Plenaries at American Chemical Society Meeting Will Focus on Innovation

WASHINGTON, Aug. 6, 2015 — Scientists will offer an inside look at moving new drugs, foods and materials from the lab to the marketplace in three plenary talks at the 250^th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society, taking place August 16-20 in Boston.

The presentations directly relate to the meeting’s theme, “Innovation from Discovery to Application.” The talks, which are among more than 9,000 scheduled to take place at the meeting, will be held on Sunday, August 16, from 3 to 5 p.m., Ballroom West, the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.

Topics will range from describing cutting-edge medical therapies to lab-made nutritious foods to new materials in the war against pollution. One speaker will cover innovative treatment using a thin film or coating that can carry large amounts of different drugs and release them in stages. This can be used to silence cancer genes that allow tumor cells to resist chemotherapy. Another will describe development of new kinds of meats and cheeses made from plants, with all of the taste and nutritional value of animal-based foods, but without the negative health and environmental impacts. A third speaker will discuss the construction of polymers and nanostructured materials, some from natural products, which can be used for applications such as fighting pollution and treating disease.

• Paula Hammond, Ph.D.: “Tailored drug release surfaces for regenerative medicine and targeted nanotherapies”

• Patrick O. Brown, M.D., Ph.D.: “Replacing the world’s most destructive industry”

• Karen Wooley, Ph.D.: “Targeted applications as inspirations to develop strategies toward functionally-sophisticated nanoscopic macromolecules with diverse compositions, structures, and properties”

The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 158,000 members, ACS is the world’s largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

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Hammond:

Title

Tailored drug release surfaces for regenerative medicine and targeted nanotherapies

Abstract

Biological processes such as tissue generation take place in stages that involve the release or presentation of specific molecules and the chemical and physical signaling that ensues. Diseases such as cancer, as well as chronic disorders such as auto-immune conditions, often are a result of genetic dysregulation that leads to altered cell signaling and changes in tissue microenvironment. Ideally one would be able to achieve the release of small molecule drugs as well as biochemical signals such as growth factors, or siRNA and DNA to regulate genetic code, in a manner that can respond synergistically to the body’s natural processes. This process is difficult using more traditional polymer encapsulation. Using alternating electrostatic assembly as a tool, it is possible to build ultrathin film coatings nanolayers at a time with high amounts of drug loaded, through the use of complementary electrostatic or hydrogen bonding interactions. The nature of the layering process enables the incorporation of different drugs within different regions of the thin film architecture; the result is an ability to uniquely tailor both the independent release profiles of different therapeutics from the same film, and the order of release of molecules to targeted regions of the body.

Multilayered release coatings as thin as a half micron to several microns can deliver growth factor proteins in a staged manner to achieve bone regeneration across large defects, or enable integration of bone into implants with high strength interfaces. siRNA can be released directly to wounds to correct the dysregulation of wound healing processes that have gone awry, from burn and scar tissue to the closure of chronic wounds such as diabetic ulcers. New microneedle vaccines can leave multilayer nanolayer systems within the skin for controlled vaccine delivery. These concepts of combination and staged release can be translated to nanoparticle systems that deliver drugs systemically. Decoration of chemotherapy drug loaded nano-carriers with electrostatic layers that encapsulate siRNA can silence the cancer genes that enable tumor cells to resist therapy. By enabling staged release of appropriate therapeutics, it is possible to greatly enhance synergistic efficacy in lung, breast and ovarian cancer. These nanolayered complex films on large or small surfaces can replicate or complement elements of the native healing environment, and orchestrate cellular processes for improved medicine.

Brown:

Title

Replacing the world’s most destructive industry

Abstract

Animal Farming, the most destructive industry on Earth, transforms cheap plant biomass into meat and dairy foods using an archaic and unscalable technology – livestock. This $trillion global industry is responsible for 1/7 of the world’s net greenhouse gas emissions and more than a quarter of its fresh water usage, and it currently uses more than a third of Earth’s land area to raise livestock for human consumption. Through habitat destruction, resource competition and extermination of competing species, the livestock industry is by far the principal driver of species extinctions and biodiversity losses - today the total biomass of domesticated cattle alone exceeds that of all the wild terrestrial mammals remaining on Earth by more than 15-fold. My colleagues and I, at Impossible Foods, have been working for the past four years to invent an entirely new way to make the best meat and dairy foods the world has ever experienced – directly from plants. Our approach to the problem has been, first, to develop a deep molecular understanding of the chemical and physical principles underlying the sensory properties of these foods and second, to find specific corresponding proteins and other molecules from plants that enable us to recapitulate all the desired properties. Bypassing the intrinsic limitations imposed by animal physiology, makes it possible not only to greatly improve the resource efficiency of meat and dairy production, but actually to create foods that are more delicious and have better nutritional profiles. In my presentation, I will discuss what makes meat taste like meat and do a live demonstration of a prototype burger product.

Wooley:

Title

Targeted applications as inspirations to develop strategies toward functionally-sophisticated nanoscopic macromolecules with diverse compositions, structures, and properties

Abstract

This presentation will highlight a progression of synthetic strategies for the preparation of functional polymer materials, where each strategy and material design is inspired by a targeted application. The evolution of nanostructured materials that originate from the supramolecular assembly of macromolecular building blocks, from relatively simple overall shapes and internal morphologies to those of increasing complexity, is driving the development of synthetic methodologies that allow for the preparation of increasingly complex macromolecular structures. Moreover, the inclusion of functional units within selective compartments/domains is of great importance to create (multi)functional materials. We have a special interest in the study of nanoscopic macromolecules, with well-defined composition, structure and topology, as components that are programmed for the formation of sophisticated nanoscopic objects in solution. Combinations of controlled radical and ring opening polymerizations, chemical transformations, and supramolecular assembly are employed to construct such materials as functional entities. This presentation will highlight our recent work involving the construction of polymers and nanostructured materials, in some cases being derived from natural products and including biologic-synthetic hybrid materials, which exhibit unique physicochemical, mechanical and/or biological activities, including for instance therapeutic effects to treat inflammation, infectious diseases or cancer, properties designed for orthopedic device applications, hybrid magnetic-organic characteristics for pollutant recovery, asymmetric structures for ultra-high resolutions photoresist technologies, or topographically- and morphologically-complex copolymer networks as anti-biofouling and anti-icing coatings.