CalACS meeting Report:New Test for Detecting the Most Poisonous Mushroom toxin On Wednesday May 20, 2020 The Sec- So, it cannot determine if a mushroom is tion held an Online Zoom Event featuring edible Dr. Candace Bever,Microbiologist in the The new test can identify the presence of Foodborne Toxin Detection and Preven- as little as 10 parts per billion of amanitin tion Research Unit (FTDP) of USDA in in about 10 minutes from a rice grain size Albany CA. sample of a mushroom or in the urine of Dr Bever dicussed a simple, 10 minute- someone who has eaten a poisonous ama- portable test that can detect Amanitin the nitin-containing mushroom. The test also deadly toxin that is the class of mushroom works with dog urine, as dogs are known toxins that cause the most serious issues. to indiscriminately eat mushrooms. In 1997 Sam Sebastiani Jr. the adult son No definitive point-of-care clinical diag- of Sonoma Valley vintner Sam Sebastiani nostic test currently exists for amatoxin Sr. died after eating a death Cap mush- poisoning. Early detection of amanitin in a room form a park in San francisco. The patient's urine would help doctors trying to new test is an antibody-based assay, simi- make a diagnosis. This work may help de- lar to a pregnancy test. This test specifi- velp such a test. There appears to be an an cally binds deadly amanitins, toxins pro- effort to comercilize the test. Meanwhile I duced by some wild mushrooms. The test will continue to purchase mushrooms for is completed in 10 minutes and can detect my marinra pasta and frittata sauce at my amanitins either from mushroom samples supermarket. or from urine of an intoxicated person or Dr Bever received her B.S. in biological dog. Dr. Candace Bever describe how the sciences from Carnegie Mellon University test was made, how it works, and showed and earned her Ph.D. in marine science examples of using it with mushrooms and from the Virginia Institute of Marine Sci- urine samples. ence at the College of William & Mary. This test only identifies the presence or She completed a post-doc and served as a absence of this specific class of toxin; it Project Scientist at UC Davis before join- does not detect other compounds such as ing the USDA. hallucinogens or toxins that cause other gastrointestinal or neurological symptoms.

Olympiad Our high school students have had a banner year in the Olympiad! Two students from Dougherty Valley High, Anugraph Chemparathy and Michael Han, scored High Hon- ors were again among the top 20 students who have qualified to attend Study Camp this year which will be held virtually. Venkat Raman and Kenneth Moon of Dougherty Valley and Ian Chen of California High scored High Honors and are among the top 50 students who took the exam. Of the twenty student who attend Study Camp, four will selected to be the American Team along with two alternates to compete in the Interna- tional Olympiad if it is held.

Zachery Deng (Lowell), Vivian Hir (Quarry Lane), JefferyLiu (American), Eric Ma (Mission San Jose), Jay Sarva (Stanford Online), and Christina Yu (Mission San Jose) scored Honors and are among the top 146 student who took the exam. Eileen Nottoli

JUNE 2020 P AGE 2 Published monthly except July & August by the California Section, American Chemical Society. Opinions expressed by the editors or contributors to THE VORTEX do not necessarily reflect THE VORTEX the official position of the Section. The publisher reserves the right to reject copy submitted. Subscription included in the annual dues payment. Nonmember subscription 25. MAGAZINE OF THE CALIFORNIA SECTION, AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

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Chair's Message ers and that an honest public servant can overcome the greed of private interests.” Jim Postma African American Women Chemists by I thought it might be time Jeannette E. Brown (and if you like that, again to plan your sum- there’s a sequel: African American Wom- mer reading. Given the en Chemists in the Modern Era.) From an quarantine, you might be ACS Fellow. looking for something If you are looking for a novel, The Chem- productive to occupy your ist by Stephenie Meyer fits the bill, espe- time or you might be looking for gift ideas cially if you favor thrills and espionage. for a science-oriented relative or colleague. At the other end of the genre spectrum is Here are my suggestions: A Well-Ordered Thing: Dmitri Mendeleev What's Cooking in Chemistry?: How and the Shadow of the Periodic Table by Leading Chemists Succeed in the Kitchen Michael D. Gordin. There’s a lot more to by Hubertus P. Bell et al, Editors. You’ll Dmitri Mendelev that his Periodic Table get more than 50 personal recipes and an- (as if that wasn’t enough.) ecdotes from leading organic chemists, And, if you are interested in the human such as Lonely soup, Wild boar - Tuscan side of the progress of chemistry, Cathe- way, and Dulce de Leche. You will also drals of Science: The Personalities and Ri- get biographies and sketches of their work. valries That Made Modern Chemistry by This is the one if you like cooking, eating, Patrick Coffey. You will read about sev- and chemistry. eral well-known physical chemists from a The Poison Squad: One Chemist's Single- perspective beyond just their science. Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the If you are tempted to write a review of any Turn of the Twentieth Century by Deborah of these, contact Lou Rigali, the Vortex Blum. The New York Times Book Review editor; he would probably be interested in description: “The Poison Squad offers a making it a feature in the coming months. powerful reminder that truth can defeat You could also contribute to the J. Chem. lies, that government can protect consum- Ed. column of book reviews.

PAGE 3 THE VORTEX Cal ACS offers basic Zoom 11th and 13th. There were over a dozen participants in each session, an ideal size training for interaction and asking questions. ALEX MADONIK Professor Bajrami’s presentation covered Zoom basics, such as setting up a free ac- In this age of COVID-19, our virtual count (meetings are limited to 40 minutes, world has expanded as our physical world but can include 100 participants), invit- has contracted. With so much of our pro- ing participants, managing meetings, and fessional and personal lives moving to meeting security. She demonstrated fea- online platforms, we’re all trying to learn tures such as Chat and Breakout Rooms, more about online meeting tools. which allow participants to exchange text In California, all instructors in the state’s messages or hold separate group discus- public university and community college sions. Everyone came away betterpre- system have access to Zoom accounts, but pared to host their own meetings. many of us had never used them before CalACS is using a professional-level ac- March of this year. By now, probably ev- count to host unlimited meetings for larger ery reader of the Vortex has participated groups (up to 300 participants). The Exec- in a Zoom meeting, and California Section utive Committee has already met twice on Chair Jim Postma suggested that we orga- Zoom (much more convenient for some of nize some training sessions, to be spon- our distant members) and almost 60 people sored by the Senior Chemists Committee. joined us for the May 20th Section Meet- At the College of Alameda, I’ve been for- ing on the Detection of Amanitin Mush- tunate to work with some talented distance room Toxins. Even bigger Zoom meetings education specialists, and Professor Diana are clearly in our future! Bajrami agreed to offer two introductory You can review Professor Bajrami’s pre- training sessions, which took place on May sentation on the Cal ACS web site, which also provides links to other resources.

Screen shot of Dr Professor Bajrami’s Zoom presntation with a little enhancement by the reporter.

JUNE 2020 PAGE 4 There are approximately 4,700 known Diluting PFAS compounds and these occur in Isotopes almost all global environments including Bill Motzer remote places. There are now major environmental concerns for surface-water and groundwater contamination in urban In my previous industrial areas. Health-based advisories articles (see Dec. or screening levels for PFOA and PFOS 2018 through June in drinking water have been developed 2019 Vortex) of by the U.S. Environmental Protection per- and poly- Agency (U.S. EPA) and state regulatory fluoroalkyl agencies, including California. Surface substances (PFAS), I discussed the and groundwater sampling protocols have chemistry of a “family” of manufactured also been developed; analytical detection (anthropogenic) chemicals used in methods include high-performance liquid products from the 1940s to the early 2000s chromatography (HPLC) and tandem that resist heat, oils, greases, stains, and mass spectrometry (TMS). U.S. EPA water. Such surface-active agents were analytical methods, specifically Method included in aqueous firefighting foams 533 for drinking water, can now determine (AFFF), stain-resistant products, coating 14 branched and linear isomer and 11 additives (i.e., polytetrafluoroethylene unique PFAS compounds. This method or PTFE also known as Teflon™), has detection and reporting limits in the and cleaning products. Industrial uses ng/L (parts per trillion) range and because were widespread spanning aerospace, of the very low concentrations requiring a automotive, chemical, construction, precise and accurate analysis that includes semiconductor, and textile companies. isotope dilution analysis (IDA) usage. Under typical environmental conditions PFAS do not hydrolyze, photolyze, So why is IDA done and why is it impor- or biodegrade. Therefore, they are tant? First, IDA: (1) allows for accurate extremely environmentally persistent recovery correction and (2) normalizes with potential to bioaccumulate and instrument performance across different biomagnify in wildlife because they matrices. Second, and more importantly, are readily absorbed upon ingestion, IDA methodology allows accurate deter- primarily accumulating in blood mination of the amount or quantity of an serum, kidneys, and liver. Animal element or chemical compound by adding toxicological studies have indicated known amounts of an isotopically-enriched potential developmental, reproductive, substance (either a stable or radioactive and systemic effects. isotope) or standard to the sample to be analyzed (see Figure 1). Mixing of an iso- The most well-known and researched topic standard with the sample essentially PFAS compounds are PFOA (perfluo- “dilutes” the sample’s isotope composi- rooctanoic acid – C8HF15O2; CAS No.: tion. Therefore, this is also considered as a 335-67-1) and PFOS (perfluorooctane method of internal standardization, because sulfonic acid – C8HF17O3S; CAS No.: the standard (an isotopically-enriched form 1763-23-1). Within the U.S., PFOS and of analyte) is added directly to the sample. PFOA were the two PFAS compounds Additionally, unlike traditional analytical produced in the largest commercial methods relying on signal intensity, IDA amounts. PFOA is a perfluoralkyl car- employs signal ratios. Therefore, IDA is boxylate synthetically produced as a salt regarded as one of analytical chemistry’s and its ammonium salt is the most widely measurement methods having the highest produced form. PFOS is commonly used metrological standing. as a simple salt (such as potassium, so- dium, or ammonium) or is incorporated IDA is almost exclusively used with TMS into larger polymers. continued on Page 9 PAGE 5 THE VORTEX Research was omitted from landmark paper claiming natural origin of SARS-CoV-2

Published: 26 May 2020 GM Watch Report:Claire Robinson

Chinese and US scientists have been ment carried out in the US and published in collaborating for years in dangerous gain- 2015 by scientists from the UNC in collab- of-function experiments that involve ge- oration with WIV scientists, including Shi netically engineering coronaviruses from Zhengli, dubbed China’s “bat woman” for bats and other animals, as revealed by a her work with bat coronaviruses. The work series of scientific publications. The coro- was funded by: The National Institute of naviruses are related to the SARS viruses Allergy & Infectious Disease (NIAID) of that cause severe respiratory diseases in the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). humans. The scientists were based at the These funds went to the U.S. Agency for Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in International Development (USAID) and China, the lab suspected by some of acci- Chinese Institutions. The director of the dentally releasing the SARS-CoV-2 virus NIAID is Dr Anthony Fauci, who current- that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, and ly heads up the US COVID-19 response. at the University of North Carolina (UNC) The NIH’s money was directed through in the US. the US-based Eco-Health Alliance, headed Oddly, however, this long and high-profile by Dr Peter Daszak; research history was entirely omitted from the scientific paper, published in Nature in In the published paper reporting the February this year, in which Shi Zhengli risky experiment, the scientists state that and her team at the WIV claimed to have they began their work before the 2014 US identified a natural origin for SARS- temporary moratorium on virus gain-of- CoV-2. The origin, according to the WIV function studies, which was prompted by scientists, was a bat virus, RaTG13, that several high-profile biosafety failures at was thought to have jumped from an ani- US labs. But in spite of the moratorium, as mal to a human at a Wuhan seafood and stated in the paper, the NIH gave permis- wildlife market (the “zoonotic” theory – sion for the study to continue. Dr Fauci of that is, coming from animals by a natural the NIAID “outsourced” the research to spillover event). the WIV in China, in the words of one me- Why the omission? To understand the dia article. possible reason, we need to first under- In the experiment, the scientists took a stand the nature of the research work that mouse coronavirus and exchanged its was done by the WIV scientists and their spike protein – the part on the surface of US collaborators. the virus that determines infectivity – for The purported benign aim of this line of one from a bat coronavirus that was simi- research was to investigate the potential lar to the virus that causes the human epi- of bat coronaviruses to infect humans, to demic disease SARS. They kept the mouse improve scientists’ ability to predict pan- virus “backbone” – its basic RNA and demics, and to develop vaccines or other protein molecular structure. The bat coro- therapies. navirus, in its natural state, was unable to However, this is also gain-of-function re- infect humans as its spike protein was in- search, which aims to make viruses more adequate – it was not able to dock onto the infective or transmissible. Such research ACE2 receptor on human cells. has come under increasing criticism Infectivity is supposed to be determined by scientists for many years, due to its ten- just by the spike protein. So joining the bat dency to pose huge risks for little benefit. spike protein with the mouse virus back- This fear is borne out by the results of a particularly risky gain-of-function experi- (continued on page 7

JUNE 2020 PAGE 6 bone should have resulted in a virus that vided in this paper is crucial to designing was non-infectious to humans. a virus that is infective in humans. Anyone But the resulting genetically engineered with access to a standard laboratory would chimeric virus unexpectedly turned out to be able to use the information to estimate be highly infectious to humans. In fact, its the amino acid sequence needed to engi- infectivity, tested in human airway cells, neer an RBD that would be highly likely to was comparable to the human epidemic- infect human cells.” causing virus strain SARS-CoV Urbani. In other words, the researchers have pro- The scientists were clearly surprised and vided a guide to making a bioweapon. alarmed by this finding. As they state, Dr Antoniou explained how their data “based on previous models of emergence”, makes what would otherwise have been the creation of this chimeric virus “was a laborious process far quicker and more not expected to increase pathogenicity”. efficient. If you start with no information, They deduced that the nature of the spike you could engineer a human-infective vi- protein alone was not enough to determine rus like SARS-CoV-2 by using a “directed infectivity – the backbone of other protein iterative evolutionary selection process”. components is also important. This would involve using genetic engi- The researchers then tried – but failed – neering in a mutagenesis procedure to gen- to develop a vaccine or antibody therapy. erate a large number of randomly mutated The antibodies were unable to block the versions of the SARS-CoV spike protein receptor binding domain (RBD – the part RBD, which would then be selected for of the spike protein that binds to the hu- strong binding to the human ACE2 recep- man ACE2 receptor, resulting in infection) tor and consequently high infectivity of of the bat-mouse chimeric virus. human cells. The researchers conclude their publica- However, using the information provid- tion with a caution and a question left ed by the UNC and WIV researchers, Dr hanging in the air. They write that their Antoniou says, “You don’t have to go in findings “represent a crossroads of GOF blind using a total ‘saturation’ mutagen- [gain-of-function] research concerns; the esis of the RBD amino acid sequence. You potential to prepare for and mitigate future don’t have to start from a black box of un- outbreaks must be weighed against the risk knowns. You already have an insight into of creating more dangerous pathogens. In which amino acid sequence is needed for developing policies moving forward, it is human infectivity, so that guides you as to important to consider the value of the data how to engineer the virus.” generated by these studies and whether This raises the ethical question of wheth- these types of chimeric virus studies war- er gain-of-function research is ever worth rant further investigation versus the inher- the risk. Dr Antoniou believes that it is ent risks involved.” not: “Research of this type is not neces- In short, the very research that is claimed sary to identify new targets for therapeu- by some to be necessary to develop vac- tic intervention. An investigation of the cines and other interventions risks creating basic mechanisms of how virus infection a pandemic. takes place and progresses is sufficient for While there are serious risks involved in this. Thus gain-of-function research with carrying out such research, there are also known dangerous pathogens such as coro- risks involved in publishing it. In this case naviruses should be banned.” the researchers examined the amino acid In spite of the dangers highlighted in the sequences of the bat virus spike protein 2015 paper, and in the wake of the US tem- and identified the sequences required for porary moratorium on virus gain-of-func- human infectivity – and published infor- tion work, the research with bat coronavi- mation on them in their paper. ruses continued – this time in China. In The London-based molecular geneticist 2017 WIV scientists, including Shi Zheng- Dr Michael Antoniou commented, “The li, published a study with funding shared information on amino acid sequences pro- Continued on Page 8 PAGE 7 THE VORTEX (continued from page 7) market. This theory has not subsequently been supported by emerging evidence. between Chinese and US institutions, the All publications arguing for a natural ori- latter including the US NIH and USAID. gin for SARS-CoV-2 rely heavily on this The researchers report the findings from one paper by Shi Zhengli and colleagues, virus infectivity experiments where ge- describing the sequence of a purported netic material was combined from differ- natural bat coronavirus named RaTG13. ent SARS-related coronaviruses to form But notably absent from the paper is any novel chimeric versions. They were trying reference at all to Shi and her collabora- to find out which mutations were needed tors’ long history of gain-of-function ge- to allow certain bat coronaviruses to bind netic engineering research with bat coro- to the human ACE2 receptor. They found naviruses, described above. That includes that two genetically engineered chimeric the important paper by UNC and WIV viruses replicated “efficiently” in human scientists of 2015, which had the alarming cells. The consequences of escape of such result of turning a harmless bat virus into viruses could be serious. a human pathogen. Then, only this month, WIV scientists led It is as if this research background sim- by Shi Zhengli published a pre-print re- ply didn’t exist. Why? Could it be because porting work in which they investigated the drawing attention to it might raise the sus- ability of spike proteins from bat SARS- picion in people’s minds that SARS-CoV-2 related coronavirus (SARSr-CoV), among might also have been intentionally or acci- other coronaviruses, to bind to bat and hu- dentally optimised in the lab during gain- man ACE2 receptors. In other words, they of-function research? examined how efficiently these coronavi- After all, if the belief gained traction that ruses infect humans and how human infec- the virus might have escaped from a lab, tivity can be optimised. virologists could expect their research to The three papers examined above show be “impacted adversely by tighter labo- that over a period of several years, Chinese ratory controls”, as the leading vaccine and US scientists were using genetic en- researcher Professor Nikolai Petrovsky gineering techniques for gain-of-function has pointed out in explaining why the ma- experiments with coronaviruses, resulting jority of scientists seem to be supporting in the generation of viruses better adapted the idea that the virus originated in a wet to infect humans. market rather than a lab. Against this background Shi Zhengli pub- It would also, of course, almost certainly lished her landmark paper in the journal bring the “gravy train” of virus gain-of- Nature in February this year, after the CO- function research to an abrupt halt, quite VID-19 pandemic had spread across the apart from causing a massive political globe. In this paper, Shi and her co-authors storm. It might even awaken public doubts claimed to have identified the closest rela- about the safety of other risky applications tive to SARS-CoV-2 and its “probable” ori- of genetic engineering. gin, a natural bat coronavirus, which she But despite this array of vested interests, called RaTG13. The paper highlights the a forensic investigation needs to begin natural origin zoonotic theory for SARS- as soon as possible into the exact origins CoV-2 – that it jumped from an animal into of a pandemic virus that, in the words of humans at the Wuhan seafood and wildlife Professor Petrovsky, seems “like it was de- signed to infect humans”.

JUNE 2020 PAGE 8 (continued from page 4) to other analytical methods, IDA is more stable and less error-prone during chemical analyses for applications where a high processing steps. degree of accuracy is required; however, For trace and ultra-trace analysis, different it can also be employed with every type of elemental species accuracy is essential. For MS used in different environmental analyti- such analyses, IDA, allows for adding one, cal fields and standards (e.g., all National or two, highly enriched isotope tracers or Metrology Institutes rely on IDA when spikes (the two spike method also known producing certified reference materials). as the double-spike technique). This is For high-precision analysis, IDA is applied accomplished by adding an element, with when an analyte's low recovery is required. well-known concentrations to the sample, In addition to stable isotopes usage, radioac- which is then mixed and homogenized with tive isotopes can also be employed; this is the solid sample or aqueous solution. Deter- often required in biomedical applications mination of the trace element concentration (e.g., in estimating blood volume). is then performed by measuring the change Because IDA involves same element isoto- in the isotope ratios in the sample-spike pic measurements, differences in chemical mixture compared to those in the sample compositions are eliminated. IDA’s major and highly enriched isotope tracer. advantage is that during the entire analytical So, the next time you submit a sample for process including sample preparation, ana- PFAS analysis using IDA, remember that the lyte separation, and sample enrichment, no returned analytical data will have greater analyte quantitative recovery is necessary accuracy and therefore reliability than other once equilibration occurs between the spike methods. and sample. Therefore, when compared

Figure 1: IDA basic principles require adding an isotopically altered standard to a sample (one spike method). This changes the analytes natural isotopic composition and by measuring this change one can accurately calculate the amount of the analyte present in the sample.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotope_dilution

PAGE 9 THE VORTEX Help from ACS in a COVID-19 found it full of good tips and suggestions. Joe, along with over seventy other ACS World chemists, are certified as ACS Career Marinda Li Wu, ACS Career Consultant Consultants. Did you know that you can sign up online Most of us have been sheltering in place for a personal ACS Career Consultant to and working from home since March 16. In discuss your career and future options? case you have not heard, ACS has been of- You can get help with your resume, job fering various new Member Services for the search, and preparing for interviews (many first time to help members as we all adjust now virtual). to this new COVID-19 world. Visit www.acs.org/careers to select your ACS Webinars are a free member benefit. own ACS Career Consultant in various Interesting webinars on all kinds of topics fields of expertise to offer career tips and used to be available once a week. Now these suggestions to help you navigate in this new great webinars are available daily. Take COVID world. a look at www.acs.org and search for the ACS Career Services is also now offering ACS Webinars. for the first time Virtual Office Hours for Hundreds of ACS webinars presented by members to sign up to talk with ACS Career subject matter experts in the chemical enter- Consultants. I participated in the launch prise are available in the archive along with program where both ACS career consultants live webinars coming up. Check it out for and job seekers tested using ZOOM technol- some fascinating topics including several ogy for virtual consultations and break out on this new corona virus and how it differs rooms. Visit www.acs.org/careers for more from other viruses. information. “Navigating Your Chemistry Career in a The CALACS Senior Chemists are also COVID-19 World” was recently presented offering ZOOM training for all members as an ACS Webinar by Joe Martino, a fel- interested. Visit www.calacs.org for more low ACS Career Consultant. His talk is now details on other activities for our California available in the ACS Webinar Archive. I Section despite this new corona virus.

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