The Alchemist Newsletter: November 23, 2010

Complex compound for breast cancer

A complex drug originally derived from a marine sponge has been approved by the US Food & Drug Administration for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer. Halaven (eribulin mesylate) will be used for patients who have received two doses of chemotherapy and are in the late stages of the disease. Halaven is a synthetic form of a chemotherapeutically active compound derived from the sea sponge Halichondria okadai and when injected acts as a microtubule inhibitor to retard cancer cell replication.

FDA approves new treatment option for late-stage breast cancer

back to top

Plants' enzymic deterrent

Insect attack against a plant often triggers the release of noxious volatile organic compounds that deter the pest. Now, US researchers have demonstrated that the enzyme involved in releasing two distinct volatiles, the homoterpenes -- DMNT (4,8-dimethylnona-1,3,7-triene) and TMTT (4,8,12-trimethyltrideca-1,3,7,11-tetraene) is the same P450 enzyme used in oxidizing processes in plants, animals and bacteria. "We are excited to finally have elucidated the biosynthesis of these common plant volatiles," explains Dorothea Tholl of Virginia Tech who worked with colleagues in Germany. "The P450 protein was a long-missing enzymatic link in the formation of homoterpenes." Such insights offer the possibility of modulating a crop plant's defenses through genetic engineering and so reducing the need for pesticide sprays.

Biochemistry of how plants resist insect attack determined

back to top

Bulky boron butterfly

Researchers have used X-ray crystallography to show how a butterfly-shaped boron compound has an intense electron distribution in its B2H2 core that is stabilized by exterior bulky ligands. The structure might one day lead chemists to the elusive boron-boron triple bond. Kohei Tamao and colleagues from the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute in Wako and Kyoto University, Japan, have isolated the first stable diborane molecule with butterfly-shaped B-H-B bonds and a boron-boron link with characteristics reminiscent of a triple bond. The work offers new insights into the workings of 3-center, 2-electron boron interactions.

Bulky molecules trap boron compounds into a never-before-seen structural arrangement

back to top

Plastic fantastic

The Society of Plastics Engineers has honored polymer expert Marino Xanthos of the New Jersey Institute of Technology for his outstanding achievements in polymerization reactions and polymer devolatilization technologies as well as for his unique vision and innovation. Xanthos received SPE's 2010 Heinz List Award at its annual meeting in Orlando, Florida for work in a career spanning four decades that has yielded five US patents and more than 250 journal articles and conference publications.

Industry honors plastics recycling and reactive polymer processing expert at NJIT

back to top