The U of A’s chemistry legacy
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Researchers at the U of A used chemistry in many disciplines. |
By Geoff McMaster
In the early years, the science was central to James Collip's purification of insulin and to Karl Clark's process separating bitumen from oil sand, and was an essential subject in teaching agriculture, medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and engineering. Today it's at the foundation of much interdisciplinary research, including cutting-edge forays in the burgeoning field of nanotechnology.
The chemistry department itself has produced a number of stars. One of the most popular U of A instructors of all time was Reuben Sandin. "For generations of students, he was an idol and the object of hero worship," writes former professor Walter Harris in his history of the department.
Sandin, who taught on campus from 1918 to 1964, inspired many students to make their mark in chemistry, including John Colter, legendary chair of biochemistry in the '60s,'70s and '80s, and the university's most famous chemist to this day, Raymond "Sugar Ray" Lemieux, the first to successfully synthesize sucrose.
While not a research heavyweight, Sandin was so charismatic that students who were not enrolled in his course would line up to watch him perform. "His last lecture of the year had become famous," writes Harris. "Visitor students from across campus, including arts students, would crowd into the lecture theater to hear his entertaining last lecture of the year: "The moon is made of green cheese."
When it comes to research, however, many trace the department's success back to the appointment of one man: Harry Gunning. Until the 1950s, teaching was considered the main task of the department and research was not high on the radar. The faculty of the time knew that keep up with the times they would have to start producing.
Gunning's arrival in 1957 from the Illinois Institute of Technology had the desired effect as he made research a top priority. "In a really short time, there was a tremendous feeling of vitality in the department," said Harris. "Chemistry soon became a role model for and gave a boost to other departments. The shock waves he created resonated throughout the university."
In six short years the department underwent a revolution. According to Rod McLeod in All Things True, it went from "a sleepy scientific backwater to one of the leaders in North America."
One result of the Gunning revolution was the eventual appointment of Raymond Lemieux. A tough kid from the north side of Edmonton, Lemieux signed up for chemistry at the U of A during the depression because it looked like it might lead to a lucrative career.
"In those days there were only two kinds of guys coming back to Edmonton with big cars-hockey players who made the NHL and scientists who made it to industry in the U.S.," he once said.
After graduating, he did doctoral work in biochemistry at McGill University then spent time at Ohio State University and the University of Saskatchewan before joining the National Research Council in Ottawa in 1949.
It was there he accomplished the first major breakthrough of his illustrious career. In 1953 he scaled what was known as the "Mount Everest of organic chemistry," synthesizing sucrose, or common table sugar. It was a feat that had stymied chemists for more than a hundred years.
But there was much more to come. At the University of Ottawa, Lemieux did pioneering work with proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy, a technique used widely today to shed light on the structure and nature of carbohydrate molecules.
In 1961 Lemieux came back home after he was recruited to the chemistry department by Gunning. Here he made the greatest discoveries of his career, making possible the synthesis of complex carbohydrate structures called oligosaccharides, which can be used to stimulate production of antibodies in the human body when attached to proteins. That led to new organ rejection drugs, improved blood typing and grouping, and better treatments for leukemia and hemophilia.
Lemieux died in 2000, but his legacy was huge. He is today remembered as the most influential carbohydrate chemist of modern times, and for U of A chemists he remains an inspirational figure.
Some of the university's most important chemical contributions, however, have come from other departments and faculties. During the 1970s and '80s, the Department of Biochemistry under John Colter grew into a research powerhouse, one of the strongest in the country.
During the 1980s, biochemistry attracted more research funding than any other department in the entire university at some $5 million per year. It also housed the world-renowned MRC Protein Structure and Function Group. Michael James, who established the first protein crystallography laboratory in the country in 1968, became one of the world's leading X-ray crystallographers, an essential part of drug development. In 1988, he and his team solved the structure of rennin, a kidney enzyme that plays a role in the development of high blood pressure.
In recent years, nanotechnology has emerged as one of the U of A's most prominent fields of excellence. And while highly interdisciplinary, drawing on expertise in almost every scientific discipline, it would certainly not be possible without a solid grounding in chemistry.
Jillian Buriak, for example, a Steacie Fellowship winner and group leader at the National Research Council's National Institute for Nanotechnology, applies her knowledge of chemistry to range of practical problems at the nano scale, from improving computer processors to understanding the causes and treatments of neurodegenerative disorders, particularly multiple sclerosis.
And just last month carbohydrate chemist David Bundle announced a breakthrough in the development of a treatment for E.coli infection. He and medical microbiologist Glen Armstrong created a drug that binds the bacteria to a naturally occurring protein molecule, preventing the toxin from making contact with kidney cells.
It's just another in a string of successes for Bundle, who has also played a role in a developing a vaccine against meningitis and in blocking the cholera toxin, a harmful effect of cholera infection. He is now focusing his efforts on finding a treatment for cholera.
The future for chemistry at the U of A couldn't be brighter, as it promises to play a role in some of the most pressing challenges of the 21st century, from devising alternative energy sources to fighting diseases in developing countries to even finding faster and smaller computer chips that work at the molecular level. The University of Alberta, as it has always been, will be at the forefront of that charge.
"It is always easy to look on the past as the 'good old days,' because in many ways they were," said former chair of chemistry Martin Cowie. "But our future seems brighter than ever, and the department has never been stronger, with substantial research strengths in a wide range of areas."
