Movers and shakers
At the CIA Chemical Industry Awards 2019, the Young Ambassador Award, sponsored by Scientific Update, was presented to Hallam Wheatley, from Sabic UK Petrochemicals. Dave Topliffe, manufacturing manager, Shell Chemicals UK, received the special CIA award for his contribution to the UK chemical industry.
Exploring the web of life
For many decades it has been suspected that chemistry and physics alone are not enough to account for the existence and behaviour of living systems. Even some of the simplest of forms of life can perform tasks that human engineers have no hope of matching. The most stunning example is perhaps that of a single fertilised human egg cell, which develops first into a fetus and ultimately into a mature adult. Apart from the chemical and physical processes involved, much speculation has focused on what else may be required to carry out such prodigious feats.
A clean, green environment
The annual US Green Chemistry Challenge awards recognise green chemistry technologies that solve environmental challenges while also offering economic benefits and new business opportunities. The awards are managed by the American Chemical Society’s Green Chemistry Institute, but headline sponsor the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was not involved in the awards in 2018 because of funding issues. It is back in support in 2019. There are four winners this year: three awards have been made to companies, and the fourth to a university-led partnership.
AMR role for pharmacists
Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) strategies form a vital filtration system for our healthcare system. Pharmacists play a key role in promoting AMS to ensure the treatment of infection is sustainable.
Better, safer, small molecule drugs
Scientists say they have hit on a new way to make safer, more versatile small molecule drugs that could pave the way to treatments for a slew of currently hard to treat or untreatable diseases.
Biodegradable cigarettes
An Italian company is starting to produce cigarette filters made from biodegradeable biopolymers – which should make cigarettes easier to recycle.
Biomedical
N- vs C- Capping Of Helices Constraining short peptides into helical conformations has become increasingly popular.
Business digest
US biotechnology company, Aldevron which produces plasmid DNA, proteins, mRNA and antibodies, is building a gene therapy manufacturing campus at its headquarters in Fargo, ND. Three buildings will be built over the next three to five years to support genetic medicine.