June 20, 2011 - IMM@BUCT

JUNE 20, 2011JEREMY BERGChemistry advocate’slegacy at NIH P.28THERMOELECTRICSBasic science renews oldtechnology P.33GOING IT ALONEBiotechs move on without big pharma P.15PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

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VOLUME 89, NUMBER 25JUNE 20, 2011Serving the chemical,life sciences,and laboratory worldsCOVER STORYEX-PARTNERSBiotech firms canface an uncertainbut hopeful futureafter their allianceswith big pharmadissolve. PAGE 15QUOTEOF THE WEEK“We understandthat we have tobe regulated.We just ask thatit be fact-basedand scientificallybased.”CRAIG O. MORRISON,CEO, MOMENTIVEPERFORMANCEMATERIALS PAGE 2311NEWS OF THE WEEK11 CANCER WARNINGS CONTROVERSYAddition of formaldehyde, styrene to governmentlist draws praise, denunciation.12 KEEPING PATENTS STRONGPharma applauds Supreme Court ruling thatdemands a high bar to invalidate patent claims.12 BIOTECH SECTOR RECOVERSAnalysts see definite but slow growth, the paceimpeded by uneven access to capital.13 PLANT HORMONE SENSOR REVEALEDStructure of protein that senses brassinolidecould help scientists design crops for high yieldand pest resistance.13 GROWING BIOSIMILARS PORTFOLIODeal with South Korea’s Hanwha Chemical givesMerck & Co. rights to generic version of biologicarthritis and psoriasis drug Enbrel.14 RAH-RAH NUCLEIC ACIDSSynthetic DNA and RNA resembling pom-pomscan enter cells, switch off genes, creators say.14 OLYMPIANS OF CHEMISTRYFour high school students will represent the U.S.at the International Chemistry Olympiad nextmonth in Turkey.BUSINESS22 CONCENTRATES23 POSITIVE VIBE AT ACC MEETINGChemical companies cheer good times, vow tokeep advocating for industry with legislators.24 CLARIANT’S OUTLOOKSpecialty chemical company acquires Süd-Chemie, promises growth.26 CHINESE COMPANY BLOSSOMSStarting as an intermediates producer, Porton ismoving into active pharmaceutical ingredients.GOVERNMENT& POLICY27 CONCENTRATES28 JEREMY BERGSTEPS DOWNNIGMS director whochampioned chemistryleaves an enduring legacy.31 INSIGHTSReport alleging waste and abuse at NSF onlypoliticizes the agency.SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY32 CONCENTRATES33 THERMOELECTRICS COMEBACKDiscovery of new materials revives a neglectedfield.36 MASS SPECS AND MORENew chemical analysis instruments debut at theASMS conference in Denver.THE DEPARTMENTS4 LETTERS5 EDITOR’S PAGE38 ACS NEWS40 AWARDSCOVER: Shutterstock/C&EN2841 MEETINGS43 PEOPLE45 CLASSIFIEDS48 NEWSCRIPTS13www.acs.org/iyc2011CENEAR 89 (25) 1–48 • ISSN 0009-2347

CHEMICAL & ENGINEERING NEWS1155—16th St., N.W., Washington, DC 20036(202) 872-4600 or (800) 227-5558EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Rudy M. BaumDEPUTY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: A. Maureen RouhiMANAGING EDITOR: Robin M. GirouxSENIOR ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER: Marvel A. WillsNEWSWilliam G. Schulz, EditorBUSINESSMichael McCoy, Assistant Managing EditorNORTHEAST: (732) 906-8300 Lisa M. Jarvis (SeniorEditor), Rick Mullin (Senior Editor), Marc S. Reisch(Senior Correspondent), Alexander H. Tullo (SeniorEditor), Melody M. Bomgardner (Senior Editor),Rachel Eskenazi (Administrative Assistant). HONGKONG: 852 2984 9072 Jean-François Tremblay(Senior Correspondent). HOUSTON: (281) 486-3900Ann M. Thayer (Senior Correspondent). MUNICH:49 89 8955 6137 Paige Marie Morse (Contributing Editor)GOVERNMENT & POLICYSusan R. Morrissey, Assistant Managing EditorBritt E. Erickson (Senior Editor), David J. Hanson(Senior Correspondent), Glenn Hess (SeniorEditor), Cheryl Hogue (Senior Correspondent),Jeff Johnson (Senior Correspondent), RajendraniMukhopadhyay (Contributing Editor)SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY/EDUCATIONBOSTON: (617) 395-4163 Amanda Yarnell, AssistantManaging Editor. WASHINGTON: Stuart A. Borman(Deputy Assistant Managing Editor), Celia Henry Arnaud(Senior Editor), Carmen Drahl (Associate Editor),Stephen K. Ritter (Senior Correspondent), Lauren K. Wolf(Associate Editor). BERLIN: 49 30 2123 3740Sarah Everts (Senior Editor). CHICAGO: (847) 679-1156Mitch Jacoby (Senior Editor). NORTHEAST: (732) 906-8302 Bethany Halford (Senior Editor). WEST COAST:(925) 485-1034 Jyllian Kemsley (Associate Editor), (510)870-1617 Elizabeth K. Wilson (Senior Editor), Aaron A.Rowe (Contributing Editor). BEIJING: 150 1138 8372Jessie Jiang (Contributing Editor). JOURNAL NEWS &COMMUNITY: (202) 872-6039 Lila Guterman (SeniorEditor), (626) 765-6767 Michael Torrice (Assistant Editor)ACS NEWS & SPECIAL FEATURESSophie L. Rovner, Assistant Managing EditorLinda Wang (Senior Editor). DALLAS:(972) 529-4351 Susan J. Ainsworth (Senior Editor)EDITING & PRODUCTIONKimberly R. Twambly, Senior EditorEmily Bones (Assistant Editor),Sophia L. Cai (Assistant Editor),Arlene Goldberg-Gist, Senior EditorJeff A. Huber (Assistant Editor),Gail M. Mortenson (Associate Editor)ART & DESIGNRobert Bryson, Design DirectorRobin L. Braverman (Senior Art Director)Yang H. Ku (Associate Designer)C&EN ONLINERachel Sheremeta Pepling, EditorTchad K. Blair (Visual Designer), Luis A. Carrillo(Production Manager), Ty A. Finocchiaro (Web Associate),Pamela Rigden Snead (Web Products Manager)PRODUCTION & IMAGINGRenee L. Zerby, Lead Digital Production SpecialistTim Bauer, Sidney Buckle, and Steven J.Lovasz (Digital Production Associates)SALES & MARKETINGElise Swinehart, Assistant DirectorElaine Facciolli Jarrett (Marketing Manager)Wendy Wise (Marketing Manager)Angela Yeo (Associate Marketing Manager)ADVISORY BOARDPaul J. Bracher, Jean-Claude Bradley, David Clary,Rita R. Colwell, Christopher C. Cummins, Daryl W. Ditz,Michael P. Doyle, Donald Hilvert, Malika Jeffries-El, RohitKhanna, Roger LaForce, Derek Lowe, Michael W. Major,Andrew D. Maynard, Harold Meckler, Stephen A. Munk,Nick Roelofs, John M. Schwab, Thomas R. Tritton,Paul Turgeon, Paul A. Wender, Frank D. Wicks,Elias Zerhouni, David Zimmermann, Dorothy ZolandzPublished by the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETYMadeleine Jacobs, Executive Director & CEOBrian Crawford, President, Publications DivisionEDITORIAL BOARD: Kevin P. Gable (Chair);ACS Board of Directors Chair: Bonnie A. Charpentier;ACS President: Nancy B. Jackson; Ned D. Heindel,John N. Russell Jr., Leah Solla, Peter J. StangCopyright 2011, American Chemical SocietyCanadian GST Reg. No. R127571347Volume 89, Number 25FROM THE EDITORArchives ExcursionANYONE WITH an interest in chemistrycan get pleasantly lost in the C&EN Archivesand old ACS journals. I did the weekbefore last digging around for a particulartidbit of information and finding many,many more.Senior Correspondent Steve Ritterwrote the lead News of the Week story inthe June 13 issue of C&EN (page 7) announcingthat MIT’s Robert S. Langerwould receive the 2012 Priestley Medal.When Ritter interviewed him, Langer saidhe was honored “and a bit shocked” tolearn that he had won the award, in partbecause he was the first chemical engineerto be so honored in something like 60years.Steve couldn’t remember the name ofthe chemical engineer that Langer had suggestedmight have been the last one to winthe Priestley. It was late on Thursday afternoon,and I was waiting for final news pagesto read so I started working through thenames of Priestley Medal winners to findthe missing chemical engineer.In no particular order, I learned thatFrancis P. Garvan had received the 1929Priestley Medal remotely from ACS PresidentIrving Langmuir, who was at the fallACS national meeting in Minneapolis. TheNews Edition of Industrial & EngineeringChemistry (forerunner of C&EN) reported:“The ceremonies were broadcast overStation WCCO of the Columbia system …and when it became known that Mr. Garvanwould be unable to receive the medalpersonally, arrangements were made … torebroadcast over WABC in New York. Aspecial wire was opened between the twostations, and Mr. Garvan was enabled tohear the program through a receiving set athis sick bed in the Adirondacks, where hehas been confined because of continued illhealth during the past three years, said tobe due partially to his strenuous efforts inbehalf of independent American chemicalindustries during and following the WorldWar.”Garvan, who I learned later in the daywas the only nonchemist ever to win thePriestley Medal, had served as the “AlienProperty Custodian” during World WarI. In that capacity, he sold 5,700 seizedGerman chemical patents for $271,000 tothe Chemical Foundation Inc., a companyGarvan set up to administer those patentsand for which he served as president. Unsurprisingly,these dual roles led to a legalchallenge, which wasn’t resolved until 1924.“Chemical Foundation Triumphs in FederalSuit” was the title of the lead story in theJan. 10, 1924, News Edition of I&EC .“In a sixty-two-page decision whichswept away every one of the Government’smajor contentions as being without basis infact or law, Federal Judge Hugh M. Morris,on January 3d, dismissed the Federal suit toset aside the sale of seized chemical and dyepatents by the Alien Property Custodian tothe Chemical Foundation, Inc.” Which is tosay, by Garvan to Garvan.Tangents are part of the fun in thesekinds of excursions. The April 11, 1955, editionof C&EN reported on a talk by RobertE. Wilson, chairman of Standard Oil ofIndiana, at an ACS national meeting in astory entitled “Technological ProgressThreatened.” Wilson cited “eight waysin which our rapid progress is menaced,”C&EN reported. The magazine continued:“Not the least of the dangers, [Wilson] observed,is the misuse or neglect of some ofthe products of research itself. Television,for example, which has ‘made us a nationof spectators instead of participants,’ iscontributing to the shortage of scientistsand engineers, already of grave concern.‘The bright young boy who used to builda homemade crystal radio or work with achemical kit is now twirling the knobs ona TV set, watching terrible programs thatdistract him from constructive activities,’Wilson asserted.”By the way, Thomas Midgley Jr. was thechemical engineer who received the 1941Priestley Medal that Langer mentioned toRitter. Slightly more recently, MIT chemicalengineering professor Warren K. Lewisreceived the 1947 Priestley Medal; a profilein the Sept. 29, 1947, issue of C&EN saidLewis “is recognized as the father of present-daychemical engineering.”Thanks for reading.Editor-in-chiefViews expressed on this page are those of the author and not necessarily those of ACS.WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 5 JUNE 20, 2011

LETTERSLETTERScontinued from page 4Fukushima are media-generated problems;no one was killed by radiation in these accidents.This is the 25th anniversary (April26, 1986) of the explosion in the acknowledgedpoorly designed power plant atChernobyl, where 31 workers died from excessradiation. In that 25 years about halfa-millionpeople have been killed in autoaccidents in the U.S. Safety is a mirage.Nuclear waste can be lifesaving if one ignoresthe myth that “all radiation is harmful”and accepts thousands of scientificreports showing that small and large dosesof ionizing radiation elicit opposite results;this is radiation hormesis. Evidence indicatesthat ionizing radiation is an essentialagent for life; that the optimum level ofionizing radiation is 50 times ambientlevels (for example, cancer would becomea rare disease); and that appropriate radiationsupplementation (from radioactivewaste) would provide abundant health .Thomas D. LuckeyLawrence, Kan.scale upZLWKF*03FRQ¿GHQFH40 Years ofUSP/NF/FCCUSP Catalogcontaining over1200+USP/NF/FCCchemicals.Also available from Fisher Scientificand VWR International.Scan withSmartphoneto order catalog877.464.0527SpectrumChemical.comWHY IS THE STORAGE of spent nuclearfuel considered to be a problem? Storageon-site works well. This material is valuableand should not be disposed of. About96% of the nuclear energy remains in thespent fuel. New types of reactors now beingdeveloped can make use of this 96%.The fission products are also valuable.One example is the element rhodium. Itscurrent price is $2,000 per oz; the price hasbeen as high as $12,000 per oz. One ton ofspent fuel contains 400 g (13 oz), whichmakes the “waste” worth $25,000 a ton justfor its rhodium content. Initially, there aresmall amounts of radioactive isotopes in therhodium, but these are short-lived and aregone in 30 years. A substantial amount of thespent fuel is now more than 30 years old.The reason that no one is eager to processthis rich “ore” is that the quantitiesare so small. In the entire U.S., the totalproduction of spent fuel is 42 tons perweek, only enough to fill one large truck.Spent reactor fuel is a small but valuableresource, not a problem.Edwin NorbeckIowa CityWHILE I APPRECIATE that an editor’sduty includes publishing opinions contraryto those in editorials, it should also be theeditor’s duty to prevent peculiar opinionsfrom being spread around in what is otherwisea technical publication.For example, although it is a fact thatdischarged fuel will be radioactive for thousandsof years, it is also a fact that the twomain isotopes of uranium in that fuel havehalf-lives of millions and billions of years,respectively, and each has a long string ofeven more radioactively dangerous decayproducts. Discharged nuclear fuel will beradioactive for many trillions of years untilit all decays into stable lead isotopes, as willall the uranium and thorium ore in Earth’scrust that hasn’t been mined yet. But theuranium ore not yet mined is associatedwith the decay products that have accumulatedover the past 4 billion years or so, andin several hundred years the discharged nu-WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 6 JUNE 20, 2011

clear fuel will have decayed to the point thatit will no longer be greatly more dangerousthan pure uranium in transient equilibriumwith 4 billion years of decay products.While it is a fact that present fuel reprocessingplants are expensive and tendto pollute their surroundings with leakedfission products, it is also a fact that onlyabout 3% of the potentially available fissionenergy in that fuel has been extracted. Tryingto dispose of that fuel such that it willbe hidden from humanity for thousands ofyears is not likely to be successful, since ina few hundred years our descendants willbe looking for it as a source of energy—andthey will have much greater technical capabilitiesfor processing it than we have. Itmight be best to put it in steel and concretecanisters, such as those now used at nuclearpower plants to store aged dischargedfuel, and simply park it out in the Nevadadesert to keep company with the debrisfrom several hundred past weapons tests.The heart of your editorial was that fissionenergy sources aren’t going to go away,and that should be abundantly obvious toyour readership. The potential energy densityof uranium and thorium is hundreds ofmillions of times that of fossil fuels, whereassolar, wind, and agricultural energysources are diffuse and inadequate to ourneeds by orders of magnitude. The 22ndcentury is much more likely to see thoriumcycle power plants than fusion plants inwidespread use, and it would be hystericalnot to expect such a development.Jacques ReadOcean City, Md.I READ WITH unusual interest the lettersin the May 9 issue. The problem of disposalof the waste nuclear products from reprocessingspent fuel rods is a major concern.BiomassPlasticExtrusionPetrochemicalsOil Recovery SupportPump withConfidenceReactant Feed+LJK3UHFLVLRQ+LJK3UHVVXUH6\ULQJH3XPSV 8VHRXUSXPSVIRUDSSOLFDWLRQVVXFKDVELRIXHOVUHDFWDQWIHHGFRUHÁRRGLQJDQGSODVWLFIRDPLQJ 3XPSDOPRVWDQ\WKLQJLQFOXGLQJKLJKO\YLVFRXVÁXLGVVXFKDVKHDY\RLOVSRO\PHUVVOXUULHVDQGSDVWHV 6WDQGDUGSXPSVGHOLYHUVXEPLFUROLWHUWRPOPLQZLWKRUEHWWHUDFFXUDF\HOW TO REACH USCHEMICAL & ENGINEERING NEWSLETTERS TO THE EDITOR■ Our e-mail address is edit.cen@acs.org.■ Our fax number is (202) 872-8727.■ Or you can send your letter to:C&EN Editor-in-Chief1155—16th St., N.W.Washington, DC 20036■ Letters should generally be 400 words orfewer and should include the writer’s full name,address, and home telephone; letters maybe edited for purposes of clarity and space.Because of the heavy volume of mail receivedat C&EN, writers are limited to one letter in asix-month period.Core FloodingView our technical library atwww.isco.com/spappnotes&DOOXVWRVHOHFWRUFXVWRPL]HDSXPSWRPHHW\RXUVSHFLÀFQHHGVLVFRLQIR#WHOHG\QHFRPWWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 7 JUNE 20, 2011

LETTERSOffers X-Zyme biocatalystsOxidoreductases and Hydrolasesfor the synthesis of chiral moleculesProductsServices* Alcohol Dehydrogenases ** Esterases** Monooxygenases** Lipases* Cofactor Regeneration *System** Whole Cell TransformationScreening of libraries forspecific biocatalystsIsolation and productionof identified mutantsImprovement of biocatalystsvia protein engineering ordirected evolutionFermentation capabilities forlarge scale enzyme supplyProcess optimization andproduction of target moleculeAldehyde Dehydrogenase andAldehyde Reductase kits now available!www.jmcatalysts.com/pharma email: inquiries@jmusa.comPerhaps we should consider “molten salt reactors,” which don’t havethe problem with fuel rods.The U.S. did several underground nuclear bomb tests in the desertcountry of Washington and Nevada in the 1950s. What is at thebottom of the hole where the bomb was detonated? Is there a fusedrock bubble or broken pile of rubble? It seems a fused rock bubblewould be an ideal disposal spot for the nuclear waste. The waste inthis case would not be retrievable. The nuclear waste depositoryat Yucca Mountain in Nevada was built so that the nuclear wastecould be stored for retrieval in case a profitable use was discovered.Edward C. MurrayValley Forge, Pa.NAMING THE ELEMENTSCONTRARY TO the implied statement in the book review of HughAldersey-Williams’ “Periodic Tales” (no doubt the author’s error,not the reviewer’s), IUPAC does not suggest new element names(C&EN, May 2, page 35). When a joint committee of IUPAC andIUPAP agrees that a new element has been synthesized, it invitesthe group that first isolated it to suggest a name. Their suggestionthen goes through the normal IUPAC review system before finalapproval. The reason hassium and darmstadtium have a Germanorigin is because these elements were first isolated at the Institutefor Heavy Ion Research, in Darmstadt.Gerry MossLondons Process Developments Analytical Developmentand Validations cGMP Stability Testings cGMP Scale-ups Technology TransferAPI Technology DevelopmentCreating the Path for Successwww.alphoraresearch.comDRUG SAFETY OF EXCIPIENTSI WAS PLEASED to see the article “Shock to the System” in whichthe issue of drug safety and supply-chain security was discussed(C&EN, May 16, page 11). For the sake of completeness, I think it isimportant to make readers aware of another audit-sharing organization,International Pharmaceutical Excipients Auditing Inc. (IPEA).IPEA was organized by the International Pharmaceutical ExcipientsCouncil of the Americas (IPEC) in 2001 with the purpose ofsharing audit reports of excipient manufacturers. The objective is tolower the cost for the assessment of excipients and thus increase assurancethat these ingredient suppliers are audited. Unfortunately,this program has been slow to gain traction with the industry.During a review of the program with the Food & Drug Administrationin 2008, it was suggested that IPEA become accredited by theAmerican National Standards Institute (ANSI) to issue certificationof excipients to Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). IPEA wasaccredited by ANSI in April 2010 and has issued certification to amanufacturer of Propylene Glycol USP and of Silica Gel NF at twomanufacturing sites each. The certification program is gaining recognitionwith FDA and with this industry.Irwin SilversteinChief Operating Officer, IPEAArlington, Va.CORRECTION■ June 6, page 5: The bill to ban nontherapeutic use of medically importantantibiotics in farm animals is H.R. 965 in the 112th Congress.WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 8 JUNE 20, 2011

news of the weekJUNE 20, 2011 EDITED BY WILLIAM G. SCHULZ & SOPHIA L. CAIFORMALDEHYDE,STYRENE CANCERWARNINGTOXICOLOGY: Government listingtriggers outcry, applauseDESPITE FIERCE opposition from the chemicalindustry, formaldehyde and styrene have beenadded to a government warning list of knownand potentially carcinogenic compounds. Released onJune 10—four years late because ofthe opposition—the 12th Report onCarcinogens (RoC), compiled by theNational Toxicology Program (NTP)under the aegis of the Departmentof Health & Human Services (HHS),also adds six other substances toits list, which now contains 240compounds.HOHFormaldehydeThe listing of formaldehyde as a known carcinogenhas generated the most heat, with industry claimingthat evidence of its carcinogenicity is insufficient. Thecompound is predominantly used to make industrialresins, which are found in numerous consumer productsincluding composite wood, paper, plastics, andsynthetic fibers. It is also used as a disinfectant andantimicrobial agent.Environmental groups applauded HHS for finallyreleasing the report and not caving in to industry pressure.“The chemical industry has been fighting toothand nail” to prevent the report from being finalized,says Jennifer Sass, senior scientist with the NaturalResources Defense Council. “The public has a right toknow about the chemical risks that are foisted upon us.”Industry officials have fired back. “We are extremelydisappointed that HHS has moved forward with listingformaldehyde in its 12th RoC as a known human carcinogen,”Calvin M. Dooley, president and chief executiveofficer of the American Chemistry Council, a chemicalindustry trade group, said in a statement. HHS ignored apeer-reviewed National Research Council report that exoneratedformaldehyde as a human carcinogen, he said.Likewise, a styrene industry group has called theevidence for that compound’s potential carcinogenicity“scientifically unsupportable.” Threatening legalaction and continued advocacy against the NTP listing,the Styrene Information & Research Center has vowed“to get styrene removed from the RoC.”Styrene is a building block used to make the ubiquitouscompound polystyrene, which is found in food containers,toys, automobiles, carpet backings, house paints,ink cartridges, insulation, wood polish, adhesives, andother products. Styrene is also used to produce polyesterresins for making boats, bathtubs, shower stalls, andother glass-fiber-reinforced plastic products.It is unclear whether demand for styrene, which hasbeen declining in North America since 2004, will be furtheraffected by the NTP listing, according to LaurenceAlexander, a stock analyst with the investment firmJefferies & Co. “What matters most to styrene demandis whether the large brand owners, such as the fast-foodchains, react to the news” and decide to migrate awayfrom polystyrene-based food containers, such as coffeecups and takeout containers, he noted in a June 15 reportto clients.Although someNO 2leaching of styrenefrom consumer prod-Styreneo-Nitrotolueneucts that contain polystyrene does occur, human exposuresare “probably not very large,” said John R. Bucher,associate director at NTP, during a June 10 press briefing.“The evidence that we’ve used for listing styrene,” hesaid, “is largely from industrial situations.”Last month, 63 members of Congress wrote a letterto HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, urging that NTPdelay the styrene listing in the report until a “thoroughreview can be conducted that weighs the full body ofscientific evidence available to decision makers.” Thelawmakers warned that thousands of workers in theU.S. styrene industry might lose their jobs as a result.The other six substances added to the report arearistolochic acids, found in botanical products; captafol,a fungicide that is banned in the U.S.; cobalttungstencarbide, used in cutting and grinding tools;o -nitrotoluene, used in producing azo dyes; riddelliine,found in medicinal herbal products; and inhalable glasswool fibers. —BRITT ERICKSONFormaldehydefumes can beemitted fromcomposite woodused to buildhouses.SHUTTERSTOCKWWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 11 JUNE 20, 2011

NEWS OF THE WEEKPatents lie at theheart of the biotechbusiness.SUPREME COURTAFFIRMS PATENTSTHE SUPREME COURT has rejected a bid by Microsoftto make it easier to challenge the validityof patents in litigation. The ruling is a victoryfor drugmakers and other businesses that rely on thestrength of their patent portfolios.The justices unanimously upheld a record$290 million verdict against the software giantfor infringing a small Canadian company’s patentand affirmed a long-standing requirement that adefendant in an infringement case prove by clearand convincing evidence that a plaintiff ’s patentis invalid (C&EN, June 13, page 27) .Microsoft had argued that a judge or juryshould be able to overturn a patent if only a preponderanceof the evidence indicates it is invalid,a lesser standard of proof.The biotech sector “felt that this was maybeSHUTTERSTOCKINTELLECTUAL PROPERTY:Justices uphold high hurdle forproving a patent is invalidthe most important patent case to go to the SupremeCourt in a decade,” says Hans Sauer, associate generalcounsel for intellectual property at the BiotechnologyIndustry Organization (BIO), a trade association.BIO saw the case as “a great threat because biotech,more than most industries, depends on patents asstrong and enduring legal instruments that cannot beoverturned on a mere coin toss,” Sauer tells C&EN.“You can’t have a sustainable biotech business withoutbeing able to rely on your patents to a stronger degreethan just that for product development, investment,and partnering decisions,” he says.The legal fight began in 2007 when Toronto-basedi4i sued Microsoft. A district court jury found that Microsofthad infringed i4i’s patent relating to text manipulationsoftware. After a federal appeals court upheldthe award, Microsoft turned to the Supreme Court.“Microsoft tried to gut the value of patents. It is now100% clear that you can only invalidate a patent basedon clear and convincing evidence,” says i4i ChairmanLoudon Owen.Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that any change inthe standard of proof for patent invalidity would haveto be made by Congress. She noted in the court’s opinionthat the standard of clear and convincing evidenceis nearly 30 years old and has been left untouched bylawmakers. —GLENN HESSU.S. BIOTECH FUNDINGGrowth in 2010 is due mostlyto debt offerings.Corporate funding, $ billions25 ■ Debt & other ■ Stock sale■ Venture capital ■ IPO201510502004 0506070809IPO = initial public offering of stock.SOURCE: Ernst & YoungBIOTECH SECTORREBOUNDSPHARMACEUTICALS: Recovery isoccurring but growth is slow, doggedby a widening gap in access to capital10MAJOR INDICATORS point to aturnaround for the global biotechnologyindustry, accordingto the annual industry report from theconsulting firm Ernst & Young. Totalrevenues for 622 public companiesreached $84.6 billion last year, an 8%gain over 2009. Combined net incomejumped 30% to hit an all-time recordlevel of $4.7 billion.Although 2010 was its second profitableyear in a row, the industry hasn’t returnedto prerecession rates of growth.And while the aggregate performancehas improved, “there is now a wideninggap between large, established companiesand those at earlier stages forwhom access to capital continues to bedifficult,” says Glen Giovannetti, Ernst& Young’s global biotechnology leader.In 2010, companies worldwide raised a total of $25billion in funding, but the influx was skewed. In theU.S., large debt financings by mature, profitable companiesgrew by 150% and accounted for nearly half the2010 total. Meanwhile, funding for emerging firmsdeclined by 20%.Most revenues also came from bigger companiesthat were equipped to weather the recession. Smallerfirms contributed to overall better net income in 2010,but at the price of drastic cost-cutting moves, many ofwhich were in R&D. Many small firms didn’t survive therecession. The number of public companies fell by 11%in 2009, then held steady in 2010.For the vast majority of firms, funding for R&D hasgrown increasingly scarce, the report’s authors observe:“This has placed new pressure on the traditionalbiotech business model, and may reshape how companiespursue R&D in the future.” For the first timein the industry’s history, R&D spending fell in 2009,by 21%. A modest 2% increase brought spending up to$22.8 billion in 2010.Ernst & Young analysts don’t foresee any majorreversals of these trends in the near future. “As long astight funding remains an inescapable part of the newnormal for emerging companies, R&D spending willremain under pressure,” they conclude. “Numberssuch as the ones we have seen in 2010—steady, solidlyprofitable, but slow-growing—may indeed be theshape of things to come over the next few years.” —ANN THAYERWWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 12 JUNE 20, 2011

NEWS OF THE WEEKSTRUCTURE OFBRASSINOLIDE’SRECEPTOR SOLVEDAGRICULTURE : First look at sensorfor plant hormone holds surprisesTHE FIRST X-RAY crystal structures of a keyplant hormone receptor protein have beensolved by two independent research teamsworking in the U.S. and China ( Nature , DOI: 10.1038/nature10178 and 10.1038/nature10153). The receptorsenses brassinolide, a steroid that helps bulk up foliage,fight pathogens, and mediate fertilization. It is amongthe last of the major plant hormone receptors to haveits structure solved.The discovery sets the stage forplant researchers to improve theyields of lettuce and cotton, twocrops that depend on brassinolidesignaling for large harvests.The structure will also help plantscientists understand and bolsteragricultural crops’ immunity tomicrobial pathogens.Surprisingly, the brassinolidereceptor “looks totally differentthan what was expected,” saysPing He, a plant biochemist atHOHOTexas A&M University. People so strongly believed thereceptor would adopt a horseshoe shape, He explains,that the wrong structure was widely “put in textbooks.”Instead, the brassinolide receptor, called BRI1, adoptsa superhelix conformation that sequesters the hormoneHHHOHOBrassinolideinside the ring, with thehelp of an “island”domain, so namedbecause it appearsto float in the centerof the receptor’scircular interior.The two researchteams—one led bystructural biologistJijie Chai at Tsinghua University,in Beijing, and theother by Joanne Chory, a plantbiologist at the Salk Institute,in La Jolla, Calif.—knew of each other’swork, but did not share data prior to submittingthe papers for publication. When Chai finally readChory’s paper, “I could not find a difference betweentheir structure and ours,” he says. The impressive similarity“certainly helped” convinceOHHOHreviewers who were expecting BRI1to look like its mammalian analog,the horseshoe-shaped steroid receptorcalled TLR3, Chory says.The researchers were also surprisedto find that BRI1 does notseem to dimerize as TLR3 does,Chai says.Chemists could use BRI1’sstructure to develop small,receptor-activating molecules thataren’t as complicated—and thereforenot as expensive to produce orpurify—as brassinolide. The structure might also helpplant scientists engineer the receptor to increase cropsensitivity to brassinolide, thus speeding the launch ofdefensive strategies against invading microbial pests,He adds. —SARAH EVERTSThe proteinthat detects theplant hormonebrassinolideadopts anunexpectedsuperhelixconformation.NATUREPHARMACEUTICALS Merck deal with South Korea’s Hanwha bolsters move into biosimilarsMerck & Co. has agreed to pay SouthKorea’s Hanwha Chemical up to $720million for access to HD203, a biosimilarform of Amgen’s arthritis and psoriasistreatment Enbrel. The deal buttressesMerck’s ambition to become a leader inthe market for biosimilars, which are genericversions of biologic drugs.Last year, Enbrel logged $3.3 billion insales in the U.S., where it will lose patentprotection in October 2012.HD203 is in a Phase III study in Koreato confirm its safety and therapeuticequivalence to Enbrel in treating peoplewith rheumatoid arthritis. It has yet to besubject to clinical tests in the U.S.Merck will run additional clinical trialsfor and manufacture HD203, and it intendsto sell the drug in all countries outsideof Korea and Turkey, where Hanwharetains marketing rights. Hanwha willreceive an undisclosed up-front paymentfrom Merck, as well as milestonepayments. Hanwha could reap up to$720 million over the course of the pact,according to a financial filing from theSouth Korean firm.Merck has been working diligentlyto become a key player in the emergingbiosimilars marketplace since launchingMerck BioVentures, a unit dedicatedto developing generic biologics, in late2008. The company wants to havefive biosimilars in late-stage developmentin 2012, a goal that it hopes toachieve with the aid of partnerships andac qui si tions.The deal-making kicked off in 2006,with the acquisition of GlycoFi, a smallbiotech firm with technology to makeglycosylated proteins in yeast. In 2009,Merck licensed generic versions ofNe upogen and Neulasta, a pair of Amgenchemotherapy adjuncts, from Insmed.And earlier this year, Parexel agreed toprovide clinical development services forbiosimilar candidates being developedby Merck.—LISA JARVISWWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 13 JUNE 20, 2011

NEWS OF THE WEEKSpherical PNANs(blue pom-poms)traverse cellmembrane (brownand blue sandwichstructure) byinteracting withendocytosisinducingreceptor(light and darkgreen).PROMISINGPOM-POMSTHERAPEUTICS: Nucleic acidstructures enter cells readily,control gene expressionARESEARCH TEAM at Northwestern Universityreports a new form of synthetic DNA and RNAthat looks like cheerleader pom-poms and canenter cells readily and regulate genes ( J. Am. Chem. Soc. ,DOI: 10.1021/ja203375n). These polyvalent nucleic acidnanostructures (PNANs) could prove to have therapeuticeffects by controlling the expression of diseaserelatedgenes, their creators say.Nanoscience expert Chad A. Mirkin and coworkers atNorthwestern University developedPNANs and are collaborativelypursuing their use to treat a widevariety of diseases with geneticbases, including glioblastoma,a form of brain tumor for whichnew therapies are needed. Theyalso are investigating the use ofPNANs to speed wound healingand treat psoriasis,neurological diseases,and cardiovascularconditions, Mirkinsays.PNANs are composedof DNA and/or RNAstrands that radiate from a central point, where theyare synthetically cross-linked. Synthetic DNA and RNAoligomers and PNANs can inhibit cellular gene expressionby blocking mRNA-to-protein translation. Butsynthetic DNA and RNA strands typically do not entercells readily, Mirkin says. That’s because single strandsCOURTESY OF CHAD MIRKINdon’t interact efficiently with cell-surface receptorsthat control endocytosis, the process by which cells engulfextracellular molecules, he explains. PNANs entercells more easily because their high nucleic acid surfacedensities, oriented strands, and large particle sizesallow them to interact efficiently with the endocytosisinducinggatekeepers on cell surfaces.Transfection agents such as polymers, liposomes,peptides, or viruses can enhance entry of syntheticDNAs and RNAs into cells. But these carriers can betoxic, immunogenic, and resistant to breakdown andmay therefore cause side effects. By obviating the needfor transfection agents, PNANs take concerns abouttransfection agent toxicity and side effects “completelyout of the equation,” comments Dan Feldheim of theUniversity of Colorado, Boulder, a specialist in medicinalnanostructures.Another important advantage of PNANs is that theyresist enzymatic breakdown by nucleases. This enablesthem to last longer in the body—and more effectivelyknock down genes—than most synthetic DNA andRNA strands.In their paper, Mirkin and coworkers demonstratethat RNA-based PNANs can enter squamous cancercells and inhibit the expression of epidermal growthfactor receptor via an RNA interference mechanism.PNANs are actually core-free versions of constructsMirkin’s group developed earlier—DNA and RNAoligomers attached to gold-nanoparticle cores, whichalso enter cells readily.“I was excited to see that the gold core could be removedso easily without compromising the function ofthe oligonucleotide shell,” Feldheim says.Nanomedicine specialist Joseph M. DeSimone of theUniversity of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, says PNANscould “change the way people think” about nucleicacid therapeutics. They could “open up a lot of new approaches,”he says. “People are clearly going to try tobuild on this and see what other nucleic acid complexesone can make that will undergo similar cell internalization.”—STUBORMANACADEMICS U.S. team selected for chemistry olympiad in TurkeyCapping a nationwide competition, ateam of four high school students willrepresent the U.S. at the 43rd InternationalChemistry Olympiad (IChO) in Ankara,Turkey, on July 9–18. The team willcompete for medals alongside studentsfrom more than 70 other countries.The team members are KonstantinBorisov, North Allegheny Senior HighSchool, Wexford, Pa.; Tayyab Shah, VestalHigh School, Vestal, N.Y.; Elmer Tan,John P. Stevens High School, Edison,N.J.; and Joe Tung, Gretchen A. WhitneyHigh School, Cerritos, Calif. If any teammember is unable to go, Kevin Yan ofThomas S. Wootton High School, Rockville,Md., and Sriram Pendyala of MiraLoma High School, Sacramento, Calif.,are the alternates.The team was assembled on June 14 atthe conclusion of an intensive two-weekU.S. National Chemistry Olympiad studycamp organized by the American ChemicalSociety and held at the U.S. Air ForceAcademy in Colorado Springs. The 20students who participated in the campwere selected from a pool of approximately10,000 students from around thecountry.Team mentor Kris Fletcher, a seniorchemist at Chromatic Technologies, saysthe four students chosen for the U.S.team “not only demonstrated extraordinaryunderstanding of the materialtested as well as exemplary lab skills,but they also showed a level of maturity,respect, and responsibility we think arerequired to be good ambassadors of theU.S. at IChO.” —LINDA WANGWWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 14 JUNE 20, 2011

COVER STORYTARGACEPTMOVING FORWARDTargacept willcontinue thedevelopment ofa drug previouslypartnered withAstraZeneca.AFTER THE BREAKUPThe end of a PARTNERSHIP WITH BIG PHARMA brings bothopportunity and challenge for biotech firmsLISA M. JARVIS , C&EN NORTHEAST NEWS BUREAUMICHAEL M. MORRISSEY hit the roadlast summer charged with one of the mostdaunting tasks in his career: to convinceinvestors and analysts to keep the faith inExelixis, the South San Francisco-basedbiotechnology company he suddenly foundhimself leading. Within a span of 10 days,two major events had rocked the firm: Itsmost lucrative partnership, a licensing dealwith Bristol-Myers Squibb for the cancerdrug XL184, had dissolved after BMS shiftedstrategy, and its chief executive officer,George A. Scangos, had abruptly left tohead up Biogen Idec.Morrissey, previously the head of R&D atExelixis, was tapped to succeed Scangos. Forhis first task, the lanky Midwestern chemisthad to find just the right tone—a mixtureof honesty, humility, and confidence—tokeep investors interested in the company.He needed to show them he had a plan tonavigate Exelixis through choppy waters.“My line was basically, ‘Look, BMS walkingaway and the CEO leaving doesn’t lookgood. We’re not going to try to sugarcoatthat,’ ” Morrissey recalls with a chuckle.What he could offer was reassurance thatExelixis was still focused on bringing tomarket what he considered to be an extraordinarilypromising drug.But at the time Exelixis had little concretedata to support that claim. At the 2010American Society of Clinical Oncology(ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago—theSuper Bowl of cancer conferences—thecompany presented evidence of a dramaticresponse in a single prostate cancer patientin a small clinical trial of XL184, now calledcabozantinib. The patient’s tumors hadshrunk by more than 40%, and there weresigns of improvement in his bone scan, a wayof measuring whether the cancer had spread.“All we could do is show that one slide,with the one patient, and say, ‘We’re goingto take this momentum and build uponit,’ ” Morrissey says.And build upon it they did. Just a fewmonths after BMS gave back the rights tocabozantinib, Exelixis unveiled Phase IIdata suggesting the compound had majorpotential to treat prostate cancer. The trialwas small, but 19 of the 20 patients sawcomplete or partial improvement in theirbone scans. Further, nearly everyone experiencedrelief from bone pain, an oftendebilitating side effect of the disease.Back in Chicago early this month for thestart of this year’s ASCO meeting, Morrisseywas eager to discuss the next set ofdata for Exelixis’ lead drug. Cabozantinibwas the subject of three oral sessions atthe meeting and received extensive presscoverage leading up to the event. TheWWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 15 JUNE 20, 2011

COVER STORYcompound still needs to prove its worthin a Phase III trial and make it through theregulatory gauntlet, but these days Exelixisis feeling lucky to be its sole owner.As they find themselves suddenly inpossession of a previously partnered drug,other biotech executives are pointing to theexample of Exelixis’ quick turnaround afterBMS’s exit. Big pharma companies, underpressure to improve profitability and productivity,are focusing drug developmentefforts on fewer diseases and fewer compounds.As their priorities shift, the companiesare backing away from high-profile drugdevelopment deals with biotechs. The challengefor their former partners is to keepthe momentum going—a feat that requiresfinancial mettle and clinical expertise notalways inherent to small companies.THE DISSOLUTION of these partnershipsis a direct consequence of the dramaticchanges in the pharmaceutical industry,says G. Steven Burrill, head of the life sciencesinvestment firm Burrill & Co. Goneare the days of “me-too” drugs and billiondollarblockbusters that address largeswaths of the population. Big pharma hashad to update its approach to R&D, andnow “they’re trying to move these oceanliners very fast into calmer waters wherethey have more sustainability,” Burrill says.Drug companies have lost their appetitefor the kind of high-risk, early-stagedeals they pursued in the past, Burrillsays. “They’d rather pay more later, whenthey’ve removed the uncertainty.” In somecases, that means letting go of partnershipsfor candidate drugs that seem too risky.Big pharma firms are also taking a hardlook at their development pipelines. Manycompanies have decided to work in fewertherapeutic areas, while also weeding outcompounds in clinical trials to focus onthose with the best chance of winning.The cuts can be ruthless. For example,not long ago Sanofi-Aventis had 128 compoundsin development, the company’sU.S. chief medical and scientific officer,Paul Chew, told reporters at a recent briefing.After what Chew called a portfolio“stress test,” that number is now down to58. “That’s allowed us to focus on what wefeel are the most viable candidates goingforward,” he said.Other companies have made similarchanges. In February, Pfizer said it was winnowingthe diseases it focuses on. The firmis ending research on allergy and respiratorymedicine, internal medicine, oligonucleotidesand tissue repair, and antibacterials(C&EN, Feb. 7, page 5).Last year, GlaxoSmithKline, amidsweeping R&D cuts, decided to end researchin certain areas of neuroscience. AstraZenecatrimmed nearly two dozen compoundsfrom its pipeline and abandoneddiscovery research in 10 diseases.In the stringent spending environment,breakups between big pharma companiesand their biotech partners are “going to happenmore and more,” says Daphne Zohar,managing partner of PureTech Ventures, aBoston-based life sciences investment firm.“Almost every company is making lists ofall their programs” as they prioritize theirresearch dollars, she says. “They have todraw the line somewhere. There are somegood programs that are going to get cut.”Even programs within priority therapeuticareas are at risk as organizations are overhauled.For example, a consequence of thevast layoffs at big pharma companies is thatprograms get transferred from one managerto another, notes Needham & Co. stock analystAlan Carr. “Whoever may have done thedeal up front may be gone, and someone elsehas inherited it,” he says. “You may not havea champion for that collaboration within thepharma partner anymore.”BREAKUPS High-profile biotech deals became casualties of big pharma’sshifting priorities.February 2010: Merck/AnacorSchering-Plough paid $50 million for access to AN2690, a topical antifungal for infectionsof the nail. After acquiring Schering-Plough in 2009, Merck & Co. returned therights to AN2690, which was on the brink of going into Phase III clinical trials. Ninemonths later, Anacor Pharmaceuticals completed an initial public offering.June 2010: BMS/ExelixisIn late 2008, Bristol-Myers Squibb paid $195 million for access to two cancer compounds:XL184, a small-molecule inhibitor of MET, VEGFR2, and RET, and the RAF kinaseinhibitor XL281. Exelixis received $45 million more in 2009 and took in $17 million whenBMS decided to return the rights to XL184.October 2010: Merck/AveoAveo Pharmaceuticals partnered in 2007 with Schering-Plough, later acquired by Merck& Co., on the cancer compound AV-299. The deal included a $7.5 million payment and$10 million equity investment by Schering-Plough. At the time Merck returned the rightsto AV-299, Aveo had just received an $8.5 million payment based on the initiating of aPhase II study of the drug to treat lung cancer.February 2011: Merck/GalapagosMerck & Co. and Galapagos signed a series of deals in 2009 and 2010 with the goal ofdiscovering small molecules against drug targets in diabetes, obesity, atherosclerosis,and inflammatory diseases. Galapagos received roughly $30 million during the pact.March 2011: Merck/PortolaMerck & Co. paid Portola Pharmaceuticals $50 million in 2009 for the rights to the oralFactor Xa inhibitor betrixaban, a blood thinner in Phase II trials. Merck gave back thecompound as it was poised to enter Phase III studies.March 2011: GSK/TargaceptIn 2007, GlaxoSmithKline paid Targacept $35 million as part of an agreement to developsmall molecules targeting neuronal nicotinic receptors. The deal included the rights totwo pain-relief compounds, TC-2696 and TC-6499, which later failed to show efficacyin mid-stage trials. When the pact was dissolved, Targacept got back the rights to a leadmolecule for Parkinson’s disease.May 2011: Pfizer/RigelPfizer licensed Rigel Pharmaceuticals’ portfolio of syk inhibitors in 2005 and later selectedR343 as the lead candidate for inhaled allergic asthma. When Pfizer returned thedrug, it had been formulated for inhaled delivery and had completed Phase I trials.May 2011: AstraZeneca/TargaceptAstraZeneca and Targacept teamed up in 2005 to develop small molecules targetingneuronal nicotinic receptors, a deal that eventually included the schizophrenia treatmentTC-5619. By giving back the rights, AstraZeneca avoided making a $30 millionpayment and taking full responsibility for the drug.SOURCE: CompaniesWWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 16 JUNE 20, 2011

Indeed, in addition to the BMS-Exelixispartnership, several big pharma-biotechdeals—between Pfizer and Rigel Pharmaceuticals,AstraZeneca and Targacept, andMerck & Co. and Aveo Pharmaceuticals—have fallen by the wayside in the past year.The biotech partners who suddenlyfind themselves with a drug program backin-house face several challenges: how toconvince investors that the deal was terminatedfor strategic, rather than scientific,reasons; how to maintain a drug developmentprogram at the same pace and withthe same breadth as they did with the backingof a big pharma firm; and where to findthe money to continue the program in anefficient and expeditious way.“One of the things you have to be carefulabout as a biotech is that there’s a timestamp on value,” says J. Donald deBethizy,president and CEO of Targacept, which inthe past few months has had drug candidatesreturned by GlaxoSmithKline andAstraZeneca. If a biotech firm can’t movea compound forward quickly enough, orhas to shelve it due to lack of resources, hesays, “there’s a risk that the need for it willgo away, or that somebody else will discoverthe same thing and do it faster.”the reins. The antibody was in the midstof Phase II trials, making it “a much morevaluable program today,” Ezickson says.“And as a company, we are also in a muchbetter place in terms of our ability to movethis forward.”Whereas Aveo learned the clinical ropeswith Schering-Plough’s funding, Rigel benefitedfrom a partner that could take on aproject that was beyond its capacity. Rigellicensed its inhaled syk inhibitor programfor asthma and allergy to Pfizer in 2005largely because it didn’t have the capabilityto develop the compound, explains Raul R.Rodriguez, the company’s president andchief operating officer. To be successfullyand safely delivered to the lung, the compoundneeded to be formulated as a saltYET BIOTECH EXECUTIVES point outthat they are getting back a more advancedcompound, developed largely on big pharma’sdime. Furthermore, their companieshave likely matured significantly since signingthe partnership, which for some firmsmay have been their first significant deal.For example, when Aveo partnered withSchering-Plough in 2007 for the antihepatocytegrowth factor antibody AV-299, it wasthe first time a big pharma firm had sweptup one of Aveo’s internally discovered molecules.At the time, the antibody was still inpreclinical studies, and the deal was structuredso that Schering-Plough footed the billwhile the biotech pushed the drug throughclinical trials to treat lung cancer.Since then, “the world has changedsignificantly for us,” says Elan Ezickson,Aveo’s chief business officer. The companyhas gone public and has formed otherpartnerships that have brought in significantpayments. It also gained experiencefrom putting AV-299, along with anothercompound in its pipeline, through the earlystages of clinical development.Thus when Merck, which bought Schering-Ploughin 2009, returned the rightsto AV-299 last October after a revamp ofits portfolio, Aveo was happy to take backSPOT BREAKTHROUGHS SOONERWITH FREESLATE HIGH THROUGHPUT RESEARCH SOLUTIONSDiscovery is all about making knowledge-based decisions fast. That’swhy Freeslate delivers automated platforms and reactors for microscaleexperimentation combined with powerful data management tools toenable dramatic gains in your R&D productivity and innovation. See whatyou’re missing at www.freeslate.com/breakthroughsWWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 17 JUNE 20, 2011

COVER STORYand then wedded to an inhalation device.Out of a basket of syk inhibitors handedover by Rigel, Pfizer chose R343 tomove into clinical development. The bigpharma firm completed Phase I studies ofthe drug but never published the results,and when it decided to exit research in allergyand respiratory diseases earlier thisyear, the Rigel program fell victim.For Rigel, the timing couldn’t have beenbetter, Rodriguez says. The company hadjust licensed its lead compound, fostamatinib,to AstraZeneca, which took over responsibilityfor clinical development. As themost advanced drug candidate in its internalpipeline, R343 suddenly became Rigel’s toppriority. “It’s a great opportunity for ourcompany because we now, unlike in 2005,An Innovation in Mass SpectrometryIs On The Horizon...This summer, laboratories everywhere will experience the benefitsof the release of an exceptional new Mass Spectrometry platform.Purposefully built to bring unprecedented levels of analytical powerand efficiency to small molecule analysis applications, this new systemdelivers performance and value like nothing you‘ve ever seen before.Keep watching www.bruker.com/ms for more information about thisexciting, new development.Innovation with IntegrityMASS SPECTROMETRYhave a lot more capabilities and financialwherewithal to develop it,” Rodriguez says.Because the company has already conducteda Phase II clinical trial for fostamatinibinvolving more than 700 arthritispatients, it has the experience to design andcarry out the next set of studies for R343,Rod riguez notes. Meanwhile, Pfizer putin the medicinal chemistry elbow greaseto turn Rigel’s lead compound into a drugcandidate that is well characterized from asafety standpoint, he says. “That took a lot ofwork on the Pfizer side to get to this point.”Rigel plans to publish, with Pfizer, R343’sPhase I safety data at an upcoming meetingon respiratory diseases. In addition toa clean safety profile, Rodriguez says, thedrug shows signs of working in humans exactlyas it does in animal models.AFTER THE END of its deal with AstraZeneca,Targacept also finds itself with a new leadinternal compound, TC-5619, an alpha7 neuronalnicotinic receptor (NNR) modulatorin midstage development for schizophrenia.But unlike other big pharma companiesthat terminated deals because of pipelinerevamps, AstraZeneca appears to have givenback TC-5619 in a risk-mitigation move.The two companies have worked togetheron small molecules targeting NNRssince 2005, but their partnership on TC-5619 ended after a Phase II trial producedmixed results. The drug showed signs ofimproving cognitive function and alleviatingnegative symptoms, such as lack ofemotion, experienced by schizophrenics.Existing drugs primarily address positivesymptoms, such as hallucinations and delusions,meaning TC-5619 could be uniquelypositioned in the marketplace. Both partiesagreed another trial was needed, butthey could not come to terms on its scopeand timing, Targacept’s deBethizy says.Analysts say the British drug firm waswary of the economics of continuing to developTC-5619. The next clinical trial wouldhave cost up to $12 million, but AstraZenecaalso would have had to pay Targacept a$30 million fee for continued access to thedrug, Needham’s Carr notes.“Big pharma is not interested in takingon more clinical-stage risk,” Carr says. “Inthis case, it makes sense for Targacept tospend the $10 million to $12 million, learnwhat they can, and then try to find a partner.”Carr says he wouldn’t be surprised ifAstraZeneca bought into the program “at asubstantial premium” if the next round ofdata turn out to be solid.WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 18 JUNE 20, 2011

For Targacept, getting the rights back toTC-5619 “was a real windfall,” given that allof the firm’s other advanced clinical candidatesare partnered, deBethizy says. Headds that the company would like to holdon to the rights to the compound “as longas we can,” with the idea of signing anotherdeal after it has generated more data.Like deBethizy, most biotech executivesview a newly reclaimed molecule as awindfall. However, it’s one that comes withcaveats, because not all firms are equipped,financially or scientifically, to move a drugcandidate forward on their own.And although biotech companies areeager to spin a deal breakup as good news,losing an important funding stream canhave painful short-term consequences.Exelixis, now reveling in full ownershipof cabozantinib, felt the sting when BMSwalked away from the compound. Its stockprice dropped by 16% the day the newsbroke and continued to decline throughoutlast summer. And to support the developmentof cabozantinib, Exelixis has cutabout 75% of its staff and stopped workingon all its other internal projects.“We did the same prioritization thatBMS did,” Exelixis’ Morrissey says. Everyinvestment decision needed to be spot-on,he adds. “We couldn’t afford to miss.”The thinking at Exelixis after the restructuringwas, “This was do or die,” hesays. Everyone knew that “we’ve got tomake these next four months really count.”NOT ALL BIOTECH executives are as frankas Morrissey about the sense of urgencythey felt when a partner exited the scene,but many companies that have regainedthe rights to a drug have had to adjust theirstrategies. Some immediately went to thepublic markets to raise the cash to fundtheir newly expanded pipelines.For example, at the end of May, Rigelraised more than $130 million in a publicoffering so it could initiate Phase II studiesfor R343 and keep previous plans to beginPhase I trials for two new compounds.Even with cash in hand, biotechs mightstill find questions lingering over the valueof returned compounds. “The problem,I think, is perception,” PureTech’s Zoharsays. Even though investors and potentialpartners are well aware of the changes happeningacross the industry, abandoned programscan still carry “a taint,” she says. Butas more of these projects are returned forstrategic, rather than scientific, reasons,“it’ll become less traumatic.”Flash ChromatographyforNatural ProductsReduce purifications from DAYS to HOURSusing CombiFlash instruments andRediSep Rf Gold columnsi Walk-away operation usingactive solvent/waste management,peak detection, andfractionationi See everything with our widerange of detection optionsfrom UV-vis to EvaporativeLight Scattering Detection(ELSD)i Eliminate multiple runs —load samples up to hundredsof grams. Our new 3 Kg size isideal for initial extractions.i Separate at up to 1 L/min whileachieving high resolution withour spherical mediai Purify compounds from lowto high polarity on our wideselection of mediaLearn about new methods for natural productspurification at www.isco.com/natural, or bycontacting us:800.228.4373402.464.0231iscoinfo@teledyne.comGoldWWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 19 JUNE 20, 2011

COVER STORYShare price, $1412UPS AND DOWNS Exelixis has seen goodand bad days based on investor confidence inits prostate cancer candidate cabozantinib.5/18/11 ASCO holds premeeting press conference featuringcabozantinib data.1083/8/10 Exelixis announces restructuring, 40% of staff laid off.11/18/10 Exelixis reports positiveprostate cancer data for cabozantinib.6426/21/10 BMS withdrawsfrom deal for cabozantinib.6/30/10 Exelixis CEO George Scangos leaves for Biogen Idec.6/6/11 Bayer unveils positive data on competing prostatecancer drug, Exelixis provides new cabozantinib trial results.0Jan. 4, 2010 Jan. 3, 2011June 10, 2011NOTE: ASCO = American Society of Clinical Oncology. BMS = Bristol-Myers Squibb.SOURCE: Yahoo! FinanceEach situation is different, but “ingeneral, there can be a taint,” Needham’sCarr agrees, adding that the later-stagethe drug candidate is, the more ominous adeal breakup can appear. Carr, who coversTargacept, notes that many investors stillworry about the value of TC-5619.“Obviously investors want to know why[a partner] gave it back, and they are inherentlyskeptical,” Targacept’s deBethizyconcedes. “They’ll triangulate on this.” Atthe same time, he says, investors appreciatethe potential upside to having the fullrights to an asset.Moreover, not every company can producethe kind of data that helped Exelixisrebound so quickly. Biotech executivesacknowledge that the pressure is on to executetheir next clinical trial flawlessly and,ultimately, offer data that will entice a newpartner or investor. “Eventually the compoundwill need to speak for itself,” Rigel’sRodriguez says.Even good data aren’t always enough.Although Exelixis walked into this year’sASCO meeting with confidence in itslatest trial results for cabozantinib, thecompany’s stock took a drubbing on newsthat a competing prostate cancer drugbeing developed by Bayer might be betterat prolonging patient survival and onworries over a potential safety concern inone cabozantinib study. By the end of theconference, the company’s stock price hadfallen by 20%, although most analysts feltthe response was overblown.Still, Exelixis has more leverage whennegotiating with potential partners than itdid a year ago. The company plans to starta Phase III trial for cabozantinib later thisyear. In the meantime it is considering a dealthat will give it rights to the compound inthe U.S. and Europe, where it had previouslyshared rights with BMS, but that will allow itto partner in Asia, where it lacks a presence.“It’s a hard road,” Exelixis’ Morrissey says.“It’s all in the data. If we had had ‘me-too’data, no one would have ever cared.” ■WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 20 JUNE 20, 2011

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BUSINESS CONCENTRATESARKEMA TO INVESTIN FLUORSPARArkema plans to invest more than $100million to develop a 122,000-metric-tonper-yearfluorspar mine with partnerCanada Fluorspar to provide feedstock forits North American fluorochemical operations.Fluorspar is used to make hydrofluoricacid, a raw material for refrigerantsand fluoropolymers. Shortages of the mineralfrom China have driven up prices andforced users to seek alternative sources(C&EN, Oct. 11, 2010, page 20). Arkema’sinvestment will give it a nearly 20% equitystake in Canada Fluorspar and a 50% sharein the mining firm’s St. Lawrence mine inNewfoundland, which is scheduled to startup in early 2013. —MSRVERTEX LICENSESALIOS COMPOUNDSVertex Pharmaceuticals will pay AliosBioPharma $60 million up front for accessto two NS5B polymerase inhibitorsin preclinical studies to treat hepatitis Cvirus (HCV). Alios could reap another $715million in milestones if both ALS-2200and ALS-2158 are approved and is slatedto receive $35 million this year as the compoundsenter Phase I studies. Vertex willalso pay for the development of the drugcandidates and provide Alios with researchfunding. Vertex recently gained FDA approvalfor Incivek, a protease inhibitorused in combination with ribavirin and theINEOS WILL ACQUIRETESSENDERLO’S PVC UNITIneos ChlorVinyls is buying Tessenderlo ’s chlor-alkali and polyvinyl chloridebusiness for $155 million. Ineos will gain about 850 employees withthe purchase, which includes plants in Tessenderlo, Belgium; Mazingarbe,France; and Beek and Maastricht, the Netherlands. The business lost $14million in 2010 on $821 million in sales. Tessenderlo is taking a charge of$225 million related to the sale and now plans to focus on more specializedoperations such as plastic pipe, gelatin, and sulfate fertilizers. Thepipe business plans to buy PVC from Ineos under contract. Ineos Chlor-Vinyls has annual revenues of about $2.7 billion. —AHTinjectable drug PEGylated interferon. Theaddition of the Alios assets will further Vertex’goal of developing an all-oral combinationregimen for the treatment of HCV. —LJCELANESE ADVANCESETHANOL PLANTSCelanese is augmenting plans to commercializeits new TCX advanced ethanoltechnology. In addition to building a400,000-metric-ton-per-year ethanolplant in China to run the technology, andpotentially a second of the same size there,the company plans to add capacity for200,000 metric tons of ethanol by mid-2013 at its four-year-old acetyls complex inNanjing. The complex has 1.2 million metrictons of acetic acid capacity. The firmalso intends to construct an R&D center atits Clear Lake, Texas, site dedicated to acetylsand ethanol technology. It has alreadysaid it is building a 40,000-metric-tonethanol technology development unit atthe site. The unit and the R&D center willemploy 50 people. —AHTARRAY BIOPHARMATO RESTRUCTUREArray BioPharma is restructuring to reduceits spending rate and focus on its keyclinical development programs, which arelargely in the cancer area. The firm willreduce its workforce by about 20%, or 70employees, primarily in discovery researchand support jobs. It will still have a smalldiscovery research group to handle latestageprojects and its partnerships withAmgen, Celgene, and Genentech. —AMTBUSINESSROUNDUPBASF plans to spend atotal of $70 million thisyear and next to expandcapacity at its Yeosu,South Korea, methylenediphenyl diisocyanate(MDI) plant by 30% to250,000 metric tonsper year. Separately,BorsodChem , the Hungarianchemical makerthat China’s WanhuaIndustrial Group acquiredearlier this year, plans toexpand MDI capacity inKazincbarcika, Hungary,by 60% to 240,000 metrictons per year.SAUDI BASIC Industrieswill license carbon fiberproduction technologyfrom the Italian firmMontefibre to use for aproposed 3,000-metricton-per-yearcarbon fiberplant in Saudi Arabia. Thetwo firms may also builda carbon fiber plant inSpain, downstream fromMontefibre’s acrylic fiberplant.EVONIK has licensedthe hydrogen peroxideto-propyleneoxide technologyit developed withengineering firm Uhde totwo Chinese firms. JilinShenhua and Jilin NorthChemical plan to use thetechnology in a yet tobe formed joint-ventureplant in Jilin province thatwill make 330,000 metrictons per year of the polyurethaneingredient.AKZONOBEL CEO HansWijers, 60, will retire afterthe firm’s 2012 annualmeeting. Ton Büchner,45, CEO of Swiss industrialequipment makerSulzer , will succeedWijers. Büchner is a civilengineer.GEVO plans to retrofitthe Redfield Energy ethanolrefinery in Redfield,S.D., to produce 38 milliongal of isobutyl alcoholper year by the end of2012. It will provide thetechnology and capitalfor the conversion inexchange for an equityinterest in Redfield.AMBIT BIOSCIENCEShas raised $30 millionfrom investors, includingRoche Venture Fund andMedImmune Ventures .The firm says the cash infusionwill help it advancethe clinical developmentof AC220, a tyrosine kinase-3inhibitor, to treatacute myeloid leukemia.Ambit is developingAC220 with AstellasPharma .SYNAGEVA BioPharma ,a biotech firm focused ondeveloping drugs for rarediseases, is acquiringTrimeris in an all-stocktransaction. Trimeris,which invented theHIV treatment Fuzeonbut struggled in recentyears, has dwindled tojust three employees,according to a recent filingwith the Securities &Exchange Commission.Acquiring Trimeris, whichis listed on the NASDAQ,will enable Synageva togo public.WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 22 JUNE 20, 2011

BUSINESSMICHAEL MCCOY/C&ENAN INDUSTRY REVIVEDChemical executives at ANNUAL MEETING revelin good times, stay wary on regulationsMICHAEL MCCOY , C&EN NORTHEAST NEWS BUREAUTHE MOOD WAS buoyant at the AmericanChemistry Council’s annual meeting atthe Broadmoor hotel in Colorado Springsearlier this month. The recession is justa distant bad memory for most chemicalcompanies, and the legislative tidal wavecompanies once feared has ebbed, at leastsomewhat, with the now-divided Congress.At a press conference, Calvin M. Dooley,ACC’s president and chief executive officer,described the remarkable economicturnaround he has witnessed since his firstannual meeting at the industry trade association’shelm, in June 2009.“Two years ago this industry was strugglingto respond to one of the steepestrecessions this country had faced in sometime,” he said. “Few of us would have anticipatedthat we’d see the industry turnaround and be in one of the strongest positionsit’s been in in decades.”One of the reasons for that strength isample U.S. supplies of low-cost naturalgas, which chemical companies use as bothenergy source and raw material. Companyrepresentatives on ACC’s executive committeeexplained that the good feedstockposition means chemical makers can compensatefor any lingering softness in theU.S. economy by exporting products intothe global marketplace.B. Chuck Anderson, president of OccidentalChemical and vice chairman ofACC’s board, said his firm’s exports ofpolyvinyl chloride are more than compensatingfor continued weakness in the U.S.LINEUP Dooley(from left),Anderson,Dow CorningChairman andACC Chairof the BoardStephanieBurns, andMorrisonprepare tomeet reporters.construction market. “I don’t see a lot ofU.S. markets that are booming,” he said.“In general, the recovery is global.”Anderson marveled at the good fortunepervading the U.S. basic chemicals industryat present—a fortune resulting largelyfrom the competitive advantage that lownatural gas prices have created. “Marginsare at almost historic highs,” he said. “Petrochemicalcompanies are reporting somepretty good results, and I expect to see phenomenalones in the second quarter.”One of ACC’s goals for the comingmonths and years, Dooley said, will be toensure that the good times continue for itsmember companies. He vowed to maintainthe association’s relentless focus on in-thetrenchesadvocacy. Since Dooley, a formercongressman, joined ACC, a strategy ofadvocating for the industry with lawmakers,often on their home turf, has replaced abroader effort to educate the general publicabout chemistry through national advertisingand Web-based outreach.This strategy was in full effect at the association’sannual meeting a year ago, whenstaffers confessed to feeling under siegefrom the Obama Administration and theDemocratic majorities in the House of Representativesand the Senate. The siege hasweakened since last fall’s election, when theDemocrats lost control of the House.Still, Dooley isn’t resting easy. He contendedthat the White House is takingadvantage of the political gridlock in Washington,D.C., to advance an aggressive regulatoryagenda that is atodds with the President’sexecutive order thatregulatory decisions bebased on sound science.Craig O. Morrison,CEO of MomentivePerformance Materialsand ACC’s treasurer,pointed to a June 2010Environmental ProtectionAgency finding thatformaldehyde can cause leukemia if inhaled.Believing the conclusion faulty, ACC successfullylobbied to have it peer reviewed bythe National Academy of Sciences (NAS).That review, published in April, said theleukemia finding went beyond available scientificevidence.Morrison credited ACC’s advocacy forhelping secure the peer review, although henoted that the fight isn’t over. “We continueto battle to ensure EPA … abides by theNAS ruling,” he said. “We understand thatwe have to be regulated. We just ask that itbe fact-based and scientifically based.”ANOTHER SOURCE of ACC advocacy, accordingto Anne Womack Kolton, the association’svice president of communications,is its 18-month-old political mobilizationdepartment, which is working to stop theNew Alternative Transportation to GiveAmericans Solutions Act, nicknamed theNATGAS Act, a bipartisan bill that proposesto subsidize the purchase of natural-gaspoweredvehicles. Concerned that such apolicy would suck up gas supplies and erodethe U.S. chemical industry’s new advantage,ACC is calling on member companies andtheir employees to raise their concerns withcongressional representatives.Opposition to the NATGAS Act is part ofa larger energy initiative that ACC’s executivecommittee green-lighted at the annualmeeting. In addition to sound natural gaspolicy, the initiative will advocate for makingenergy efficiency—often achieved withthe industry’s products—as important asrenewable energy in government policymaking.“Oftentimes energy efficiency getsshortchanged,” Dooley said. But it “is lowhangingfruit.”As with ACC’s other advocacy effortsunder Dooley, the energy initiative will benarrowly focused. “That message is goingto be targeted not at the broader public,”he said, “but at those elected officials andpeople in positions that have the ability toinfluence policy.” ■WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 23 JUNE 20, 2011

BUSINESSCLARIANT TELLSITS STORYCompany leaders discuss outlook, as well as theSÜD-CHEMIE ACQUISITION, at a London eventPAIGE MARIE MORSE, C&EN MUNICHCLARIANTCLARIANT ’S EXECUTIVES are feelingoptimistic these days. The companyannounced that it expects 2011 to be anexcellent year, with sales growth approaching10%, and it has set ambitious profittargets for 2015. Their buoyant spirits camethrough during a media day they held inLondon earlier this month.The Swiss specialty chemical companyhad not hosted an event like this since 2006,and it was the first for Chief Executive OfficerHariolf Kottmann, who took the helm in2008. Investment analysts were invited forsimilar presentations the day before, andthe company was surprised and delightedthat nearly 100 showed up. Such events demanda good story and an interesting futureopportunity to dangle before the audience.Kottmann delivered on both counts.Restructuring has been the focus formuch of his tenure with the company, andhe seemed eager to put it behind him. Clariantlaid off 20% of its workforce and is closing20 production sites in an effort to boostfinancial performance. These intense activitieshave paid off, reported Chief FinancialOfficer Patrick Jany: The company met its2010 target for return on invested capital,achieving 18.1% versus 13.9% for its peergroup of specialty chemical companies.Much of the restructuring is over, butthe impact on employees continues to cascadeas Clariant completes the remainingsite closures over the next 18 months; althoughall 20 have been identified, only fiveplants have been shut down thus far. Localjournalists were reminded at the Londonevent that when the company shuts itsPontypridd facility in Wales later this year,a sales office will be Clariant’s only remainingpresence in the U.K.Clariant executives insisted that thebetter part of their story is the new chapterA 2010 Most-Read Langmuir Article:Design, Fabrication, and Modification of NanostructuredSemiconductor Materials for Environmental and Energy ApplicationsXianluo Hu, Guisheng Li and Jimmy C. YuLangmuir, 201026 (5), pp 3031–3039And Why the Authors Published it in Langmuir:“It has been a joy to work with Dr. Whitten andthe most efficient Langmuir editorial staff!”— Jimmy C. Yu, The Chinese University of Hong Kongpubs.acs.org/LangmuirWWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 24 JUNE 20, 2011

LEADER Kottmann (center) wasoptimistic in discussions withanalysts and the media.on growth. The company completedfour acquisitions in thefirst half of this year. Three dealswere small “bolt-on” purchasesthat boosted existing businesses.The fourth deal is the $2.1 billionpurchase of Süd-Chemie , a specialtiesplayer based in Munich.Kottmann calls the purchase a“strategic transformation project.”Kottmann was particularly eager to expoundon the opportunities presented bythis acquisition, since the financial marketshave not responded as he had hoped. Thecompany shocked analysts when it announcedthe deal at its annual results conferencein February (C&EN, Feb. 21, page10), and it continues to work to get the messageout about the value and fit of the firm.“Clariant did not communicate thatthey were looking for acquisitions,”Markus Mayer, research analyst at investmentgroup UniCredit, told C&EN, “and90% of investors criticized managementfor this poor communication. But after thatfirst shock, investors have realized that thisis a good deal.”The company’s stock price reflected thesurprise, dropping 18% soon after the dealwas announced and only slowly recoveringthrough the spring to return to the healthylevels seen at the end of 2010.THE SÜD-CHEMIE acquisition adds twonew business units to Clariant’s portfolio—one in catalysts and energy and one in functionalmaterials—and boosts company revenuesby 14% over 2010 results. Kottmannhighlighted that both of these units havehigher growth rates and earnings marginsthan the company’s existing businesses.The catalysts and energy unit includescatalysts for petrochemical, chemical, andpolyolefin production and for refinery,air purification, and fuel-cell operations.Additionally, Süd-Chemie’s emerging businessin battery materials is a part of thisgroup. The unit’s sales totaled $730 millionin 2010.The functional materials unit combinesSüd-Chemie’s businesses in adsorbents,packaging, and water treatment. Last year’ssales for these businesses were $745 million.A foundry products division is in aseparate joint venture with Ashland.The overlap with the existing 10 businessesat Clariant is minimal, which shouldease the integration process, noted Clariantexecutive committee member MathiasLütgendorf. The integration of Süd-Chemiestarted last month, and he expects thatit will be complete by year-end.INTEGRATION MAY WELL be smooth becausethe two companies are similar, withmostly German managers who were previouslyemployed with the historic top threecompanies from Germany: Hoechst, BASF,and Bayer. Clariant seems to have a morecasual working environment with informalgreetings and fewer titles used than at Süd-Chemie, but such differences are small andshould be easily managed. The real challengewill be retaining the technical expertisethat has been critical to the strength ofSüd-Chemie.Süd-Chemie will not be subject to theplant restructuring activities done at Clariant,but CFO Jany is counting on cost synergiesfrom the overlap of support services.He estimated savings of $36 million fromcombining headquarters and eliminatingduplicate regional offices, and an additional$70 million to $100 million in annualcost reductions resulting from efficienciesgained by adopting Clariant businesspractices.But Kottmann emphasized that thedeal is not only about cost savings. “It is aunique opportunity to shift the portfolio”to new technologies, he said, noting particularlylithium batteries, clean air products,and biocatalysis. He was especially excitedthat Süd-Chemie has expertise in producingrenewable raw materials, since Clariantcustomers have been requesting theseproducts. Süd-Chemie is building a cellulosicethanol unit using its enzyme-basedSunliquid process. The plant will start up inGermany later this year.Clariant has set ambitious targets forthe next few years, forecasting sales of$11.6 billion and an earnings margin above17% by 2015, compared with its 2011 estimateof near 14%.Hans-Joachim Müller, a Süd-Chemiemanaging board member, was the onlyrepresentative of the acquired firm at theevent, suggesting that he will have an activerole at the combined company. As Kottmanndiscussed future financial targets andgrowth opportunities, he often looked inthe direction of Müller, seated in the frontrow. Clariant plans to announce its newmanagement structure later this summer. ◾Precision Syringe PumpAutomate Reagent DeliveryTemperature ControlStandard featureon all J-KEMcontrollers!NEWUSB Communicationswith freeKEM-Net software* Data logging* Remote PC Control* Multi-temp Ramp$XWRPDWLFDOO\UH¿OOVWRdeliver any volume )ORZ5DQJHPl/min to 150 ml/min 'HOLYHUVPXOWLSOHUHDJHQWVDWindependent rates. *ODVVDQG7HÀRQÀXLGSDWK )UHH3&FRQWUROVRIWZDUH 2SWLRQDOIHDWXUHVpH, temperature, and pressure control* 0.1 o C regulation of any volumefrom 10 Pl to 100 L.* < 1 o C overshoot of the setpointEndeavour Robotics-.(0VPRVWDIIRUGDEOHURERWDo-it-yourself: $8000Complete solutions fromResolution:0.02mmSpeed:300mm/secCompact*:HLJKLQJDSSOLFDWLRQV7XEHV9LDOV*'LVVROXWLRQ)OXLGGLVSHQVLQJ* Rearraying - Reaction setup-.(06FLHQWL¿F,QF(800) 827-4849http://www.jkem.comWWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 25 JUNE 20, 2011

JEAN-FRANÇOIS TREMBLAY /C&ENSTICKING WITH the plan has served PortonFine Chemicals well. When Porton’sfounders launched the company in 2002,they meant to establish a producer of pharmaceuticalintermediates that consistentlymeets the needs of foreign buyers. Noteven a decade later, the company is expandinginto active pharmaceutical ingredients(APIs) while considering a $100 millionstock market offering.It’s largely at the request of its foreigncustomers that Porton is preparing to enterthe already crowded market for APIs, saysOliver Ju, chairman and chief executiveofficer of the Chinese firm. At its site in theChangshou district of Chongqing, a cityin central China, the company has startedconstruction of an API plant that willcomply with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’scurrent Good ManufacturingPractices (cGMP), a set of standards thatsuppliers of drugs to the U.S. must follow.“Producing APIs has been part of ourplans for a long time, and our key customersnow want us to produce GMP materialsfor them,” Ju says. “They are looking forsources of APIs in a low-cost country, andthey feel comfortable with us even if wehaven’t yet proven ourselves as a GMPcompliantmanufacturer.” Porton recordedsales of $67 million last year and is on targetto hit $100 million this year, he adds.Entering the API market will open upBUSINESSPORTON MATURESChina-based custom intermediates producerenters ACTIVE DRUG INGREDIENTS marketnew opportunities for Porton while at thesame time making some potential customersless enthusiastic about sourcing fromthe firm. “The shift in their business modelwill make them appear as a competitor inthe field of APIs, which makes companieslike ours more hesitant to source intermediatesfrom them,” says Roger LaForce,general manager of marketing and sales,R&D, and logistics at the Italian API producerFabbrica Italiana Sintetici.Nonetheless, joining the API fray is theright thing for Porton to do, LaForce adds,because patients in China and other emergingmarkets are starting to demand pharmaceuticalsmade to the same quality standardsas those found in advanced countries.But to be competitive, LaForce emphasizes,Porton will have to consistently meet thequality requirements of the multinationalcompanies supplying those drugs.cGMP-compliant manufacturing is achallenge that Porton managers do notseem to underestimate. Their new plantwas entirely designed by the U.S. firmJacobs Engineering “because we did notthink that a local firm was good enough,”Ju says.At the same time, Porton is upgradingits managerial depth. For the past year,WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 26 JUNE 20, 2011ON THE MOVEJu seeksa Chinesestock marketlisting for hiscompany.Shuguang Zhu, a chemistwith cGMP manufacturingexperience in Canadaand the U.S., has been incharge of project managementin Chongqing. KerryYu, a former quality managerat a GlaxoSmithKline plant in China,now manages Porton’s quality.The management board of Porton nowincludes Thomas Archibald, a former Next-Pharma Technologies executive who hasdecades of experience in process scale-upand energetic chemistry. And Porton hashired David Lan, who previously managedan FDA-approved plant in Chongqing, asmanager of its new cGMP plant.COMPETENT MANAGERS and a welldesignedplant do not mean that Portonwill easily master cGMP manufacturing, Juacknowledges. “It takes time to nurture aGMP workforce,” he says.In tandem with beefing up manufacturing,Porton is upgrading its R&Dcapabilities. The firm already employs70 researchers in Chongqing and 65 inShanghai. Porton needs an R&D center inShanghai, Ju says, because that’s whereChina’s most talented people tend to be. Incoming years, he vows, the company willexpand R&D in Shanghai, Chongqing, andChengdu, a city in Sichuan province, to thewest of Chongqing, which has a number ofuniversities that graduate chemists.One of Porton’s thrusts is the developmentof new manufacturing technologies,Ju says. For instance, the company wants tofully harness the potential of glass microreactorsproduced by Corning that in theoryenable the synthesis of pharmaceuticals viacontinuous processes.To finance its continued expansion, Portonis considering an initial public offeringof stock. The listing would be offered onlyto Chinese investors because companyvaluations in China are higher than in foreignmarkets, Ju says. The IPO would raiseabout $100 million, although Ju is not clearabout when it would occur. “Market listingis complicated,” he says.And the future for custom drug manufacturingin China is bright, Ju says. “Costshave noticeably risen recently,” he says.“But the cost advantage in terms ofland, engineering, and chemists remainsstrong.” —JEAN-FRANÇOIS TREMBLAY“It takes time to nurture a GMP workforce.”

GOVERNMENT & POLICY CONCENTRATESAQUARIUS SATELLITETO STUDY OCEANSThe successful launch of the Aquarius/Satélite de Aplicaciones Científicas (SAC)-Dsatellite on June 10 marks the beginningof an international mission to studyocean circulation and Earth’s water cyclevia ocean salinity. The mission is a jointproject between NASAand Argentina’s spaceagency, Comisión Nacionalde ActividadesThe Aquarius/SAC-D satellitelifts off fromVandenbergAir Force Base.BILL INGALLS/NASAEspaciales. Aquarius/SAC-D microwave radiometerswill measureminute differences inthermal radiation fromthe ocean’s surface,which correlate withsalinity. Ocean surfacesalinity affects the densityof the water, andsalinity differences helpdrive ocean circulation.In 2009, the EuropeanSpace Agency launchedthe Soil Moisture &Ocean Salinity (SMOS)satellite. Salinity measurementsfrom SMOSand Aquarius/SAC-Dwill augment data fromother Earth-observing satellites, providinginsights into how fresh and salty wateraffect global systems such as the atmosphereand sea ice. —EKWEPA OPENS DATABASESON TOXICITY, EXPOSUREScientists and the public have greater accessto chemical toxicity and exposureinformation thanks to two databases thatEPA made public last week. One, calledToxCast, allows users to search and downloaddata generated by 500 automatedassays the agency has conducted on morethan 300 chemicals, mainly pesticides(C&EN, Dec. 6, 2010, page 32). In 2012, EPAwill add results on 700 more compoundsgarnered through these high-throughputtests. The second database, called Expo-Cast, provides human exposure data fromstudies measuring amounts of various substancesin food, drinking water, air, dust,indoor surfaces, and urine. “These databasesprovide the public access to chemicalinformation, data, and results that we canPOLITICS AT PLAY INNUCLEAR WASTE REVIEWThe inspector general of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) toldCongress last week that the agency’s chairman made unilateral decisionsand repeatedly misled fellow commissioners about his plans to terminatethe proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada. InspectorGeneral Hubert T. Bell told the House of Representatives Energy & CommerceCommittee that NRC Chairman Gregory B. Jaczko “strategically”withheld information from the four other commissioners about a key scientificreview of the repository project. Jaczko’s actions allowed him to shutdown the review last year without a vote by the full commission. Bell saidJaczko acted unprofessionally but not illegally. Several Republican lawmakersdisagreed, saying Jaczko appears to have violated a federal law that requiresthe NRC chairman to keep fellow commissioners “fully and currentlyinformed” about important matters before the commission. Rep. John M.Shimkus (R-Ill.) said Bell’s report “reveals a calculating and political NRCchairman who has abused his authority, who sought to suppress scientificreports and withhold information from fellow commissioners.” Jaczkoworked for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) before joining NRCin 2005. Reid strongly opposes the Yucca Mountain project. —GHuse to make better-informed and timelierdecisions about chemicals to better protectpeople’s health,” says Paul Anastas,assistant administrator of EPA’s Office ofResearch & Development, which overseesthe databases. They are available throughthe agency’s Aggregated ComputationalToxicology Resource found at actor.epa.gov. —CHFDA STRENGTHENSSUNSCREENREGULATIONSAfter decades of delay, FDA issued a finalregulation on June 14 that will requiremanufacturers for the first time to testand label sunscreens for both UVA andUVB protection. The rule allows manufacturersto label sunscreens that passFDA’s test for UVA and UVB protection as“broad spectrum,” and it requires warninglabels on sunscreens that do not pass thetest. Makers are currently only requiredto test and label sunscreens for protectionagainst UVB radiation, the primarycause of sunburn, not UVA rays, the leadingcause of skin cancer and prematureskin aging. The new rule also prohibitsmanufacturers from using misleadinglabels such as “sunblock,” “waterproof,”or “sweatproof,” but they can use the label“water resistant” if they include informationon the label regarding how long thewater resistance lasts. The new labels willbe required in summer 2012. —BEEDOE SPENDS $36MILLION FOR BIOFUELSThe Department of Energy will distributeup to $36 million to six small-scale projectsfor development of drop-in advanced biofuels—thekind that integrate into the existingfuel infrastructure—and other biobasedchemicals. The projects aim to improve theeconomics and efficiency of biological andchemical processes that convert nonfoodbiomass feedstocks into replacements forpetroleum-based feedstocks, products,and fuels. Virent, Genomatica, and TexasEngineering Experiment Station are amongthe funding recipients. Virent will get up to$13.4 million to create a process that costeffectivelyconverts a cellulosic biomassfeedstock into a hydrocarbon mixture forblending into jet fuel. With support of upto $5 million, Genomatica will focus on anengineered organism that converts cellulosicsugars into the industrial chemical1,4-butanediol. For up to $2.3 million, TexasEngineering Experiment Station will developchemical and mechanical processingsteps for pretreating cellulosic biomassfeedstocks to ease their conversion to a varietyof biofuels. —RRMWWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 27 JUNE 20, 2011

GOVERNMENT & POLICYPETER CUTTS PHOTOGRAPHYIN OVERDRIVE Berg tiesup loose ends at his office,where molecular modelshang from the ceiling.JEREMY BERG’SLEGACY AT NIHNIGMS director, CHAMPION OF CHEMISTRYleaves an indelible markBRITT E. ERICKSON, C&EN WASHINGTONONE OF THE FOREMOST advocates forchemistry at the National Institutes ofHealth is stepping down at the end of thismonth. Jeremy M. Berg, director of theNational Institute of General Medical Sciences(NIGMS), the top NIH institute forthe support of chemical research, is takinga position at the University of Pittsburgh,where his wife, Wendie Berg, is a breastimagingexpert.NIH has been seeking a replacement forBerg since he announced last Decemberthat he would be leaving (C&EN, Dec. 13,2010, page 8). But when C&EN went topress, no one had been named to the positionyet. NIH announced on June 13 thatJudith H. Greenberg will serve as actingdirector of NIGMS while the search for apermanent director continues.Berg, a chemist to the core, will indeedbe hard to replace. During his seven-anda-half-yeartenure at NIGMS, he helpedincrease funding for new investigators andhighly innovative biomedical research. Hespearheaded the drafting of NIGMS’s firststrategic plan and strived to boost trainingof extramural researchers funded byNIGMS. He also helped increase diversityin the biomedical workforce.Berg is widely admired for his leadershipand communication skills. He is particularlywell-known for successfully finding middleground between NIH and the AmericanChemical Society in 2004, when NIH decidedto launch PubChem, a publicly accessiblechemical structure database. Officialsof ACS, which publishes C&EN, initially opposedthe idea, worried that the free servicewould compete with their private database,the Chemical Abstracts Service Registry.NIH Director Francis S. Collins recallsworking closely with Berg on the PubChemproject during negotiations with ACS. Atthe time, Collins was director of the NationalHuman Genome Research Institute.WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 28 JUNE 20, 2011The project, he says,“turned out to be a positivefor everyone, even itsoriginal opponents.”PubChem was a complexissue that createdsome tension, adds GlennS. Ruskin, director of theACS Office of Public Affairs.Berg “played a veryimportant role in helpingthe two organizations talkto each other.”Earlier this year, ACShonored Berg with its 2011Public Service Award forhis vision and leadership in science policy(C&EN, April 25, page 9). Berg is also therecipient of the 2011 Howard K. SchachmanPublic Service Award from the AmericanSociety for Biochemistry & Molecular Biologyand was recently elected as ASBMB’snext president, starting on July 1, 2012.“We are delighted to have such an outstandingleader take the helm of ASBMBnext year,” says Suzanne Pfeffer, ASBMB’scurrent president and a biochemist at StanfordUniversity. “Berg brings tremendousexcellence in biochemistry and firsthandknowledge of the inner workings of NIHand key science policy issues.”Other scientific societies also praiseBerg for his accomplishments as a scientistand as a leader. “Berg is an extremelybright, confident, and creative scientist,and he used these talents well in his leadershipof NIGMS,” says Howard H. Garrison,deputy executive director for policy anddirector of the Office of Public Affairs atthe Federation of American Societies forExperimental Biology. “Open to a widerange of views, he encouraged an honestexchange of perspectives and was alwayswilling to engage with the extramuralcommunity. He did not shrink from big orcontentious challenges and often took boldsteps to confront them.”“He did not shrink from big orcontentious challenges and oftentook bold steps to confront them.”

Purity I Precision I ValueAppointing Berg to head NIGMS “wasone of the best decisions I made whiledirecting the NIH,” says former NIH directorElias A. Zerhouni. “He was critical insupporting innovative programs focusedon encouraging high-risk, but high-impact”research. He also led many key initiatives atNIH, including the support of new investigators,who have typically had a hard timecompeting with more established researchersfor NIH grants, Zerhouni notes. “He didit all with a keen sense for outstanding scienceand an unprecedented commitmentto transparency.”BERG SAYS he really didn’t know what toexpect when he took the helm at NIGMSin late 2003. “It was so different from anythingthat I had done that there wasn’t anyreally good way to figure it out except todecide it was worth doing and jump in withboth feet,” he tells C&EN. Prior to joiningNIGMS, Berg was director of the Institutefor Basic Biomedical Sciences and chair ofthe department of biophysics and biophysicalchemistry at Johns Hopkins UniversitySchool of Medicine. He holds a Ph.D. inchemistry from Harvard University.One of the primary reasons Berg assumedthe responsibility of running a $2billion institute at NIH was the budgetclimate in 2003. NIH had seen its budgetdouble from 1998 to 2003, but he predictedthat the trend was unlikely to continue.“Decisions were going to matter becausebudgets were going to likely get tighter, andI either had to accept the position or giveup my right to complain,” he says.Berg was right. The NIH budget and thatof NIGMS have been essentially flat since2003. “If anything, things are tighter thanthey were before,” he notes. The NIGMSbudget was $1.85 billion in fiscal 2003, comparedwith $2.05 billion in fiscal 2010. “Ithink it is going to be a great opportunity forsomebody to come in who really wants tomake a difference because there are going tobe some tough decisions to make,” he says.During the NIH budget-doubling years,abundant new capital flowed into thebiomedical field, and with ready access tofunds, researchers thought they could hiremany new people, Berg recalls. “There arenow a lot more people competing for a piethat has actually gotten smaller in terms ofthe amount of science it can buy,” he says.As a result, success rates for NIH extramuralresearch grants fell from 30% in 2003 to21% in 2010.Berg and others at NIH have consideredThe Leader in Discrete PEGylationProduct # 10249Product # 10170Product # 10868Real-Time Video Imaging of Protease Expression In Vivo Lei Zhu, Jin Xie, Magdalena Swierczewska,Fan Zhang, Qimeng Quan, Ying Ma, Xuexun Fang, Kwangmeyung Kim, Seulki Lee, Xiaoyuan Chen,Theranostics, 2011; 1:18-27Phone Orders: 614 792-2958 I Fax Orders: 614 760-9781Online Orders: www.quantabiodesign.comWWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 29 JUNE 20, 2011

Innovation atthe Interface ofChemistryand BiologyLearn more online atpubs.acs.org/r/biomedAppointing Berg to head NIGMS“was one of the best decisions Imade while directing the NIH.”solutions to the problem of declining successrates. One option is to train fewerscientists. “It’s going to have to be a dialoguebetween NIH, the National ScienceFoundation, and the academic communityto figure out what sort of workforce makesthe most sense and what sort of fundingmechanism will make it possible to keepthings flexible enough to be adaptable, butstable enough to be a real career path,”Berg says.One of Berg’s strengths ishis ability to get people talking.As NIGMS director, he hasendeavored to enhance communicationwith the scientificcommunity, outside and withinNIH. “It just makes my job asan institute director so mucheasier to actually know whatpeople are thinking, to knowwhat people are worried about,and to provide them with informationabout what is going on,”he says. “Scientists are tremendouslycreative people. Givethem an information vacuumand they will fill it up with lotsof wonderful rumors and ‘facts’that actually have no bearingin reality.” By keeping communicationlines open and givingpeople the straight answer, henotes, you develop their trust.Whether it’s making molecules or measuringchemicals, he says, chemists haveplenty to do in the biomedical field.In his free time, Berg enjoys makingmolecular models, which are displayed allaround his office. He also enjoys spendingtime with his family and traveling.Berg recently visited Beijing to attenda signing ceremony between the Universityof Pittsburgh School of Medicine andTsinghua University. The two institutionsWENDIE BERGBERG SEES MANY opportunitiesfor chemists in biomedicalresearch in the years to come.While at NIH he continued hisresearch on molecular recognitionand the structural andfunctional roles of zinc ions in proteins.Much of that work led him and others todesign metal-containing proteins that controlthe activity of specific genes.For many biological problems, “beingable to make the right molecule can reallytransform the problem into somethingthat you can really work on,” Berg says.“The reason that I, as a chemist, moved sostrongly into biology is that the problemsare so inherently interesting and chemistrydoes provide the tools to address them.”WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 30 JUNE 20, 2011TIME OFF Berg duringa family vacation toGlacier National Parklast summer.have entered into an agreementto bring Chinese medicaland graduate students toPittsburgh, where they will betrained in biomedical research.Tsinghua University, oftenreferred to as “the MIT of China” for itsexcellence in science and engineering, aimsto develop a premier medical school. Bergsays he is looking forward to working withstudents from Tsinghua in his new role atthe University of Pittsburgh.“I fully expect that in his new leadershipposition, Berg will continue to be avisionary force in biomedical research anda strong supporter of the NIH mission,”Collins tells C&EN. “We all are sorry to seehim go.” ◾

GOVERNMENT & POLICY INSIGHTSNSF Takes A HitReport on ALLEGED WASTE AND ABUSE at NSF only politicizes the agencyDAVID J. HANSON, C&EN WASHINGTONSEN. TOM COBURN’S (R-OKLA.) recent attack on the NationalScience Foundation is classic political fodder (C&EN, June 6, page8). The 73-page hatchet job accuses the agency of extensive fraud,waste, abuse, and mismanagement. Coburn claims that he identifiedmore than $3 billion that the agency has wasted through badmanagement and duplication over the past few years. Yet none ofthe material he presents is new, andsome of it is probably wrong.The report starts by making funof some research projects NSF hasfunded, mostly in the social sciencesfields, then retells a bunch of storiesabout employee misbehaviorsand other management issues thatwere already investigated by theNSF Office of Inspector Generaland have long since been resolved.He also accuses the agency of duplicatingthe work of other federaldepartments in the areas of energyand education.The biggest so-called waste that Coburn cites is$1.7 billion that he says is “sitting in expired, undisbursedgrant accounts” and should be returned to the U.S. Treasury.NSF basically says that’s hogwash.An NSF spokeswoman carefully explains that these researchfunds are neither expired nor sitting. NSF appropriationsare obviously not spent all in one year, she says,and the amount Coburn has latched onto is merely themultiyear carryover of long-term grants. The agency is certain it isfollowing all of the laws for spending congressional appropriationsin this matter. NSF does actually return to the Treasury Department$20 million to $30 million each year in funding that does notget spent in time, according to the spokeswoman.The Coburn report is really another example of the politicizationof science that has been in vogue over the past few years. TheNational Institutes of Health, for example, was hit about a decadeago with a series of congressional hearings on ethics violations.Additionally, in 2003, an amendment to the fiscal 2004 NIH appropriationsbill would have prohibited the agency from funding anumber of specific research projects because, according to the titlesof the proposals, they appeared to deal with sexuality research.The amendment lost by just two votes on the floor of the House ofRepresentatives, indicating a disturbing willingness to interferewith the detailed operations of research agencies.Another example occurred during the George W.Bush Administration. In this case, several agenciesmoved to restrict the participation of government scientistsin international conferences if the topics weredeemed to be not politically correct, such as stem cellresearch, climate change, and birth control (C&EN,Aug. 16, 2004, page 20).COURTESY OF SEN. COBURNBird-doggingfederal spendingabuses occupiesSen. Coburn(left) nowas it did Sen.Proxmiredecades ago.NSF may be theleast politicalscience agencyin the federalgovernment.WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 31 JUNE 20, 2011C&ENThe swipe at NSF is only the latest work by Coburn, who is afteragencies because he wants to cut government spending. Over thepast several months, he has also reported on wasteful projects underthe Obama Administration’s stimulus program, issued a paperon government waste in general, and announced a study of agencyduplication of federal job training programs. But the NSF reportseems to be the first blast at an individualagency.This is not surprising, becauseCoburn has targeted NSF before.In 2009, he introduced a bill thatwould have banned the agencyfrom supporting any research inpolitical science.The Oklahoma senator is one ina line of legislators who think theycan inspire government savings bypointing out what they see as wastedmoney. The most famous wasSen. William Proxmire (D-Wis.)who began handing out “GoldenFleece” awards back in 1975 to federal agencies forwaste and fraud. Proxmire gave out 159 of these monthlyawards, including some to science agencies such as NSFand the Department of Agriculture. He was just as likely,however, to blast waste perpetrated by Congress.ONE APPARENT LESSON here is that in times of tightmoney, the social sciences come under attack first. Whenasked about this, former NSF director Rita R. Colwell told C&EN:“The attempt to eliminate this very important directorate reappearsover the years and is evidence of a serious lack of understandingof the nature of these programs, their value in understandinghuman behavior, and the low level of public understanding of scienceand engineering and their contributions to the nation.”Colwell also pointed out that when she was leading the agencyfrom 1998 through 2004, it was given an award by President Bush asthe government’s best-managed agency. “I cannot believe that theNSF has changed in the several years since my term was complete,”she adds. “My concern is that [Coburn’s] allegations are taken outof context and do not represent the NSF fairly and accurately.”The fact is, NSF may be the least political science agency in thefederal government, and it does not need to be dragged down bywhat appears to be a cheap shot by a senator trying to score politicalpoints. Although there may be areas in which NSFcan improve, it deserves a better analysis than thissenator’s screed. And Coburn, a medical doctor whoprofesses to “appreciate the benefits of scientific research,”should know better.Views expressed on this page are those of the authorand not necessarily those of ACS.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY CONCENTRATESSPINNING IMPROVESNMR OF LARGE PROTEINSA protein solution continuously spun in arotor produces a sediment that yields highqualitynuclear magnetic resonance data,providing a new means to determine structuresof large proteins, reports a researchgroup led by Ivano Bertini and ClaudioLuchinat of the University of Florence,in Italy ( Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, DOI:10.1073/pnas.1103854108). The approachmelds protein ultracentrifugation, a commonprotein purification technique, withmagic-angle spinning, an NMR methodused to get structural information aboutamorphous solids. The team demonstratedthe combination using an iron-free formof the iron-storage protein ferritin, whichconsists of 24 subunits and has a mass of480 kilodaltons. Data from ultracentrifugedprotein solutions match those fromcrystalline protein samples in both oneandtwo-dimensional experiments, theresearchers show. The ultracentrifugationapproach should facilitate study of proteinsthat are too large for typical solutionNMR, they say. It will also enable experimentsthat are difficult to do with crystals,such as titrations with reagents. —JKURSOLIC ACID MIGHTKEEP THE DOCTOR AWAYA polycyclic natural product called ursolicacid that’s found in large amounts in applepeels might be just what the doctor shouldorder to treat age- and disease-relatedmuscle atrophy, according to a Universityof Iowa study ( Cell Metab., DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2011.03.020). A team led by ChristopherM. Adams monitored gene activity inthe muscles of people and mice that werefasting in order to study muscle weakening.The researchers then comparedmRNA expression signatures with theresponse of cells to some 1,300 bioactivemolecules. They singled out ursolic acidas a lone inhibitor of atrophy-associatedgene expression. The researchers nextgave ursolic acid to mice and observedthat it helps protect fasting mice againstmuscle weakening and helps mice with anormal diet grow muscle. The mice alsobecame leaner and had lower blood levelsof glucose, cholesterol, and triglycerides.It seems the adage “an apple a day keepsthe doctor away” might have real therapeuticmerit, Adams says. —SRMARKING SUGAR’S SPOTBy using X-ray crystallography, researchers have learned how a sugartransferringenzyme recognizes peptide sequences that trigger a commonprotein modification reaction—asparagine-linked glycosylation(Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature10151).Saccharide attachment at asparagine’sside-chain nitrogen is important for proteinfolding, cell-cell communication, andmore, but researchers know little aboutthe attachment process. It requires eithera serine or threonine to be two residuesaway from the asparagine to be modified,but it’s not clear how asparagine’s nitrogen,a poor nucleophile, gets activatedfor modification. To answer that question,Kaspar P. Locher, Christian Lizak, and coworkersat ETH Zurich crystallized a bacterialtransferase together with a peptidesubstrate. They found that the hydroxylcontainingamino acid helps the enzymerecognize the substrate, but it doesn’tFAST, SENSITIVEDNA SEQUENCINGFluorogenic pyrosequencing, a new DNAsequencing method, combines the speedand one-color detection of conventionalpyrosequencing with the sensitivityof fluorescence-based methods ( Nat.Methods, DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.1629). Inthe new method, as in other sequencingby-synthesismethods, the sequence ofa target DNA molecule is determined byidentifying the order in which nucleotidesare incorporated when that DNAis used as a template for DNA synthesis.X. Sunney Xie and coworkers at HarvardUniversity label all four nucleotides withan identical dye, which is nonfluorescentwhen it is attached to a nucleotide. Addinga nucleotide to the growing DNA strandreleases the dye, which becomes fluorescent.The dye is trapped in polymeric microreactors,in which the DNA is tethered.The fluorescence is detected and the dyeis washed away. Repeating the cycle manytimes with each of the four nucleotidesreveals the sequence of the DNA template.Xie and coworkers believe the method willoffer low cost, high throughput, and rapidturnaround.—CHAHydrogen bonding to anionic aminoacids (green) from an enzyme(blue) readies a peptide substrate’sasparagine (red) for sugar transfer.The metal ion (pink) is manganeseor magnesium.facilitate the reaction. That job belongs to an aspartate and a glutamate inthe transferase, which juice up the asparagine by forming hydrogen bondsto its amide protons. The team says more structures need to be solved tofully understand the reaction. —CDOPTICAL IMAGING OFLIGAND-PROTEIN BINDINGA new technique called PHOTON (photostableoptical nanoscopy) achieves sufficientlyfine resolution to enable detailedoptical spectroscopic imaging of ligandbindingsites on individual protein molecules( Nanoscale, DOI: 10.1039/c1nr10182j).Such sites can be imaged crystallographically,but this requires that the proteinfirst be crystallized, and crystallographyis incapable of following binding kineticsand real-time conformational changes.PHOTON, developed by Tao Huang andXiao-Hong Nancy Xu of Old DominionUniversity, uses an optical microscope toanalyze scattered light by single-moleculesilver nanoparticle optical biosensors.The technique achieves 1.2-nm spatial and100-millisecond time resolution, comparedwith 20-nm spatial and minute tohour time resolution previously. Huangand Xu use PHOTON to image single biotinmolecules and their binding sites on theprotein streptavidin. The technique doesnot cause fluorescence, decomposition, ortoxicity in living cells, making it possible tostudy living microorganisms for extendedperiods of time, Xu notes. —SBCOURTESY OF KASPAR LOCHERWWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 32 JUNE 20, 2011

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGYMITCH JACOBY/C&ENTHERMOELECTRICSMAKE A COMEBACKNew concepts and materials invigorate acommercially active but obscure field specializingin HEATING, COOLING, AND POWER GENERATIONMITCH JACOBY , C&EN CHICAGO“TEN OR 15 YEARS AGO, nobody wantedto hear about thermoelectrics. Back then,people couldn’t even spell the word.”With playful exaggeration, MercouriG. Kanatzidis, a Northwestern Universitychemistry professor and materials specialist,makes the point that during the past decade,the field of thermoelectrics—whichencompasses a collection of heating, cooling,and power generation technologiesenabled by a unique class of semiconductors—isundergoing a renaissance.In the early 1960s, long after the curiouscollection of properties that definethermoelectric materials was discovered,manufacturers began producing specialtycooling and power-supply devices largelybased on the thermoelectric properties ofbismuth telluride, Bi 2 Te 3 . This niche market,which mainly served the military andaerospace industry, didn’t disappear, butthe next 30-plus years witnessed a steepdrop in interest in the topic.“In the mid-1990s, universities rarelytaught thermoelectrics in physics courses,”Kanatzidis points out. He adds, “It was aforgotten concept. Now it’s finally comingof age.”After years of sitting mostly unnoticedin a quiet corner of science, thermoelectricsis again drawing attention. In additionto supplying temperature managementand power products to the military andaerospace industry—for example as miniaturecoolers that chill the infrared detectorscentral to the imaging electronics inheat-seeking missiles and night-vision systems—thefew manufacturers in this areanow make millions of units each year fordown-to-earth civilian use. Their productsare found in climate-control automobileseats offered by major automakers, thermalcyclers for polymerase chain reactionsystems, and power generators for applicationsfar from an electrical grid.At the same time, researchers in industryand academia, motivated by recent fundamentalmaterials advances, are focusingtheir synthesis, analytical, and engineeringskills on discovering new thermoelectricmaterials and designing new ways to usethem. They hope these advances willprovide enhanced thermoelectric performanceand lead to a broader range ofproducts. Despite key advantages of thermoelectricpower and cooling systems relativeto conventional ones—for example,they have no moving parts, making themmechanically simpler, and they do not emitgreenhouse gases or depend on environmentallyharmful coolant fluids—only anarrow range of thermoelectric productsSHOP TALK Methodsto synthesize newthermoelectricsolids (samplein test tube) andanalyze them viaX-ray diffraction andother techniquesare key aspects ofresearch conductedby Northwestern’sKanatzidis (in vest)and coworkers.has been commercialized.One of thefield’s much talkedabout goals is tomake thermoelectricdevices thatwork well at hightemperature andcan generate electricitycost-effectivelyfrom wasteheat recovered, forexample, from industrialplants or automobile exhaust.The key observations that underpin thethermoelectric effect were made way backin the early 1800s. In 1821, German physicistThomas Johann Seebeck discoveredthat if a loop made from dissimilar metalsis exposed to a temperature gradient (oneside of the loop warm, the other cool) theloop can deflect a nearby compass needle.That set of conditions generates an electricalcurrent and a magnetic field.Another key observation was madeby French physicist Jean-Charles Peltierin 1834. Peltier found that if a current isapplied across a junction of dissimilarelectrically conductive materials, the junctioncan heat up or cool down. Reversingthe current flow, by switching the batteryhookups, for example, results in the oppositeheating or cooling effect.IN MOST MATERIALS, the properties thatcause a temperature change as a result ofan applied current are too weak to be usefulfor thermoelectric applications. The sameis true for those that generate an electricalcurrent in response to a temperaturegradient.In fact, materials that exhibit a pronouncedthermoelectric effect are ratherexotic, according to Lon E. Bell. Bell foundedthermoelectrics manufacturer Amerigon,based in Northville, Mich., and laterthe wholly owned thermoelectrics subsidiary,BSST, in Irwindale, Calif. For materialsto be useful thermoelectrically, he explains,they need to be good electrical conductorsand, at the same time, poor thermalconductors. They also must prominentlydisplay the effect observed by Seebeck.One of the challenges in finding usefulmaterials is that the desired qualities areinterrelated via the substance’s electronicproperties: Improvement in one propertyoften comes at the expense of another.In these materials, electrons serve as the“working fluid,” just as liquid refrigerantsWWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 33 JUNE 20, 2011

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGYdo in conventional air-conditioning systems.In a thermoelectric cooling application,for example, the IR detector, circuitcomponent, or other item that needs tobe cooled sits in contact with one face ofthe cooling device. Electrons at that faceshuttle heat away from the item that’s beingcooled through the thermoelectric materialand deposit it at the thermoelectricmaterial’s other face. There, the heat dissipates—sometimeswith the help of a fan.Kanatzidis likens the processto electrons carrying bundles ofheat down a corridor. When thecorridor is mostly empty, eachelectron can deliver its load easily,which is good for cooling applications.But if the corridor hasa few electrons milling about, thematerial’s electrical conductivitywill be low. Raising the electricalconductivity means gettingmore electrons moving throughthe corridor. But as Kanatzidisexplains, all that activity leads tocongestion and causes electronsto bump into each other, scatter,and drop their bundles ofheat. As a result, the material equilibratesther mally.THE TRICKY THING is finding materialsthat can maintain a large temperature differenceacross the two sides of a slab of thematerial. If the thermal conductivity is toohigh, the temperature difference goes awayand the thermoelectric effect becomes toosmall to be useful. “Optimizing the parametersin a thermoelectric material is a matterof compromise,” Kanatzidis says. “Youneed to find a happy medium.”Bismuth telluride is one of the first materialsfound to strike the necessary compromise.Its so-called thermoelectric figure ofmerit— ZT, a dimensionless quantity thatindicates how intensely a material exhibitsthe thermoelectric effect—is about 1.0 atroom temperature. To put the materialto use practically, for example in a powergenerator, small chunks of the material thathave been doped to render them positiveandnegative-charge-carrying semiconductors(p-type and n-type, respectively) areMARLOW INDUSTRIESjoined electrically to form a circuit. Largenumbers of these p-type and n-type pairs areconnected in series, forming thermoelectricarrays that can provide large voltages andmediate substantial heat flow.Although decades ago proponentswere able to point to a select number ofimpressive accomplishments in the fieldof thermoelectrics, such as reliable powergenerators for U.S. and Soviet deep-spacevehicles, few advances were made between“Thermoelectrics could well play acrucial role in addressing some of thesustainability issues we face today.”WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 34 JUNE 20, 2011CHILL OUT Easilyhidden in thepalm of a hand,thermoelectricmodules such asthe four-stagedevice shownhere are usedto cool sensitiveelectronics.1960 and the early 1990s. AsMildred S. Dresselhaus recountsthe story, one of the key eventsthat helped reawaken the fieldgrew out of an early-1990s dinnerconversation at a restaurant inBelgium.Dresselhaus, a professor ofphysics and electrical engineeringat Massachusetts Instituteof Technology, recalls how shechatted over dinner that evening with Jean-Paul Issi of Belgium’s Catholic Universityof Louvain and others, including a seniorrepresentative of the French Navy, aboutstrategies to improve the performance ofthermoelectric materials. At that time, theU.S. and French Navies were both lookinginto new ways to power submarines, andthe dinner conversation soon turned tothermoelectrics. Dresselhaus hit upon theidea that nanoscale materials might havepromising thermoelectric properties anddecided to look into the topic.A year or so later, she published a paperwith graduate student Lyndon D.Hicks in which they showed theoreticallythat decreasing the thickness of a threedimensionalmaterial—that is, makingthinner and thinner films—increases thematerial’s ZT ( Phys. Rev. B, DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.47.12727).“Since the idea worked so well in 2-D, wedecided to do the same calculation in 1-D,”meaning on a nanowire, Dresselhaus says.The pair found that the additional confinementimposed by a nanowirerelative to a thin film led to evenbetter results and again publishedtheir findings in Physical Review B(DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.47.16631).Progress was slow because fewpeople were working in the fieldat that time, Dresselhaus says. Sheadds that eventually others pickedup on the nanoscale-confinementidea and produced experimentalresults supporting the theoreticalpredictions.Meanwhile, Kanatzidis continuedworking to discover new bulkthermoelectric materials. His aimwas to use solid-state synthesismethods to customize the compositionof promising materials andthereby tune their thermoelectricproperties. Eventually, that approachpaid off. In 2004, Kanatzidis’group found that samplesof lead telluride containing antimonyand silver (AgPb m SbTe 2+ m )are characterized by remarkablyhigh figures of merit—up to 2.2at around 500 °C, which is nearlytwice the value of previous record holders( Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1092963).Although the findings were exciting,Kanatzidis and coworkers were initially ata loss to explain them. The breakthroughcame from transmission electron microscopy(TEM) results indicating that thehigh-performance materials were ratherinhomogeneous and full of nanometersizedcrystallites or precipitates rich insilver and antimony embedded in a leadtelluride-rich matrix. Because of theirstructures and electronic properties, theprecipitates block the propagation ofheat-carrying lattice vibrations known asphonons, thereby reducing the material’sthermal conductivity, Kanatzidis explains.Building on those results, Kanatzidis’group devised synthesis methods thatcause numerous nanocrystals of SrTe toprecipitate inside a PbTe matrix such that

+ MANUFACTURING EXCELLENCE +NANO LETT.SLOPPY CRYSTALS The randomorientation of microscopic grains(colored patches at left) in this bismuthantimony telluride specimen andnanometer-wide bismuth-rich regionsin between the grains (yellow area atright) play a key role in this material’sthermoelectric properties.both sets of lattices match perfectly in 3-D. As reported in a paperpublished earlier this year, the structure and composition of these“perfect” synthetic lattices block the propagation of phonons, butthey do not impede the transport of charge typically caused byembedded crystallites. This “rational design” approach led to a ZTvalue of 1.7 near 500 °C ( Nat. Chem., DOI: 10.1038/nchem.955).Investigations by Kanatzidis, Dresselhaus, and others havestimulated a recent rise in thermoelectrics research that is helpinguncover new structural and electronic phenomena as well asnovel types of promising materials. For example, in a TEM studyof bismuth antimony telluride samples with a ZT of 1.4, YuchengLan and Zhifeng Ren of Boston College, working with MIT’s GangChen, found that the bulk material contains numerous randomlyoriented nanosized grains dotted with precipitates. They also detectedbismuth-rich regions several nanometers thick in betweenthe grains ( Nano Lett., DOI: 10.1021/nl803235n).And just recently, a group led by California Institute of Technologymaterials science professor G. Jeffrey Snyder showed thatZT values as high as 1.8 could be coaxed from lead telluride (oftencharacterized by ZT below 1.0) by selectively doping the materialwith sodium and selenium in a way that customizes the material’selectronic structure. Specifically, the group reports that samplesof Pb 0.98 Na 0.02 Te 1– x Se x benefit from a high “valley degeneracy.” Interms of the electrons-in-the-corridor analogy, this material can bethought of as having multiple parallel corridors, which helps avoidelectronic congestion (C&EN, May 9, page 38).IN ADDITION to the commonly studied materials—ones basedon bismuth telluride, lead telluride, and related compounds—other classes of materials also figure into today’s research onthermoelectrics. At the University of California, Berkeley, forexample, chemistry professor Peidong Yang has shown thatIn 2- x Ga x O 3 (ZnO)n nanowires and holey silicon membranes, bothof which can be prepared via straightforward synthesis methods,show promise as thermoelectric materials.Yet another group of materials, skutterudites, which are cobaltantimony-basedcompounds containing rare-earth elements, figureprominently into research aimed at generating electricity fromwaste heat. Skutterudites appear to be well suited for this applicationbecause, unlike bismuth telluride, they have high ZT s at the hightemperatures typical of industrial and automobile exhaust systems.As part of a multiyear project partly sponsored by the Departmentof Energy, Gregory P. Meisner, James R. Salvador, and coworkers atGeneral Motors have been developing prototype devices that use automobileexhaust heat to produce electricity for onboard use.The team’s work, carried out withvarious partners including Dallas-basedMarlow Industries, shows that such devicescan readily provide fuel-economyimprovements of several percent. Withfurther development of hybrid cars andother types of electric vehicles, even greater benefits can be realizedfrom such a system, Meisner says.“Discovery of new materials has really propelled this field forward,”Meisner asserts. He adds that progress is now being madequickly across all of thermoelectrics. Yet he injects a note of cautionby pointing out that key engineering problems still need to be solved.In the case of exhaust-heat recovery, for example, the thermoelectricsystem must be highly robust and heat resistant. Furthermore, itsweight, volume, and cost all must be optimized, he adds.As Amerigon and BSST’s founder, Bell, sees it, if those types of limitationscan be overcome, “thermoelectrics could well play a crucialrole in addressing some of the sustainability issues we face today.” ■100% cGMP Manufacturedin the U.S.A.JOST CHEMICAL CO.PhosphatesUÊAmmonium Phosphate Monobasic/Dibasic NF/ACSUÊPotassium Phosphate Monobasic/Dibasic USP/NF/EP/BP/ACSUÊSodium Phosphate Monobasic USP/BP/ACSUÊSodium Phosphate Dibasic USP/EP/ACSUÊSodium Phosphate Tribasic ACSCarbonatesUÊSodium Carbonate NF/EP/JP/ACSJost Chemical Co. manufactures over 250high purity chemical salts that meet yourspecifications. All of our products are BSE/TSEfree and available in custom packaging.Pharmaceutical / Biotech Product OfferingsSulfatesUÊAmmonium Sulfate NF/ACSUÊCupric Sulfate USPUÊFerrous Ammonium Sulfate PurifiedUÊManganese Sulfate USP/EP/ACSUÊPotassium Sulfate EP/ACSUÊSodium Sulfate USP/ACSWWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 35 JUNE 20, 2011

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGYnew and notable at ASMSCOMPANIES LAUNCH A VARIETY OF NEW INSTRUMENTSEarlier this month, more than 6,200 scientists gathered inDenver for the American Society for Mass Spectrometry’s59th Conference on Mass Spectrometry & Allied Topics. Atthe meeting, instrument companies unveiled an array of newproducts.MASS SPECTROMETERSAB SCIEX INTRODUCESION MOBILITYCAPABILITYAB Sciex is adding an extralevel of analytical selectivityto its Triple Quad 5500 andQTRAP 5500 instruments withdifferential ion mobility. In ionmobility, components in a mixtureare separated on the basisof molecular size and shaperather than mass, adding an orthogonalseparation method tothe instruments’ existing massbasedmethods. The SelexIONion mobility cell is incorporatedas part of the ionization source.AB Sciex customer Rick King,founder and director of PharmaCadenceAnalytical Services,said that adding SelexION to asystem improved the limits ofquantification by a factor of 10.BRUKER LAUNCHESCOMPACT VERSIONOF MAXISWith the new maXis impact,Bruker Daltonics istargeting labs that wantperformance but are alsowatching the bottom line.The new system achievesthe performance of theoriginal maXis with a smallerprice tag, not to mention ina smaller package. The newsystem is less than 2 meterstall, whereas the maXis isnearly 3 meters tall. ThemaXis impact achieves resolvingpower of 40,000 and 1-ppmmass accuracy for as many as50 full spectra per second. Withthe new instrument, Bruker istargeting the applied marketssuch as quality control and industriallabs.ORBITRAP FAMILY GROWSThermo Fisher Scientific announcedthree additions to theOrbitrap lineup. The OrbitrapElite (shown) is a high-fieldinstrument that increases thespeed and resolution of currentOrbitrap technology. Resolvingpower greater than 240,000can be achieved in a single onesecondscan. The high field andaccompanying performanceimprovements were achievedby shrinking the size of themass analyzer. At the lower endof the scale, the company introducedthe Q Exactive, a benchtopquadrupole-Orbitrap hybridsystem, which has increasedsensitivity and resolving powergreater than 140,000. The VelosPro is a dual-pressure ion trapwith improved speed and sensitivitythat can serve as a frontend for Orbitrap hybrid instruments.The system incorporatesa trap and a higher-energycollision dissociation (HCD)cell that can be combined withother dissociation methods.The Velos Pro can also operateas a stand-alone linear ion trapinstrument. Existing Velos systemscan be upgraded to thenew Velos Pro.WATERS EXPANDS MASSSPEC OFFERINGSWaters added new systems toits Synapt and Xevo families ofinstruments. The Synapt G2-Sincorporates the StepWaveion-transfer optics that thecompany first used in its XevoTQ-S. The StepWave’s off-axisdesign increases the efficiencyof ion transfer and helps eliminateneutral contaminants.Compared with previousgenerations of the Synapt,this system features 30-foldimprovement in signal intensity,fivefold improvement insignal-to-noise ratio, and 10-fold improvement in limits ofquantification. The Xevo TQD,Waters’ newest triple-quadrupolemass spectrometer, is anentry-level instrument aimedat routine quantitative analysis.The instrument featuresuniversal source architecturethat allows users to switcheasily between ionization methods.Data acquisition ratescan keep pace with the narrowpeaks in ultra-performance LCseparations.AXION PLATFORMDEBUTSPerkinElmer’s new AxION massspectrometry platform incorporatestime-of-flight MS with adirect sampling analysis source.This type of sampling relies onatmospheric pressure chemicalionization, thereby eliminatingthe need for sample prep. Userscan also choose electrosprayionization with interchangeablesnap-in probes that allow eachscientist to use his or her ownseparation and ionization probeon a shared instrument. Thatflexibility is expected to reducecross-contamination.COMPANIES INTRODUCENEW GC MASS SPECSAgilent and Thermo FisherScientific unveiled new gaschromatography-mass speccombos. Agilent’s 7200 Q-TOFcombines high resolution, accuratemass measurements,and tandem MS. The systemfeatures an ion source thatcan be removed, replaced,and running again in less than30 minutes. The company istargeting applications such asenvironmental analysis, sportsdoping, and energy research.Thermo introduced a new GCtriple-quadrupole MS, the TSQQuantum XLS Ultra. The systemincorporates the company’sHyperQuad technology, whichoffers high sensitivity as well asultrahigh selective selected reactionmonitoring for increasedselectivity.THERMO FISHER SCIENTIFICWWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 36 JUNE 20, 2011

AGILENT TECHNOLOGIESAGILENT ADDSION FUNNEL TOIMPROVED Q-TOFAdding an ion funnel tothe front end of the instrumentups the sensitivity ofAgilent’s Q-TOF LC/MS system.The 6550 iFunnel Q-TOF LC/MS system achieves femtogramsensitivity and acquisitionrates as fast as 50 spectra persecond. The ion funnel wasintroduced last year on a triplequadrupoleinstrument. NowAgilent has reengineered theion optics and electronics ofthe Q-TOF to accommodate theincreased ion flux.SEPARATIONS AND IONSOURCESEASY METHOD GETSEVEN EASIERIonSense unveiled the IDCube, a sample introductiondevice for the company’sdirect analysis inreal time (DART) ionizationmethod. The ID Cubestandardizes sample introductionfor synthetic chemists.The sample—either a powderor a dried liquid—is spotted ona mesh strip on a sample card.The user then slips the card intoa slot on the device, which properlyaligns the sample.WATERS INTRODUCESNEW UPLC SYSTEMWaters launched the new UPLCI-Class system. The instrumenthas reduced system volumecompared with the company’searlier systems. This smallervolume leads to decreased chromatographicdispersion, higherpeak capacity, and increasedresolution. This means thatcycle times can be shortenedwithout adversely affecting theseparation quality.SHIMADZU UNVEILSNEW AUTOSAMPLERShimadzu’s Nexera MP autosamplerfor the company’sultra-high-performance LCsystem has a seven-secondinjection time and a total cycletime of only 14 seconds. Followingeach injection, separatesolutions are used to rinse theneedle’s outer and inner surfaces,as well as the injection port.This extensive rinsing protocolreduces carryover to less than0.0015%. The autosampler accommodatesup to six microtiterplates.SOURCE FOR CETAKES OFFBeckman Coulter launchedthe CESI 8000, which incorporatescapillary electrophoreticseparation and electrosprayionization in the same module.The separation uses flow ratesas low as 10 nL/minute. Theelectrospray tip is filled witha conductive liquid that eliminatesthe need for a sheath flowthat might dilute the samples.The system results in improvedsensitivity and decreased ionsuppression.CELIA ARNAUD compiled and wrotethese product highlights.WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 37 JUNE 20, 2011

ACS NEWSCAS REGISTRY MARKSA MILESTONEChemical Abstracts Service has recordedthe 60 millionth substance in its CASRegistry, markinga milestone forthe division of theAmerican ChemicalSociety thatpublishes chemicaland related scientificinformation.The compound,shown here, isO2-[1-[2-[(4-fluorophenyl)amino]-6H-1,3,4-thiadiazin-5-yl]ethyl]-1H-isoindole-1,3(2H)-dione. It is a potential antiviralsubstance discovered by a team of Chineseresearchers from the Institute of MateriaMedica, Chinese Academy of MedicalSciences . The compound is a member ofthe homologous series of 2-amino-1,3,4-thiadiazine derivatives. It was assigned theCAS Registry No. 1298016-92-8. The patentapplication for this series of derivativeswas submitted to the State IntellectualProperty Office of the People’s Republic ofChina.“It seems fitting that the 60 millionthsubstance in the CAS Registry would originatefrom within an Asian country, giventhe region’s growing and significant impacton scientific discovery in recent years,”says Christine McCue, vice president ofmarketing at CAS. “This growth is illustratednot only in the patent arena, but alsowith respect to journal literature, and ledCAS to expand coverage of Asian chemistrythrough the analysis of more than 300additional journal titles in the past threeyears from China, Japan, and South Koreaalone.”The CAS Registry is a comprehensivecollection of disclosed chemical substanceinformation, including unique organic andinorganic substances , such as alloys, coordinationcompounds, minerals, mixtures,polymers, and salts. —LW2010 ACS ANNUALREPORT NOW ONLINEThe 2010 American Chemical Society AnnualReport is now available online. Thereport stresses that the society remainsfinancially healthy and committed to providingits more than 163,000 members withthe best programs, products, and servicesNOSNNHNto further their careers and advance theirscience.In addition to financial information,the report features ACS by the Numbers,donor and award sponsor lists, and the Officers’Message.In the Officers’ Message,ACS Board Chair BonnieA. Charpentier, 2010 ACSPresident Joseph S. Francisco,and ACS ExecutiveDirector & CEO MadeleineFJacobs write: “In the yearsahead, we will continue toadapt and grow. We willcontinue to mirror our members’ aspirations.Like them, we will continue to collaborate,innovate, and make a differencein the world.” —LWCARMEN GIUNTA ISHIST’S NEW EDITORThe ACS Division of the History of Chemistry(HIST) has selected Carmen J. Giuntaas the new editor for its journal, the Bulletinfor the History of Chemistry. Giunta, who is aprofessor of chemistryat Le Moyne College,in Syracuse, succeedsPaul R. Jones, who hasbeen editor of the bulletinsince 1995.Giunta’s involvementwith HIST beganin 1997. He has servedon the executive committeeof the division since 2002, initially asan alternate councilor and then as a councilor.He was an associate editor of the bulletinfrom 2004 to 2010. Giunta received a B.S. inchemistry from the University of Scrantonand an M.A. in physics and a Ph.D. in chemicalphysics, both from Harvard University.One of Giunta’s goals is to expand electronicaccess to the bulletin. “I think thatmaking the bulletin more visible and moreaccessible will make it more useful,” hesays. Other goals are to make back issuesfreely available and searchable in full text.The bulletin was founded in 1988 byWilliam B. Jensen of the University of Cincinnati.It is one of only two peer-reviewedEnglish-language periodicals devoted tothe history of chemistry. Members of HISTreceive the bulletin with their divisionmembership.Correspondence concerning manuscriptsand book reviews should be sent toCarmen J. Giunta, Department of Chemistry,Le Moyne College, Syracuse, NY 13214,or to giunta@lemoyne.edu. —LWPRINT ON DEMANDAVAILABLE FORACS JOURNALSACS Publications has introduced a pilotprogram to make available print-ondemandissues of some of its journals. Thefive journals participating in the programare Accounts of Chemical Research, AnalyticalChemistry, Chemical Reviews, EnvironmentalScience & Technology, and the Journal of theAmerican Chemical Society. Issues are availablethrough the ACS Publications WebEditions platform. The price of a singleissue will be $50 for Accounts of ChemicalResearch and Chemical Reviews, and $100 forthe other three journals.Issues from January 2010 forward areavailable, and new issues will be availableonly after the complete issue has been publishedto the Web Editions platform. Formore information, contact Terri Lewandowskiat tlewandowski@acs.org or JonathanMorgan at j_morgan@acs.org. —LW‘JEOPARDY!’ TO FEATUREIYC QUESTIONSQuestions related to the InternationalYear of Chemistry will be featured onthe June 21 episode of the television quizshow “Jeopardy!” “With its 9 million dailyviewers, ‘Jeopardy!’ is an excellent venuefor sharing the message that chemistry isfundamental to our everyday lives,” saysNancy Blount, assistant director of societycommunications in the ACS Office of PublicAffairs. To find local listings for showairtimes, visit jeopardy.com and click on“W hen to Watch .” For more informationabout IYC, visit www.acs.org/iyc2011 andwww.chemistry2011.org . —LWAnnouncements of ACS news may be sent toacsnews.cen@acs.org.© 2011 JEOPARDY PRODUCTIONSWWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 38 JUNE 20, 2011

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF:George C. SchatzNorthwestern UniversityAnnouncing Expanded Editorial Leadershipfor the Journal of Physical Chemistry,Continuing a Tradition of Excellence:DEPUTY EDITOR:Anne B. McCoyThe Ohio State Universitypubs.acs.org/JPCA(Dynamics, Kinetics,Environmental Chemistry,Spectroscopy,Structure, Theory)A B C LettersDEPUTY EDITOR:Sharon Hammes-SchifferThe PennsylvaniaState Universitypubs.acs.org/JPCB(Soft Condensed Matter,Biophysical Chemistry)DEPUTY EDITOR:Catherine J. MurphyUniversity of Illinois atUrbana-Champaignpubs.acs.org/JPCC(Nanomaterials, Interfaces,Hard Matter)DEPUTY EDITOR:Prashant V. KamatUniversity of Notre Damepubs.acs.org/JPCL(Covering all topic areascurrently included in JPC A,B, and C)Publish your research with JPC, the leader in physical chemistry, and enjoyauthor benefits such as:Q The Highest Editorial Standards —fair treatment of your submission byEditors who are active researchers, withconstructive comments from peer reviewto improve your paperQBroad Dissemination — your publishedresearch can be accessed by a worldwideaudience of hundreds of thousands ofresearchers at nearly 5,000 institutionsaround the world.QRapid Publication — JPC Letters averages4 to 6 weeks from submission to webpublication, the fastest time to publicationin physical chemistry.QNo Publication Charges — no mandatoryauthor fees for pages, color, or cover art.

PATENT INFORMATIONAWARD TO ROBERTMASSIERobert J. Massie, president of ChemicalAbstracts Service (CAS), a division ofthe American Chemical Society, has beenawarded the 2011 International PatentInformation Award for his “significantachievements toward the advancement ofpatent information.” He received a $3,000honorarium and a plaque during the annualmeeting of the Patent Information UsersGroup in Cincinnati in May.The selection board praised Massie foroverseeing important innovations suchas SciFinder, STNAnaVist, and successiveversions of STNExpress. “Mr. Massie’simpact on ChemicalAbstracts when hetook over in 1992 wasphenomenal. Beforethat time, CAS hadnot given the highestpriority to patents, and processing ofchemical patents had significant delays,”the board noted. “Mr. Massie supportedhis team in completely reengineering thedocument-handling process.”In his acceptance speech, Massie said,“The work of building CAS databases, andin particular the work of correctly identifyingchemical information found in patents,is more than painstaking. It is intellectuallygrueling and it requires the highest order ofskill, dedication, and persistence.”Massie’s previous honors include theMiles Conrad Award, the Patterson-CraneAward, and the Executive of the Year awardfrom the Industry & Technology Council ofCentral Ohio.The award was established and is sponsoredby the literature search firm Technology& Patent Research International.SHIRLEY RADDING AWARDTO CAROL DUANECarol A. Duane , president of D&D Consultantsof Mentor, Ohio, is the recipientof the 2011 Shirley B. Radding Award, presentedannually by the Santa Clara ValleySection in California to an ACS memberwho has contributed to the local, regional,and national activities of the society.Duane has served as councilor for theNortheastern Ohio Section for more thanAWARDS25 years and currently chairs the ACS Divisionof Business Development & Management.She is also an associate on the Committeeon Public Relations & Communicationsand is a memberof the marketingsubcommittee for theLeadership AdvisoryBoard, which overseesthe ACS LeadershipDevelopment System.Duane has alsoserved in leadershiproles on the ACS Committeeon Nominations & Elections, theCommittee on Committees, the Committeeon Divisional Activities, the Committeeon Membership Affairs, and the ChemicalInformation Division. She is an ACS fellow.GRACE BAYSINGERWINS SERVICE AWARDGrace Baysinger, head librarian at theSwain Library of Chemistry & Chemical Engineeringat Stanford University, is the firstrecipient of the Wiggins-RothAward forOutstanding Service,given by the ChemistryDivision of the SpecialLibraries Association.The award recognizesoutstanding contributionsto the field ofchemical informationand includes a $1,000 honorarium sponsoredby Elsevier/Reaxys.INTEL SCIENCE FAIRPRIZES AWARDEDMore than 1,500 high school students fromaround the world competed for prizes duringthe 2011 Intel International Science &Engineering Fair, held on May 8–13 in LosAngeles.The top prize, the $75,000 Gordon E.Moore Award, went to Matthew Feddersen,17, and Blake Marggraff, 18, ofAcalanes High School, in Lafayette, Calif.,for their development of a potentially moreeffective and less expensive cancer treatmentthat places tin metal near a tumorbefore radiation therapy.Two $50,000 Intel Foundation YoungScientist Awards were given to TaylorWilson, 17, of Reno, Nev., for his projectINTEL ISEFCONGRATS Volunteerchemistry judgePaul Bracher (left)poses with winners(clockwise from top)Janner, Nguyen, Vu,Hu, and Hritzo.titled “CounteringNuclear Terrorism:Novel Activeand Passive Techniquesfor DetectingThreats,”and the team ofPornwasu Pongtheerawan,16, Arada Sungkanit, 17, andTanpitcha Phongchaipaiboon, 17, of Thailand,for their project, “Bio-based PackagingPlastics from Fish Scale.”In addition to the top prizes, corporate,academic, and government sponsorsawarded special prizes. The AmericanChemical Society presented four prizestotaling $10,000, along with several honorablemention awards.Bernadette Ann Hritzo, 17, of Villa JosephMarie High School, in Holland, Pa.,won the $4,000 first-place ACS award forher project, “Analysis and Characterizationof the Bioactive Antimicrobial Natural Productsfrom Marine Sponges.” Dianna Hu, 18,of Half Hollow Hills High School West, inDix Hills, N.Y., received the $3,000 secondplaceaward for her project, “ComputationalAnalysis of Specific Missense Mutations inthe SMN Tudor Domain.” Michael LeonardJanner, 15, of Redlands East Valley HighSchool, in California, came in third and received$2,000 for his project, “Synthesis andManipulation of Silver and Gold Nano-Mirrors.”And Quoc-Bao Duy Nguyen, 16, andMai-Anh N. Vu, 15, both of Westwood HighSchool and McNeil High School, in Austin,Texas, won fourth place and $1,000 with aproject titled “Kinetic Analysis of NanometallicCatalyst in Reduction of Nitrophenol:Investigation of a New Class of ‘Super Catalyst.’” Five honorable mention awards werealso given. All award winners and honorablementions receive a subscription to the ACSmagazine ChemMatters.The ACS award-winning projects wereselected by volunteer judges assembled bythe ACS Southern California Section.WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 40 JUNE 20, 2011

CSW OFFERS STUDENTTRAVEL AWARDSThe Chemical Society of Washington issoliciting applications for two $500 professionaldevelopment awards that will supportgraduate students in attending the fallACS national meeting in Denver.Applicants should submit the followingto csw@acs.org by midnight on June 25: acover letter stating how and why attendingthis ACS meeting would promote thestudent’s career, the student’s curriculumvitae, a letter of recommendation fromthe student’s mentor explaining why thestudent deserves the award and how attendingthe meeting would contribute to thestudent’s professional development, and anaccepted abstract with proof of acceptance.The award is open to students enrolledin a graduate program within thejurisdiction of the Chemical Society ofWashington. Previous awardees are noteligible, and the award is not intended forpostdocs.SPECTROSCOPYAWARDS AVAILABLEThe Coblentz Society is seeking nominationsfor its 2012 awards. The ABB-sponsoredBomem-Michelson Award honors avibrational, molecular, Raman, or electronicspectroscopist at least 37 years of age;nominations are due on June 30. The CoblentzAward honors a molecular spectroscopistunder the age of 40; nominations aredue on July 31. The Craver Award honors ananalytical vibrational spectroscopist underthe age of 45; nominations are due on July31. The Ellis R. Lippincott Award recognizessignificant contributions and notableachievements in vibrational spectroscopy;nominations are due on Oct. 1. The societyalso presents the Williams-Wright Award,which recognizes an industrial vibrationalspectroscopist who has made significantcontributions to vibrational spectroscopywhile working in industry; nominationsare closed. For more information, visitcoblentz.org.LINDA WANG compiles this section.Announcements of awards may be sent tol_wang@acs.org.MEETINGSSoutheast Regional Meeting Call For PapersThe 63rd Southeastern Regional Meeting(SERMACS 2011), hosted by the VirginiaSection of the American ChemicalSociety, will take place on Oct. 26–29at the Omni Hotel in Richmond, Va.The theme for the meeting is “ChartingChemical Connections.”Information on the evolving meetingprogram and schedule of events as wellas details about transportation and lodgingcan be found at sermacs2011.org.Program cochairs are Fred M.Hawkridge of Virginia CommonwealthUniversity and Ann M. Sullivan of J.Sargeant Reynolds Community College.Joseph M. Pompano of Arista Laboratoriesis the general chair.Meeting presenters must submit anabstract for each presentation throughACS’s Program & Abstract Creation Systemat abstracts.acs.org. Meeting symposiawill focus on analytical, biological,environmental, inorganic, medicinal, organic,physical, and polymer chemistry;chemical education; chemical health andsafety; chemical information; chemicaltoxicology; biotechnology; nanotechnology;and forensics.Sessions and symposia scheduledas of press time are “Flavor Chemistry,”“Sustainability in Packaging,” and “Computersin Chemistry.” Poster sessionsand one or more general sessions will beincluded in the program.Manfred Psiorz, chief executive officerof Boehringer Ingelheim Chemicals andhonorary general cochair of SERMACS2011, will open the meeting with a plenarytalk on Wednesday afternoon. Technicalsessions will begin after his lecture.On Thursday evening, a symposiumand reception at the Science Museum ofVirginia will celebrate the InternationalYear of Chemistry. Winners of the StanleyC. Israel Award for Advancing Diversityin the Chemical Sciences, the E. AnnNalley Southeastern Regional Award forVolunteer Service to ACS, and the localsection’s Industrial Innovation Award willbe honored during the reception.The section of the program organizedfor undergraduates—“Chemical Minds:The Application of Forensics”—will emphasizecareer building. It will includetraditional résumé- and career-relatedsessions, informal mock interviews, agraduate school fair, a forensics-inspiredscavenger hunt, a poster session, a pizzaparty and karaoke event, and an awardsbreakfast with forensics expert and VirginiaCommonwealth University professorMarilyn Miller.SERMACS 2011 will also include threecareer programs on “Planning a JobSearch,” “Résumé Preparation,” and “InterviewingSkills.”The meeting will feature workshopsfor chemistry educators at the precollegeand undergraduate levels as wellas a high school chemistry workshopon chemical safety and a chemicaldemonstration show presented by BrianMoores of Randolph-Macon College.Special events will include an opportunityto meet with ACS governance at acomplimentary ice cream social hostedby the ACS Board of Directors, and aWomen Chemists Committee workshopand luncheon. An awards dinner will beheld on Friday to honor the winner of theACS Division of Chemical Education’sSoutheastern Regional Award for Excellencein High School Teaching.Attendees can register for SERMACS2011 at www.acs.org. Early registrationwill close on Sept. 20. Registrations orpayments received after that date will beprocessed at standard registration rates,which will be in effect through Oct. 29.Vendors and other organizationswishing to connect with SERMACS attendeeswill be provided exhibitionspace in a central, highly visible areaduring the meeting. Details will be madeavailable on the meeting website. Vendorinquiries should be directed to MarkMabry of Pfizer Consumer Healthcare atSERMACS2011exhibits@gmail.com.SERMACS 2011 has a block of roomsreserved at the Omni Hotel. Reservationscan be made through the meetingwebsite.WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 41 JUNE 20, 2011

PEOPLEACADEMIAJoseph S. Francisco, the William E. MooreDistinguished Professor of Chemistry atPurdue University and 2010 ACS president,received an honorary doctorate of scienceat the May 21 commencement ceremoniesat the University of Arkansas, Little Rock.James C. Stevens, an international polymerexpert, received an honorary doctor ofletters degree from Texas A&M Universityon May 14. He is a corporate fellow in theCore Research & Development Departmentat Dow Chemical. His research has expandedthe boundaries of catalysis and polymerchemistry into newareas involving novellarge-scale commercialprocesses. Stevenscurrently is working todevelop solar energyproducts includingDow’s Powerhouse SolarShingle. In additionto presenting seminarsto Texas A&M’s chemistry department, hehas played a leadership role in the department’sIndustrial Affiliates program, whichinvolves mentoring graduate students.BUSINESSSid Bhoopathy has been promoted fromvice president of operations to chief operatingofficer of Absorption Systems. Basedin Exton, Pa., the firm assists companiesin identifying and overcoming absorption,distribution, metabolism, excretion, andtoxicity barriers in the development ofdrugs and medical devices.Jeroen Bloemhard has been appointedbusiness vice president and global executivedirector for Dow Corning’s Xiameterbrand, which includes more than 2,500standard silicone products. Most recently,he served as director in the company’s procurementorganization.Brian Davis has become vice president forShell Chemicals’ Global Base Chemicalsbusiness. He is responsible for the profitabilityand growth of the company’s lowerolefins and aromatics activities globally.Prior to this appointment, he was vicepresident of downstream strategy withresponsibility across Shell’s oil productsand chemicals activities. Davis succeedsGraham van’t Hoff, who has been appointedchairman for Shell in the U.K.Cristin B. Grove has been appointed directorof global contract manufacturing forPfizer CentreSource(PCS), an operatingunit within PfizerGlobal Supply. Mostrecently, she was businessdevelopmentmanager for PfizerGlobal Supply. As partof pharmaceuticalgiant Pfizer, PCS is involvedin active pharmaceutical ingredientand dosage-form manufacturing.Cora Leibig was recently promoted to vicepresident of research and development atSegetis. She had been the firm’s directorof application and product development.Prior to joining Segetis she led productdevelopment at Dow Chemical for materialsincluding polyurethane, adhesives, andsealants. Segetis, a Golden Valley, Minn.-based green chemistry company, produceschemical building blocks from renewableagricultural and forestry resources.Sushil Mehta has been appointed executivevice president of Avantor PerformanceMaterials. He will lead Avantor’s globallaboratory and clinical business and will alsomanage the company’s overall SoutheastAsia region. Mehta was previously the managingdirector and chief executive officer atIndia’s RFCL Ltd., an exporter, manufacturer,and supplier of laboratory reagentsand consumables, as well as products for themedical diagnostics market, before it was acquiredby Avantor in February. Paul Smaltzwas promoted to executive vice president ofAvantor. He will lead Avantor’s global pharmaceuticalsbusiness and will also managethe company’s Americas region. Smaltz wasformerly vice president of global marketingat the company. Brian Wilson was appointedAvantor’s executive vice president of operations.Before joining Avantor, Wilson wasa senior consultant at Bethesda, Md.-basedAsset Performance Networks, a consultingfirm that serves petroleum, chemical, andenergy companies worldwide.Richard C. Proehl has joined CambridgeMajor Laboratories as vice president ofmanufacturing. He will oversee plantscalemanufacturing operations as well asengineering and environmental, health,and safety functions. Prior to joining CambridgeMajor, Proehl served as the St. Louissite director for Covidien, a global healthcare products company. Cambridge Majoris a global chemistry outsourcing partnerto the pharmaceutical and biotechnologyindustries, providing process research anddevelopment, scale-up, and manufactureof active pharmaceutical ingredients.Stefano Talami has been appointed regionalsales manager for southern Europeat Aesica Pharmaceuticals. Prior to joiningAesica, he was sales and marketing managerfor pharmaceutical fine chemicals companyArchimica. Now based in Como, Italy, Talamiwill work from Aesica’s Pianezza siteand will be responsible for generating newbusiness streams and consolidating existingclient relationships across southern Europe.Headquartered in Newcastle upon Tyne,England, Aesica is a provider of contractresearch, development, and manufacturingservices for formulated products and activepharmaceutical ingredients.Matt Walker has joined TAKE Solutionsas executive vice president of its supplychain business. Most recently, he managedthe business development and marketingfunctions for ResearchPoint, a contractresearch organization in the life sciencesindustry. Mike Lewis has joined TAKE Solutionsas its vice president of sales. Priorto joining the company, Lewis served as thelife sciences solution leader at IBM. Withits headquarters in Chennai, India, TAKESolutions is a global business technologysolutions and services company.John Zanone has been appointed seniorflavorist for oral care flavors at flavor andfragrance company Takasago Americas.He had been a senior oral care flavorist atNoville. In addition, Slavica Pesic-Klajn hasbeen named senior beverage technologistat Takasago Americas. Previously, she hadworked on the development of customizedspirits and vitamin and energy drinks at SignatureDesign Spirits. Michael J. Paul willfill the recently created position of seniormarketing coordinator at Takasago Americas.Shweta Kumari , who was a researchassistant at Mississippi State University, hasjoined Takasago as a flavor sensory analyst.SUSAN J. AINSWORTH compiles this section.Announcements of new hires and retirementsmay be sent to s_ainsworth@acs.org.WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 43 JUNE 20, 2011

FINDING ANSWERSFOR CLIMATE CHANGEALTERNATIVE POWER SOURCESSAFE DRINKING WATERFOOD SUPPLYNEW MEDICINES TRANSPORTATION NON-TOXIC PESTICIDESNANOTECHNOLOGY LANDFILLS BIOBASED BUILDING BLOCKS BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSESOur science canfind the solutions.Everyone talks about saving the planet, but scientists andengineers will be the ones to actually get the job done.And they’ll do it with Green Chemistry.Your gift to the ACS Green Chemistry Institute® will helplaunch the initiatives and foster the collaborations that willspeed our way into a sustainable future.Think green for your annual giving.www.acs.org/greenGive Online

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Design,develop, and document the high-speed memory subsystemfor our ARB (Arbitrary waveform generator),interface FPGA, Real-Time Custom engine, Real-timeDSP (filtering, resampling, etc.) on high-speed systems.Mail resumes to Attn: Req #2030874, AgilentTechnologies, c/o Pinstripe, 200 South ExecutiveDrive, Suite 400, Brookfield, WI 53005. Must referencejob title and Req # to be considered. EOE.ACADEMIC POSITIONSTHE UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, LAS VEGAS invitesapplications for Radiological Safety Officer —Updated. Master’s Degree in health physics, radiologicalscience, or related scientific discipline and four (4)years’ comparable professional radiation protectionexperience OR a Bachelor’s Degree and six (6) years’comparable experience. For a full position descriptionand application details, visit http://jobs.unlv.edu orcall 702-895-2894 for assistance. 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newscriptsMELON MINES, BEAR SCARE, DOG DAYS15 th AnnualGreen Chemistry& EngineeringConference&5th InternationalConference onGreen andSustainableChemistryWashington, D.C.June 21-23, 2011www.gcande.orgThe official first day of summer is finallyhere, and the Newscripts gang hasbeen hankering for a hunk of juicywatermelon. But we recently learned thattrying to speed up the delivery of summer’ssignature fruit is not without its hazards.Farmers in eastern China recently had tododge flying pips and fleshy fruit shrapnelduring an outbreak of EXPLODING WATER-MELONS. The culprit? A combination ofimpatience and the chemical forchlorfenuron.The plant growth accelerator, which isused on grapes and kiwi in the U.S., appearsto have been applied too late in the seasonand during a rainy period in China. The results:fibrous watermelons with white seedsthat burst like “land mines,” according to aChinese Central Television (CCTV) report.“On May 7, I cameout and counted 80[bursting watermelons],but bythe afternoon, itwas 100,” farmerLiu Mingsuo toldCCTV. “Two dayslater, I didn’tbother to countanymore.” In all, 20farmers and 115 Watermelons:Growing so fastacres of melonsthat they burst.were affected. But Frighteningthe bad news for inflatable: Drawingmelon lovers has from patent showsbeen a boon forhow a bear-scaringdevice works.pigs and fish—they’re feasting onthe pulpy remains of the fruit-gone-boom.U.S. PATENT & TRADEMARK OFFICE SHUTTERSTOCKIn other news of things that go boom,thanks to Marc Abrahams’ June 6“Improbable Research” column in theGuardian newspaper, we recently learnedof a proposed DEVICE FOR SCARINGBEARS, moose, and mountain lions thatmight cross your path during a wildernesshike.In 2003, Adam Bell and Anthony Saundersapplied for a patent for the so-calledPop-Up Device for Deterring an AttackingAnimal Such as a Bear (U.S. Patent ApplicationNo. 10/634,719). It features aninflatable figure designed to pop up froma knapsack, piece of clothing, or the hilt ofa walking stick to scare belligerent bears.Noises, smoke, projectiles, or a musky odorcould be added to convince the bears thatthis is not an inflatable doll to be messedwith.In describing the action of the device,Bell and Saunders note, “The figure shouldbe fully inflated within less than 1 minute,or within less than 30 seconds, or preferablywithin less than 10 seconds, or mostpreferably within less than 5 seconds.”Furthermore, they say, the device is “detachableand may be left in place, betweenthe human and the bear as the humanretreats.” Sadly, the patent appears to havebeen abandoned.Although it’s not the dog daysof summer yet, the chemistrydepartment at the University ofRichmond has been havingdog days for the pastfive months—as theyhelp RAISE A PUPPYfor Guiding Eyes forthe Blind. The dog,named Dell, goeshome each night withchemistry facultymembers Carol Parishand Marty Zeldin, buthe spends his daysamong the students.“We spend time teachinghim basic commands and socializinghim to new and different environments,”Parish says.It turns out that a chemistry departmentis a great place to raise a guide dog, Parishtells Newscripts. Dell encounters manydifferent types of people and has to learnto handle all sorts of distractions. Parishnotes that because she’s a theoretician, labsafety isn’t an issue, and students know tosteer the pup clear of harm’s way.Dell is now eight months old and will staywith the department for at least anothereight months before he heads off to harnesstraining with Guiding Eyes. “If he makes thegrade,” Parish says, “he’ll eventually becomea service dog to a visually impaired person.”BETHANY HALFORD wrote this column.Please send comments and suggestions tonewscripts@acs.org.WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 48 JUNE 20, 2011

Bright Science.Brighter Living. DSM is committed to continuous innovation to providemore efficient and sustainable manufacturing solutionsfor the future of pharmaceuticals. We are focused onsustainability and the innovation of technologies andservices that bring real value across the supplychain to pharmas and biotechs.For DSM, quality is a way of life. This is the core of Quality for Life .Quality for Life is the mark of quality, reliability and traceability. It meansthat DSM customers are getting superior products and services, knowingthe source on which they depend. Quality for Life means sustainability. Itsymbolizes our commitment to our environment, consumers, ourbusiness partners, our people and the regulatory framework that governsour operations.DSM Pharmaceutical Products45 Waterview BoulevardParsippany, NJ 07054-1298USATel: +1 973 257 8011www.dsmpharmaceuticalproducts.comwww.dsm.com