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Reminder: ChemComm–RSC Prizes & Awards Symposium in London

20 Feb 2012

Don’t miss out on the ChemComm–RSC Prizes & Awards Symposium in association with the RSC Analytical Division!

Date: Wednesday 22nd February 2012
Location: Imperial College London, UK
Time: 1300-1800

The purpose of this event is to bring together scientists in a stimulating and friendly environment to recognise the achievements of individuals in advancing the chemical sciences and also to foster collaborations. The symposium will appeal to academic and industrial scientists with an interest in analytical science, protein structure and interactions, and biosensors. Attendance at the symposium is FREE OF CHARGE and student participation is strongly encouraged.

The following distinguished scientists have agreed to speak:

Dr Perdita Barran, University of Edinburgh, UK (ChemComm sponsored speaker) – Resolving solution structures in the absence of solution
Professor Carol V Robinson, University of Oxford, UK (RSC Interdisciplinary Prize winner) – Membrane protein complexes at last
Professor G Marius Clore, NIDDK, National Institutes of Health, USA (RSC Centenary Prize winner) – Exploring sparsely-populated states of proteins and their complexes by paramagnetic and diamagnetic NMR
Professor Albert Heck, Utrecht University, the Netherlands (ChemComm sponsored speaker) – Modern biomolecular mass spectrometry and its role in studying virus structure, dynamics, and assembly
Professor R Graham Cooks, Purdue University, USA (RSC Centenary Prize winner) – Mass spectrometry simplified: ambient ionization and miniature mass spectrometers
Professor Anthony P F Turner, Linköpings University, Sweden (RSC Theophilus Redwood Award winner) – Biosensors: Sense and Sensibility

For further details and to register your interest, please contact Anne Horan.

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First total synthesis of mucosin

17 Feb 2012

Southampton chemists, lead by Richard Whitby, have completed the first total synthesis of the marine metabolite mucosin. As the synthesis is enantioselective (they made the (+) enantiomer), the team were able to determine the absolute stereochemistry of the natural compound (the (-) enantiomer), which was isolated from a sponge in the Mediterranean in 1997.

Of particular note in the synthesis is the use of a zirconium-induced co-cyclisation to install the stereochemistry of the four contiguous stereocentres around the unusual bicyclo(4.3.0)nonene core.

Read more about the work in their communication, which is free to download for a limited period.

If you’re interested in natural products, check out Natural Product Reports, which just published its regular and popular Marine Natural Products review article.

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Free analytical content in ChemComm

14 Feb 2012

The ChemComm–RSC Prizes & Awards Symposium takes place at Imperial College London on 22nd February 2012 with the theme of (bio)analytical science.

This is ChemComm‘s first UK-based symposium and to celebrate we’ve made some of our best analytical content free to access for a limited period.

We hope you enjoy these articles – but don’t delay! Free access only runs until 29th February.

Perspectives in imaging using mass spectrometry
Allison L. Dill, Livia S. Eberlin, Demian R. Ifa and R. Graham Cooks
Chem. Commun., 2011, 47, 2741-2746

Metal binding to a zinc-finger peptide: a comparison between solution and the gas phase
Yana Berezovskaya, Craig T. Armstrong, Aimee L. Boyle, Massimiliano Porrini, Derek N. Woolfson and Perdita E. Barran
Chem. Commun., 2011, 47, 412-414

Spectroscopic analysis of immobilised redox enzymes under direct electrochemical control
Philip A. Ash and Kylie A. Vincent
Chem. Commun., 2012, 48, 1400-1409

Fluorescent dye-doped silica nanoparticles: new tools for bioapplications
Se Won Bae, Weihong Tan and Jong-In Hong
Chem. Commun., 2012, 48, 2270-2282

Ultrasensitive fluorescence-based methods for nucleic acid detection: towards amplification-free genetic analysis
Rohan T. Ranasinghe and Tom Brown
Chem. Commun., 2011, 47, 3717-3735

An optimized isotopic labelling strategy of isoleucine-γ2 methyl groups for solution NMR studies of high molecular weight proteins
Isabel Ayala, Olivier Hamelin, Carlos Amero, Ombeline Pessey, Michael J. Plevin, Pierre Gans and Jérôme Boisbouvier
Chem. Commun., 2012, 48, 1434-1436

Nucleobase recognition at alkaline pH and apparent pKa of single DNA bases immobilised within a biological nanopore
Lorenzo Franceschini, Ellina Mikhailova, Hagan Bayley and Giovanni Maglia
Chem. Commun., 2012, 48, 1520-1522

FRET detection of amyloid β-peptide oligomerization using a fluorescent protein probe presenting a pseudo-amyloid structure
Tsuyoshi Takahashi and Hisakazu Mihara
Chem. Commun., 2012, 48, 1568-1570

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ChemComm Emerging Investigators Issue 2012

31 Jan 2012

ChemComm issue 10 is the Emerging Investigators issue 2012, a celebration of the work of some of the world’s best early-career scientists. We think these people have the potential to influence future directions in chemistry – do you agree? Read the issue and let us know your thoughts.

At the front of the issue, we’ve profiled the contributors so you can learn more about them and their work. We asked them to be creative with the photos they supplied. Here are a selection:

Do you know a brilliant emerging chemist? We’ll soon be inviting contributions to the 2013 Emerging Investigators issue and we’d love to hear your suggestions. Email us or leave your suggestions as comments below.

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Cram Lehn Pedersen Prize awarded at ISMSC

31 Jan 2012

The 2012 Cram Lehn Pedersen Prize has recently been awarded to Dr Jonathan Nitschke at the 2012 International Symposium on Macrocyclic and Supramolecular Chemistry (ISMSC-7) at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand.

The prize, sponsored by ChemComm and named in honour of the winners of the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, recognises significant, original and independent work in supramolecular chemistry by emerging investigators.

: ChemComm Associate Editor Jonathan Steed (left) presents Jonathan Nitschke with the Cram Lehn Pedersen Prize (photo taken by Scott Cameron)

Presenting the award on behalf of ChemComm and the Organising Committee of the ISMSC, Professor Jonathan Steed of Durham University commented that “the forward-looking and sophisticated approach to the field adopted by its new stars such as Jonathan Nitschke highlights just how far the area has moved forward from its roots in classical macrocyclic chemistry. We can never forget just how visionary those early macrocyclic pioneers were in recognising the key interrelated importance of shape and function at a molecular level. This startling evolution was beautifully documented at the meeting by a fascinating retrospective by macrocyclic pioneer Prof. Neil Curtis that immediately preceded Prof. Nitschke’s elegant description of the self-assembled container chemistry and thermally switchable gels he is producing using the same principles some 55 years after Curtis’ initial discoveries.”

The conference continues until 2nd February. Later in the year, Jonathan Nitschke will be taking part in a Swiss lecture tour to celebrate his award: University of Zurich (29 May), Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EPFL; 30 May), University of Geneva (31 May), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH; 1 June).

Nominations for the 2013 Cram Lehn Pedersen prize to be awarded at ISMSC-8 in Crystal City, Virginia, USA, will open later in the year. Stay tuned to the ChemComm blog for details.

Also of interest:
2011 Winner: Professor Amar Flood
ChemComm Supramolecular Chemistry web theme

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100th anniversary of first X-ray diffraction experiment

30 Jan 2012

It’s 2012 and avid readers of our blog will know that the number 100 is very important to ChemComm this year.

This is the first year ChemComm will publish 100 issues but did you know it is also 100 years since Max von Laue’s first X-ray diffraction experiment?

Max von Laue was a Professor of Physics at the University of Munich in Germany and he used copper sulfate as a 3D diffraction grating for X-rays. The field developed rapidly after this pioneering work and today X-ray diffraction is a commonly used technique for revealing information about the structure of materials.

$ChemComm outside front cover highlighting 100 years of Laue diffraction$ The anniversary of Laue diffraction has been highlighted on the cover of ChemComm issue 16 by Oliver Oeckler and colleagues, who report their recent use of Laue diffraction in the issue. More specifically, they used in situ microfocus Laue diffraction to investigate temperature-dependent phase transitions of GeTe-rich compounds. Find out what they discovered by downloading their communication.

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Germanium-bridged polymer for organic solar cells

25 Jan 2012

A team of scientists from the UK and US have made a novel germanium-bridged polymer that shows promise for organic solar cells.

Martin Heeney, at Imperial College London, and colleagues synthesised a heterocyclic monomer bridged with two germanium atoms. They co-polymerised it with an electron-accepting benzothiadiazole to give a polymer that, in contrast to the analogous C-bridged system, is semicrystalline.

Being able to design crystallinity into conjugated polymers in such a way is useful because crystalline polymers are better at transporting charge and hence offer more potential for solar cells. Heeney’s polymer exhibited power conversion efficiencies of over 5 % in bulk heterojunction solar cells. The team are now investigating the use of additives and co-solvents to increase this further.

Find out more – download Heeney’s ChemComm communication.

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Joint ChemComm–RSC Prizes and Awards Symposium in London

09 Jan 2012

We are delighted to announce the forthcoming ChemComm–RSC Prizes & Awards Symposium in association with the RSC Analytical Division.

Date: Wednesday 22nd February 2012
Location: Imperial College London, UK
Time: 1300-1800

The following distinguished scientists have agreed to speak:

Dr Perdita Barran, University of Edinburgh, UK (ChemComm sponsored speaker) – Resolving solution structures in the absence of solution
Professor Carol V Robinson, University of Oxford, UK (RSC Interdisciplinary Prize winner) – Membrane protein complexes at last
Professor G Marius Clore, NIDDK, National Institutes of Health, USA (RSC Centenary Prize winner) – Exploring sparsely-populated states of proteins and their complexes by paramagnetic and diamagnetic NMR
Professor Albert Heck, Utrecht University, the Netherlands (ChemComm sponsored speaker) – Modern biomolecular mass spectrometry and its role in studying virus structure, dynamics, and assembly
Professor R Graham Cooks, Purdue University, USA (RSC Centenary Prize winner) – Mass spectrometry simplified: ambient ionization and miniature mass spectrometers
Professor Anthony P F Turner, Linköpings University, Sweden (RSC Theophilus Redwood Award winner) – Biosensors: Sense and Sensibility

For further details and to register your interest, please contact Anne Horan.

***
The closing date for RSC Prizes and Awards 2012 is 15th January 2012. Find out more >
***

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Welcome to the year of 100 issues!

01 Jan 2012

Happy New Year!

2012 brings exciting changes to ChemComm, including a Nobel Prize-winning Chair and an increase in frequency to 100 issues.

Read our Editorial where we reflect on how a successful 2011 has paved the way for the biggest year in the history of ChemComm.

And find out what our new Chair Richard Schrock thinks…..

Find out about the move to 100 issues >

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3 days until 100 issues…

29 Dec 2011

….and did you know….?

ChemComm communications should be no longer than 3 journal pages and, of course, report urgent, high quality and novel research.

Have you read our author guidelines? They are full of useful information about preparing your communication so please check them out before submitting your manuscript.

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