RSC NEWS

16 September 2005

Vol 36 :   Issue No. 12

Editors -- Marilyn Holloway and Sue Riches

This edition post-dates another highly successful Birch Lecture series. Given all of the feedback received so far, Professor Roger Tsien gave a very impressive round of lectures, and academics and students across all disciplines have expressed their appreciation and admiration of his presentations. From a non-chemists point of view, and given that I was, at my frail age, seated on the steps with the students, I have to say that his talk was extremely interesting, and while the intricacies of the chemistry floated way above my head, the concepts, the aims and the achievements did not. 'Tis a pity that there is not more communication between academics and general staff - I have a better understanding of what Roger Tsien is striving for than I do of most of my academic colleagues in RSC!

But to change the subject - THE CRICKET! What a test --- and the ashes have gone home. What a wonderous victory it was, and what a riveting test all round; but what dreadful losers you Aussies are! Shame on the lot of you!


WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

CONGRATULATIONS

To the following completing PhD scholar:

Ms Rebecca Marie Taylor BSc MSc Waikato (supervisor Professor Banwell), Exploiting Ring-Fused gem-Dibromocyclopropanes in Novel C-C Bond Forming Reactions: Applications to the Synthesis of Natural Product Frameworks.
Admitted to the PhD Degree 01/08/05
 

HAIR APPARENT

The following paragraph appeared in the 4 July 2005 edition of Fresh Magazine. It refers to the research carried out by Professor Veronica James, one of our Adjunct Professors.

An early diagnosis for breast cancer may one day involve a simple X-ray of a body hair. Measuring the way X-rays are diffracted when passing through a hair could diagnose breast cancer at an earlier stage, plus confirm treatment success, say researchers at the Australian National University. Their study on mice whiskers supported their earlier study on human hair.
 

OTHER NEWS

With deep regret, Professor Collins reports the passing of 35509 (Joe's Motorcycle Wreckers, no flowers by request). After a long and carefree life, following a brief illness, 35509 (aka little red and white Honda) joined the everlasting tour on August 31. Those concerned can rest assured that everything possible was done by Bruce's Motorcycle Repairs, but it soon became clear that the little tike's big end was knocking on the pearly gates.

35509 joined the School in August 1988, working almost every morning and evening for the last 17 years. Quiet conscientious industry marked his time in the School; he never complained even when he had to give up some of his space to the new emergency generator. He will be missed.
 

Recent Arrivals

A sincere welcome is extended to the following people who have arrived since our last issue:

Professor Roger Tsien from the University of California at San Diego who visited the School this week to present the 2005 Birch Lecture.

Mr Jee Loon Foo from the National University of Singapore who has commenced his PhD studies under the supervision of Professor Ollis (room E207, ext. 55061).

Mr Florian Vogt from the University of Munich who is working under the supervision of Professor Banwell as a Visiting International Scholar (room 237, ext. 50793).

Dr Weenawan Somphon from Thailand, the recipient of a 2005 Endeavour Australia Cheung Kong Award, has commenced a six-month Visiting Fellowship with Professor Withers' group (room E8, ext. 55408).

Dr Lorraine Axford from Bristol University who has taken up a Postdoctoral Fellowship with Professor Mander (room 223/224, ext. 57537).
 

Departures

Farewell and best wishes to the following who have left the School since our last issue:

Dr Neal Williams left the School on 10 September to take up an appointment as Research Fellow in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University.

Dr German Cavigliasso left on 22 September to commence an appointment as Research Fellow at University College London.



Staff Publications since last issue as at 15 September 2005

Gill, P.M.W., Gilbert, A.T.B., Taylor, S.W., Friesecke, G., Head-Gordon, M. Decay behavior of least-squares coefficients in auxiliary basis expansions. J. Chem. Phys. (2005), 123(6), 061101/1-4. http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.2000867

Hastings, A.F., Otting, G., Folmer, R.H.A., Duggin, I.G., Wake, G., Wilce, M.C.J., Wilce, J.A. Interaction of the replication terminator protein of Bacillus subtilis with DNA probed by NMR spectroscopy. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. (2005), 335(2), 361-366. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2005.07.082

Jackson, C., Kim, H.-K., Carr, P.D., Liu, J.-W., Ollis, D.L. The structure of an enzyme-product complex reveals the critical role of a terminal hydroxide nucleophile in the bacterial phosphotriesterase mechanism. Biochim. Biophys. Acta (2005), 1752(1), 56-64. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbapap.2005.06.008

Izgorodina, E.I., Coote, M.L., Radom, L. Trends in R-X bond dissociation energies (R = Me, Et, i-Pr, t-Bu; X = H, CH3, OCH3, OH, F): a surprising shortcoming of density functional theory. J. Phys. Chem. A (2005), 109(33), 7558-7566. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jp052021r

Krausz, E., Hughes, J.L., Smith, P., Pace, R., Peterson Årsköld, S. Oxygen-evolving Photosystem II core complexes: a new paradigm based on the spectral identification of the charge-separating state, the primary acceptor and assignment of low-temperature fluorescence. Photochem. Photobiol. Sci. (2005), 4(9), 744-753. http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/b417905f

Kuan, S.L., Leong, W.K., Goh, L.Y., Webster, R.D. Redox-dependent isomerization of organometallic RuII/RuIII compounds containing the hydrotris(methimazolyl)borate ligand: an electrochemical square scheme mechanism. Organometallics (2005), 24(19), 4639-4648. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/om050432o

Mahon, P.J., Oldham, K.B. Diffusion-controlled chronoamperometry at a disk electrode. Anal. Chem. (2005), 77(18), 6100-6101. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ac051034y

Neylon, C., Kralicek, A.V., Hill, T.M., Dixon, N.E. Replication termination in Escherichia coli: structure and antihelicase activity of the Tus-Ter complex. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. (2005), 69(3), 501-526. http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/MMBR.69.3.501-526.2005

Ozawa, K., Jergic, S., Crowther, J.A., Thompson, P.R., Wijffels, G., Otting, G., Dixon, N.A. Cell-free protein synthesis in an autoinduction system for NMR studies of protein-protein interactions. J. Biomol. NMR (2005), 32(3), 235-241. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10858-005-7946-4

Payne, A.D., Willis, A.C., Sherburn, M.S. Practical synthesis and Diels-Alder chemistry of [4]dendralene. J. Am. Chem. Soc. (2005), 127(35), 12188-12189. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ja053772+

Razeghifard, M.R., Chen, M., Hughes, J.L., Freeman, J., Krausz, E., Wydrzynski, T. Spectroscopic studies of photosystem II in chlorophyll d-containing Acaryochloris marina. Biochemistry (2005), 44(33), 11178-11187. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/bi048314c

Simmonett, A.C., Gilbert, A.T.B., Gill, P.M.W. An optimal point-charge model for molecular electrostatic potentials. Mol. Phys. (2005), 103(20), 2789-2793. http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/openurl.asp?genre=article&id=doi:10.1080/00268970500187910

Watt, S.J., Oakley, A., Sheil, M.M., Beck, J.L. Comparison of negative and positive ion electrospray ionization mass spectra of calmodulin and its complex with trifluoperazine. Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. (2005), 19(15), 2123-2130. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/rcm.2039

Webb, A.I., Dunstone, M.A., Williamson, N.A., Price, J.D., de Kauwe, A., Chen, W., Oakley, A., Perlmutter, P., McCluskey, J., Aguilar, M.-I., Rossjohn, J., Purcell, A.W. T Cell determinants incorporating β-amino acid residues are protease resistant and remain immunogenic in vivo. J. Immunol. (2005), 175(6), 3810-3818. http://www.jimmunol.org/cgi/content/abstract/175/6/3810 (Password required - available from ANU library for ANU users)

Welberry, T.R. Diffuse scattering from organic crystals. Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. (2005), 440, 1-21. http://journalsonline.tandf.co.uk/openurl.asp?genre=article&id=doi:10.1080/15421400590957576

Withers, R.L., Liu, Y. A coupled electron diffraction and rigid unit mode (RUM) study of the crystal chemistry of some zeotypic AlPO4 compounds. J. Solid State Chem. (2005), 178(9), 2647-2657. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jssc.2005.06.003

Wood, G.P.F., Rauk, A., Radom, L. Modeling β-scission reactions of peptide backbone alkoxy radicals: backbone C-C bond fission. J. Chem. Theory Comput. (2005), 1(5), 889-899. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ct050133g

Wu, P.S.C., Otting, G. Rapid pulse length determination in high-resolution NMR. J. Magn. Reson. (2005), 176(1), 115-119. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmr.2005.05.018

Wu, P.S.C., Otting, G. SWET for secure water suppression on probes with high quality factor. J. Biomol. NMR (2005), 32(3), 243-250. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10858-005-8531-6

G.M. Wang, D.M. Carberry, J.C. Reid, E.M. Sevick, and D.J. Evans, Demonstration of the steady-state fluctuation theorem from a single trajectory, Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter , submitted June 2005, accepted 28 August 2005.


We regret we have had no time for "Memories" this week.