Chemistry & Biochemistry News

May 15, 2012
Professor studies carbon in rivers

“Carbon is one of the main currencies of most living things on the planet. Almost everything that is alive needs organic carbon for energy,’’ says Hilairy Hartnett, associate professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration, and in the department of chemistry and biochemistry at Arizona State University, in a story that appeared in U.S. News & World Report May 9.

Hartnett describes the importance of carbon – one of the most abundant elements in the universe, and carbon compounds form the basis for all known life – and discusses her research into what happens to carbon in the Colorado River, a large and heavily managed river that flows 1,450 miles from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of California, and serves as the main water supply for the desert Southwest, including Arizona, Southern Utah, Nevada and Southern California.

Her goal is to understand how organic carbon moves from the land to the ocean, and how it changes, or doesn’t change, along the way.

“I would like to know how biogeochemical processes in rivers affect the type of carbon that gets to the ocean," she says. "When you look at the ocean, you’re not looking at pieces of tree. I want to know what happens to that material before it gets to the ocean. We want to know how much carbon makes it all the way to the end of the river, and how is it different from the carbon at the beginning?”

Hartnett is studying carbon in the Colorado River under a National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award, which she received in 2009 as part of NSF’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The award supports junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organization. NSF is funding her work with about $574,000 over five years.
Nikki Cassis, ncassis@asu.edu
602-710-7169
School of Earth and Space Exploration

Article source:
U.S.News & World Report

Article:
http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2012/05/09/studying-carbon-in-rivers

May 1, 2012
Ian Gould Named 2012 Professor of the Year

Parents Association applauds 29 professors’ teaching and research excellence at annual event

The Arizona State University Parents Association honored Ian Gould, professor of chemistry and biochemistry in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, as the 2012 Professor of the Year for his lifelong commitment to science and his ability to inspire students to become innovative in often-difficult chemistry classes.

With his internationally recognized career and extensive ongoing research, Gould provides tremendous vision and direction to ASU students. Through passionate and inspirational classroom instruction, he demonstrates a powerful devotion to undergraduate students and inspires each to excel both in and out of the classroom.

“The students are number one. I’ve learned something from every one of them,” said Gould, receiving the honor before more than 200 ASU faculty, students, staff, administrators, parents, friends and other nominees at the Faculty Excellence Awards. “I didn’t prepare to win. There were a lot of nominees, and statistically it seemed improbable.”

Parents Association Special Recognition awards also were presented to Lenore Dai, professor of chemical engineering in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, and Danwen Jiang, professor of music in the Herberger Institute of Design and the Arts. Information and a video about the 29 nominees can be found at asu.edu/pty.

Originally from the United Kingdom, Gould has received honors for his distinguished work, including the Organic Chemistry Prize in 1977 from Manchester University and the Gramatacakis Neumann Award in 1985 from the European Photochemical Association. Gould also won a CLAS Distinguished Teaching Award in 2002 and appointment to ASU’s President’s Professors in 2005.

After a substantial research career at Eastman Kodak, Gould joined ASU in 1998 offering students a strong industry perspective of science, resulting in his on-site and online classes filling quickly. While teaching, Gould takes time from his personal life to ensure he allows for one-on-one meetings with any student that requires his assistance. Gould, who received his doctorate in 1980 from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, was promoted to full professor at ASU in 2004.

The ASU Parents Association awarded the first Professor of the Year in 1994. Thanks to the continued generosity of ASU families and the participation of ASU students, faculty and staff, the ASU Parents Association bestows this prestigious honor annually. Four undergraduate students and three faculty colleagues contributed letters in support of Gould’s nomination. These letters were considered by the committee of parents, other Professors of the Year and scholarship students in recognizing Gould.

By Lindsay Ivins, editorial intern, ASU Foundation for A New American University, livins@mainex1.asu.edu

The 2012 ASU Faculty Achievement Awards honor 10 faculty university wide for accomplishments in two general areas: Excellence in scholarly and creative activities, and excellence in teaching/instruction. Professor Petra Fromme received this year's award for her innovative research.

The citation reads, “For pioneering research into new approaches for atomic structure determination of biological nanocrystals, and biomolecules including proteins, macromolecular structures, and viruses."

Leading a pioneering international research team alongside professor R. Bruce Doak and Regents’ Professor John C. H. Spence, Fromme’s work has led to the development of a revolutionary new approach to determining atomic structures utilizing pulsed X-ray laser radiation focused on a stream of micro-droplets containing nanocrystals or biomolecules. Fromme is being recognized for her extraordinary contributions developing methods for the preparation of biological nanocrystals and biomolecules, as well as X-ray diffraction analysis.

April 18, 2012
New mineral named after ASU professor

In a first for the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, a recently discovered mineral has been named after one of our faculty. The mineral, buseckite, was discovered in a meteorite found near the village of Zakłodzie, Poland. Peter Buseck is a Regents’ Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the School of Earth and Space Exploration in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Last month scientists from the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology presented their findings of the discovery of the new mineral, buseckite, at the 43rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference near Houston, Texas. A paper by Chi Ma, John R. Beckett and George R. Rossman describing buseckite will be published in July 2012.

Although far more common than new elements, new minerals are relatively rare. The names of the minerals are chosen by the discoverers, after approval by a commission of the International Mineralogical Association. Minerals are generally named after their compositions, places where first found, or people chosen to be honored.

To quote Ma et al., “The name is in honor of Peter R. Buseck, a mineralogist at Arizona State University, for his many contributions to mineralogy, meteorite research and transmission electron microscopy.”

Buseckite is an iron-rich sulfide with a wurtzite-type structure. It is black, opaque, and also contains zinc, manganese, and magnesium. The mineral and its name have been approved by the Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification of the International Mineralogical Association (IMA 2011- 070).

Dr. William Petuskey, Chair of the Department, Michael Kenney and Dr. Devens Gust at the Chemistry Award Ceremony

April 12, 2012
Michael Kenney, chemistry senior, honored as one of first Dean's medalists

Honoring academic achievement, Dean’s Medals will adorn 18 of the 4,000 ASU seniors graduating with degrees in natural sciences, humanities and social sciences this spring. The medal was created by Robert E. Page, Jr., dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, to recognize the top graduating student in each of the degree-granting schools and departments in the college.

This is the first year this highly competitive award will be given.

Those honored are ASU seniors Michael Kenney, Mirna Hodzic, Christopher Swift, Deanna Stover, Christopher Jelen, Bryan Rock, Gina Mazza, Stevie Louise Dunn, Sean Cohmer, My Huynh, Amanda Willman, Latanya Hatahli, Chelsea Patchen, Briana Tyson, Cindy Quintero, Sebastian Paz, Catherine Loden and Alexandra Tsontakis.

“I congratulate each of these students for their academic success and their drive to embrace the many opportunities that a liberal arts and sciences college offers,” says Dean Page, who is also the ASU vice provost and a Foundation Professor in the School of Life Sciences. “These are exceptional pioneers, with vision to translate the skills they’ve sought out at ASU into tools to change the world.”

The medalists come from a diversity of backgrounds. Some students, like Loden, grew up in small towns. Originally from White Oaks, Texas, with a population of 5,600, Loden double-majored in sociology and psychology at ASU. She was also a member of First Team PAC-10 All-Academic Women’s Cross Country and has pursued work with refugees from Nepal. Other medal winners arose from immigrant roots, such as Alexandra Tsontakis, who is the first in her family to complete a college degree.

Tsontakis will leave ASU with three bachelor’s degrees in global studies, political science and economics. She is bound for medical school and “motivated to improve the lives of people,” notes Patrick Kenney, incoming dean of social sciences in the college.

Three medal winners, Kenny, Hodzic and Swift, will also receive the ASU Alumni Association Outstanding Graduate Award, in natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities.

Outstanding social science graduate Hodzic will complete a degree in global health and two minors: one in speech and hearing science and the other in sustainability. She is a member of ASU’s Barrett Honors College and served as a peer mentor with the President Barack Obama Scholars Program. She was chosen as a Dean’s Medalist for her academic excellence, her extensive undergraduate research activities in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, and her service with the ASU Global Health Student Association, where she served as co-president. Hodzic came to ASU from North Canyon High School, was awarded an ASU Presidential Merit Scholarship, and will pursue her interests in public health in a graduate program in the fall.

Swift, the outstanding humanities graduate, will receive three degrees: history, economics and political science. A senior in ASU’s School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, Swift came to ASU from Gresham, Oregon. He is a member of the Barrett Honors College, an ASU Gammage Scholar, a J.P. Morgan Chase Scholar and also a recipient of an ASU National Merit Scholarship. Swift has been accepted to Stanford Law School as a candidate for Juris Doctor.

“Doing well in traditional academic course work does not always correlate with being a creative, productive experimental scientist, and many students can excel in one of these areas but not the other. Michael Kenney is one of those few individuals who has great talent in both,” says Gust, who is also the director of ASU’s Center for Bio-Inspired Solar Fuel Production. “Michael’s research is directed towards finding new ways to harvest solar energy in order to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. In the laboratory, he can solve problems creatively, he works hard, and he has developed a wide variety of skills in both organic synthesis and the use of different kinds of instrumentation. Michael will be attending graduate school in chemistry next fall, and has the tools and ability to make major contributions to the discipline, and to society.”

Peggy Coulombe, Margaret.Coulombe@asu.edu
(480) 727-8934
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

March 6, 2012
From the Lab to the Marketplace

Arizona Technology Enterprises (AzTE), ASU’s technology venturing arm, recently held its Annual Inventorship Recognition Reception at the University Club.

Awards were presented to ASU researchers who received patents during the 2011 FY. Almost 50% of issued patents were from the department of chemistry and biochemistry, a very impressive statistic.

Awardees from our department included Austen Angell, Alicia Brune, Ian Gould, Devens Gust, Mark Hayes, John Kouvetakis, Ana Moore, Thomas Moore, Thomas Taylor and Peter Williams.

AzTE ranks in the top ten Among Technology Transfer agencies serving U.S. institutions with at least $200 million in research expenditures, when rated by the number of invention disclosures, licenses and options, and startups formed per $10 million in research expenditure. This information is available from recent reports from the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM). AZTE ranks highly in terms of both inputs (inventions disclosed to AzTE by ASU researchers) and outputs (licensing deals and option agreements).

February 15, 2012
ASU names Hao Yan as inaugural Glick Chair

Arizona State University has named Hao Yan the Milton D. Glick Distinguished Chair of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

The award is named for chemistry professor Milton Glick who passed away last year. Glick came to ASU in the early 1990s and worked as a provost and executive vice president before serving as president of the University of Nevada Reno from 2006 until his death.

Milt Glick understood the potential of science to solve some of our societal challenges,” says Crow who created the award to honor exceptional professors who will have dramatic impact on their areas of science and beyond. “Hao Yan’s inspiration of students and break-neck speed in developing new technologies that may spark entirely new solutions in medicine and energy make him the appropriate inaugural recipient.”

Honoree Hao Yan is a recognized leader in the fast-moving field known as structural DNA nanotechnology, or DNA origami. His research team at ASU’s Biodesign Institute® was the first to successfully construct closed 3-D DNA nanoforms.

The innovation of building closed structures out of DNA provides a type of basket made from the building blocks of life that opens doors to a wide array of future applications. Such DNA containers may be the lynch pin for developing ultra-tiny computing components and nanomedical sentries used to target and destroy aberrant cells or deliver therapeutics at the cellular or molecular level. Yan’s string of discoveries in DNA origami included constructing a DNA Mobius strip and programming an autonomous molecular robot made from DNA to start, move, turn and stop while following a DNA track. Such robots may one day be used for medical therapeutic devices.

“Hao is remarkably bright and energetic with a fantastic record of innovation,” says Stuart Lindsay, director of Biodesign’s Center for Single Molecule Biophysics, where Yan conducts his research. “It is fitting, that at 40, he is now probably one of the youngest holders of an endowed chair in the United States. This award is both a tribute to Hao and a sign of how much ASU values its star faculty.”

As a professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Yan has created an interactive environment in undergraduate and graduate courses that allows students to participate in class discussions, developed graduate courses that integrate research advances in cutting-edge interdisciplinary classes, and mentored and inspired students to be original thinkers in both research and the classroom.

“Professor Yan has produced a rapid and constant stream of innovative ideas and patents, an extreme rate of first-rate publications, impressive new approaches to teaching and training and an astounding rate of winning research funding,” says nominator William Petuskey, chair of chemistry and biochemistry.

Since coming to ASU in 2004, Yan has been a blur of activity. Of the 101 peer-reviewed publications and nine book chapters he has published since his graduate school, 80 publications and five book chapters are based on the work he has done at ASU. Yan’s research has been cited more than 4,000 times, an average rate of 35 citations per publication. Yan’s research enterprise is externally funded at a rate of $1.6 million a year. After just four years as assistant professor at ASU, Crow selected him for tenure faculty exemplar, promoting Yan to full professor with tenure, a feat almost unheard of in academia.

Prior to three years at Duke University as assistant research professor in the Department of Computer Science, Yan completed a doctorate in chemistry at New York University. He earned a bachelor's in Chemistry at Shandong University in Jinan, China. Other honors for Yan have included an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (2008-10), National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2006-2011), Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Award (2007-2010), and the Arizona Technology Enterprise Innovator of Tomorrow Award (2006).

link to ASU news

February 14, 2012
ASU’s ‘Night of the Open Door’ Welcomes All

It’s fitting that a glow-in-the-dark owl will adorn volunteers’ shirts at Arizona State University’s Night of the Open Door, because for one night only, from 5-9 p.m., March 3, ASU’s Tempe campus will shine a spotlight on more than 165 activities to celebrate the sciences, arts, humanities and engineering as part of the Arizona SciTech Festival.

Patterned after Germany’s Long Night of Museums and science lab open houses, ASU has created a signature event, the “Night of the Open Door,” in support of the Arizona SciTech Festival -- a statewide initiative of more than 150 events that celebrates the spirit of innovation for the state’s upcoming centennial. 

 ASU’s inaugural “Night of the Open Door” will be an exciting evening of activities and events as we celebrate the sciences, engineering, humanities, arts and the breadth of innovation on ASU’s Tempe campus.



Discover the creative energy that powers a world-class university. Teenagers, children, parents, neighbors and entrepreneurs can come into our laboratories, living collections, museums, and participate in artistic performances, talks and hands-on activities.

The department of chemistry and biochemistry will participate with a full slate of hands-on demos for kids of all ages, tabletop experiments, informal presentations, glassblowing demonstrations, and tours of some labs

January 27, 2012
The future of health care

The United States spends more per capita on health care than any other developed nation, and has the highest growth rate in health care costs, as well. In 2009, these costs reached $2.5 trillion, making up almost 1 in every 5 dollars – or 17 percent – of our gross domestic product.

In spite of these expenditures, the United States is far from the top of the list in terms of health care quality, efficiency or access. The World Health Organization ranked the United States just 37 out of 191 countries for overall health, responsiveness of the health system, and fairness in financing. Life expectancy in the United States ranks only 50th in the world, according to the CIA World Factbook.

To address these issues, a group of researchers at ASU are approaching health care from multiple, innovative perspectives. Their goals are to improve human health and well-being while simultaneously reducing the costs of care.

Creating high-value health care
One important reason that health care costs have skyrocketed while quality has not is that our current system is not designed to promote high-value health care, says Denis Cortese, the director of ASU’s Health Care Delivery and Policy Program.

“There are a bunch of stakeholders that come to the table to maximize their own sector,” he says. “It’s like an orchestra. If every player decided they were going to play as loud as they could, they’re not going to make very nice music.”

One factor driving up costs is that not everyone is insured. The law mandates that emergency rooms must treat anyone in need, regardless of whether or not they are insured. While this is good and necessary, Cortese says it encourages the uninsured to wait until they are very sick and then go to the most expensive place for treatment. With 50 million uninsured Americans, those costs add up quickly.

The way in which health care providers are paid also increases costs, Cortese says.

“We pay money in a fee-for-service environment, which means I make more money if I keep you sick,” he explains. “We pay doctors and hospitals and nurses more money the sicker you are – just the reverse of what we say we want. We’re not paying people to keep you healthy, we pay them when you’re sick.”

In order to receive payment from the federal health insurance program Medicare, which covers 47 million Americans, health care practitioners must keep extensive documentation of everything they do in treating a patient. This is where the “fee-for-service” concept comes in.

“The sicker you are, the more procedures you’re going to have done, the longer you’re in the hospital – the more money everybody makes,” Cortese says. “But the patient is getting sicker, and we’re not getting the results we want.”

Doctors should be rewarded for keeping people healthy, rather than getting paid based on the tests and procedures they have done to treat a patient, he says.

At the Health Care Delivery and Policy Program, Cortese is working with 16 different organizations that want to provide high-value care for their patients, rather than participate in the fee-for-service model. The program connects these organizations with insurance providers that are willing to pay doctors and hospitals that want to provide better care for their patients.

Some of these health care providers are small, such as a single hospital, while others are large, spreading across multiple states and many different hospitals. All of the organizations want to provide better care at a lower cost to their patients.

“We need that mindset in health care that you’re not going to get paid until you’re producing high-value care,” Cortese says.

Technology to the rescue
One of the challenges in providing better care is that many hospitals and doctors’ offices have been slow to adopt technology that could simplify health care for everyone.

It’s common these days to get current traffic alerts on a smartphone, or to read about breaking news as it happens on Facebook or Twitter. With the capabilities to access instant, real-time information from almost anywhere, it’s surprising that many medical doctors are using outdated information technologies.

“It’s a frequent and bitter joke in the health care field that your average truck driver has better information technologies available to him than a doctor does in the office,” says Michael Birt, director of the Center for Sustainable Health in ASU’s Biodesign Institute.

Birt says that doctors often don’t have a good idea of how their patients are doing over time because no one continuously acquires and records that data.

“You go to a doctor every three months or six months, she tells you what to do, and then you ignore it until you go back again. That’s essentially how our health system works for prevention or primary care,” Birt says.

The center is working to implement technology that monitors a patient’s health over time and feeds that data back to their doctor. This will allow for a more meaningful health assessment than could be achieved in a single visit. That real-time data also would lead to faster diagnoses, and it will help patients recognize behaviors that are negatively impacting their health.

“It will be harder to pretend that something isn’t happening if that data is available,” Birt says.

In addition to improving individual health, a focus on technology and metrics could make health care more affordable and economically sustainable for the country. Birt says having access to current health data would allow doctors to determine a patient’s “biosignature,” or the most effective strategy to tackle that patient’s health issues.

A biosignature is a spectrum of health information that allows a system to know which diagnostic capabilities to use in a way that is cost-effective.

“The problem has been that technologies are often in silos, and our ability to integrate them has been very limited,” Birt says. For example, an X-ray will provide a completely different set of information than a blood test. They both meet a need, but one may be more appropriate than the other in a given situation.

“It’s not just doing the maximum number of tests,” Birt explains. “It’s doing the right one, at the right time, the right way, and with a cost impact.”

Getting personal
Another way to lower costs, as well as reduce suffering, is to detect diseases early – possibly even before symptoms arise. For some diseases, such as cancer, early detection can drastically improve the odds of survival.

Joshua LaBaer is the director of ASU’s Center for Personalized Diagnostics at the Biodesign Institute. One of the ongoing projects in his lab is identifying breast cancer biomarkers, which are unique molecular indicators of disease. These biomarkers will allow doctors to detect breast cancer earlier so that treatment can be administered earlier.

Using a new, powerful method for rapidly screening molecules associated with disease, LaBaer’s team has identified a broad panel of 28 biomarkers that could aid in early diagnosis. They also have pinpointed more than 30 breast cancer gene targets – including several novel genes – that are involved in drug resistance to a leading chemotherapy treatment.

These gene targets exemplify a common problem in medical diagnosis and treatment. A single disease can affect people in different ways because of their unique molecular composition.

“If you’ve got brothers and sisters, you’re probably astounded at how different they all are from you,” says Stuart Lindsay, the director of the Center for Single Molecule Biophysics at ASU’s Biodesign Institute. “Though your siblings carry basically very similar genomes, the way in which those genomes are ordered is radically different from child to child. This is the result of a process called meiotic recombination, which sort of throws the Darwinian dice every time a new human is conceived.”

The genome is the sum of a person’s hereditary information, encoded into his or her DNA. Genetic variation can cause two people diagnosed with the same type of cancer to respond differently to the same therapy. For example, the people with the genes identified by LaBaer’s group won’t derive much benefit from tamoxifen as a treatment for breast cancer, even though the drug is a lifesaver for many.

Knowing the genetic makeup of their patients could allow doctors to provide the best possible care for each patient. What’s the catch? Sequencing an entire human genome can cost tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Lindsay developed a new method of sequencing and reading genomes that is faster and less expensive than other techniques currently available because it doesn’t rely on chemical reactions. Instead, he uses the electronic properties of DNA to read the genome. He hopes that in five to 10 years, his technology will bring the cost of sequencing down into the double digits.

“The actual reading mechanism is done by passing the DNA through a nanopore,” Lindsay says. A nanopore is a tiny hole, about the size of a single DNA molecule, drilled into a special silicon diffuser chip. Embedded in the nanopore is a tiny pair of electrodes. As each piece of the genome passes through the nanopore, researchers observe and record its reaction with the electrodes.

“It sounds like magic, but it actually works very well,” Lindsay says.

The ability to easily sequence a person’s genome will allow scientists to develop more personalized and precise therapies for diseases such as cancer. Although the process is still expensive, it would ultimately save a lot of money.

“Right now, there are cancer therapeutics on the market that cost tens of thousands of dollars per month and, on average, extend a person’s life by a few months,” Lindsay says. “Hidden underneath that average statistic is the fact that one person in a large number goes into complete remission.”

Investing in precision
If drug companies could profile the genomes of people who respond well to a particular treatment, they could customize treatments to the individual for maximum effect.

However, it’s not yet certain who will invest in the development of these treatments, LaBaer says, as pharmaceutical companies are not particularly interested in developing drugs that only work for a small number of people.

“If you were a pharmaceutical company, which would you rather do: develop a drug like Lipitor that you can give to millions of people who are at risk for heart disease, which is the most common killer in our country, or develop a drug for a small subset of women with a particular type of breast cancer?” LaBaer asks.

But there is an incentive for drug companies to invest in precision medicine, which brings us back to Lindsay’s genome sequencing. The ability to know on a molecular level which patients will respond well to a drug means that drug will have a high response rate. It also means doctors could identify people who won’t respond well to a drug and prevent negative side effects.

Some companies already are beginning to invest in precision. Lindsay’s lab has partnered with Roche, an international pharmaceutical company, and the technology and consulting corporation IBM. Roche will provide support for biochemical activities and IBM will construct the diffuser chips used to read the gene sequence.

“The hope of everyone in personalized medicine is that in some short number of years, or decades at the most, this will be how medicine is practiced, and it will be lower-cost and make it much more effective,” Lindsay says.

Written by Allie Nicodemo, Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development

January 10, 2012
Kendall N. Houk, Saul Winstein Chair of Organic Chemistry at UCLA, to deliver January Eyring Lectures

Kendall Houk has devoted his career to solving problems in organic and bioorganic chemistry using theoretical and computational methods. As a corollary to his work in theory, he is involved in experimental research to test theoretical predictions and to develop new reactions, reagents, and catalysts, pericyclic reaction mechanisms, gating in proteins and synthetic hosts, the origins of biological catalysis, reactive intermediates in biology and the atmosphere, and molecular devices and structures and properties of organic materials.

Houk studied at Harvard, receiving his Ph.D. with R. B. Woodward as a graduate student working on experimental tests of orbital symmetry selection rules. He taught at Louisiana State University and the University of Pittsburgh before moving to UCLA in 1986. From 1988-1990, he was Director of the Chemistry Division of the National Science Foundation. He was Chair of the UCLA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry from 1991-1994, and became the Saul Winstein Chair in Organic Chemistry in 2009.

GENERAL LECTURE
"Designing New Enzymes"
Thursday, January 26 7:30 p.m., PS H-150

TECHNICAL PRESENTATION
"Dynamics, Mechanisms and Applications of Cycloadditions"
Friday, January 27 3:30 p.m., PS H-151

More

December 12, 2011
Dream Up Competition Winner Earns a Day at ASU

Chemistry enthusiast Hannah Fuchs from Akimel A-al Middle School in Ahwatukee recently became one of five national essay winners in the Office Depot Foundation’s “Dream-UP” Career Exploration Program (sponsored by USA Today).

As a result of her win, the aspiring chemist got to spend a day at Arizona State University’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, observing and participating in experiments.

Twelve –year-old Hannah, with her father Steve Fuchs and teacher Kathryn Riley toured professor Petra Fromme’s lab observing several membrane protein crystals under the guidance of graduate student Kimberly Rendek.

Hannah donned her new lab coat and conducted experiments with liquid nitrogen in the “Science is Fun” lab with Roxanna Montoya Gonzalez, and tried her hand at glassblowing with Christine Roeger.

A stimulating lunch with several graduate students followed at the Memorial Union. Next Hannah visited Professor Yarger’s Magnetic Resonance lab together with Research Professors Greg Holland and Brian Cherry. The chemists are studying the molecular structure of spider silk in an effort to produce materials ranging from bullet-proof vests to artificial tendons. (Each spider has a name taped to its cage, for instance, Annabelle, the golden orb weaver).

“I learned a lot more about chemistry,” said Hannah “ I learned it was a team effort – you have to work with your colleagues.”

Later in the afternoon Hannah toured the Biodesign Institute and was able to extract chlorophyll from parsley with the help of professor Marcia Levitus’s graduate students. Professor Lindsay discussed sequencing DNA with Hannah and told her chemistry could be a lot of fun!

Before the tour ended Hannah was able to meet another aspiring chemist just a few years older than her. Kathleen Xu, a junior at Hamilton High School, has spent three afternoons a week since the beginning of the semester in professor Petra Fromme’s lab cloning, purifying and crystallizing a protein that causes African swine fever.

Steve and Laura Fuchs said that their daughter has had an interest in chemistry since elementary school.

“She’s always been interested in math and science, but even when she was really little she’d say if it wasn’t chemistry, it wasn’t science,” her mother said. “That was her thing.”

According to Office Depot Foundation spokesman Leon Rubin, approximately 10,000 students in 24 middle schools in eight states participated in the spring semester contest, the second year it was offered in conjunction with USA Today.

At the end of her day as a chemist Hannah concluded that, “It’s been amazing and incredible and all around spectacular.”

video from 12 News

October 13, 2011
Award winning, ASU Regents’ professor to deliver Eyring Lectures in Oct.
C. Austen Angell explores ‘world’s weirdest liquid,’ helps kick off endowment campaign

C. Austen Angell, an Arizona State University Regents’ professor of chemistry and biochemistry in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and, with five internationally contested awards, one of ASU’s most recognized scientists, will be the featured Eyring Lecture Series speaker Oct. 27 on ASU’s Tempe campus. A pioneer in the field of glasses and liquids, Angell will present, “Cold water: world’s weirdest liquid.” He will remind us that most of our universe’s water actually exists in the glassy state (on intergalactic dust particles).

The lecture will be presented in the Bateman Physical Sciences building, H150, beginning at 7:30 p.m. and marks the kickoff of a new phase in an endowment campaign designed to ensure the future longevity of the annual lecture series, which began in 1989.

“There is so much water around that we get used to it and forget how unusual it is,” says Angell. “Water is the only liquid that can also exist as a solid, or ice, and as a gas, or steam, under terrestrial conditions.

What is it about the water molecule that makes it so unique? This is what we’ll try to explain.”

Angell joined the ASU faculty in 1989 as a professor of chemistry after serving in the same capacity at Purdue University for nearly 20 years. While he has worked mostly on glass-forming liquids and water, he has also published on geochemical, biophysical and particularly electrochemical research for which he recently won the Bredig Award of the Electrochemical Society. He has previously been honored with the David Turnbull award from the Materials Research Society in 2007, the Joel Henry Hildebrand award from the American Chemical Society in 2004, and the George Morey award from the American Ceramic Society in 1990.

The Eyring Lectures in Chemistry and Biochemistry is an interdisciplinary distinguished lecture series dedicated to stimulating discussion by renowned scientists who are at the cutting edge of their respective fields. Each series consists of a lead-off presentation to help communicate the excitement and the challenge of this central science to the university and community. Past lecturers have included Nobel Laureates Ahmed Zewail, Jean-Marie Lehn, Harry Gray, Richard Smalley and Yuan T. Lee.

Bill Glaunsinger, who chaired the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry when the Eyring series originally launched, says that an endowment for the twice-annual lectures are valuable on many levels. “It is important to support value-added experiences like this that are critical to undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty and public education.

Through these lectures, we have identified and attracted outstanding scientists at the cutting edge of their disciplines. The series enriches both undergraduate and graduate education, faculty interactions and community outreach.”

The endowment is named in honor of the late Leroy Eyring, an ASU Regents’ Professor of Chemistry and former department chair, whose instructional and research accomplishments and professional leadership at ASU helped to bring the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry into international prominence. The Leroy Eyring Center for Solid State Science at ASU is named in his honor.

The endowment campaign is being spearheaded by Glaunsinger and current department chair William Petuskey.

Leroy Eyring

“Leroy Eyring was special in so many ways,” says Glaunsinger, who was a student in Eyring’s classroom in the ‘70s and was later hired as a faculty member by Eyring. “As the department chair he led the development of the graduate program and created the Center for Solid State Science. He was the consummate mentor, and always encouraged his students and associates to be creative. He was a real gentleman and considerate of others.

To realize an endowment that would ensure these lectures will continue in perpetuity would be a wonderful tribute to Dr. Eyring.”

“After 22 years,” says William Petuskey, “the Eyring Lecture Series has become one of the premiere scientific events in metropolitan Phoenix. It is developing a tradition of excellence that is well recognized beyond the state and the U.S. and helps focus attention on the academic and cultural vitality that is present at ASU”.

For more information on the Oct. 27 lecture, visit http://chemistry.asu.edu/seminar/eyring.asp.

William T. Petuskey, chair of the department of chemistry and biochemistry. The department was recently ranked sixth in impact among institutions worldwide.

October 06, 2011
ASU's chemistry department ranks 6th in impact worldwide

This study is timely, as two distinguished organizations – UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) and IUPAC (the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) have jointly proclaimed 2011 the International Year of Chemistry.

Thomson Reuters’ unique store of publication and citation statistics was used to tabulate the high-ranking institutions in the diverse field of chemistry according to impact (citations per published research paper).

"All of each institution's papers (in the highly aggregated field designated "chemistry" by our Essential Science Indicators database) were considered," said Christopher King, editor of Science Watch. "For 2001 to 2011, we showed ASU with 1,305 such papers, cited a total of 41,517 times." With an average citation per paper (or impact factor) of 31.81, ASU is only outranked by Scripps Research Institute, Harvard, Rice, Caltech and Northwestern and ranks ahead of MIT, the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford.

This ranking is based on scholarly papers published and cited between January of 2001 and April of 2011 in more than 500 Thomson Reuters-indexed journals representing the range of subfields in chemistry. The listings derive from the Essential Science Indicators, a database within the Thomson Reuters Web of Knowledge platform.

According to the study, “In particular, citation analysis provides authority in reflecting the judgments that scientists themselves make in acknowledging the published research that they view as the most significant and useful.”

The findings are fully consistent with the other impact assessments based on relative numbers of Nature and Science papers, that have been circulating in the past few years and have been highly favorable to ASU.

The department is flourishing, with 1,394 current undergraduate majors as well as 186 graduate students in chemistry and biochemistry. There are also 37 graduate students from other departments or programs, like physics, engineering and biological design, who have chosen to be supervised by chemistry and biochemistry faculty.

“The department is clearly growing dramatically in both size and international stature,” said William T. Petuskey, chair of the department of chemistry and biochemistry in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “Since 2002, we have more than quadrupled the number of undergraduate majors and nearly tripled our external research funding, both of which indicate our increased activity level.”

Petuskey adds, “What is interesting about this ranking is that it is based entirely on publications that have appeared in chemistry journals.  It doesn’t include the substantial body of work that department members have chosen to publish in journals of physics, materials science, and other technical disciplines. Chemistry and biochemistry are truly integral to most of the science and engineering initiatives in play at ASU.

We are striving to meet President Crow’s dual initiatives of increased accessibility and improvement in the quality of our instructional and research programs. With this sixth place ranking, especially among such an elite group of universities, and along with the exciting recognition that our students and faculty members are receiving, we feel that we are making considerable progress in meeting these goals. We look forward to the continuing challenge in improving on these accomplishments.”

Roche licenses technology from Chemistry, Physics and Biodesign

Roche and Arizona Technology Enterprises (AzTE) announced an agreement to license several technologies developed by Stuart Lindsay from the departments of chemistry and biochemistry, physics and the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University and Colin Nuckolls of the Columbia University Nanoscience Center for the development of a revolutionary DNA sequencing system.

The licensed technologies include specialized approaches for DNA base sensing and reading and build on an ongoing collaboration between Roche's sequencing center of excellence, 454 Life Sciences, and IBM to develop and commercialize a single-molecule, nanopore DNA sequencer with the capacity to rapidly decode an individual's complete genome for well below $1000.

The licensed technologies offer novel approaches for reading the sequence of bases, or letters, in a single DNA molecule as it is passed through a nanopore. The team has demonstrated proof-of-concept, and is in the midst of making a third generation reader molecule that provides better discrimination between the DNA bases. The licensing agreement with Roche will help translate these discoveries into a commercial instrument.

"Our promising approach, which combines advances in physics, electronics and nanotechnology, eliminates the need for the use of a major cost of sequencing today – namely, the use of chemical reagents – to read an individual's genome," said Lindsay, an ASU Regents' Professor and director of the Biodesign Institute's Center for Single Molecule Biophysics.

"We believe that the DNA reading technologies from the Biodesign Institute are the most advanced available, and will play an important role in our nanopore sequencing system currently under development," said Thomas Schinecker, president of 454 Life Sciences, a Roche Company. "This will complement the DNA Transistor technology from our previously announced collaboration with IBM very well to form the core of a superior platform for extremely fast, very low-cost genome sequencing."

The DNA Transistor technology, developed by IBM Research, slows and controls the movement of the DNA molecule as it threads through a microscopic nanopore in a silicon chip, while the newly licensed DNA reading technology can decode the bases of the DNA molecule as it passes through. Both technologies are centered on semiconductor-based nanopores, which have advantages over protein-based nanopores in terms of control, robustness, scalability, and manufacturability.

The deal was brokered by Arizona Technology Enterprises (AzTE), the exclusive intellectual property management and technology transfer organization of Arizona State University, and includes sponsored research funding that will help Lindsay's team move the technology towards commercialization. The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), recently awarded Lindsay and fellow Biodesign researcher Bharath Takulapalli more than $5 million for their work in DNA sequencing. ASU was the only university to receive more than one award.

Joe Caspermeyer, Joseph.Caspermeyer@asu.edu

August 16, 2011
New way of producing antibodies

Antibodies are the backbone of the immune system - capable of targeting proteins associated with infection and disease. They are also vital tools for biomedical research, the development of diagnostic tests and for new therapeutic remedies. Producing antibodies suitable for research however, has often been a difficult, costly and laborious undertaking.

Now, John Chaput and his colleagues at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University have developed a new way of producing antibody-like binding agents and rapidly optimizing their affinity for their target proteins. Such capture reagents are vital for revealing the subtleties of protein function, and may pave the way for improved methods of detecting and treating a broad range of diseases. The team’s results appear in today’s issue of the journal ChemBioChem.

Antibodies are Y-shaped structures, capable of binding in two or more places with specific target proteins. Synthetic antibodies are much simpler forms that attempt to mimic this behavior. As Chaput explains, creating affinity reagents with strong binding properties can be accomplished by combining two weak affinity segments on a synthetic scaffold. The resulting affinity reagent, if properly constructed, can amplify the binding properties of the individual segments by two or three orders of magnitude.

"This dramatic change in affinity has the ability to transform ordinary molecules into a high affinity synthetic antibody," Chaput says. "Unfortunately, the chemistry used to make these reagents can be quite challenging and often requires a lot of trial-and-error. With NIH funding, my group has reduced the complexity of this problem to simple chemistry that is user friendly and easily amenable to high throughput automation. Such technology is absolutely necessary if we want to compete with traditional monoclonal antibody technology. " Traditionally, antibodies for research have been extracted from animals induced to produce them in response to various protein antigens. While the technique has been invaluable to medical science, obtaining antibodies in this way is a cumbersome and costly endeavor. Instead, Chaput and his team produce synthetic antibodies that do not require cell culture, in vitro selection or the application of complex chemistry. They call their reagents DNA synbodies.

The new strategy-referred to as LINC (for Ligand Interaction by Nucleotide Conjugates) uses DNA as a programmable scaffold to determine the optimal distance needed to transform two weak affinity binding segments or ligands into a single high affinity protein capture reagent. The result is an artificial antibody, capable of binding to its antigen target with both high affinity and high specificity. The process is rapid and inexpensive. It also offers considerable flexibility, as the distance between the two ligand components bonded to the short, double-stranded DNA scaffold can be fine-tuned for optimum affinity.

In earlier work, the group identified ligand candidates by producing thousands of random sequence peptide chains-strings of amino acids, connected like pearls on a necklace. The peptide sequences were affixed to a glass microarray slide and screened against a target protein to pinpoint those that were capable of recognizing distinct protein binding sites. Two promising ligand candidates could then be combined to form a DNA synbody.

In the current study, the group instead makes use of pre-existing ligands with documented affinity for various disease-related proteins. The method involves the use of well-characterized ligands as building components for high quality DNA synbodies, eliminating the initial screening procedure and expanding the potential to tinker with the two-piece synbody in order to optimize affinity. The peptides of choice for the study were those with high affinity for something called growth factor receptor bound protein 2 (Grb2). Grb2 has many cell-signaling functions and is an important focus of research due to its association with cellular pathways involved in tumor growth and metastasis.

By scouring the scientific literature, the group identified two peptides that recognize distinct sites on the surface of Grb2. Chaput points out, "this is a nice example where a few hours in the library can save you weeks in the lab." The next step was to create an assortment of synbody constructs based on these peptides. To do this, one peptide was attached to the end of a short DNA strand, while the other peptide was attached to the complementary DNA strand further along its length (see figure 1).

Figure 1. Two peptide chains are attached to a segment of double-stranded DNA, displaced by a distance which can be modified to improve binding affinity with a target protein (seen in blue).

The two peptide strands could be attached to the scaffold in either a forward or reverse direction and could be interchanged, with either occupying the terminal end of the first DNA strand. Further, the distance between peptide segments along the DNA strands could be adjusted to yield the best target affinity.

Experiments examined binding affinity for peptide chains separated by 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18 base pairs along the DNA strand, (a distance range of 1.0-6.1 nm). Inspection revealed the best results for a synbody constructed of peptides separated by 12 base pairs at a distance of 4.1 nm, compared with the other 5 constructs.

The results for the best synbody in the study were impressive, demonstrating a binding affinity five- to ten-fold stronger than commercially available antibodies for Grb2, despite the synbody’s comparatively primitive architecture. In further tests, the synbody was shown to exhibit high specificity-isolating Grb2 from other proteins in a complex biological mixture and selectively binding with its target.

The technique offers a new approach to producing high quality affinity reagents for disease research, diagnostic testing and the development of effective therapeutics.

Written by: Richard Harth Science
Writer: The Biodesign Institute
richard.harth@asu.edu

August 23, 2011
Can Telomerase reverse the ageing process?

This is one of the many questions that Associate Professor Julian Chen in ASU's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry is currently investigating.

A recent study in mice suggests that premature ageing can be reversed by reactivating telomerase, an enzyme that protects the tips of chromosomes.

Telomerase is a specialized RNA-dependent DNA polymerase that adds DNA repeats to chromosome ends and is viewed as an important drug target for anti-ageing and anti-cancer therapies.

Chen has recently just been awarded a NIH grant of $1.4 million over five years to gain an understanding of the detailed mechanism of telomerase action, and identify elements and factors important for regulating telomerase function. "Comprehension of the molecular mechanism of telomerase action will lay important foundations for finding cures to telomerase-related and telomere-mediated diseases," explains Chen.

Telomerase elongates telomere length by adding telomeric repeats to chromosome ends to counterbalance the natural shortening that occurs during DNA replication. Because of its role in chromosome stability, telomerase regulation is a critical step in tumorigenesis and ageing.

To maintain chromosome stability and infinite growth, telomerase is activated in immortal cells such as stem cells, germ line as well as 90% of human tumors. Moreover, patients with dyskeratosis congenita, a disease of premature aging, carry a mutation in the telomerase RNA (TR) or the telomerase reverse transcriptase protein (TERT) genes.

Researchers are realizing that telomerase's role in ageing is far more subtle than first thought. Some studies have uncovered an association between short telomeres and early death, whereas others have failed to back up this link. People with rare diseases characterized by shortened telomeres or telomerase mutations seem to age prematurely, although some tissues are more affected than others.

When mice are engineered to lack telomerase completely, their telomeres progressively shorten over several generations. These animals age much faster than normal mice - they are barely fertile and suffer from age-related conditions such as osteoporosis, diabetes and neurodegeneration. They also die young.

"Our research employs a variety of approaches involving biochemical and biophysical techniques, as well as molecular genetics and molecular biology," states Chen "we expect the outcomes of these experiments will greatly add to our understanding of telomerase mechanism."

June 23, 2011
Discoveries in breast cancer detection

Joshua LaBaer, M.D., Ph.D., of the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, has been selected as one of three finalists for the Phoenix Business Journal's Health Care Hero award in the researcher/innovator category. The annual award honors exemplary performance in the Phoenix health care industry. Award recipients will be announced at a breakfast at the Arizona Biltmore Resort on Aug. 18.

Two years ago, LaBaer, a medical oncologist and research scientist, was recruited from Harvard University to serve as the first Piper Chair in Personalized Medicine at ASU's Biodesign Institute. LaBaer leads a multidisciplinary team in a large-scale effort to discover and validate unique molecular fingerprints of disease. These fingerprints, called biomarkers, can provide an early warning for those at risk of major illnesses. LaBaer is co-inventor of a technology that serves as the molecular toolkit for his approach.

LaBaer's recruit to ASU was a boon to the medical and research community, as he is one of the foremost investigators advancing personalized medicine. He is working in a new field of science called proteomics to make major strides in cancer research, as well as diabetes and infectious diseases.

Recently, LaBaer identified a panel of 28 new biomarkers that may aid in the early diagnosis of breast cancer. These biomarkers are important in breast cancer tumor biology and pathology, as well as drug resistance to leading treatments.

"We believe that these biomarkers will lead to the first type of blood tests for the early detection of breast cancer," said LaBaer. "We hope this will lead to catching breast cancer earlier and saving thousands of lives each year."

In addition to early detection, breast cancer care at present falters when patients become resistant to the drugs used to treat the disease. LaBaer's group recently uncovered 30 novel genes involved in tamoxifen drug resistance. They did this by screening genes implicated in the development of breast cancer cells that become resistant to the drug with a robotic system that places human genes into cancer cells to determine if the genes would change the behavior of those cells.

LaBaer's center is home to a unique, worldwide resource for research called DNASU, a gene library of more than 127,000 unique genes made in his lab and contributed from labs elsewhere. These DNA samples represent more than 750 organisms and provide the raw materials for experiments. His lab has made this library into a shared resource to accelerate research. Housed in a million-dollar custom robotic freezer, the gene library is the only one of its kind in the southwestern United State. To date, they have distributed 250,000 plasmid clones to 550 labs in 35 countries.

In addition to his innovations, LaBaer's community impact has been significant. His center has support from the Breast Cancer Research Foundations, the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute for General Medical Sciences, the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and a $35 million philanthropic gift from the Piper Charitable Trust. LaBaer's center has resulted in jobs, opportunities for students, incoming grant dollars, plus the attention that his cutting-edge research brings.

LaBaer earned a BS from UC-Berkeley, and his MD and PhD degrees at UCSF. He is a board certified physician in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology and has published 106 publications.

LaBaer is the founder of the International Human Proteome Organization and US HUPO. He serves on the NCI Board of Scientific Advisors and co-chair for the Steering Committee for NCI's Early Detection Research Network. He also serves as an associate editor for the Journal of Proteome Research.