ACCN, the Canadian Chemical News, April 2011

FREE

POSTER FOR THE INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF CHEMISTRY

April | avril 2011 • Vol.63, No./no 4

Canadian Chemical News | L’Actualité chimique canadienne A Magazine of the Chemical Institute of Canada and its Constituent Societies | Une magazine de l’Institut de chimie du Canada et ses sociétés constituantes

BRANCHING OUT

How Canadian forestry is shifting towards nanomaterials to make its comeback

www.accn.ca

Chemical

CONTENTS

Features FOREST PRODUCTS ASSOCIATION OF CANADA / MARIA DE ROSA

April | avril 2011 Vol.63, No./no 4

12

The superhero molecule that Canadian­forestry is banking on

By Hannah Hoag

18

Using DNA to create molecular­ probes

By Tyler Irving Pour obtenir la version française de cet article, écrivez-nous à magazine@accn.ca

COURTESY OF TRIUMF

Departments 5

From the Editor

7

Guest Column

8

Chemical News

By David Harpp

Canada’s top headlines in the chemical sciences and engineering

Reported and written by Tyler Irving

22

The shifting foundations of medical­ imaging Second in a three part series on medical­ radioisotopes

By Tim Lougheed

28

Society News

30

Chemfusion

By Joe Schwarcz



Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering

Call for papers Opens March 15, 2011 - closes May 31, 2011

Innovation, Industry and Internationalization 61st Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference LONDON, ONTARIO, CANADA

OCTOBER 23–26, 2011 www.csche2011.ca



CSChE

Société canadienne de génie chimique

Demande de communications Débute le 15 mars 2011 – Se termine le 31 mai 2011

Innovation, industrie et internationalisation 61e Congrès canadien de génie chimique LONDON, ONTARIO, CANADA

DU 23 AU 26 OCTOBRE 2011 www.csche2011.ca

SCGCh

FROM THE EDITOR

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Roland Andersson, MCIC

EDITOR

Jodi Di Menna

WRITER

Tyler Irving, MCIC

GRAPHIC DESIGNERS

Krista Leroux Kelly Turner

SOCIETY NEWS

Bobbijo Sawchyn, MCIC Gale Thirlwall

A

MARKETING MANAGER

revolution makes for great story telling: Something is one way, some crisis or illuminating idea emerges as a changing force, the future looks different from the past. That kind of transformation is a theme for this issue. In Hannah Hoag’s report on nanocrystalline cellulose — a particle derived from trees — she touches on the story of this country’s forestry industry, a defining sector, hit hard by several economic blows, now reinventing itself with a shift in thinking from big-scale lumber and pulp to high-value nano-scale products. In our Q and A, we talk to Maria DeRosa who is looking for a game-changer that will help bring aptamers — small synthetic bits of DNA — to commercialization. In the second instalment in our three-part series on medical radioisotopes, Tim Lougheed visits a facility in Vancouver that’s blazing a new trail in medical imaging, propelled by the isotopes shortage.

Bernadette Dacey

MARKETING ASSISTANT

Luke Andersson

CIRCULATION

Michelle Moulton

FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION DIRECTOR

Joan Kingston

MEMBERSHIP SERVICES COORDINATOR

Angie Moulton

EDITORIAL BOARD

Joe Schwarcz, MCIC, chair Milena Sejnoha, MCIC Bernard West, MCIC

EDITORIAL OFFICE 130 Slater Street, Suite 550 Ottawa, ON K1P 6E2 T. 613-232-6252 | F.613-232-5862 magazine@accn.ca | www.accn.ca

ADVERTISING advertising@gordongroup.com 613-288-5363

SUBSCRIPTION RATES Go to www.accn.ca to subscribe or to purchase single issues. The individual non-CIC member subscription price for 2011 is $100 CDN. The institutional subscription price for 2011 is $150 CDN. Single copies can be purchased for $10.

I hope you enjoy the read!

ACCN (Canadian Chemical News/ L’Actualité chimique canadienne) is published 10 times a year by the ­Chemical Institute of Canada, www.cheminst.ca

Write to the editor at magazine@accn.ca or visit us at www.accn.ca

Recommended by the Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC), the Canadian Society for Chemistry (CSC), the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering (CSChE), and the Canadian Society for Chemical Technology (CSCT).

Views expressed do not necessarily represent the official position of the Institute or of the Societies that recommend the magazine.

CHANGE OF ADDRESS

circulation@cheminst.ca Printed in Canada by Delta Printing and postage paid in Ottawa, Ont. Publications Mail Agreement Number: 40021620. (USPS# 0007–718) Indexed in the Canadian Business Index and available online in the Canadian Business and Current Affairs database.

ISSN 0823-5228

www.accn.ca

GUEST COLUMN

A Measure of Pungency

By David Harpp

S

mells are important. Buried memories are resurrected in a heartbeat when the right molecules are present in the nasal cavity. We also smell ourselves and others with more frequency than we might think. So it’s good news that a recent scientific advance is focused on an odour somewhere in between what one might call a desirable fragrance and a stink. Specifically, a team at Oxford University has developed a sensor that detects the amount of diallylsulfides in garlic.

It is widely known in chemistry circles that many organic sulfides have powerful odours and diallylsulfides are no exception. There are disulfides in the skunk defense secretion that have a highly negative effect on most animals. The diallyl disulfide found in onions and garlic elicits a wide spectrum of considerations, ranging from possible health benefits to worries about body and breath odour.

The reason to measure the concentration of this group of molecules is that garlic is widely used to flavour food and the concentrations from garlic sources can vary ­considerably. This is partly because source matters; for example, the Moldovan purple variety of garlic is noted for being one of the strongest. For industries seeking to ­maintain consistency, a measurement device could be a useful tool. (Incidentally, I could have signed on for this since I have a significant sensitivity to garlic such that I react to even the smallest concentrations!)

The recent measurement invention functions by suspending a garlic purée in a ­solution with added bromide ions. The analysis is carried out voltammetrically as bromine is ­generated. This causes an increase in current and permits an accurate representation of the concentration of the (mainly) diallyl disulfide. Apparently, the reaction of bromine with the disulfide is faster than its addition to the double bonds present in the mixture. This ­selectivity arises as the timescale of voltammetric measurements is short.

Perhaps this application can eventually be applied to check one’s breath for this specific molecule! In the meantime, I will continue to endure a cry from my wife from upstairs when I return from a garlicked meal. “You have had garlic!” she calls out with remarkable consistency. I guess her sensitivity trumps mine. Maybe an analytical company will call us.

David Harpp is the Macdonald Professor of Chemistry at McGill University. He believes that garlic mashed potatoes are the only form of this plant that invites consumption.

Want to share your thoughts on this article?

Write to us at magazine@accn.ca or visit us at www.accn.ca

APRIL 2011 CANADIAN CHEMICAL NEWS 7

NATURAL RESOURCES

TAKEOVER BRINGS NUNAVUT IRON MINE N ­ EARER TO REALITY The hematite formations near the Mary River in Nunavut contain an estimated 450 million tonnes of iron ore.

BAFFINLAND IRON MINES CORP.

A recent takeover of Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. by two foreign investors means that the world’s northernmost iron mine is closer to reality than it has ever been.

In the early 1960s, nine deposits of high-grade iron ore were discovered by the Mary River on Baffin Island, 1,000 kilometres north of Iqaluit. Development was delayed for decades due to high capital cost: not only would the open-pit mine require digging through permafrost in bitterly cold temperatures and total darkness for three months of the year, but the current proposal includes a 150 kilometre railway to transport the ore to the coast. However, world iron prices have risen substantially in recent years, and last fall a bidding war for control of Baffinland broke out between ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel-maker, and Nunavut Iron Ore Acquisition Inc., a U.S.-based company backed by a large investment fund. In January, the two came to an agreement to split ownership of Baffinland 70-30, respectively. By the end of February, the partnership held over 90 per cent of Baffinland.

The hope among the project’s proponents is that the deep pockets of the foreign investors will enable development to proceed more quickly. A draft environmental assessment for the project has already been submitted to the Nunavut Impact Review Board, and current projections expect the mine to be underway within two to three years.

NUCLEAR

STEAM GENERATORS SHIPMENT APPROVED DESPITE “FEARMONGERING”

8 L’ACTUALITÉ CHIMIQUE CANADIENNE

AVRIL 2011

BRUCE POWER

When decommissioned, the steam generators from the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station each weigh ­approximately 100 tonnes and are contaminated on the inside with a small amount of radioactivity due to decades of use.

As soon as the ice melts this spring, a ship containing 16 radiation-contaminated steam generators from the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station could travel across the Great Lakes to Sweden. Despite vocal objections about the public safety risk of shipping radioactive materials across the Great Lakes from environmental groups, First Nations, and regional officials, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) approved the shipment in early February.

The turbines in question once contained water that was heated by a nuclear reaction.

Over the years a small amount of radioactive material was deposited on the inside of tubes in the turbines. Because they are radioactive,

their transport requires approval from the CNSC. Hearings were held last fall, with opponents arguing that approval would set a precedent for shipping nuclear waste on the Great Lakes. However, in a rare technical briefing following the announcement of the decision, CNSC Executive Vice President and Chief Regulatory Officer, Ramzi Jammal characterized the public response as “fearmongering.”

“It’s 100 tons of steel but it is less than 4 grams of radioactive substances,” he said.

“The maximum public dose for a person standing at one metre from the steam generator is 0.08 millisieverts [per hour] therefore extremely low.” By comparison, medical isotopes put out 1.2 millisieverts, and thousands of these are shipped around the world in approved containers every year. Jammal asserted that the only difference between this shipment and others is the size of the object.

“If [the steam generators] would fit into an existing approved package, I’ll be very honest with you, we would not be here.”

The plan still faces hurdles. The Canadian Environmental Law Association and the Sierra Club of Canada are in the process of trying to challenge the ruling on the grounds that it ­exceeds CNSC’s jurisdiction. Hearings were also held before the federal government’s committee on natural resources in early March.

CHEMICAL NEWS

Canada's top headlines in the chemical sciences and engineering WATER

PHARMACEUTICALS

STUDY SUGGESTS MANGANESE HINDERS CHILD DEVELOPMENT

HOMEGROWN DRUG READY FOR MARKET

When thinking about contaminants in drinking water, manganese isn’t necessarily top of mind. Yet according to a new study produced by researchers in Quebec, elevated levels of this element in groundwater can have drastic impacts on the neurological development of children exposed to them.

Université de Montréal researcher Maryse Bouchard led a study that compared levels of manganese exposure in 362 children with their performance on a battery of neurological tests, from memory to IQ, dexterity, and manual ­coordination. These measures were corrected for other factors that can affect development, such as socio-economic conditions and level of maternal education. They found that the 20 per cent of children with the highest manganese exposure had an average IQ that was 6.2 points lower than those with the lowest exposure. “Two IQ points would be considered a big difference across the range of exposure,” says Bouchard “But 6.2 points is about the same as the average difference between kids from a mother who didn’t finish high school, and one who had at least a bachelor’s degree.”

All the subjects in the study got their drinking water from wells in rural Quebec. The average concentration of manganese in the groundwater for the most exposed group was 216 ­micrograms per litre, which is tiny compared to the 1.5-1.9 milligrams we consume in our food every day. However, dissolved manganese is in ionic form (Mn2+) , which may interact with the body differently than that in food, which is bound to organic molecules. Whatever the mechanism, Bouchard believes that manganese, which is currently unregulated in Canada, deserves more ­attention. “With one study, it’s never considered enough to really take action. I’m looking for the next team of researchers to publish something. If they find the same thing then I think people will start to really want to regulate manganese.”

In the slow-moving world of drug development, it is rare that the research team which first identifies a biochemical pathway is the same one that develops a therapy. In the case of Vasculotide, however, that is exactly what has happened, and a new agreement with Sanofi-aventis means that commercialization is not far off.

Twenty years ago, Dan Dumont of Sunnybrook Research Institute in Toronto first cloned the Tie2 receptor, which appears on the surface of certain cells in the body. Since then, further research has identified the Tie2 receptor as a gatekeeper for the healthy development of new blood vessels, and interest in using it as a target for new therapies has grown. In 2000, Dumont was joined by Paul Van Slyke, who set about trying to create a synthetic molecule that would interact with the Tie2 receptor.

This wasn’t easy; it turns out that Tie2 needs to be clustered on the surface of cells in groups of four (a tetramer) or higher, to activate the receptors. Van Slyke solved the problem by linking four copies of a smaller peptide that binds to the receptor with a backbone made of a polymer (polyethylene glycol).

The new molecule, called Vasculotide, has been shown to effectively stimulate the Tie2 receptor in animal models. The drug has potential applications in many conditions where blood vessel health is impaired, from diabetes to peripheral arterial disease to acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Under the new agreement, Sanofi-aventis will conduct the testing and clinical trials necessary to bring Vasculotide to market. If successful, a portion of the potential profits will be invested back into basic research. The chance to complete the cycle in this way was a lucky break. “It's unique in the sense that Dan actually cloned the gene and has worked on it for 20 years, and now we've actually developed the drug,” says Van Slyke. “That almost never happens.”

HEALTH

AMYLIN RECEPTOR LINKS ALZHEIMERS TO DIABETES For years, epidemiologists have suspected a link between diabetes and Alzheimers ­disease. Now, a researcher from the University of Alberta may have found the chemical culprit, and a potential new therapy to boot.

It is well known that a chemical called beta amyloid protein (BAP) ­accumulates in the brains of Alzheimers patients, although exactly how it produces the symptoms is not yet known. Jack Jhamandas and his team work under the hypothesis that BAP acts by binding to the receptor for another protein called amylin, which is believed to have a role in modulating the effects of insulin. Using ­electrical monitoring, the team was able to show that exposing human brain cells to both amylin and BAP in vitro lead to a similar increase in the ­firing rate. This kind of increase, if ­prolonged, can damage and eventually destroy brain cells.

The next step was to block the­ ­ mylin receptor. For this they used a a drug called AC253, originally ­developed for diabetes but never marketed for this condition. It mimics amylin and blocks the receptor. When AC253-treated cells were exposed to BAP, they not only had a greater survival rate, but also showed a decrease in levels of “executioner enzymes” which cause programmed cell death.

Jhamandas admits that the finding is not exactly a smoking gun. “­Certainly it is possible that amyloid acts through more than one receptor, I'd be surprised if it didn't,” he says.

“But the intriguing thing about our observation is that it brings together a number of interesting observations. There's a long epidemiological ­history linking alzheimers to diabetes. This work may provide us with some insights into how this disease unfolds over time.”

APRIL 2011 CANADIAN CHEMICAL NEWS 9

NANOTECHNOLOGY

FASTER, SMALLER, BETTER MICROFLUIDICS

Electromagnetic fields pull a jet of water across a surface and “pinch” it at various points. [TOP] Each set of pinch points leads to a discrete droplet with a controlled volume, ranging from nanolitres to picolitres. [LEFT]

10 L’ACTUALITÉ CHIMIQUE CANADIENNE

AVRIL 2011

Potash mining company BHP Billiton has begun the ­feasibility study on its proposed Jansen project. The ­underground development, to be located 140 kilometres east of Saskatoon, would be the first new potash mine in ­Saskatchewan in 40 years, and the largest of its kind in the world. Uncertainty about the Jansen project - and the jobs it would bring to the province - was one of the reasons ­cited in the federal government’s rejection of BHP Billiton’s bid to buy Potash Corp. last fall. If it goes ahead, the Jansen project could start production as early as 2015.

PetroChina has poured $5.4 billion into a joint venture with ­EnCana Inc. to extract natural gas from the ­Cutbank Ridge deposit, which straddles the B.C./Alberta ­border. The deal gives PetroChina a 50 per cent stake in the ­estimated one trillion cubic metres of gas the project ­contains. While the deal is subject to federal review­­under the ­Investment Canada Act, it is not expected to be blocked as it provides only a minority stake for the foreign investor. If approved, the deal will be the largest Chinese investment in ­Canadian energy assets to date.

BIOX Corp. has swung into the black. The company, which went ­public in March of last year, operates a 67 million ­litre plant in ­Hamilton, Ont. that produces biodiesel from seed oils and animal fats. Sales for the three-month p­eriod ending December 31 were double what they were for the same period the previous year, enabling BIOX to post a net income of $1,764,000, as opposed to last year’s loss of $1,071,000. The company is currently looking to secure financing for a second plant.

Sims Recycling Solutions has just opened its second plant in the Greater Toronto Area. The company accepts electronic waste items such as old televisions and computers, extracting valuable components such as rare and precious metals, while safely disposing of the rest. The new multi-million dollar plant can handle 75,000 tonnes of ­e-waste per year, three times the capacity of the company’s ­existing plant in Brampton. Sims estimates the new plant will create 1 ­ 00-200 green jobs.

The Chemical News is reported and written by Tyler Irving.

Want to share your thoughts on our news stories?

Write to us at magazine@accn.ca or visit us at www.accn.ca

KARAN KALER

Imagine testing for dozens of antibodies using a single drop of blood, or screening a single environmental sample for any one of a ­hundred contaminants, in real time. These are the dreams of the field of ­microfluidics, and they are now a lot closer to reality, thanks to a discovery by researchers at the University of Calgary’s Schulich School of Engineering. Karan Kaler and his team can not only produce droplets on the nano- or even picolitre scale, but can control their volume precisely.

Dielectrophoresis starts with a drop of water sitting on a surface, ­surrounded by a thin layer of oil to prevent evaporation. Electromagnetic fields are then used to pull a jet of liquid out of the larger drop.

This unstable jet breaks up into smaller daughter droplets, but until now it has been hard to predict exactly how many, and how big they will be. The team solved this problem by adding electronic “pinch points” under the surface on which the drop rests, which cause the jet to break up in a very predictable way. The pinch points are tapered, so a single parent drop could give rise to 25 daughter drops of ­carefully controlled and decreasing size. From there, it’s relatively straightforward to move these drops around and combine them with other ­reagents as required.

The process has applications for any field where sample size is limited, such as medicine, ­forensics, or food quality ­testing.

It could also be useful in ­areas like genomics, where high ­density and high throughput are key. “In principle, it could produce 50 or 100 or more droplets,” says Kaler. “Because we don’t have pumps and valves, we can ­create droplets in ­parallel fashion in milliseconds, and mix those things in fractions of seconds, so we can do the whole thing in about a second or two.”

BUSINESS BRIEFS

Think Small

How the future of the Canadian forestry industry could hinge on the most abundant nanomaterial on earth

By Hannah Hoag

A

pale grey slurry roils about in a waist-high blue plastic drum at the centre of a garagelike space at the National Research Council’s Biotechnology Research Institute in Montreal. It looks a little like slush, but when it is dried it more closely resembles one of the fine white powders chefs stock in their kitchens.

For the handful of chemists hovering about the room, it’s the stuff dreams are made of. For Canada’s faltering forestry industry, it is a beacon of optimism.

Nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) is nature’s Superman fibre; it is stronger than steel, lightweight and durable; its unique optical qualities make it desirable for use in everything from cosmetics and sunscreens to security documents, switchable optical filters, coatings and adhesives, and its antimicrobial properties open the door for a bunch of medical applications. All that from a little crystal made from tree trunks.

It’s no surprise then that the Canadian forestry industry — straining under a slumped U.S. housing market

12 L’ACTUALITÉ CHIMIQUE CANADIENNE

AVRIL 2011

FOREST PRODUCTS ASSOCIATION OF CANADA

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING | NANOCRYSTALLINE CELLULOSE

and pricing pressures from developing countries — has high hopes that this possibly miraculous crystal will be their ticket to stage a much-needed comeback. The question now is, can this superhero compound make the leap from the lab, to largescale production and into the marketplace?

NCC is composed of nano-scale threads of cellulose stacked side-by-side and on top of each other, and held in place by hydrogen bonds. Its backers envision more than a dozen potential uses in a variety of sectors including the automotive, aerospace, chemical, textile, forestry and medical industries.

A forestry worker surveys stacks of harvested trees in eastern Canada.

NCC could be blended with plastics to make strong lightweight airplane parts, woven into bulletproof vests to make them more durable, or mixed into speciality inks, changing their colour under certain light to prevent the forgery, tampering or counterfeiting of banknotes, passports or other security-sensitive documents.

“NCC has tremendous tensile and elastic properties. You bend it, it springs right back. Or pull it, it is stronger than steel. But its density is less than steel so it is lighter-weight,” says Stephen Allen, a biochemist and vice president of technology at BioVision Technology Inc., the Nova Scotia biotech firm that is producing NCC at the NRC’s Montreal facility (NRC-BRI). “It’s a performance enhancing additive. With NCC, a material that was not so strong, not so flexible, can withstand a greater amount of strain and stress from different directions without cracking or breaking,” says Allen.

NCC’s structure also imparts a handedness to the molecule that allows it to react in specific ways to different wavelengths of light. Flexible films made of NCC can take on the appearance of a butterfly wing: changing hues depending on the angle that the surface is viewed as the wings of the brilliant blue Morpho butterfly do. Scientists at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver recently reported that they could mix silica and NCC to create iridescent glass films that could be used as chemical sensors or smart windows that let in visible light, but reflect infrared light to keep heat inside buildings in the winter, or outside in the summer.

Importantly, these properties can be tuned to precisely reflect the desired wavelength.

“Kevlar is very susceptible to degradation by UV,” says Richard Berry, the manager of the chemical pulping program at FPInnovations, a forest products company based in Pointe-Claire, Que., that has invested in NCC research and development. “Most UV systems are absorbent, so they heat up. There is an opportunity here to develop a bulletproof vest that can maintain its ability to stop bullets. Otherwise the kevlar in the vest will degrade over time.”

From a biomedical perspective, NCC is biologically inert and has a large surface area to volume ratio, making it a good candidate for cell membranes, engineered tissues, skin grafts or drug delivery systems. Microcrystalline cellulose is already used in the pharmaceutical industry.

APRIL 2011 CANADIAN CHEMICAL NEWS 13

14 L’ACTUALITÉ CHIMIQUE CANADIENNE

AVRIL 2011

part,” says Allen. “This is why the nano-material is so amazing compared to the macro material.”

The scientific knowledge to produce NCC has been around for more than half a century, though previously laboratories were only producing gram quantities of the material.

Backed by the forest industry’s new vision for its business model and investments from governments and the private sector, NCC is starting to be noticed by a wide range of industries and may now have just the enthusiastic thrust it needed to become commercially viable. “It became clear that if there are going to be applications, you were going to have to have kilogram quantities to begin to do pilot work on applications,” says Berry.

Two Canadian companies, FPInnovations and BioVision are vying to put Canada in pole position of the world’s NCC producers. Both Berry and Allen play their cards close to their chests. One won’t talk about fibre length, the other can’t provide the details of the chemical reaction. Both ­acknowledge that they’re part of a competitive environment and say they have to be careful about what they say publicly.

Each company has its own approach to producing NCC, and although FPInnovations has plans to complete construction of a large-scale demonstration plant later this year, BioVision is nipping at its heels with an alternative method.

FPInnovations uses a sulphuric acid reaction, which generates sulphonated nanocellulose crystals. Sulphonation limits the yield loss, says Berry. Though the exact recipe varies on the desired yield and grade of NCC, a concentrated ­sulphuric acid is central to the process. (High and low yield NCC behave differently. One is more appropriate for a bioplastic, the other might work for an optical application, says Berry.)

Almost all of the sulphuric acid is recovered, dialyzed, concentrated and reused in subsequent reactions. “It’s essential for economic and environmental reasons. You don’t want to be neutralizing large quantities of acid — that won’t help your economics very much,” says Berry. About 70 per cent of the cellulose in wood pulp is nanocrystalline cellulose. Berry says that FPInnovations is able to recoup as much as 93 per cent of the NCC from the feedstock, a commerical bleached pulp.

In July 2010, FPInnovations announced that it had reached an agreement with Domtar Corporation to build a NCC demonstration plant adjacent to a Domtar mill in Windsor, Que., capable of producing one tonne of NCC per

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF CANADA

Adding functional groups to NCC can change its water solubility or add antimicrobial properties.

Cellulose is the most abundant organic polymer on the planet, found in the cell walls of all plants.

Wood is about twothirds cellulose. At the microscopic level, cellulose is composed of bothcrystalline and non-crystalline (amorphous) parts, This atomic force assembled like micrograph­illustrates the dimensions of the ladders tied end-tonanocrystalline cellulose synthesized at the National­ end with rope. The Research Council’s trick to harnessing ­Biotechnology Research NCC’s potential is Institute in Montreal. The ­crystals are typically around separating the ropes 150 nanometres in length from the ladders and 5 to 7 nanometres in diameter. The image is and purifying the 5 microns wide. tiny grains of the ­crystalline portion. Extracting cellulose nanocrystals from wood pulp has typically been done using strong acids, with sulphuric acid studied the most and cited as being the most effective.

Some scientists believe that as the acid diffuses into the cellulose fibres, it cleaves the glycosidic bonds, preferentially targeting the amorphous sections of the molecule that have more potential hydrolysis sites. The acid isn’t selective, per se, but the slackness of the non-crystalline portions makes it easier for the acid to access those parts.

“When you purify it down and get rid of all the humps and bumps, you get rid of the amorphous part that reduces the exceptional properties of the crystalline­

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING | NANOCRYSTALLINE CELLULOSE

day. “There is real value to having the process associated with the mill. The material can be fed directly into the plant for the extraction process. Any waste can be dealt with in the treatment system that is part of the mill,” says Berry. He expects it to be operational in the fall of 2011.

A technical officer inspects a reactor that produces nanocrystalline­cellulose at the National Research Council’s pilot plan in Montreal.

BioVision is taking an alternate approach — though Allen won’t specify how — to generating NCC. The process was borne out of a nanobiotechnology project that originated at the NRC-BRI. A decade ago, the institute launched several projects that sought to produce value-added bioproducts from natural fibres and biomass. Adrien Pilon, product director for the National Bioproducts Program at the NRC-BRI, says the technology and the process was developed rapidly, “in less than two years, including its scale-up to a precommercial stage.” Allen adds that they’ve managed to scale-up the process by 100,000 fold in about a year, from 10 millilitre benchtop reactions to the 1,000 litre reactions running in the NRC-BRI facility today, and producing tens of kilos of NCC per batch.

According to the NRC-BRI, their approach is less costly, more environmentally friendly and easier to scale up, than a traditional sulphuric acid hydrolysis. Their single-step procedure uses an oxidizer that produces a carboxylated NCC, which Allen says is an advantage for doing functional chemistry to prepare the NCC for different applications.

The carboxyl group provides a sort of handle that allows chemists to add other molecules or nanoparticles or bind it to a matrix, and carbon chemistry reactions are well-studied and understood.

Their approach also produces a uniform crystal size, which measures, on average, 5 nanometres by 150 nanometres. “Our method is more precise, better targeted, than traditional acid hydrolysis,” says John Luong, a chemist at NRC-BRI. Other methods may yield longer crystals that retain the non-crystalline cellulose that waters down NCC properties, or continue to chop it up into smaller and smaller pieces, threatening its mechanical properties, if the acid hydrolysis continues for too long.

Different forms of NCC will have different market applications and different strengths and weaknesses, so it’s hard to say if one company will surpass the other. In the meantime, making NCC in large quantities is just a first step. Both companies are convinced there is a market for NCC, but acknowledge they have a role in creating it.

BioVision is supplying NCC to companies, research institutes and academic groups interested in using it in a product, but to put the future of the company solely into the hands of other businesses would be foolhardy. So, in the meantime,

APRIL 2011 CANADIAN CHEMICAL NEWS 15

WWW.NATURALLYWOOD.COM

Logs like these ones loaded on a truck in B.C.’s­­northern ­interior are one possible feedstock for ­nanocrystalline cellulose. Agricultural sources like hemp or flax could also be used.

BioVision is working on its own applications. By developing a proof of concept, Allen hopes to draw other companies into the fold.

The company is presently working on a project to develop a novel insole for a shoe.

Allen likens the new NCC market he’s trying to create to the early days of carbon fibre: once reserved to highend applications in the automotive and aerospace sectors, the material can now be found in bikes and tennis rackets. As production volume increased, the price dropped and the market expanded.

“The challenge is coming up with an application where the market can receive NCC at, say, 10 times the cost of production,” he says. “In some cases, the NCC is replacing a petrochemical and providing another advantage, in others it is replacing a nanomaterial that is very expensive or toxic.”

FPInnovations has opted for a different approach. To build business opportunities, it helped found a research and development network called ArboroNano. Funded through the federal government’s Business-Led Network of Centres of Excellence program, FPInnovations, NanoQuebec, the Ontario BioAuto Council and

16 L’ACTUALITÉ CHIMIQUE CANADIENNE

AVRIL 2011

several private donors, ArboroNano was created to help industry develop products from forest-based ­nanomaterials and link industrial sectors to local NCC supply. ArboroNano’s mandate has since expanded and BioVision has received funding for a joint proposal it submitted with another company.

The Canadian forest sector is recasting itself beyond two-by-fours and pulp and paper. That model has been under stress. The soft U.S. housing market and the shift of advertising revenue from newsprint to online media has sent the demand for Canadian wood products tumbling.

“The forest sector is quite a good business to be in when markets are good and just plain awful when they’re bad,” says Avrim Lazar, the president and CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada.

Given that NCC comes from trees, its potential is not lost on the beleaguered industry. The sector has launched a bio-revolution to revitalize its image — and boost revenues and jobs. It is diversifying its product base, banking on smaller volume, higher-value tree-based products, chemicals and energy — a global market worth $200 billion. NCC is only part of that vision — it will take much more than one sophisticated bio-chemical to revitalize the industry — but it has rapidly become its poster child, illustrating both the potential and the process. By tacking on forest bio-refineries to existing plants, niche markets, though small, may still be profitable.

“People have been asking, ‘Are there other business models that would make us less vulnerable to the ups and downs?’,” says Lazar. NCC just might be part of the answer.

Hannah Hoag is a Montreal-based science journalist whose work appears in Nature, the Montreal Gazette and The Globe and Mail, among others.

Want to share your thoughts on this article?

Write to us at magazine@accn.ca or visit us at www.accn.ca

APRIL 2011 CANADIAN CHEMICAL NEWS 17

Q Designer DNA A &

DNA isn’t just for passing on genes anymore; one dynamic team is using it to create molecular probes for applications from neurochemistry to ­agriculture.

By Tyler Irving

I

t’s not quite a needle in a haystack, but finding a patch of potentially toxic mold in an entire field’s worth of grain is a task of comparable complexity. Fortunately, modern technology allows for the creation of tiny strands of DNA called aptamers, which selectively bind almost any molecule, from toxins in the aforementioned mold, to neurotransmitters like dopamine.

But can these biochemical curiosities be translated into viable commercial products? Maria DeRosa of Carleton University is palpably optimistic that they can. If you don’t believe us, just check out her dance moves.

ACCN: What is an aptamer?

M.D. : It’s basically a small synthetic piece of DNA or RNA,

and it folds up into a nano-scale shape. Something about that shape allows it to bind to another molecule. That other molecule could be something small, like a drug, it could be something bigger, like a protein, or very big, like a virus or a bacterium, but something about that shape allows it to interact with high affinity and usually very good specificity.

And then we can use that aptamer in other types of applications that are related to this biorecognition event.

ACCN: How is it different from an antibody?

M.D. : It’s very similar, and a lot of times people will call

aptamers nucleic acid antibodies, because it’s a similar idea. It still relies on its shape for bonding, but it’s based on nucleic acids instead of proteins. So just because of its different composition, it has different kinds of properties that allow it to be useful in other places that antibodies aren’t always useful.

[Antibodies] are built out of proteins, and proteins are unstable to things like heat, changes in pH and changes in salt concentration. If you’re in one of those applications, you may have a problem. Aptamers, on the other hand, are more stable to temperature changes. If they do unfold and they lose their

18 L’ACTUALITÉ CHIMIQUE CANADIENNE

AVRIL 2011

shape, you can get them back without losing the binding affinity, which is different from antibodies. If you fry an egg, you can’t get it back to the yolk, right?

ACCN: How do you make an aptamer?

M.D.: The field isn’t at the point where we can say, okay,

here’s a target, and here’s what I want the aptamer to look like, so let’s design an aptamer. What we have to do instead is a selection. We start off with lots and lots of random pieces of DNA, all sorts of different sequences, which will make all sorts of different shapes. We expose that pool of DNA to the target, and we keep the pieces that bind, and we get rid of the ones that don’t. Usually we start off with something like 10 15 different sequences, so a large pool, and after that first selection round, there might be

MARIA DE ROSA

CHEMISTRY | APTAMERS

only 10 or 100 sequences that are left. At that point, we have to amplify those sequences up so that it’s a useable amount of DNA, so we use PCR (polymerase chain reaction) — which is like a photocopier for DNA — and then we start the process again. Usually after one round we’ll have a mix of okay binders and good binders and bad binders, but then we’ll do multiple rounds, maybe 12 to 20 rounds of this selection, and every time we can make the selection a little bit harder. We can change the conditions a bit, change the temperature, salt, depending on what we want to do with the aptamer in the end.

Hopefully by the end we have lots of copies of a few sequences that have a good affinity and a good specificity, for whatever target we’re looking at.

That whole process is called SELEX (systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment). We didn’t invent it; it’s been around since the 1990s.

Depending on what you want to use the aptamer for, you can modify SELEX, because it’s an in vitro process. For the most part, if you’re trying to find an antibody, you’re using a living host: maybe a mouse, or a goat, so the antibodies are going to bind under physiological conditions. For aptamers, we do everything in a beaker, so we can control the conditions, and they don’t have to be physiological conditions if we don’t want them to be. So that allows them to be more general. Also, because they’re synthetic, there’s less batch-to-batch variability, because we can always remake the same sequence.

ACCN: Still, it seems like this process depends

largely­ on luck.

M.D.: Exactly. In our lab we’ve been actually pretty lucky;

we’ve had success with every kind of selection that we’ve tried, but I think in general you have a 50-50 chance that you could actually do a full selection and end up with

nothing. You could mitigate that a little bit, depending on what targets you’re looking at. We know that DNA can do things like hydrogen bonds, it can do interactions through the bases, it has a negative charge on the backbone, so you can have some electrostatic interaction. You can choose your targets wisely and you’ll have more success in selection, but even then, sometimes you just don’t find anything in your pool.

ACCN: Speaking of choosing your targets wisely,

what targets have you chosen?

M.D.: We want to do sensors that could be related to brain

chemistry, and maybe one day [we can] study the brain directly. Dopamine is a big one that we work with; we do have an aptamer that binds dopamine, and we are now working with a neuroscience collaborator to develop sensors that will detect dopamine in mice.

Another one that we’re working on is a toxin, fumonisin B1.

This toxin comes from mold, which can be present on crops like corn. Even if there’s a very, very low amount of mold these toxins can be produced, and if they are present in the corn that can make it unsafe for us to use for food. We’ve developed an aptamer now for fumonisin, and we’re trying to develop some kind of simple testing mechanism, sort of like a pregnancy test, something really easy that people at the farm or in the grain elevators could use to quickly sense if they have a problem with this toxin in their crops.

ACCN: So finding an aptamer is only the beginning, you

still have to make that binding detectable in some way?

M.D. : Exactly. We have to modify the DNA in some way,

and that’s another whole aspect of what’s going on in the lab. We’re doing things like modifying the DNA with probes that either change colour when there’s some kind of binding event, maybe they’ll give off fluorescence, or the fluorescence will turn off if the binding event happens. We have other kinds of collaborations where we’re modifying a fibre optic cable so that the surface of that fibre optic cable is covered with these aptamers. We can use aptamer binding to affect the property of the light, so that you can detect these things remotely.

APRIL 2011 CANADIAN CHEMICAL NEWS 19

ACCN: Are there any non-sensing applications?

M.D.: We have another target, in collaboration with Agriculture

Canada. We’re interested in developing something called a smart fertilizer, which is a coating that would only release the fertilizer when the plant or the crop needs that fertilizer. It turns out that wheat and corn, when they’re in their growing cycle, release all kinds of molecules to the ground around them, and some of those molecules are essentially signals. Imagine we have this fertilizer and it has this coating on it, and inside the coating is an aptamer that binds to that signal. That aptamertarget binding disrupts the coating, so that only at that point does the fertilizer leave that particle. We’ve been working to find aptamers that will detect and recognize these signals that are coming from the crop. Then we’ve been putting them into these films and we’ve actually been able to show that these films become more permeable, so they’ll release stuff when the aptamer actually binds to the target. If you’re only going to give it to the plant when the plant says “I need it,” chances are it’s going to get used the most efficiently.

ACCN: What limiting factors need to be overcome

in order­to move toward commercialization?

M.D.: What I anticipate is that we have to have something

that’s going to be kind of a total game-changer, that’s going to show that aptamers can be useful, and then they’ll become more accepted, and we’ll see them in other applications. For some of the things that we’re interested in doing, like this toxin sensor, we think that there’s going to be no competition. Aptamers should be able to do something that other technologies can’t do, and that might lower the resistance to using these in other applications.

ACCN: You’ve talked about aptamers for neuroscience,

food safety and agriculture. What is the makeup of your lab like?

M.D.: I try to seek out a varied background in my grad

students. I have biochemists, I have chemists, I have people who are interested in nanotechnology, I have a physicist, who has now moved into chemistry, I have people that were doing computer science before, who are now doing chemistry. They do need to have a certain background, but I actually like it better if they have something a little bit different to bring to our team. I’m actually learning from my students just as much as they’re learning from me.

20 L’ACTUALITÉ CHIMIQUE CANADIENNE

AVRIL 2011

ACCN: On that note, can you tell us about how your

team won the worldwide “Dance your Ph.D.” contest?

M.D.: It’s very funny. Science magazine has this contest to

encourage people to submit videos about the research they were doing for their PhD: If you had to explain what you were doing in your research in a dance, what would you do?

It was one student in particular, Yasir, who sent an e-mail to everyone in the group as kind of a joke. And I loved it, because SELEX would be an amazing thing to dance. You can imagine people coming in and out. So they picked up on it and they ran with it. I didn’t plan it, I didn’t choreograph it, I didn’t have anything to do with it besides encouraging them, and the students did an amazing job. I’ve been getting feedback from people around the world who are using this to teach what SELEX is all about. It was informative, it was actually accurate, in the sense of the steps that we have to go through, and it was entertaining. My mother says now she finally understands what I do, and who could ask for something better than that?

Watch the “Dance your Ph.D.” contest winning video from Maria De Rosa’s lab on our website, www.accn.ca Want to share your thoughts on this article?

Write to us at magazine@accn.ca or visit us at www.accn.ca

 Continuing

Education for Chemical Professionals

LABORATORY SAFETY COURSE June 7-8, 2011

Montréal, Quebec For → Chemists and chemical technologists whose responsibilities include managing, conducting safety audits or improving the operational safety of chemical laboratories, chemical plants and research facilities.

Registration Fees* CIC Members $550 Non-members $750 Student Members $150

*includes Laboratory Health and Safety Guidelines 4th ed.



For more information, visit www.cheminst.ca/profdev

Did you know you can read back issues of ACCN, the Canadian Chemical News for FREE online?

Go to

www.accn.ca to browse our archives.

Fueling a See Through Revolution

Second in a three part series in which Tim Lougheed traces the dead ends of the past, the frantic scramble of the present and the blue skies of the future of Canada’s position in the global supply of medical radioisotopes­.

Cyclotrons put a new spin on the business of isotope production.

By Tim Lougheed

S

ince the advent of x-ray imaging a little over a century ago, we have steadily improved how we peek at the innermost workings of our own bodies.

This progress means that some ailments can be detected far sooner than ever before.

Nor does detection stop with static pictures. We can visually represent the dynamic processes responsible for metabolism in specific tissues, making it possible to analyse the underlying causes of specific conditions rather than merely viewing pathological evidence such as tumours.

The key to this unprecedented capability lies with an assortment of radioactive isotopes, which are essential to the tens of millions of imaging procedures conducted every year at hospitals and clinics around the world. Producing and distributing these isotopes has become a multinational, multi-billion dollar enterprise, one that grew up in a haphazard way over the last 30 years. Now the technical foundations of this industry are shifting rapidly to address recent shortfalls in global isotope supply, with B.C.’s lower mainland emerging as an epicentre of transition.

*** Medical radioisotopes used for imaging are attached to organic compounds known as ligands, which bind to tissues of interest in vital organs. These compounds are either taken orally by a patient or injected intravenously, so that they

22 L’ACTUALITÉ CHIMIQUE CANADIENNE

AVRIL 2011

can migrate to their targets and accumulate there. Detectors around the patient’s body can then receive gamma rays emitted by the isotopes, revealing the reaction of the ligand as well as its location. Rotating detectors add tomographic detail, yielding a complete three-dimensional rendering.

In this way, cardiologists can determine the blood flow through the heart along with the thickness of muscles responsible for that flow, oncologists can assess the physiological impact of a growing cancer, and neurologists can gauge the activity of brain lobes releasing vital hormones such as dopamine. Techniques for calculating and

COURTESY OF TRIUMF

BUSINESS | MEDICAL RADIOISOTOPES

visualizing this information have benefited from electronic innovations of the past few decades, but the real magic of this approach remains with the use of isotopes. Embedded strategically where the biochemical action is happening, they illuminate the body’s activity from within, rather than simply shining electromagnetic radiation from one side to the other, as a conventional radiograph would do.

The half-lives of these isotopes are often no more than a few hours, minimizing any hazard to the patient consuming them. Moreover, the required amount of radioactive material may be on the order of milligrams. Even so, it needs to be supplied to the medical community rapidly and regularly, posing challenges that have recently forced the federal government to change the way it looks at this vital commodity.

The signal event of this change was the high profile 2007 breakdown of the National Research Universal (NRU) reactor at Chalk River, Ont. Located in a bucolic, well forested section of the Ottawa valley several hours’ drive from the national capital, many Canadians would be hard pressed to find this small town on a map. Nor would many know the full extent of the town’s pivotal role in Canada’s distinguished history of nuclear energy research. But perhaps most surprising would be the revelation that this decades-old facility was the most significant among a mere handful of facilities around the world A technician kneels creating isotopes to meet the needs inside TRIUMF’s main cyclotron while of those millions of medical scans. the lid is raised for When the supply dried up, state­maintenance. Particles start their journey at the ments from public officials spawned centre of the machine puzzlement and panic. Patients and race around in an expanding spiral before waiting for scanning procedures exiting the machine at realized sooner than most that the 75 per cent the speed of light. They are reactor’s problems meant more than then used to produce the hiatus of an isolated research isotopes for science and medicine­. centre. They were told their scanning appointments would have to

be postponed or cancelled altogether, leaving their doctors without the diagnostic benefit of this detailed imagery.

Among the doctors watching these events unfold was Francois Benard, an oncologist at the BC Cancer Research Agency in Vancouver. Although he holds an academic chair devoted to cancer imaging technologies, he had the distinct advantage of being able to consider the matter from a remove.

“My medical practice and my research was not affected at all by this,” he explains. “I was doing PET imaging and working with cyclotrons.”

Benard’s practice, like dozens of others across Canada, depends on isotopes that did not arrive by way of the Chalk River reactor. His supply comes from a room about the size of a single-car garage, in the basement several floors below his office. The site houses a TR-19, a powerful cyclotron that is produced by Advanced Cyclotron Systems (ACSI), based in nearby Richmond. This well-established technology uses magnets to accelerate particles in a tight spiral before launching them at target materials to spawn a variety of different types of isotopes. The molecule that especially interests Benard is fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), an elaborate version of sugar spiked with the fluorine isotope 18F. This combination makes an ideal imaging agent for cancer cells, which have a high glucose uptake.

FDG is the workhorse for Positron Emission Tomography (PET), which electronically integrates gamma ray signals into locating the isotope’s activity. This approach is more sensitive than the widely used single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) system, which requires a secondary device called a collimator to determine location by narrowing the range of gamma rays being received. The collimator’s physical interference limits the resolution of SPECT images to 15-20 millimetres, while PET can achieve 5-10 millimetres.

“It’s been growing very rapidly because it’s probably the best method to detect stages of a number of cancers and evaluate their response to therapy,” he says. “Most major cancer centres now need a PET scanner to provide basic clinical care, because it’s become a standard of care for oncology.”

Even so, PET scanners are more expensive, as are the associated procedures, particularly because 18F has a half life of less than two hours. That restriction means a multi-million dollar cyclotron producing this material must be close at hand, which would explain why Canada has fewer than three dozen PET facilities, but some 2,000 SPECT cameras.

APRIL 2011 CANADIAN CHEMICAL NEWS 23

24 L’ACTUALITÉ CHIMIQUE CANADIENNE

AVRIL 2011

TIM LOUGHEED

SPECT depends on a different One of the beam lines at TRIUMF’s ­sprawling 99m isotope, Tc, which can be ­cyclotron facility, this produced easily on-site with longerone dedicated to ­exotic, ­short-lived ­isotopes lived molybdenum isotopes delivered that ­simulate the types from the Chalk River reactor. After of ­reactions found in novas and supernovas. that facility shut down for a second time in 2008, two experts from ACSI put their heads together to revisit a small body of scientific literature dating back to a 1971 paper in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine. The article demonstrated the feasibility of using a cyclotron typically found in a hospital to generate 99mTc directly from molybdenum that had never seen the inside of a nuclear reactor.

That original paper may have fostered some academic discussion over the next few decades, but by 2009 it had become anything but academic. ACSI hosted a gathering of all interested parties in the field to consider how they could mount a practical alternative to the apparent demise of the NRU. The strategy centred on a specific class of cyclotrons that could be installed in key locations across the country to produce 99mTc; in fact, some of the cyclotrons already installed to make isotopes for PET scanners might even be adapted for this purpose.

British Columbia’s lower mainland was the logical starting point for this proposal, since the region is a major locus of cyclotron expertise. ACSI, which manufactures complete

systems for customers all over the world, emerged in the 1980s from EBCO Industries, founded as a modest tool-anddie operation more than 50 years ago by German immigrant Helmut Eppich. In the early 1970s, EBCO helped assemble the major 500 MeV cyclotron that became the backbone of the TRIUMF, a national particle and nuclear physics research centre on the University of British Columbia campus that is allied with 16 universities.

ACSI’s efforts ultimately focused on the Non-reactorbased Isotope Supply Contribution Program (NISP), a 2010 federal initiative looking for new ways of maintaining a reliable Canadian supply of medical isotopes in a future without a functioning NRU at Chalk River. Natural Resources Canada put up $35 million for such work, and fully half of that total went to initiatives featuring ACSI, TRIUMF, and the BC Cancer Agency. The program’s two-year timeline is remarkably short, reflecting the perceived urgency of the situation and the lengthy start-up period that most solutions will require.

ACSI became the largest single recipient of NISP funding, $11 million for work with pilot facilities at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Sherbrooke (CHUS) in Sherbrooke, Que. and at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Each site will have one of the company’s highpower 24 MeV cyclotrons, testing their ability to turn out 99mTc under steady clinical conditions. ACSI estimates that either site could meet as much as 15 per cent of Canada’s entire demand, although the distribution of the isotope would be determined by its half life, a limitation that will define the ultimate size of various regional markets across the country.

“We have an opportunity to make a big, positive impact throughout the world in this industry,” says ACSI President and CEO Richard Eppich, the founder’s son, who would welcome a network of such sites that could provide 99mTc to every corner of the country.

Much of that network might already exist, in the form of less powerful cyclotrons already installed in various medical centres.

NISP provided $6 million to a consortium that will examine the contribution that these facilities could make to overall 99mTc output. The consortium, dubbed CycloTech99, consists of TRIUMF, the BC Cancer Agency, the Lawson Health Research Institute in London, Ont., and the Centre for Probe Development and Commercialization at McMaster University.

“We felt that we wanted to do a more distributed model, and pick up on existing PET cyclotrons that can make the isotope,” says Tom Ruth, a TRIUMF nuclear chemist

BUSINESS | MEDICAL RADIOISOTOPES who took part in a task force that reported to the federal government on alternative isotope-manufacturing strategies.

According to his colleague, radiochemist Paul Schaffer, this goal poses a number of chemical and mechanical challenges­. For example, while highly purified 100Mo makes an excellent source, it must be imported from foreign laboratories or purified on site. It must be fabricated into a target material with mechanical properties appropriate for use in a standard cyclotron system. Electroplating the molybdenum on a copper substrate would be one preferred method, but researchers are considering a number of techniques for making these targets in a reliable and robust fashion.

“Now what we have to do is make sure that what we’ve done can withstand the cyclotron environment when it’s being irradiated,” he says. Current experiments are doing just that, measuring features such as optimal geometries for high-yield and high-efficiency production of 99Tc. TRIUMF is also participating in a separate project to develop new 100Mo ­purification technology at commercial scale.

But even as such innovations upend and reinvent the entire health services sector that depends on medical isotopes,



patients should notice no difference in the way their procedures are carried out, nor in their access to those procedures.

At TRIUMF, Ruth is enthusiastic about that prospect.

“We will be successful at some level,” he says. “Whether we can achieve the optimal level will depend on whether all these interrelated pieces come together in a timely fashion.”

Meanwhile, the discussion that began 40 years ago in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine came full circle last year, when members of ACSI and the Université de Sherbrooke published a paper there describing an initial 2009 demonstration project that yielded 99mTc with the CHUS cyclotron.

One of the paper’s co-authors is Roger Lecomte, Scientific Head of the Centre de recherche clinique Étienne of the CHUS. According to him, “the cyclotron is a modern, proven, and safe technology that requires no highly enriched uranium and produces no nuclear waste.”

Watch for the third and last instalment in our series on medical ­radioisotopes in our June issue. The writing of these stories has been ­supported and enhanced by a journalism award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Want to share your thoughts on this article?

Write to us at magazine@accn.ca or visit us at www.accn.ca

Chemical Institute of Canada

The 2012 Canadian Green Chemistry and Engineering Network (CGCEN) Awards: • Canadian Green Chemistry and Engineering Network Award (Individual) Sponsored by GreenCentre Canada

• Ontario Green Chemistry and Engineering Network Award (Individual)

Sponsored by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment

• Ontario Green Chemistry and Engineering Network Award (Organizational) Sponsored by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment

The awards will be presented at the 61st Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference in London, Ont. on October 23-26, 2011 and will showcase top performers in green chemistry and engineering.

Nominations for these awards are being accepted now. Deadline:

July 4, 2011 for the 2012 selection.

Visit www.cheminst.ca/greenchemistryawards for more details contact awards@cheminst.ca.

The Canadian Green Chemistry and Engineering Network is a forum of the Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC).

CIC

APRIL 2011 CANADIAN CHEMICAL NEWS 25



Chemical Institute of Canada

Nominations are now open for the

Chemical­Institute of Canada­

2012AWARDS

Do you know an outstanding person who deserves to be recognized?

Chemical Institute of Canada­Medal Environment Division Research and Development Award Montréal Medal Macromolecular Science and Engineering­Award CIC Award for Chemical Education­

Act now!

Deadlines The deadline for all CIC awards is July 4, 2011 for the 2012 selection.

Nomination Procedure Submit your nominations electronically to: awards@cheminst.ca

Nomination forms and the full Terms of Reference for these awards are available at www.cheminst.ca/awards.

SOCIETY NEWS RECOGNITION

CIC and CSC 2011 Award Winners Announced

Matthew Macauley, Scripps Research Institute, for research carried

out at Simon Fraser University: CCUCC Chemistry Doctoral Award for graduate work focusing on problems ranging from physical organic chemistry to physiology of mice.

Cathleen Crudden, MCIC, Queen’s University: Clara Benson

Award for research in metal-catalyzed organic reactions and materials chemistry.

The 2011 winners of the CIC awards are: Mel Usselman, MCIC, University of Western Ontario, Department

of Chemistry: CIC Award for Chemical Education for his commitment to excellence in undergraduate and graduate education. Usselman has taught a wide range of courses in general chemistry, organic ­chemistry, history of science and history of chemistry.

Adi Eisenberg , FCIC, McGill University, Department of

Chemistry: CIC Medal for his research on vesicles, with special emphasis on control of morphological parameters, interfaces, and the filling of ingredients. He is also the co-discoverer of 2-dimensional micellization.

X. Chris Le, FCIC, University of Alberta, Department of Chemistry:

Environment Division Research and Development Award for his research in environmental chemistry linking toxicology, clinical medicine and public health while developing novel technology.

Shiping Zhu , FCIC, McMaster University, Department of

Chemical Engineering: Macromolecular Science and Engineering Award for his research in controlled radical polymerization.

Jan Kwak, FCIC, Dalhousie University and Qatar University,

Departments of Chemistry: Montreal Medal for his contributions to the chemical community through participation in CCUCC and NSERC committees and his positions as chair of the CSC 2006 conference and chair of the accreditation committee, as well as his contribution to international accreditations and his international advisory roles.

Raymond Kapral, FCIC, University of Toronto: E.W.R. Steacie

Award for research in the fields of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics and quantum dynamics.

Jonathan W. Martin, MCIC, University of Alberta: Fred Beamish

Award for research in environmental analytical chemistry, with an emphasis on emerging persistent organic contaminants.

Moshe Shapiro, University of British Columbia: John C. Polanyi

Award for research in the science of the interaction of light with matter.

Paul Ayers, MCIC, McMaster University: Keith Laidler Award for

his research in developing new mathematical and computational tools for describing and predicting chemical processes, especially chemical reactions.

X. Chris Le, FCIC, University of Alberta: Maxxam Award for his

research in analytical chemistry and its novel applications to environmental and health sciences.

Eric Fillion, University of Waterloo: Merck Frosst Centre for

Therapeutic Research Award for his research in the area of geminalorganodimetallic compounds as reactive intermediates in catalytic processes.

Linda Nazar, University of Waterloo: Rio Tinto Alcan Award

for research in developing new materials for energy storage and conversion.

The 2011 winners of the CSC awards are:

Stephen Withers , FCIC, University of British Columbia:

Frederick G. West, MCIC, University of Alberta: Alfred Bader

R. U. Lemieux Award for research in carbohydrate chemistry and enzymology.

Award for his research on various aspects of chemical synthesis: (1) novel strategies for the efficient construction of complex natural products; (2) new methodology based on unusual reactive intermediates; and (3) de novo design of bioactive small molecules with unique binding or transport properties.

Jason M. Thomas, MCIC, McMaster University, for research

carried out at The University of British Columbia: Boehringer Ingelheim (Canada) Doctoral Research Award for graduate work focused on developing new chemical tools to probe the mechanisms of catalytic nucleic acids.

28 L’ACTUALITÉ CHIMIQUE CANADIENNE

AVRIL 2011

Derek P. Gates, MCIC, University of British Columbia: Strem

Chemicals Award for Pure or Applied Inorganic Chemistry for his research that bridges the disciplines of inorganic and polymer chemistry. Gates’ group has developed new classes of phosphoruscontaining macromolecules with unique and useful properties.

André Simpson, MCIC, University of Toronto at Scarborough:

W.A.E. McBryde Medal for his research in the development of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, with the specific objective to address environmental problems at a molecular level.

Happy Half Century The CIC would like to congratulate its 2011 50-year members: Y. Amenomiy, FCIC, Ottawa Barry Blackburn, FCIC, Cobble Hill, B.C. C. Bowman, HFCIC, Sarnia, Ont. Robert Croft, MCIC, Cobourg, Ont. Dushan Dvornik, FCIC, Westmount, Que. Donald Grekul, MCIC, Kingston, Ont. Peter Korol, MCIC, Victoria Jean-Marc Lalancette, FCIC, Sherbrooke, Que. Harry Nagata, MCIC, Downsview, Ont. Basil Parsons, FCIC, Kars, Ont. Marc Pichette, MCIC, Québec City Edward Robinson, FCIC, Porthead, Bristol, U.K. Ian Saunders, FCIC, Sarnia, Ont. Suresh Sharma, MCIC, Victoria John Sparling, MCIC, Mississauga, Ont. John Timar, FCIC, Bright’s Grove, Ont. Leonard Walker, MCIC, Scarborough, Ont. John Wearing, MCIC, Toronto G. Werezak, FCIC, Sarnia, Ont. John Wright, MCIC, Stella, Ont.

Travel Awards Curtis P. Berlinguette, MCIC, University of Calgary, David L. Bryce, MCIC, University of Ottawa, Jennifer Love, MCIC, University of British Columbia and Datong Song, MCIC, University of Toronto are the 2011 winners of the Canadian National Committee for the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry Travel Awards UPCOMING EVENTS May 1–3, 2011 25th Annual Western Canadian Undergraduate Chemistry Conference Winnipeg, Man., http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~chemclub/wcucc/INFORMATION.html May 7, 2011 Science Rendezvous For events in your area see: www.sciencerendezvous.ca/SR2011/ May 20–22, 2011 APICS/CIC Undergraduate Chemistry Conference, (ChemCon 2011) Charlottetown, PEI, http://ic.upei.ca/events/conference/chemcon-2011 May 31–June 4, 2011 3rd Georgian Bay International Conference on Bioinorganic Chemistry Parry Sound, Ont., www.Canbic.ca June 5–9, 2011 94th Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition (CSC 2011) Montréal, Que., www.csc2011.ca July 27–29, 2011 2nd International Conference on Nanotechnology Ottawa, Ont., www.icnfa2011.international-aset.com August 14–18, 2011 Sixteenth International Symposium On Silicon Chemistry (ISOS XVI) Hamilton, Ont., www.isos-xvi.org September 25–29, 2011 8th European Congress of Chemical Engineering Berlin, Germany, www.ecce2011.de October 23-26, 2011 61st Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference (CSChE 2011) London, Ont., www.csche2011.ca November 14–16, 2011 Interamerican Congress of Chemical Engineering Santiago, Chile, www.ciiq2011.cl

APRIL 2011 CANADIAN CHEMICAL NEWS 29

CHEMFUSION

The View from a Giant’s Shoulders

H

By Joe Schwarcz

e was the first to achieve the alchemists’ dream of changing one element into another, yet he wasn’t an alchemist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry but he wasn’t a chemist. The work for which he received the Prize was carried out in Canada, but he wasn’t Canadian. He achieved the first man-made nuclear reaction but he doubted that nuclear energy could ever be controlled by man.

He was Ernest Rutherford, pride of New Zealand, England, Canada and McGill University. The model of the atom he devised in collaboration with Niels Bohr is the one most people are familiar with — a small nucleus surrounded by electrons whirling about in elliptical orbits — although technically speaking, it isn’t exactly correct.

But we won’t split hairs. This is about splitting atoms. And Rutherford was the first ever to do that. He also solved the perplexing problem of radioactivity, concluding that it was the result of the spontaneous disintegration of atoms.

The idea that matter consists of tiny particles can be traced back to the ancient Greek philosopher, Democritus.

Atoms, from the Greek for “indivisible,” were far too small to be seen, but were thought to come in various shapes.

Those that made up water were smooth and round, whereas atoms of fire were thorny. That’s why water flowed readily and fire caused pain. When substances were transformed, such as when ores

30 L’ACTUALITÉ CHIMIQUE CANADIENNE

were smelted into metals, their atoms disengaged from each other and joined together in new patterns. Not a bad idea at all, especially considering that Democritus’ suppositions were born not out of experimentation, but intuition.

Some two thousand years would pass before John Dalton concluded, now based on empirical evidence, that Democritus had been essentially correct. His vision was not of different shaped particles like Democritus, but of solid balls with different weights. Chemical changes were nothing other than a rearrangement of the atoms involved. This model of the atom was pretty well accepted until Rutherford stunned the scientific world with his “gold foil” experiment.

Of course Rutherford did not just wake one day and decide that Dalton’s model was wrong. Progress comes not through giant leaps, but through a series of small steps. Isaac Newton epitomized it: “If I have seen a little further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

Rutherford’s “giant” was French scientist Antoine Becquerel.

In 1896, Becquerel was studying the fluorescence of potassium uranyl sulphate, and found that a photographic plate stored near the chemical became fogged even though the plate was wrapped in black paper. It seemed the compound was radiating something that penetrated matter, a phenomenon that Marie Curie would eventually call “radioactivity.” Becquerel traced the radiation to uranium and concluded that its atoms were emanating some sort of “ray,” suggesting that rather than being featureless spheres, atoms had a mysterious internal structure. It remained for Rutherford to solve the mystery.

In 1895, New Zealand-born Rutherford received a scholarship to Cambridge University in England.

While there, he discovered that Becquerel’s rays were composed of two separate emissions that he named alpha and beta. Eventually he would show that

AVRIL 2011

alpha rays were actually particles, helium atoms stripped of their electrons. When word of Rutherford’s ingenuity reached across the ocean, he was offered a lucrative position at McGill University as head of the physics department. It was here that he showed that some heavy atoms, like uranium, spontaneously decayed into slightly lighter ones as they “radiated” alpha particles and beta rays.

It was those alpha particles that would bestow enduring fame on Rutherford.

In 1907 he returned to England to take up a post at Manchester University.

Here, working with Hans Geiger of counter fame, he developed a method of detecting alpha particles. Rutherford and his student set out to investigate whether these tiny particles could pass through a thin sheet of gold foil. Most particles passed right through, but some bounced straight back! This could only be explained if gold atoms consisted of a nucleus where most of the mass was concentrated, surrounded by “orbiting” electrons. Only when the alpha particles collided with a nucleus did they bounce back. Thus was born the nuclear model of the atom.

Rutherford went on to show that bombarding nitrogen nuclei with alpha particles resulted in their conversion into oxygen, thereby achieving the first ever “transmutation” of one element into another. The path was now prepared for Fermi, Szilard, Teller and Oppenheimer to take the next steps towards exploring the potential of nuclear reactions. But it was for his earlier work, carried out at McGill, that Rutherford received the 1908 Nobel Prize in chemistry. A bemused Rutherford remarked that the fastest transformation he had ever seen was his transformation from a physicist to a chemist!

Joe Schwarcz is the director of McGill University’s Office for Science and Society.

Read his blog at chemicallyspeaking.com.

Want to share your thoughts on this article?

Write to us at magazine@accn.ca or visit us at www.accn.ca



Canadian Society for Chemistry

Nominations are now open for the

Canadian­Society for Chemistry

2012AWARDS

Do you know an outstanding person who deserves to be recognized?

Rio Tinto Alcan Award Alfred Bader Award Strem Chemicals Award for Pure or Applied Inorganic Chemistry Boehringer Ingelheim (Canada) Doctoral Research Award Clara Benson Award Maxxam Award R. U. Lemieux Award Boehringer Ingelheim (Canada) Research Excellence Award Bernard Belleau Award John C. Polanyi Award Fred Beamish Award Keith Laidler Award W. A. E. McBryde Medal E.W.R. Steacie Award CCUCC Chemistry Doctoral Award

Act now!

Deadline The deadline for all CSC awards is July 4, 2011 for the 2012 selection.

Nomination Procedure

Submit your nominations electronically to: awards@cheminst.ca Nomination forms and the full Terms of Reference for these awards are available at www.chemistry.ca/ awards.