On-line edition April/May 2006
The Syracuse Chemist
On-line edition April/May 2006
Contents:
May Speaker
May Meeting
Greater Syracuse Scholastic Science Fair
US National Chemistry Olympiad Exam
Career Workshop
NERM 2006
38th Annual Mid-Atlantic Region Meeting
ACS Committee on Professional Training
Meeting Information | Publication Deadlines
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May 8, 2006 at Onondaga Community College
University of Maryland,
Baltimore County
"Plants as a Source of Drugs"
Abstract
It is remarkable to what a large extent medicinal treatment for many centuries rested on the use of plants. Plants have given the field of medicine many useful drugs; such pharmacological phootypes as digitalis, cinchona, ergot, and opium, to mention a few. Humankind's first investigation of the plant kingdom was prompted by a dependence on plants as a source of food. From varied observations of the effects of plants on themselves, human use of plants arrow and weapon poisons, as hallucinogens, and medicaments slowly evolved. In the early, days witch doctors, apothecaries, and physicians used plants to treat disease, elevate mood, and relieve pain. As the art of chemistry evolved, humans learned to isolate the pure chemicals that caused the medicinal effect and to use them. Opium yielded codeine and morphine to relieve pain, and Digitalis provided digitoxin for the heart. Ergot made available ergonovine and ergotamine for migraine and childbirth and, paradoxically, the synthetic LSD as a hallucinogen. The presence of such a wide and diversified group of compounds has prompted the search of plants for new narcotics, heart drugs, and psychoactive and anticancer compounds. Although many drugs are produced synthetically, natural products have served as the molecular model for their starting point. Today, some 40% all prescriptions include compounds of natural origin. Many diseases still cannot be effectively treated with current therapy. How does one find effective agents for these diseases? Plants contain many more compounds than chemists can synthesize. The more than 250,000 uninvestigated higher plant species on the face of the Earth are a source of potential new and effective drugs. However, in the face of the destruction of the Amazon rain forest, time grows short.
Biographical Sketch
Dr. Blomster grew up in Lynn, Massachusetts, where he attended the public schools. He went on to receive a bachelor’s degree from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, a master’s from the University of Pittsburgh, and a from the University of Connecticut. He has had a long career in academic positions in departments of medicinal chemistry and pharmaceutical science, beginning at the University of Pittsburgh. Me moved to the University of Maryland at Baltimore in 1968, and he has been affiliated with that institution ever since, most recently as Professor Emeritus. His teaching interests include pharmacognosy, microbiology, antibiotics, natural products chemistry, herbalism and alternative medicine, biosynthesis, chemotaxonomy, phytochemistry, and isolation of biologically active substances from plants. His research areas have included phytochemistry, medicinal folklore evaluation, phytochemical screening, collection and extraction of native plants for biological testing, plant tissue culture and biotransformations. Dr. Blomster is a long-time ACS tour speaker.
Education Night
The May meeting is also the section’s Education Night, at which the section recognizes area high school students who have excelled in chemistry-related projects in the Greater Syracuse Scholastic Science Fair and in the National Chemistry Olympiad Exam. More details on these educational programs.
Section Education Activities:
Syracuse Section, American Chemical Society Award Winners at the Greater Syracuse Scholastic Science Fair
The Syracuse Section recognized fourteen young scientists for their projects related to chemistry in the Greater Syracuse Scholastic Science Fair, held April 2 at Nottingham High School in Syracuse. Four awards of $100 Gift Certificates to Barnes and Noble were made in the Senior Division, Grades 9 to 12. Awardees in the Junior Division, Grades 5 to 8 received Chemistry T-Shirts. Thanks to the ACS members and local college and university students who served as judges, and congratulations to the science fair participants.
5th Grade (Judges: Sarah Bentley and Craig Stivala, Syracuse University)
•Samantha Appleby, Manlius Pebble Hill School
"An Apple a Day Keeps the Power Outage Away"
•Jennifer Kaplan, Syracuse Hebrew Day School
"Rainbow Planting"
•Ryan Dennehy, St. Rose of Lima School
"Bad to the Bones"
6th Grade (Judges: Prof. Sharon Coolican, Eric Crim, Cayuga Community College)
•Jessica Trainer, St. Rose of Lima School
"It Was Hot, Now It’s Not"
•Aaron Zimmerman, Homer Intermediate School
"How Much Chlorine Does It Take to Purify Your Water?"
•Jenna Ellis, Hebrew Day School
"Do Different Substances in Water Light a Lightbulb?"
7th Grade (Judges: Prof. Tess Freedman, Bennie Howard, Syracuse University)
•John Aaron Gustafson, Homer Junior High School
"Soda-Pop Fizz Fizz—The Effect of Temperature on Soda to Retain Carbonization"
•Alivia Douglas, Lincoln School
"Hyperactive"
8th Grade (Judges: Prof. Tess Freedman, Bennie Howard, Syracuse University)
Cody Whiteman and Maximillion Defor, Casanovia High School
"Is there a Correlation Between a Metal’s Density and Thermal Conductivity?"
Senior Division, 9th to 12th Grades (Prof. Jerry Goodisman and Prof. James Dabrowiak, Syracuse University)
•Danielle Collier, Grade 12, Cato-Meridian High School
"The Frequency Change of Chemical Chromophores in Illustration Utensils"
•Jeremy Pu, Grade 9, Liverpool High School
"Processes to Extract Cuticular Hydrocarbons of the Cottonwood Borer Beetle"
•Maurice Jones, Grade 9, Syacuse Academy of Science
"What is Heat’s Favorite Color?"
•Trequaill Brunson, Grade 9, Syracuse Academy of Science
"How Salt Helps Things Sink"
US National Chemistry Olympiad Exam
The Syracuse Section is again participating in the Chemistry Olympiad program, a chemistry competition for high school students. In the US, the program begins at the grass roots of ACS local sections, with a two-hour chemistry exam offered to high school students. Top scorers in the local exams are invited to the next step of the competition, the US National Chemistry Olympiad Exam. This all-day test is administered to a limited number of students in each local ACS section during the window of April 20-23. The 20 highest scorers in the national exam are invited to further participate in a study camp in June at the Air Force Academy in Colorado, preparing and competing for a place on the US team in the International Chemistry Olympiad. From that group, a team is selected to represent the US at the International Chemistry Olympiad in July in Gyeongsan, Republic of Korea.
Eighty students from nine area high schools took the local exam on April 2 and 3 at four sites around the section, at G. Ray Bodley High School in Fulton, Chittenango High School, Le Moyne College, and Vernon-Verona-Sherrill High School. Thanks to Robert Morse, Harold Muller, and Bernadette van Valkenburg for administering the test at the high school sites. The top seven scorers were invited to take the national exam, administered locally at Le Moyne College on Thursday, April 20th.
The top scorer in the local exam was Curtis Hansen of Oneida High School. Curtis also qualified to take the national exam in 2005. Peggy Liu of Fayetteville-Manlius High School and Danielle Wroblewski of Paul V. Moore High School in Central Square finished in a tie for second place. The next four qualifying finishers were Maggie Abbate of G. Ray Bodley High School in Fulton, Matthew Siegenthaler of Vernon-Verona-Sherrill High School, Jargalan Nermunkh of William Nottingham High School in Syracuse, and Joseph Renwick of Verona-Sherrill High School. Congratulations to these students.
The career workshop held at Syracuse University was well attended and well received. There were at least 30 participants, many from Syracuse University, SUNY-ESF, and SUNY-Oswego, along with a few non-student members. Evaluations were returned by 26 participants, and the evaluations received were excellent.
The workshop was run by Ray O’Donnell, ACS Career Consultant and Professor of Chemistry at SUNY-Oswego. Tess Freedman, Professor of Chemistry at Syracuse University hosted the event. Sallie Biittner, Director of Human Resources, and Jeannine Ripley, Manager of Strategic Staffing, both of Bristol-Myers Squibb assisted in conducing resume reviews. Prof. O’Donnell reported being impressed upon hearing that many of the participants incorporated information from the morning session into their resumes right away—disappearing immediately after the morning session to make changes before the afternoon resume reviews.
Achievements around the Section
Dr. Theresa Beaty, associate professor of chemistry at Le Moyne College and chair of the department of chemistry and physics, received the Rev. Msgr. A. Robert Casey Teacher of the Year award at the college’s spring convocation on April 7. The award is a college-wide award, presented to a single faculty member each year. As the department’s lone biochemist, Beaty staffs the upper-level biochemistry course each year. Her other teaching responsibilities include a course designed for non-science majors, "Biotechnology: from wonder drugs to mutant bugs," and occasionally the introductory chemistry course for science majors. The department also boasts a previous winner of the award, Dr. Michael Masingale, associate professor of chemistry.
Anthony Di Pasqua, a Syracuse University graduate student working in Prof. James Dabrowiak’s group, is the recipient of Gemini Industries Research Grant for his research involving platinum anticancer drugs. The prize is awarded annually to a graduate student doing or planning to do research work the following year in an area of precious metals, such as extraction, metallurgy, refining, material science, physical chemistry, and others. The award will be presented in June at the annual International Precious Metals Institute Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.
National Notes
The 2006 Northeast Regional Meeting of ACS is scheduled for October 6-9 in Binghamton. Abstract submission is expected to be available beginning on May 1. For further information, see http://www.nerm2006.org/ .
The focus of the meeting will be emerging technologies and the chemical sciences. It will feature participation from the Materials Research Society, the CPMT (Components, Packaging, and Manufacturing Technology) Society, and Binghamton University’s Integrated Electronics Engineering Center and Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science, among other organizations.
Along with traditional chemistry sessions and an undergraduate poster session, additional symposia will cover topics such as:
•Organic and Flexible Electronics
•Sensors and Small Scale Systems
•Lithography
•Atmospheric and Aquatic Chemistry
•Nanostructured Materials
•Electronics Packaging
A little farther in distance and closer in time than NERM 2006 is the 38th Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting. Chemists with a sweet tooth will be particularly interested in MARM, set for June 4-7, 2006. Symposia include Contributions of Analytical Chemistry to Food Safety; Sweet Dreams: Part I, The Chemistry of Chocolate (Chemistry of Artificial Sweeteners, Chemistry of Sugar/Carbohydrates); Sweet Dreams: Part II, Chemistry of High Tea, Chemistry of Beer, Chemistry of Wine (with tastings, of course!); and Cleaning Validation Topics in the Pharmaceutical World. There will also be celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the FDA and the birthday of Joseph Priestley. Additional information and registration are available at
www.marm2006.org.s.shtml.
The ACS Committee on Professional Training (CPT) is undertaking a major revision of the ACS Guidelines for approval of bachelor's degree programs in chemistry. The goals of revising the ACS guidelines include:
• Simplifying the ACS guidelines for approval of chemistry programs
• Allowing greater flexibility for departments to develop certified degree tracks
• Encouraging department-initiated innovation and curriculum improvement
• Providing faculty and infrastructure requirements that support excellent chemistry programs.
The overview of the proposed revisions to the ACS guidelines that CPT is considering an be accessed from the CPT website at www.chemistry.org/education/cpt.
CPT invites you and your department to respond to these proposed changes by June 1, 2006, and thereby contribute to the ACS guidelines revision process. Please send comments to CPT by email to cpt@acs.org with a subject of "ACS Guidelines Revision."
CPT will continue its dialog with the chemistry community on proposed changes to the ACS Guidelines during the upcoming National Conference of the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR). The CUR conference, entitled "Learning Through Research: Dynamic Faculty, Students and Institutions," is scheduled for June 24-27, 2006, in DePauw University. The interactive session, "Changes in the Guidelines for ACS-Approved Programs in Chemistry," will outline the proposed revision and offer an opportunity for discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of the suggested changes. Among many important issues considered during the revision process, self-evaluation of chemistry programs and assessment of student outcomes are among the topics that will be discussed during the session at the CUR conference. (More information about the conference can be found at http://www.cur.org/conferences/depauw/cur06natconf.asp.)
In addition to the ACS CPT guidelines for chemistry programs in four-year colleges and universities, the Society Committee on Education (SOCED) maintains a set of guidelines designed specifically for two-year programs. Although the Guidelines for Chemistry Programs in Two-Year Colleges are not used in any formal ACS approval process (as are the CPT guidelines for four-year programs), they do serve as a guide for institutional self-studies and program reviews. The Guidelines for Chemistry Programs in Two-Year Colleges are focused on transfer programs and should be revised to reflect the revisions being made to ACS Guidelines for four-year programs.
SOCED and CPT have begun a dialog about the respective revisions and ways in which two- and four-year programs can work together to enhance undergraduate education in chemistry. You are invited to contribute to this discussion during the upcoming interactive symposium titled "Revising the ACS guidelines for two-year and four-year programs: A community dialog of issues and opportunities" at the upcoming 19th Biennial Conference on Chemical Education (BCCE), which will take place at Purdue University on July 30-August 3, 2006. (More information on the BCCE conference is available at http://www.chem.purdue.edu/bcce/.)
ACS Syracuse Section Meeting Schedule
May: Monday, May 8: Ralph Blomster, (University of Maryland at Baltimore), "Plants as a Source of Drugs"
May 2006 issue deadline is