More than 50 years on from the discovery of vancomycin, there is still huge demand for novel glycopeptides antibiotics. Vancomycin’s clinical use was initially limited due to its side effects but the rise in the number of methicillin-resistant bacteria forced it back to the forefront of research. Now vancomycin-resistant bacteria are on the increase and so scientists have been trying to make new glycopeptides antibiotics in a variety of ways.
If you are interested in how the RSC performed overall then please visit the RSC publishing blog post for the full round up.
Recently I blogged about the importance of green chemistry in process research and development. But making the things we need in a greener way is only one step in our journey to a more sustainable lifestyle. Dealing with the waste we produce is also crucial.
CO2 is an attractive building block for making organic chemicals and materials, says Gong, but currently its use is limited to a few industrial processes. It is thermodynamically stable so high energy substances or electroreductive processes are used to transform it into other chemicals.
The group discuss the steps scientists have taken to improve the hydrogenation of CO2, which can produce useful chemicals such as methanol, ethers, and hydrocarbons. They cover catalyst design, reactor optimisation and reaction mechanisms as well as the challenges and opportunities for future research in the field.
Read the review and let me know what you think by leaving a comment.
Gold – people lust after it, buy things with it and decorate objects and themselves with it. But what many people don’t know is that gold can also help to cure cancer.
Gold nanoparticles have a combination of properties, different from bulk gold, which enable them to act as potent, selective and multifunctional anti-cancer agents. They can be used in photothermal cancer therapy, drug delivery, gene therapy and cell cycle regulation.
In their Chem Soc Rev tutorial review, Mostafa El-Sayed and colleagues from Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA, discuss these anti-cancer applications as well as strategies for the synthesis/design of biomedical gold nanoparticle conjugates.
Also of interest:
Gold – Chemistry, materials and catalysis: A Chem Soc Rev themed issue
Gold 100 Article Collection: 100 articles freely available thanks to the generous sponsorship of the World Gold Council
Last night I bumped into one of my Chem Soc Rev colleagues, Bryan (Publishing Editor), at a charity wine tasting event – not literally: I didn’t have that much wine.
It was a really enjoyable evening. Not only was there nice wine and nibbles, there were also quite a lot of science-y facts.
Some things I learned:
If you like a drop yourself and fancy learning more about the science behind the wine, check out these articles:
Recent advances in the science of champagne bubbles
Gérard Liger-Belair, Guillaume Polidori and Philippe Jeandet, Chem. Soc. Rev., 2008, 37, 2490-2511
Wine flavor: chemistry in a glass
Pavla Polášková, Julian Herszage and Susan E. Ebeler, Chem. Soc. Rev., 2008, 37, 2478-2489
Discrimination of flavonoids and red wine varietals by arrays of differential peptidic sensors
Alona P. Umali, Sarah E. LeBoeuf, Robert W. Newberry, Siwon Kim, Lee Tran, Whitney A. Rome, Tian Tian, David Taing, Jane Hong, Melissa Kwan, Hildegarde Heymann and Eric V. Anslyn, Chem. Sci., 2011, 2, 439-445
The impact of flavonoids on memory: physiological and molecular considerations
Jeremy P. E. Spencer, Chem. Soc. Rev., 2009, 38, 1152-1161
Also of interest:
Chemistry and Biology of Winemaking: an RSC book ideal for anyone interested in the process of winemaking
In the pharmaceutical industry, solvent selection plays a huge role in determining the ‘greenness’ of a process. In his Chem Soc Rev tutorial review, Peter Dunn (Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development) gives a basic guide to green chemistry, with information on solvents and solvent selection, basic environmental metrics collection and three industrial case histories.
Download the review today and prepare to be inspired.
The locations for the Chem Soc Rev Lecture Award and Emerging Investigator Award lectures have been confirmed as follows:
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Lecture Award: Professor Stephen Leone will present his Chem Soc Rev award lecture, entitled ‘Advanced light sources for analytical spectroscopy: From X-rays to attoseconds’ at the 13th Conference on Instrumental Analysis, being held in Barcelona, Spain, 14-16 November 2011. |
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Emerging Investigator Award: Professor Cristina Nevado will present her Chem Soc Rev award lecture at the 17th European Symposium on Organic Chemistry (ESOC 2011), being held in Hersonissos, Crete, Greece, 10-15 July 2011. |
Let us know if you’ll be at either of these meetings – we’re sure they’ll be terrific!
In their Chem Soc Rev critical review, Ivan M. Kempson and Enzo Lombi comb through the evidence and address the questions surrounding hair analysis, to try to discover what the concentrations of different elements in hair can actually relate to.
Download the article to find out what can be detected, what it means and why your age, gender, hair colour and curliness can make a difference.
It gives me great pleasure to announce, on behalf of the Chem Soc Rev Editorial Board, that the winner of the 2011 Chem Soc Rev Lecture Award is Professor Stephen Leone, Professor of Chemistry and Physics at the University of California, Berkeley, and Director of the Chemical Dynamics Beamline and Chemical Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
The Chem Soc Rev Lecture Award is given to honour a scientist who has made a significant contribution to their field over the course of their career. The Editorial Board praised Professor Leone’s varied research career, which has been characterised by the development of a great number of novel methods for probing dynamical processes. These have included infrared emission techniques for ion-molecule chemical dynamics, laser single photon ionisation of gaseous species during epitaxial growth and ultrafast soft X-ray generation and probing.
Professor Leone’s award will be presented at a conference later in the year. Details will follow in due course.
Also of interest:
The direct observation of secondary radical chain chemistry in the heterogeneous reaction of chlorine atoms with submicron squalane droplets
Chen-Lin Liu, Jared D. Smith, Dung L. Che, Musahid Ahmed, Stephen R. Leone and Kevin R. Wilson, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1CP20236G
Who has won the 2011 Chem Soc Rev Emerging Investigator award? Find out…
On behalf of the Chem Soc Rev Editorial Board, I am delighted to announce that Professor Cristina Nevado from the University of Zurich, Switzerland, has won the 2011 Chem Soc Rev Emerging Investigator Award.
This annual award recognises an emerging scientist who has made a significant contribution to their research field. The Editorial Board commended Professor Nevado’s contribution to the total synthesis of natural products and new synthetic methodologies, in particular her research on gold catalysis.
Professor Nevado’s award will be presented at a conference later in the year. Details will follow in due course.
You can find out more about Professor Nevado’s exciting research by reading her recent ChemComm communication, which was included in the ChemComm Emerging Investigator issue 2011:
Domino gold-catalyzed rearrangement and fluorination of propargylacetates, Teresa de Haro and Cristina Nevado, Chem. Commun., 2011, 47, 248-249
