SOUTHWEST RETORT
SEVENTY-THIRD YEAR
March 2021
Published for the advancement of Chemists, Chemical Engineers and Chemistry in this area published by The Dallas-Fort Worth Section, with the cooperation of five other local sections of the American Chemical Society in the Southwest Region.
Vol. 73(7) March 2021 Editorial and Business Offices: Contact the Editor for subscription and advertisement information. Editor: Connie Hendrickson: retort@acsdfw.org Copy and Layout Editor: Lance Hughes: hugla64@gmail.com Business Manager: Martha Gilchrist: Martha.Gilchrist@tccd.edu The Southwest Retort is published monthly, September through May, by the Dallas-Ft. Worth Section of the American Chemical Society, Inc., for the ACS Sections of the Southwest Region.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Fifty Years Ago………………………….......5 ARTICLES and COLUMNS Letter from the Editor…..…..……..............16 The Chair’s Corner…………………….…...7 NEWS SHORTS Extracting Information from Ancient Teeth …………………………………...........9 How ‘green’ are Environmentally Friendly Fireworks?.……………………………........10 Termite Gut Microbes could Aid Biofuel Production…………………………….........12 An mRNA Vaccine for Cancer Immunotherapy……………...……………………..…….13 Ghosts of Past Pesticide use can Haunt Organic Farms for Decades.………….....…....14
Contact the DFW Section General: info@acsdfw.org Education: ncw@acsdfw.org Elections: candidates@acsdfw.org Facebook: DFWACS Twitter: acsdfw
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ANNOUNCEMENTS and MEETINGS Virtual Meeting in Miniature…………..…..6 ACS DFW Virtual Meeting………...…....….8 Elemental Art Contest……………………..11 ..15 INDEX OF ADVERTISERS Huffman Laboratories……………..…........3 Vance Editing…..……………….…...….......3 TMJ Data Entry and Editing.………......…3 ANA-LAB…………………………...….…..4
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DOCUMENT TITLE
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FIFTY YEARS AGO IN THE SOUTHWEST RETORT The 1971 Southwest Regional Meeting was held in San Antonio on Dec. 1-3. The General Chair will be Dr. John T. Goodwin, Jr. of the Southwest Research Institute. The Technical Program Chair will be Dr. Dale A. Clark of the USAF School of Aerospace Medicine at Brooks Air Force Base. The upcoming ACS tour speaker for April will be Dr. Dean F. Martin of Duke University. His talks will be taken from the following group of three: “Chemical Challenge of the Sea;” “Recent Red Tide Research;” and “Chemical Compiled by Reactions of the Sea.” E. Thomas Strom Southern University, Shreveport-Bosier Campus and the Ark-La-Tex ACS local section have announced a massive, no fee, summer science program for 50 high school students. The Second Annual Summer Program will be offered June 14 through July 30 at the Shreveport-Bosier Campus of Southern University. Pan American Laboratories, Inc. of Brownsville, Texas, has expanded its environmental testing department with new gas chromatography equipment. Pan American Laboratories, a member of the American Council of Independent Laboratories, was organized in Brownsville in 1954.
Dr. Ronald W. Estabrook of UTSouthwestern Medical School attended a December meeting in San Francisco of the NSF Bionational Indian Science Committee. Also at UT-Southwestern Drs. Bettie Sue Masters and Charles E. Mize have received March 2021
research grants from the Welch Foundation. At Texas Woman’s University Drs. L. R. Caswell, W. S. Hamilton, J. E. Johnson, L. C. Sams and G. H. Stewart attended the Welch Conference on “Solid State Chemistry” in Houston, Nov. 9-11. At East Texas State Dr. Charles S. Rohrer received a $54,668 grant from NSF for a four week summer sequential institute for junior and senior high school teachers. Three master’s degrees programs have been approved for Tarleton State College by the Coordinating Board of the Texas College and University System. These degrees are for Master of Education, Master of Arts-Teaching, and Master of Arts-Science-Teaching. Dr. Jack Towne has joined the faculty of the University of Dallas as Professor of Chemistry. At Mobil Field Research Laboratory Drs. Donald E. Woessner and Brinkley S. Snowden, Jr. attended the 12th Experimental NMR Conference held Feb. 18-20 at the University of Florida. The University of Arkansas chemistry department has been awarded an NSF Research Instruments Grant to purchase an EPR spectrometer. Faculty member Dr. Lothar Schafer visited East Texas State University on Feb. 16 to present a seminar. He also presented a later seminar at TCU. Dr. Arthur Fry presented seminars on “Carbon-14 Tracer Studies of Ketone Rearrangements” Mar. 3 at Southern State College, Mar. 4 at Centenary College and Mar. 5 at Northwestern State University.
At Baylor University Welch Professor Malcolm Dole received a $73,700 NSF grant to support his research on macroions in the gas phase.
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The Chair’s Corner Welcome to March 2021. Just when we thought we were starting to get out of the woods with respect to events interrupting our local section activities, we experience once in the century winter weather and temperatures. Given the difficulties that many in our local section were having we postponed Dr. Angela Wilson’s talk that was scheduled for February. That talk is now rescheduled for March 26th at 6:30 PM. It will be held via zoom (https:// us02web.zoom.us/j/7176687551) and is free to join. I hope to see many of you there (virtually). Dr. Wilson is the president-elect of the national honor society. For those that do not know, Dr. Wilson is also a long-time member of the DFW Local Section, so this will be a bit of a homecoming for her. Dr. Wilson will present a talk entitled, “The ACS: Past, Present, and Future.” We have officially opened the nomination process for the Wilfred T. Doherty Award, Werner Schulz Award, and the Chemistry Ambassador Awards for 2021. Anyone can nominate someone from the local section for these awards. Each nomination should contain a completed nomination form, a cover letter highlighting the nominee’s accomplishments, and a copy of the nominee’s CV. One second letter may accompany nominations. The nomination package should be sent by email as a single pdf file Dr.. Trish Smith at trishsmithtx@gmail.com. Nomination forms are available on the webpage (www.acsdfw.org). The deadline is May 01, 2021 Our Local Section is also soliciting nominations for outstanding seniors in ChemisMarch 2021
try or related principles at each college/ university in the area each year. We are also doing the same with community colleges and their second-year students. Each university will nominate one senior to be recognized and the chair of each department should have received information to nominate their outstanding chemistry student. The DFW Local Section is also very excited to be presenting the local Meeting in Miniature virtually on May 01, 2021. Additional information including abstract submission can be found on the webpage (www.acsdfw.org). Additionally, the Local Section is also looking at an industryfocused talk in April, and a graduate-student led roundtable in May. Further engagement of our colleagues in the industry and our graduate students are focus areas for 2021. Much more information to come on all of these topics. Once again, the executive committee is very excited about 2021 and the local section's future. If there is anything that I can do for you, please don’t hesitate to reach out at any time (trey.putnam@ttuhsc.edu). Best, Trey Putnam 2021 Chair DFW Local Section of the ACS
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March 26: ACS-DFW Virtual Meeting - Dr. Angela Wilson - The ACS: Past, Present and Future RESCHEDULED: Please attend the first ACS-DFW virtual meeting of 2021, on Fri, March 26 at 6:30 pm. "The ACS: Past, Present and Future" ACS DFW Local Section is happy to host a virtual talk by Dr. Angela K. Wilson Angela K. Wilson, John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Michigan State University, is the National President-Elect of the American Chemical Society. Dr. Wilson will serve as president of the society in 2022. Dr. Wilson will present a talk entitled, “The ACS: Past, Present and Future.”
Date: Friday, March 26, 2021 – Talk beginning at 6:30 PM Location: Zoom (https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7176687551)
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From the ACS Press Room
Extracting Information from Ancient Teeth “Comparing the Use of Magnetic Beads with Ultrafiltration for Ancient Dental Calculus Proteomics”
important to apply methods that can extract the most information from minuscule samples. Although no gold-standard method for calculus analysis exists, filter-based techJournal of Proteome Research niques are often used, but they can be time There’s a surprising amount of information consuming and can introduce contaminants. stored in the hardened plaque, or calculus, So, teams led by Michael Buckley and Cherbetween teeth. And if that calculus belongs to yl Makarewicz wanted to see whether anoththe remains of a person who lived in ancient er method, called single-pot, solid-phasetimes, the information could reveal new in- enhanced sample preparation (SP3), could sights about the past. But the tiny samples improve the number and complexity of procan be difficult to work with. Now, in tein fragments that could be analyzed from ACS’ Journal of Proteome Research, scien- preserved plaque. tists apply a new method to this analysis, The researchers, led by Karren Palmer, apfinding more proteins than traditional ap- plied SP3 to the analysis of calculus from 153 ancient individuals dating from between proaches. st th The hu- the 1 and 4 century BCE. With SP3, functionalized magnetic beads grabbed onto proman mouth is tein fragments, making them easy to analyze full of in- by mass spectrometry. The researchers found that SP3 reliably increased the number of teresting molecules: unique protein fragments they could identify DNA and in samples, including smaller peptides that two other methods, ultrafiltration and acetone enzymes in saliva, precipitation, missed. SP3 was also easy to perform and less likely to introduce contamiproteins and lipids from bits of food stuck between nants than the other methods. Using this apteeth, the bacterial citizens of the oral micro- proach, the researchers identified fragments biome. Under the right conditions, those mol- of dairy proteins from the subjects’ diets, as ecules can be preserved in dental calculus for well as bacterial proteins that could shed thousands of years. Identifying the biomole- light on ancient diseases.
cules preserved within ancient plaque gives researchers clues about how our ancestors lived, what they ate, what diseases they had and more. However, there’s only so much plaque one can scrape off of old teeth, so it’s March 2021
The authors acknowledge funding from the European Research Council and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.
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From the ACS Press Room
How ‘green’ are Environmentally Friendly Fireworks? “Are Environmentally Friendly Fireworks Really “Green” on Air Quality: A Case Study from the 2019 National Day Fireworks Display in Shenzhen” Environmental Science & Technology Fireworks are used in celebrations around the world, including Independence Day in the U.S., the Lantern Festival in China and the Diwali Festival in India. However, the popular pyrotechnic displays emit large amounts of pollutants into the atmosphere, sometimes causing severe air pollution. Now, researchers reporting in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology have estimated that, although so-called environmentally friendly fireworks emit 15– 65% less particulate matter than traditional fireworks, they still significantly deteriorate air quality. Fireworks displays can cause health problems, such as respiratory ailments, because they release high levels of air pollutants, including particulate matter (PM), sulfur dioxide, heavy metals and perchlorates. As a result, some cities have banned their use. But because the displays are an important aspect of many traditional celebrations, researchers and manufacturers have tried to develop more environMarch 2021
mentally friendly pyrotechnics, including those with smokeless charges and sulfur-free propellants. Although research suggests that these fireworks emit less pollutants, their impact on air quality has not been evaluated. Ying Li and colleagues wanted to use data from a large fireworks display held in Shenzhen, China, on Chinese National Day on Oct. 1, 2019, to assess how “green” these fireworks really are. The researchers estimated emissions of PM2.5, which is PM with a diameter of 2.5 µm and smaller, from the 160,000 environmentally friendly fireworks set off during the display, as well as emissions from traditional fireworks. They used information on the wind direction, wind speed, temperature and chemical composition of the fireworks to simulate the size, trajectory and peak PM2.5 values for the smoke plume resulting from the event. Then, they compared their simulated values with actual data on PM2.5 concentrations measured at 75 monitoring stations throughout the city following the fireworks display. In agreement with the team’s predictions, the data showed that the fireworks smoke plume began as a narrow band that traveled northward before being fully dispersed, with peak PM2.5 levels similar to the predictions. The researchers used their validated simulation to estimate that the use of environmentally friendly fireworks produces a much smaller, shorter-lasting plume, with 15–65% of the PM2.5 emissions of a display using traditional fireworks. However, the peak concentration of
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From the ACS Press Room PM2.5 still greatly exceeds World Health Organization guidelines. This led the researchers to conclude that the number of “green” fireworks used at one time should be restricted. The authors acknowledge funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Guangdong Province Science and Technology Planning Project of China and Shenzhen Science and Technology Pro-
2021 DFW Section Officers Chair: Trey Putnam Chair-elect: Mihaela C. Stefan
Past Chair: Mihaela C. Stefan Treasurer: Martha Gilchrist Secretary: Heidi Conrad Councilors: Mary Anderson, Linda Schultz, E. Thomas Strom, and Jason McAfee Alternate Councilors: Michael Bigwood, John McIlroy, Daniela Hutanu, and Danny Tran
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From the ACS Press Room
Termite Gut Microbes could Aid Biofuel Production “Termite Gut Microbiota Contribution to Wheat Straw Delignificaton in Anaerobic Bioreactors”
ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering Wheat straw, the dried stalks left over from grain production, is a potential source of biofuels and commodity chemicals. But before straw can be converted to useful products by biorefineries, the polymers that make it up must be broken down into their building blocks. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering have found that microbes from the guts of certain termite species can help break down lignin, a particularly tough polymer in straw. In straw and other dried plant material, the three main polymers –– cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin –– are interwoven into a complex 3D structure. The first two polymers are polysaccharides, which can be broken down into sugars and then converted to fuel in bioreactors. Lignin, on the other hand, is an aromatic polymer that can be converted to useful industrial chemicals. Enzymes from fungi can degrade lignin, which is the toughest of the three polymers to break down, but scientists are searching for bacterial enzymes that are easier to produce. In previous research, Guillermina Hernandez-Raquet and colleagues had shown that gut microbes from four termite species could degrade lignin in anaerobic bioreactors. Now, in a collaboration with Yuki Tobimatsu and Mirjam Kabel, they wanted to take a closer look at the process by which microbes from the woodeating insects degrade lignin in wheat straw, March 2021
and identify the modifications they make to this material. The researchers added 500 guts from each of four higher termite species to separate anaerobic bioreactors and then added wheat straw as the sole carbon source. After 20 days, they compared the composition of the digested straw to that of untreated straw. All of the gut microbiomes degraded lignin (up to 37%), although they were more efficient at breaking down hemicelluloses (51%) and cellulose (41%). Lignin remaining in the straw had undergone chemical and structural changes, such as oxidation of some of its subunits. The researchers hypothesized that the efficient degradation of hemicelluloses by the microbes could have also increased the degradation of lignin that is cross-linked to the polysaccharides. In future work, the team wants to identify the microorganisms, enzymes and lignin degradation pathways responsible for these effects, which could find applications in lignocellulose biorefineries. The authors acknowledge funding from the PHC Sakura program, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, the Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere, the European Union’s Horizon 2020 ZELCOR program, the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment, the Region Languedoc-Roussillon Midi-Pyrénées grant and the Carnot Institute 3BCAR project.
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From the ACS Press Room
An mRNA Vaccine for Cancer Immunotherapy “In Situ Transforming RNA Nanovaccines from Polyethylenimine Functionalized Graphene Oxide Hydrogel for Durable Cancer Immunotherapy” Nano Letters Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines to prevent COVID-19 have made headlines around the world recently, but scientists have also been working on mRNA vaccines to treat or prevent other diseases, including some forms of cancer. Now, researchers reporting in ACS’ Nano Letters have developed a hydrogel that, when injected into mice with melanoma, slowly released RNA nanovaccines that shrank tumors and kept them from metastasizing. Cancer immunotherapy vaccines work similarly to mRNA vaccines for COVID-19, except they activate the immune system to attack tumors instead of a virus. These vaccines contain mRNA that encodes proteins made specifically by tumor cells. When the mRNA enters antigen-presenting cells, they begin making the tumor protein and displaying it on their surfaces, triggering other immune cells to seek and destroy tumors that also make this protein. However, mRNA is an unstable molecule that is quickly degraded by enzymes in the body. For cancer immunotherapy, researchers have tried using nanoparticles to protect and deliver mRNA, but they are typically cleared from the body within 1-2 days after injection. Guangjun Nie, Hai Wang and colleagues wanted to develop a hydrogel that, when injected under the skin, would slowly release mRNA nanoMarch 2021
particles, along with an adjuvant –– a molecule that helps activate the immune system. To develop their system, the researchers used ovalbumin (a protein found in chicken egg whites) as a model antigen. The team mixed ovalbumin mRNA and an adjuvant with other compounds to form a hydrogel. When injected under the skin of mice with melanoma tumors engineered to express ovalbumin, the hydrogel slowly released mRNA and adjuvant nanoparticles over a 30 -day period. The mRNA vaccine activated T cells and stimulated antibody production, causing tumors to shrink in the treated mice. Also, in contrast to untreated mice, the vaccinated mice did not show any metastasis to the lung. These results demonstrate that the hydrogel has great potential for achieving long-lasting and efficient cancer immunotherapy with only a single treatment, the researchers say. The authors acknowledge funding from the National Key R&D Program of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the K. C. Wong Education Foundation.
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From the ACS Press Room
Ghosts of Past Pesticide use can Haunt Organic Farms for Decades “Widespread Occurrence of Pesticides in Organically Managed Agricultural Soils— the Ghost of a Conventional Agricultural Past?” Environmental Science & Technology
Although the use of pesticides in agriculture is increasing, some farms have transitioned to organic practices and avoid applying them. But it’s uncertain whether chemicals applied to land decades ago can continue to influence the soil’s health after switching to organic management. Now, researchers reporting in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology have identified pesticide residues at 100 Swiss farms, including all the organic fields studied, with beneficial soil microbes’ abundance negatively impacted by their occurrence.
Fungicides, herbicides and insecticides protect crops by repelling or destroying organisms that harm the plants. In contrast, organic agriculture management strategies avoid adding synthetic substances, instead relying on a presumably healthy existing March 2021
soil ecosystem. However, some organic farms are operating on land treated with pesticides in the past. Yet, it’s unclear whether pesticides have a long-lasting presence in organically managed fields and what the reverberations are to soil life, specifically microbes and beneficial soil fungi, years after their application. So, Judith Riedo, Thomas Bucheli, Florian Walder, Marcel van der Heijden and colleagues wanted to examine pesticide levels and their impact on soil health on farms managed with conventional versus organic practices, as well as on farms converted to organic methods. The researchers measured surface soil characteristics and the concentrations of 46 regularly used pesticides and their breakdown products in samples taken from 100 fields that were managed with either conventional or organic practices. Surprisingly, the researchers found pesticide residues at all of the sites, including organic farms converted more than 20 years prior. Multiple herbicides and one fungicide remained in the surface soil after the conversion to organic practices; though the total number of synthetic chemicals and their concentrations decreased significantly the longer the fields were in organic management. According to the researchers, some of the pesticides alternatively could have contaminated the organic fields by traveling through the air, water or soil from nearby conventional fields. In
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The Doherty Award is given for excellence in chemical research or chemistry teaching, Nominees may come from industry, academia, government, or small business. The nominee should be a resident member in the area served by the ACS DFW Local Section, and the work should have been performed here. The award is $1500 and an engraved plaque. The Schulz Award is given to high school chemistry teachers, who, like the late Dr. Werner Schulz, bring that something extra to the teaching of chemistry. The nominee and/ or nominator need not be ACS members. Nominees should show excellence in chemistry teaching, as demonstrated by testimonials from students and fellow teachers, results in student competitions, and diligence in updating and expanding scientific/teaching credentials. The award is $1500 and an engraved plaque.
the promotion of chemistry in the community. The award is $500. Each nomination should contain a completed nomination form, a cover letter highlighting the nominee’s accomplishments, and a copy of the CV. One second letter may accompany nominations. The nomination package should be sent by email as a single pdf file to Dr. Trish Smith at trishsmithtx@gmail.com. Nominations remain active for five years but should be updated annually.
The deadline is May 01, 2021 Continued from Page 14
addition, the team observed lower microbial abundance and decreased levels of a beneficial microbe when fields had higher numbers of pesticides in the fields, suggesting that the The DFW Section instituted the Chemistry presence of these substances can decrease Ambassador Award to recognize an out- soil health. The researchers say future work standing Section member who has made a smeritorious service to ACS, new chemical significant impact by promoting chemistry methodology (for the industry), solution of to the community. The 2021 Chemistry pollution problems, and advances in curative Ambassador of the Year award is based on or preventive chemotherapy. hould examine peer or self-nominations to the selection the synergistic effects of pesticide residues committee. Submissions should be one page and other environmental stressors on soil in length and address the community out- health. reach activities either through teaching, ser- The authors acknowledge funding vice, or working with legislators to affect from Agroscope, Swiss Federal Office for public policy. Submissions will be evaluat- the Environment, the Swiss National Science ed on the impact made, which may include Foundation and the National Research Probut not limited to how many people were gram ‘Sustainable use of soil as a resource’. reached, impact on individual people in the community, and exemplary commitment to March 2021
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From the Editor
Take note of the Virtual Meeting-in-Miniature: the deadline is not until April 21 and a meeting date of May 1. The rescheduled DFW Virtual meeting will take place on March 26. At first, I thought my favorite paper was the analysis of prehistoric dental calculus and how much we can learn from it…”the human mouth is full of interesting molecules: DNA and enzymes in saliva, proteins and lipids from bits of food stuck between teeth, the bacterial citizens of the oral microbiome. Under the right conditions, those molecules can be preserved in dental calculus for thousands of years…”. But then I read the paper about termite gut microbes and the breakdown of lignin in straw and plant waste; it is much harder to break down lignin than the polysaccharides found in such waste. Previously, enzymes from fungi were used to break down lignin but a bacterial enzyme would be much easier to produce...thus the peering into the gut of termites.
Gut bacteria, or gut flora, are always interesting...turns out that Wolbachia, a bacteria found in the gut of heartworms, is symbiotic with the heartworms. Killing these bacteria with doxycycline results in ultimate death of the heartworms, although over an extended time period...1 year plus. (If you are interested in the mechanism of this, todaysveterinarypractice.com has a discussion including journal references.) Be safe: mask up, socially distance, and get on a vaccination list (or lists), and go to those virtual meetings!
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