"INTERFACIAL CHEMISTRY USED IN MEDICAL APPLICATIONS"
The Academe Industry Committee activities
embody one of the tenets of the charter of the American Chemical Society,
“…to encourage in the broadest and most liberal manner
the advancement of chemistry in all its branches; the promotion of research
in chemical science and industry…” In 2008 this
aim was achieved by the committee in stellar fashion with the convening of
a symposium onNovember 1, 2008 entitled “Interfacial Chemistry
Used in Medical Applications”. In preparation for the symposium
the Academe Industry Committee met during the summer at the Westchester campus
of what is now the Polytechnic Institute of NYU in Hawthorne. The committee
members, consisting of Richard M. Goodman, Chair, Mary Cowman, Gandharva Padmanabhan,
and David Cormode, decided on a program to emphasize the role of interfacial
chemistry in both fundamental and practical applications. During the
early September time-frame the speakers were recruited for a symposium to
be held on November 1.
The New York Section Office sent out a follow-up notices
to potentially interested members in mid-October. As of the Friday before
the meeting, 22 persons had registered. The meeting space, the Butcher
Suite at the Pace University Campus Center in Pleasantville had an excellent
continental breakfast prepared. One of the scheduled speakers Dr. Narendra
Desai from Wyeth did not attend because he was unable to get clearance to
give his presentation hence, the program went forward with the three
remaining speakers, Dr. David Cormode of Mt Sinai Hospital, Dr. Stavroula
Sofou of NYU Polytechnic University and Dr. Abu Serajuddin of St John’s Pharmacy
School. Twenty people attended the presentations.
David P. Cormode, Ph. D. of Mount Sinai
delivered a talk on “Nanoparticles and surfaces for anion sensing and medical
imaging”. The presentation highlighted the growing importance of nanoscale
structures in the production of new pharmaceutical and diagnostic agents.
The focus of his talk was on medical imaging that is carried out with selective
agents tethered to the surface of inorganic substrates such as gold, iron
oxide or quantum dots that induce contrast in images obtained in X-ray, MRI
and fluorescence imaging in the treatment of heart disease.
Stavroula Sofou, PhD of Polytechnic Institute
of NYU gave a presentation entitled “Lipid membrane heterogeneities controlled
by pH: basic studies and potential applications of lipid-based drug delivery
carriers”. She explained how lipid rafts can be assembled in nanometer-
and micron-sized domains, as occurs in cells. Such synthetically assembled
domains could be employed for drug delivery vehicles that are responsive to
their environment.
Lastly, Abu Serajuddin, Ph.D. of St. John’s
University gave an address entitled “Development of surfactant and lipid-based
solid dispersion and solid micro emulsion preconcentrates for oral delivery
of poorly water-soluble drugs”. The fact that most modern drugs are
essentially water insoluble is a revelation to many outside of the pharmaceutical
industry. As presented in this talk the science of developing and evaluating
surfactants and lipid-based systems for drug delivery represents an intellectually
and technically challenging undertaking. Importantly, it underscored
the power of fundamental research in industrial laboratories.
The presentations were followed by extensive question and answer sessions
that extende to 15 minutes for each of the speakers. In fact, the size
of the symposium proved to entirely appropriate to accommodate detailed discussions
between the presenters and audience members. The symposium set a high
standard for future events in this format.
Drs. Stavroula Soufu, Gandharva Padmanabhan, Mary Cowman, Abu Serajuddin,
Richard Goodman,
David Cormode and Mihaela Leonida
