Chemistry

ABSTRACTS

Dr. Michael Best, UTK: Chemical approaches to the investigation of protein-membrane binding interactions using synthetic lipid probes

Signaling lipids present in cell membranes act as important regulators of biological processes and have been implicated in the onset of numerous diseases. A common role of these lipids involves the recruitment of proteins to the cell membrane surface through binding events that generally regulate protein function and localization. While understanding these interactions at the molecular level is of great interest, such efforts are hindered by the complexity of the membrane environment in which binding occurs. Towards this end, chemical strategies will be presented by which protein–membrane recognition events can be efficiently characterized. First, the design and synthesis of lipid probes, obtained via modular strategies, will be described. Next, the application of these probes for elucidating binding details will be presented, including the development of multi-format microarray analysis for investigating protein–lipid recognition in different contexts, and bifunctional probes that allow for collective labeling of target receptors in cell extracts, including those associated with disease.

Dr. Patrick Campbell, Aegis Sciences Corp: Forensic Toxicology: Aegis Sciences Corporation

Aegis Sciences Corp was founded in 1990 at Vanderbilt University to combat recent problems with sport doping. Since then Aegis has grown into a company of more than 500 employees nationwide and we service such markets as sports anti-doping, workplace drug testing, pain management and medical examiner post-mortem toxicology. Aegis also provides consulting services and is involved in state-of-the-art research and development.

Dr. George Chumanov, Clemson University: Optical Properties and Applications of Plasmonic Structures

The excitation of plasmon resonances in silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) represent the most efficient mechanism by which light interacts with matter. The talk will focus on synthesis of chemically clean Ag NPs, their light absorption and scattering properties, and plasmon coupling in two-dimensional arrays. A novel mechanism for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) will be discussed and several examples related to bioanalytical applications of this phenomenon will be presented.

Dr. Oleg Ozerov, Texas A & M University: Reaction discovery with pincer complexes of group 9 metals

The name “pincer” has become reserved for tridentate chelating ligands that bind to a metal center in a meridional (T-shaped) fashion. They are typically denoted by the three donor atoms attached to the metal. Our group has devoted considerable attention to the chemistry of the T-shaped three-coordinate pincer-ligated fragments of group 9 metals (Co, Rh, or Ir). These are highly unsaturated species that cannot be isolated in their free form, but can be generated in solution. They display remarkable propensity for insertion into various X-Y bonds in oxidative addition reactions. The presentation will describe the various oxidative addition reactions of aryl halides and pseudohalides, and show how the study of these reactions can lead to discovery of new catalytic transformations. The emphasis will be on how molecular design, elementary reaction discovery, and development of effective new catalysts are intricately but not always obviously related.