editorial
13th International Conference on Electroanalysis
I
n June I attended a high quality analytical chemistry meeting in SpainOthe 13th Conference of the European Society for Electroanalytical Chemistry (ESEAC). The meeting was in a coastal town, Gijo´n, located on Spain’s northwest shoulder that offered a pleasant, temperate climate and savory cuisine. The first of the ESEAC meetings had also been held in Gijo´n 20 years earlier. The 2010 meeting organizers were great hosts to the ⬃250 attendeesOmostly EuropeanOand the scientific program was first rate. The plenary sessions started with brief tributes to departed notable electrochemist-scholars. I delivered the tribute for Robert Osteryoung. It was a good time to remember Bob, one of the first Associate Editors of this journal (over 17 years), and to trace his full life and important science. I thought having the tributes was a classy way to connect the younger attendees to their past. I offer some snapshot mentions of several nice presentations that I heard; see the website table of contents at http://www.eseac2010.com/scientific.php for a few more details. H. C. Abrun ˜ a showed a design of a graphenewalled thin layer cell with a novel way to vary cell thickness. F. M. Matysik discussed electrospray detection of products of thin cell electrolysis. A. Ewing discussed evidence for the incompleteness of neurotransmitter releases from vesicles in single cell exocytosis. J.-M. Kaufmann discussed details of the enzyme-mediated voltammetry of a paracetamol metabolite. C. K. O’Sullivan gave a very informative overview of aptamer chemistry. U. Wollenberger presented a sophisticated design of electrode-direct electron transfers of the redox centers of sulfite oxidase. A. Karyakin described a sensitive lactate sensor based on lactate oxidase. J. Pingarro´n presented a very nice overview of electroanalytical measurements of different kinds of bacteria. E. A. H. Hall described the electron transfer kinetic consequences of
10.1021/AC101794A 2010 AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
Published on Web 07/15/2010
enzymatic removal of part of the glycosylation shell around glucose oxidase. These and a number of other lectures made the trip very worthwhile! Finally, at an application-oriented satellite meeting, several speakers offered opinions on new aspects of electroanalytical science that may offer prospects for analytical commercialization. I spoke about “nanopores” and how single molecular species passing through the nanopore can be detected by the partial interruption of bias-induced ionic currents. This principle has long been used in biological cellcounting (“Coulter Counters”), but the recent accessibility of more molecule-sized nanopores has produced interesting new lines of electroanalytical research, including those with goals of DNA sequencing. My remarks were aimed at what I view as an even broader electroanalytical prospect, which would be to use nanopores decorated with affinity reagents or other receptors to detect and measure a variety of affinity targets by inducing changes in the patterns of their interruptions of nanopore ion currents. R. E. Gyurcsa´nyi has written an informative review of the beginnings of this topic (Trends Anal. Chem. 2008, 27, 627⫺639). It would seem that the key challenges in this topic are identifying useful and immobilizable affinity reagents and designing multi-nanopore systems that alert to the occurrence of an affinity-induced pattern of ion current changes. I end by quoting a fellow named Mark Twain: “A man who goes around with a prophecy-gun ought never to get discouraged. If he will keep his heart and fire at everything he sees he is bound to hit something by and by.”
AUGUST 1, 2010 / ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
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