMMS) to gain structural and dynamic information for a wide variety of biomacromolecules.

Applications and future of ion mobility mass spectrometry in structural biology by Abraham López, Teresa Tarragó, Marta Vilaseca and Ernest Giralt New J. Chem., 2013, 37, 1283-1289 DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ41051J.

The outside front cover was produced by Qin Wei and co-workers on honeycomb-structured macroporous films of graphene nanocomposites prepared by the breath figure method at both an air/solid interface and an air/water interface.

Assembly of graphene nanocomposites into honeycomb-structured macroporous films with enhanced hydrophobicity by Hongmin Ma, Picheng Gao, Dawei Fan, Bin Du, Jingcheng Hao and Qin Wei New J. Chem., 2013, 37, 1307-1311 DOI: 10.1039/C2NJ41031A.

On the inside front cover, Philippe Karoyan and colleagues illustrate their research on the synthesis and study using CD and NMR in water and alcohols on homooligomers of substituted prolines and -prolines.

Homooligomers of substituted prolines and β-prolines: syntheses and secondary structure investigation by Cécile Caumes, Nicolas Delsuc, Redouane Beni Azza, Isabelle Correia, Fabrice Chemla, Franck Ferreira, Ludovic Carlier, Alejandro Perez Luna, Roba Moumné, Olivier Lequin and Philippe Karoyan New J. Chem., 2013, 37, 1312-1319 DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ00127J.

Take you pick amongst the 4 letters and 42 full papers that composed this issue of May here.

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NJC Poster prize winners at Paris 2013 Symposium on Foldamers

02 May 2013

Two NJC poster prizes were awarded during the Paris 2013 Symposium on Foldamers, which was held at the “Les Cordeliers” Conference Centre.

The two laureates received a one-year subscription to the journal and a RSC book. Our thanks go to the organizers of the conference for their help in organizing these awards, and our deep gratitude to all of the senior scientists who served on the jury to select the two following winners:

Elisabeth K. Nyakatura, who received her BSc in chemistry from the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, in 2007. She then joined the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and successfully completed a MSc programme in Molecular Biology of Infectious Diseases. After graduating from London in 2008, Elisabeth returned to the Freie Universität to pursue her PhD in the group of Prof. Koksch.Her research is now focused on the application of phage display to identify preferred interaction partners of chemically modified amino acids in helical protein environments. She also implements the unique properties of these nonnatural building blocks in the development of biological active peptides. It is this interface of chemistry and molecular biology that accounts for Elisabeth’s interest in using chemical means to address pathogen-host interactions.

Liam Byrne was born in Wegberg, Germany in 1984. He received his undergraduate and postgraduate education at the University of Leeds; the latter with Prof. Steve Marsden, working on the development of new synthetic applications of the catalytic aza-Wittig reaction. Liam is currently employed as a post-doctoral research associate with Prof. Jonathan Clayden at the University of Manchester. His research has sought to maximise conformational control in a class of helical foldamers and exploit this to achieve stereoselective transformations over long (nanometre) distances.

NJC wishes them continuing success in their research!
A list of all previous NJC Poster Prize winners can be found here.

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Hot article: Green Giant

02 May 2013

Heterocyclic N-oxides are ubiquitous protecting groups, auxiliary agents, oxidants, catalysts, surrogates for heterocyclic boronic acids or ligands in metal complexes. In addition, pyridine N-oxide derivatives have been recently reported to represent a new class of anti-HIV compounds. In this NJC letter, Wei Zhao and Chunxia Yang (Nanyang Normal University, China) report an effective and green procedure for pyridine oxidation using the large Δ-Na₈HPW₉O₃₄ polyoxometalate as catalyst. In this system, reactions were carried out in water at room temperature with hydrogen peroxide as oxidant. The catalyst could be recovered and reused several times without obvious loss of activity.

“A green catalytic procedure for oxidation of pyridines catalyzed by a lacunary polyoxometalate in water at room temperature” Wei Zhao and Chunxia Yang, New J. Chem., 2013, Advance Article. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ00149K (Letter).

Interested in reading further? These “Hot articles” will be FREE to access for a period of 4 weeks.

To stay up-to-date with the latest NJC developments, sign up to its table-of-contents email alert.

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Meet our Authors – April 2013

02 May 2013

Two authors of NJC’s April Issue are interviewed for this month’s Meet our Authors feature.

Our first author is Kathleen Mullen, who is an Australian Postdoctoral Fellow and a Lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology. Kathleen’s research is in the broad field of supramolecular chemistry, but she is particularly interested in incorporating porphyrins into interlocked architectures, anion sensors and molecular machines.

The article by Kathleen and her co-authors looks into he construction of interlocked architectures that will have interesting photo-and electrochemical properties. Porphyrins and bipyidinium moieties are perfect targets for such purposes, however the range of chemical reactions that are compatible with both species is relatively limited. The work in this paper set out to gain a better understanding of the size/structure of strapped porphyrin macrocycles and broaden the synthetic tools available for he construction of rotaxanes incorporating these motifs.

On choosing NJC to publish this work, Kathleen commented: “Because our work appeals to a general chemistry audience, which NJC caters for.”

When not working, Kathleen loves to travel: “Its even better that our work enables us to travel so much. Last year my visit to the University of Cambridge also coincided with the Olympics which was an amazing experience.” (see photo).

If she could not be a scientist, Kathleen would be a food critic. She thinks that it would be a great way to travel the world, tasting gourmet food along the way.

The second author is Ian Fairlamb, who is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of York (UK). His research group is currently working on catalysis, synthetic chemistry, mechanistic examination and carbon monoxide therapeutics.

For several years Ian has been intrigued by macrocyclic aryl ketone natural products, and their derivatives. He and co-workers noted that efficient synthetic routes to these types of structures were limited. Therefore they developed and exploited a Pd-catalysed protocol for aryl ketone synthesis. Silyl deprotection of the resultant products and a subsequent Mitsunobu reaction gave access to both 16-membered and 17-membered macrocyclic compounds.

On the main motivation for submitting his work to NJC, Ian commented: “The NJC experience, from paper subimission and revision, through to publication, is an efficient process. We wanted to submit our paper to a more general-focused journal, where it would be visible to different research fields. NJC occupies a unique position in this respect.”

Outside the laboratory, Ian has several favourite activities, including playing the guitar and being outdoors for gardening, walking in the hills, running and cycling. His favourite books include ‘Comfrey’, by Lawrence D. Hills and ‘Memoirs of a Fellwanderer’ by Alfred Wainwright.

When asked for an alternative career path if not a scientist, Ian answered running shoe designer (just do it…yourself !)

We would like to thank to our authors for making time in their busy schedules to answer these questions for us.

Why not submit your high impact research to us today!

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NJC Blog

Archive for May, 2013

NJC at CanBIC-4 in Ontario

Meet Our Authors – May 2013

Antifungal activity of phosphonium ionic liquids

We invite you to visit the May issue of NJC

NJC Poster prize winners at Paris 2013 Symposium on Foldamers

Hot article: Green Giant

Meet our Authors – April 2013

Top ten most accessed articles in March

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