Mike Tarselli works in the Information Systems division of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR) in Cambridge, MA. His projects there involve data management for external science and synthetic biology, while managing a global team of informaticians, web developers, and business analysts.

Mike was originally interviewed on Reactions in May 2013; this past summer he contributed to an interesting paper in J. Med. Chem entitled “Big Data from Pharmaceutical Patents: A Computational Analysis of Medicinal Chemists’ Bread and Butter.”

Given the change in his research focus, we thought we would check in and see what Mike’s up to in his new role.

1. How has your job changed since you last appeared on Reactions?

Let’s see: New city, new company, new tasks, new projects, and new colleagues. I went from a small start-up focused on neuroprotection to the informatics division of a large pharmaceutical company investigating multiple disease areas. The common thread tying together my past few jobs would be understanding and anticipating chemists’ needs, predicting how chemistry will evolve, and communicating change to different stakeholder groups.

2. What do you think is the most important aspect of your work?

Scientific business analysis is a relatively new title for a rather old pursuit – taking the 10,000-foot view on scientific workflows, and asking questions like: “How can we streamline this process?” or “What’s the end goal for this group’s data?” If I’ve done my work well, scientists make faster, better decisions on higher-quality data, saving us all time and resources. I remain grateful that my role also allows for occasional original research questions, which we’ve pursued recently in the areas of green chemistry and patent mining.

3. Which is your favourite element — or if not an element, favourite molecule and why?

I couldn’t pick an absolute favourite, so I’ll give you three molecules: artemisinin, curcumin, and conolidine. Artemisinin, the recent recipient (2015, Tu Youyou) of a Nobel Prize, helps treat malaria for millions of people. It contains a remarkable endoperoxide (C–O–O–C) group thought to result from photo-oxidation of O₂. Curcumin, a pigment found in curry and turmeric, conjugates to free thiols and amines in the cytoplasm through double Michael addition, which may have roles in apoptosis. Finally I first synthesized conolidine as a postdoctoral fellow; this subsequently became my first peer-reviewed publication in Nature Chemistry. Conolidine’s observed benefit — non-opioid pain reduction — remains important in a world awash in widely available, addictive painkillers.

4. Imagine that your inbox is empty, there is nothing in need of writing, and there are no experiments that need attention: how would you spend this free time?

As recommended by many great scholars, I’d take a walk. I’m amazed how much light exercise, a welcome distraction from the glowing screens and impending deadlines of modern science, clears one’s head and improves critical thinking. For maximum benefit, I’d probably drop into one of the many fine local cafes Cambridge proudly hosts, and walk out a bit more lively after a dry cappuccino.

5. If you were given $1 million as you stepped out of your office to do with what you will, what would you use it for?

A lifelong dream to endow a scholarship comes to mind — I’d contact my high school and university and ask how we could structure something for scientists like me: without much familial financial support, but showing the passion to help people and make the world a better place. Donations to Wikipedia, independent radio, and public parks might follow. If I have any of the million left over, I’d re-enroll in a continuing education program to learn a new language or pick up some business classes. Just for fun, let’s throw in a big meal with my friends and family.

6. Where would you most like to travel to, but have never been — and why?

Uh-oh, I think I could spend the rest of the post just answering this single question! Argentina would give me a chance to brush up on my Spanish language skills, while riding a horse across the Pampas. For a complete contrast, Iceland would show me the Northern lights (aurora borealis) and a chance to relax in the volcanic hot springs. I’m drawn, finally, to Shanghai, China, because I want to see such a city during its major growth phase – the number of skyscrapers built there in just the past decade rivals New York or Hong Kong during the 20th century. I’d appreciate the chance to visit the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, from which I’ve seen many important papers emerge.

7. Which chemists do you look up to, living or otherwise — and why?

This post may show the reader that I’m terrible at selecting absolutes. Thus, two more…

Carl Djerassi made his mark as a chemist, inventor, entrepreneur, and playwright. He constantly reinvented himself, whether at Syntex, Stanford, or in writers’ groups, and possessed an amazing work ethic and strong opinions. From him, I draw lessons about self-reliance and confidence.

On a completely different tack, I learned an important lesson once in a passing interaction with Harvard chemist Eric Jacobsen. He presented a seminar at one of my first pharmaceutical jobs, with the former Millennium Pharmaceuticals. Eric made a request I thought strange: he wanted to meet only with the bench chemists for lunch. Once the door was shut, he asked only “How do they treat you here? Are you happy?” to myself and a handful of other young scientists. And then he listened intently and delivered sage responses where appropriate. From him, I learned that you could be a warm, compassionate leader, and still deliver amazing science.

Alexander Spokoyny is in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles, and works on inorganic cluster chemistry at the interface with materials science and chemical biology. Alex recently published “Atomically precise organomimetic cluster nanomolecules assembled via perfluoroaryl-thiol S_NAr chemistry” in Nature Chemistry.

1. What made you want to be a chemist?

Looking back to my adolescent years growing up in Russia, I could not have imagined becoming a chemist, since I was more interested in the humanities (literature and history). Around the 8th grade, my parents (who are both scientists) decided to apply some pressure on me as they were worried about my career aspirations and high probability of me bumming on their couch indefinitely if I would become a historian (humanists in Russia unfortunately make even less money than they do in the United States). Around the same time I took my first chemistry class at school, which was unlike all previous science classes — extremely non-boring and actually exciting. What struck me about chemistry back then was how uncertain it was compared to, let’s say, physics where any laboratory experiment worked and could be rationally explained. On the other hand, the “human factor” in chemistry was apparent and things went often not the way one would have expected. In any case, following my compromise with the parents, I enrolled into the Moscow Lyceum 171 which was offering advanced preparation to high school students in chemistry to ultimately gain admissions to Moscow University. I have spent two years there studying advanced chemistry subjects (organic, analytical and inorganic chemistry) essentially at the University level. Professors there were truly fantastic and taught us a curriculum that is normally offered to college freshmen. Sometime during that period, I decided that I wanted to pursue higher education in chemistry and have been in this business ever since.

2. If you weren’t a chemist and could do any other job, what would it be — and why?

I consider myself as a part of the generation consisting of many kids growing up in a post-Soviet Russia with an infatuation towards the mainstream American culture stemming primarily from watching too many Schwarzenegger, Stallone and Van Damme movies. One of the really cool cultural elements in these classics (and many other movies as I realized later) is American diners and dive bars and the random groups of folks who used to show up at those places. This is something that Russia lacked back in my days, and I find these places personally fascinating and very charming. I would love to own one of these dive bars; I think it will provide me with plenty of interesting conversations and characters to meet with.

3. What are you working on now, and where do you hope it will lead?

One of the long-standing goals in our research program is to make atomically precise nanomaterials. We use stable molecular clusters as template placeholders for the bottom-up synthesis of these species. By developing a wide arsenal of chemistry allowing to modify these cluster “core” molecules selectively, we want to build hybrid systems featuring metals, metal oxides, organic substrates and biomolecules. I think that atomic precision can be detrimental to some of the properties of hybrid nanomaterials and we ultimately would like to probe to what extent this is true in terms of applications.

4. Which historical figure would you most like to have dinner with — and why?

Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain). He had one of the most brilliant senses of humor and I think that would make for a very enjoyable dinner. I am also personally fascinated with a post-Civil War era in the U.S. history so there should be a lot to talk about.

5. When was the last time you did an experiment in the lab — and what was it?

The last experiment I did was several months ago. One of the key precursors we use in our laboratory is meta-carborane. Unfortunately, purchasing it from the overseas vendors in large quantities is very problematic paperwork-wise due to the archaic silliness in the U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR) stemming from the Cold War era (shout-out to anyone in the government who can fix this!), so we decided to revisit some old industrial patents to produce the compounds in our laboratory on a decagram scale. I’ve made several compounds en route to the final meta-carborane product and my super talented undergraduate co-worker Josh Martin has recently validated the final step.

6. If exiled on a desert island, what one book and one music album would you take with you?

Master and Margarita by Bulgakov and one of Taylor Swift’s early albums (this makes it official that I am not a closeted Taylor Swift fan anymore!).

7. Which chemist would you like to see interviewed on Reactions — and why?

Angela Merkel. There is obviously a lot written about her, but surprisingly not a lot on the chemistry side of things.

[Editor’s note: because at least three separate people asked me while I was preparing this how to pronounce Prof. Spokoyny’s last name, here’s some help.]

Helmut Schwarz works in the Department of Chemistry at the Technische Universität Berlin. His experimental and computational research is concerned with understanding why it is so difficult to bring about, in an economically viable and environmentally benign fashion, the conversion of methane to value-added products under ambient conditions. Additionally, his commentary, “On the usefulness of useless information,” was published this week in the inaugural issue of Nature Reviews Chemistry.

1. What made you want to be a chemist?

Chemists don’t just discover what was already there, they also create new forms of matter. Among all the natural sciences, chemistry is unique in that it is most closely related to the arts and the engineering sciences. In this regard, it has led me on many a satisfying intellectual adventure.

2. If you weren’t a chemist and could do any other job, what would it be — and why?

I would perhaps join a theatre group, work on plays, and merge reality with the imaginary.

3. What are you working on now, and where do you hope it will lead?

I am trying to understand why it is so challenging to activate small molecules like CH₄, CO₂, NH₃, etc.

4. Which historical figure would you most like to have dinner with — and why?

Nelson Mandela – just listening to him, perhaps asking him how he did manage to overcome hatred.

5. When was the last time you did an experiment in the lab — and what was it?

Ages ago – my students were not really excited about my showing up in the lab!

6. If exiled on a desert island, what one book and one music album would you take with you?

Goethe’s unparalleled “Elective Affinities” and Mozart’s dark opera “Così fan tutte”.

7. Which chemist would you like to see interviewed on Reactions — and why?

There are too many!

Stephen Davey is the Chief Editor for Nature Reviews Chemistry. Steve was originally interviewed on Reactions in July 2008; given that Nature Reviews Chemistry will release its first issue next week, we thought we would check in and see what’s changed recently.

1. What has changed in your role since you last appeared on Reactions?

When I was last interviewed, I had just started working at Nature Chemistry – which hadn’t launched. I spent almost eight years handling (mostly) the organic chemistry content for the journal during which time I moved across the Atlantic to live in Boston, and then back to live in London. For most of that my time in America there was a science-literate/appreciative president, something which is wildly undervalued.

In that time, I’ve read a huge number of papers. Some of them I got to publish and contrary to what many may think accepting papers (not rejecting them) is definitely the best part of my job — and if I’ve contributed in any way to making them better that’s really satisfying.

In February this year I left to begin my new role launching Nature Reviews Chemistry. This will be second Nature journal I’ve been involved with launching, with the added excitement/pressure that the buck stops with me this time. With a little luck my hair won’t be as grey as Stu’s in a few years.

2. What do you think is the most important aspect of your new journal?

I think reviews can be a really valuable part of the literature, but only if they provide something more than a ready-made reference list. I read reviews to find out about important developments, but more importantly I read them to get insight from experts and hear their opinions on where we should go next. I think the majority of review articles are too long, and that too often review articles are either targeted at experts or at novices (both are in need of good reviews) but believe that it is possible to target both demographics in one article. I’m not saying it’s easy – just possible.

Also important, Nature Reviews Chemistry is one part of a wider commitment to chemistry at Nature Research Group. I’ve often said that I never read Nature as a graduate student (there was next to nothing in it that would have interested me). Now I look at it every week – and not just because I work here! There is more chemistry and that’s a good thing – it deserves to get the attention.

3. Which is your favourite element — or if not an element, favourite molecule and why?

N,N-diethyl-5-(2-phenylnaphthalen-1-yl)pyridin-3-amine. First off, I’m fairly certain I was the first person to make it. It’s not an especially useful molecule. In fact it’s a by-product – from a reaction that I ran towards the end of my PhD. It was made in something of a ‘hail Mary’ attempt to complete a synthesis that wouldn’t work any other way. I think I’m right in saying that my PhD advisor didn’t really have a great deal of confidence in the reaction working and the fact that this product was formed confirmed that the reaction worked the way I thought it might. I still remember his response when I told him the outcome (NSFW).

4. Imagine that your inbox is empty, there is nothing in need of writing, and there are no experiments that need attention: how would you spend this free time?

Firstly, let me say I’d need a really good imagination. I guess it depends on how long the inbox will be empty for! I like to play snooker¹ — even though I’m not very good. I’d like to be better but it takes a lot of practice. If it’s just a couple of hours off, a snooker club is where I’m headed. After that the cinema and then spend some time cooking. I think I’m quite a good cook, but I don’t spend nearly enough time doing it.

If there’s more time, then I refer you to question 6.

5. If you were given $1 million as you stepped out of your office to do with what you will, what would you use it for?

I’m assuming that “pay of my mortgage and buy a fast car” is too glib? I’ve often idly wondered if I could go back to research if I didn’t have to concern myself with applying for funding to just do what I wanted. But I’m not sure that I’d really want to do that. It’s just nostalgia for time in the lab and I’ve forgotten just how hard it is. Also, $1 million is not nearly as much as it seems to do research with.

I think it would be great to use the money to advance public understanding/enjoyment of chemistry. I won’t be the first person to recount that when I tell people that I’m a chemist they respond with “I hated chemistry at school” or something similar. That’s where the problems start. Perhaps there’s too much information overload and not enough time for students to just explore and find out what interests them? The system as it is worked OK for me, but I worry that our subject misses out on some really creative people in this way. And even if people don’t go on to work in chemistry, a generally more science literate public would be a very good thing.

I’d have to think really exactly to spend the money though. I don’t think that many of the current approaches to the problem are all that successful — I think we spend too much time preaching to the converted.

6. Where would you most like to travel to, but have never been — and why?

My first reaction is to say India. Really though, there are too many places to list. I picked India because I love to try new food and Indian food is one of my favourites. I’d like to get the authentic experience though.

7. Which chemist do you look up to most, living or otherwise — and why?

I was going to call you out for being over-delicate and saying “otherwise” rather than just “dead”, and then I realized that I could go fictional. Severus Snape. Potions is obviously chemistry, and Alan Rickman was one of the best actors of his generation. 2016 got off to a bad start when he died and went downhill from there.

Stay tuned next week for more Nature Reviews Chemistry-related content! We’ll be featuring authors of reviews in NRC on Reactions on a regular basis, so be sure to email nchem —at— nature.com if you’d like us to feature the author of your favourite review!

[1] For our non-British readers, snooker is a billiards game similar to pool, but (to oversimplify, perhaps) is typically played on a larger table with a different scoring system (among other differences). I’ll save you a click to Wikipedia here.

Bryan Dickinson is in the Department of Chemistry at The University of Chicago, and works on developing both small molecule and synthetic biology technologies to measure and control chemistry in living cells. Bryan recently published a paper entitled “A fluorescent probe for cysteine depalmitoylation reveals dynamic APT signaling” in Nature Chemical Biology.

1. What made you want to be a chemist?

As I explored different types of science through courses and research experiences in college, I found chemistry approaches science with what I believe is a perfect balance of molecular understanding and real-world applicability. Our ability as chemists and bioengineers to build molecules that actually do something continues to fascinate me, and is the ultimate motivation behind every project I pursue.

2. If you weren’t a chemist and could do any other job, what would it be — and why?

One of my current hobbies is woodworking, both art pieces and furniture. If I could build all day I think I would be pretty happy. I like crafting something with my hands that never existed before and would not have except for my hard work. In that regard, research in my lab is quite similar. Whether your building a table, synthesizing a small molecule, or engineering a protein, success comes from focus, persistence, and creativity. The latter is especially important to me, because in design and art, as well as technology, I find beauty in creative approaches that impart functionality.

3. What are you working on now, and where do you hope it will lead?

Two project areas in the group just had some nice breakthroughs. In one area, we came up with a very general small molecule strategy to measure cysteine PTM “eraser” enzymes in live cells and used it to discover that cysteine lipidation status is dynamically regulated. We hope these tools will lead to a better understanding of how cysteine PTMs are regulated, and how alterations in that regulation effect cell physiology. In a second project area, we just developed a split RNAP-based biosensor engineering platform. This approach is opening up a variety of new directions in my group, including new evolution systems, mammalian synthetic biology tools, and new ways to measure endogenous biochemistry.

4. Which historical figure would you most like to have dinner with — and why?

I would love to have dinner with Rosalind Franklin, who was actually my current age (32) when she gathered the first X-ray diffraction image of DNA. That single image lead to the elucidation of the double helix structure of DNA and the discovery of the biophysical basis for the central dogma. She of course tragically passed away just five years after gathering that data. I imagine a dinner with Rosalind would be immensely interesting, during which she could explain what it was like to be a scientist during the beginnings of modern molecular biology, and maybe reveal how she was able to be so successful at such a young age while facing so many challenges. Moreover, I would really enjoy explaining to her what we can do with DNA today in terms of synthetic biology, which I imagine would sound like science fiction.

5. When was the last time you did an experiment in the lab — and what was it?

I actually really enjoy being in lab and try to help with experiments as much as possible. Most of the time I do the stuff in lab that no one else wants to do, like making cell media and molecular biology reagents. Last week I assisted with a confocal imaging experiment, which was lots of fun. When I have a few extra minutes, I enjoy designing primers for new cloning projects, which I am still quite good at. I refer to members of my team that surpass me in their cloning abilities as “cloning ninjas”, of which I have a few now, but I am still the “cloning sensei” and work hard to keep that rank.

6. If exiled on a desert island, what one book and one music album would you take with you?

The Great Gatsby is the one book I can read over and over again and still enjoy. Music is a tough one to choose. I think if I were exiled to an island by society for some reason that I’d be feeling pretty angsty, and Green Day’s Dookie has been one of my go-to soundtracks for that mood since I was in third grade.

7. Which chemist would you like to see interviewed on Reactions — and why?

I would like to see Carolyn Bertozzi interviewed. She has a great perspective on the field of chemistry and is always full of excellent advice, especially for young scientists.

{credit}Bryce Vickmark, MIT{/credit}

Ed Boyden is in the MIT Media Lab and McGovern Institute, and a professor in the Departments of Biological Engineering and Brain and Cognitive Sciences, where he directs a group that develops and applies new molecular and optical tools to neural circuit analysis. Ed recently published a paper entitled “Engineering genetic circuit interactions within and between synthetic minimal cells” in Nature Chemistry.

1. What made you want to be a chemist?

Even as a kid, I was very philosophical — wondering what was the meaning of life, and what it meant to be human, and what was the nature of consciousness. At age 14, I entered a program at the University of North Texas that let students directly begin college instead of finishing high school. I joined Prof. Paul Braterman’s chemistry lab as a research assistant, working on a project to create the building blocks of life from scratch. I worked on a project where we tried to insert ferrocyanide into layered double hydroxides, and then to drive reactions that would convert ferrocyanide into nucleic acids like adenine. Immediately this struck me as amazing — a philosophically interesting experiment, which was at its heart a chemical project, and chemistry would give you the tools to confront it.

2. If you weren’t a chemist and could do any other job, what would it be — and why?

After two years at the University of North Texas, I transferred to MIT, where I completed degrees in electrical engineering and computer science, and physics. At that point I felt like I completed my “skill” training, and then decided it was time to pick some hard problems work on, and that was the point where I switched into neuroscience, entering the Stanford neuroscience PhD program where I worked in the labs of Richard Tsien and Jennifer Raymond on learning and memory (and, in parallel, co-launched optogenetics with Karl Deisseroth, as a side project done in parallel to my PhD). So I would have to say that I’m not only a chemist, although the focus of my group is largely on molecular strategies for understanding biological complexity. I would have to say that I think backwards from problems, try to survey every possible angle of attack on them (whether chemical, physical, electrical, or computational), and then take the best approach. Much of the time, that does mean a molecular tool, but we also do work in robotics, optics, and computational modeling. So I would have to say I’d want to continue to be a problem solver, tackling problems with whatever discipline is the best one for the job. If I had to leave science entirely, though, I’d probably want to write novels or movie screenplays — I like to write.

3. What are you working on now, and where do you hope it will lead?

Right now, we are working on a way to image biological specimens, like cells and tissues, in 3D with nanoscale resolution. We achieve that by synthesizing a polyelectrolyte gel evenly throughout a preserved specimen, anchoring key biomolecules or labels to the specimen, and then adding water so the polyelectrolyte gel swells and takes the biomolecules along for the ride. The net effect is like drawing a picture on a balloon and then blowing up the balloon — except in 3-D. We call the technology expansion microscopy. The idea of embedding a preserved tissue in a hydrogel is an old one, dating perhaps back to 1995¹. In 2015 we showed the basic concept of expansion microscopy². Then in 2016 we revealed powerful and easy protocols for analyzing proteins³  and nucleic acids⁴. The net impact is that people can map the identity and locations of biomolecules through complex systems like brain circuits, cancer biopsies, and so forth — helping reveal how molecules are configured to implement biological processes, and how they go wrong in disease states. I hope that a wealth of biological insight, as well as better disease targets, will emerge.

4. Which historical figure would you most like to have dinner with — and why?

Hmm… probably Archimedes. First, we just don’t know much about him, at least not compared to modern scientists — much about him remains cloaked in myth or legend. Second, he anticipated quite a bit of mathematics and physics that followed him, and was in some ways far ahead of his time. And developed many practical inventions. It would be great to find out what his influences were, and how he thought about his culture and time.

5. When was the last time you did an experiment in the lab — and what was it?

For the first few years I was a professor at MIT, I often would teach students how to do experiments — preparing cells with optogenetic tools expressed, performing patch clamp electrophysiology, aligning optics — and then do experiments side-by-side with them. The last set of experiments I did from start to finish, that resulted in a paper, were the optogenetics experiments for the 2005 paper that kicked off the modern excitement about controlling neurons with light⁵.

6. If exiled on a desert island, what one book and one music album would you take with you?

I suppose How to Survive on a Deserted Island wouldn’t really count? (Apparently it is a real book, and has at least some good reviews.) So I suppose it should be a really long book, and a really long album. (As opposed to a life-changing book or album that might have such impact, that reading it or hearing it too often becomes unnecessary or even tiresome.) So maybe for the book, I’d pick the Encyclopedia Brittanica (if you can still buy that). For an album — I never seem to tire of Chopin’s piano works, so maybe a collection of those.

7. Which chemist would you like to see interviewed on Reactions – and why?

A living chemist, or any chemist ever? If the latter, it could be interesting to interview Lavoisier as it seems like he had an interesting life. (Lots of chemists did, it seems.) If living, there are so many great folks who could be fun to interview, but if I just had to pick one, how about Ferran Adrià, a chef who is one of the pioneers of bringing chemistry-driven techniques into modern cooking?

[1] Microscopy Research and Technique 30, 513–520 (1995)

[2] Science 347, 543–548 (2015).

[3] Nature Biotechnology 34, 987–992 (2016)

[4] Nature Methods 13,679–684 (2016)

[5] Nature Neuroscience 8, 1263–1268 (2005)

Katherine Mirica is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Dartmouth College. The Mirica group works on the design and synthesis of stimuli-responsive materials for portable chemical sensing and microelectronics.

1. What made you want to be a chemist?

While I grew up among chemists (my mother is a chemist) in a small industrial town of Ukraine, and enjoyed chemistry in high school, it was not until my involvement in research during my sophomore year at Boston College that I had solidified my decision to study chemistry. I became fascinated with organic and materials chemistry and the potential of these fields in solving global challenges in healthcare.

2. If you weren’t a chemist and could do any other job, what would it be — and why?

An architect — I’ve always loved designing and making things.

3. What are you working on now, and where do you hope it will lead?

My group focuses on the design of conductive multifunctional nanomaterials for gas-phase sensing to enable portable and personalized diagnosis and monitoring of diseases. We are particularly interested in designing sensors for a class of molecules known as gasotransmitters (e.g., nitric oxide, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen sulfide), to attain fundamental understanding of the role of these physiological modulators in human disease. Materials and methods developed in the group may also be applicable to information storage, and energy storage, conversion, and catalysis.

4. Which historical figure would you most like to have dinner with — and why?

Richard Feynman. His vision for nanotechnology at the time was extraordinary, and his ability to communicate complex concepts with such clarity was truly remarkable. I regularly watch videos of him on YouTube, and greatly admire both his work and ability to question and explain things.

5. When was the last time you did an experiment in the lab — and what was it?

I did a sensing experiment for my first paper as an independent investigator, which was recently published in Chemistry of Materials.

6. If exiled on a desert island, what one book and one music album would you take with you?

The book would have to be War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (in original Russian), and the music would be Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi. One is bound to discover new meaning in these classics every time they are revisited.

7. Which chemist would you like to see interviewed on Reactions — and why?

My PhD advisor, George Whitesides. I bet he would have very interesting answers.

Sason Shaik is in the Institute of Chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and works on bonding, chemical catalysis, and structure and reactivity of metalloenzymes. Sason was originally interviewed on Reactions in May 2011; given his recent paper in Nature Chemistry titled “Oriented electric fields as future smart reagents in chemistry,” we thought we would check in and see what’s changed recently.

1. What has changed in your research since you last appeared on Reactions?

Firstly, our research on bonding has intensified since we predicted the quadruple bond in C₂. We are now working on other molecules with these bonding features. Our work on charge shift bonding published in Nature Chemistry¹, is branching too, because there might be the first experimental verification of this bonding type. This caused us to branch to metallomics, where this bond may be prevalent. Secondly, our enzyme work has been enriched and upgraded once we took molecular dynamics (MD) seriously. Now we are able to predict enantioselectivity and regioselectivity using MD and QM/MM calculations. And finally, our work on electric fields effects in reactivity has been boosted by the experimental support provided by the Spanish-Australian teams this year. So we are going very strong in a few fronts!

2. What do you think is the most important aspect of your recent Nature Chemistry paper?

I feel that this paper makes predictions and tries to teach the reader how to think about the effects of oriented electric fields on chemical reactivity, and how to design appropriate experiments. If this activity catches on, this will affect the science of chemistry in a serious manner.

3. Which is your favourite element — or if not an element, favourite molecule and why?

My favourite element is iron — it is so reactive in many interesting manners due to its many close lying spin-states. My favourite molecule is benzene. It’s so simple looking, and yet it has been serving as a springboard of many influential concepts in chemistry.

4. Imagine that your inbox is empty, there is nothing in need of writing, and there are no experiments that need attention: how would you spend this free time?

I would write poetry and maybe some history…

5. If you were given $1 million as you stepped out of your office to do with what you will, what would you use it for?

The first thing would be to take a trip around the world. Then back to paper writing.

6. Where would you most like to travel to, but have never been — and why?

Antarctica.

7. Which chemist do you look up to most, living or otherwise — and why?

My mentor Roald Hoffmann. I learned from Roald how to handle myself in science. I admire his grand knowledge and thoughtful wisdom.

[1] Nature Chem. 1, 443–449 (2009).

Bryden Le Bailly worked on iron catalysis and molecular communication devices before moving to London, where he was at Nature Nanotechnology. He is now an Associate Editor for Nature.

1. What made you want to be a chemist?

I think when I realised that not quite understanding what was going on is half the point! I was lucky enough to have some inspirational teachers along the way, through school and university, to nudge me in the right direction.

2. If you weren’t a chemist and could do any other job, what would it be — and why?

I’d love to make my own wine, hopefully an ambition I may still fulfill later in life. It seems like a great mix of chemistry and working with your hands — both things I used to enjoy about being in the lab. And of course lots of tasting.

3. What are you working on now, and where do you hope it will lead?

Well, as I’ve just started at Nature I’m looking forward to meeting a lot of people in the organic chemistry and chemical biology communities and seeing what they’re up to!

4. Which historical figure would you most like to have dinner with — and why?

After serious consideration and whittling down a shortlist, I would say Ernest Hemingway. You know you’re getting a great character, incredible stories and a solid drinker. It’s the perfect, heady combination.

5. When was the last time you did an experiment in the lab — and what was it?

My last experiment in the lab was using a photoacid to mediate a conformational relay. It ended up being photographed and was used to promote the work, thus fulfilling my lifetime ambition as a hand model.

6. If exiled on a desert island, what one book and one music album would you take with you?

Choosing one album is an almost impossible choice to make because I listen to a lot of music, but if I was stuck with The Lyre of Orpheus/Abattoir Blues by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds for the rest of my days I think I’d be okay with it. For a book I’d have to go with something from my favourite author, Haruki Murakami, probably The Wind Up Bird Chronicle. Murakami has such a unique and vivid writing style that so many of his novels would be an ideal companion to a desert island.

7. Which chemist would you like to see interviewed on Reactions — and why?

Daniele Leonori — I never got around to asking these questions while we were both at Manchester.

Andrei K. Yudin is in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Toronto and works on developing synthetic tools to study biological processes. Andrei was originally interviewed on Reactions in August 2011; given his recent paper in Nature Chemistry titled “Oxadiazole grafts in peptide macrocycles,” we thought we would check in and see what’s changed recently.

1. What has changed in your research since you last appeared on Reactions?

During my 2013 sabbatical, I got interested in protein crystal structure determination and the role of synthetic molecules in mediating this process. During that time, we initiated several projects that have led to the emergence of synthetic tools to develop molecular probes of protein function. This area of research is still in its infancy and we have yet to publish our results. But the tangible outcome has been profound: our interest in functional significance of molecules now influences the way we go about reaction design. I would not have predicted that structural biology could have a measurable bearing on how we attempt to innovate in chemical synthesis, but it sure does.

2. What do you think is the most important aspect of your recent Nature Chemistry paper?

This work has everything from an interesting mechanistic insight into how macrocycles are made to the ultimate application of our molecules. I think the capability to control the structure of macrocycles using oxadiazole grafts is something other labs will be able to use. I also hope that “the oxadiazole effect” will lead to the discovery of many other macrocyclic systems with controlled properties. As a result of our paper, Sigma-Aldrich is now in the process of manufacturing “Pinc”, the central reagent that enables our reaction to take place.

3. Which is your favourite element — or if not an element, favourite molecule and why?

Water is my favorite molecule and the reason is that it mediates interactions between small molecules and their protein targets. The ChemDraw-driven “language of chemical structures” is an unfortunate oversimplification. I wish we had an easy way to depict water surrounding chemical structures because it is water, in its bulk and structured states, which does the heavy lifting during biological interactions. Water networks shift, reorganize, and are even known to possess entropy/enthalpy compensatory mechanisms. These mechanisms influence the intended consequences of functional group placement when we, synthetic chemists, apply our “penetrating” insights and convince ourselves that we are engaged in molecular design.

4. Imagine that your inbox is empty, there is nothing in need of writing, and there are no experiments that need attention: how would you spend this free time?

I would play 18 holes at the Indian Wells Golf Club (Burlington, Ontario). I would do it two times in the same day – one from the white tees and one from the blue tees, although I am not sure there will be material change to my score.

5. If you were given $1 million as you stepped out of your office to do with what you will, what would you use it for?

I would start a company around our recent boron technology. This will allow us to make about 100 molecules and outsource phenotypic screening to a contract research organization. The strength of our yet-to-be-published chemistry is that the molecules are cell permeable. We can’t afford to run costly assays now, but with $1 million we will be in a good position to attract investors and do so on reasonable terms because the technology will be substantially de-risked by then.

6. Where would you most like to travel to, but have never been — and why?

I am interested in Labrador, a fascinating Canadian province I have never been to. It has breathtaking cliff views of the ocean and is known for its austere beauty. Unfortunately, this is not a place I could convince my wife to visit because there are no swimming opportunities, so I will have to wait for a conference to be held there.

7. Which chemist do you look up to most, living or otherwise — and why?

There are so many people I could name. Out of this list, I am drawn to those who did more with less. In this regard, I feel that Emil Fischer’s study of sugars is exemplary. Whenever I teach this topic, it sends chills down my spine. In his work, Fischer established the stereochemistry of sugars by studying epimerization between gluconic and mannonic acids. Doing this with the tools he had at his disposal was akin to a miracle.