PRODUCTIVE DRYING OF NATURAL PRODUCT EXTRACTS



The Rocket™ high speed evaporation system from Genevac is demonstrated in a new web microsite to provide a superior alternative to rotary evaporators for safe and productive drying of natural product extractions. Traditionally rotary evaporators have been widely used for drying natural product extracts. However the drying process with rotary evaporators is typically slow and prone to cross contamination problems due to solvent bumping and samples that foam. Additionally after drying, scientists are often left with trying to scrape out their samples from the walls of the rotary evaporator flask. Drawing upon over 20 years of technological innovation in evaporation science - Genevac has developed an elegant solution that solves all these problems and more. The Rocket™ high speed evaporation system will evaporate up to 6 flasks in parallel, and can dry these directly into a vial, so removing your sample is easy. The Rocket runs automatically and has proven, patented technology that eliminates bumping and foaming freeing you to tasks more interesting than watching your evaporator. Your productivity is transformed. Adding Genevac's proprietary SampleGenie technology to the Rocket enables you to concentrate your samples directly into a vial, eliminating the need for flask scraping and consequent sample transfer losses.
www.evaporatorinfo.com/info7.htm

ENTRY LEVEL KIT FOR PARALLEL SYNTHESIS



The DrySyn™ Parallel Synthesis Kit from Asynt offers a low cost solution for chemists wishing to conduct simple synthetic reactions with temperature control and magnetic stirring in parallel, but without the complications of reflux or inerting. Compatible with tubes and vials of varying diameters and from different manufacturers the DrySyn™ Parallel Synthesis Kit is uniquely versatile without compromising performance. This fantastic new kit can also be upgraded to a parallel reaction station using standard round bottom flasks, by using the appropriate DrySyn MULTI inserts. In this configuration, facilities like reflux, gas control and stirring can also be added.
www.asynt.com

DATA DEMONSTRATES OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE OF DRYSYN HEATING BLOCKS



Asynt has announced the availability of new data demonstrating the outstanding performance of its DrySyn Classic heating blocks. Recent design improvements in this popular product have resulted in improved heat transfer characteristics up to 300ºC, faster heating and cooling, and a smaller footprint. Used in combination with a standard hotplate stirrer, DrySyn Classic units have proved themselves with their ability to outperform the heat-conducting properties of oil baths. They pose a far lower fire risk and their use makes the clean-up of glassware far easier as there is no residual oil contamination on the outside of the flasks. In addition to accelerating your chemical reactions - DrySyn Classic heating blocks ensure a safer, cleaner, healthier working environment. The DrySyn Classic also provides a superior alternative to heating mantles. Designed by chemists for chemists, the DrySyn Classic provides full unhindered visibility of your reaction. In addition heat resistant handles allow fast, easy and safe lifting of your reaction flask from the heater/stirrer. The highly affordable DrySyn Classic system consists of a base that will accommodate 1000ml flasks and 4 inserts for 500ml, 250ml 100ml and 50ml flasks. Solid anodised aluminium construction delivers outstanding thermal and magnetic transfer efficiency and the durability suitable for use in any laboratory environment.
www.asynt.com

CARTILAGE MADE FROM PLURIPOTENT STEM CELLS
A team of Duke Medicine researchers has engineered cartilage from induced pluripotent stem cells that were successfully grown and sorted for use in tissue repair and studies into cartilage injury and osteoarthritis.The finding is reported online Oct. 29, 2012, in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and suggests that induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs, may be a viable source of patient-specific articular cartilage tissue. "This technique of creating induced pluripotent stem cells – an achievement honored with this year's Nobel Prize in medicine for Shimya Yamanaka of Kyoto University - is a way to take adult stem cells and convert them so they have the properties of embryonic stem cells," said Farshid Guilak, PhD, Laszlo Ormandy Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Duke and senior author of the study.
"Adult stems cells are limited in what they can do, and embryonic stem cells have ethical issues," Guilak said. "What this research shows in a mouse model is the ability to create an unlimited supply of stem cells that can turn into any type of tissue – in this case cartilage, which has no ability to regenerate by itself."
Articular cartilage is the shock absorber tissue in joints that makes it possible to walk, climb stairs, jump and perform daily activities without pain. But ordinary wear-and-tear or an injury can diminish its effectiveness and progress to osteoarthritis. Because articular cartilage has a poor capacity for repair, damage and osteoarthritis are leading causes of impairment in older people and often requires joint replacement.
In their study, the Duke researchers, led by Brian O. Diekman, PhD, a post-doctoral associate in orthopaedic surgery, aimed to apply recent technologies that have made iPSCs a promising alternative to other tissue engineering techniques, which use adult stem cells derived from the bone marrow or fat tissue.
One challenge the researchers sought to overcome was developing a uniformly differentiated population of chondrocytes, cells that produce collagen and maintain cartilage, while culling other types of cells that the powerful iPSCs could form.
To achieve that, the researchers induced chondrocyte differentiation in iPSCs derived from adult mouse fibroblasts by treating cultures with a growth medium. They also tailored the cells to express green fluorescent protein only when the cells successfully became chondrocytes. As the iPSCs differentiated, the chondrocyte cells that glowed with the green fluorescent protein were easily identified and sorted from the undesired cells.
The tailored cells also produced greater amounts of cartilage components, including collagen, and showed the characteristic stiffness of native cartilage, suggesting they would work well repairing cartilage defects in the body.
"This was a multi-step approach, with the initial differentiation, then sorting, and then proceeding to make the tissue," Diekman said. "What this shows is that iPSCs can be used to make high quality cartilage, either for replacement tissue or as a way to study disease and potential treatments."
Diekman and Guilak said the next phase of the research will be to use human iPSCs to test the cartilage-growing technique.
"The advantage of this technique is that we can grow a continuous supply of cartilage in a dish," Guilak said. "In addition to cell-based therapies, iPSC technology can also provide patient-specific cell and tissue models that could be used to screen for drugs to treat osteoarthritis, which right now does not have a cure or an effective therapy to inhibit cartilage loss."
In addition to Guilak and Diekman, study authors include Nicolas Christoforou; Vincent P. Willard; Alex Sun; Johannah Sanchez-Adams; and Kam W. Leong.
The National Institutes of Health (AR50245, AR48852, AG15768, AR48182, Training Grant T32AI007217) and the Arthritis Foundation funded the study.
www.dukehealth.org

TAKE THE WHITE TRAM: “WHAT IS PRECIOUS TO YOU?”



“Take the A train” is one of the most famous tunes of the jazz composer Duke Ellington. It was performed in an historical tour of the Rolling Stones in the ’80s, and I recall myself (much younger) listening to it at their Turin Concert in Italy. A train makes you think to energy, changes occurring, something powerful, new frontiers, and if the train is “white”, a quite unusual color indeed for a train, the inner message could be quite evocative. White recalls an empty page we can write in, a table we can lay, a painting we can create. Back to music again, white reminds me one of the most famous pop albums, The “White Album” by the Beatles. Both the “fab four” of Liverpool and the Stones celebrate their 50th Anniversary in 2012 (though the fab four no longer entertai

n us on stage, they still warm our hearts with their music). These groups have inspired a number of generations, giving people new energy, new dreams, new hopes, and will continue to do so.
Why should I sound weird and speak of trains and rock concerts in a chemistry journal? Well, because there’s a chemistry in our hearts working to switch on an engine everybody has inside: our imagination.
Our imagination can hurl us through the longest of journeys in a matter of seconds, can work out a complex story in just moments, can make us tune a song even though we're not singers. My own chemistry was triggered one rainy, dark November night in Basel when, after catching a tram in the dark, I realized it was white, I mean painted in white instead of the usual, familiar green. It was all white inside as well, with several messages eyeing from the walls, one of them very attractive and meaningful: “What is precious to you?”. It was a Clariant advert. The whole company is going through a period of important changes, as we’ve reported in an article in this issue. We’ll certainly learn more in the new year, but indeed we can already sense that these developments will impact on chemistry worldwide. Clariant is an historical company in the field of chemistry, as we describe in the aforesaid article. It has always played a major role in the market, thus in the everyday life of people, uur lives. Chemistry is at the basis of everything we do, and good chemistry makes us live a better life. And what is most precious to us today? Living a good life, for me, my family and friends, the whole world. Living a good life means many things indeed, but in this context it means having a good quality of life, where the things that are essential to us are respected and shared, where we can look at the future with optimism, hope and dreams we can make come true.
Chemistry has played a key role in our lives ever since, and chemical companies have always been there to support this. One important thing showing this is how the industry is dealing with a key issue today in chemistry, summed up in the two words “I care”. Sustainability is the answer to the demand for caring, it is the engine of our lives, the driver for our future.
Clariant has strongly committed for a new future. And I think that a white tram full of people running in the dark of our towns can be a symbol which tell us that a new future is indeed possible, and that chemistry will always be there, at our side, with us, shaping and supporting everyday life. Because life is a precious gift, for everyone.

CANCER RESEARCH YIELDS UNEXPECTED NEW WAY TO PRODUCE NYLON
In their quest for a cancer cure, researchers at the Duke Cancer Institute made a serendipitous discovery -- a molecule necessary for cheaper and greener ways to produce nylon.
The finding, described in the Sept. 23, 2012, issue of the journal Nature Chemical Biology, arose from an intriguing notion that some of the genetic and chemical changes in cancer tumors might be harnessed for beneficial uses.
“In our lab, we study genetic changes that cause healthy tissues to go bad and grow into tumors. The goal of this research is to understand how the tumors develop in order to design better treatments,” said Zachary J. Reitman, Ph.D., an associate in research at Duke and lead author of the study. “As it turns out, a bit of information we learned in that process paves the way for a better method to produce nylon.”
Nylon is a ubiquitous material, used in carpeting, upholstery, auto parts, apparel and other products. A key component for its production is adipic acid, which is one of the most widely used chemicals in the world. Currently, adipic acid is produced from fossil fuel, and the pollution released from the refinement process is a leading contributor to global warming.Reitman said he and colleagues delved into the adipic acid problem based on similarities between cancer research techniques and biochemical engineering. Both fields rely on enzymes, which are molecules that convert one small chemical to another. Enzymes play a major role in both healthy tissues and in tumors, but they are also used to convert organic matter into synthetic materials such as adipic acid.
One of the most promising approaches being studied today for environmentally friendly adipic acid production uses a series of enzymes as an assembly line to convert cheap sugars into adipic acid. However, one critical enzyme in the series, called a 2-hydroxyadipate dehydrogenase, has never been produced, leaving a missing link in the assembly line. This is where the cancer research comes in. In 2008 and 2009, Duke researchers, including Hai Yan, M.D., PhD., identified a genetic mutation in glioblastomas and other brain tumors that alters the function of an enzyme known as an isocitrate dehydrogenase.
Reitman and colleagues had a hunch that the genetic mutation seen in cancer might trigger a similar functional change to a closely related enzyme found in yeast and bacteria (homoisocitrate dehydrogenase), which would create the elusive 2-hydroxyadipate dehydrogenase necessary for “green” adipic acid production.
They were right. The functional mutation observed in cancer could be constructively applied to other closely related enzymes, creating a beneficial outcome – in this case the missing link that could enable adipic acid production from cheap sugars. The next step will be to scale up the overall adipic acid production process, which remains a considerable undertaking.
“It’s exciting that sequencing cancer genomes can help us to discover new enzyme activities,” Reitman said. “Even genetic changes that occur in only a few patients could reveal useful new enzyme functions that were not obvious before.”
Yan, a professor in the Department of Pathology and senior author of the study, said the research demonstrates how an investment in medical research can be applied broadly to solve other significant issues of the day.
“This is the result of a cancer researcher thinking outside the box to produce a new enzyme and create a precursor for nylon production,” Yan said. “Not only is this discovery exciting, it reaffirms the commitment we should be making to science and to encouraging young people to pursue science.”
In addition to Reitman and Yan, study authors include Bryan D. Choi, Ivan Spasojevic, Darell D. Bigner and John H. Sampson.
The work was supported with funds from the National Institutes of Health (R01 CA1403160). The authors are listed on a patent that is pending related to the mutated enzymes.
Duke Medicine News & Communications; www.dukemednews.org

NEW PROTEIN KEY TO ASYMMETRIC CELL DIVISION



Recently biologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst led by Wei-lih Lee have identified a new molecular player in asymmetric cell division, a regulatory protein named She1 whose role in chromosome- and spindle positioning wasn’t known before. Asymmetric cell division is important in the self-renewal of stem cells and because it ensures that daughter cells have different fates and functions.
When a fertilized egg develops in a fruit fly or a human being, the number of asymmetric cell divisions must be precisely balanced by symmetric cell divisions, Lee explains. He has spent years studying the cell’s molecular engine called dynein, which in many cases controls how embryos accomplish asymmetric cell division, though exactly how is not completely understood.
Now, Lee and postdoctoral researcher Steven Markus, with undergraduate Katelyn Kalutkiewicz, in experiments supported by the NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), have identified She 1 as the first known regulator of asymmetric cell division that inhibits the dynein engine, but surprisingly also promotes asymmetric division. Their work is described in an early online edition of Current Biology.
Working with common yeast, Lee explains, “With this study, we’ve looked deeper than ever before into dynein and its role in asymmetric cell division. This is a highly conserved process that’s very important to human development, to tissue differentiation and the self-renewing process of stem cells. Many had hypothesized that dynein influences the outcome of the division by pulling on the mitotic spindle, the intricate machine responsible for separating chromosomes. How dynein knows which direction to pull the spindle had become the holy grail of this research.”
When a cell is ready to divide asymmetrically, dynein molecules move to its outer wall in opposite directions by riding along microtubules “tracks” and anchoring in the wall like tent stakes. Until Lee and colleagues’ recent discovery of She1’s role, biologists believed dynein acted alone to direct the spindle apparatus between them, pulling chromosomes apart like taffy to form two daughter cells. They thought She1 seemed to be involved in dynein distribution, as it was often observed on the microtubule tracks along which dynein draws the spindle apparatus.
A field of reconstituted microtubule filaments (blue) visualized at high-resolution shows single molecules of dynein (green) blocked by She1 (magenta) bound along the microtubule track. Zoomed insets show an example of space-time plot analysis by Markus, Kalutkiewicz and Lee (bottom left) and a cartoon of the specific blockage of dynein by She1 (top right).
To explore She1’s secrets, Lee and his team used Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy, which allows them to visualize single molecules at high resolution. They can watch the dynein engine as it powers along the microtubule tracks.
“We were curious,” Lee notes. “We knew She1 was present but we didn’t know why. So we decided to do some biochemistry with it in the microscope. Steven purified the protein and designed experiments to see if it interacted with the motor protein. And it did.”
In fact, the UMass Amherst research team found that She1 interacts with dynein only when the motor protein is on the microtubule cable and the motor is moving on the track, never elsewhere. “We observed them colliding on the track, then binding. The new concept is that these microtubules become different,” Lee adds. “Discovering that She1 can block dynein’s motoring totally changed our thinking about how the spindle is being pulled in the cell.”
The researchers were surprised because observing its behavior; one would predict that She1 inhibits asymmetric division by blocking dynein. It turns out that is not true. Instead, She1 actively promotes asymmetric cell division by changing its local underlying microtubules. Tracks containing She1 no longer permit dynein to pass.
It’s a subtle difference, Lee acknowledges, but important. He clarifies, “We think the microtubule tracks might be ‘licensed,’ so to speak, by She1. The idea had been that the engine was always ‘on’ and pulling. However, now we have identified this new player with the ability to specifically regulate this pulling very locally. If there’s high She1 concentration on one side of the spindle, dynein can only pull from the other side, thus specifying the direction of the pulling.”
There is no counterpart to She1 found in common yeast yet known in humans, but Lee and colleagues expect a similar protein will be discovered that regulates and directs dynein’s pulling in asymmetric cell division.
Dr. Joe Gindhart of NIGMS, partial funder of the work, says, “Because the proper orientation of the mitotic spindle during asymmetric cell division is critical for many organisms, researchers have been trying for years to better understand how one of its key molecular players, dynein, is regulated. The new findings offer important details about the proteins that yeast cells use to regulate dynein function, and they suggest the need to identify proteins with similar functions in higher organisms.”
In addition to NIH, this work was supported by awards to Kalutkiewicz from the American Heart Association Undergraduate Summer Fellowship Program, the UMass Amherst Commonwealth Honors College Research Assistant Fellowship Program and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Summer Research Internship Program in the UMass Amherst Biology Department.
University of Massachusetts Amherst - www.umass.edu

POSSIBLE BUILDING BLOCKS OF ANCIENT GENETIC SYSTEMS DISCOVERED
Scientists believe that prior to the advent of DNA as the earth’s primary genetic material, early forms of life used RNA to encode genetic instructions. What sort of genetic molecules did life rely on before RNA? The answer may be AEG, a small molecule when linked into chains form a hypothetical backbone for Peptide Nucleic Acids, which have been hypothesized as the first genetic molecules. Synthetic AEG has been studied by the pharmaceutical industry as a possible genesilencer to stop or slow certain genetic diseases. The only problem with the theory is that up to now, AEG has been unknown from nature. A team of scientists from the USA and Sweden announced that they have discovered AEG within cyanobacteria which are believed to be some of the most primitive organisms on earth. Cyanobacteria sometimes appear as mats or scums on the surface of reservoirs and lakes during hot summer months. Their tolerance for extreme habitats is remarkable, ranging from the hot springs of Yellowstone to the tundra of the Arctic. “Our discovery of AEG in cyanobacteria was unexpected,” explains Dr. Paul Alan Cox, coauthor on the paper that appeared in the journal PLOS ONE. The American team, is based at the Institute for Ethnomedicine in Jackson Hole, and serve as adjunct faculty at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. “While we were writing our manuscript,” Cox says, “we learned that our colleagues at the Stockholm University Department of Analytical Chemistry had made a similar discovery, so we asked them to join us on the paper.” To determine how widespread AEG production is among cyanobacteria, the scientists analyzed pristine cyanobacterial cultures from the Pasteur Culture Collection of Paris, France. They also collected samples of cyanobacteria from Guam, Japan, Qatar, as well as in the Gobi desert of Mongolia, the latter sample being collected by famed Wyoming naturalist Derek Craighead. All were found to produce AEG. Professor Leopold Ilag and his student Liying Jiang at Stockholm University’s Department of Analytical Chemistry analyzed the same samples and came up with identical results: cyanobacteria produce AEG. While the analysis is certain, its significance for studies of the earliest forms of life on earth remains unclear. Does the production of AEG by cyanobacteria represent an echo of the earliest life on earth? “We just don’t have enough data yet to draw that sort of conclusion,” reports Cox. “However the pharmaceutical industry has been exploring synthetic AEG polymers for potential use in gene silencing, so I suspect we have much more to learn.”
Weber State university - www.weber.edu

10TH MATERIALICA DESIGN + TECHNOLOGY AWARD 2012
The Bayflex® Lightweight polyurethane system from Bayer MaterialScience was honoured with the "10th MATERIALICA Design + Technology Award 2012" at the MATERIALICA trade fair in Munich, Germany. A top-rank jury presented the "Best of" Award in the category "Material" for the high-performance and tough-elastic polyurethane construction material, which even floats on water due to its low density.
www.materialscience.bayer.com

CATALOGUE 2013/2014 BY HUBER
Huber’s temperature control catalogue 2013/2014 features many new products with the new Pilot ONE^® controller integrated into: dynamic temperature control systems, chillers and classic circulators for use in research, pilot plant and production. The product range offers temperature control solutions for applications from -120 to +425°C. The newly developed Pilot ONE^® controller offers the latest touchscreen technology. Thanks to a unique Plug and Play technology the introduction of the Pilot ONE^® allows easy expansion of functions and features. The controller provides comfortable navigation and advanced control technology. Ease of use is facilitated with USB/LAN connections and full text menu guidance in 11 languages. New in the product range are the air cooled Unistats^® 510 and 610 as well as the BFT^®5, a beer force-ageing-test bath for quality control in beer production.
www.huber-online.com

AFFIRMOEX ELECTRON MAGNETIC RESONANCE (EMR) SYSTEM
Oxford Instruments announces the launch of the AffirmoEX Electron Magnetic Resonance (EMR) system to regenerate the teaching of EMR in universities and colleges. Together with the AffirmoEX benchtop EMR spectrometer, Oxford Instruments is introducing a comprehensive package of undergraduate teaching materials, making it easy to incorporate both theoretical and practical aspects of the technique into the undergraduate curriculum. This affordable, compact and comprehensive approach will facilitate a renaissance of this valuable analytical technique.
www.oxford-instruments.com

NOVASEP IT’S EXPANDING ITSELF
Novasep has announced an investment of EUR 30 million to build in Europe what will be the world's largest chromatography plant used for the production of a large volume commercial API (active pharmaceutical ingredient). The plant will be built on Novasep's existing Mourenx site in France and will be operational and validated within 18 months. Both the development of an advanced purification process and the plant expansion within the challenging timescale are results of the sharp increase in the projected demand for a large volume, highly purified API.
www.novasep.com

THE RAINER-RUDOLPH-FOUNDATION HAS AWARDED THREE PRIZES
The Rainer-Rudolph-Foundation was established in 2011 by friends, companions, former colleagues and staff of the late Professor Rainer Rudolph on order to honour his outstanding scientific work and to promote young talents in protein sciences. For the first time, the Rainer-Rudolph-Foundation has awarded three prizes to young researchers with outstanding theses and dissertations in the fields of protein biochemistry and biotechnology. The winners were presented with their €1000 prizes by Dr Ulrike Fiedler, chairwoman of the foundation and CEO of Scil Proteins, during the annual protein conference, "Faltertage", in Regensburg.
www.rainer-rudolph-stiftung.de

FLOW REACTORS IMPROVE PROCESS REPRODUCIBILITY
The FlowSyn™ range of integrated, flow reactor systems from Uniqsis Ltd. has been designed to handle everything from homogeneous single reactions to complex, multi-reagent reactions. Developed by chemists for chemists, the Uniqsis FlowSyn system is available with the widest range of reactors (2 - 60ml) in a choice of inert materials including stainless steel, Hastelloy^®, PFA, PTFE or even Copper. As a consequence the FlowSyn System is able to perform an unmatched range of chemistries. Reactions requiring the use of strong acids such as nitric acid (nitrations) and powerful organometallic bases such as butyl lithium (metallations) are now routinely possible.
www.uniqsis.com

SHTC1 HUMIDITY AND TEMPERATURE SENSOR BY SENSIRION
The tiny SHTC1 humidity and temperature sensor is specifically designed for mobile devices where size is a critical factor. Sensirion has rigorously followed the maxim "smaller is better” and developed the world’s smallest sensor in its class, measuring a mere 2 x 2 x 0.8 mm. During Electronica 2012 Sensirion presented the world’s smallest humidity and temperature sensor, setting new standards for size, power consumption, production volume and price.
www.sensirion.com