7^th International Conference and Exhibition on Analytical & Bioanalytical Techniques September 28-30, 2016 Orlando, Florida, USA

Biography:

Abstract:

The qualities of Ethiopian, Amhara region, multifloral honey samples were evaluated for moisture content, pH, free acidity, lactonic, total acidity and trace heavy metals. The values for quality parameters were in range of moisture content, 14.56-19.20%, pH, 4.50-4.80, free acidity, 33.33-42.60 meq Kg^-1, lactonic acidity, 8.43-10.86 meq Kg^-1 and total acidity, 44.19-51.06 meq Kg^-1. The concentration of trace heavy metals (Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn) were also evaluated using flame atomic absorption spectrometer after wet digestion. The contents of trace metals in honey samples were in the range of 0.15 μg g^-1 -6.66 μg g^-1, 0.02-0.32 μg g^-1, 0.36 μg g^-1 -7.29 μg g^-1, ND, ND-2.53 μg g^-1 and 9.96-14.62 μg g^-1 for Cr, Cu, Mn, Pb and Zn, respectively. The accuracy of the method was assessed by spiking honey samples with known amounts of standard metals, and examining recovery. The analytical data showed a significant difference in honey trace heavy metal concentrations and studied physicochemical parameters. The results obtained were in agreement with data reported in other literatures.

Biography:

Dr. Faiz Ali has completed his PhD at the age of 31 years from INHA University South Korea and postdoctoral studies from the same University. He is the Editorial board member for the UK Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biosciences (UKJPB) http://www.ukjpb.com/editorial_board.html. He has published about 12 papers in reputed SCI journals and has presented about 12 conference presentation in international reputed conferences

Abstract:

A multi-monomer based copolymer layer was immobilized on the inner surface of a pretreated 1.1 m long silica capillary column (50 µm internal diameter and 1.02 m effective length) after the attachment of 4-(trifluoromethoxy) phenyl isocayanate and sodium diethyl dithiocarbamate initiator system. The attachment of initiator system to silanol functionalities on the inner capillary surface was assisted by dibutyl tin dichloride catalyst. The copolymer immobilized open tubular capillary column resulted in the separation of about 40 peaks out of tryptic digest of cytochrome C sample in capillary electrochromatography with high separation efficiency (Ca. 220,000 plates/column) for some of the peptide peaks. A novel step elution approach was also demonstrated for the separation of tryptic digest of cytochrome C where two mobile phases having different water content were used during the same run resulting in the separation of higher number of peptide peaks (Ca. above 50) out of tryptic digest of cytochrome C, with much improved peak capacity. The step elution approach in addition to the open tubular nature and increased column length could be a good strategy for proteomic analysis with enhanced peak capacity in capillary electro-chromatography.

Biography:

Prof. Chenzhong Li, is the director of the Nanobioengineering/Bioelectronics laboratory at Florida International University. The impact of his work is documented in 9 granted patents and more than 100 peer-reviewed journal papers and over 140 presentations at National/International conferences including more than 90 keynote/invited lectures and seminars. He is the associate editor of 3 SCI indexed scientific journals and received numerous awards and honors such as Kaufmann Professor Awards.

Abstract:

Understanding and controlling the interface between neuronal cells and neuronal network and electrical devices is vital to both biological science and technology. Recent developments in the field of in vitro neuron mapping focus on the development of optical and electrochemical strategies for either single neuron cell/neuron measurement or artificial neuronal networks/brain slices mapping. To mimic in vivo neuronal networks and to elucidate the mechanisms of computation, spontaneous and elicited electrical activity need to be monitored, and multiple simultaneous recordings are required for monitoring individual unit and collective network activity. In this way, both individual cells and cell networks can be scrutinized in order to understand how changes in single unit activity and functionality. In the present study, we developed a large-scale integration -based amperometric sensor array system for electrochemical bioimaging and throughput sensing of dopamine expression from three-dimensional (3D)-cultured PC12 cells upon dopaminergic drugs exposure. It has been shown that individual cells behave differently from the population even under the identical conditions, as a complementary study, we also explore the possibility of single cell-on-chip based analytical technique which can collect real-time change in cell physiology by measurement of cell exocytosis, i.e., release of neurotransmitters, in a neuronal model cell line, i.e. PC12 cells. The study of single cell dynamics could help us better understand the complex processes, such as, neurotransmitter kinetics, ion channel functions, and cell communications, single cell analysis can be an equivalent and complementary strategy to existing approaches.

Biography:

Shobini Jayaraman has completed her PhD from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India and postdoctoral studies from Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. She was the recipient of Sir Charles Clore fellowship at Weizmann Institute of Science. Currently she is a senior research scientist at Boston University School of Medicine. She serves as the liaison for academic and industrial contract research services at Boston University. She has published more than 25 papers in reputed journals. Here recent publication in JBC has been chosen as Paper of the month in May-2014 by International Atherosclerosis Society

Abstract:

Lipoproteins are nanoparticles comprised of proteins and lipids that provide vehicles for transport of fat and cholesterol in circulation. High levels of certain lipoproteins increase the risk of heart disease. Each lipoprotein is a non-covalent assembly of several proteins and several hundred lipids. The major challenge in the biophysical analysis of lipoproteins arises from their heterogeneity in size (7-100 nm), density (1.06-1.22 g/L), and protein and lipid composition. Moreover, lipoproteins are highly dynamic assemblies undergoing continuous remodeling via various enzymatic and non-enzymatic reactions. This provides a major challenge for detailed structural studies of lipoproteins. To overcome this challenge, we designed an integrated biophysical approach by combining far- and near-UV circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, turbidity, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), fluorescence spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (EM), size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) and other methods to analyze the structure and remodeling of all major lipoprotein classes. This integrated approach was used to study thermal denaturation of human low- and high-density lipoproteins (LDL and HDL, or bad and good cholesterol). The results clearly showed that lipoprotein stability is controlled by kinetics barriers. Interestingly, heat-induced remodeling of all lipoproteins involves partial protein unfolding/dissociation and lipoprotein fusion and rupture. These structural transitions mimic key aspects of in-vivo lipoprotein remodeling. These and other emerging approaches will allow one to study structural, dynamic and functional properties of larger more challenging systems. Ultimately, such integrated approaches are hoped to bridge the gap between the biophysical studies of isolated macromolecules or their complexes, and the complexity of cellular systems.

Biography:

Anil Shukla earned his Ph. D. in Chemistry from Southampton University studying the formation of gaseous clusters by supersonic expansion and their characterization by mass spectrometry. He has worked on many different aspects of mass spectrometry of small molecules and lately ventured into proteomics performing analysis of peptides and proteins by LC-MS/MS. He is currently a senior research scientist with the Integrative Omics group at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory where he has been working on proteomics studies by LC-MS/MS of peptides and proteins. He has published extensively on development, fundamental studies and applications of tandem mass spectrometry of small molecules as well as complex biological systems.

Abstract:

Mass spectrometry has become an invaluable tool in proteomics studies with the development of ionization techniques, chromatographic separations and mass spectrometers of higher sensitivity and higher resolution. Majority of these analyses involved digestion of proteins into smaller peptides followed by liquid chromatography separation and mass spectrometry/tandem mass spectrometry analysis. This methodology has proved to be extremely useful in identifying proteins, however, it lacks on correctly identifying post-translational modifications which are very crucial in structure determination and understanding the role played by such modifications. However, tandem mass spectrometry used for identifications of peptides and hence proteins does not always provide necessary information on modification sites and several methods, such as electron capture dissociation and electron transfer dissociation have been developed to obtain better information. It still remains difficult to determine the correct structure of proteins from this information. Top-down proteomics where intact proteins are separated by LC and tandem mass spectrometry is used to fragment these intact protein ions by above techniques to provide a complete description of the primary structure of the proteins and associated modifications. In this presentation, recent developments on the separation and analysis of intact proteins in our lab as well as other labs will be presented.

Biography:

Dr. Saroj Kumar has completed his PhD from Stockholm University, Sweden and postdoctoral studies from Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium and Canadian lighsource, Canada. He is the Project leader in department of Engineering Science, Uppsala University, Sweden. He has published more than 22 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an reviwers in reputed journals

Abstract:

Methodology: Development of modern infrared spectroscopy has a wide range of biological applications. Initially, it was extensively used for protein secondary structure analysis as well as nucleotides, lipids and carbohydrates. Now with time it extended to biodiagnositic tools such as cells, tissues and bio-fluids. Infrared imaging can use to discriminate between healthy and diseased one. IR microscope equipped with FPA (focal plane array) detector able to scan the larger area with quick time and that helps to measures the cells as well as tissue (histopathology). An IR synchrotron light source connected with IR microscope further enhances the spatial resolution at diffraction limit. I will present briefly the use of this method of infrared spectroscopy in disease pathology with two examples (breast cancer and multiple sclerosis).

Experimental setup: The spectroscopic imaging data on breast cancer and multiple sclerosis samples were acquired in transmission on deparaffined 3-5 μm thick tissue slices deposited on 40x26 mm2 BaF2 slides. For cells, the fibroblasts were grown on CaF2 window and directly used for FTIR measurements. We used a Hyperion imaging system (Bruker) equipped with a 64*64 MCT (Mercury-Cadmium-Telluride) FPA (Focal Plane Array) detector.

Results: Using FTIR imaging technique to discriminate healthy and diseased samples on the basis of chemical changes due to its potential to probe tissues and cells at the molecular level. Now with the application of advanced focal plane array detector able to scan large area of samples in a short time, helps to investigate the specific changes that could be correlated with the pathology and different environmental stresses.

Acknowledgement: We are grateful to CIHR-THRUST (Canada) postdoctoral fellowship, Brain Back to Brussels (Belgium) and VINNOVA-VINNMER mobility for growth grant to S Kumar.

Biography:

Md. Ahsan Habib has completed his PhD in Analytical Chemistry at the age of 36 years from Saga University, Japan. Currently Dr. Habib working as a JSPS fellow at the University of Tokyo and Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Dr. Habib has also completed 04 post-doc research for 06 years at Saga, Chiba, University of Yamanashi and Yokohama National University in various fields of Chemistry. He has published more than 30 papers in reputed journals and presented  at 30 national/international seminars/conferences.

Abstract:

Detection and quantification of illicit compounds at trace level is very much important for public health, security and safety. Mass spectrometry (MS) has already been demonstrated its versatility for detection and quantification of a wide range of compounds at trace level because MS can provide molecular level information of the target compounds. So far, none of the ion source can ionize efficiently for a wide range of compounds. For example,electrospray ionization (ESI) and nano-ESI have been widely using for bio-molecules. Nano-ESI has shown better resolution than ESI but it has clogging problem. To overcome such a problem, several attempts have been taken to develop new ionization source, for example, MALDI, DESI, probe-ESI (PESI) etc. Recently we have developed new atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) using alternating current (ac) instead of dc and found as a soft ionization source (Habib et al., RCMS). Moreover, hollow cathode discharge (HCD) ionization source has been fabricated for detection of explosives at trace level (Habib et al., RCMS). A desorption method has also been developed using an ultra-cutter to desorb highly non-volatile illicit compounds and ionized dielectric discharge (DBD) ionization source and found better limit of detection (LOD) (Habib et al., ASMS). A vacuum glow discharge ionization (vacuum-GDI) source has been fabricated for compounds those give negative ions. A further attempt has also been taken to fabricate a hybrid ionization source with DBD/ESI for polar/non-polar, volatile/non-volatile compounds.

Biography:

As a Principal Chemist at the Research & Development Center of PQ Corporation, Dr. Halasz has studied the properties of silica derivatives for 17 years. His Ph. D is from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Earlier he has conducted catalytic, solid state, and materials research in the Hungarian Hydrocarbon Institute, at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and at the Chemistry and Chemical Engineering departments of Wayne State University in Detroit and University of Iowa in Iowa City. He edited a book, authored circa 125 book chapters, patents, and peer reviewed scientific papers and held 80+ international conference presentations.

Abstract:

Microporous nano-crystals of zeolites are key ingredients in more than 50% of heterogeneous catalysts, which contribute to manufacturing the majority of chemical products. Their Brønsted acidic hydroxyl groups (BA-OH) play pivotal role in many reactions. The presence of BA-OH sites on the crystallite surface bears of special interest, due to diffusion limitations inside of their micropores. Yet distinction of the internal and external BA-OH sites has been ambiguous. Here we show that clear distinction can be made by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy when both diffuse reflectance (DR) and transmission (TR) sampling techniques are employed. Different laboratories use these techniques interchangeably for characterizing solids. To our surprise, we observed very different BA-OH spectra on some zeolites when measured by these two methods. Since physical and chemical differences do not generate such large spectral deviations, we conjectured that emphasized vibrational intensities of the surface and bulk BA-OH groups cause the differences when DR or TR technique is used, respectively. To prove our point we performed selective pyridine adsorption experiments on Chabazite (H-CHA) and H-SAPO-34 zeolites and also computed the density functional theory (DFT) based FTIR spectra of their four geometrically different BA-OH groups in the bulk and on the surface, which confirmed the conjectured vibrational differences. These zeolites are key ingredients of new catalysts for diesel-automobile exhaust control and for the methanol to olefin, MTO, technology.

Biography:

Moinuddin Sarker has completed his phd .

Abstract:

Waste Plastic is huge problem in USA and around the Global. This is global problem . Inventions of the twentieth century, plastics are everywhere. Society has found ample ways to use plastics. But users are less adept at managing the material when they are finished with it—often after only one use. The volume of plastics being produced, used, generated, and discarded is greater than ever before. Plastics therefore require increasing effort and ingenuity to properly manage. Annually, of the 120 billion pounds of plastics produced in the United States only about 6% or 4.8 billion pounds are recycled. For all the talk of plastic bans, plastic production is increasing. Waste Technologies LLC (WTL) has the solution at its disposal. This technology can produce approximately 1.3 liter of “WTL fuel” from one kilogram of plastic waste. The exact yield depends on the type of plastic, and the grade of WTL fuel desired. Typically, the process produces a residue of less than 5% of the weight of the plastic waste. This residue is rich in carbon and may be an environmentally superior substitute for coal with a higher BTU value. The WTL technology is able to cater to a wide range of diverse applications, including but not limited to fuel, gas and electrical generation. NSR’s / WTL patented technology, in conjunction with WTL technology and know-how, is a simple and economically viable process to decompose the hydrocarbon polymers of waste plastic into the shorter chain hydrocarbons of liquid fuel. WTL believes that it can convert approximately one tonne of plastic into about 300 gallons of fuel at a cost of about $0.75-$1.00 per gallon and produces 4,205 ft3 (CFT) of light gas (C1-C4) byproduct when developed to commercial size. WTL’s refining process is uncomplicated and promises to be very competitive with large crude oil installations. In financial projections WTL uses $30/bbl. ($0.71 per gallon) for preprocessing and refining costs. Other plastic recycling technologies generally have a very narrow band of plastics they can use. Nearly all recycling is done with plastic designations 1 or 2 while designations 3 through 7 are virtually untapped (over 70% of all plastic fall within these categories). A combination of economic and technological factors account for this situation. The advantage of WTL technology is that it can produce a profitable product from material that society generally pays to thrown away. It is this no or low cost feedstock that is the key advantage.

Biography:

Dan Fu is Assistant professor of Chemistry at the University of Washington. He received his bachelor's degree from Peking University in China (2003). In 2009, he completed his PhD study at Princeton University under the supervision of Professor Warren Warren, working on the development of novel label-free multiphoton absorption microscopy methods. He worked with Professor Sunney Xie as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, where he developed multiplex stimulated Raman scattering microscopy and hyperspectral stimulated Raman scattering microscopy. He joined the faculty of the University of Washington in the summer of 2015.

Abstract:

Multiphoton microscopy is a powerful technique for understanding cellular structure and function in tissue and in living organisms. Currently fluorescence is the most popular contrast mechanism, but there is also a surge in interests of using absorption and Raman as chemical contrasts. Using a high frequency modulation transfer technique, two-photon absorption and stimulated Raman scattering can be detected with the same microscope configuration for multiphoton fluorescence. However, a common challenge in multiphoton microscopy is to quantitatively determine molecular concentration in tissue samples. Light scatters in tissue, resulting in signal loss as it travels deeper into tissue. We developed multiplex and ratiometric techniques that allows us to correct for scattering induced signal loss and recover quantitative molecular information. We further demonstrated quantitative stimulated Raman scattering and two-photon imaging of cells and tissue. We believe these developments will be essential for future biomedical applications of multiphoton microscopy.

Biography:

Huanwen Chen has completed his PhD at the age of 28 years from Jilin University and postdoctoral studies from Aston Lab, Purdue University. He is the director of Jiangxi Key Laboratory for Mass Spectrometry and Instrumentation. He has published more than 200 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an editorial board member of repute.

Abstract:

Mass spectrometry (MS) is one of the preferable analytical techniques for sensitive characterization of biological samples on the molecular levels. Technological innovations advance mass spectrometry for sophisticate applications in many fields including but not limited to chemistry, material sciences and life sciences. For trace analysis of a typical biological sample, classical MS techniques require multi-step sample pre-treatment (e.g., grinding, extraction, separation, pre-concentration, etc.) to obtain molecular information from the native biological samples, especially for detection of trace analytes distributed in the 3-dimensional volume of a bulk sample^[1,2]. Commonly associated with sample pre-treatment are biological degradation, chemical reactions, reagent contamination, and material losses. Apparently, tedious sample pretreatments strangle the breakthrough of high throughput in analytical mass spectrometry.

By isolating the high electric filed required for ionization from any biological sample, extractive electrospray ionization (EESI) allows direct detection of small metabolites and/or large proteins distributed either on surfaces or inside bulk tissue by mass spectrometry, without any sample pretreatment. Experiments demonstrated that EESI-MS minimizes matrix effects during the ionization process, enabling real-time, in vivo analysis of biofluids, biosurfaces, aerosols and living objectives. Therein the fundamental principle, instrumentation and typical applications of EESI-MS for biological analysis would be summarized, giving emphases on progresses in our lab for sensitive qualitative/quantitative detection of chemicals located inside a bulk tissue of whole-volume (≥20 mm³), with neither mashing/grinding the sample nor matrixes clean-up^[3-5]. Furthermore, the emerging utilization of EESI-MS for sequentially acquiring metabolites, lipids, and proteins in a single tissue sample will be presented for the first time.

Biography:

Yuhui (Henry) Zhao completed his PhD in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Alberta in 1995. He has been working since in a few analytical laboratories for the past 20 years as a Senior Scientist. His research and development interests cover the areas of Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) - Optical Emission Spectroscopy, ICP-Mass Spectrometry, GC and GC-Mass Spectrometry. Yuhui is currently working as a QA Scientist at Epcor Water Service Inc., Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Abstract:

Monitoring volatile organic compounds (VOC) and Disinfection-by-Product such as Trihalomethanes (THM) in water samples, is one of the major tasks routinely carried out in our laboratory. Due to its low cost, simplicity, high sensitivity and wide linear range to non-chloranated organic compounds, gas chromatograph with an flame ionization detector (GC-FID) is always our first choice of instruments. However, FID has its own limitations. The low sensitivity of FID to multi-chloranated VOCs may not satisfy the low detectiom limit requirment. In some cases, these compounds need to be analyzed on a more senstive (but specific) detector, such as an Electron Capture Detector (ECD). Further, FID respond to any carbon-contaning organic componds, and can not distinguish those co-eluted. Co-eluted compounds are often re-analyzed on a different instrument (or detector ) for confirmation. A significant amount of time and effort was spent on these repeated analysis. To overcome these difficulties, we used a one-injector, one–column and dual-detector (FID and ECD) configuration. Sample injected through the inlet, separated by a capilary column, and the effluent is splited into two streams. The major stream with over 95% of the flow directed to the FID, and the minor stream with less than 5% of flow directed to an ECD. Thus, with a single run, two sets of data are obtained simultaneously. A macro-program was developed in-house to do the data handling. The program compare the two sets of data and make judgement on compound identification. Some of the wrongly identified compound results are automatically converted to the right value. This eliminated the necessity of using a second set of analytical instruments, or switching the column back and forth between detectors. With this practice, not only time and effort are saved, but also the certainty in data quality is significantly increased.

Biography:

Dr. Shenjiang Yu is currently Associate Principal Scientist from analytical development group of bioprocess at Merck. He is has completed his PhD at the age of 25 years from University of Central Florida University. He has been USPTO registered patent agency since 2012 and published 15 papers in reputed journals.

Abstract:

Therapeutic protein, including monoclonal antibody (mAb), is one of the most rapidly growing area in many pharmaceutical companies. However, releasing and characterizing such molecule requires a number of analytical methods. Even for primary structure characterization, many different HPLC techniques such as ion exchange, size exclusion, reverse phase and hydrophobic interaction are involved. Unfortunately, each technique can only provide limited information based its own separation mechanism. Two-dimensional liquid chromatography (2D-LC) is a powerful tool for analyzing highly complex samples such as therapeutic proteins. 2D-LC is performed by online transfers of eluent from the first-dimension column to the second-dimension column. Ideally, both columns have orthogonal separation selectivity, thereby increasing the potential peak capacity to the product of the individual peak capacities. With this advanced technology, 2D-LC provides the possibility to combine two orthogonal methods and discover the correlation of the data obtained by different sepatration mechanism. This correlation provides critical information for total characterization of therapeutic proteins.

Biography:

Dongxue Han, associate professor of Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, the Fifth Council of National Federation of Organic Electrochemistry and industrial sectors of (2012.05-2016.05). 1997-2001 Bachelor of Science, Northeast Normal University. 2001-2004 Master of Science, Northeast Normal University. 2004-2007 Doctor of Science, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. 2008-2009 Postdoctoral Åbo Akademi University in Finland. Since 2008 Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The main research areas include photoelectrochemical materials, nano-structured composite materials and the electrode interface modification, electrochemical sensing applications and so on. As the first or corresponding author, 37 scientific papers have been published in SCI journals such as Advanced Materials, Chemical Science, Analytical Chemistry, Chemical Communications, Nanoscale. And they have been cited for more than 3,800 times. 13 patents have been applied, among which 6 have been authorized.

Abstract:

Photoelectrochemical technique has attracted tremendous attentions since it combined merits of both optical and electrochemical methods, which has been applied as efficient strategy to develop DNA sensor, cytosensing, enzymatic analysis, immunoassay and many other small molecules sensing etc. The mechanism of photoelectrochemical sensor is based on reductive property of photoelectron or oxidative capacity of photo-generated hole. Howbeit, efficient and stable photocatalyst that are capable of harvesting visible light for an optimized use of solar energy are still very prerequisite. In order to best facilitate the specific analytical system, in our group, through theoretical simulations with calculation of the binding energies, a variety of semiconductor and composite materials have been designed and optimized including silver halide series of composites (AgBr/g-C3N4/N-graphene, AgCl/Ag nanocrystles, Ag@AgCl/BiVO4, AgX/graphene aerogels, AgClxBr1-x, Ag@AgBr/SO3H-Graphene, etc.), series of doped & hybrid TiO2 composites (ug-C3N4/TiO2, GO/TiO2, SO3H-Graphene/TiO2, Ce-S-TiO2/SO3H-graphene, polyaniline-graphene/TiO2, etc.) and other semiconductors (V doped BiMoO4, Pd/SnO2/graphene, etc.) It reveals that such photoelectrochemical technique is considered to be an ideal platform for water quality monitoring & purification, global antioxidant capacity assessment, o-diphenol discrimination, carbon dioxide reduction and other applications1-5. It is anticipated that the photoelectrochemical technique will open up new insights into the architectural design of novel photocatalysts with high photoactivity and further utilizations in the environmental, food and energy field.

Biography:

Apostolos Atsalakis is PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge in Biotechnology. He is the author of several patents and peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals. He holds an MPhil degree in Nanotechnology from Cambridge University and a Bachelor / MSc in Applied Physics from the National Technical University of Athens.

Abstract:

Two-dimensional materials can be used in a variety of bioanalytical techniques. Recent interest in two-dimensional (2D) forms of Si and Ge has surged recently, with a focus on silicene and germanene, the Si- and Ge-based analogues of graphene, as well as their derivatives. Siloxene and germoxene are 2D materials made of honeycomb Si and Ge backbone sheets that are decorated with H atoms and OH groups. This work uses first-principles calculations to probe the properties of their various conformations. It is shown that the most stable siloxene (and germoxene) polymorph is the so-called washboard structure, and not the chair geometry assumed in previous studies. The stability of the washboard configuration relates to the formation of a network of hydrogen bonds between its hydroxyl groups. It is also found with hybrid functional calculations that siloxene and germoxene are wide band-gap semiconductors with gap values of 3.20 eV and 2.64 eV, respectively. Finally, we show that H and OH vacancies introduce spin polarization in these 2D materials and have a tendency to pair up in stable di-vacancies

Biography:

Jaya Vejayan has completed his PhD from University Malaya, a premier university in Malaysia. In his MSc he was involved in isolating bioactive compounds from the medicinal plant, Ipomea pes caprae, known to be an antitoxin to jellyfish toxins. While in his PhD he used proteomics to study proteins in various snake venoms in Malaysia. Accordingly, he merged both of the knowledge together to derive the 2DE guided purification technique. He has published in a number of publications mainly relevant to the field of toxinology and remained focused in furthering investigations in the use of snake venom for biotechnology purposes.

Abstract:

Protein play multitude of roles in the body of an organism. Enormous effort been done over the years to study proteins either by the traditional chromatography techniques of isolating one at a time or by the later developed means of proteomics advances capable to study directly on a protein mixture. This paper provides some examples of studies done on either of the mentioned approaches on protein mixtures obtained from samples specifically found predominantly in South East Asia. Exposures on mapping the two dimensional electrophoresis gel of a number of venom from snakes found commonly in Malaysia and in its neighboring countries will be highlighted. The challenges of mapping protein of abundance, elimination of vertical streaks, lack of protein library, the use of cup loading spiking and 2DE guided purification techniques are some of the important findings. Additionally, the potential development of a protein marker capable to be used to authenticate herbal products incorporated with Tongkat Ali (the notoriously famous aphrodisiac plant) will be also introduced. To conclude the shift of attention from the traditional focus of investigating herbal constituents to that of bioactive protein in natural products rapidly emerging in South East Asia.

Biography:

Joon Myong Song received his Ph.D. in 1997 at Kyushu University, in Japan. He worked as a postdoctoral research fellow from 1998 to 2004 at Iowa State University, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in United States. At present he is a professor and head of Department of Pharmacy at College of Pharmacy, Seoul National University in South Korea. His research area includes multifunctional nanoparticle for diagnosis and therapy and high-content cell-based drug screening and diagnosis using hyper-multicolor cellular imaging. He has published 90 peer reviewed papers in the top journals, 7 book chapters, and 10 patents.

Abstract:

Cell-based assays are essential to assess drug-mediated toxicity and cellular responses and to discover new chemical entities in the early phase of drug discovery. Cellular assays are usually based on either imaging or spectroscopic analysis. However, quantitative image-based cellular assays are still a major challenge for drug screening. In this work, quantitative multivariate image-based high-content cellular assays (HCAs) are reported. These assays were achieved using acousto-optical tunable filter and quantum dot probes. This approach is based on uniform threshold intensity distribution (TID) through quantitative multispectral and multicolor imaging cytometry. This method is capable of performing wide arrays of automated, quantitative, and multivariate cellular assays via single-cell monitoring over time. The approach of employing region selection to slightly defocused, background-nullified and threshold images facilitated rapid quantitative measurements during cellular assays by providing uniform TID over the objects (cells), necessary for automated quantitative analysis. This high-content cellular imaging method offers imaging and quantitative analysis of targeted cellular moieties, which can be further applied to various cellular assays in combination with snapshot methods. Application of HCA to organ-specific cell models provides deeper biological information suitable for better decisions on progressing compounds. Gaining a deep understanding of the mechanisms underlying these cellular responses is valuable before a series of lead compounds are progressed to time-consuming and expensive animal tests. This work has great significance for the exploration of various cellular response involved in drug efficacy and toxicity in the process of drug discovery.