NEWS Keck Foundation Awards $500,000 to UCI Chemist
For Your Information Lee Scientific, Inc. has granted an official sublicense on capillary supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) technology to Process Analytics of Stamford, Conn. Lee Scientific has an exclusive license from Brigham Young University to produce the analytical instruments based on the patented technology. The sublicense is restricted; it applies only to capillary SFC instruments used for on-line applications.
The University of California, Irvine (UCI) has been awarded a $500,000 grant from the W. M. Keck Foundation to support the research of Peter Rentzepis, a professor of chemistry. Rentzepis is developing an experimental device that will allow direct observation of fleeting chemical reactions and short-lived molecular structures. Called a picosecond X-ray spectrometer, the device will employ trillionth-of-a-second pulses of X-ray radiation to allow the study of molecules in action. The system will allow mapping of the structure, spatial relationships, and motion of atoms while they are interacting. During previous work at Bell Laboratories, Rentzepis developed picosecond laser spectroscopy, which produces pulses of light that last only a trillionth of a second. The development program for the picosecond X-ray spectrometer will use picosecond laser technology to convert light energy into X-ray pulses by means of a special diode. By splitting off a portion of the picosecond laser light, which is tightly synchronized with the X-ray pulses of the spectrometer, the apparatus could bombard a sample with two forms of radiation. The closely timed pulses could allow the initiation of a reaction and then observation of its progress. Rentzepis joined UCI in August 1985, when he was appointed to the UC Presidential Chair in Chemistry. He currently holds 35 patents and has published more than 250 scientific papers.
The National Bureau of Standards has recently published its Standard Reference Materials Catalog for 198889. The catalog lists nearly 1000 available SRMs. These materials are certified by the bureau for specific chemical and physical properties. Copies of the new catalog are available from the Office of Standard Reference Materials, B311 Chemistry Bldg., National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, Md. 20899 (301-975-6776). Quality Assurance Handbook—Center for Analytical Chemistry is a new report that includes several internal task force reports describing the quality assurance program of the National Bureau of Standards's Center for Analytical Chemistry (CAC). The report documents the various aspects of these quality assurance practices, which may have applications in other analytical labs. Sections on lab safety, measurement traceability, and maintenance of laboratory records, as well as guidelines for characterizing the chemical measurement process and reporting analytical results, are included. To obtain copies of the report, contact CAC, A309 Chemistry Bldg., National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, Md. 20899 (301-975-2762).
Caltech Chemist Peter Dervan Named First Bren Professor Peter Dervan has been appointed the first Bren Professor at the California Institute of Technology. The professorship was established with a gift of $1.5 million from the Bren Foundation of Los Angeles. A member of the Caltech faculty since 1973, Dervan has pioneered the development of chemical techniques that may make it possible to map the 4 billion chemical units that make up DNA. Dervan and his research group have played a leading role in formulating chemical methods that can analyze precisely where and how antitumor, antiviral, and antibiotic drugs and proteins bind to DNA. It is expected that this research will provide new insights into how these drugs function in fighting tumors, viruses, and bacteria, and it may be applied to the development of more effective treatments for cancers and viral diseases. The group is investigating the chemical principles that will make it possible to design new synthetic binding molecules with significantly improved specificity for unique locations on DNA. Their research has enabled them to contribute some of the first designed compounds capable of binding to as many as 15 DNA base pairs. Dervan received his B.S. degree in 1967 from Boston College and his Ph.D. in 1972 from Yale. He joined Caltech as an assistant professor of chemistry in 1973, after spending a year at Stanford as a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellow. He became an associate professor in 1979 and was named professor of chemistry in 1982.
Analect Instruments has announced the out-of-court settlement of its patent infringement suit against Mattson Instruments. In a consent judgment, Mattson acknowledged that it had infringed Analect's patent by manufacturing and selling its Cryolect GC/FT-IR systems. The companies have entered into a settlement agreement covering past infringement and a license agreement covering future use of the technology. Mattson will pay a royalty of $2000 per system for instruments sold prior to Dec. 1, 1987, and for the next 20 instruments after that date. Thereafter, the royalty will be $1000 per system. The National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards has published Methodological Principles for Selected Analytes; Enzymes; Proposed Guidelines. The document (NCCLS C5-P2) proposes the preferred analytical approach for determining clinically significant enzymes, including prostatic acid phosphatase, alkaline phosphatase, cholinesterase, lactate dehydrogenase, and lipase. For details, contact John Zlockie, NCCLS, 771 E. Lancaster Ave., Villanova, Pa. 19085 (215-525-2435). The National Science Foundation has issued a new brochure on the Alan T. Waterman Award, which recognizes outstanding young researchers in science, mathematics, or engineering. The brochure provides information about the award and each of the award recipients from 1976 to the present. Copies of the brochure can be obtained by contacting Lois Hamaty (202-357-7512).
ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. 60, NO. 6, MARCH 15, 1988 · 379 A
