Visit the C&I Facebook page to join the debate


Year in review


NA has become even more interesting after researchers have discovered how much more of it is useful than was first thought. The Human Genome Project produced an almost complete order of the 3bn pairs of chemical letters in life’s genetic blueprint. However early researchers suggested that all but a tiny percentage of this material was redundant junk. In September 2012, studies by the worldwide Encode (Encyclopaedia of DNA elements) consortium – involving more than 440 researchers in 32 labs around the globe – overturned that idea for good by linking more than 80% of the human genome


Google map for genome D


sequence to a specific biological function and mapping more than 4m regulatory regions where proteins specifically interact with DNA. ‘The Encode catalogue is like Google Maps for the human genome,’ said Elise Feingold, one of the Encode project founders. ‘The Encode maps allow researchers to inspect the chromosomes, genes, functional elements and individual nucleotides in the human genome in much the same way.’ The findings are published in 30 papers in Nature, Genome Research and Genome Biology (wwww. nature.com/encode).


nfections caused by medical devices are estimated to cost the UK’s NHS around £1bn/year. But in August 2012, scientists at the UK’s University of Nottingham reported a new class of polymers – weakly amphiphilic acrylates – that are resistant to the attachment of the bacteria responsible for many of these hospital-acquired infections and device failures. The group hit upon the polymers after screening hundreds of materials simultaneously using high


Polymers that resist bacteria I


throughput technology developed by researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US. In laboratory experiments, the polymers were able to reduce the number of bacteria attached to their surfaces by up to 96.7% compared with a commercially available silver-containing catheter – and succeeded in resisting microbial attachment in a mouse implant model (Nature Biotechnol., 2012, doi: 10.1038/nbt.2316).


he world’s first commercial-scale biobutanol plant came onstream in May 2012, in Luverne, Minnesota, US. The firm was highlighted as the front-runner of a ‘wave of companies’ that have either begun or are about to start manufacturing a variety of novel chemical products – distinct from bioethanol and biodiesel – derived from plants (C&EN, 2012, 90, 38, 10). Titled Biobased summer, the feature also lists LS9, Reverdia, Rivertop


Biobutanol takes first steps T


Renewables, Solazyme and ZeaChem as among the firms with production facilities scheduled to start-up biobased chemicals operations this year. Biobutanol is regarded as a superior motor fuel compared with ethanol as it has a considerably higher energy density – more than 80% that of gasoline. Unlike ethanol, which is more miscible with water, it is more compatible with existing fuel infrastructure and could be blended with petrol to higher concentrations,


potentially up to 15-16% by volume. Biobutanol was made at Luverne by retrofitting Gevo Integrated Fermentation technology (GIFT), including its proprietary yeast, to the firm’s ethanol plant. Like all fledgling technologies,


however, things can sometimes go wrong. Seventeen weeks into production, at the end of September Gevo announced that it had halted biobutanol manufacture to sort out fermentation issues. It expects to restart production in 2013.


cientists have discovered a chemical that offers a temporary fix for blindness, they reported in July 2012. The chemical, AAQ (acylamide- azobenzene-quaternary ammonium), is a photoswitch that binds to protein ion channels on the surface of retinal cells. When switched on by light, AAQ alters the flow of ions through the channels and activates neurons similarly to the light sensitive cells – rods and cones – in the retina.


After injecting tiny amounts of AAQ into the eyes of blind mice, UC


Temporary fix for blindness S


Berkeley professor of molecular and cell biology Richard Kramer and colleagues observed that the mice’s pupils contracted in bright light, and they showed light avoidance, which would have been impossible before the treatment (Neuron, 2012, 75(2), 271). The group is hopeful that the


approach could one day be extended to restore vision in people with retinitis pigmentosa, the most common inherited form of blindness, and age- related macular degeneration, the most


common cause of acquired blindness in the developed world. In both cases, the rods and cones in the retina die, leaving the individual without functional photoreceptors. The team is now working on new versions of AAQ that restore vision for days rather than hours in the original paper. A chemical could offer a safer alternative to gene or stem cell therapies, which permanently alter the retina, and is less invasive than implanting light-sensitive electronic chips in the eye.


Chemistry&Industry • November 2012 35


Monty Rakusen/Science Photo Library


Klaus Guldbrandsen/Science Photo Library


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64