Searching for new vaccines and antivirals to beat the seasonal threat

59 Pages·2017·12.04 MB·English

Endocrine What
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hits the fast bitters their
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MARCH 12, 2018
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Contents
VOLUME 96, NUMBER 11
March 12, 2018
Features
Cover story
Outsmarting
influenza
Making a flu vaccine that will last
35 How to compete
longer than a season is a dream
22 Endocrine assays against WuXi
scientists have been chasing for
go fast track Expansion of drug services giant
years. Here’s how they’re working
EPA ramps up efforts to create still leaves plenty of room for
to make it a reality high-throughput approaches for other players in China
screening chemical effects on
Page 42
hormone synthesis and receptor 38 C&EN talks with
pathways Angela Belcher
MIT scientist harnesses biology
to grow materials from the
bottom up
29 Searching for
cheaper malaria
medicines
Efforts to produce low-cost
synthetic artemisinin gain
momentum 40 Periodic graphics:
Quote of the week The chemistry of
32 Cultural change in bitters
the Midwest Andy Brunning samples the
“Viruses
Evonik claims success in ingredients and molecules that
turning a Lilly drug plant into a lend the cocktail flavorings their
are liars, pharmaceutical services facility pungency
cheats, and
Departments ACS News
thieves.”
An artist’s rendering 4 Reactions 49 ACS Comment
of glycoprotein spikes 9 Concentrates 51 Inaugural
hemagglutinin (orange) and 54 C&ENjobs ABCChem meeting
neuraminidase (green) on —Andrew Mehle, professor, 56 Newscripts Conference builds scientific ties
influenza virus particles. University of Wisconsin, around the Atlantic basin
Illustration by Shutterstock Madison Page 42 53 Obituaries
CENEAR 96 (11) 1–56 • ISSN 0009-2347
Reactions
1155—16th St., N.W., Washington, DC 20036
[phone] or [phone]
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Bibiana Campos Seijo
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Amanda Yarnell
PRODUCTION DIRECTOR: Rachel Sheremeta Pepling
SENIOR ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER: Marvel A. Wills
BUSINESS ▸ Letters to the editor career success is not unique to chemistry.
NEW YORK CITY: [phone]
Michael McCoy, Executive Editor It is a stereotype that undermines all types
RHic. kT uMllou l(liSne (nSioern Cioor rEredsitpoorn),d Menatr)c, RSa. Rcheeisl cEhs k(Seneanzioi r( ACdomrreinsipsotnradteivnet )A, sAsleisxtaanndt)e.r Microdroplets of valid discussions.
BOSTON: [phone] Ryan Cross (Assistant Editor). Last month a colleague and I were at
CHICAGO: [phone] Lisa M. Jarvis (Senior Correspondent).
HONG KONG: 852 9093 8445 Jean-François Tremblay (Senior In a recently published interesting [ar- Pittcon to plan our 2018–20 purchases.
Correspondent). LONDON: 44 1494 564 316 Alex Scott (Senior Editor). ticle] (C&EN, Nov. 20, 2017, page 16), it On day two of the expo, we were visit-
WEST COAST: [phone] Melody M. Bomgardner (Senior Editor)
was mentioned that the experimentally ing a new vendor that sold a number of
POLICY observed huge (up to 103 times) intensifi- products that would increase our lab’s ef-
WEST COAST: [phone] Jyllian Kemsley, Executive Editor
WASHINGTON: Cheryl Hogue (Senior Correspondent) cation of chemical reactions
Britt E. Erickson (Senior Editor), Andrea L. Widener (Senior Editor)
in a dispersion of droplets
SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY/EDUCATION in a continuous phase has
WASHINGTON: Lauren K. Wolf, Executive Editor, Deputy Editorial Director
Celia Henry Arnaud (Senior Editor), Stuart A. Borman (Senior Correspondent), not received any explana-
Matt Davenport (Senior Editor, Multimedia), Carmen Drahl (Senior
Correspondent), Kerri Jansen (Assistant Editor, Multimedia), tion. The goal of this letter
Tien M. Nguyen (Assistant Editor). is to provide one.
BERLIN: 49 30 2123 3740 Sarah Everts (Senior Editor).
BOSTON: [phone] Bethany Halford (Senior Editor). An intensified reac-
CHICAGO: [phone] Mitch Jacoby (Senior Correspondent). tion can occur when the
WEST COAST: [phone] Michael Torrice (Deputy Executive
Editor), [phone] Sam Lemonick (Assistant Editor) mass-transfer coefficient
JOURNAL NEWS & COMMUNITY between the continu-
[phone] Corinna Wu (Senior Editor) ous phase and droplets
[phone] Jessica H. Marshall (Associate Editor)
becomes large enough.
ACS NEWS & SPECIAL FEATURES This can happen for
Linda Wang (Senior Editor)
nano-range droplets. In-
EDITORIAL PROJECTS EDITOR: Jessica Morrison
deed, the mass-transfer
AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT EDITOR: Dorea I. Reeser coefficient is given by the
EDITING & PRODUCTION well-known expression
Sabrina J. Ashwell (AKsimsisbtearnlyt RE.d Bitoryrs),o Cnr, aEigxe Bceutttiveen hEaduitsoern (Associate Editor), kR/D ~ (RU/v)1/2(v/D)1/3,
Melissa T. Gilden (Assitant Editor), Taylor C. Hood (Assistant Editor), Manny where R is the radius of
I. Fox Morone (Associate Editor), Alexandra A. Taylor (Assistant Editor)
the droplet, U its velocity,
C&EN MEDIA PRODUCTION LAB v the kinematic viscosity,
Robert Bryson, Creative Director, Head of Media Production Lab
Tchad K. Blair, Head of UI/UX Design D the diffusion coefficient,
Robin L. Braverman (Senior Art Director), Luis A. Carrillo (Web Production
Manager), Ty A. Finocchiaro (Senior Web A ssociate), Yang H. Ku and k the mass-trans-
(Art Director), William A. Ludwig (Art Director), Kay Youn (Art Director) fer coefficient. Hence
C&EN BRANDLAB k ~ R–1/2U1/2v–1/6D2/3.
Rajendrani Mukhopadhyay, Executive Editor
The above equation re-
Jeff Lee (Senior Editor), Kirsten Dobson (Marketing Manager)
veals that in the nano range
SALES & MARKETING
Stephanie Holland, Assistant Director, Advertising Sales & Marketing (very small R), the mass
Natalia Bokhari (Advertising Operations Manager), transfer is increased in
Sondra Hadden (Senior Marketing Manager), Joyleen SanFe-
liz Parnell (Advertising Operations Associate), Quyen Pham (Lead comparison to the non-na-
Generation Associate), Ed Rather (Recruitment Advertising Prod-
uct Manager), Ben Smith (Audience Development Manager), no range, and this can
Kierra Tobiere (Recruitment Sales & Marketing Associate) indeed increase the rate of the chemical ficiency. The vendor shared a large booth
ADVISORY BOARD reaction in droplets. with its sister company specializing in
Deborah Blum, Raychelle Burks, Jinwoo Cheon, Kendrew H. Colton, François- Eli Ruckenstein lab-themed gifts. There were a few plush
Xavier Coudert, Cathleen Crudden, Gautam R. Desiraju, Paula T. Hammond,
Matthew Hartings, Christopher Hill, Yan Liang, Javier García Martínez, Peter Williamsville, N.Y. “lab rat” toys displayed. One appeared to
Nagler, Daniel García Rivera, Anubhav Saxena, Dan Shine, Michael Sofia, William
Tolman, James C. Tung, Jill Venton, Helma Wennemers, Geofrey K. Wyatt, be female and wore a white lab coat with
Deqing Zhang Products perpetuating “Flirty” embroidered on it.
PuTbhloismheads bMy. tChoen AneMllEy RJrI.C, EAxNe cCuHtivEeM DIiCreAcLto Sr O&C CIEEOTY stereotypes Here was a toy that perpetuated the H)
gender bias stereotype. There was also a T
Brian D. Crawford, President, Publications Division O
B
EDAICTSO RBIoAaLrd B oOf DAiRreDc:t oNrisc oClhea Sir. JSoahmnp Es.o And (aCmhasi,r ), Scievxil- braigshetds dviisoclraitmioinn atthiaotn t iask ae sc ommanmyo n TTe-sshtyir)t bweiitnhg atnooldth beyr af emmaallee l laabb r raatt t (hnaatm sheed OVE (
ACS President Peter K. Dorhout, Cynthia J. Burrows, forms. How does it begin? How can we was overreacting. It was a double enten- GR
Jerzy Klosin, Julia Laskin, John Russell LE
build more positive outcomes? The arti- dre because Testy was holding a bubbling O
C
CopCyraingahdt i2an0 1G8S, TA mReegri.c Naon. CRh1e2m75ic7a1l 3S4o7ci ety cle “Confronting Sexual Harassment in flask. Flirty was not an outlier; she was a HY
T
Volume 96, Number 11 Chemistry” from the Sept. 18, 2017, issue trend. I reviewed the company’s website O
R
O
brought to light the different experiences and found kid-sized T-shirts emblazoned D
between genders in chemistry. The idea with Flirty proclaiming, “Future Scientist” DIT:
E
that women use their sexuality to leverage (or “Biologist” or “Physicist”). The male R
C
4 C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | MARCH 12, 2018
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Germany or its affiliates. All other trademarks are the property of their
leading Life Science brands, so whatever your life respective owners. Detailed information on trademarks is available via
publicly accessible resources.
science problem, you can benefit from our expert
products and services. © 2018 Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and/or its affiliates.
All Rights Reserved.
To find out how MilliporeSigma can help you work,
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#howwesolve
LSCI17UKLO0737_C&EN_Advert_MilliporeSigma.indd 2 19/12/2017 17:51
rats are Matt (founder’s son), Gym, and of gas chromatography/mass spectrome-
Introducing our podcast, Slacker (I recommend renaming this one). try with injections made with solid-phase
Why not rename the female rats Testy, microextraction GC syringes could give
Flirty, and Petri as Marie, Shirley, and bibliographic science a handle on (1) the
Rosalind? animal source of the vellum; (2) the
Viewing these products made me think age of the vellum, both when first made
twice about doing any business with either and later after having been written
company. The strongest power I have is on; and (3) possibly the methods used
as a consumer, and I will choose to forgo in the vellum preparation. Currently,
purchasing their products because of the 14C radiocarbon dating has been applied
latent sexism. I recognize the irony of me to determine vellum age (as the source
being labeled as “overreacting” about a toy was once living), but this involves some
Tune in every month for by the same vocal minority that dismisses skin destruction to obtain a sufficient
harassment claims. But I also see this as sample. And identifying the animal used
the chemistry stories a clear example of the hidden sexism that for the vellum by microscopic analysis of
is so ingrained in our profession that the skins to detect original hair follicles can
that matter most.
joke has been monetized in an unironic sometimes pose problems in handling an-
manner. I struggle even to put my full cient manuscripts. The method of vellum
name to this letter for fear of negative preparation, such as treatment with alkali
Subscribe now on iTunes, Google Play,
comments like “Just get over it” and “It’s to remove residual hair (left in some cas-
SoundCloud, or TuneIn.
just a joke.” However, I will take my in- es) and soften the skins, is likely based
spiration from the Feb. 15 ACS webinar mainly on the known practices used in
(“Sexual Harassment in the Sciences: their usual methods of preparation but is
Steps Forward”) that encouraged, “I’ll not chiefly guesswork.
be silent.” Wishing them continued success in
Dorothy Colegrove further developing and employing their
Anchorage method, which I think could be of huge
significance in handling old paper and, I
Aromas and chemistry
am convinced, likely vellums.
Thomas F. Spande
I found the article by Carrie Arnold in the Bethesda, Md.
Nov. 27, 2017, issue of C&EN (page 19) on
the work of graduate student Bembibre Carrie Arnold credits the first aroma
and her supervisor Strlič in identifying the wheel to Ann Noble “in the 1980s” with
odors released by aging paper to be stim- flavor wheels for other products, like
ulating and possibly of importance in an- beer, coming later. The actual date of
other area: possible odorous and nonodor- Noble’s aroma wheel seems to be 1984,
ous compounds emanating from vellum five years after the publication of the beer
manuscripts. Even after paper was a com- flavor wheel by a subcommittee of the
mon article of commerce, some important American Society of Brewing Chemists (J.
documents continued to be produced by Am. Soc. Brew. Chem. 1979, DOI: 10.1094/
scribes writing on the specially treated ASBCJ-37-0047). The wheel itself is on
skins chiefly of calves, young goats, and page 51.
lambs, called vellums, in general. Roger Barth
Perhaps their use of the combination West Chester, Pa.
Correction
▸ March 5, page 3: In the news story on the Chematica computer program, the
description of how the program’s 50,000 synthetic rules were developed was incom-
plete. The rules were developed on the basis of reactions published in the chemical
literature and insights from organic chemists on the team. Also, the story incorrectly
stated that only one of the eight tested target molecules did not have a previously
published synthetic route. In fact, two of the targets had not been synthesized before.
The story also failed to point out that a contender to Chematica—ChemPlanner from
John Wiley & Sons—will be integrated into SciFindern, which is a product from CAS,
a division of the American Chemical Society. Finally, K. C. Nicolaou’s thoughts on how
the program could improve lab productivity were described inaccurately. The sentence
should have read: “ ‘These encouraging results should serve as a spark for another
advancement in organic synthesis,’ says K. C. Nicolaou, a synthetic chemist at Rice
University, adding that Chematica could increase speed and productivity in chemistry
labs, especially if paired with automated synthesis machines.”
6 C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | MARCH 12, 2018
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for creative science and technology
solutions in life science
Proven Preparation,
Separation, Filtration
& Testing Products
Expert Pharma & Biopharma
Manufacturing & Testing Services
State-of-the-Art Lab &
Production Materials
Trusted Analytical
Products
Pioneering Lab
Water Solutions
Tailored Pharma & Biopharma
Raw Material Solutions
The life science business of Merck KGaA,
Darmstadt, Germany operates as
MilliporeSigma in the U.S. and Canada.
MilliporeSigma, the vibrant M, Milli-Q, Millipore, SAFC, BioReliance,
MilliporeSigma has brought together the world‘s Supelco and Sigma-Aldrich are trademarks of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt,
Germany or its affiliates. All other trademarks are the property of their
leading Life Science brands, so whatever your life respective owners. Detailed information on trademarks is available via
publicly accessible resources.
science problem, you can benefit from our expert
products and services. © 2018 Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and/or its affiliates.
All Rights Reserved.
To find out how MilliporeSigma can help you work,
visit SigmaAldrich.com/advancinglifescience
#howwesolve
LSCI17UKLO0737_C&EN_Advert_MilliporeSigma.indd 3 19/12/2017 17:51
▸ From the web their distinctive odor, which I find mildly before modern manufacturing all but elim-
pleasant. inated compounding from everyday phar-
Re: How science may ken osborn macy practice. The favorite aroma for most
old-timers? Tincture of benzoin, of course!
help us smell the past
Here at the American Institute of the His- Greg Higby
tory of Pharmacy (UW Madison School of
Readers commented on the intersection of Pharmacy) we routinely open up one or Join the conversation.
smell and chemistry online. two of our artifact cabinets so that visitors
facebook.com/CENews
cenm.ag/smellpast can experience “that old drugstore smell.”
This experience is especially moving for @cenmag
Interesting work, but establishing a list of pharmacists over the age of 70, who re-
@cenmag
vocabulary words is only one piece of the member how pharmacies used to smell
puzzle. These metaphors or associations
will differ from one person to another
depending upon our individual experi- How to reach us
ences and associations. It is unlikely that
we will be able to recreate the emotions
associated with odors by historical figures Chemical & Engineering News Subscriptions
because, as pointed out in the article, our Letters to the Editor Send all new and renewal subscriptions and requests for
subscription rates to ACS, Dept. L-0011, Columbus, OH
odor experiences and associations will be ▸ Our e-mail address is [email protected].
43268-0011.
very different. ▸ Our fax number is [phone].
Nick Sauer ▸ Comments can be left at cen.acs.org. ▸ Changes of address, claims for missing issues, sub-
scription orders, status of records, and accounts should
▸ Or you can send your letter to: be directed to Manager, Member & Subscriber Services,
As a retired lab rat from an environ- C&EN Editor-in-Chief ACS, P.O. Box 3337, Columbus, OH 43210; telephone
mental lab that included an odor panel 1155—16th St., N.W. [phone] or [phone]; or send an e-mail
to rate drinking water samples, I find Washington, DC 20036 to [email protected].
the use of odor profiles through the ▸ Letters should generally be 400 words or fewer and
should include the writer’s full name, address, and home Advertising
human-instrument combination fasci-
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nating. At my home library I have a few for purposes of clarity and space. Because of the heavy cen.acs.org/advertise. For advertising rates, contact
books that date to the late 19th century volume of mail received at C&EN, writers are limited to one Stephanie Holland at [email protected]. For the editorial
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talks with
Priestley Medalist
GERI RICHMOND
Meet the recipient of this year’s Priestley Medal,
Geraldine Richmond. Richmond has been
recognized for her pioneering contributions to our
understanding of the molecular properties of liquid
surfaces and her extraordinary service to chemistry
on a global level. Visit the ACS Theater at the ACS
spring national meeting to learn more and receive
an autographed copy of C&EN.
▸ Tuesday, March 20
11 AM–noon
▸ Ernest N. Morial Convention Center
New Orleans
ACS Theater; ACS booth
8 C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | MARCH 12, 2018