Best Group Publishes ATP-Responsive Liposomes in JACS
The research group of Michael Best in Tennessee Chemistry, led by graduate student Jinchao Lou, recently published an article describing the development of ATP-responsive liposomes in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The nanocarriers reported in this work show strong prospects for enhancing clinical drug delivery applications.
Liposomes are highly effective nanocarriers for therapeutics due to their ability to encapsulate drugs with wide-ranging properties and enhance their circulation and delivery to cells. However, their potential could be improved by achieving control over the release of cargo to maximize drug potency and diseased-cell selectivity. While liposome-triggered release represents a vibrant field of research due to this significance, the toolbox for controlling liposome release remains limited and prior strategies face many challenges that obstruct clinical application.
The Best Group has explored a new paradigm for triggered release in which cargo escape is triggered only when liposomes encounter specific small molecule metabolites that are overly abundant in disease states. This is achieved using synthetic stimuli-responsive lipid switches designed to undergo programmed conformational changes upon the binding of small molecule targets, events that compromise membrane packing and thereby drive release.
In this work, Lou and co-workers developed liposomes that selectively respond to ATP over eleven other structurally similar phosphorylated small molecules. ATP is a critical target for metabolite-mediated drug delivery since this molecule is a universal energy source that is known to be heavily upregulated in-and-around cancer cells. This opens up the potential for selective drug delivery and release driven by overly abundant ATP associated with diseased cells.
This project also entailed a collaboration with the group of Dr. Francisco Barrera in the Tennessee Biochemistry & Cellular and Molecular Biology (BCMB) Department. Through cellular delivery and fluorescence imaging experiments, graduate student Jennifer Schuster showed that modulation of cellular ATP levels using drugs led to direct control of cellular delivery of ATP-responsive liposomes. These results demonstrate the key advancement that liposome delivery can be modulated by the cellular abundance of ATP.
A provisional patent has been filed for this ATP-responsive liposome technology. Additionally, the Best Group is currently working on advancing this platform for clinical delivery applications and developing liposomes that respond to other disease-associated small molecule metabolites.
Kostas Vogiatzis Receives the 2022 NSF CAREER Award
The Chemistry department is proud to announce that Kostas Vogiatzis has received this year’s National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Award, the organization’s most prestigious grant in support of early-career faculty. Dr. Vogiatzis research centers on the development of new computational methods that interface quantum chemistry with machine learning. The title of his award is “CAREER: CAS-Climate: Data-driven Coupled-Cluster for Biomimetic CO2 Capture”.
With support from the Chemical Theory, Models and Computational Methods program in the Division of Chemistry, Dr. Vogiatzis is developing data-driven computational methodologies for the biomimetic capture of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide (CO2) overload in the atmosphere generates a significant greenhouse gas (GHG) layer, a major contributor to climate change in the United States and around the globe. Climate change presents a growing challenge to human health and safety, quality of life, and economic growth. Direct air capture (DAC) refers to technologies that capture CO2 directly from the air. One approach to DAC agent design relies upon chemical compositions that lead to favorable CO2 binding. Computational studies can examine different chemical environments and suggest new CO2-philic groups. Dr. Vogiatzis and his research group will develop new hybrid quantum chemical/machine learning models for the exploration of novel DAC approaches that are based on how enzymes can selectively capture CO2. Dr. Vogiatzis will also develop a new course offered at the upper undergraduate or early graduate level that aims to bridge data science with chemistry and provide important skills to undergraduate and graduate students. This course aims to reach students from underserved groups and provide a stimulating view of chemistry while training students in more expansive use of data science in chemistry.
The primary objective of his project is to develop computational methodologies that capitalize on recent progress in data science for expanding the applicability of accurate quantum chemistry methods. Dr. Vogiatzis’ approach is based on the recycling of molecular wave functions obtained at low computational cost to help train machine-learning models which will provide fast and reliable energies and geometries of complex molecular systems without loss of accuracy. Coupled-cluster singles-and-doubles with perturbative triples (CCSD(T)) is a wave function method that balances accuracy with efficiency. Dr. Vogiatzis and his research group will develop transferable machine learning models that learn highly accurate CCSD(T) wave functions by utilizing data from low-cost methods such as Hartree-Fock (HF) and second-order perturbation theory. This data-driven coupled-cluster (DDCC) scheme is based on electron correlation, a property that has a local, short-range character across all molecular species, independent of their size. DDCC models can effectively encode the local nature of electron correlation and, after thorough testing and benchmarking, can be used for the examination of CO2-oligopeptide systems for biomimetic CO2 capture. Furthermore, the advances made here in combining quantum chemical methods with machine-learning are expected to be applicable to a significant variety of other chemical challenges.
Professor Xue Received Service Award
UT employees with at least 25 years of service were recognized at the university’s fall Service Awards Luncheon on Wednesday, Dec. 13. Chemistry professor Ben Xue was honored for their continued contributions and loyalty to the University of Tennessee.
The event, hosted by UT System President Joe DiPietro and coordinated by the Office of the President and UT Human Resources, honored employees from UT Knoxville, the UT Institute of Agriculture, the UT System administration, and the UT Foundation. The Service Awards Luncheon is held in the spring and fall to recognize employees with service milestones of 25 or more years.
Zi-Ling (Ben) Xue studied physical chemistry-catalysis at Nanjing University–Nanjing College of Pharmacy, and received his B.S. degree in 1982. He was selected in 1983 as a Chemistry Graduate Program (CGP or William von E. Doering Program) fellow, and entered the Ph.D. program at the University of California at Los Angeles in 1984, studying organometallic chemistry with Herbert D. Kaesz. After receiving his Ph.D. degree in 1989, he moved to Indiana University in 1990 as a postdoctoral fellow with Kenneth G. Caulton and Malcolm H. Chisholm. In 1992, he accepted a position as Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee. He is now a Paul and Wilma Ziegler Professor of Chemistry. He served in 1999-2001 as a member of the Executive Committee, ACS Division of Inorganic Chemistry, and was the division Membership Chair in 2007-2015. Professor Xue is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and American Chemical Society (ACS). Professor Xue has received several awards including a National Science Foundation (NSF) Young Investigator Award and a NSF Special Creativity Award, Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, DuPont Young Professor Award, Changjiang Lecture Professor, Distinguished Oversea Young Scholar Award (Chinese Natural Science Foundation), and UK Royal Society Kan Tong Po Visiting Professorship. He was an Associate Editor, Science China Chemistry, in 2010-2017.
Voices and ideas: An ethical chemist
By Grant Currin
First published on The Key Reporter Phi Beta Kappa’s Publication for News and Alumni Relations
Questions of scientific ethics were anything but hypothetical during the 1950s and ‘60s, when chemists were developing napalm and physicists were perfecting the weapons their countries would use if the Cold War turned hot.
Jeffrey Kovac was a teenager at the time.
“My interest [in scientific ethics] came from the fear of nuclear war during my childhood and me wondering about the ethical questions that the scientists who developed the bomb might have had,” he said.
Kovac graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Reed College in 1970. In 1976, after earning a PhD in chemistry from Yale University and completing a post-doc at MIT, Kovac accepted a position at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he is still a member of the faculty.
During the first decades of his career, Kovac pursued a conventional research agenda and taught courses in general, physical, and polymer chemistry. His research focus began to shift in the late 1980s after he developed a new course for undergraduates.
“I was teaching the capstone course in chemistry that was supposed to look at the field from a broader perspective,” he said. “There were stories of scientific misconduct in the press, so I decided to introduce ethics into the course.”
Kovac collected those stories and adapted them for classroom use. After thinking and writing further on professional and scientific ethics, he incorporated dozens of those moral problems into The Ethical Chemist, a textbook described in its preface as “a self-contained introduction to professional ethics for both chemistry students and practicing chemists.”
Since first publishing The Ethical Chemist in 1993, Kovac has focused his energy on researching and writing about scientific ethics from philosophical and historical perspectives. Though he still teaches chemistry courses, Kovac’s research has moved from the sciences to the humanities. He now writes on ethics, history, and pedagogy, mostly for scientific audiences and advocates for ethics education.
After two decades of teaching and writing in his new fields, Kovac has been recognized by the international scientific community. In 2016, the Swiss Academy of Sciences invited him to deliver a number of lectures inaugurating the organization’s series on ethics, and earlier this year Kovac participated in a panel on scientific ethics at the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting.
Kovac explained the wide range of his scholarly interests by pointing back to the first years of his academic life.
“My transition from full time research in chemistry to scholarship in the humanities is the result of the liberal arts education that I received at Reed College where I was able to study history and philosophy in depth in parallel with chemistry, physics and mathematics,” he explained.
“At Reed the disciplinary boundaries were quite fluid and there was lively dialogue between students and faculty in different fields, so I learned to think broadly, which is one of the ideals of Phi Beta Kappa.”
Kovac has demonstrated his commitment to Phi Beta Kappa’s mission in other aspects of his professional life. He leads College Scholars, the University of Tennessee’s interdisciplinary honors program, and has held a number of positions in Phi Beta Kappa, first as president of the University of Tennessee chapter (1989-1990 and 1999-2016) and now as a member at large of the Phi Beta Kappa senate and as a member of the selection committee for the Phi Beta Kappa Book Award in Science.
Note: A revised edition of The Ethical Chemist will be published by Oxford University Press in the near future.
Grant Currin (ΦBK, University of Tennessee, 2017) currently lives in Mallorca, Spain, where he works as a part-time English teacher. The University of Tennessee is home to the Epsilon of Tennessee Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.
(Posted on 10/25/2017 )
Passing of Earl Wehry
Dear Chemistry Community:
It is with sadness that I have to announce the passing of Earl L. Wehry, Emeritus Professor in Chemistry. Earl was born in 1941, received his B.S. in Chemistry from Juniata College and a PhD in Chemistry from Purdue. He joined the faculty of the University of Tennessee in 1970 and rose through the ranks achieving Full Professor in 1977. He retired in 1996 after 26 years of loyal and productive service to the Department of Chemistry, the College and the University. During his career at UT, he mentored 19 students to the PhD and 5 students to MS degrees. He was recognized for his research contributions in Analytical Chemistry with a Chancellor’s award for Research and Creative Achievement and Science Alliance Awards throughout their existence. He published more than 110 research papers in refereed publications as well as several monographs associated with various spectrometric methods of analysis. He was known nationally as an expert in phosphorescence and fluorescence spectroscopy. There is no information on services at this time.
The memorial gathering will be held on Saturday, January 20th starting at 10:30 AM in 511 Buehler Hall. An agenda is being developed, but after hearing from friends, colleagues and mentors, we will provide lunch so we can continue to share stories. Please mark this important event on your calendar and plan to attend if possible.
Chuck Feigerle
Professor and Head
Department of Chemistry
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN 37996-1600
Professor Musfeldt Named 2017 APS Fellow
Janice Musfeldt, Ziegler Professor of Chemistry, was elected to the 2017 class of American Physical Society (APS) Fellows. The APS Fellowship is a distinct honor signifying recognition by one’s professional peers.
Musfeldt was nominated by APS Division of Materials Physics for her “contributions to the spectroscopy of quantum materials with an emphasis on high magnetic field effects in multiferroics, quantum magnets, and nanomaterials.”
The APS Fellowship Program recognizes members who have made exceptional contributions to the physics enterprise, including outstanding physics research, important applications of physics, leadership in or service to physics, or significant contributions to physics education. Each year, no more than one half of one percent of the Society’s membership is elected to the status of Fellow.
Musfeldt obtained her B.S. in chemical engineering from University of Illinois in 1984 and completed her Ph.D. study in physical chemistry at University of Florida in 1992. She worked as a post doctoral research associate at the Departement de Physique, Universite de Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada from 1993 to 1994, and joined the faculty at the Department of Chemistry, State University of New York at Binghamton prior to coming to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2001.
Musfeldt has received multiple awards and recognitions throughout her career, including 1996 NSF CAREER Award, 2001 NSF Creativity Award, 2010 UT Chancellor’s Award for Research and Creative Achievement, and 2010 – 2014 and 2015 – 2019 Ziegler Professorship.
Musfeldt’s Group’s research focuses on studying the behavior of materials under extreme conditions. The group is well known for their spectroscopic work in high magnetic fields and pressures, under unusual chemical and photochemical activation, and at very small sizes where quantum confinement becomes apparent. Recently, the group along with other collaborators received $1.6 Million NSF-DMREF Award for Advanced Materials Research.
Two Graduate Students Received Shull Wollan Center Graduate Research Fellowship
Two Graduate Students Received Shull Wollan Center Graduate Research Fellowship
Shelby Stavretis, a 4th year graduate student in Dr. Ben Xue’s research group, and Fatema Wahida, a 3rd year graduate student in Dr. John Larese’s research group, were awarded Shull Wollan Center Graduate Research Fellowship for May 2017 through April 2018. The Fellowship includes a year of stipend in support of the awardees’ research.
In 1998 Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL) and the University of Tennessee (UT) established the Joint Institute for Neutron Sciences, which had been reconstituted as the Shull Wollan Center: a Joint Institute for Neutron Science.
“(Clifford) Shull and (Ernest) Wollan were pioneering researchers of neutron diffraction in the 1940s, laying the groundwork for scientific breakthroughs that continue to this day in physics, energy science, materials science, and biological science,” stated on UT’s Office of Research & Engagement website.
“Dr. Xue forwarded an email announcement for the fellowship,” Stavretis said. “When I was notified I received the award I felt excited that my research in neutron scattering was being recognized. This fellowship will provide invaluable support for my neutron scattering research projects. It will help advance my research goals and provides opportunities for further collaboration with the scientists at the Spallation Neutron Source.”
Stavretis completed her undergraduate degree in chemistry at Butler University. In 2014, she joined Xue’s inorganic chemistry research group. Since then her work has focused on using neutron scattering techniques to probe molecular magnetism. Her research relies on the user facilities at the Spallation Neutron Source and the the NIST Center for Neutron Research at ORNL.
“I was very excited and pleased to receive this award.” Wahida said. “A great deal of my research requires neutron scattering to gain insight into the dynamics of the molecular systems under study. This fellowship is a great inspiration and recognition of my work. I believe it will help me contribute to neutron science by accomplishing my graduate school research goals. I sincerely thank the committee for selecting me as a recipient. I am also thankful to my advisor Professor J. Z. Larese for his endless support and guidance in my research.”
Wahida completed her undergraduate in Applied Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the University of Dhaka. She joined Larese materials and neutron scattering group in fall 2014. Her current research focuses on studying the thermodynamics and molecular dynamics of the adsorption of cyclic hydrocarbons on surfaces with comparable symmetries. Neutron scattering is used in her research to probe the microscopic dynamics and the structure of the adsorbed molecular films. Most of the neutron experiments are conducted at the user facilities of the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at ORNL.
Graduate Student Attended National School on X-Ray and Neutron Scattering
Zhiming Liu, a second year graduate student in Dr. Ben Xue’s Research Group, attended the 19th National School on X-Ray and Neutron Scattering from August 5th to 19th held at Argonne National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The School aims to “educate graduate students on the utilization of major neutron and x-ray facilities.” The two-week program included lectures, presented by researchers from academia, industry, and national laboratories, and provided basic tutorials on the principles of scattering theory and the characteristics of the sources, as well as seminars on the application of scattering methods to a variety of scientific subjects.
“It was a very precious opportunity to learn first-hand experiments from the top scientists in each field.” Liu said. “Form the experiments, we had chance to work on 3 different instruments at both Argonne and ORNL. We spent every afternoon with different beamline scientists. They were very nice and patient. They answered our questions in depth and extended our knowledge further from different point of views.” Liu continued. “These really help me to know what kind science these state-of-art techniques can probe and how these can fit to my own research.”
Liu was born and grew up in Weihai, Shandong Province, northeast coast of China. He obtained his B.S. in Applied Chemistry from Jiangnan University in 2016, and came to UT the same year to start to work towards a Ph.D. degree in chemistry. He is currently working on probing molecular magnetism by neutron scattering.
“I want to thank ORNL and Argonne National Lab for offering this great opportunity to boost my knowledge and field of vision.” Liu expressed his gratitude towards mentors who have helped him along the way. “Thank you Dr. Ziling Xue and Shelby Stavretis for the help with my application. And the thank you Dr. Sheng Dai and Dr. Zhiguo Gu for the recommendation.”
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