CINTACS Newsletter of the Cincinnati Section of the American Chemical Society  Vol. 37, No. 6 - February, 2000

In this issue

Congratulations to the Cincinnati Chemist of the Year (Brian Halsall, Dept. of Chemistry, U. of Cincinnati) and the Research Associate of the Year (Jim Ridgeway, Procter & Gamble). It is a great honor for the Local Section to award these two chemists for their many contributions to the field. Details follow in this CINTACS issue. The meeting will again be held at the Procter & Gamble Health Care Research Center on February 23rd and I hope many of you will take the opportunity to visit this spectacular new research facility. We also thank Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals for partially sponsoring the event. This meeting will also feature Colloid Chemistry (Robert Corkery, P&G) and Biochemistry (John E. Maggio, UC) Discussion Group Sessions as highlighted further in this CINTACS.

I have received many compliments from members concerning our program this year which I very much appreciate. I also want to give credit where it is due since this was such a team effort. I especially thank Prof. Jim Knittel, our past chair, for his contribution of organizing a "meeting planning committee" to help me develop the 99/00 program. Jim enlisted a committee composed of himself, Ted Logan and Susan Ross to work with me to brainstorm and identify the range of speakers that we have planned this season. As time went on others such as Jeff Hayes and Larry Doemeny joined in to play major roles. A similar strategy for program planning is now getting underway with for the 00/01 meeting season. This new team would welcome suggestions from our membership. Please contact Chair-Elect Rick Fayter (829-3507, rick.fayter@cognis-us.com) with your ideas.

This brings up a point that may be transparent to some of the membership. The role of the chair-elect is a very active one prior to the year of chairmanship. In particular, the prior six months, if not earlier, is one that includes the planning of the following years budget, primary speakers, and meeting sites and format. Additionally, our in-coming chair sacrifices a weekend to participate in a training session put on by the American Chemical Society. In these training sessions a wealth of information on topics ranging from successful meeting and section organization tips to the workings and activities of the National ACS is transmitted. These sessions also offer our chair-elect the opportunity to interact and compare notes with other in-coming chairs from around the country, importantly many counterparts from larger sections such as ours.

For the February meeting in particular, and for all of the meetings that we have had so far in the 99/00 section year, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ms. Vicki Libbin for her overall meeting coordination efforts. So much goes on behind the scenes to organize our meetings in a successful fashion. I know it is greatly in part to her personal touch in interactions with the meeting facilities personnel, and the members of our society, that has contributed to high attendance this year. I would also like to announce the addition to the meeting arrangements committee, Ms. Debbie Lewis at Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals, who will now take on many primary roles in this function including reservations (622 3353). Please note the change in phone numbers for reservations, but don’t be concerned if you have already registered directly with Vicki, as she will continue to insure we have many more successful meetings.

We are now in the late stages of finalizing the details of our annual section Party Night. Since this is the year that a major section effort culminates in the organization and sponsoring of the ACS Central Regional Meeting May 16-19, 2000 it seemed appropriate to organize a conjoining section member event. Therefore our Party Night this year will involve participation in the social activities of the Regional meeting on Thursday May 18th. The current plan is to offer a group visit to the Aquarium late in the afternoon followed by the reception at the Marriot. I hope this will be a valued additional opportunity for our membership to personally participate as hosts of this years Regional meeting. Further details will be announced in upcoming CINTACS.

As always, I look forward to seeing you at our monthly section meetings. Please keep your suggestions coming to both myself and the incoming chair Dr. Rick Fayter. We continue to have many opportunities for you to join in on various committees this year and next. Please contact us or the committee chairs directly about your interests in participating.

F. Hal Ebetino
Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals
ebetino.fh@pg.com

Program
 

5:30 - 6:15 pm	Biochemistry Discussion Group, HCRC Auditorium Dr. John E. Maggio, University of Cincinnati Pathological peptide misfolding - In vitro growth of Alzheimer's disease amyloid plaques Colloid Discussion Group, Harvard Room Robert Corkery, PhD, Corporate Research Division, Procter & Gamble From whale food to new porous materials using biomimetic strategies
6:00 - 7:00 pm	Reception: assorted soft drinks, beer and wine. Chips & pretzels with dip, Assorted cheese tray
7:00 pm	Buffet Dinner - Cost $24 - Grilled marinated chicken breast, Romaine Greek salad with feta cheese, cucumbers, tomotaoes and black olives, Tortellini in Maranara Sauce, Brocolli with cheese sauce; Fresh baked dinner rolls & butter; Dessert: Assorted miniature pies, petit fors, miniature eclairs, chocolate covered strawberries, plus a platter of fresh sliced melons, pineapple,strawberries,and grapes with dip.
8:15 pm	Presentation of awards to the Cincinnati Chemist of the Year, and Research Associate of the Year  Talk by Cincinnati Chemist of the Year, Brian Halsall, University of Cincinnati Punctuated Equilibrium in Research - From Concept to Device

Reservations: Call the section answering line at (513) 622-3353 or e-mail cintacs.im@pg.com Include your name (complete with correct spelling), phone number and affiliation. Please specify if this is your first Cincinnati ACS meeting when making your reservation. All reservations must be received by noon, Monday, Feb. 21, 2000. If you have any difficulties, please call Vicki Libbin at (513) 622-2495. As a reminder, if you decide you must miss a meeting after you have made reservations, please call to cancel. If you do not cancel, the Section will have to charge you because it will have been charged by the hotel. Payment will be received at the door. Guests are always welcome; emeritus, unemployed, new, and student members are half price.

Directions: Follow 71 N to the Fields-Ertel exit. This is the first exit past 275. Make a left at the light onto Mason-Montgomery Rd. Stay on Mason-Montgomery Rd for approx. 2 miles. Natorps is on the left, there is a Biggs and a Lowes on the right. You will be able to see the HCRC (Health Care Research Center) after Mason-Montgomery Rd crosses Irwin-Simpson Rd. Stay on Mason-Montgomery and turn right at the first P&G sign. Follow the road straight to the main entrance where the flag poles are. Park outside the main entrance in the visitor’s lot.

Abstract: The last 20 years has witnessed a revolution in our ability to manipulate and measure molecules, with 'nano' becoming a buzz-prefix. Some small things come from large beginnings, however, where the development is vertical rather than lateral. This has been the case for immunoassay with electrochemical detection, a technique that has evolved from a single assay done at a dropping mercury electrode, to simultaneous multianalysis on a chip, and complex immunosensing microdevices. The presentation will outline that evolution, focus on the personalities involved, and define important punctuation points that resulted in significant advances.

About the Speaker: Born in Harrow, England, H. Brian Halsall received a PhD in physical biochemistry from the University of Birmingham in 1967. He left the grime of the industrial English Midlands immediately to enjoy sun, sand, surf, and culture shock during a post-doc at UCLA, followed by four years in the MAN program at Oak Ridge National Labs. It was during these two residencies that he took a preparative device, the zonal centrifuge, and developed it as an analytical tool for determining the sedimentation and diffusion coefficients of macromolecules. He also developed a practical solution for the problem of droplet sedimentation in density gradient separations. Moving to Cincinnati and a happy reunion with academia in 1974, he returned to the enigmatic alpha-one acid glycoprotein. Among many other studies, his group was the first to determine the glycan structures at each of the five glycosylation sites in AAG in normals and the diseased state, finding evidence of disease specificity and prognostic value in the changes at individual sites. In 1977, a collaboration with Bill Heineman turned to exploring electrochemistry as a detection method for immunoassay, and the subsequent developments are widely regarded as the definitive and pioneering work in this area. Professor Halsall has published 135 papers to date.

About the Discussion Group Leader: John E. Maggio studied organic chemistry and biochemistry as a graduate student (Ph.D. Harvard University 1981) and peptide neuropharmacology as a postdoc (University of Cambridge, UK, Yale University). He served on the faculty of the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School from 1984 to 1997. He is presently van Maanen Professor of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics and Director of the Department of Pharmacology and Cell Biophysics at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. His research interests include protein chemistry and spectroscopy, bioactive peptides and their receptors, drug discovery, and protein-protein interactions.

Abstract: About two dozen human diseases are caused by the misfolding of normally innocuous soluble proteins into an aberrant conformation which forms insoluble amyloid aggregates that grow large enough to disrupt cell and tissue function. The amyloid plaques that are the hallmark pathological feature of Alzheimer's disease can be grown in vitro, enabling detailed study of kinetics, conformation, and conformational changes in the 40-mer peptide A-beta which makes up the amyloid. While the growth of the plaques is extremely favorable thermodynamically, it is kinetically vulnerable to therapeutic intervention.

About the Discussion Group Leader: Robert Corkery received his Bachelor of Science degree in Geophysics from the Australian National University as well as his PhD, for research entitled "Artificial Biomineralization" from the Department of Materials and Physical Sciences. Dr. Corkery carried out postdoctoral research at the Australian National University, as well as at the University of Lund in Sweden. He currently carries out research on biomimetic materials in the Corporate Research Division of Procter & Gamble.

Abstract: Self-assembly of amphiphilic biomolecules coordinates the complex architectures and functions of living things, from mesostructured cell membranes to macroscopic bones and teeth. The 1992 announcement by Mobil of MCM-41 heralded the paradigm shift to artificial biomineral synthesis using self-assemblies of small surfactant molecules as templates. MCM-41, a so-called "wide-pore zeolite" is x-ray amorphous at atomic scale yet is highly x-ray crystalline at molecular scale. MCM-41 has regularly spaced hexagonal rod pores of 4-10nm diameter. This type of scaled hierarchy in ordering was known in biosystems such as the shells of marine plankton, but not in man-made systems.

By the mid-90's other inorganic oxides and phosphates, etc, were grown and rearranged into a plenitude of structures and biomimetic forms using similar, relatively small template systems to those used for MCM-41. An exciting and recent step to macromolecular directing agents has subsequently extended the size-range, diversity and utility of man-made biomineral analogs and has demonstrated the robustness of the self-assembled template concept.

As an exciting example of this shift to larger length-scale inorganic forms, new multilamellar vesicle and polyhedral cellular foams morphologies will be presented. The vesicles are multilayers of flattened curved discs resembling onions. When swollen with oil, the onions can yield exceptionally porous glass microfoams (up to 90% porous). Polyhedral foam cell sizes can be tuned by temperature or composition from around 20nm up to 100nm, and connections between cells ensure excellent permeability to liquids and gases. These materials are thermally resistant to over 850 deg C.

In the future, biomimetic materials such as these will no doubt benefit hi-tech applications in areas such as non-linear optics, gas storage, drug delivery, catalysis, quantum dot encapsulation, reaction confinement and molecular sieving.

The Section Nominating Committee requests nominations for the following elected positions within the section: First Vice-Chair Chair-Elect, Second Vice-Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Alternate Councilor and Councilor. The deadline for nominations is March 1, 2000. Nominations should be sent to:

James J. Knittel, james.knittel@uc.edu

The Awards Committee is pleased to announce that Jim Ridgeway of Procter & Gamble, has been chosen as the Cincinnati Research Assistant of the Year 2000. Jim obtained his B.S. degree in biochemistry from Illinois Benedictine College in 1991. He then entered graduate school at Iowa State University where he joined George Kraus’s group and completed the first total synthesis (nine steps) of the furoisocoumarin natural product coriandrin. He obtained his M.S. Degree from Iowa State in August 1994.

Jim joined P&G in June of 1994 in the Pharmaceuticals Research Division. Since then he has taken numerous courses both inside and outside of Procter & Gamble, has led several seminars, and was chosen to attend the Gordon Conference for Organic Reactions and Processes in 1996.

Please join the awards committee in congratulating Mr. Ridgeway on receiving this award.

The Awards Committee is pleased to announce the selection of H. Brian Halsall of the University of Cincinnati as the Cincinnati Section's Chemist of the Year 2000. Dr. Halsall studied at the University of Birmingham, England, receiving his BSc in 1964 and PhD in 1967. He joined the University of Cincinnati in 1974. Since then he has led research efforts in "Sensors and ultrasensitve immunoassay" which use electrochemical detection, in "Bioanalytical methods", and in the structure of alpha-one acid glycoprotein. He has numerous publications, invited lectures, and papers.

Please join the awards committee in congratulating Dr. Halsall on receiving this award!

This widely acclaimed 2-day ACS course will be offered locally at a substantial discount (over 50% savings!!) to what you would pay at Pittcon or at the ACS National Meeting. To facilitate planning, we ask that you please e-mail or mail an indication of your intent to register for the course by February 18 to:

D. Richard White, eMail:white.dr.2@pg.com

(NOTE: An indication of intent will not obligate you to register for the course and you will not incur any charges at this time. A FINAL ANNOUNCEMENT with dates, location and registration details will appear in the March issue of CINTACS or e-mailed to you if you provide your e-mail address.)

Who Should Attend This Course: Researchers, practitioners, technicians, and others who are currently using LC, LC/MS, or plan to use LC/MS in the future, and those dealing with data produced by LC/MS. Chromatographers just embarking on the technique will gain insight to select the appropriate instrument for different applications, and those currently using LC/MS and its data will develop an appreciation for, and an understanding of, the complexities of the data generated.

Key Topics about which you will learn:

· Solvent delivery systems, columns, interfaces, ionization methods, and mass analyzers; methods; and data evaluation
· What types of instruments are available for various types of analytes
· What are the latest developments in instrumentation
· How to get structural information from LC/MS
· How to deal with multiple-charge ions
· What changes may have to be made when porting an LC method to an LC/MS method
· Types of mass analyzers, and which is most suitable for a given analysis by LC/MS
· Steps in the interpretation of collision-induced dissociation (CID) data
· How ions are formed in an LC/MS analysis
· Approaches to problem solving with LC/MS

About the Instructors

O. David Sparkman has been teaching ACS Short Courses in mass spectrometry since 1978 and is consistently one of the highest rated ACS instructors in the program. He has numerous publications in computer applications to mass spectrometry and has been involved in the development of a number of several different data systems for hyphenated techniques in mass spectrometry.

Frederick E. Klink, currently a consultant in LC, LC/MS, and other scientific instrumentation has worked with a variety of industrial clients. He has 16 years of experience in the analytical instrument industry, where he held a variety of technical and management positions.

The next meeting of the WCC is scheduled for Sat. Feb 12, at 12:00 at the Greenbriar Clubhouse in Mason. Dr. Joan Simunic, Ph.D., J.D., a local chemist and patent attorney with Wheat, Smith & Beres in Louisville, KY, will be the speaker. In addition, plans for the Cincinnati Women Chemists Committee during the upcoming year will be discussed. Please join us to share a casual lunch and some new ideas for the future. The cost for lunch will be $6.00. For information or directions please check the WCC website at wcc.che.uc.edu/acs/wccindex.htm. If you do plan to attend, or have any questions, contact Lisa Anderson at anderll@email.uc.edu.

Miami University chemistry professor Joe Cantrell headed south in December, as a part of an 8-member team that spent 10 days in a tent near the South Pole, studying the chemical composition of lakes in the region. These lakes provide natural laboratories through which this team could explore the role of bacteria in cleansing the nearly pristine lakes found there, with the goal of applying their findings to lakes in the rest of the world. While their visit was during the Antarctic summer, they still faced very rigorous conditions, with winds as strong as 120 mph and the possibility of blizzards. The team of researchers also included Professor Bill Green from Miami University as well as two Miami students. We will look forward to a first-hand report on this exciting and challenging venture.

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THE CINTACS NEWSLETTER

Editor.........................Bruce S. Ault
Advertising......Sameer Choudhary

CINTACS is published nine times a year (September through May) by the Cincinnati Section of the American Chemical Society. All changes of address should be sent to Emel Yakali at Raymond Walters College, email mc.acs@uc.edu

SUBMISSION DEADLINES

The submission deadline for the April issue is Wednesday, February 23, 2000.. Electronic submission is strongly preferred. (except for original photos). All materials should be sent to:

Bruce Ault
Department of Chemistry
University of Cincinnati
E-mail: bruce.ault@uc.edu

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