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NEWS OF THE WEEK COURTESY OF RUSTEM ISMAGILOV DROPLETS The chemistrode delivers (top) and picks up (bottom) solvent plugs at a surface. PLUGGING ALONG MICROFLUIDICS: Design advances improve spatial and temporal resolution of plug-based devices TWO RESEARCH GROUPS report new device designs that improve the speed and spatial resolution of plug-based microfluidic analysis. Plug-based microfluidic devices use aqueous solvent droplets, or plugs, in an oil stream to deliver reagents and transport samples. In these devices, samples contained in plugs do not easily disperse or mix with adjacent samples, but the new designs improve the performance of such systems still further. In one of the studies, Rustem F. Ismagilov and coworkers at the University of Chicago report a new plug-based microfluidic device that they call a “chemistrode” (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0807916105). The chemistrode, which is V- shaped polymeric tubing threaded through a microfabricated holder, can deliver reagents in aqueous plugs to a precisely defined location on a surface and capture plugs of molecular signals generated in response to those reagents. Reagent plugs travel through one arm of the V, and response plugs are picked up by the other. The response plugs can be split and diverted for parallel analysis by multiple methods. And with a single device, one can see what happens at different positions on a surface; for example, the researchers constructed a device with two chemistrodes spaced 15 μm apart. “We can essentially stick this device onto a point on a surface and say ‘I want these chemicals to be delivered to this spot in this sequence’ and then read out the responses,” Ismagilov says. His team demonstrated the device by detecting insulin secretion from pancreatic islet cells in response to changes in glucose concentration. The work is a “clever and elegant application of droplet microfluidics” says Daniel T. Chiu, a chemistry professor at the University of Washington who also works with droplet microfluidics. “This method will find broad use in studying secretions from cells.” Separately, Robert T. Kennedy and coworkers at the University of Michigan enhance microfluidic analysis with a new device that uses a “virtual wall”—an interface between parallel streams of aqueous buffer and a fluorocarbon oil—to collect aqueous sample droplets for analysis (Anal. Chem., DOI: 10.1021/ac801317t). The oil medium transports the droplets from a sample source. At a point of contact, sample droplets transfer from the oil stream to the aqueous stream, where they can be analyzed electrophoretically. The design makes possible two types of “injectors” for sample transfer prior to electrophoresis: a “discrete injector” and a “desegmenting injector.” The discrete injector extracts sample from individual plugs as they pass, enabling sampling of more than 800 individual plugs in a row. With the desegmenting injector, the plugs recombine into a continuous stream that can be monitored by up to 1,000 sequential injections into an electrophoresis channel. The discrete injector is useful for applications such as high-throughput screening, in which each droplet is treated as a separate sample. And the desegmenting injector works well for applications that don’t require every droplet to be analyzed, such as microdialysis. “Kennedy’s team has introduced two powerful tools for analyzing the contents of individual droplets in segmented flows,” says Robin L. Garrell, who studies microfluidics at UCLA. “By being able to desegment the flow, it’s now possible to examine the composition of droplets over time, a valuable tool for monitoring reactions and for microdialysis sampling.”—CELIA ARNAUD RISK ASSESSMENT FDA advisory panel finds agency’s review of bisphenol A inadequate An FDA draft safety assessment of bisphenol A (BPA) is inadequate according to a report released on Oct. 29 from a subcommittee of the agency’s Science Board. The report finds that FDA excluded numerous credible scientific studies and recommends that FDA reassess the risks of the controversial plastics chemical with new methods. The safety of BPA, a known endocrine disrupter found in polycarbonate plastic bottles and canned food linings, has been at the center of a congressional investigation and media firestorm since concerns about its health effects at low doses came to the forefront in April. FDA responded to the report with a statement saying that it agrees “additional research would be valuable” and that it “is already moving forward with planned research to address the potential low dose effects of bisphenol A.” Environmental groups and some members of Congress applauded the report. “Unlike FDA, the Science Board had the sense to recognize that the totality of scientific evidence should be evaluated when determining the safety of a potentially hazardous chemical,” Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Committee on Energy & Commerce, said in a statement. The American Chemistry Council, an industry group, urged FDA to finalize its BPA assessment promptly and said it “and its member companies will comply with FDA’s direction.”—BRITT ERICKSON WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 12 NOVEMBER 3, 2008
BUSINESS CONCENTRATES BLAST AT CANADIAN CELANESE PLANT Celanese’s AT Plastics unit has declared force majeure for specialty plastics made at its Edmonton, Alberta, site, after an explosion and fire on Oct. 24. Nine workers were injured in the incident, treated, and released from the hospital. AT Plastics was part of Celanese’s 2005 purchase of Acetex and generated some $225 million in sales for Celanese in 2007. Celanese has yet to determine the cause or financial impact of the explosion.—AHT ALBEMARLE UNVEILS CATALYST TECHNOLOGY MERCK SLASHES JOBS, CLOSES RESEARCH SITES Merck & Co. said late last month that it will cut its workforce by about 12%, eliminating approximately 7,200 positions across the company’s worldwide operations. The firm expects to complete the cuts by the end of 2011. The company also disclosed that it will shutter research facilities in Seattle; Tsukuba, Japan; and Pomezia, Italy. Merck, which now has approximately 57,000 employees worldwide, expects the current job cuts to yield cumulative pretax savings of $3.8 billion to $4.2 billion from 2008 to 2013. The company anticipates a pretax restructuring cost of between $250 million and $450 million in the fourth quarter of this year. Like most major drug companies, Merck faces many pressures, including a dropoff in new drugs, impending patent expirations, and declining revenue for products in its portfolio. The firm has in recent years closed five of its manufacturing facilities around the world.—RM Albemarle researchers have developed a proprietary catalyst activator that doubles productivity and lowers costs compared with conventional single-site polypropylene and polyethylene metallocene catalyst systems. Albemarle’s ActivCat technology, which Polypropylene is based on aluminoxane cocatalysts, produces resins with properties similar to those made with standard methylaluminoxane/silica-type catalysts, according to the company.—MSR EVONIK ADDS MORE PEROXIDES Evonik Industries will spend just more than $60 million to build a hydrogen peroxide plant at the Triunfo petrochemical complex near Porto Alegre, in southern Brazil, primarily to serve the paper and pulp industry. Construction is planned to start in mid-2009, and the plant should come onstream in early 2011. The new facility will have capacity of 40,000 metric tons per year.—PLLS DC CHEMICAL FORCED OFF SODIFF BOARD South Korea’s DC <strong>Chemical</strong> has issued a series of angry protests after Sodiff Advanced Materials, a company in which it is the largest shareholder, booted DCC’s representative off the board. Sodiff, a manufacturer of specialty gases used in the electronics BASF industry, alleges that DCC was stealing its technology. But DCC, a manufacturer of industrial chemicals and polysilicon used in solar cells, says it helped Sodiff survive a financial crisis and claims that Young Kyun Lee, the second-largest shareholder in Sodiff, is attempting to seize control of Sodiff. DCC currently owns 26% of Sodiff; its stake will increase to 37% when its convertible bonds come due on Dec. 1.—JFT BASF COLORS CONCEPT CAR Automaker Mazda unveiled an environmentally friendly urban concept car at the Paris International Motor show last month. Dubbed Kiyora, which in Japanese means clean and pure, the light, fuel-efficient car is designed to appeal to young European drivers. It features transparent polycarbonate doors and a paint finish developed by BASF Coatings.—MSR GLAXO TO BUY GENELABS TECHNOLOGIES GlaxoSmithKline has reached a definitive agreement to buy Genelabs Technologies for $57 million. Genelabs is a Redwood City, Calif.-based drug discovery firm now focusing on novel compounds that selectively inhibit replication of the hepatitis C virus. The two firms already have a partnership to develop a vaccine against hepatitis E.—MSR LINDE EXPANDS IN CHINA, SWITZERLAND Industrial gases supplier Linde will undertake projects to expand supplies to customers in China at a cost of $22 million and in Switzerland at a cost of $56 million. Linde plans to build a third air separation plant in Ningbo, in eastern China, to supply Ningbo Steel beginning in 2009. Also in Ningbo, Linde will construct a pipeline by 2010 to supply oxygen and nitrogen to a polyvinyl chloride factory now under construction by Korea’s Hanwha <strong>Chemical</strong>. In Muttenz, Switzerland, the firm will construct a 500-ton-per-day liquefied nitrogen, oxygen, and argon plant by late 2010 to supply chemical and pharmaceutical customers in the area in which the Swiss, German, and French borders meet.—MSR WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 13 NOVEMBER 3, 2008
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