ence materials, and environmental specimen banking. Wise will serve as the ex officio representative of the Division for 1997. A-page Advisory Panel
Three new members have been appointed to serve three-year terms on Analytical Chemistry's A-page Advisory Panel. The panel meets annually at the Pittsburgh Conference to provide feedback on the A-page editorial content and propose appropriate topics and authors for feature articles. Purnendu K. Dasgupta, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Texas Tech University, received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the University of Burdwan (India) and his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University. His research interests include atmospheric chemistry, chemical sensors, ionic analysis, process analysis in the chemical industry, and system automation. Joseph Loo, senior research associate at Parke-Davis Pharmaceuticals, received his B.S. degree from Clarkson University and his Ph.D. from Cornell University. His research interests include using MS to structurally characterize biomolecules, investigate drug-binding events, and study noncovalent biocomplexes. Jeanette M. Van Emon, director of the immunochemistry program at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's National Exposure Research Laboratory, received her B.S. degree from California State UniversityHayward and her Ph.D. from the University of California-Davis. Her research interests include developing tandem immunochemical and instrumental methods for human exposure assessment studies, endocrine disrupters, fate and transport of pesticides, and toxicity of naturally occurring pesticides.
NEW FROM EAS As reported by Mary Warner
A micromechanical living cell biosensor Atomic force microscopy can be used for all sorts of imaging applications, but researchers from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have used AFM technology to develop a prototype biosensor that uses living cells to sense and amplify a signal and a micromechanical transducer to report the cell response. Jan H. Hoh explained that different cell types are extraordinarily sensitive to a wide range of hormones, growth factors, and drugs and have the advantage of being inherently sensitive to physiologically relevant concentrations of these substances. The prototype biosensor uses living cells attached directly to a cantilever of the type used in atomic force microscopes to form an integrated cell/cantilever, which is kept in a fluid chamber under a continuous flow of culture media. Movements of the cell/cantilever are monitored using an optical detection scheme in which a laser is reflected off the cantilever onto a photodiode position sensor. Drugs or toxins introduced into the media perturb the physiology of the cells and in some cases cause the cell/cantilever to bend. Although the researchers postulate that this response is probably caused by chemical responses in the cells, they are investigating other mechanisms.
Using chromatography in animal communication research The use of chemicals for biological communication is universal in creatures from bees to dogs to humans. In a symposium honoring Fred Regnier of Purdue University, recipient of the 1996 EAS award for achievement in separation science, Milos Novotny of Indiana University diverged from his usual topics to describe the role of chromatography in mammalian communication research. Although most biological aspects of communications in the house mouse (Mus domesticus) were established by the mid-1960s, said Novotny, the analytical methods for isolating and structurally characterizing the respective pheromones
weren't available until the mid-1970s. Using capillary GC with MS and FT-IR detection, analytical chemists have been able to identify and verify most primer pheromones (specific messengers whose biosynthesis is an inherited trait within a particular species) through their chemical synthesis and biological activities. Signaling pheromones associated with aggression and dominance have also been structurally elucidated. In recent years, said Novotny, researchers have found that genes in mammalian systems code for specific membrane-bound olfactory receptor proteins, and they are focusing on the role of specific proteins involved in controlled release of pheromones and the transport of these chemosignals to their receptors in the olfactory tissue and vomeronasal organ. CE/MS and LC/MS are important tools in this area of research.
Profiling combinatorial synthesis products Combinatorial synthesis has become an important new way for pharmaceutical companies to identify new lead drug candidates. Mark E. Hail of Bristol-Myers Squibb described how he and his colleagues are using LC/MS to generate high-throughput molecular weight information in support of combinatorial drug discovery efforts. At Bristol-Myers Squibb, automated and/or combinatorial synthesis methods are projected to increase the number of final compounds synthesized (not including intermediates) from —10,000 per year to more than 100,000 per year by 1997, said Hail, necessitating the development of high-throughput LC/MS methods. One method, which provides molecular weight information on the five most intense UV peaks, is used to troubleshoot automated synthesis reaction schemes. LC/MS methods are also being used to provide combinatorial stability profiles for the rapid screening of drug candidates.
Technical Paper Prize Recipients Best Poster Paper in Atomic Spectroscopy— Sponsored by GBC Scientific Equipment "The Analysis of Archaeological Ceramics via ICPMS", D. M. Ciurczak and W. B. Walters, University of Maryland;
Analytical Chemistry News & Features, January 1, 1997 19 A
