ChemSemBlog

Dr. Basar Bilgicer was the featured presenter at this week’s ChemSem installment. The simple focus of his presentation worked upon the well known chemical fact that two bonds are better than one. A complex organism produces antibodies which, upon encountering a foreign antigen, attach to its surface. When a large number of these antibodies attach, the mass and concentration triggers and immune response which works to expel the antigen from the system now that it has been identified. Often, the binding antibodies are monovalent having one site which bonds to the antigen. However, if antibodies are available that are divalent, they can bond to the antigen in more than one site, keeping them from detaching and encouraging the immune response.

Admittedly there were several portions of this presentation which were beyond my understanding of nature. I never focused much on either biology or biochemistry, and it took some catching up in order to grasp the material. I was curious to find out why the divalent antibodies didn’t slow immune response considering the fact that they bound twice as many antigen sites but only developed half the antibody density. Furthermore, it was unclear whether these antibodies were entirely synthetic (it appeared as if they were) and therefore had unknown internal biochemistry in organisms. Bilgicer did admit that the conditions of his trials on the divalent antibodies were significantly different than the internal circumstances to which they would ultimately be applied. Finally, I was interested to find that more than 35% of current pharmaceutical research was focused on antibody development, which seemed to suggest it was a much larger field than is publicized. Is the lack of notable material regarding it simply due to secrecy on the part of pharmaceutical corporations, or is the research still significantly in its infancy?

Regardless of all of this, the chemistry to precipitate and separate the antibodies from their respective solutions was explained in a straight-forward and clear manner and I thought overall Bilgicer did a good job of expressing his research and the efforts of his team in analyzing this material. In the end, though I didn’t fully understand the intricacies of the matter, the fundamental principles seem reasonable and well worth further study.

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Assistant chemical & biomolecular engineering professor from Notre Dame, Basar Bilgicer obviously was well qualified to do the presentation on amino acids and antibody, as he has worked on peptide design using unnatural amino acids while pursuing his PhD degree. His presentation was well-paced, ending right around the time when the seminar is supposed to be over, but over my head mostly, because I forgot a lot of things I learned in biology and biochemistry classes. However, the general idea of the presentation was easy to follow and understandable.

During his presentation, I learned that there are two kinds of antibodies (monovalent, which only binds on one spot, vs bivalent, which binds on two spots). To study bivalent antibodies, using two rigid seperate antigens or short antigen pairs so that the antigen pair cannot be binded by one antibody. In order for antibody and hapten (ligand) pair to occur, tight bonding and easily modified hapten structure are necessary. I was also reminded of size exclusion chromatography that allows the larger molecules to come out faster than the smaller ones using porous gels. I learned that antibody cyclic aggregates provides higher stability due to bivalency, and sufficient  concentration is necessary in forming antibody complexes. One good application of an antibody complex was pharmaceutical companies making drugs from it.

Three questions I came up with duing his presentations were 1) what is hapten? is it same as antigens ?, 2) would stability increase continuously as more antibody aggregates to form antibody complexes?, and 3) are the antibodies you used made commercially or by humans?

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For this seminars topic the presenter, Basar Bilgicer, allowed the audience to choose the topic that they would like to here him present on.  The topic of choice was Multivalent Antibody Aggregation.  However, before we get into his talk here is a little background on our presenter.  Basar Bilgicer was born in Istanbul and received his undergraduate degree in Chemistry at Bogaziki University in Turkey.  In 1999 he found himself in Boston pursuing his PhD in Chemistry at Tufts University, where he worked on peptide design using unnatural amino acids.  As a graduate student he published several first author articles and some of his work was even highlighted by Chemical and Engineering News.  After earning his PhD in 2004 Basar Biligicer moved to George Whitesides group in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University.  Since then he has been working to understand the thermodynamics and kinetics of multivalent interactions, more specifically the association of bivalent antibodies.  Basar Bilgicer is currently working-on research at the University of Notre Dame where he concentrates on designing multivalent molecules for diagnostic and therapeutic applications for cancer, autoimmune diseases and allergies.

Now that we have a little background, here is what Basar Bilgicer had to say about Multivalent Antibody Aggregation. One of the major challenges for Antibodies is to be found by the appropriate pathogen in order to get rid of the pathogen.  There are a few different types of antibodies.  There are monovalent antibodies which is similar to having the antibody grab onto the pathogen with one arm.  Whereas bivalent antibodies would be similar to grabbing on with two arms.  A bivalent antibody obviously would be a better choice because the bond is stronger because the the increased number of bonds formed.  Also, it depends on the valency of the antibody to determine how complex of a structure it will form. For example the more valent it is the larger it can become creating more bonds.  Once these antibodies are made there are several ways that a person can harvest them from the test sample.  The most common laboratory way is to use a centrifuge to separate and purify the complexes.  However, all this takes money in order to research to develop.  The money tree has not been invented yet so until there is one research in this field for most individuals is very limited.

Even though Basar Bilgicer had a really cool and interesting topic he did not seem to portray that in his presentation.  I felt that his presentation was very dry and almost dull.  He seemed monotone for most of his talk so following and understanding him was a challenge.  He seemed to like his topic but he did not seem excited to share his topic.  He had vast knowledge of his topic so therefore he was excited about his stuff but sharing it seemed to lack emphasis and enthusiasm.  Overall he was extremely nice and even finished on time. Great job overall.

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The past week speaker, Basar Bilgicer, is a faculty member from Notre Dame University. He came to give a presentation on peptide design and multivalent antibodies. More specifically, he was examining the IgG antibody. He first explained to us the basics of antibodies and how they have binding sites for antigens. The Immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody had two binding sites for antigens. The antibody itself looks similar to a “Y” in shape and is composed of light chains and heavy chains.

So the purpose of his research was to examine monovalent and bivalent antibodies. It was interesting to see how entropy was payed off between the monovalent and bivalent because the antibody arms were linked together. Bilgicer then did further investigation where he used substrates that were linked together close enough so that they wouldn’t bind to the same antibody in different arms. He then did some chromatography with a column of beads where different sizes resulted in different rates of falling through the column. Large would fall first, while smaller one got caught inside the holes in the beads and took longer to pass through the column. He found that there were bivalent and trivalent formations of the antibodies.

Overall, I thought his presentation was pretty interesting. He spoke clearly and was able to deliver his message clearly without much confusion. He kept his information relatively easy to understand and follow so that students wouldn’t get too lost or disinterested. He finished well below the allotted time allowed which provided for ample time for the Q&A period, which was utilized well.

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Originally from Istanbul and now at Notre Dame, Basar Bilgicer seems to have quite an impressive resume. Currently he is studying the characteristics of multivalent reactions, specifically bivalent antibodies. His voice has a notable accent but it did not affect communication. At first, his presentation style was teacher-like but after covering basic information (such as the shape of antibodies) and asking if the audience had taken a course in biochemistry, he went deeper into the material.

Multivalent reactions are favorable as the amount of entropy for multiple bonds costs the same amount of entropy for a single bond in the same conditions. So the amount of free energy increases for a bivalent bond relative to a monovalent bond. To study these reactions, Bilgicer used hapten, a ligand whose response is related to pain sensory. It binds to antibodies but does not cause an immune reaction. As well as studying the thermodynamic and kinetic aspects of multivalent reactions, Bilgicer and his team of researchers work on the design of various drugs. Multiple bonds result in stronger attachments, which mean longer attachments. The illustration Bilgicer used was using two arms to hold on to an object instead of one.

Bilgicer’s research illustrates how something very basic as the form of the antibody can yield improvements in medicine by understanding the function. While the level of understanding the concept of multivalent reactions was simple, the process in researching and proving and understanding the reactions at a deeper level proved to be trickier than I thought.

Laymen’s Summary of Chemistry Seminar: Your immune response involves antigens and antibodies. Your body has a wide variety of antibodies which match up to an equally impressive variety of antigens. Certain antigens mean that something foreign and likely unwanted has invaded your body and when they bind to antibodies, your immune response kicks in. Now antibodies are Y shaped and two of those ends are antigen-binding sites. Why two? Bilgicer says that this is because that makes a stronger, longer bonding session, which equals to better in most cases. Bilgicer’s research can help create medicinal answers to improve therapy.

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This week’s speaker was Basar Bilgicer, who presented on multivalent antibodies. This speaker had was low voiced which made his presentation somewhat tough to follow. Bilgicer is a Chemical and Biomolecular engineer and was once a Harvard graduate, currently employed at Notre Dame University. This presentation went by quickly, but there was time towards the end when, Biglicer was able to answer any questions. I found this topic to be very interesting and I was able to learn many new things about antibody binding and other characteristics.

I learned that antibodies have avidity to binding from bivalency. Antibodies can be either monovalent or bivalent, in which they either bind one arm or both. They have a “Y” shaped structure in which there are two heavy chains and two light chains joined to form this shape. When an antibody binds with both arms the bond tends to be tighter or stronger. Biglicer researched the making of a synthetic antibody structure and wanted to make sure that this structure was tight binding, had a hapten structure that could be easily modified, commercially available, and a good price for making an antibody ligand pair. I also learned that the relationship between the monovalent and bivalent binding when dealing with enthalpy is the same. This happens due to the fact that although they are bivalent in bonding the arms would end up coming down at the same time yielding the same values as the monovalent ligand.

To give them a sense of the amount of binding/ binding strength that took place, they would plot the mole fraction against the ligand concentration as it increased. They also found that trivalent binding yielded more complex structures. In their research they wanted to form structures without steric hindrance and were excited that they found a ligand that could bind three arms of the antibody. At the end of their research they were able to find that bivalent and trivalent ligands promote stable aggregates of antibodies and that antibodies are bivalent since this increases the time of attachment, increasing production.

Many students seemed to enjoy the presentation and were very interested in learning more about antibodies. It’s interesting that pharmaceutical companies are trying to create more efficient antibodies than the ones in our bodies. There were many questions toward the end and Biglicer was able to answer them well. The presentation did encourage me to learn more about this topic, but not enough to do graduate research on it. Biglicer didn’t really tell much about attending his school of graduate studies, but he was available to answer questions about it. This presentation told of the binding properties of antibodies and their characteristics.

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This past Thursday’s seminar was presented by Dr. Robert Minto.  He is a bioorganic chemist at Indiana University. One of the interesting things in his presentation was that he showed us pictures of fungi from which he extracted lipid for his experiment. He began with an introduction of lipids that informed us that they are fatty acids and their derivatives as well as those functionally related to them. Fatty acids are modifying enzymes. Fatty acids have a special shortened labeling system. For example 18:1 would indicate oleic acid because the 18 describes the number of carbons in the chain and the 1 indicates the number of double bonds. It does not matter where the double bond is placed because it can very in the same lipid molecule.

Overall, I think while the content of his presentation had some points of interest, the majority of it was way over my head. I think that the subject matter of his presentation could have been made more exciting if he delivered in such a way to appeal to the undergrads and high school students who were present.  From what I did gain from the earlier part of his presentation and the end question and answer period was that he did have some interesting points, for example, when he talked about cicutoxin and the diversity of lipids. One main issue I had was that he had almost too much to say. Our seminar is only about 50 min, yet his presentation was made for a longer time frame.  He did a decent job of highlighting the main points, but it seemed like he could of had better pacing as he appeared to be rushing toward the end.

Overall, I thought his presentation was  informative, however due to it’s presenters style, I do not think it is an area that I would be very interested in.

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This week’s speaker was a bioorganic scientist, Robert E. Minto. His presentation was understandable and he seemed to be very enthusiastic about the topic of lipid natural products and their diversity through a small change. The speaker didn’t have a thick accent which made his presentation easily heard. He also made sure to make eye contact with the audience and was able to answer the many questions that were asked after the presentation.

The topic was interesting and I didn’t know that there was such diversity among lipids. Some new things I learned were that there are eight standard lipids under the structural complexity of lipids. Some of these lipids include: pentanoic acid, palamatic, and steric acid. I also learned of the structure and significance of biologically active acetylenic natural products. Another new subject was where 2300 polyacetylenes could be found. They are found from three natural sources: plants, mosses and bryophytes, and fungi(mushroom like). During this presentation I was also fascinated by the plant that secretes cicutoxin, from the principle of the water hemlock. The oil inside this plant is very toxic, and can inhibit the potassium channel as well as shut down your central nervous system. Other things that weren’t tedious were that crepenynic acid desaturates fatty acids.

I think that there was mixed reaction to the speaker and presentation. Some seemed to enjoy it, while others looked as if they weren’t interested. There were a lot of questions asked during the question and answer period and the speaker was able to answer them well. Since I did not find this subject appealing to me, I was not encouraged to learn more about the topic. During the end of the presentation, Minto provided time to talk to students about his school of graduate studies. The presentation didn’t really fascinate me, due to the topic content, but there were parts that I felt were attention grabbing, such as the cicutoxin and its effects, I am interested more in the biochemistry portions of this presentation. This overall presentation was about the variety of lipids that are in natural products.

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Dr. Basar Bilgicer came from Notre Dame and talked with us about “Multivalent Antibody Aggregation”. He started out by asking which subject we would like to learn about, since he originally was going to rush through two different subject matters. We chose the one on antibodies, and he went with it.

He talked about the difference between a monovalent antibody vs a bivalent antibody and the significance of bivalent bonding. One interesting technique that he talked about was the non-chromatographic purification method. The solution is centrifuged to cause all the larger and heavier proteins to collect at the bottom of the test tube. The pellet is removed, and the remaining solution is mixed with excess antigens. The new solution is again centrifuged, and since excess antigens were added the antibodies binded to them and created heavier molecules. After the second centrifugation these heavier molecules collected in the bottom of the test tube, and then were removed. They were resuspended and treated so the antibodies were again singular.

The seminar as a whole was nice, the material being very interesting. Dr. Bilgicer voice was a little quiet and not very engaging, but he did a good job. If I was going to describe this seminar to a non-scientific person I would say that it was about the clustering of antibodies, and making them respond in desired fashions.

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Today’s speaker was Basar Bilgicer from the University of Notre Dame.  His study was focused on the antibodies to the protein IgG.  First, he explained the basics of antibodies.  Antibodies consist of light and heavy chains that are attracted to each other by disulfide bonds.  Antibodies have multiple limbs, or ligands.  If two ligands are used for binding, that antibody is bivalent.  If someone holds onto an object with two hands, that will be a stronger grip than using just one hand.  It is the same way with antibodies.  However, while this increases the enthalpy, it also decreases the entropy, making the binding less favorable.  The distance between the ligands on the antibodies varies, so it is impossible to specifically position a ligand onto a surface.  One approach is to synthesize a linker that is soluble in water, but that is usually very difficult.  Instead, very short linkers are made, one binding to each ligand.  One major challenge is that antibodies are very expensive to purchase (the cheapest antibody is $350 for 50 micrograms).  Also, tight binding needs to occur between antibodies and antigens, and the structures must be easily modified.

The behavior of antibodies and antigens is quite complex.  Sometimes, the antigens will bind directly to the ligands.  Other times, cyclizations will occur, forming dimers and trimers of antibodies.  These cyclic aggregates are very stable due to bivalency and trivalency.  The concentrations of the antibodies and antigens affects the type of complex formed.  The practical application to this research is that drugs could be designed using these stable aggregates.

I found this presentation to be interesting because of the potential applications.  The speaker moved quite rapidly, so it was difficult to understand at times.  That being said, I highly respect the speaker for not going over the alloted seminar time.  I wanted to know how many different antibodies had been studied by Bilgicer.  He reminded me that the high price of antibodies limits what he can research, so the answer was not very many.  I am also interested to know how many multivalent antibodies exist compared to monovalent antibodies.  I am sure that if multivalency is necessary for stability, the ratio should be quite high.  Finally, I want to know why the protein IgG was specifically chosen for this study.  What is special about this particular protein?  If I had to sum up this presentation for a layperson, I would say that the stability of antibodies with multiple arms was investigated.

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The seminar this week was presented by Dr. Basar Bilgicer. Dr. Bilgicer is from the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. I cannot say that I enjoyed the topic of discussion as well as I have other seminar topics. I did not find it very interesting, mainly because it very much reminded me of the cellular molecular biology class I took last year while attending Penn State. I became lost after several slides of presentation and could not seem to catch up with what the speaker was talking about.

One thing that I learned from this lecture is that trivalent ligands yield more complex structures and promote a bicyclic antibody trimer. Another thing that I learned was that around fifty-five percent of pharmaceutical research being done today is focused on synthetic antibody production. This is in part because of a discovery that antibody treatment is an excellent way to fight off disease because of the natural use of antibodies by the body to fight off disease and the relatively low side effects that the treatment produces.

From my limited grasp of what the speaker was talking about, if describing what this seminar was about to a non-science friend, I would have to say that it was about how antibodies work to fight disease and how we can use them for future medical techniques. As for the speaker, he seemed genuinly interested in his topic of research, but he was a little too quiet in his presentation and sometimes slightly hard to understand. Of course, it would probably have helped if I had gotten a little more sleep the night before.

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The day before this seminar I was tutoring a student in Biology about T cells, B cells, antigens and antibodies. I was pleasantly surprised to have a presentation entitled Multivalent Antibody Aggregation last Thursday. The presentation was given by Basar Bilgicer from Notre Dame University.

The presentation focused around the question of how tightly bivalent antibodies bind. A bivalent bonding of antibodies means that both “arms” of the molecule are bound to a ligand. This is opposed to a monovalent binding in which only one arm of the antibody is bound to the ligand. The “head” of an antibody can bind to another and create a dimer. Antibodies specifically need tight bonding and a hapten structure that is easily modified. Hapten structure is one that binds to an antibody with no response.

Two of the techniques described for this experimental research were size exclusion chromatography and centrifugation. Size exclusion chromatography is somewhat backwards to the common idea of chromatography. Normally the smallest molecules exit the column first and large molecules take more time to filter their way out. Size exclusion chromatography uses beads that trap the small molecules so only the large molecules, to bit to fit into the bead crevasses, come out of the column.  Multiple centrifuge techniques move the proteins to the outer wall of the tube so purification can take place.

The practical use of this research pertains to pharmaceutical work. Antibodies are produced outside the body and injected into the body with very few side effects. This research will help design better drugs with reduced toxic effects.

In describing this seminar to a friend or family member I would say we learned about antibodies and how they bind to fight infection.

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This week’s chemistry seminar was presented by Dr. Basar Bilgicer. Dr. Bilgicer is an assistant professor of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at University of Notre Dame. The topic Dr. Bilgicer presented was on multivalent antibodies. Dr. Bilgicer spoke with a clear tone that was easy to understand. However he did have an accent that sometimes made it harder to understand him.

According to him, multivalent interactions between molecules are crucial in our biological systems. By understanding the thermodynamics and kinetics of these interactions, the development of new ways to treat diseases and diagnose them can be found. His research more specifically focused on how multivalent antibodies form complexes of these antibodies.

Some new information I learned from this week’s seminar includes the fact that different antibody complexes can be formed. I always thought that antibodies just formed a clump when bound to the antigen. To see that there was a specific order and conformation to this binding was very interesting. Also the fact that antibodies were expensive was a surprise, since I had always thought that antibodies were very common and numerous because of how many an organism’s body makes. Another new piece of information I found out from the presentation was that there is a specific distance between the two binding sites of the antibody that also determines the conformation. I had always thought that antibodies were exactly the same, except for the binding sites, which determined what antigen it was bound to.

Overall, his topic was very interesting, and was very well presented. Although I had a little trouble understanding him because of unfamiliarity of some terms, this topic definitely sparked my interest.

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The presentation given on January 21, 2010 was about Lipid Natural Products- Diversity Through Small Changes. The presenter was Dr. Robert E Minto who came from the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis.  In the presentation, he started out by talking about lipids for the introduction. Lipids are fatty acids and their derivatives are also considered as lipids. He emphasized his lecture on polyacetylenes, because his research focused on mechanism biosynthesis of acetylenase derived lipids.

Furthermore, it was interesting that plants and fungi could be natural sources of polyacetylenes. The plants use acteylenic properties for protection naturally. For example, Marigolds have thaphines that protect the plant from nematods.  Another example that he gave to use was Russian Knapweed which root part has an acetylinic compound.

Also, I learned that lipid is diverse. Lipids all have similar structure but they are different depending on their functional group and double bond. There is a special class of lipids, which are glycerolipids; allows for cellular compartmentalization and long-term energy storage.

Overall, the seminar definitely had some interesting facts, but it was not that interesting compared to last presentation. I lost my attention during the seminar and it was hard to focus my mind back to the presentation. However, during question and answers segment, I thought we had an interesting conversation sharing things that we were curious about with Dr. Minto.

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Dr. Ryan K. Roeder gave the chemistry seminar on January 14, 2010. He is an associate professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Norte Dame.  He received his bachelor degree and Ph.D. in Materials Engineering at Purdue University. Following that, he completed a post-doctoral research in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery.

The presentation that he presented to us was very interesting and informative, which was dealing with implants for spinal fusion. He mainly talked not only how the replacement for bone was synthetically created and what environment is required to create an implant that is very similar to our actual bone.

According to his presentation, variety of materials such as metals, ceramics and polymers can be used in orthopedic implants. However, there were a lot of disadvantages on using metals and ceramic as compare to polymers. So, he proposed on creating new implants that are made with polyetheretherketone, which is PEEK.  IT has the same strength and durability as human bone which helps the bone will not degrade. Since PEEK is not bioactive, it needs to be combined with hydroxyapetite so the cells from the bone with attach to it and be integrated through the implant to fuse the bone. Furthermore, through the whisker synthesis that Roeder and his team found, they could combine Hydroxyapatite crystals can be combined with PEEK to create a new material.

Overall, this seminar was really helpful and engaging. The speaker was also enthusiastic about his presentation and also was good at responding to students during question and answers at the end of the seminar. I learned how the implants for spinal cord were made and what kind of material they use. I just had few questions such as, how long it would take to make one implant and how much cost for one implant.

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Dr. Robert E. Minto is an assistant professor of organic and bioorganic chemistry at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and researches lipid products, specifically desaturases and acetylenase genes from fungi. Like our own biochemistry professor, Dr. Minto said that the main fascination his research held for him was the complex network of desaturases.

Biologically active acetylenic natural products, a derivation of fatty acids, have been found to have potential in fighting cancer and other uses in medicine. Desaturases are enzymes used in metabolism of unsaturated fatty acids. Dr. Minto’s research is working on isolating and understanding the properties of the enzymes from chanterelles, an edible mushroom whose mycelia surround the roots of fir trees. During the Q-and-A session, Dr. Minto mentioned that all researches need a niche, a small category that they could explore at length. I guess that this would reduce competition and broaden incoming information from all the scientists.

In his presentation, Dr. Minto showed PowerPoint slides, using illustrations here and there, most memorably the Kennedy Pathway (for phospholipid synthesis in plants) and a couple images of the fungi the researchers use (memorable mostly because I find some mushrooms to be quite attractive). While none of his presentation skills were particularly outstanding, they did not fail expectation either, and I believe we had a good chuckle here and there throughout the seminar. It was in the Q-and-A session that Dr. Minto enlivened in manner and voice. Many speakers tend to be more natural and forthcoming when they are not speaking formally but engaging with the audience personally (speaking with us, not at us). On a side note, Dr. Minto’s long hair and beard couldn’t help reminding me of a certain guidance counselor from an old NBC show about high school freaks and geeks.

Laymen’s Summary of Chemistry Seminar: Many natural acetylene products are bioactive seem to have anti-cancer properties and they are found in plants, mosses, and macrofungi (mushrooms). Dr. Minto is looking at the desaturases and acetylenase genes in a mushroom called chanterelle to better understand unsaturated and acetylenic fatty acid metabolism.

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Dr. Robert E Minto arrived at Andrews University to give his talk about Lipids.  Dr. Minto is a bioorganic Chemist at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis where he studies the synthesis and biosynthesis of lipid natural products.  Dr. Minto received his BSc degree in Applied Chemistry from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.  Dr. Minto received his degree in 1994 from the University of Berkeley.  Following this he received significant exposure to biochemistry while at The Johns Hopkins University which is why he chose to study biochemistry during his postdoctoral independent research project at the Miami University (Ohio).  It was not until 2005 that Dr. Minto joined the staff of Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis as an Associate Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and Director of IUPUI Center for Membrane Biosciences.

Dr. Minto made it clear that Lipids are required for life to take place.  Lipids are in more places than just on the top of Peanut Butter.  However, they are made out of Fatty acids and there derivatives.  Falcarinol is being closely looked at for the use of fighting off cancer.  The Falcarinol is found in large quantities in Carrots.  Dr. Minto also pointed out that Marrigolds have strong lipids in them that collect particles in the air to save crops.  The specific lipid found is Thiophene which is what takes and protects the crops.  Dr. Minto also shared that Polyacetylenes are very good antibiotics.

Even though I am a biochemistry major I found Dr. Mintos voice to be very dull and boring which took away from his presentation.  He seemed to be a very nice man but was monotone and dull with his presentation.  He also had a hard time finishing within the required time slot going over by nearly 15 minutes.  He shared some interesting information as noted above however I found him very hard to follow and even found myself dozing off.  On a scale of 1 to 10 I give his presentation a 5.

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There was a presentation about lipid natural product by Robert E. Minto at Andrews University. He is a bioorganic chemist at Indiana University. One of the interesting things in his presentation was that he showed us pictures of fungi from which he extracted lipid for his experiment. However, it was hard for me to understand completely his presentation, overall.

He explained about the variety of lipid. It is made up of fatty acids, their derivatives, or substances which are related biosynthetically, or functionally to these compounds. Usually, Lipid is classified into two large categories. One of them is Acetate-derived group which contains   triacylglycerol, or sphingolipid. The other is MEP-derived group which includes cholesterol, or steroid hormone. Also, these groups are divided into countless lipid groups depending on the temperature at which it is synthesized, the number of carbon atom, the number of double bond which a lipid molecule contains and the type of double bond; cis, or trans.

One thing I would like to know is that which condition makes cis double bond and which condition produces trans double bond in a lipid structure. Also, one of the questions which came across my mind during the presentation was that it is possible to use the plant lipid as fuel for instruments or implements which we are using in our daily lives. One day, I read about the possibility of using plant fuel which contaminates less than other fuels such as coal, and petroleum. If it is possible to use the plant lipid as fuel and to synthesize it without contamination of nature in a cheap way, we would be able to save many things on the earth.

I would like to tell my friends that lipid is synthesized in various ways under various conditions.

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Lipid Natural Products was the title of Chemistry Seminar this past Thursday. Dr. Robert E. Minto from IUPUI described his work in discovering how carbon triple bonds are made in nature.

He began with an introduction of lipids that informed us that they are fatty acids and their derivatives as well as those functionally related to them. Fatty acids are modifying enzymes. Fatty acids have a special shortened labeling system. For example 18:1 would indicate oleic acid because the 18 describes the number of carbons in the chain and the 1 indicates the number of double bonds. It does not matter where the double bond is placed because it can very in the same lipid molecule.

Polyacetylenes with carbon triple bonds are biologically active acteylenic natural produces. These products are found in three places: plants, mosses, and fungi. Dr. Minto himself studied them in fungi. Naturally the plant uses acteylenic properties for protection or self advancement. Given examples of this were marigolds that have thaphines that protect the plant from nematods. Another example was the Russian knapweed that has an acetylinic compound in the roots that prevents other plant growth allowing the weed to be invasive.

The denaturase is a key enzyme to this work with lipids and the research discoveries are important for work as precursors in pharmaceuticals. The presenter did a good job of projection and especially in answering the multiple questions after the seminar. I am still a little confused as to the main goal of the research and how it is beneficial on a general level.

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To be quite honest, I didn’t really get much from Dr. Robert Minto ’s presentation on lipids. I don’t know what it was, but his presentation put me to sleep.  The dim and warm amphitheater combined with his presentation style and substance proved to be a potent formula for a one way ticket to slumber land. To be fair, I didn’t give Minto enough of a chance to catch my attention before I dozed off and I really didn’t get much sleep the night before.

Overall, I think while the content of his presentation had some points of interest, the majority of it went over my head. I think that the subject matter of his presentation could have been made more enjoyable if he delivered in such a way to appeal to the undergrads and high school students who were in attendance. From what I did catch from the earlier part of his presentation and the end questions was that he did have some interesting points like when he talked about cicutoxin and the diversity of lipids. One problem that I saw was that he had almost too much to say. Our seminar is only around 50 min, yet his presentation was geared more toward a longer time frame. I’m sure he did a decent job of highlighting the main points, but it seemed like he could of had better pacing as he somewhat appeared to be rushing toward the end.

It appeared that at least some people enjoyed his presentation from the amount and quality of questions that were asked toward the end of the seminar, despite having gone over the time limit a little bit. Being fully awake by this time, I was able to learn more about his presentation by the questions being asked.

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