Like Catherine, I’m a bit behind on scientific posts – so here’s a quick recap of some of the talks I attended earlier in the week.

My Sunday morning started with an excellent session on malaria/anti-malarials – Solomon Nwaka from the World Health Organization’s Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases ‘kicked off’ the session with a broad overview that really drove home why malaria is (still) such an important disease: every 30 seconds a child dies from malaria, and the disease is responsible for more that one million deaths each year. Anti-malarial drug resistance is a huge problem (and there aren’t that many new drug candidates in the pipeline), so the session focused on several academic scientists who are searching for new drug candidates. This is often done as a collaboration with Medicines for Malaria Venture, a non-profit organization created to “discover, develop and deliver new antimalarial drugs through public-private partnerships.” (For more information on public-private partnerships, click here and here).

I was only able to stay for the first half of the session, but I heard Jonathan Vennerstrom talk about synthetic peroxide anti-malarials (including this simplified analog of artemisinin) and Paul O’Neill talk about analogs of amodiaquine that were active against drug-resistant strains of malaria (click here for a recent review on 4-aminoquinoline anti-malarials).

The debate about whether or not academic scientists should try to get involved in drug discovery can get quite heated (see Derek Lowe’s take on it here; you might also be interested in this NRDD ‘Outlook’). Though I understand why some scientists think that academics should avoid this area of research, many pharmaceutical companies aren’t willing (or able) to pursue a drug discovery program that focuses on malaria or other important, yet neglected, infectious diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries. (NITD and GSK are important exceptions to this general rule…)

So my question is if many pharmaceutical companies aren’t willing/able to tackle these problems, why shouldn’t academic groups give it a try?

Joshua

Joshua Finkelstein (Senior Editor, Nature)

I only have time for a quick post, but I wanted to mention a few other blogs/bloggers that are at the fall ACS meeting – most of you know that Paul and Kyle are here, but it looks like journalists from C&EN and Chemistry World are blogging from the meeting (including Carmen Drahl, who used to post at She Blinded Me with Science/who now works for C&EN…)

It also looks like Mitch (from Chemical Forums) and Eric (from Homebrew and Chemistry) are here too… Have I missed anyone? If so, please add a link to their (or your) blog in the ‘comments’ section of this post…

It sounds like some of these bloggers will be at John Harvard’s Brew House in Harvard Square tomorrow night. I’ll try to swing by for a round (and will see if I can convince any of the other NPG editors to join me) – hope to see you there…

Joshua

Joshua Finkelstein (Senior Editor, Nature)

Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the drug store, but that’s just peanuts to space.

This Douglas Adams quote was one of the first things that popped into my head when I entered the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. Simply put, the building is huge: “516,000 square feet of contiguous exhibit space” with “3 exhibition halls each ranging in size from 162,000 to 184,000 square feet.”

After looking at the floorplan, I realized that it would be pretty tough to rapidly hop from session to session – the convention center has two skybridges that you need to use if you’re moving from the west side of the building to the east side of the building, so it can take 10 to 15 minutes to get from one session to another. This must be why the refrigerator in the press office was packed full of bottles of Gatorade/Powerade…

The first day of the ACS was great (more about the science in my next post), but I’ve yet to find a good place to grab coffee that doesn’t have a huge line at all hours of the day – on my way to the afternoon session I saw people crowded around a table containing snacks and coffee. Alas, the giant drum of coffee was decaf! I saw another table further down the corridor, but it too contained only decaf coffee. Oh cruel world, why must you mock me so?

Joshua

Joshua Finkelstein (Senior Editor, Nature)

Well, the fall ACS meeting is nearly here – a few NPG editors will be attending the meeting (including myself), so don’t forget to check back for daily updates…

I also wanted to mention that we’ve put together another special issue of Nature that will be distributed at the meeting – in this week’s issue, there’s a News Feature on metal-organic frameworks and several papers:

– Structure-based activity prediction for an enzyme of unknown function by Hermann et al. (click here for the News & Views)

– Vitrification of a monatomic metallic liquid by Bhat et al. (click here for the News & Views)

– A transglutaminase homologue as a condensation catalyst in antibiotic assembly lines by Fortin et al. (click here for the News & Views)

– Selection and evolution of enzymes from a partially randomized non-catalytic scaffold by Seelig & Szostak (click here for the News & Views)

If you’re going to be at the meeting, don’t forget to swing by the NPG booth (booth #434) to pick up free issues of Nature, Nature Chemical Biology, Nature Materials, Nature Methods, Nature Nanotechnology, and Nature Reviews Drug Discovery.

And last (but certainly not least), Paul thinks we should meet for “[d]rinks or dinner at a neutral location” – depending on where and when it is, I’ll try to swing by (and bring along a few of the other editors…) Hope to see you there!

Joshua

Joshua Finkelstein (Senior Editor, Nature)

It’s been ages since I’ve posted, but I saw this news this morning and thought it’d be worth mentioning on the blog – the board of directors recently decided to continue Nature Publishing Group’s foray into the chemical sciences, and has just announced that it is searching for a Chief Editor to launch Nature Chemistry:

Alongside the highest-quality original research, Nature Chemistry will cover news, commentary and analysis from and for the chemistry community, as well as striving to develop a voice that chemists care about. We require a dynamic Chief Editor who is able to develop, launch and establish Nature Chemistry as the essential publication for the chemistry community. The role will be based in NPG’s Boston office.

Applicants must have a strong track record of research in a related discipline, as well as significant editorial and/or senior research experience. They must demonstrate a good understanding of the challenges faced by researchers in both academia and industry. This is a demanding and extremely stimulating role, which calls for a keen interest in the practice and communication of science. The successful candidate will therefore be dynamic, motivated and outgoing, and must possess excellent interpersonal skills. Applicants should include a covering letter stating their suitability for this post, as well as their salary expectations, a current CV and a statement (maximum 1500 words) that encapsulates their vision for the content, competitive position and longer-term development of Nature Chemistry.

Applications are due in a few weeks, so don’t forget to mark your calendars if you’re interested in this position… And best of luck to you if you decide to apply!

Joshua

Joshua Finkelstein (Senior Editor, Nature)