The Magic of Miniature Molecular Machines

On the evening of Thursday 24 November RSC Belgium welcomed back Professor David Leigh from University of Manchester to talk about ‘Making the tiniest Machines’ with some extraordinary chemistry and also a few marvellous magic tricks! David is not only a skilled research leader and presenter but also a member of his local Magic Circle so we were treated to a highly informative and entertaining evening. The talk was hosted at the British School of Brussels in Tervuren and was also online.

According to the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Committee “We are at the dawn of a new industrial revolution of the twenty-first century, and the future will show how molecular machinery can become an integral part of our lives. The advances made have also led to the first steps towards creating truly programmable machines, and it can be envisaged that molecular robotics will be one of the next major scientific areas.”

In his highly entertaining talk David took us through much of the research that led to that statement and the award of the Chemistry Nobel Prize in 2016 to Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir Fraser Stoddart and Ben Feringa "for the design and synthesis of molecular machines". 

Molecular motion

In recent years, some of the first examples of synthetic molecular level machines and motors—all be they primitive by biological standards—have been developed. These molecules are often best designed to work through statistical mechanisms, rectifying random thermal motion through ratchet mechanisms in a manner reminiscent of Maxwell’s Demon. The first programmable systems have been introduced: the forerunners of a new technological era of molecular robotics.

Perhaps the best way to appreciate the technological potential of controlled molecular-level motion is to recognise that nanomotors and molecular-level machines lie at the heart of every significant biological process. Over billions of years of evolution Nature has not repeatedly chosen this solution for achieving complex task performance without good reason. In stark contrast to biology, none of mankind’s fantastic myriad of present day technologies exploit controlled molecular-level motion in any way at all: every catalyst, every material, every plastic, every pharmaceutical, every chemical reagent, all function exclusively through their static or equilibrium dynamic properties. When we learn how to build artificial structures that can control and exploit molecular level motion, and interface their effects directly with other molecular-level substructures and the outside world, it will potentially impact on every aspect of functional molecule and materials design. An improved understanding of physics and biology will surely follow.

You can find out much more about David’s research group and their work (including the recent ‘Tape reading rachet’ paper in Nature and numerous informative video) on their dedicated website. And you can also view a pdf version of David's presentation here.

Exoplanets: the quest for other worlds beyond our solar system

On 20 October 2022 RSC Belgium launched into deepest space with an entertaining and informative talk on 'Exoplanets or the quest for other worlds beyond our solar system' from Prof Michaël Gillon of the University of Liege. Michaël led the team that stunned the world with the discovery of seven potentially inhabitable planets orbiting the Trappist-1 star, some 40 light years from Earth.

In the talk he described some of the experiments and missions that have discovered new worlds far, far away – some with potentially Earth like characteristics. In 2017 Prof Gillon led the TRAPPIST (TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope) project that was the first to detect an extrasolar multi-planetary system and this work continues in the SPECULOOS (Search for habitable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars) project.

Since the dawn of the Copernican revolution, the existence of exoplanets, i.e., planets in orbit around other stars than our Sun, has remained suspected but unconfirmed until very recently. It is only in the last decade of the 20th century that the first of these extrasolar worlds were found. These seminal discoveries initiated the development of more and more ambitious projects that led eventually to the detection of thousands of exoplanets, including a few dozen potentially habitable ones, i.e., Earth-like exoplanets that could harbour large amounts of liquid water -and maybe life- on their surfaces. Our most powerful telescopes will soon be able to probe the atmospheric compositions of some of these extrasolar worlds, performing maybe in the process the historical detection of the chemical signs of life many light-years away. Such a discovery would change our view of the Cosmos forever.

Gillon described our own solar system and Earth's unique place in it: in the 'habitable zone' where liquid water can exist on the planet's surface. He mentioned that the search for exoplanets has existed almost since the start of modern astronomy with Huygens making computations on the possibility to see planets orbiting other stars.

However it was not until the early 80s that the first imaging of circumstellar protoplanetary disks using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was possible (see above).

The first exoplanet detection was in 1992 with the first detection of a planet around a Sun-like system in 1995. This was of a Jupiter-like planet orbiting very close to its 'Sun'. These pioneering observations led to a burst of research and now over 5000 exoplanets have been catalogued.

It is probable that planets are everywhere with nearly all stars in our galaxy surrounded by a system of planets. In fact it is likely that planets are a natural byproduct of the formation of all solar systems but there is huge diversity of systems (see above). Our system format seems to be very rare and in addition to planets in solar systems a few hundred ‘free floating’ planets have been discovered; presumably ejected from their 'mother' system at some point in the distant past.

Despite the rarity of Sun-like solar systems plenty of habitable zone planets have been found (see above) and imaging is possible, which also means that spectroscopy of these exoplanets is possible (see below). Life on a planet will alter the composition of the atmosphere on a planet and therefore its spectroscopic signal.

The new James Webb Space Telescope has an infrared detector and so could detect this potential signal of life on distant exoplanets. Gillon is involved with two networks of ground-based robotic telescopes - TOSS (Transient Optical Sky Survey) and SPECULOOS - that are looking for best targets for Webb to further investigate. The TRAPPIST experiment was the prototype for the SPECULOOS robotic telescopes.

Further giant telescopes are planned to aid the search for exoplanets. After James Webb, an Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) should be operational from 2030 equipped with a 40 metre mirror that adapts to compensate for varying atmospheric conditions should be capable of directly imaging exoplanets. And then further, larger and smarter space-based systems.

Gillon believes that an answer to our search for life beyond our solar system could be close! 

Watch again

You can re-watch the webinar on our YouTube Channel or via the video embedded below.

Chemistry Challenge 2022 results announced

The results of the RSC Belgium Chemistry Challenge 2022 were announced at our event on 29 September with Prof Vincent Lemaitre at the British School of Brussels (BSB) in Tervuren. As for the previous two years, this year's Chemistry Challenge was undertaken as a virtual event in the early summer with the students working remotely at their schools.

For the 2022 Challenge, we received entries from the majority of our group of international and European schools in the Brussels area and beyond and, as ever, the Challenge was designed to test the student's chemical knowledge and initiative. In total entries for 2022 were significantly up on 2021.

The RSC Belgium Chemical Challenge has three sections:

• A chemistry multiple choice paper (Section A)
• A structured questions on chemistry (Section B), and
• A 'Thinking Matters' paper that is not chemistry based (Section C)

The top results were as follows:

Section A - Multiple choice

First prize for this section was won by Olivia Brenninkmeijer from the Antwerp International School (AIS), pictured below, who received a €50 award.

In second place was Giorgia Lucrezia la Cognata from the European School in Mol (ESMol) who won €25 and the third prize of €10 went to Zeynep Ozel of BSB.

Section B - Structured questions

In this section the first prize of €50 was awarded to Kiara Kuralla of BSB with Matei Slavnicu from St.Johns International School (St John’s) picking up the second prize of €25. Two third prizes of €10 were awarded to Siena Ootes of the European School 1 in Luxembourg (ESL1) and Zeynep Ozel of BSB.

Section C - Thinking Matters

For this section the top prize of €50 went to Kheya Sinha of BSB, with BSB's Kalvin Biggs picking up a second prize of €25. Four third places worth €10 were awarded to Simon Guisset and Philipp Weisser of ESL1 and Kiara Kuralla and Naomi Copner from BSB.

The Keith Price Prize

With an outstanding performances in Section B, and receiving an additional €100, this year's Keith Price Prize was claimed by Kiara Kuralla of BSB (pictured below on the far right with some other BSB winners - from left to right Kalvin Biggs, Kheya Sinha, Naomi Copner, Zeynep Ozel and Kiara). 

Well done to everyone who took part in this year's Chemistry Challenge! Every student that entered the competition receives a certificate of participation (see pic from ESL1 below). And, of course, we will be running the Challenge again in 2023 and look forward to further widening participation!

Extreme phenomena in our universe, from the infinitely small to the infinitely large

On the evening of 29 September 2022 RSC Belgium welcomed back, once again, Professor Vincent Lemaitre from Universite Catholique de Louvain to discuss the latest thinking in high energy and astrophysics in a talk on ‘Key experiments probing extreme phenomena in the universe from very small to very large scale structures’. His talk was our first in-person talk since the COVID pandemic and was hosted at the British School of Brussels. This event was also the prize giving ceremony for our Chemistry Challenge 2022 for school students.

Scientific knowledge is forged through observation of nature and the development of scientific theories. The latter must not only explain observations, but they must also make predictions that can be verified by experiments! By construction, and contrary to beliefs, scientific theories are therefore falsifiable by possible observations not predicted or understood by theories. Present theories are therefore doomed to be replaced by new ones, more complete and more efficient. The key element for the development of new theories is therefore our ability to observe nature in its smallest corners and extreme conditions - at different spatial and temporal scales, and at different levels of structural complexity.

In the talk, Prof Lemaitre took us through three recent experiments in physics that allow us to observe (or reproduce the conditions of) extreme phenomena in our universe, from the infinitely small to the infinitely large.

They were:

• The CMS experiment at the LHC (Particle Physics and the discovery of the Higgs boson)
• The LIGO/VIRGO experiments (General Relativity and the discovery of gravitational wave), and
• The ICECUBE/KM3NeT experiments (Physics of Astroparticles and the first observation of Blazers – a form of supermassive black hole - with neutrinos).

After presenting the main result(s) obtained by these significant projects, Vincent briefly discussed some future experimental projects in each of these research fields.

The talk was followed by a networking reception where the discussion continued.

We had hoped to combine the live 'in-person' event with a webinar version but a few technical hitches prevented this and we also were unable to record a video version of the event. Our apologies for this.

Norman Lloyd Fundraiser 2022

RSC Belgium members and friends were treated to a sunny afternoon on Saturday 20 August to raise funds for our Dr. Norman Lloyd Scholarships at Cardiff University.

Our hosts for the afternoon were Rita and Peter Woodward and the venue was their beautiful garden in Duisberg.

Assisting with proceedings were are Nina (Nostra Nina Lions from D’Es) and Treeze (Treeze Lions from D’Es) - Rita and Peter's two pedigree Leonbergers. Leonbergers are rather large but very friendly canines, but if they decide to lean on you you know about it! 

Rita and Peter provided a sumptuous spread for their guests including drinks. Tim Reynolds brought along Timm's Pimm's and blackberry sherbet.

A tombola was held with some fine prizes and in total, including donations from people unable to attend, over 900 euros were raised for our Norman Lloyd scholarships.

The Scholarships

The Norman Lloyd scholarship was established by RSC Belgium in cooperation with Cardiff University in memory of our long-term friend and supporter Norman Lloyd.  The Dr Norman C. Lloyd Scholarship provides an annual scholarship of £1,000 for an undergraduate student, usually in their first year of study,  at the Cardiff School of Chemistry. So far eight undergraduates have been recipients of the award. Find out more here.

If you would like to make a donation to the Scholarship fund, you can transfer your contribution to the RSC Belgium ING account BE 91 3630 8144 4876 making sure to include the reference 'Norman Lloyd Scholarship Fund'.

Foreign bodies uncovered

On Saturday 2 July, RSC Belgium members and friends were treated to a fascinating guided walk around the lower town in Brussels led by Dr Paul Snell. Paul specialises in art and architectural tours usually with a particular theme or geographical focus and for our walk he took us on a tour of ‘Foreign Bodies’.

The walk started with a coffee at Le Cirio café in central Brussels. We learnt that this grand and venerable Brussels establishment was originally set up as a canned vegetable store in the 1880s by Italian Francesco Cirio as part of a chain of stores across Europe. You can still spot Cirio tomatoes on the shelves of your local store. The cafe has also been a regular backdrop for films.

The tour then moved on to the Metropole hotel to learn about the Solvay Conferences via the Rodin reliefs on the Bourse and eventually ended at Mont des Arts. Here many of the party enjoyed an optional lunch on the terrace of the Restaurant Albert on the fifth floor of the Belgian Royal Library (KBR).  

Our thanks to Paul for a truly informative and entertaining walk packed with facts and anecdotes: it would be true to say 'we all learned something - in fact several new things' during the excursion! 

My personal favourite was that Jean Neuhaus, inventor (or was it his wife?) of the praline and ballotin box, was another Italian visitor to Belgium (original family name Casanova!) and was a pharmacist. His first pharmacy shop was in Galeries St. Hubert and he started coating his medical pills with chocolate to make them more palatable.

Paul's Foreign Bodies walks explore places associated with various guests, visitors, exiles, invaders and liberators in the capital. Our tour also included historical characters like Jacques-Louis David, Victor Hugo, Karl Marx, Verlaine, and Baudelaire (not a big fan of Brussels).

Preventing breast cancer recurrence and metastasis

On the evening of 19 May 2022 RSC Belgium members and friends tuning in for a webinar event describing a major breakthrough for the prevention of breast cancer recurrences and metastases with Professor Pierre Sonveaux of the Universite catholique de Louvain. The webinar presented the current state of knowledge in cancer research and in particular the recent discovery of a very promising treatment using the drug MitoQ to prevent metastasis: the mechanism(s) by which cancer spreads from an initial or primary site to a different or secondary site within the host's body.

In many ways, cancer can be thought of as a metabolic disease, said Professor Sonveaux, where cancer cells attempt to grow and multiply by gradually depleting locally available food resources. When these resources dwindle to the point of creating cellular starvation and waste accumulates, some cancer cells activate a metastatic programme which, when fully operational, allows them to leave hostile areas to colonise areas that are more welcoming, often in distant organs.

In clinical practice, this process often marks the transition from curative medical interventions to palliative medical interventions. In breast cancer, Professor Pierre Sonveaux ‘s team has demonstrated that it is possible to halt the metastatic process by blocking the activity of metabolic sensors inside cancer cells. One of the most promising molecules, as it can be administered to humans without major side effects at the doses required to have an effect, is MitoQ. 

This drug holds great promise in preventing cancer from spreading and, therefore, increasing recovery rates for patients. Future research will work to convert this hope into a clinical reality. Prof Sonveaux’s work has focused on the use of MitoQ in breast cancer, but he indicated that studies are showing good results for other cancers, including prostate cancer. This very informative presentation was followed by a lively question and answer session. 

The webinar was recorded and can be viewed below or via the RSC Belgium YouTube channel. Apologies for some issues with the sound quality in parts of this video.

About Prof. Pierre Sonveaux

Pierre Sonveaux is Pharmacist by training. After a Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies in the team of Prof. Benoît Van den Eynde at the Brussels branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, he obtained his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences (vascular oncology) under the supervision of Prof. Olivier Feron at the Université catholique de Louvain in 2004. As a postdoc, he joined the lab of Prof. Mark W. Dewhirst at Duke University. Back at UCLouvain in 2008, Pierre won an ERC starting grant, was promoted to Assistant Professor, and created his own team of translational research. He is now Research Director of the F.R.S.-FNRS and extra-ordinary Professor at UCLouvain. His team is currently active in three main areas: understanding the oxidative pathway of lactate in cancer; characterising and harnessing the metabolic control of (tissue-specific) cancer metastasis; and unravelling the contribution of cancer and host cell metabolism to chemo- and radio resistance for cancer re-sensitisation. He has authored more than 125 peer-reviewed papers and has nine patent applications.