Chemistry News Archives
[current news]- Chemistry professor Jie Liu, Duke adjunct physics professor Henry Everitt, and their graduate student John Foreman have found that a cheap and nontoxic sunburn and diaper rash preventative can be made to produce brilliant light best suited to the human eye. They have discovered that adding sulfur to ultra-fine powders of zinc oxide at about 1,000 degrees centigrade allows the preparation to convert invisible ultraviolet light into a remarkably bright and natural form of white light. They are now probing the solid state chemistry and physics of various combinations of those ingredients to deduce an optimal design for a new kind of illumination. Everitt and Liu have applied for a patent on using the preparations as a light source. More details are available at http://news.duke.edu/2008/12/zincoxide.html.
- A paper from David Beratan and his collaborators in the December 5, 2008
issue of Physical Review Letters [101, 238301 (2008)] explains a puzzle
associated with the photoionization of electrons from metals coated with
chiral adsorbates. Experiments indicate that the yield of photoelectrons
is different when the surface is illuminated with left vs. right-
circularly polarized light. This effect is mysterious because the energy
spectra of left vs right handed systems are identical. In an international
collaboration involving scientists at Duke, the University of Cyprus, Tel
Aviv University, the Weizmann Institute, and the University of Pittsburgh,
the group showed that electronic states prepared with angular momentum (as
arises with circularly polarized light) have characteristic phase lags
associated with both the angular momentum of the excited state and the
handedness of the bridge. This lag translates into different electron
yields when the adsorbate handedness or the light polarization is reversed.
This effect could be useful for distinguishing between tunneling and
resonant electron transfer mechanisms for charge transfer systems of
interest in biology and nanoscience.
- Congratulations to Manchuta Dangkulwanich, Romin Bonakdar, and Eric Wang
on their initiation into Phi Betta Kappa. The Department of Chemistry is justifiably proud of all of our chemistry majors, but it is especially impressive and rewarding to see students like these who rise to the highest levels of academic achievement while pursuing one of the most challenging majors in the university.
- NMR work in the Warren lab is featured in the cover story of the October 27 issue of Chemical and Engineering News. This article discusses dynamic nuclear polarization, a new method that dramatically increases NMR signals, and the Warren lab's efforts to create very long lived contrast agents which use this effect.
- A paper from David Beratan's group was featured on the October 10 cover of
Physical Review Letters. Post-doctoral associate
Ilya Balabin and Visiting Professor Spiros Skourits (from the University of Cyprus) working with Beratan have identified an average transition distance at which protein-mediated electron tunneling becomes dominated by thermal fluctuations of the protein. Although these fluctuations control the tunneling mechanism in most cases, the researchers find that fluctuations do not "wash out" the influence of the underlying protein fold on the kinetics. Electron transfer reactions play a central role in photosynthesis, oxidative phosphorylation, and biocatalysis.
- The most recent issue of Science includes a paper by Professor Warren's group on the development of a new method to image temperature deep in the body using magnetic resonance. The resonance frequency of water depends on temperature, since the hydrogen bonding network changes, but in tissue the small shifts are overwhelmed by magnetic field imperfections and motional artifacts. Warren's group has developed a method to flip up a water spin, while simultaneously flipping down a nearby fat spin (which has a temperature-independent resonance frequency). Such transitions evolve at the difference frequency between water and fat, which retains the temperature dependence while eliminating most of the artifacts. They have demonstrated high speed imaging using this method, which will now be incorporated into ongoing clinical trials at Duke on hyperthermic therapy (heating tissue to kill cancer cells). Radiation and heat affect cancer cells at different stages in the cell division cycle, so adding a heating stage to cancer treatment could improve patient outcomes, but the problem to date has been the inability to accurately measure the heating (and, hence, to give a reproducible heat dose).
- The Optical Society of America is highlighting the recent development in Professor Warren's laboratory of methods to image neuronal firing using shaped laser pulses. This work will be featured in a presentation by Henry Liu, one of Warren's students, at the Frontiers in Optics meeting.
- Chemistry department t-shirts are now available. Click here to see the winning
design on our PLU sponsored t-shirt contest. To purchase t-shirts please
contact Jeff Rubino: j.t.rubino@duke.edu.
- Researchers in the Franz Group have put copper in a cage. The work, which was highlighted in the Science and Technology Concentrates of the Sept. 1 C&E News was published in J. Am. Chem. Soc. and was spearheaded by graduate student Katie Ciesienski, who synthesized the new photoactive complex that releases its copper cargo when irradiated with light. The team envisions that their strategy could be used to deliver the redox-active metal in a time- and site-dependent manner as a way to induce oxidative damage selectively in cancer cells or as a tool to study mechanisms of intracellular copper trafficking.
- The Department of Chemistry is pleased to announce the Department's fellowship award winners for 2008-2009. These fellowships have been supported by the generous donations
of various individuals and companies, and are intended to recognize our strongest students.
These fellowships provide financial support for the research programs of the advisors. An endowment from Marcus Hobbs will allow the Department to supplement the salaries of each of these fellowship winners.
Please take this opportunity to congratulate these students, who were selected from many outstanding nominees.
The recipients of the department's teaching awards will be announced separately.
Burroughs-Wellcome Fellows
Julie Pollock
Yongcheng Ying
Hauser Fellows
Emily Tarsis
Marcus Cheek
Zeilik Fellows
Graham West
Katie Ciesienski
Zhibin Zhang
Amanda Hoertz
Gross Fellows
Dana Peles
Liz Jenista
Kirgbaum-Pearson Fellows
Senli Guo
Xianchen Zeng - Teaching Awards A great chemistry department needs to be judged on research, teaching and service. To complement the research awards, the Department is pleased to announce this year's recipients of the Pelham Wilder teaching award, presented in recognition of outstanding dedication as a teaching assistant.
Pelham Wilder was a faculty member here for many years, with an outstanding teaching reputation. As with the research awards, this award includes a monetary prize to the recipients.
Please take an opportunity to congratulate these students:
James Harrington
John Stanko
Amanda Kasper
Allison Schmidt - Congratulations to Dr. Aron J. Cohen, who will launch his independent career in the fall of 2008 at Cambridge University in the UK with a prestigious Royal Society University Research Fellowship. Dr. Cohen has been a research
associate with Professor Weitao Yang and has been developing density functional theory.
- Congratulations to Dr. Hao Hu, who will take up a tenure-track position in the fall of 2008 as an Assitant Professor in the Department of Chemistry, University of Hong Kong. Dr. Hu has been a research associate with Professor Weitao Yang and has been developing theory and computational
methods for simulations of biological systems.
- Congratulations to Jim Maloney on his retirement. Jim retired from Duke and the Department of Chemistry after 33 years as Sr. Electronics Technician. He was honored at a departmental reception on June 30 and began his well-deserved retirement July 1.
- Graduate student Dan Lim and Prof. Don Coltart have reported a simple and efficient method for the asymmetric α-alkylation and α,α-bisalkylation of acyclic ketones, a long-standing problem in the field of asymmetric synthesis. Their method uses chiral N-amino cyclic carbamates (ACCs), which substantially diminish the drawbacks associated with the use of chiral dialkyl hydrazines, yet provide excellent stereoselectivity and high yields. In addition, ACCs exhibit a unique directing effect that overrides the inherent selectivity of lithium diisopropylamide (LDA), providing the first ever method for the asymmetric α,α-bisalkylation of ketones. The work has been selected for review in upcoming editions of Chemical and Engineering News, Chemistry World and Drug Discovery and Development.
- The first total synthesis of the natural product largazole has been completed by Yongcheng Ying, Hyoungsu Kim, Prof. Jiyong Hong, and their colleagues. The biological evaluation of largazole and its key analogues, suggested that histone deacetylases (HDACs) are molecular targets of largazole and that largazole is a class I HDAC inhibitor. In addition, structure−activity relationship studies revealed that the thiol group is the pharmacophore of the natural product. Largazole is a cyclic depsipeptide with a thioester functional group that is uncommon in natural products, and it exhibits highly differential growth-inhibitory activity, preferentially targeting transformed over nontransformed cells and favorably comparing to other natural products drugs such as paclitaxel in this respect.
- We are pleased to welcome Patrick Charbonneau, who has joined the Department of Chemistry as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Charbonneau comes to Duke from a post-doctoral research position at the FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics, and his research interests are in the simulation and theory of the dynamics and thermodynamics of soft matter.
- Alvin L. Crumbliss, Professor of Chemistry and Dean of the Natural Sciences, has been appointed as the new Bishop-MacDermott Family Professor of Chemistry and as a member of the Bass Society of Fellows, effective July 1, 2008. Congratulations to Prof. Crumbliss on this well-deserved recognition.
- Recent work by Charlotta Wennefors and colleagues in the Shaw lab reveals the properties of boronated nucleoside diphosphate (NDP) analogs as substrates for creatine and pyruvate kinases. The conversion of the NDP's into their triphosphate derivatives reported in this work has implications for the treatment of HIV, because the P-borano triphosphates have been shown to be promising chain terminators targeting HIV reverse transcriptase.
- Prof. Jie Liu's laboratory has reported a new method for fabricating dense arrays of oriented, single-walled carbon nanotubes. The ability to make large numbers of identical nanotubes would allow future nanoengineers to bundle them onto multiple ultra-tiny chips that could operate with enough power and speed for nanoprocessing. With their research, the Liu lab has removed a major roadblock in the path to ultrasmall devices.
- John Simon, George B. Geller Professor and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, will recive the 2008 Photon Award from the American Society for Photobiology at their national meeting in June. The ASP Photon Award was established to honor members who have made exceptional contributions and who have served the ASP above and beyond the call of duty.
- Sarah Wengryniuk, a first-year graduate student in the Coltart lab, has been awarded a Graduate Research Fellowship from NSF. The Graduate Research Fellowship Program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in the relevant science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees. NSF Fellows are expected to become knowledge experts who can contribute significantly to research, teaching, and innovations in science and engineering. These individuals will be crucial to maintaining and advancing the nation’s technological infrastructure and national security as well as contributing to the economic well being of society at large. Congratulations to Sarah!
- Congratulations to Zhibin Zhang from the Widenhoefer group and Dan Fu from the Warren group, who recently received highly competitive "Awards for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad" from the Chinese Government. The awards are for Chinese self-financed students under 40 who are studying in PhD degree programs and have completed one or more years of their studies. The awards were established to encourage research excellence and to recognize achievement among Chinese students abroad. They cover all fields of study, and were given to 72 Chinese students in the United States this year. The awards were presented at the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in May.
- Warren Warren, James B. Duke Professor and Chair of Chemistry, will receive the 2008 EAS Award for Outstanding Achievement in Magnetic Resonance. Professor Warren's group has uncovered previously unappreciated details of the physics underlying NMR, which in turn has led to improved methods in imaging, spectroscopy, and hyperpolarized experiments. Congratulations to Professor Warren on this recent recognition!
- Professor Kathy Franz has received a Sloan Research Fellowship. The prestigious awards are intended to enhance the careers of the very best young faculty members in specified fields of science. Currently a total of 118 fellowships are awarded annually in seven fields: chemistry, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, computer science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience, and physics.
- Congratulations to Julianne Yost, who has been selected to receive the 2008 Dean's Award for Excellence in Mentoring: Student Award. A committee of faculty, graduate students, and staff representing the major disciplines of the Graduate School selected Ms. Yost from a highly competitive pool of nominees to receive this award, which recognizes graduate students who have a consistent record of good mentoring practices.
- GlaxoSmithKline has offered Duke the opportunity to participate in the GSK Undergraduate Research Fellowship Award program. Details about the program and application information can be found here. The purpose of this fellowship is to allow undergraduate chemistry students in the field of synthetic organic and/or analytical chemistry, the opportunity to conduct summer research at their current academic institution. This year, GSK will award six fellowships to the value of $5,000 each. Applicants are required to submit a research proposal written in collaboration with their research advisor. The deadline for the application is April 1st, 2008.
- Summer Research opportunities for Duke undergraduates are available in the Department again this year. Applications are now being accepted for the program, which runs from May 14 until August 1. The positions include a stipend of approximately $3,600, from which housing and food is paid. Although preference is given to chemistry majors who are entering their last year of undergraduate study, all current and prospective chemisty majors are eligible. Applications are due March 7.
Download program detals, FAQ and a current application here.
- Thom LaBean, Research Associate Professor of Chemistry, and his collaborators in Physics report in JACS that double-stranded DNA can be used with more complex DNA building blocks to construct heterogeneous, nanoscale superstructures through self-assembly. The simple helical motif of double-strand DNA (dsDNA) is typically judged to be uninteresting for assembly in DNA-based nanotechnology applications, but the team's research shows that incorporating dsDNA bridges into stepwise assembly processes can be used for controlling length and directionality of self-assembled lattices, fixed-size nanoarrays, and extended 2D crystals of nanotracks with nanobridges.
- We are delighted to announce that Michael Therien, who formerly held the MacDiarmid Professorship at the University of Pennsylvania, has joined our faculty effective January 1, 2008. Professor Therien works in the broad field of physical organic and physical inorganic chemistry, disciplines that seek to understand the basis of novel ground and excited state phenomena in molecules and molecular materials. In addition to the deep intellectual challenges embodied in this field, this area of research also aims to develop design principles for new materials. Therien’s work is particularly focused on using these relationships to prepare and study materials with novel and useful photophysical, catalytic, and electronic properties. In the course of these studies Therien draws on the expertise and capabilities of multiple disciplines in addition to the core fields of physical-organic and physical-inorganic chemistry, including modern spectroscopy and photophysics, molecular imaging, materials chemistry and nanoscience.
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