ISOTOPICS
The Cleveland Section of the American Chemical Society
Volume 89
Issue 2
Feb 2013
February Meeting Notice
On Deck:
March 13, 2013
Meeting-in-Miniature
Location:
John Carroll University
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Creekside Restaurant, Brecksville
4:30 pm
5:30 pm
6:30 pm
7:30 pm
Executive Committee Meeting
Social Hour
Dinner
Speaker
Chemistry and Structure: Understanding the Molecular
Basis of Disease
Cleveland ACS Officers
Chair:
Don Jaworske
NASA Glenn Research Center
216-433-2312
Donald.A.Jaworske@nasa.gov
Chair-Elect:
Michael J. Kenney
Case Western Reserve Univ.
216-368-3736
mjk56@case.edu
Treasurer:
John Moran
Department of Science and
Mathematics
Phone: 216-373-6380
jmoran@ndc.edu
Secretary:
Anna Cronin
cronina@glsc.org
Cleveland Section Web Site:
http://www.csuohio.edu/sciences
/dept/cleveland_acs/
Vivian Yee, Biochemistry Department, Case Western Reserve University
Biophysical methods to determine high resolution three-dimensional
structures of biological macromolecules are a powerful approach for
revealing chemical features and conformations which are important for
molecular function. The Yee lab is interested in genetic mutations and
polymorphisms that lead to the expression of variant proteins with altered
structure and/or function. By comparing structural differences between
wild-type and variant proteins, the chemistry underlying mutations which
lead to disease, influence disease phenotype, or alter patient response to
drugs can be probed.
DINNER RESERVATIONS REQUIRED:
Please RSVP by contacting Don Jaworske by email at
silver5695@hotmail.com (preferred) or by phone at 216-534-9690 by
Friday February 15 at noon with your name, total number of guests in your
party, phone number, and your entrée choice(s). Checks made out to
"Cleveland ACS" are greatly appreciated; cash otherwise. $20 for members
and guests, $10 for retirees or unemployed, $5 for students. Dinner will
include garden tossed salad; an entree choice of Chicken Marsala Sauté,
Breaded Pork Chop, or Baked Lasagna; homemade rolls and fresh
vegetables; and dessert pastries.
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Isotopics Feb 2013
Directions to Creekside Restaurant and
Bar
8803 Brecksville Rd
Brecksville, OH 4414
Directions from North
I-77 south to Route 82 (exit 149A)
Towards Brecksville for 1.6 miles
Make a left hand turn at Route 21 (3rd traffic
light)
Get in right hand lane, go .2 miles over bridge,
first driveway on right
Directions from East: Via 480
Take 480 west to I 77 south towards Akron for
6.7 miles
Take Route 82 (exit 149A) towards Brecksville
for 1.6 miles
Make a left hand turn at Route 21 (2nd traffic
light)
Get in right hand lane, go .2 miles over bridge,
first driveway on right
Directions from East: Via Route 82
Take Route 82 west and turn right at Route 21
Get in right hand lane, go .2 miles over bridge,
first driveway on right
Directions from West: Via 480
Take 480 east to I-77 south (exit 20b) towards
Akron for 6.7 miles
Take Route 82 (exit 149A) towards Brecksville
for 1.6 miles
Make a left hand turn at Route 21 (2nd traffic
light)
Get in right hand lane, go .2 miles over bridge,
first driveway on right
Directions from South: Via Route 82
Take Route 82 east and turn left at Route 21
Get in right hand lane, go .2 miles over bridge,
first driveway on right
I-77 north to Route 82 (exit 149) towards
Brecksville
Make a right hand turn off of ramp and travel 1.1
miles
American Chemical Society Cleveland Section
Make a left hand turn at Route 21 (2nd traffic
light)
Get in right hand lane, go .2 miles over bridge,
first driveway on right
Speaker Bio
Vivien Yee obtained her B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees
in Chemistry at the University of British
Columbia, with thesis work focusing on structural
studies of an array of organometallic and organic
compounds. She transitioned to structural studies
of proteins during postdoctoral stints first at
Michigan State University and then at the
University of Washington. Vivien was recruited to
the Cleveland area in 1997 to start an independent
protein crystallography group at the Lerner
Research Institute at the Cleveland Clinic
Foundation. In 2003 she moved to the
Biochemistry Department at Case Western
Reserve University, where her group continues to
focus on structure-function studies of a variety of
biomedically-important proteins.
2013 Meeting-in-Miniature: Call for
Papers
This year’s meeting will be held Wed. March 13 at
John Carroll University.
A highlight of the MIM is the 10-15 minute talks
across all areas of chemistry. Again this year there
will be cash awards given for the best
undergraduate and graduate student talks.
Although awards are given to encourage
participation by students, we welcome talks by all
practicing chemists at the MIM.
Please limit the abstract to 250 words and include
names and affiliations of all authors with the
presenting author’s name underlined. Abstracts
should be submitted, as Word or RTF files, to Dr.
Mark Waner (mwaner@jcu.edu), by Monday,
March 4. Please send abstracts with a subject line
of “MIM-undergrad”, “MIM-grad” or “MIMregular” to insure that they are tracked properly.
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Isotopics Feb 2013
Call for Nominations
By Kat Wollyung (past Chair)
The ACS Cleveland Section is accepting
nominations (or self-nominations) of potential
candidates to run in elections the following open
positions in the Executive Committee in 2014:
123456-
Chair-Elect
Secretary
Councilor
Alternate Councilor
Director
Trustee
The description of the various positions can be
found
at
our
section’s
website
at:
http://www.csuohio.edu/sciences/dept/cleveland_
acs/documents.htm. Then click on “ACS
Cleveland Section Job Manual” pdf or MS Word
version.
Please send you nominations or self-nomination
by mail, phone, or email (preferred) to:
Kat Wollyung
131 Millwood Ave.
Munroe Falls, OH 44262
330-686-0056
acs.ncw.kat@gmail.com
2013 Call For Heller Award
Nominations
Nominations for the Heller Award should be
presented to Jeff Mathys, 11535 Cherokee Lane,
Brecksville, OH 44141 by close of business
Friday, March 15, 2013. The nominations should
consist of information on the candidate's
education, professional experience and activities,
awards and honors, offices held and specifics on
significant contributions. The letter of nomination
should highlight these significant contributions.
Seconding letters are suggested. Nominations
should be sponsored by at least one member of
the Cleveland Section. If you do not know a local
American Chemical Society Cleveland Section
section ACS member willing to serve as
Champion for your candidate, contact Jeff Mathys
and he will provide one for you. The Cleveland
Section is geographically confined to the counties
of Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lorain, Medina, Huron, and
Erie. Nominators of candidates who work outside
of these counties may contact the Cleveland
Section of the American Chemical Society for
more information about High School Chemistry
Teacher Awards. A detailed curriculum vita of the
candidate may also be included. Electronic
nominations using Word or PDF Files mailed to
jeff.mathys@emeraldmaterials.com will be greatly
appreciated. Jeff may be contacted at 440-8129666 for assistance with submissions.
The award will be presented at the April, 2013
meeting of the Cleveland Section.
Champions for Heller Award Nominees
Sought
The Heller Award, described below, is in need of
Champions to sponsor highly deserving High
School teachers for the Award. In the past these
Champions have been critical in successful award
nominations. Nominees and/or their major
nominator request Champions to assist with the
nomination process. The job of Champion consists
of reviewing the nominee’s credentials and
perhaps other supporting letters for effectiveness
and to ensure they address the criteria for the
award. It also typically requires a supporting letter
for the nominee, often based on the nominee’s
package and/or a telephone interview with the
nominee. If interested in working with and
sponsoring a nominee, please respond to Don
Jaworske at Donald.a.jaworske@nasa.gov by
January 31, 2013.
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Isotopics Feb 2013
American Chemical Society Cleveland Section
Chemistry is for the Birds-11
By Dwight Chasar
After a lengthy writing hiatus I found more to write about chemistry and birds. This was spurred by some
of my recent bird watching trips to South America where malaria is still a disease which one needs to take
certain personal precautions to prevent. One of the three major preventative medications of choice is
doxycycline, an antibiotic belonging to the family of tetracyclines shown below. The instructions on
using doxycycline suggest that its efficacy might be reduced when taken with milk. Looking at the
chemical structure of these antibiotics, I saw that there is an ideal enolic ketone moiety which would allow
for a 6-membered ring chelate between calcium ion and two tetracycline molecules. This complex could
be less soluble, possibly insoluble in the body and pass on through the alimentary canal rather than getting
into the blood stream where the drug would be effective.
Tetracycline
Doxycycline
This chemistry reminded me of an article published some years ago on the use of declomycin to study egg
dumping by birds. Egg dumping, particularly more prevalent among some ducks like Wood Ducks,
Redhead ducks and Hooded Mergansers, is when a bird lays eggs in the nest of other birds of the same or
even different species even though the bird may have its own nest. There could be several reasons for
doing this. The hen may be ready to lay eggs but does not have a nest. She may not have yet prepared
one or her nest could have been destroyed by a predator before she completed laying all her eggs, as some
ducks may lay up to a dozen or more eggs at a frequency of one a day. So the hen “dumps” the remaining
developing eggs in one or more other nests over a period of time. Even when a nest has been secure and
not violated, a duck may sometimes lay a few eggs in other nests to avoid losing all her reproductive effort
in case her nest is destroyed after all her eggs were laid. This way her genes continue. Unfortunately,
some of these dump nests may end up so loaded with eggs that the host species cannot effectively incubate
them and the nest fails. While a typical duck nest may contain 10-15 eggs, a dump nest could have 30 or
more. One report of a Redhead duck nest had 87 eggs!
Declomycin
So how are these two ideas connected? The calcium tetracycline chelate produces a golden-yellow
fluorescence when exposed to ultraviolet light. Bird egg shells consist of 95% calcium carbonate. So a
bird injected with tetracycline will produce egg shells with some of the calcium chelated to the
tetracycline and these eggs fluoresce under UV light. In the work by Haramis et al (Auk, July 1983, page
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Isotopics Feb 2013
American Chemical Society Cleveland Section
729), they induced two female Wood Ducks (cavity nesters) to desert their nests by trapping them in nest
boxes during their laying period. The trapped females were intraperitoneally injected with declomycin
and then released. They expected that each hen would deposit the remainder of her clutch within a week
(one a day) after injection in either empty cavities or other duck nests. Having located these other cavities
and nests earlier, Haramis and co-workers then went to these sites and determined with UV light which
nests had eggs deposited by the treated hens. Chemistry in action! Particular behavioral conclusions can
be found in the reference if you are interested.
Tetracycline/calcium chelate
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