NJC Blog

Another long day on Thursday, but the end was in sight. Amongst the 19 talks of the day a few themes stood out.

• Three talks dealt with the interaction of metal ions with DNA: Jens Müller (University of Münster) spoke about metal-mediated (artificial) base pairs; Andrew Houlton (University of Newcastle) uses DNA to make metal nanowires, while Miguel Galindo (also at the University of Newcastle) studies the binding of metal complexes in the minor groove.
• A related topic is that of metal ions and nucleobases, discussed by Angel Terrón-Homar (University of the Balearic Islands) and Pablo Sanz Miguel (University of Zaragoza).
• Materials also occupied a large place during the day: Juan Herrera (University of Granada) showed bifunctional silica nanoparticles; Françoise Quignard (ENSC Montpellier) demonstrated the potential of hybrid catalysts based on polysaccharides; Christoph Janiak (University of Düsseldorf) presented MOFs for “useful cold” (using a cycle of water adsorption and desorption).

At the end of the afternoon, conference chair Jorge Navarro closed the meeting with a brief history of this series of conferences.

• This 5th edition follows ones in Alghero (1992), Como (1996), Camerino (2004) and Garmisch (2008). The 6th is tentatively scheduled for 2015 somewhere in France.
• There were about 260 participants from all over the world in this 5th edition; 65 talks over three and a half days and well over 100 posters in 2 sessions.

Three poster prizes were awarded: I presented the NJC Poster Prize to Irene Bassanetti (University of Parma) while the organizers recognized the work of Núria Aliaga-Alcalde (University of Barcelona) and Fawzia M.S. Al-Sogair (College of Basic Education, Kuwait).

Santiago Alvarez, speaking as the last session chair, listed the 3 ingredients necessary for a successful conference—good science, active participants, efficient organization—and judged that all three had been present in Granada. (I might add a 4th ingredient: an attractive location and venue.)

Congratulations to organizers Elisa Barea and Jorge Navarro! They were rewarded during that evening’s banquet with gifts presented by the organizing committee.

What’s this picture doing here you might ask?
Hint: what is the name of this fruit in Spanish?

Wednesday, as a half day, had a lighter schedule of “only” 10 talks. Some highlights included the following presentations.

• Enzo Alessio (University of Trieste), in his plenary lecture, reviewed his group’s work on porphyrins in supramolecular chemistry (a variety of geometries can be obtained, including some very large constructs) and in medicinal chemistry (ruthenium anticancer complexes).
• Multimetallic systems were a recurring theme this morning, as Marius Andruh (University of Bucarest), James Wilton-Ely (Imperial College London) and Enrique Colacio (University of Granada) all presented their results in this area.
• In a good complement to a previous day’s lecture, Joan Aguiló Carreras (Autonomous University of Barcelona) addressed the production of hydrogen as the energy of the future, using Ru catalysts (electropolymerized or covalently anchored for the water splitting reaction).

After the morning’s session, a delicious buffet lunch awaited the delegates. And wait we did, if we were slow to get in line…providing a good occasion for further discussions with fellow delegates.

The 2nd poster session followed lunch—with the poster prizes in play—check back here soon to find out who the winners are!

In the afternoon came the eagerly awaited visit to the Alhambra. Busloads of chemists invaded the grounds, surely looking for inspiration in the intricate structures to be found everywhere one looked!

• The Nasrid Palace itself was not as impressive as in my memories of my previous visit 35 years ago, in 1976. Perhaps because back then we were free to wander around more of the palace (or so I recall) and the famous Court of the Lions had its 12-lion fountain in place. (It is currently being restored and so we can only hope to see it in place once again in the near future.)
• For me, the highlight of the Alhambra complex is its gardens—vast formal ones and small intimate ones—with water and fountains filling the air with their music. These gardens are a real oasis in the desert and a treat for the senses.

Don’t forget to visit us soon for the last day’s update and close of the 5th EuCheMS Conference on Nitrogen Ligands!

Greetings from sunny Granada! Having arrived a day early, I walked around (and up and down) the downtown and old quarters of the Albayzin Arab neighborhood. Surprises and treasures abounded, to be discovered around each bend in my path.

Sunday evening the conference kicked off with a cocktail mixer held on the rooftop terrace of the Palacio des Congresos. Sipping a dry sherry and sampling Spanish “tortilla”, Iberico ham and manchego cheese, I and the other guests enjoyed compelling views of the surrounding city and magnificent Alhambra, lit up in the clear evening sky.

We got an early start (at the very un-Spanish hour of 8:30 am) on Monday with a plenary lecture by Makoto Fujita (of Tokyo University). Makoto reviewed about 10 years of his work on cage compounds. A recent interest is “starting and stopping” reactions in these cages, which allows them to view the reaction intermediates.

In another plenary lecture, Ged Parkin of Columbia University showed how tripodal nitrogen ligands can be used as models for zinc enzymes and in relation to organometallic toxicity. Ged finished his presentation with a card trick and the help of two volunteers from the audience, which impressed us until he revealed part of the secret. (Only a part though, or else I would conclude that human behavior is 100% predictable.)

This was just two of the talks amongst a very full program. I can’t possibly discuss all of them but my editor’s choice for the day would include the lectures by:

• Joost Reek on using supramolecular chemistry to develop encapsulated catalysts;
• Sandeep Verma on metal-adenine complexes, of use for catalysis when attached to carbon nanotubes;
• Roland Sigel who looks at metal ion binding to DNA;
• Hideki Masuda presenting ways to activate oxygen species by di-iron compounds on electrodes.

The first poster session ended a long day of science, which continued in a typical Moroccan restaurant. With NJC Associate Editor Mike Scott and our four guests we were transported to Marrakech, to experience another facet of the local culture. In enjoyable company, we compared research funding, football (soccer) and housing prices in our 5 countries.

Two of my guests at dinner have recent papers in NJC:

• MOFs, MILs and more: concepts, properties and applications for porous coordination networks (PCNs) by Christoph Janiak and Jana K. Vieth, New J. Chem., 2010, 34, 2366-2388. DOI: 10.1039/C0NJ00275E
• Facile synthesis of an ultramicroporous MOF tubular membrane with selectivity towards CO₂ by Sonia Aguado, Charles-Henri Nicolas, Virginie Moizan-Baslé, Carlos Nieto, Hedi Amrouche, Nicolas Bats, Nathalie Audebrand and David Farrusseng, New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 41-44. DOI: 10.1039/C0NJ00667J
• Guest-induced gate-opening of a zeolite imidazolate framework by Sonia Aguado, Gérard Bergeret, Marc Pera Titus, Virginie Moizan, Carlos Nieto-Draghi, Nicolas Bats and David Farrusseng, New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 546-550. DOI: 10.1039/C0NJ00836B
• Combinatorial synthesis of metal–organic frameworks libraries by click-chemistry by Marie Savonnet, Emanuel Kockrick, Aurélie Camarata, Delphine Bazer-Bachi, Nicolas Bats, Vincent Lecocq, Catherine Pinel and David Farrusseng, New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 1892-1897. DOI: 10.1039/C1NJ20350A

Check back on the NJC blog for my reports on the rest of this conference, including a visit to the Alhambra.

* With apologies to Washington Irving. His Tales of the Alhambra is, at 6 euros, the best bargain in Granada. It is a wonderful companion for a visit to this beautiful city.

Chemistry in the life sciences, nitrogen ligands everywhere, and catalysis are the themes of three conferences where NJC staff and board members will be representing the journal:

• 4th European Conference on Chemistry for Life Sciences (August 31 – September 3, 2011 in Budapest, Hungary)
• 5th EuCheMS Conference on Nitrogen Ligands in Coordination Chemistry, Metal-organic Chemistry, Bioinorganic Chemistry, Materials & Catalysis (September 4 – 8, 2011 in Granada, Spain)
• 21st Century Catalysis Science and Applications (September 29 – 30, 2011 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)

Kicking off this final round of summer conferences, Assistant Editor Dr Laurent Vial will be in Budapest for the 4th European Conference on Chemistry for Life Sciences. As part of the sponsorship of this conference by NJC, he will present poster prizes to two young chemists*. (Contact Laurent if you would like to meet him in Budapest.)

The conference covers both bioorganic and bioinorganic chemistry with an interdisciplinary flavor. The scientific sessions will cover a wide range of topics, including biomolecules in 3D, metals in medicine, synthetic biology, bioinspired catalysis, glycochemistry and many more.

This 4th edition in the series of meetings is co-chaired by Tamás Kiss and András Perczel and will be held in the ELTE Convention Center located at Eötvös Loránd University.

Following close behind is the 5th EuCheMS Conference on Nitrogen Ligands, at which NJC is sponsoring a poster prize*. Associate Editor Prof. Mike Scott and NJC Managing Editor Dr Denise Parent will be attending and look forward to meeting you there. Drop us a line if you will also be in Granada.

Ten eminent scientists from throughout the world will present plenary lectures on nitrogen-containing ligands used in a variety of areas, including biology, medicine, energy and the environment, materials….and almost 50 other speakers will expand on the subject.

This European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences conference will take place in the Granada Congress Centre and is organized by Jorge A. R. Navarro with colleagues from Spain, Italy and Germany.

At the end of September the 21st Century Catalysis Science and Applications colloquium of the Entretiens Jacques Cartier will take place in Ottawa. NJC Board member Dr Odile Eisenstein, one of the speakers, will present an NJC poster prize*. (Contact Odile.)

Conference topics range from a fundamental understanding of catalysis, biocatalysis and biomass conversion, to applications in nanoscience and energy.

This two-day conference is organized by researchers in Canada and France, and in particular Professors Tom Baker, Nicolas Abatzoglou and Davit Zargarian locally.
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