ChemSemBlog

The Chemistry seminar presented to us on January 21 was presented by Robert E. Minto from the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis chemistry/biochemistry department. His focus is on biological chemistry, a field that I thought was synonymous with biochemistry, until it was later clarified with the definition that biochemistry deals more with metabolism (photosynthesis, citric acid cycle) whereas biological chemists are more interested in the chemical side of biology outside of metabolism. Although Dr. Minto currently teaches at IUPUI he received his BS at the University Of Waterloo, Ontario, he then went on to the University of California, Berekley where he received his doctorate, and conducted his postdoctoral fellow at The Johns Hopkins University.

The core of his research, lipids, is not a topic highly researched outside of the diet/health industry, and even so their only concern is getting rid of it. Although studying lipid for health reasons is important, Dr. Minto taught us that there are many other practical uses for studying lipids. First of all since there is hardly any research in this field, many of the fungi genes aren’t mapped! Now this was something new to me, I thought everyone was obsessed with genomes, structure, and function in the biological world, but Dr. Minto was quick to point out that this only occurs where there is money, and since fungi genomes aren’t at the top of everybody’s list, well there isn’t much out there.

Specifically, Minto has focused his research on desaturase and acetylenase genes. The second reason why studying these genes and enzymes are important is because, we can uncover the way unsaturated acids conduct metabolism (he beat the biochemists to this one!). And finally the third reason, but certainly not the last reason (I am sure there are countless reasons for lipid studies) is that there are many medical uses (the pharmaceutical companies are doing cartwheels) such as antimicrobial and antiproliferative agents and HIV reverse-transcriptase inhibitors. Impressive.

Overall the basic ideas of his presentation were great. I got kind of lost in all of the mechanisms and the intricacies of what his research entailed, but I got the main point. Although there has been lots of negative feedback on his presentation style, I didn’t see a problem with it, I think the subject matter was just not as interesting and so people tuned him out. The only criticism I’d give would be to decrease the length of the presentation, and retract to a more basic knowledge level, so we don’t get lost in the details!

Questions I have are: 1.How difficult is it conducting research in a field that is not well studied? 2. Most of his studies were conducted in vitro but how well adjusted is that to predicting an in vivo replication of the experiment? 3. Have any pharmaceutical taken interest in your studies?

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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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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. 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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This week’s lecture (January 21, 2010) was about Lipid Natural Products- Diversity Through Small Changes. The presenter was Dr. Robert E Minto, a Caucasian male with long hair that was tied in a pony tail. He is an Associate Professor of Organic and Bioorganic Chemistry at Indiana University.

He started off by showing us diversity and the major groups of lipids; Acetate derived, and Mevalonate and MEP derived lipids. He mostly focused on acetate derived lipids. Lipids all have similar structure, however differ by the position of double bonds, functional groups, etc. His research tries to detail the mechanism biosynthesis of acetylenase derived lipids. This was done by looking and working with desaturase and acetylenase genes from the fungi: Basidiomycetes.

The new information I learned from his presentation, was that Lipids are very diverse. I had thought there were only a few categories of lipids, which I found out was very wrong. Lipids, although structurally are similar, can differ drastically from even just a change in position of a double bond: from being harmless, to being poisonous.

Dr. Robert E Minto voice was clear, and his pronunciation was good. His presentation however, was a little confusing. He used a lot of terms and words that I was unfamiliar with. Alot of his presentation had to do with Ochem, which I am currently taking, therefore some things I had a hard to understanding. There was also the fact that he ran out of time, which made him skip slides, and only hit the main points.

Overall, I thought his presentation was very informative, however I do not think it is an area that I would be very interested in.

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Dr. Robert Minto came from Perdue University in Indianapolis to talk with us about “Lipid Natural Products: Diversity through Small Changes”. Though most of his research deals with Fungi and specifically chanterelle mushrooms, he displayed a wide knowledge of different plants and other things that produce lipids.

A couple of the interesting subjects he touched on include water hemlock, which is common in Northern America. It has been coined five-fingered death because its roots look like bony knuckles and within them is cicutoxin, which is very toxic when ingested. A second plant he mentioned were marigolds, and the reason many people will plant marigolds around different types of plants they are growing. This is because marigolds produce thiophene. Lipids are fatty acids and derivatives and they are defined by solubility and consequently comprise a very diverse array of cellular components.

I did not find this seminar particularly gripping, though Dr. Minto had some interesting PowerPoint slides to accompany his talk. He did have some very interesting points, but the seminar topic did not capture my attention. There were a lot of questions at the end, and Dr. Minto was able to answer all of them very well. A final point he made was what is meant from the term to “drink hemlock”. I would describe this seminar to a non-science minded person as researching a molecule found in fungi and finding properties and uses for it.

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This week’s seminar discussion was on the research of Dr. Robert E. Minto, regarding the properties of lipids found in certain fungi found in nature. Dr. Minto comes from the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, and he started out as an organic chemistry before turning to his current line of work.

I did not really find the topic of this lecture particularly interesting, mostly due to my disinterest in the biochemical and biological fields of study. One thing that I learned from the lecture was that there is about one thousand lipids in each cell at any given time. One thing that I was slightly curious about was that PchDES in yeast increases activity as the temperature of the mixture is increased. The opposite of this is true and I was curious as to why this is so.

Another thing that I was curious about was that the speaker mentioned that the Department of Energy was interest in the fungus research, and I was wondering what energy-related applications the fungus research would have. If I were to describe the topic of this lecture to one of my non-science friends, I would probably describe it as being about different chemicals that are found in fungi such as mushrooms and moss.

As for the presentation itself, I felt that the speaker was dragging on and on, and at times his expressions almost made it seem like he wasn’t particularly interested in what he was talking about. Another thing that bugged me was his seemingly blatant disregard for the time limits of the presentation.

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Today’s speaker was Robert E. Minto, a chemical biologist.  His presentation was on lipid natural products, specifically polyacetylenes.  First, Minto gave an introduction on lipids.  Lipids are fatty acids and their derivatives, and biosynthetic relatives are also considered lipids.  A special class of lipids, glycerolipids, allows for cellular compartmentalization and long term energy storage.  At first, lipids weren’t very interesting in the scientific community because they didn’t produce a lot of light or heat with their reactions.  But now, lipids are gaining interest due to their diversity.  There are 1000 cellular lipid species per cell, and possibly 14.7 million lipid species total.  Obviously, this sheer number of lipids creates a formidable challenge for analytical scientists.

Minto’s group decided to focus on the polyacetylenes produced by lipids.  Plants, mosses, and fungi are natural sources of polyacetylenes.  These compounds are biologically active, but for unknown reasons.  Some polyacetylenes, such as falcarinol and circutoxin, are very toxic and serve as defense mechanisms for plants.  Thiophenes can also be used to protect crops.  However, these same polyacetylenes can benefit invasive plant species as well.  To synthesize polyacetylenes, fatty acids must be desaturated using crepenynic acid in a dehydrogenation reaction.

The goal of Minto’s research was to figure out the mechanism of acetylene biosynthesis.  Fungal species such as chanterelles were investigated to find desaturases.  Acetylenase activity was monitored with histidine tags.  Acetylenases were still functional even without the tags, but their activities were greater with N-terminal tags.  Minto’s group discovered CfACET, the first known gene encoding acetylenase.  His group’s future direction involves exploring multifunctional acetylenases and how they are involved in biosynthesis.

This presentation was difficult for me to follow.  It seemed that the presenter went quite fast, mostly due to time constraints.  However, I still found the presentation interesting, since I am currently in a biochemistry class.  I asked Minto why he focused almost entirely on polyacetylenes.  He answered that the organic functionality of the polyacetylenes needs to be understood.  I also want to know how diverse lipids are compared to other biofunctional groups, and which multifunctional acetylenases come up most often in nature.  If I had to sum up this presentation for a layperson, I would say that it was about discovering a natural lipid product in chanterelle mushrooms.

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This week the ChemSem presentation was given by Dr. Robert E. Minto from Purdue. Recently he has been working on understanding the biological synthesis of polyacetylenes and the enzymes that create them. Much of this material has not been investigated, but the biological effects of polyacetylenes are well known.

There were several interesting facts that were gained in this presentation. To begin with, Dr. Minto talked about the prevalence of Russian Knapweed as an invasive species in California. It has been discovered that the success of this plant is due to the fact that its roots secrete polyacetylenes which cause nearby plants to fail to germinate. At the same time, Poison Dart frogs have been shown to be toxic due to the secretion of other polyacetylenes the precursors of which are found in the ants that make up the frogs’ diet.

I did have several questions for Dr. Minto. First of all, it was unclear why polyacetylenes were as toxic as was described. No clear mention or discussion was made about the particular mechanism that causes problems. Secondly, though several possible applications were tangentially referred to, there did not seem to be any immediate uses for an understanding of the enzymatic production of these chemicals in plants. Granted, the results of much scientific study are rarely clear from the beginning, but a general direction of interest would have been helpful in following the lecture. Finally, Dr. Minto only briefly referenced the hope in his branch of science that a better understanding of lipid bilayers in plants would lead to a new form of renewable energy. This seemed to be an interesting concept, but it wasn’t elaborated upon. In the end, though I was unable to fully follow all of his lecture and some of the enzyme discussion escaped me, the biological reactions of polyacetylenes were rather fascinating.

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