Nepali chemists participated in International Environmental Project Olympiad 2013

(Recently Dr. Ajaya Bhattarai and his student Akash Deo participated in the 7th INEPO-EUROASIA International Environmental Project Olympiad which was held on 3-7 April at Buku Azerbaijan. Nepali team bagged a bronze medal by securing third position in the competition. This post highlights their experience in the Olympiad).

Ajaya Bhattarai and Akash Deo

We live in the same world although our languages and religions are different. However, the natural resources like water, air, and soil in the world are limited. Unfortunately, human beings became aware of the value of these resources that they thought would never end when they started to lose them. It was seen that the danger reached great dimensions and people felt that it was necessary to take certain measures. We should do our best as individuals for a livable world without delaying and we should have a developed environmental consciousness. It makes me hopeful to see you, the insurance of our future, to be so sensitive about the environment. Human beings saw that the atmosphere, soil, and forests were not inexhaustible and that the environmental pollution did not have any limits and that it was a common question of all countries. 5th of June is celebrated as World Environment Day in Azerbaijan and all over the world. As a matter of fact environment is not a phenomenon to be evaluated and discussed only for a day or week.

It is something that is ever present in the life of human beings. The Project Olympiad that young people take part in with their projects reflecting their sensitivity towards the environment that they prepared throughout the year aims to make young people conscious that each day is the “environment day”. I believe that the science institutions will make use of these projects and provide these young people with opportunities in order to make the future world more livable. Youth is a period in which human beings are the strongest, healthiest and the most productive. Therefore it is necessary to make use of it. We show our sensitivity towards the environment with the actions we take and with the support we give you, the young people. To work is of life and to think is of light. We are proud of all of the young people who took part in this competition and shared their work with other people. What is important is to give children the environmental culture and consciousness when they are very young; If we can do it, the future of the world will be much better than today.

Objective

We call our country and the world as Faith Educational Institutions to care for the environment for the 20th time. All of our efforts aim to hand over the world that is entrusted to us to the future generations without making it lose its natural beauties. Since we live in this world, it is our duty to make it a livable world. Lands that are being transformed to deserts, polluted air and water, domestic and industrial wastes have become a nightmare for the people who care the environment. As a matter of fact, this danger threatens all of the human beings. Young people who love the environment and science and their self-sacrificing teachers have not left us alone in our efforts to save our future for 20 years. They exerted great efforts and worked hard in order to beautify the environment and make the world to  breathe. INEPO became very effective in the world thanks to them. The sensitivity of the youth towards the environment strengthens our hopes for the future.  I would like to thank all of the young people who applied. I would also like to thank the Ministry of Forestry and Water Works, Ministry of National Education, media and environment volunteers who supported us and who were always with us in our pursuit. I believe that it is not still too late for the environment in spite of the gloomy situation. I hope that INEPO and similar organizations will increase for the benefit of the environment consciousness in our country and in the world and wish all of the participants and the jury members’ success.

Participation

Totally 45 countries have participated in the international project olympaid Nepal have qualified and participated in the Project olympaid for the first time in the history of Nepal. From Nepal Dr. Ajaya Bhattrai as Mentor and Akash Deo as student represented Nepal at Baku, Azerbaijan for International Project Olympaid 2013.

Competition

There were totally 250 projects presented by 45 countries and local participants. From Nepal Dr. Ajaya Bhattrai  Student  Akash Deo Presented project named “Processed Biomass For Better Renewable Fuel .”  Competition was about to explain all the work done in the project , its process, its benefits to society specially how the project and research works helps to solve the environmental problems and make our surrounding a better place to live in. 

Achievements

There were  three types of prizes for the best projects Gold medal for the 1^st one , silver medal for the 2^nd  one and bronze medal for 3^rd one . The competition continued for two days on the 2^nd day evening it was the result and award ceremony. It was fisrt time any Nepali represented International Project olympaid ever representing Nepal.  Dr. Ajaya Bhattrai`s student not represented Nepal but also bagged Bronze Medal for Nepal got 3^rd place in the International project olympaid.  

Prof Isaiah M. Warner awarded with ACS Award in Analytical Chemistry

Prof Warner (source)

American Chemical Society (ACS) spring national meeting at  New Orleans has announced different prestigious awards Chemists from different background.

Among them, ACS Award in Analytical Chemistry is given to Prof Warner from Louisiana State University, for his significant contributions in three distinct areas of analytical chemistry: molecular spectroscopy, separation science, and development and applications of novel nanomaterials.

According to his research group website, his group research involves fundamental studies in analytical chemistry including development of new methods for analytical meausrements. Most of his research are in the general area of bioanalytical chemistry and few on environmental analysis. He is currently Vice Chancellor of Office of Strategic Initiatives and Boyd Professor and Philip W. West Professor of Analytical and Environmental Chemistry at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He has published more than 300 peer reviewed scientific papers and is a reciepient of several prestigious awards recognizing his contribution in analytical chemistry.

A complete list of ACS national awards 2013 can be found here.
 

Chemistry of holy smoke

Few days ago Hindu people celebrated their "Shivaratri" festival. Part of the celebration involved thousands of "babas" (including some non-babas) smoking marijuana (ganja in Nepali). Majority of the scientific community believes on the bad part of this smoke on humans. In this post, however, I am talking about another holy smoke that came out from the holy chimney at the Vatican signaling the selection of the new pope. 

Interesting part of new pope selection process is that the way public are informed. Black smoke means no pope has been elected (selected) and white smoke means new pope has been selected. This is strange to me. But this tradition goes back to hundreds of years. This tradition is still alive. How does the Vatican produce distinct color smoke? 

Black smoke was produced by burning ballot, potassium perchlorate (KClO₄), anthracene (C14H10), and sulfur (used as fuel).  KClO4 is an inorganic salt and is a strong oxidizer potentially used to react with organic molecules, most commonly, in fireworks and explosive primers. Anthracene is a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) consisting of three fused benzene rings. It is a component of coal tar (we know when someone burns coal tar it only gives black smoke). 

White smoke was produced by burning potassium chlorate (KClO3), milk sugar and pine rosin.  Potassium chlorate is similar to perchlorate in terms of its oxidizing ability. Milk sugar was used as an easily ignitable fuel). Rosin must have contributed mainly to producing white smoke.

The key difference between black and white smoke production is the source of carbon. Difference between anthracene and rosin.

It is always good to keep your tradition alive, however, should think about some creative ways of doing it in modern era. Burning above mentioned chemicals either for black or for white smoke produces some "bad" chemicals into the air.

Watch this nice video about the black and white smoke. 

Export of Standardized Herbal Products from Nepal

Dr Achyut Adhikari

Assistant Professor

International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences

Center of Academy of Sciences for developing World

Karachi, Pakistan

Nepal has a huge diversity of plant species because of its enormous range of habitats. According to the report of Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh UK, over 7000 species of vascular plants are found in Nepal, among them 300 are endemic (only found in Nepal).  Nepal rises from subtropical lowland forests only 60 m above sea level to the alpine vegetation of its high mountains. More than 700 species of medicinal plants grow wildly and a vast number is yet to be explored. Microbial flora of the country has not been explored yet. This nature’s gift would be the good income source for the country, if we develop and commercialize it properly.

Herbal medicines are in great demand in the developing as well as developed countries for primary health care. These herbals possess wide biological activities, higher safety margins and lesser costs. Herbal medicines are also known for their effectiveness, lesser side effects better compatibility, local availability, and cultural acceptance than their synthetic counter parts. Herbal medicine is a growing business with exponential increase according to World Health Organization. About 80% population in the developing countries relies on herbal remedies. The total herbal drug market is estimated to be US $ 100 billion and expected to grow to US $ 5 trillion by 2050. The estimated annual growth rate of herbal medicines is expected to be 5-15%. Now the practice of using dietary supplements and herbal remedies is on rise even in the developed parts of the world such as USA and Europe. In Asia, China and India are the key users and the major exporters. China’s share in world herbal market is US $ 6 billion while India shares the market with US $ 1 billion. China and India have been doing lots of work in standardization of herbal products and their export of herbal products in international market is top ranked. Only raw plant material has been exported from Nepal which has very low price compared to standardized and processed plant material. India has totally banned to export raw plant material, and they only export standardized products. Therefore there is an immediate need to start standardization of herbal products so that the country benefit by exporting high value herbal products in international market.

What is herbal product standardization?

Despite number of advantages associated with botanicals, use of herbal products as therapeutics cannot be considered scientifically valid if the products are not authenticated and characterized in order to ensure reproducibility in their manufacturing. Herbal medicines are prepared from materials of plant origin which are prone to contamination, deterioration and variation in composition. Hence consistency of the herbal formulation which can deliver the promised pharmacological effects is the great challenge for any manufacturer. There are several factors that need to be addressed in order to produce the safe, effective and consistent herbal products. Authenticated raw material is the basic starting point for the development and manufacturing of a botanical product. Harvesting, storing, processing and formulating methods may effect on the quality and consistency of the herbal product. The classical approaches for the authentication of herbal raw material are taxonomic and microscopic analysis. The most modern approaches rely on the chromatographic and spectroscopic analysis. Chemical standardization and chemical fingerprinting are the methods of choice.  Chemical standardization, in terms of the particular “marker compound” (which is believed to be responsible for the specific biological activity and physiological effect to an acceptable percentage) is the most popular practice of the herbal industry for the evaluation of the quality of the herbal product. Several methods have been developed for the standardization of herbal product but chemical fingerprinting by using chromatographic and spectroscopic tools is the most efficient, systematic and comprehensive way of the characterization of the herbal products and therefore internationally accepted.

How country will be benefited from herbal product standardization?

As mentioned earlier, Nepal has vast source of medicinal plants of every climate zone. This is the era of business, and without the proper use of science and technology international business is not possible. Our herbal products are not getting international market because we are not capable to show the international standard of our products. A lot of herbal products produced in Nepal are in high demand in international market such as ‘bark of daalchini’ is best medicine for type-2 diabetes and baath (arthritis). Tons of bark of ‘daalchini’ is going to India in very low price and India is selling it in international market in high price. Weather and geography of Nepal is very much suitable for farming of ‘daaalchini’, we can plant it in mountains and community forests. Herb ‘Jethimadhu’ is very good medicine of hepatitis as well as other liver and lung disease, its international demand is very high. World’s best anticancer drug ‘taxol’ is extracted from ‘Lothsalla’ which is found everywhere in high altitude mountains in Nepal. Another important product is ‘Aduwa’, essential oil of ‘Aduwa’ is famous for different medicine, spices and scents.  Leafs of ‘Nundhike’ is very good for anti-ageing medicine and it can be developed as green tea and marketed worldwide, similarly essential oil of ‘khayar’ is also in high demand and we are totally wasting it. Fruit of ‘bel’ is also good for diabetes and anti-ageing. From very common herbs such as ‘asuro’ gurjigaano’ and ‘ketuke’, we can extract compounds which are used in heart disease. World famous and hot herbal product ‘Yarsagumba’ is also exporting in raw form. There are so many examples which are not possible describe here in all. To get international market for this herbal products standardization according to the international norms is very much necessary. If country starts to work on standardization of herbal products, it will be a major source of income and employment. And it can directly benefit poor farmers living in remote villages, who don’t have proper land for farming of rice and wheat, but they can do farming of herbal products in mountains. This is the renewable resources, which can use for years and years, other resources like mines and petroleum which is only can used for one time.

What should be the role of government?

This is unfortunate that government is abhorring of science and technology. There is no position in government job for person with Ph. D. degree. Other countries send students abroad for training by spending millions of rupees, but our country is not creating job for well trained scientists, this is a big loss for country and major cause of brain drain. Nepali scientists are working in top institutions all over the world; almost of them are interested to work for their home country. For example writer of this article is an international expert for standardization of herbal product and medicinal chemistry, countries such as Pakistan, Srilanka, Iran, Malaysia, Brazil and some African countries are taking advantage from him. It is unfortunate that despite the strong will writer of this article is not getting chance to serve his own country.  Countries, such as Israel, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, India and Brazil are best examples of how well trained scientist has been contributing for the development of their nation. Almost all Asian countries were sending students to abroad to learn science and technology and they properly used their knowledge. There is an immediate need that government must ask proposal in development of science and technology from different Nepali scientist and provide them proper fund and facilities. There is no alternate way for development, our country will not be neither developed by foreign add nor by INGOS. We can develop our country only by using our resources and knowledge of our people. 

Conclusion:

Our country is full of ‘diamond’ but we haven’t recognized them as diamond and selling them as ‘coal’ or ‘stone’. We can easily develop ‘coal’ to diamond just we need strong determination and will. Proper farming of medicinal plants and standardization of them according to the international rule is exigent. This is one of many strategies for the sustainable development of the country. If we don’t invest in technical education and research, country will go back to back day by day.

Vacancies in Kathmandu University

3 Chemistry positions at Assistant Professor Level.

KATHMANDU UNIVERSITY

DHULIKHEL, KAVRE

                           Career Opportunity            Date: February 12, 2013       

Kathmandu University (KU) is an autonomous, not-for-profit institution of higher learning dedicated to maintaining high standards of academic excellence.  Pursuing the mission of providing quality education for leadership and leadership in quality education, KU is in the forefront of knowledge industry in the fields of science, engineering, management, education, arts, and medical sciences.

 

KU is looking for committed, competent, and qualified Nepali professionals to take up permanent faculty positions in its School of Science

Advertisement Number	School	Department	Position	Specialization	Required  Number
		Biotechnology	Professor	Biotechnology	1
			Associate Professor	Biotechnology	1
03/069/070	Science	Natural Sciences	Professor	Physics Mathematics/ Statistics	1 2
			Associate Professor	Physics	1
			Assistant Professor	Physics Chemistry	1 3
		Environmental Science and Engineering	Associate Professor	Environmental Science	2
			Assistant Professor	Environment Engineering	1
		Pharmacy	Professor	Pharmacy	1

The minimum qualifications required and other requirements are available at KU webpage.

Potential candidates will require completing an application form available from February 14, 2013 on payment of Rs. 500 from Kathmandu University Central Office, Dhulikhel (Tel # 011 66 13 99/ 011 66 15 11) or KUSOM, Balkumari, Lalitpur (Tel # 55 44 078/ 55 48 891) from 10 AM to 3 PM on working days.

Application form can also be downloaded from KU webpage.   The completed application form must be submitted along with necessary documents not later than March 7, 2013 to KU Central Office, Dhulikhel, Kavre.  The eligible candidate must make a payment of test and interview fee of Rs 1500 for Assistant Professor and Rs 1800 for Associate Professor and interview fee of Rs 2000 for Professor at the time of collecting admit card.

Documents required: Attested copies of mark sheets of all academic qualifications/ transcripts, citizenship certificate, work and professional experience certificates (both existing and previous), training certificates, and a list of research publications.  Two recent PP size photographs should be attached.

For More detail please go through the link provided for specific position.

  1. Professor
    2.  Associate Professor click for more

  3. Assistant Professor

Salary and benefits will be as per the rule of the University.

 

KU provides good career opportunities for high performing staff.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted for further selection process as per the KU selection guidelines.

Registrar

Kathmandu University

Dhulikhel, Kavre

Phone: (011)661399, www.ku.edu.np

Nepali Scientist's work featured in Science Magazine

Nepali young scientist's (Dr. Raghu Dhital-Oasis) work has recently been featured as Editors's choice in reputed journal Science. Here is the text.

"In the classic Ullmann coupling reaction reported more than a century ago, iodine substituted aromatic rings were coupled at high temperatures by using copper as a reducing agent to form a carbon-carbon bond. Further work extended this coupling reaction to more conventional chloroarenes by using coreductants and precious-metal catalysts, but reaction temperatures still tended to be high. Dhital et al. now show that a wide variety of chloroarenes can be coupled at ambient temperatures (25° to 45°C). The reactions proceeded under basic conditions (in a mixed organic-aqueous solvent) in the presence of gold-palladium nanocluster catalysts. Neither pure gold nor pure palladium clusters could catalyze the reaction, indicating that alloying of the metals was critical for reactivity. Density functional theory calculations indicated that the critical difference for the alloy clusters is that they favor activation of the carbon-chlorine bond through the dissociative adsorption of the arene chlorides."

Dr. Dhital's work has also been featured in JACS's spotlight. See below.

TWO METALS ARE BETTER THAN ONE

Heterogeneous catalysis using nanoclusters consisting of more than one metal is seeing more widespread application in chemistry, because these types of catalysts can be highly efficient or may have unusual properties. Particularly attractive are the gold/palladium bimetallic cluster alloys, due to their high catalytic turnover. Masahiro Ehara, Hidehiro Sakurai, and co-workers have used this bimetallic alloy to activate the high-energy carbon−chlorine bond (DOI: 10.1021/ja309606k). They discover that the Au/ Pd nanocluster can catalyze Ullmann coupling of chloroarenes at room temperature, a reaction that otherwise requires harsh conditions. The reaction does not progress with either gold or palladium single-metal nanoclusters alone, nor with a macroscopic mixture of the two metals. Through computational analysis, the researchers find that the high activity of the bimetallic nanocluster is due to the substrate being adsorbed onto the alloy surface, which is unlikely to occur with single metal catalysts. In addition, the nanocluster is found to have higher activity toward chloroarenes than their bromo equivalents. This straightforward method to activate the robust C−Cl bond may enable the design and synthesis of new multimetallic catalyst for similar activation energy. (JACS spotlight, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 949)

Dr. Dhital completed his PhD last year from Institute for Molecular Science, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI) with Prof Hidehiro Sakurai. He is now working as post-doctoral fellow. He has MSc degree from CDC, Tribhuvan university, Nepal.

Following are some of his recent publications.

1. R. N. Dhital, A. Murugadoss and H. Sakurai, “Dual Roles of Polyhydroxy Matrices in the Homocoupling of Arylboronic Acids Catalyzed by Gold Nanoclusters under Acidic Conditions”, Chem. Asian J. 2012, 7, 55. (Inside cover picture)

2. R. N. Dhital and H. Sakurai, “Anomalous Efficacy of Bimetallic Au/Pd Nanoclusters in C-Cl Bond Activation and Formal Metathesis-type C-B Bond Activation at Room Temperature”, Chem. Lett. 2012, 41, 630. (Editor’s choice)

3.R. N. Dhital, C. Kamonsatikul, E. Somsook, K. Bobuatong, M. Ehara, S. Karanjit and H. Sakurai, “Low-temperature Carbon–Chlorine Bond Activation by Bimetallic Gold/Palladium Alloy Nanoclusters: An Application to Ullmann Coupling”, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, 134, 20250. (Highlight in Science, 2013, 339, January 4 and Highlight in JACS spotlight, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013,135, 949).

4. R. N. Dhital, C. Kamonsatikul, E. Somsook Y. Sato and H. Sakurai, “Aryl Iodide as a Strong Inhibitor for the Gold and Gold-based Bimetallic quasi-Homogeneous Catalysis”, Chem.Comm. DOI: 10.1039/C3CC39019E, in press.

Soma Dhakal Defended his PhD and Joining University of Michigan Ann Arbor for Postdoctoral Position

Nepachem likes to Congratulate Dr. Soma Nath Dhakal for successfully defending doctoral dissertation. He is going to start a postdoctoral position at Walter Lab, University of Michigan Ann Arbor next month. Please refer to the following texts for the brief overview of his research accomplishments.

MECHANICAL STABILITY EVALUATION OF I-MOTIF AND G-QUADRUPLEX STRUCTURES UNDER DIVERSE CIRCUMSTANCES

‘ILPR (Insulin Linked Polymorphic Region) is a promoter region located upstream of the human insulin gene.  This region facilitates the transcription and hence regulates the production of insulin, a hormone responsible for the metabolism of glucose.  When the control of insulin level fails, it leads to insulin related health problems such as diabetes.  One of the scenarios that influence the transcription of the insulin gene can be the formation of secondary structures in the promoter.  Due to the prevalence of the guanine (G)- and cytosine (C)-rich repeats in the ILPR promoter, it is likely to form unusual structures such as G-quadruplex and i-motif in the respective strands. 

G-quadruplex and i-motif structures are the most widely known four-stranded nucleic acid structures which are shown/proposed to alter gene regulation.  Although there is significant understanding on the folding topologies of G-quadruplex and i-motif structures, their mechanical stability which determines the interaction with motor proteins, such as DNA/RNA polymerases, are poorly studied. Using laser tweezers based single-molecule study; we investigated, for the first time, the mechanical stability of an i-motif structure in the predominant variant of human ILPR.  Similarly, using ensemble and single-molecule approaches, we show that a dsDNA fragment in ILPR can fold into G-quadruplex or i-motif structure under specific conditions. Under a condition that favors the formation of both G-quadruplex and i-motif, we provide compelling evidence that only one species is present in each dsDNA.  We propose that G-quadruplex and i-motif are mutually exclusive in human ILPR.  Due to the fact that these two species have an unfolding force comparable to the stall force of RNA polymerase, these DNA structures may play significant biological rules in the expression of human insulin inside cells.’

Below are some selected publications: 

Dhakal et al., Structural and mechanical properties of individual human telomeric G-quadruplexes in molecularly crowded solutions, Nucleic Acids Research, 2013, Accepted

Dhakal et al., Intramolecular folding in human ILPR fragment with three C-rich repeats PLoS ONE 7(6): e39271. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0039271

Dhakal et al., G-quadruplex and i-motif are mutually exclusive in double stranded ILPR DNA, Biophysical Journal, 102, 2575–2584

Dhakal et al., Formation of human ILPR G-quadruplex in dsDNA, International Review of Biophysical Chemistry, 2011, 2, N. 6.

Dhakal et al., Coexistence of an ILPR i-motif and a partially folded structure with comparable mechanical stability revealed at the single molecular level, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010, 132, 8991–8997  

Book Chapter:

Dhakal, S.; Mao, H.; Rajendran, A.; Endo, M.; Sugiyama, H., Eds: Spindler L, Fritzsche W., “G-quadruplex Nanostructures Probed at The Single Molecular Level By Force-Based Methods” in Guanine quartets: Structure and Application, RSC Publishing, 2013, 73-85.