RSC Advances Blog

We are very pleased to introduce Pavel Bobal, Jan Otevrel and David Svestka, the authors of the paper ‘One-pot method for the synthesis of 1-aryl-2-aminoalkanol derivatives from the corresponding amides or nitriles‘. Their article has been very well received and handpicked by our reviewers and handling editors as one of our HOT articles.  The team told us more about the work that went into this article and what they hope to achieve in the future. You can find out more about the authors and their article below and find more HOT articles in our online collection.

Meet the Authors

	Pavel Bobal studied organic chemistry at Slovak Technical University, Bratislava, Slovakia, where he received his doctoral degree in 1996. He spent 3 years between 1995 and 1998 as a postdoc at the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland (Prof. Neier) and additional 3 years at the University of Nevada, Reno, USA (Prof. Lightner). From 2001 to 2009 he worked in the pharmaceutical industry (R&D). In 2009 he became an assistant professor and then in 2019 an associate professor at Faculty of Pharmacy, UVPS Brno, Czech Republic. Since 2020 this faculty has been reestablished as a part of Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.
	Jan Otevrel was a former Ph.D. student of Pavel Bobal, he received his doctoral degree in 2017 and then became an assistant professor at the same university. During his Ph.D. he spent 3 months at Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany (Prof. Hrdina) and he will soon (this year) start a postdoc position at Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria (Prof. Waser). He has discovered and co-developed the process published in the current study.
	David Svestka received his master’s degree in 2019 at UVPS Brno, Czech Republic. He is currently a Ph.D. student in the Pavel Bobal’s laboratory and participated in the development of the present method.

Could you briefly explain the focus of your article to the non-specialist (in one or two sentences only) and why it is of current interest?
Our paper describes a new method for synthesis of vicinal amino alcohols from the respective amides or nitriles by a simple set of reaction conditions. Amino alcohols are compounds of high interest in many branches of chemistry.

How big an impact could your results potentially have?
It is always hard to predict feedback of the scientific article. However, from our perspective, we would be glad if the developed process will find place in syntheses of vicinal amino alcohols conducted at research laboratories and if the readers of RSC Advances will appreciate efforts which we have invested in this paper.

Could you explain the motivation behind this study?
Due to our continuous interest in the organocatalyzed aldol-type reactions, we have been exploring syntheses of numerous chiral auxiliaries for the catalyst design and screening. These long-term endeavor paved a way for our current unexpected discovery.

In your opinion, what are the key design considerations for your study?
The key consideration in this study is to use an old and well-known reagent in a new context to reveal the novel and yet unexplored reactivity.

Which part of the work towards this paper proved to be most challenging?
The methodological articles in organic synthesis usually share the common structure such as the optimization section, determination of the substrate scope, and a relevant synthetic application of the method. Thus from the initial interesting observation, it is often quite a long journey towards the good scientific paper. Honestly, one of the most challenging parts of the above article was to establish a plausible mechanism of the reaction and to support it with enough evidence.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?
One of the most exciting moments of this discovery was to figure out that benzylic oxidation can occur even under reduction conditions, which is somewhat counter-intuitive. Indeed, sodium bis(methoxyethoxy)aluminum hydride gave us a great lecture that more than 50 years old and almost comprehensively explored reagent is still able to surprise.

What is the next step? What work is planned?
We will continue with our work in organic synthesis and medicinal chemistry and we will look forward to the new and especially the unexpected chemical discoveries.

One-pot method for the synthesis of 1-aryl-2-aminoalkanol derivatives from the corresponding amides or nitriles
Jan Otevrel, David Svestka and Pavel Bobal
RSC Adv., 2020,10, 25029-25045
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA04359A, Paper

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We are very pleased to introduce Saurabh Das, the corresponding author of the paper ‘A Zn^II complex of ornidazole with decreased nitro radical anions that is still highly active on Entamoeba histolytica‘. His article has been very well received and handpicked by our reviewers and handling editors as one of our June HOT articles.  Saurabh was kind enough to tell us more about the work that went into this article and what he hopes to achieve in the future. You can find out more about the author and their article below and find more HOT articles in our online collection.

Meet the Author

Saurabh Das completed his bachelor’s degree with honours in Chemistry from Presidency College in 1990, then affiliated to University of Calcutta. His Master’s with specialization in Inorganic Chemistry was done at the University College of Science, University of Calcutta in 1992. He received his PhD from University of Calcutta in 2000 having worked at the Chemical Sciences Division of Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (Ph D Supervisor: Prof. Parikshit C Mandal). After two years of teaching at the Calcutta International School, Kolkata (1998-2000), five and a half years of teaching at the Department of Chemistry, Bejoy Narayan Mahavidyalaya, Hooghly (under University of Burdwan) (2000-2006) he joined the Department of Chemistry, Jadavpur University in January, 2006.

He is now a Professor with research interests in modulating the generation of reactive intermediates of different drugs forming inorganic complexes to strike a balance between efficacy and adverse effects; and offshoots of that general theme. He has 66 publications in peer reviewed international journals.

The research team:

Ms Neha Banyal (left photo) and Professor Kasturi Mukhopadhyay (right photo)

Professor Saurabh Das and Ms Promita Nandy (left photo) and Professor Sanjay Kumar and Mr Soumen Singha (right photo)

Could you briefly explain the focus of your article to the non-specialist (in one or two sentences only) and why it is of current interest?
The molecule (Ornidazole) is a drug belonging to the 5-nitroimidazole family that is used to treat bacterial and/or parasitic infections. The performance of the drug depends on the generation of an intermediate (the nitro radical-anion) that kills disease causing microbes. The same intermediate is neurotoxic to the host (i.e. the system affected by disease causing microbes) upon prolonged use. Hence, controlling the generation of the nitro-radical anion is essential to strike a balance between efficacy and neurotoxic side effects.

How big an impact could your results potentially have?
The results should have a good impact since we worked with a compound that is already established as a drug and is part of a number of pharmaceutical formulations. The modified compound, i. e. the zinc complex needs to be tried in vivo, in living systems in order to identify the extent of difference between the work performed by in the laboratory (on model systems) and what the results would be on living systems. Experts would understand and realize here that a certain difference would exist which needs to be identified.

Could you explain the motivation behind this study?
The motivation of the study was to strike a balance between efficacy and neurotoxic side effects for this family of drugs. For most drugs, intermediates involved with the drug’s efficacy are its problems as well. If they can be separated, then one can either increase cure for an accepted level of complication or decrease complications for an accepted level of cure.

In your opinion, what are the key design considerations for your study?
Modification of Ornidazole (the drug) in a manner that generation of nitro-radical anion is controlled, i.e, modulated. For our study, this was achieved through complex formation with Zn(II).

Which part of the work towards this paper proved to be most challenging?
There were three aspects to the study i) preparation of the complex and its characterization,, ii) showing that generation of nitro-radical anion is less for the complex which we followed by an enzyme assay and iii) inspite of decrease in nitro-radical anion formation, the complex showed the same efficacy on amoeba, as that observed for Ornidazole. A combination of these three aspects performed through suitable experiments suggest decrease in the formation of the nitro radical-anion should decrease neurotoxicity on the host (although we did not verify this in our study) but it should happen since studies earlier to ours have linked neurotoxicity to nitro radical-anion formation. Simultaneously, bacteria or parasite killing should also be affected which in our case did not happen. The complex maintained its killing efficacy of amoeba even with decreased nitro radical-anion; being as good as Ornidazole. This we attributed to aspects related to complex formation. We showed one such attribute of the complex in our study, that of it being able to bind DNA better than Ornidazole. So it’s really a culmination of different experiments we performed.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?
The fact modification of Ornidazole through complex formation with Zn(II) could increase its therapeutic index (T I) where T I = TD₅₀/ED₅₀; TD₅₀ implies toxic dose in 50% of subjects and ED₅₀ implies effective dose for 50% of population. The larger the T I, safer the drug. Besides, Zn being relatively non-toxic unlike other metal ions and since there is use for it in the bio-system, it should not be harmful if it goes into our bodies

What is the next step? What work is planned?
I have not really thought about it. Since the manuscript has been well received I will have to speak to one of my collaborators (Prof. Kasturi Mukhopadhyay of School of Environmental Sciences at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi) in whose laboratory the biological experiments were performed, if she could take the Zn(II) complex forward and do few more studies with it that reveal its mechanism of action on bacteria and amoeba strains; may be try on different bacterial strains, while we perform more model studies to search for other attributes of complex formation. After these are done a sharing of data on biological experiments for mechanism of action and model studies performed (by us) could be useful to see for ourselves whether they correct to each other or establish a difference of opinion.

A Zn^II complex of ornidazole with decreased nitro radical anions that is still highly active on Entamoeba histolytica
Promita Nandy, Soumen Singha, Neha Banyal, Sanjay Kumar, Kasturi Mukhopadhyay and Saurabh Das
RSC Adv., 2020,10, 23286-23296
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA02597F, Paper

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We are very pleased to introduce Shine (Xu) Zhang, the corresponding author of the paper ‘A simple and cost-effective approach to fabricate tunable length polymeric microneedle patches for controllable transdermal drug delivery‘. His article has been very well received and handpicked by our reviewers and handling editors as one of our May HOT articles.  Shine was kind enough to tell us more about the work that went into this article and what he hopes to achieve in the future. You can find out more about the author and their article below and find more HOT articles in our online collection.

Meet the Author

Dr. Shine (Xu) Zhang holds the Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Healthy Environments and Communities in the Department of Chemistry and Department of Health Sciences at Cape Breton University, Pearl River Scholar Guest Chair Professor of Pharmacy at Shenzhen Polytechnic, and an active member of Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute. His research aims at exploiting nanotechnology for health and environmental applications with focus on cancer diagnostics and treatment with precision nanomedicine. He is developing theranostic nanosystems for targeted combinatory therapy with his expertise in DNA aptamer technology, nanocomposite materials, polymeric microneedles, surface chemistry, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, and reactive oxygen species chemistry (Fenton chemistry). Since 2015, Dr. Zhang has trained >50 postdoctoral fellows and research students, who obtained >25 prestigious scholarships and awards.

Dr. Zhang graduated with a PhD (Analytical Chemistry) from the University of Waterloo, followed with postdoctoral training at the University of Waterloo and Harvard University funded by fellowships from the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Team picture

Could you briefly explain the focus of your article to the non-specialist (in one or two sentences only) and why it is of current interest?
Dissolvable polymeric microneedles are micron-sized needles for delivering drugs through the outermost layer of skin for either rapid or prolonged release. This method is painless, can be self-administered, and does not require stringent storage conditions, which increases the availability and distribution of sensitive drug molecules. We simplified the microneedle manufacturing process by modifying widely available tattoo needle cartridges as master templates, reducing manufacturing time and cost and enabling researchers to develop microneedles of various formulations for proof-of-concept studies.

How big an impact could your results potentially have?
Microneedles can be manufactured in many ways that are generally costly, and most moulding techniques only generate a single array morphology. We demonstrated that simple and inexpensive tattoo cartridges can be modified for manufacturing microneedles of desired length by applying a simple silicone spacer. This simplifies the procedure and enables low cost construction of these devices, which facilitates research and development in this field.

Could you explain the motivation behind this study?
Transdermal drug delivery is an attractive alternative to traditional subcutaneous, intramuscular, and intravenous injection; however, the outer layer skin is an effective barrier towards macromolecular and hydrophilic drugs. Microneedles penetrate the skin barrier, stabilize embedded drug molecules toward thermal and hydrolytic degradation, and facilitate distribution in remote and resource limited areas. They reduce burdens on healthcare systems and enable effective drug distribution to remote communities.

In your opinion, what are the key design considerations for your study?
The key design considerations in this work were maintaining the morphological stability of the microneedles to ensure they remained rigid enough to penetrate the skin while also dissolving quickly within the skin tissue and delivering its drug cargo.

Which part of the work towards this paper proved to be most challenging?
High uniformity in morphology and geometry is required to ensure accurate and precise drug delivery. This was a challenge when preparing microneedles from different master templates and batches, including varying microneedle length using the same master template.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?
The most exciting aspect of this work is its general applicability. Many modifications can be made, including incorporation of photothermal nanomaterials to enable precisely controlled drug release through controlled dissolution of the structural polymers.

What is the next step? What work is planned?
Our goal is the large-scale microneedle fabrication for the delivery of active biologics, e.g., proteins, vaccines, and siRNA. This technology may facilitate disease treatment and prevention, especially in areas with limited resources and healthcare availability.

A simple and cost-effective approach to fabricate tunable length polymeric microneedle patches for controllable transdermal drug delivery
Yongli Chen, Yiwen Xian, Andrew J. Carrier, Brian Youden, Mark Servos, Shufen Cui, Tiangang Luan, Sujing Lin and Xu Zhang
RSC Adv., 2020,10, 15541-15546
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA01382J, Paper

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We are very pleased to introduce Irene Maier, the corresponding author of the paper ‘Mannosylated hemagglutinin peptides bind cyanovirin-N independent of disulfide-bonds in complementary binding sites‘. Her article has been very well received and handpicked by our reviewers and handling editors as one of our May HOT articles. Irene was kind enough to tell us more about the work that went into this article and what she hopes to achieve in the future. You can find out more about the author and their article below and find more HOT articles in our online collection.

Meet the Author

Irene is working as a researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She graduated from the University of Vienna and was awarded an international L’Oréal-UNESCO fellowship for her work on the development of an optical immunochip biosensor for rapid allergen detection in complex food matrices and allergy diagnosis. She is interested in the molecular understanding of immune diseases and emphasizes studies on the interactions between immunoglobulin-like protein structures and antigens.

Irene did a postdoc at Caltech before she changed to UCLA. In her postdoctoral work with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Agency, she started broad cancer research projects with a team of collaborators committed to high-level space biology. As a biochemist by training, Irene designed and organized radiation experiments in preclinical studies to be performed at the NASA Space Research Laboratory, a high-tech synchrotron service institution for basic and applied science in Upton, NY.  Her science has been aiming at establishing networks to implement new microbiota-related biomarkers for the assessment of side-effects and adverse events in radiation therapy. She recently returned to the Medical University of Vienna, where she is continuing research on radiation-induced intestinal microbiota-compositions that alter bone loss.

Could you briefly explain the focus of your article to the non-specialist (in one or two sentences only) and why it is of current interest?
We chemically synthesized mono- and di-mannosylated influenza glycoprotein peptides, mimicking naturally found N (asparagine)-linked N-acetyl glucosamine and high-mannose oligosaccharides on the surface of viruses that cause life-threatening viral infections. A comparison of predicted N-glycosylation sites on spike glycoproteins of Wuhan-Hu-1–2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2003 (SARS-CoV) strains has been reported these days.

How big an impact could your results potentially have?
Binding studies of cyanobacterial Cyanovirin-N to mannose-containing moieties are designed.
Broadly neutralizing antiviral agents can be tested for tight binding to viruses based on computational protein design and the number of glycosylation sites involved.

Could you explain the motivation behind this study?
Cyanovirin has been shown to reveal broad neutralizing activity against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and to specifically bind Manα(1→2)Manα units exposed on various glycoproteins of enveloped viruses, such as influenza hemagglutinin and Ebola glycoprotein.

In your opinion, what are the key design considerations for your study?
Binding studies of computationally designed binding-site variants of pseudo-antibody Cyanovirin were performed. We show that this protein dimer is cross-linking two carbohydrate binding sites to achieve neutralization ability. It constitutes a domain-swapped naturally stabilized molecule with a single disulfide-bridge linker.

Which part of the work towards this paper proved to be most challenging?
Bound peptides were used as mimicry to a direct complementary binding site of Cyanovirin-N for binding studies. Variants of Cyanovirin-N were mutated to replace native cysteine residues by either charged or nonpolar amino-acids and tested for high-affinity and low-affinity binding to hemagglutinin and mannosylated peptides.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?
Finding lectin molecules that allow for the measurement of binding constants to glycoproteins exposed at the surface of immune-stimulating cells.

What is the next step? What work is planned?
The study was pursued by Irene Maier in collaboration with scientists from the University of California, Los Angeles, the Max Perutz Labs, and the University of Vienna, Christian Becker and Philipp Schilling. We aim to investigate the stability of antiviral agents and molecules upon exposure to high-energy and cosmic radiation on Earth and in Space.

We acknowledge the support given by the City of Vienna and the Fulbright U.S. Scholarship Program to I.M.

Mannosylated hemagglutinin peptides bind cyanovirin-N independent of disulfide-bonds in complementary binding sites
Philipp E. Schilling, Georg Kontaxis, Martin Dragosits, Robert H. Schiestl, Christian F. W. Becker and Irene Maier
RSC Adv., 2020,10, 11079-11087
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA01128B, Paper

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We are very pleased to introduce Dr Ezequiel Vidal, one of the corresponding authors of the paper ‘New, inexpensive and simple 3D printable device for nephelometric and fluorimetric determination based on smartphone sensing‘. The article was published as a part of his PhD thesis, directed by Dr Claudia Domini, Universidad Nacional del Sur in Bahía Blanca, Argentina. Their article has been very well received and handpicked by our reviewers and handling editors as one of our May HOT articles. Ezequiel was kind enough to tell us more about the work that went into this article and what he hopes to achieve in the future. You can find out more about the author and their article below and find more HOT articles in our online collection.

Meet the Author

Ezequiel Vidal studied biochemistry in Universidad Nacional del Sur, Bahia Blanca, Argentina. In 2002, he received his degree and from 2003 his work was far from research laboratories. In 2017, he started working towards his doctoral thesis in analytical chemistry. Since 2015 his principal work is as a biochemist in the municipal bromatology laboratory of Bahia Blanca, Buenos Aires Argentina.

The reasearch group: Back row (from left to right) – Damián Uriarte, Maite Aguinaga, Sofia Rivero, Dr. Anabela Lorenzetti and Ezequiel Vidal. Front row – Natalis Gomez, Dr. Claudia Elizabeth Domini and Dr. Mariano Garrido.

Could you briefly explain the focus of your article to the non-specialist (in one or two sentences only) and why it is of current interest?
The article describes the creation and validation of a cheap 3D printed device that can be attached to a smartphone for making chemical determinations. This gadget represents an ideal solution for developing countries, remote places and on site determinations.

How big an impact could your results potentially have?
The use of this device helps to reduce costs and simplify technology. Its impact could be big in places where there are no conventional laboratories. What is more, the development of this kind of device can simplify and generalize the use of inexpensive and portable sensing instruments.

Could you explain the motivation behind this study?
The motivation for this study was to prove that smartphones can be used far beyond simple applications.

In your opinion, what are the key design considerations for your study?
The key consideration in this study is to use general principles of analytical instrumentation to create a new and simplified device for specific uses.

Which part of the work towards this paper proved to be most challenging?
Optimizing the device dimensions for an optimal working condition was the most challenging part of the work.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?
3D printed devices are every day more accessible, creating not just simple pieces but complete determination systems.

What is the next step? What work is planned?
We are working on different kinds of optical devices related with smartphones and 3D printers. There is a lot of work to do until this technology reaches its maximum level.

New, inexpensive and simple 3D printable device for nephelometric and fluorimetric determination based on smartphone sensing
Ezequiel Vidal, Anabela S. Lorenzetti, Miguel Ángel Aguirre, Antonio Canals and Claudia E. Domini
RSC Adv., 2020,10, 19713-19719
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA02975K

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We are very pleased to introduce Professor Jian-Ping Lang, the corresponding author of the paper ‘Ultrathin sulfate-intercalated NiFe-layered double hydroxide nanosheets for efficient electrocatalytic oxygen evolution‘. His article has been very well received and handpicked by our reviewers and handling editors as one of our May HOT articles. Jian-Ping was kind enough to tell us more about the work that went into this article and what he hopes to achieve in the future. You can find out more about the author and their article below and find more HOT articles in our online collection.

Meet the Author

Jian-Ping Lang received his Ph.D. degree in 1993 from Nanjing University. During 1995-2001, he was a postdoc at Nagoya University and at Harvard University working on Mo/Fe/S chemistry related to the FeMoco structure in nitrogenases. In 2001, he returned to Soochow University and was promoted to a full Professor of the College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. He was promoted as a Chung Kong Scholar Professor by the Ministry of Education of China (2012), a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) of UK (2014), a Foreign Fellow of European Academy of Sciences (2018) and a Chair Professor of Chemistry at Soochow University (2018). His research interests cover the synthesis, structural chemistry and third-order nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of metal sulfide clusters, photochemical cycloaddition of olefinic ligands within crystalline preformed MOFs, nano-scaled MOFs and other nanomaterials for the transformation of small molecules, and so on. He has published more than 440 research papers in the journals such as Chem. Soc. Rev., JACS, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. and applied 25 Chinese patents. Currently he is working as the vice-chairman of Academic Degree Evaluation Committee and vice-director of Academic board of Soochow University. He is also serving as the vice-chairman of Crystal Chemistry Specialized Committee of Chinese Chemical Society, a member of Inorganic Chemistry Disciplinary Committee of Chinese Chemical Society and a member of Molecular Sieve Specialized Committee of Chinese Chemical Society. He was awarded the Distinguished Young Scholar Fund by the National Natural Science Foundation, the second prizes of the Science and Technology Advancement of Jiangsu Province (2010), and Natural Science by Ministry of Education of China (2011). He is a member of International Advisory Board of Dalton Transactions (2010-date) and an Editorial Board Member of Scientific Reports of Springer Nature Limited (2015-date).

Picture of the research group (group leader: Jian-Ping Lang)

Could you briefly explain the focus of your article to the non-specialist (in one or two sentences only) and why it is of current interest?
Our article introduced a facile and promising method for the synthesis and modification of ultrathin NiFe-layered double hydroxides (LDHs) as the highly efficient oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts.

How big an impact could your results potentially have?
Compared with traditional synthetic methods, our results demonstrated that ultrathin NiFe-LDHs can be directly prepared without adding additive (alkali, surfactant), and even large-scale synthesis of such LDHs can also be achieved. Moreover, we revealed the influence of solvent water and sulfate ion on the morphology and electrocatalytic performance of our NiFe-LDHs through a series of detailed structural and electrochemical characterization, which provided a new insight into the design and preparation of LDHs and other 2D lamellar materials.

Could you explain the motivation behind this study?
•Current commercial OER electrocatalysts mostly focus on precious metal materials, but the scarcity and high cost greatly hinder their large-scale synthesis and application.
•Although the reported NiFe-LDHs possess good performance for OER, the facile and efficient large-scale synthesis of ultrathin nanosheets with uniform morphology represents a highly challenging job.
•Considering the negative effect of additives (alkali, surfactant) on the active sites of the electrocatalyst, our initial design idea was direct control of the morphology of NiFe-LDHs through solvents (H₂O) or anions (SO₄^2-), thereby ensuring the cleanliness of the as-prepared catalyst surface.

In your opinion, what are the key design considerations for your study?
Well, to conduct such a study, we must precisely regulate the reaction conditions of NiFe-LDHs. This includes the type and ratio of the metal salt selected, the combination of mixed solvents, reaction temperature and time, pH, etc. The whole reaction process involves multiple variables, and thus the key to design considerations is to find the optimal synthesis conditions of ultrathin NiFe-LDHs nanosheets.

Which part of the work towards this paper proved to be most challenging?
Overall, except for the fine characterization of the electrocatalyst, we consider the study of catalytic mechanisms to be the most challenging, especially the in-situ changes in the structure of NiFe-LDHs during the catalytic process and the determination of the active sites.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?
We have acquired a simple and promising method for synthesizing ultrathin LDHs nanosheets. In particular, we are very excited about the universality of the synthesis of different two-dimensional materials that are widely used in the field of energy storage and conversion.

What is the next step? What work is planned?
Regarding the work related to the present article, the first thing we are going to do is to explore specific reaction process, focusing on the corresponding relationship between structure and performance of the electrocatalysts. Besides, we are currently examining the universality of this synthetic strategy, such as the synthesis of ultrathin MOFs materials.

Ultrathin sulfate-intercalated NiFe-layered double hydroxide nanosheets for efficient electrocatalytic oxygen evolution
Xiao-Xiao Jiang, Jiang-Yan Xue, Zhong-Yin Zhao, Cong Li, Fei-Long Li, Chen Cao, Zheng Niu, Hong-Wei Gu and Jian-Ping Lang
RSC Adv., 2020,10, 12145-12150
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA00845A, Paper

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We are very pleased to introduce Laura Orian, the corresponding author of the paper ‘Fluoxetine scaffold to design tandem molecular antioxidants and green catalysts‘. Her article has been very well received and handpicked by our reviewers and handling editors as one of our May HOT articles. Laura was kind enough to tell us more about the work that went into this article and what she hopes to achieve in the future. You can find out more about the author and their article below and find more HOT articles in our online collection.

Meet the Author

Laura Orian graduated cum laude and got her PhD in Chemical Sciences at the University of Padova in the Theoretical Chemistry group. She is currently Associate Professor of Physical Chemistry in Padova. Her research interest aims at elucidating central physical phenomena in chemistry rooted in the properties of atoms, molecules, and materials. A deep rationalization and interpretation of experimental evidence is pursued through improvement of the fundamental description of chemical systems (chemical theory), and the applications of new and existing techniques to chemical, physical and biological problems (chemical computation), with particular attention to health and sustainability. The ultimate goal of her research is to predict the chemical properties of a chemical system in advance of the experiment, for a rational design of functional molecules and materials assisted by computer.

The research team

Giovanni Ribaudo, Marco Bortoli, Alberto Ongaro, Erika Oselladore, Alessandra Gianoncelli and Giuseppe Zagotto

Our collaborative research aims at designing novel multi-functional antioxidant bioactive molecules, structurally inspired to known drugs and investigate their mechanism of action. The rationale behind this study relies on the growing pieces of evidence suggesting the involvement of oxidative stress in central nervous system (CNS) diseases. Particularly, our purpose was to modify an existing psychotropic drug in order to enhance its antioxidant potential with positive impact on the medical treatment.

In this paper, we describe the synthesis of some fluoxetine analogues incorporating a selenium nucleus. Selenium is the key oligoelement present in the enzymes involved in the antioxidant endogenous defense system. We have chosen fluoxetine because it is a very important antidepressant, better known with its commercial name ‘Prozac’. The mechanistic details of the enhanced antioxidant potential of our designed compounds were unraveled combining nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), and quantum chemistry calculations.

Our collaborative team is composed of researchers with different backgrounds, and the investigation that laid the basis for this paper was carried out combining theoretical, synthetic, and analytical skills. As far as we are concerned, this research work represents an outstanding example of multidisciplinarity, which is itself an intriguing and challenging task.

Fluoxetine scaffold to design tandem molecular antioxidants and green catalysts
Giovanni Ribaudo, Marco Bortoli, Alberto Ongaro, Erika Oselladore, Alessandra Gianoncelli, Giuseppe Zagotto and Laura Orian
RSC Adv., 2020,10, 18583-18593
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA03509B, Paper

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We are very pleased to introduce Michael Eze, the corresponding author of the paper ‘Ethanol-blended petroleum fuels: implications of co-solvency for phytotechnologies‘. His article has been very well received and handpicked by our reviewers and handling editors as one of our February HOT articles. Michael was kind enough to tell us more about the work that went into this article and what he hopes to achieve in the future. You can find out more about the author and their article below and find more HOT articles in our online collection.

Meet the Author

Michael Onyedika Eze is a third year Cotutelle PhD student between Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia and Georg-August University, Goettingen, Germany. For this dual doctoral research, he was awarded the Australian Commonwealth scholarship, the Macquarie University Cotutelle Research Excellence scholarship and the prestigious German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) scholarship. Prior to starting his PhD, he obtained a Bachelor of Science (Hons) degree in Pure and Industrial Chemistry from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and a Master’s degree in Analytical Chemistry. Michael is a passionate science communicator, receiving a 1^st Place Award in a Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition, as well as being a Finalist in a Falling Walls Lab Competition. He is also a recipient of various travel and research grants including the Royal Society of Chemistry competitive travel grants for PhD students and early career researchers, the European Association of Geochemistry travel grants, and the Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia 2018 tertiary institution grant, among others. In 2019, he was awarded the Carlos Walter M. Campos Memorial Award by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) for the Best International Student Paper at the 2019 AAPG international conference and exhibition.

Michael’s current research interest focuses on rhizoremediation of organic contaminants. Michael takes an interdisciplinary approach (involving organic geochemistry, geomicrobiology and genomics) and seeks to develop novel plant-microbe symbionts for enhanced rhizoremediation of petroleum contaminated sites. He also aims to fully delineate genes responsible for petroleum degradation and their pathways with the goal of revolutionising the way oil spills and other environmental contaminants are cleaned up.

Picture of the Organic Geochemistry Research Group, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. Group Leader: Professor Simon C. George

Could you briefly explain the focus of your article to the non-specialist (in one or two sentences only) and why it is of current interest?
Our article describes the effect that the current practice of adding ethanol to petroleum fuels could have on the effectiveness of phytoremediation as a reclamation strategy for soils contaminated with oil spills.

How big an impact could your results potentially have?
Around the globe, petroleum contamination remains the most persistent environmental problem resulting from oil and gas operations. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) estimated that rehabilitation can cost over $US1 million per hectare using traditional methods. Thus, developing an affordable and eco-friendly remediation technique will have global impact.

Could you explain the motivation behind this study?
The motivation for this research stems from a number of reasons. On one hand, natural attenuation exhibit slow metabolic activity. On the other hand, traditional methods of remediation are very expensive and environmentally unfriendly. As a result, a number of contaminated sites are left as is or their rehabilitation is postponed. Suffice to say that the future of humanity hangs in the balance if our assault on “mother nature” does not receive commensurate attention. While microbial-enhanced rhizoremediation may prove to be the panacea, its success relies on the containment of contaminants within the rooting zones of plants. It thus implies that any energy innovation that increases the leaching potentials of hydrocarbons beyond the rhizospheric zones will limit the effectiveness of phytotechnology as a reclamation strategy for oil spills. Since ethanol is a co-solvent, we therefore decided to first examine its effect on the leaching potentials of both aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons. That is the crux of this paper.

In your opinion, what are the key design considerations for your study?
Well, owing to the interdisciplinary nature of my research, my PhD programme is domiciled in two different departments and in two separate continents. As a result, I am expected to submit two theses for the awards of PhD in Organic Geochemistry (Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia) and Dr. rer. nat. in Genomics and Applied Microbiology (Georg-August University, Goettingen, Germany). Thus, I needed to make sure from the outset that the entire research with its four separate projects are properly linked together and feasible, while maintaining the overarching aim of the research.

Which part of the work towards this paper proved to be most challenging?
For this particular experiment, setting up the leaching column was something that needed a careful thought. Controlling the two major factors that affect soil total petroleum hydrocarbon content, namely biodegradation and volatilisation while in the column seemed to be challenging. The methodology employed to achieve this is discussed in the paper.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?
In view of the extensive use of high throughput sequencing techniques in my study, I am beginning to delineate genes and degradation pathways involved in hydrocarbon-degradation. Gaining insight into the full genomes and metagenomes of plant growth-promoting and hydrocarbon-degrading rhizobacteria is not only exciting but exhilarating!

What is the next step? What work is planned?
Today, the majority of research is still exploring remediation by plant or single microorganisms. What we can expect is more focus on plant-microbiome interactions. Our goal is to develop the right plant-microbe symbionts for effective remediation of petroleum contaminated sites. The results discussed in this article and that from our subsequent projects (phytotoxicity screening and microbial genomics) will guide us towards the achievement of this noble goal. By directing our attention to full genomes of plant-microbe symbionts, we hope to gain a better understanding of the integrated activity of plants and oil-degrading microbes. Armed with this knowledge we will be able to engineer microbes that can degrade hydrocarbon spills even better. Additionally, in the near future, I hope to direct my attention to extremophiles, that is, organisms that maintain optimal growth in environmental conditions considered extreme. This, I hope, will prove useful for environments with mixed contaminants such as those with petroleum and heavy metals/acidic contaminants.

Ethanol-blended petroleum fuels: implications of co-solvency for phytotechnologies
Michael O. Eze and Simon C. George
RSC Adv., 2020, 10, 6473-6481
DOI: 10.1039/C9RA10919F, Paper

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We are very pleased to introduce Dr Selma Leulmi Pichot, the corresponding author of the paper ‘Versatile magnetic microdiscs for the radio enhancement and mechanical disruption of glioblastoma cancer cells‘. Her article has been very well received and handpicked by our reviewers and handling editors as one of our February HOT articles. Selma was kind enough to tell us more about the work that went into this article and what she hopes to achieve in the future. You can find out more about the author and their article below and find more HOT articles in our online collection.

Meet the Author

Selma Pichot completed her undergraduate engineering degree in Biology at the University of Algiers (Algeria), before moving to France for a Research Master in Nanosciences, with a focus in Nanobiotechnologies. After completing a PhD in Physics for life science at the University of Grenoble in 2014, she took up a research associate position with Professor Cowburn at the University of Cambridge to work on the use of magnetic micro and nanostructures for biological and biomedical applications.

Could you briefly explain the focus of your article to the non-specialist (in one or two sentences only) and why it is of current interest?
Our article describes the use of a new type of magnetic microparticle to improve the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme, the most aggressive form of brain cancer.

How big an impact could your results potentially have?
Our results demonstrate that we have powerful tools that can efficiently contribute to improve the current treatment of glioblastoma. Moreover, when used as an adjunct to surgery, the magnetic microdiscs have the potential to shorten the course of radiation therapy in countries where access to radiation therapy is scarce.

Could you explain the motivation behind this study?
Glioblastoma is the most aggressive form of brain cancer, with a median survival for diagnosed patients being 12-15 months with actual treatment modalities. With such a terrible prognosis, we believe current advances in magnetism and nanotechnology could provide new insights to open up the current bottlenecks in the treatment of this devastating disease.

In your opinion, what are the key design considerations for your study?
To conduct such a study, we must first have microdiscs that have perfectly controlled magnetic behavior. This includes the fact that they do not agglomerate in liquid, and that they can deliver significant forces when activated by a magnetic field, in order to destabilize the internal structures of cancer cells. Another important element is the fact that the microdiscs must be able to reach a suitable cellular location to enhance the effect of the radiotherapy very locally, at the intracellular level.

Which part of the work towards this paper proved to be most challenging?
The first challenging aspect of this work is to construct high quality magnetic microdiscs with the specific desired properties. The microdiscs are fabricated by the deposition of ultra thin films of alternating layers of magnetic and non magnetic materials. Inspired by processes often used in the manufacture of MRAM magnetic memory devices, we control these film thicknesses with sub-nanometre resolution. Another important part of the work was in the optimisation of the experimental parameters for the in vitro testing with the cancer cells to ensure that our testing methodology was robust.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?
At the moment, I am very excited in using cutting edge physics to solve current challenges in areas like cancer biology and more recently, in microbiology. There are also a variety of new directions that would be very interesting to explore in the field of neurobiology and the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases for example.

What is the next step? What work is planned?
Of course after such positive results, we would like to take this work a step further. Now that we have a good proof of concept on our initial hypothesis, we would like to translate our results into a realistic in vitro model. This includes for example the use of patient derived cancer cells to construct 3D structures that structurally and functionally mimics the glioblastoma tumoral cavity. A very important aspect is to continue working closely with clinicians to translate this research into clinic.

Versatile magnetic microdiscs for the radio enhancement and mechanical disruption of glioblastoma cancer cells
Selma Leulmi Pichot, Sabrina Bentouati, Saif S. Ahmad, Marios Sotiropoulos, Raj Jenab and Russell Cowburn
RSC Adv., 2020, 10, 8161-8171
DOI: 10.1039/D0RA00164C, Paper

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We are very pleased to introduce Dr Sheta M. Sheta, corresponding author of the paper ‘A novel cerium(iii)–isatin Schiff base complex: spectrofluorometric and DFT studies and application as a kidney biomarker for ultrasensitive detection of human creatinine‘. The article has been very well received and handpicked by our reviewers and handling editors as one of our February HOT articles. Sheta was kind enough to tell us more about the work that went into this article and what he hopes to achieve in the future. You can find out more about the author and his article below and find more HOT articles in our online collection.

Meet the Author

Dr Sheta obtained his BSc and Masters degrees in applied chemistry from Helwan University, Egypt in 2004 and 2010 respectively. Following this, he joined the National Research Centre, Egypt in 2013 and obtained his PhD in inorganic-analytical chemistry from Ain Shams University, Egypt in 2015. His research interests include the preparation, characterization and application of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), complexes, nanomaterials in general and specifically sensors, biosensors, medical laboratories, innovation and development of analytical techniques and methodologies for tumor markers, drugs and hormones determinations and biological activities studies as well as nano-catalysis and nano-ceramic materials. Dr. Sheta is also interested in nanostructured mesoporous materials and transition metal nanowires and particles, treatment of wastewater with conventional and advanced technologies, advanced oxidation technologies, nano-ceramic materials for advanced applications such as surface coatings and the reinforcement and conversion of CO₂ to renewable fuel. In addition, he has experience in waste treatment/recycling and environmental pollution control, removal of bacteria and algae from fresh and marine waters. He has organized and coordinated local and international events and often speaks at international conferences/symposia. He serves as an Editorial board member and reviewer of several reputed international journals.

Could you briefly explain the focus of your article to the non-specialist (in one or two sentences only) and why it is of current interest?
This work introduced a novel and promising analytical tool for the detection and quantification of creatinine as one of the most important kidney biomarkers.

How big an impact could your results potentially have?
The results showed a simple, low cost analytical tool with a fast response time, high sensitivity, high accuracy/precision, reproducibility, applicability, a lower limit of detection/quantification than in previously published reports and good recovery in the determination of creatinine in various real samples (serum/plasma).

Could you explain the motivation behind this study?
• Strengthening the national income related to import many tools and devices like pregnancy strips, diabetes devices and more.
• Applying nanotechnology to synthesize smart and advanced materials that can improve the efficiency of the target device.
• Trying to produce a prototype that is more selective, sensitive, costs less and is simple and fast compared to those available on the market.

In your opinion, what are the key design considerations for your study?
• Preparation of a novel nanomaterial step
• Characterization step
• DFT study
• Application step

Which part of the work towards this paper proved to be most challenging?
The characterization of the prepared compounds.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?
Studying the anticancer and biological activities of the prepared compounds and the transferring of the research methodology to small device.

What is the next step? What work is planned?
Based on the point-of-care testing (POCT) systems and near patient testing devices, we will to try to transfer the research methodology to small device.

A novel cerium(iii)–isatin Schiff base complex: spectrofluorometric and DFT studies and application as a kidney biomarker for ultrasensitive detection of human creatinine
Sheta M. Sheta, Magda A. Akl, Heba E. Saad and El-Sayed R. H. El-Gharkawy
RSC Adv., 2020, 10, 5853-5863
DOI: 10.1039/C9RA10133K , Paper

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