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Chemistry Meets Boston
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n late April, 13,000 chemists converged on Boston's Back Bay for the 199th ACS National Meeting and Exposition. It was a particularly exciting meeting for chemists interested in bioanalytical techniques because they could often choose between several technical presentations on analysis of proteins. The meeting got off to a great start on Sunday with the Presidential Plenary Session, which featured ACS President Paul Gassman, Bassam Shakhashiri of the National Science Foundation, and Betty Vetter of the Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology discussing the supply of scientists for the twenty-first century. All three speakers emphasized the need for early education of science students and called on ACS members to become more involved in efforts to overcome the general public's scientific illiteracy. This theme was continued in the Priestley Medal address by Roald Hoffmann, John A. Newman Professor of Physical Science at Cornell University. Hoffmann spoke at the ACS awards dinner honoring the 1990 award recipients. He urged all ACS members to become more involved, as members of a democratic society, in the social issues of our time—particularly environmental concerns. A well-educated public, said Hoffmann, is less likely to engage in "chemophobic" reactions to events such as the controversy over the use of Alar on apples. "How," asked Hoffmann, "can we educate people to our complex, welldeveloped science? How can we make
them aware of their own molecular nature? We cannot bring people to a better image of science unless we take a role individually. In small ways. Go into your children's classrooms; bring them a molecular model and an experiment. Encourage your newspaper to have a science page. If you are an academic, do the unthinkable and tell one of your better students to consider a high school teaching career. Impose on yourself the obligation to write a popular account of your work. Take a look at the chemistry books on the shelves of your local library. You will be shocked. Channel your envy of people who write science by trying to do so yourself. Sublimate your anger at unreasonable environmental activists into an opportunity to teach chemistry." Following Hoffmann's address, ACS awards were presented to analytical chemists Evan and Marjorie Horning (Baylor College of Medicine), John Knox (University of Edinburgh), Peter Jurs (The Pennsylvania State University), Henry Freiser (University of Arizona), and Barry Karger (Northeastern University). The Homings, winners of the Frank H. Field and Joe L. Franklin Award for Outstanding Achievement in Mass Spectrometry, spoke about the development and use of hyphenated mass spectrometric methods, from GC/MS to LC/GC/MS/MS. Although combining a highly effective separation method with MS to yield a new kind of analytical instrument is not difficult conceptually, many problems must be solved in developing an instrument for practical use. Some problems remain,
but the Homings predict that MS will continue to be the fundamental method for application of gas-phase analytical chemistry to biomedical problems. John Knox, winner of the ACS Award in Chromatography, spoke of the application of the theoretical plate concept in chromatography from its initiation in 1941 to the present. Its early application in GC led to more efficient columns, as demonstrated in 1958 by the Golay equation for open columns. In the early 1960s, Giddings' development of the dimensionless approach led to much better understanding of the dispersion processes occurring in LC and to the eventual use of microparticles. In recent years, the concept of theoretical plates has been applied to thermodynamic dispersion in preparative LC, and its most elegant applications have been in capillary electrophoresis and related techniques. Knox predicts that future important developments in flow separation methods will be enhanced by understanding the dynamics of flow processes, their influence on band spreading, and ways to control and minimize them. On a slightly different note, Peter Jurs, winner of the ACS Award in Computers in Chemistry, spoke about computer-assisted studies of structureproperty and structure-activity relationships. Relationships between molecular structure and physicochemical properties or biological activities can be investigated for large sets of organic compounds using computer-assisted methods, said Jurs. Such studies involve the graphic entry and storage of chemical structures, three-dimensional
ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. 62, NO. 13, JULY 1, 1990 • 739 A
FOCUS molecular modeling, molecular structure descriptor generation, and analysis of the descriptors using multivariate statistical and pattern recognition methods to build predictive equations. Four types of descriptors (topological, geometric, electronic, and physicochemical) are used to describe the molecular structure of the molecule. Jurs has applied such techniques to studies of chromatographic retention, simulation of carbon-13 NMR chemical shifts, and prediction of genotoxic biological activity. Henry Freiser, winner of the ACS Award in Separation Science and Technology, reviewed his 40 years of research in the fundamentals of metal chelate chemistry and solvent extraction equilibrium and kinetics. Freiser's research has centered around the role of molecular structural factors affecting chemical and physical properties. Using systematic studies of solvent extraction processes, he has developed techniques to examine intimate details of the mechanism of such processes; novel, highly selective and sensitive metal extractants; and highly selective and sensitive electrochemical sensors. His research group is investigating liq-
uid-liquid interfaces in several ways, including the use of an automated solvent extraction system incorporating a microporous Teflon phase separator, electrochemical studies of ion transfer processes across a liquid-liquid interface, IR spectroscopic examination of liquid-liquid interfaces, and stoppedflow kinetic studies of the distribution of metals in micellar and microemulsion systems. Barry Karger, winner of the ACS Award in Analytical Chemistry, spoke on current trends in the separation of biopolymers. The demands for biopolymer analysis are increasing with advances in biotechnology and molecular biology, said Karger, and advances in speed and resolving power are permitting analysis of ever more subtle differences in molecules. The emergence of high-performance capillary electrophoresis, including the use of gel-filled capillaries for high-resolution separation of oligonucleotides, peptides, and proteins, has made possible the rapid purification of biomolecules at the micropreparative level. Much growth is expected in the analytical chemistry of oligonucleotides (DNA and RNA), and separation science
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should prove increasingly important in sequencing and mapping procedures. The importance of separation techniques in protein chemistry was reflected in the number of ACS divisions offering technical sessions on bioseparation. For example, in addition to presentations in the Division of Analytical Chemistry on DNA sequencing, separation of recombinant DNA-derived proteins, analysis of DNA adducts using MS, structure analysis of bioactive substances using MS methods, and purification of biopolymers by various chromatographic methods, symposia were offered on industrial bioseparations, chromatographic separation, and solid-phase extraction (Division of Biochemical Technology); protein structure and folding (Division of Biological Chemistry); and cell separations, chromatography and separation science in biological separations, and membrane separations in biotechnology and biology (Division of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry). The next ACS meeting will be held in Washington, DC, in August, and as in Boston, bioseparations are sure to be a major topic of discussion. Mary Warner
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