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Rational Design of a Cytotoxic Dinuclear Cu2 Complex that Binds by Molecular Recognition at Two Neighboring Phosphates of the DNA Backbone

Jany, T., Moreth, A., Gruschka, C., Sischka, A., Spiering, A., Dieding, M., …, & Glaser, T. (2015). Rational design of a cytotoxic dinuclear Cu2 complex that binds by molecular recognition at two neighboring phosphates of the DNA backbone. Inorganic Chemistry, 54 (6), 2679-2690. doi: 10.1021/ic5028465

 This article describes a hot area of research today – anticancer drugs. This particular research aims to improve the effectiveness of the cancer treatment drug Cisplatin. Cisplatin works by binding to DNA and causing a kink in the strand. This kink causes interference when DNA is being transcripted. Obviously the goal of this is to interfere with the damaged DNA transcription in order to stop the cancer growth in its tracks. One of the main drawbacks to the drug is that people begin to develop a tolerance for Cisplatin, making it much less successful. The aim of this research was to develop a design for a drug that would attack two neighboring phosphates on a strand of DNA. The ideal pathway for this involves the use of Cu2 and steric hindrance to interfere with the transcription of DNA.

 This research really hits home for me because I believe that my aunt and a close friend of mine are on Cisplatin as part of their cancer treatment. I want them to have the best chances at survival as possible so any research with the aim of improving the effectiveness of cancer treatment drugs is very important to me. And again, this research is extremely important because we don’t have the best methods for fighting cancer. So to me, this article is extremely relevant and I hope it will lead to more advances in the fight against cancer.

 The research done in this article is extremely credible. They make an effort to show how they made their materials and attempted to show that their starting materials were as pure as possible. The researchers also did a good job of describing the theory behind what they wanted to do and the challenges they faced in doing it. Their description of their testing and results is complete and informative.

 The implications of this research are enormous. This research will be beneficial to thousands of people as more and more people are diagnosed with cancer each day. To have alternative anti-cancer drugs available will be helpful especially since Cisplatin loses its effectiveness with use. This will hopefully help to provide alternative treatments that will not be as harmful to people as chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

 This article does a very good job of incorporating the previous research as well as current information on the subject. I can hopefully apply that to future projects in this class as it helped me to understand the point of the research.

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How Scientists Engage the Public

Rainie, L., Funk, C., Anderson, M., Duggan, M., Smith, A., Olmstead, K., Page, D. (2015). How scientists engage the public. Pew Research Center.

This research article presented results of a survey administered to members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The results of the survey are presented in graphic form as well as a brief description of the implications of the results. At the end of the article there is a sampling of the questions asked of the scientists. The research found that older scientists were more likely to speak with reporters about their research while younger scientists were more likely to use social media to explain their findings. The researchers also compared how likely the scientists were to engage the public, organized by area of study, and found that the social scientists were the most likely to engage the public.

I found most of this research interesting, if not a little obvious. I think that it is a given that younger scientists, having grown up around social media, would be more apt to use it as a means to present their research. I also think it was obvious that the social scientists would be more likely to speak to citizens about their work, simply because that is almost an inherent part of their area of study. What I really found interesting was that, of all the areas of study, Chemists were the least likely to speak with people about their field. I find this relevant because I understand how hard it is to communicate to people things in the simplest terms possible and still have people asking questions about the most basic general chemistry. I was surprised to see that Physics wasn't lower on the list, but I believe that has to do with how many people are interested in the large discoveries that happen in physics, and because of that, the physicists are more likely to take the time to break things down as they explain them. 

I think this research is important because it pinpoints where the problem areas are in regards to communicating research and discoveries to the public. I think that after analyzing this research, more scientists will hopefully be interested in conversing with the public about their research and helping to educate the masses. I also think this will help convince scientists that there is a disconnect between the public and the experts.

I don't think there is much to apply to the course from this article, but, the entire article is a justification of why we're required to take this course and why we do so many different types of projects, such as this blog post. We are learning to explore different mediums to share information and that is going to help us in the future.

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Production of Jet Fuel Range Hydrocarbons as a Coproduct of Algal Biodiesel

O’Neil, G. W., Culler, A. R., Williams, J. R., Burlow, N. P., Gilbert, G. J., Carmichael, C. A., …, Reddy, C. M. (2015). Production of jet fuel range hydrocarbons as a coproduct of algal biodiesel by butenolysis of long-chain alkenones. Energy and Fuels. doi: 10.1021/ef502617z

     Researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have developed a way to produce jet fuel range hydrocarbons from the biproducts of algal biodiesel. The researchers used Isochrysis galbana after a previous major study showed it useful in both biomass yield and lipid production. In order to obtain the Free Fatty Acids needed for the biodiesel as well as the lipids needed for the jet fuel, they began with an extraction of algal oil via hexanes from the dried biomass. The FFA's underwent esterification to produce biodiesel and the lipids were dissolved in dichloromethane and ran through silica gel to purify them. Further workup by butenolysis produced the long chain alkenones. The researchers analyzed the products with proton NMR as well as GC-MS. Though the researchers determined they had a relatively high yield, the methods are not currently cost effective.

     Personally, I feel that this research is extremely important in today's world. We need to find more sources for energy before we exhaust the ones we have now. This research is important to me because I am looking into doing research on biofuels and renewable energy and I think that this research is relevant to my future. I am looking forward to seeing if a more cost effective method for production of biofuel from this method can be devised.

     I believe the researchers methods were executed and documented well. They performed a series of extractions that are a scaled-up version of those that we perform in my organic chem class, and their characterization methods are also standard and accepted. The paper contains nearly 80 cited sources, and they appear to be credible. I believe that this research was well done because the results are consistent with what was expected based on the methods.

     This research is so important and relevant to people today because green energy has been in the spotlight as climate change progressively gets worse and gas prices increase. If these methods can be adapted to more cost effective measures, then we'd have a great source of both biodiesel and jet fuel from more environmentally friendly methods. It would be an amazing feat, and I have hope that it is feasible!

     This article really taught me to read a scientific journal from my own field. I was pleased at how well I was able to understand the methods, however, the discussion still had sections that went over my head. I can apply what I learned from reading this in class by being able to successfully read scientific journals.