Plenaries at American Chemical Society meeting will focus on innovation

WASHINGTON, Aug. 6, 2015 — Scientists will offer an inside look at moving new drugs, foods and materials from the lab to the marketplace in three plenary talks at the 250^th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society, taking place August 16-20 in Boston.

The presentations directly relate to the meeting’s theme, “Innovation from Discovery to Application.” The talks, which are among more than 9,000 scheduled to take place at the meeting, will be held on Sunday, August 16, from 3 to 5 p.m., Ballroom West, the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.

Topics will range from describing cutting-edge medical therapies to lab-made nutritious foods to new materials in the war against pollution. One speaker will cover innovative treatment using a thin film or coating that can carry large amounts of different drugs and release them in stages. This can be used to silence cancer genes that allow tumor cells to resist chemotherapy. Another will describe development of new kinds of meats and cheeses made from plants, with all of the taste and nutritional value of animal-based foods, but without the negative health and environmental impacts. A third speaker will discuss the construction of polymers and nanostructured materials, some from natural products, which can be used for applications such as fighting pollution and treating disease.

• Paula Hammond, Ph.D.: “Tailored drug release surfaces for regenerative medicine and targeted nanotherapies”
• Patrick O. Brown, M.D., Ph.D.: “Replacing the world’s most destructive industry”
• Karen Wooley, Ph.D.: “Targeted applications as inspirations to develop strategies toward functionally-sophisticated nanoscopic macromolecules with diverse compositions, structures, and properties”

The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 158,000 members, ACS is the world’s largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.