VCU news

By Sathya Achia Abraham

John B. Fenn and his research group faced resistance in 1985 when they submitted a proposal from their lab that reported the production of intact gas phase ions from polyatomic molecules with molecular weights of several tens of thousands – essentially, the creation of “molecular elephants.” The reviewers at a major funding agency to whom they sent the proposal stated, “It is impossible for this investigator to have produced such ions with his technique.”

Those who knew Fenn also knew comments like that could never slow him down. Today there are more than 1,000 papers each year based on that technique, now known as electrospray ionization, or ESI. The ions produced were described as “molecular elephants,” because these biological ions such as peptides and proteins are very large when compared to typical gas phase ions, and therefore could not be brought to the gas phase before the development of ESI. Hence, his colleagues would comment that Fenn “made elephants fly.”

Earlier this week, Virginia Commonwealth University hosted its inaugural John B. Fenn Memorial Symposium, a series of lectures from leading scientists in the field of mass spectrometry, gas phase clusters and molecular beams.

The event honored the former VCU chemistry professor who was awarded the 2002 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work on electrospray mass spectrometry. His work has revolutionized the development of new pharmaceuticals and promises to advance disease diagnosis. Fenn died in December 2010.

“Dr. Fenn was engaging – the most innovative person in mass spectrometry,” said event co-organizer Samy El-Shall, Ph.D., professor of physical chemistry, who came to know Fenn well during his 22 of years at VCU. He co-organized the event with Scott Gronert, Ph.D., professor and chair of the VCU Department of Chemistry.

“We wanted to honor the science and impact of his life’s work. Much of his impact and excellence has influenced and is noted in the quality of research that coming from Department of Chemistry here at VCU,” he said.

“Dr. Fenn had a unique talent of finding simple solutions to very complicated problems,” added El-Shall.

Fenn’s pioneering work on supersonic jet expansions, nozzle molecular beams and electrospray ionization has led to the development of new instrumentation and techniques for chemical analysis, spectroscopy and dynamics with applications in clusters, polymers, biomolecules, proteins and pharmaceuticals. It earned him the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2002.

This year’s event featured three distinguished guest speakers working in research areas that were pioneered by Fenn. Faculty, staff, students and various colleagues gathered to celebrate the science of Fenn.

R. Graham Cooks, Ph.D., the Henry B. Hass Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Purdue University, discussed his development of a desorption electrospray ionization technique called DESI, which has been applied to many societal issues ranging from the safety of food products to security at the airport.

Next, Mark Johnson, Ph.D., the Arthur T. Kemp Professor of Chemistry at Yale University, discussed important processes in atmospheric chemistry involving protons shared between water and other relevant atmospheric molecules studied using the supersonic jet expansion techniques originally developed by Fenn.

Lastly, David Muddiman, Ph.D., professor of chemistry at North Carolina State University, discussed the application of electrospray mass spectrometry developed by Fenn to understand biomolecules and protein interactions.

A reception for participants and guests followed the lectures.