Introduction to Chemical Information

Literally millions of scientific and technical articles, patents, proceedings, etc. have been published and archived in libraries and other collections in the last several hundred years.  In the last 10 to 20 years this literature has undergone exponential growth.  If you are involved in scientific or technical research, how do you know whether the research you are about to do has not been done before?  How do you know whether research relevant to your studies exists that might save you considerable time and expense?  This course is designed to teach you how to search the scientific and technical literature and to help you develop the tools to answer these questions.

How did all this information come to be?  Most of what is published began with someone who had an idea and then systematically gathered information that would support or refute that idea.  Ultimately, if the information and subsequent analysis of that information was sufficient to provide strong support for the idea, then the research would be submitted for publication.

An example may make the process clearer.  Don and Andrea Stierle are natural product chemists at Montana Tech.  Specifically they look for naturally occurring compounds that have biological activity, which may lead to the development of useful drugs.  Because of their research interests they were aware that the bark of the Pacific yew tree, Taxus brevifolia, was the primary source of a potent anticancer drug, taxol:

While hiking in Glacier National Park, they noticed fungi growing on a yew tree and wondered if this fungi had perhaps developed the ability to produce taxol on its own.   Preliminary investigations in their lab indicated that this was indeed the case.  At this point they, along with Gary Strobel of Montana State University, wrote a proposal, Taxol from Yew Associated Microbes, to the Montana Science and Technology Alliance for funding to support further research.

Research supported by this successful proposal established that a fungal endophyte, Taxomyces andreanae, had evolved the ability to synthesize taxol independent of the yew tree.  These and other related findings which suggested that it might be possible to produce taxol without harvesting yew trees appeared in the primary literature in five journal articles;

Taxomyces andreanae, A Proposed New Taxon for a Bulbilliferous hyphomycete Associated with Pacific Yew (Taxus brevifolia), Strobel, Gary, Stierle, Andrea, Stierle, Donald, Hess, W. M., Mycotaxon, XL VII:71-80 (1993).

Taxol and Taxane Production by Taxomyces andreanae, an Endophytic Fungus of Pacific Yew, Stierle Andrea, Strobel, Gary, and Stierle, Donald, Science, 260 (9 April):214-216, 1993.

A fungal endophyte-tree relationship: Phoma sp. in Taxus wallachiana, Yang, Xianshu, Strobel, Gary, Stierle, Andrea, Hess, W. M., Lee, Julie, and Clardy, Jon, Plant Science, 102:1-9 (1994.

The Search for a Taxol-Producing Microorganism Among the Endophytic Fungi of the Pacific Yew, Taxus Brevifolia, Stierle, Andrea, Strobel, Gary, Stierle, Donald, Grothaus, Paul, and Bignami, Gary, Journal of Natural Products, 58(9):1315-1324 (1995).

First fungal aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase from a paclitaxel-producing Penicillium raistrickii, Niedens, Bret, Parker, Stephen, Stierle, Donald, and Stierle, Andrea, Mycologia, 91(4):619-626 (1999).

two book chapters;

Stierle, A., Stierle, D., Strobel, G., Bignami, G, Grothaus, P., Bioregulators for Crop Protection and Pest Control, Hedin, P. A. , ed., ACS Symposium Series 557, American Chemical Society, Washington, D. C., :64-67 (1994).

Bioactive Metabolites of the Endophytic Fungi of Pacific Yew, Taxus brevifolia, Stierle, Andrea, Stierle, Donald, Strobel, Gary, Bignami, Gary, and Grothaus, Paul, Ch. 6, Taxane Anticancer Agents, American Chemical Society, Washington D. C., (1995).

and eight patents;

Taxol production by taxomyces andreanae , Stierle, Andrea, Stierle, Donald, Strobel; Gary, U.S. Patent 5,322,779 (1994).

Production of Taxol from the Yew Tree , Stierle, Andrea and Strobel; Gary, U.S. Patent 5,445,809 (1994).

Taxol production by a microbe, Stierle, Andrea, Stierle, Donald, Strobel; Gary, U.S. Patents 5,451,392 (1995); 5,861,302 (1999); 5,908,759 (1999); 5,916,783 (1999); 5,958,741 (1999); 6,013,493 (1999).

These primary literature publications have subsequently appeared in the secondary literature, e.g., they are all abstracted in Chemical Abstracts.  See, for example, the abstract of the Science article.

With the advent of widespread access to relatively cheap computing power, electronic storage and retrieval of information, including scientific and technical information, is undergoing a revolution.  This revolution not only encompasses how this information is archived and accessed, but is also raising questions and instigating changes in how the information is formatted and controlled.  An article in the July 14, 2000 issue of Science entitled The Quickening of Science Communication nicely summarizes the history of science communication and the impact of the electronic age on it.  A more recent article of interest to chemists titled A Guide to Digital Literature appeared in the January 7th, 2002, Chemical & Engineering News. 

The American Chemical Society through its Committee on Professional Training certifies chemistry degrees. One of the requirements of a certified degree (and in fact either the certified or uncertified degree at Montana Tech) listed in the Committee on Professional Training Guidelines is exposure to the chemical, scientific, and technical literature. These guidelines address what undergraduate chemistry majors should know with respect to chemical literature and information retrieval and further specify the minimum library holdings required for American Chemical Society certification.

Assignment:

Write a less than one page report discussing the question:

Does Montana Tech's Library meet the ACS certification guidelines in the area of its library holdings? for the Head of the Department of Chemistry and Geochemistry. The report should specifically address (listing the appropriate journal titles) each criterion listed by the ACS.