Bringing you the latest research & events news from the science Industry RESEARCHNEWS & events Plasma Spectrochemistry Awards Presented
The winners of the 2011 European Award for Plasma Spectrochemistry are Dr Alfredo Sanz Medel, Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the University of Oviedo (Spain) and Dr Frank Vanhaecke, Professor of Analytical Chemistry at Ghent University (Belgium). The award, which was sponsored by Agilent, was presented after the opening of the 2011 Winter Conference in the World Trade Centre, Zaragosa, Spain on January 30.
The prize promotes analytical plasma spectrochemical developments and applications in Europe and is awarded for a single outstanding piece of work or for continued important contributions in the field. It was presented by the conference chairman, Professor Dr Juan R. Castillo.
"The Plasma Award is an important opportunity for researchers working in European labs to promote their work by delivering the opening lecture at the conference," said Professor Castillo. "The winner will also receive a cash prize of EUR 5000, coverage of the
Dr Alefredo Sanz-Medel (centre) and Dr Frank Vanhaecke (right) receive the European Award for Plasma Spectrochemistry
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Ocean Optics Names Winner of 2011 Young Investigator Award
Ocean Optics, a leading company in miniature photonics, has named David Wegner as the winner of the SPIE 2011 Young Investigator Award sponsored by the company.
This is presented to the researcher who is no more than five years out of school and is author of the best juried paper submitted as part of the ‘Colloidal Quantum Dots for Biomedical Applications VI’ session of the 2011 BiOS/Photonics West conference. The award was presented during the session on January, 24. The award includes a $1,000 investigator reward and a company grant to the investigator’s advisor.
Wegner, part of a research team at the University of Potsdam (Germany) that included Daniel Geissler and Hans-Gerd Löhmannsröben, was honoured for his work as lead author of “Time-resolved and steady-state FRET spectroscopy on commercial biocompatible quantum dots.” Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) is a mechanism describing energy transfer between chromophores. Wegner’s advisor is Professor Niko Hildebrandt of Fraunhofer-Institut für Angewandte Polymerforschung.
“We are always encouraged and inspired by the commitment of young researchers,” said Rob Morris, Director of Marketing at
Ocean Optics. “Twenty years ago, our company prospered because someone believed and invested in a team of young researchers with a vision. The energy and enthusiasm that this year’s SPIE participants demonstrated is a great reminder that young investigators represent the promise of both scientific discovery and industry growth.”
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usual costs for participating at the European Winter Conference, and a trip to Japan to attend a scientific event or seminar.”
by Heather Hobbs Two in One
Scientists from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Hamburg, Germany, have revealed new insights into the workings of enzymes from a group of bacteria including Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. The new findings present possible new opportunities for developing organism-specific drugs, which target the pathogen but leave other microorganisms, which are beneficial to us, untouched. Tuberculosis remains one of the largest threats to human health worldwide, and one of the most frequent causes of death in HIV patients. With the increasing emergence of strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis that are hyper-resistant to drugs, it becomes ever more urgent that novel treatments be developed, and the search for novel strategies for drug development is an important step in this process.
In the current study, Matthias Wilmanns* and his group at EMBL identified a multi-tasking enzyme from Mycobacterium tuberculosis that catalyses reactions on two different molecules, or substrates. In most organisms, cells need two specific enzymes, known as HisA and TrpF, in order to produce two essential amino acids – histidine and tryptophan. However, in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the encoding gene for TrpF is missing, and the two reactions are instead catalysed by a single enzyme, which is able to recognize and bind to two different substrates. Using this enzyme, known as PRiA as a model, the researchers were able to unravel the hitherto unknown mechanism of bi-substrate specific binding observed in this group of bacteria.
“When we solved the three-dimensional structure of PriA, we found that it has the unique ability to form two different substrate-specific active sites,” Wilmanns said: “it can form a reaction-specific active site, or undergo what we call ‘substrate- induced metamorphosis’ to form a different active site.”
To further verify these observations, Wilmanns and colleagues screened 20,000 small molecule compounds, and identified a handful which inhibited both PriA-catalysed reactions but had no effect on TrpF activity. “We believe that this ability for bi-substrate catalysis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis could be a new opportunity for future drug development,” Wilmanns concluded: “This organism-specific reaction process could be exploited, since only the pathogen but none of the other bacteria living in or on humans, many of which are important for our well being, would be targeted.”
*Paper published in PNAS
From Left: Kenji Yamamoto (Conference Chair), Niko Hildebrandt (Author), David Wegner (Author), Wolfgang Parak (Conference Chair), Marek Osinski (Conference Chair), and Richard Pollard (Ocean Optics COO)
TO FIND OUT MORE CIRCLE NO. 4 DFG Honours Alternatives to Animal Testing
The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) has honoured scientists who are improving animal welfare in research, awarding the 2011 Ursula M. Händel Animal Welfare Prize to Dr Arne Hansen, Alexander Eder, Sebastian Schaaf and Professor Thomas Eschenhagen from the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, and to Dr Maria Moreno- Villanueva and Professor Alexander Bürkle from the University of Konstanz. The prize, awarded by DFG President Matthias Kleiner, is endowed with 50,000 Euros to be shared between the two winning teams. It was presented on January 24 in Berlin, at a DFG event that brought together scientists, politicians and the general public for a dialogue on animal testing.
The research team around Thomas Eschenhagen at the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf investigates the effects of pharmacological substances on the human heart and used human embryonic stem cells as a replacement for animals to test the cardiac effects and to screen agents used. This method, already in the
advanced stages of development, also makes it possible to conduct and analyse tests in a largely automated fashion.
The prize winners from Konstanz, Maria Moreno-Villanueva and Alexander Bürkle, examine genotoxicity, which is the altering effect of chemical substances on the genetic material of cells. This previously would require large quantities of serum obtained from bovine foetuses; in contrast, the prizewinning method injects a dye into cells that fluoresces in varying ways depending on the effect of the substance being tested. This patent-pending method is likewise highly automated and allows a large number of substances to be tested within a short time.
The award presentation was accompanied by a panel discussion on animal testing in basic research, with a special focus on the opportunities and limitations of alternative methods. The current occasion was the introduction of new EU guidelines on the protection of laboratory animals, which must now be converted to national law.
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Nanoscale Bioceramics - Workshop
The Institute of Nanotechnology and CERAM, a leading materials testing, analysis and consultancy organisation, have teamed up to present a two-day Workshop on the application of bioactive glass and ceramics at the nanoscale to healthcare and high-tech industries The use of novel nanoceramics is rapidly growing in a variety of healthcare and medical applications such as orthopaedics, regenerative medicine, dentistry, biosensing, controlled drug release, high performance coatings and functionalised biomaterials, due to their excellent properties and biocompatibility. High performance, functional and sensor ceramics are also finding use in the electronics and associated industries. The Workshop, which will run over two days on 12th and 13th October 2011, will feature presentations from leading international experts in the field and will take place at CERAM's headquarters in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, which is easily reached by road or public transport. On the first day an optional tour of CERAM’s extensive analytical facilities, including the Surface Science and Medical Materials laboratories, will be available. For further details and to register please visit
http://www.nano.org.uk/events/ion-events or contact Carrie Smith,
carrie.smith@
nano.org.uk.
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