Chemistry Newsletter

CHEMISTRY
NEWS
WAYNE STATE
UNIVERSITY2014
A. Paul and Carol Schaap.

Welcome back to Wayne State University’s
chemistry department. As you will see in this
update, we are thriving.
Among many developments, the most
significant was undoubtedly the $76 million
renovation of our chemistry building, which
occurred in two phases from 2004-11. We now
have a modern, state-of-the-art research facility
that is totally different from the building you
may remember from your time on campus.
The renovation included all new labs and offices
throughout the building. Thanks to the generous
support of Paul and Carol Schaap, the building
also sports an impressive glass atrium and lecture
hall attached to the Cass Avenue entrance. We
also have a new central instrument facility named
in honor of Lumigen — the company Paul
Schaap founded — as well as informal meeting
areas designed to increase collaboration among
students and faculty. In gratitude for the Schaaps’
gift, the building has been named the A. Paul
Schaap Chemistry Building.
In this inaugural edition of our department’s
newsletter, you’ll have a chance to hear from
the Schaaps. You may remember Paul as a
faculty member in the organic division and Carol
served as assistant to the chair for many years.
They created the Schaap Endowed Chair in
Organic Chemistry, the Schaap Scholar awards
to support the research activities of top faculty
in the department and a generous endowment
to support outstanding graduate students.
They have been extraordinarily generous to the
department in recent years, and their gifts have
enabled us to recruit and retain the best faculty
and students and keep us in the top echelon of
academic chemistry departments.
The story behind the Schaaps’ success and
philanthropy illustrates a key aspect of the
contemporary research university that, in my
opinion, is often overlooked when justifications
for the university’s research enterprise are made
to the state and to the public at large — the
significance of intellectual property stemming
from faculty research and inventions that may
lead to important commercial opportunities.
In Paul Schaap’s case, observations made in
his research lab by graduate students and
postdoctoral fellows and supported by WSU
technology transfer led directly to the creation of
Lumigen, which is still in operation and continues
to generate revenue and taxes in Southeast
Michigan while providing high-tech, high-wage
jobs — none of which would exist without the
initial research done in our department. Of
course, Lumigen is not the only spinoff company
stemming from research in our department. The
first was Ash-Stevens, a still-thriving enterprise
currently under the able leadership of Steven
Munk, son of Dr. Art Munk, who obtained his
Ph.D. in our department in 1959. More recently,
technology developed by Professor John Santa
Lucia led to the creation of DNA Software.
Welcome to the first edition of
Chemistry News

This translation of basic research to intellectual
property and beyond was made possible by
the enactment of the Bayh-Dole legislation in
the early ’80s which, for the first time, allowed
researchers and universities to benefit from
discoveries supported by federal research
funds. This story is repeated at many other
research universities in the country, and it has
opened the door to benefits and economic
development not previously possible.
This underlying theme of research with potential
commercial applications is seen throughout
this newsletter. In the following pages, you’ll
read about Professor David Crich, holder of the
Schaap Endowed Chair in Organic Chemistry,
whose research on new antibacterial agents
is addressing a dilemma that is of concern to
all. With few exceptions, most pharmaceutical
houses are not aggressively pursuing new and
more potent antibiotics, with reasons often
ascribed to low profit margins with these types
of compounds. But equally important is that
most of the “low-hanging fruit” has been picked
already. Work such as Crich’s offers a potential
solution to address this dilemma.
You’ll also read about Professor Charles
Winter’s research into new methods for
depositing thin films of material — another
example of basic research leading to inventions
that may have practical applications in the
microelectronics industry.
These lab-to-industry developments are not
confined to faculty research alone. Alumni
like Surendra Gupta, who started a successful
company in St. Louis following doctoral studies in
our department, are doing great work throughout
industry. And our long-dormant ACS Student
Affiliates chapter, recently reborn, is attempting
to make WSU’s the top chapter in the country.
Judging by their many activities in just the past
year, I’m putting money on them to succeed.
I hope you enjoy reconnecting with your
department through this newsletter. I
encourage you to visit or to contact me or any
of our faculty with questions and comments.
– James H. Rigby, Professor and Chair
TABLE OF CONTENTS
WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY // CHEMISTRY NEWS
Interview with
A. Paul Schaap
02
FACULTY PROFILE:
Crich influences students
worldwide
06
RESEARCH FOCUS:
Winter leads the way
in ALD research
08
What’s happening in
chemistry?
12
STUDENT FOCUS:
Student organization brings love
of chemistry to campus, city
10
ALUMNI PROFILE:
Alumnus shows
entrepreneurial spirit
11

A. Paul Schaap, founder of Lumigen Inc., has made his mark on Wayne State’s chemistry department. In addition
to scholarship awards and endowments, it was a donation from Schaap and his wife, Carol, that led to the
recent renovation and expansion of the chemistry building. Completed in 2012, it now boasts state-of-the-art
laboratories and lecture facilities, a four-story atrium, and several collaboration areas. In gratitude, the building
was renamed in his honor. Schaap also provided the funds to help restore the building’s instrument center, now
known as the Lumigen Instrument Center.
Schaap has a long history with Wayne State. He joined the faculty in 1970 following his education at Hope College
and Harvard, where he obtained his Ph.D. He was on the faculty at Wayne State for 30 years, and saw his research
with luminescence-generating 1,2-dioxetanes have important application in medical diagnostics. To meet that need,
he formed Lumigen with the support of Wayne State. Located in Southfield, Michigan, the company is now one of
the world’s largest suppliers of chemiluminescent reagents to the clinical immunodiagnostics market.
Schaap returned to Wayne State recently to talk about his illustrious career and current relationship with the university.
WSU: I understand your love for chemistry began
as a child. What drew you to this field?
PS: One of the influences was Gilbert Chemistry
Sets. This is back when the sets had real experiments
and chemicals, and things that were dangerous
and things that are probably no longer put in the
chemistry sets. But they were fun. The other thing
that really intrigued me, like a lot of kids, was the
luminescence of fireflies. I grew up in Indiana, where
there were lots of fireflies, and we’d catch them and
let them go, but it always intrigued me how the
firefly generated its luminescence. Once I got into
high school and started taking science classes, I was
particularly interested in chemistry and stimulated
by a fantastic high school chemistry teacher, Clyde
Mott. He was short in stature, always wore a white
lab coat and developed experiments that were
outside the textbook — you might even call them
research experiments.
WSU: How did college further prepare you for a
career in chemistry?
PS: I spent three years at Hope College with
Professor Douglas Neckers in his laboratory
doing undergraduate research. It led to refereed
publications. It was unbelievably exciting to see, for
the first time, our results in national publications.
It was during my career at Harvard with
Professor Paul Bartlett that I first got involved
with compounds called 1,2-dioxetanes, which
generate luminescence and are believed to be the
intermediate responsible for the luminescence of
fireflies. As part of my research with him, I was able
to make one of these dioxetanes for the first time.
It didn’t generate much luminescence, but it did
some. And it was very unstable — almost to the
point of being explosive — but it was the beginning
of this whole area of research for me.
Interview with
A. Paul Schaap
03

WSU: What brought you to Wayne
State?
PS: Dr. Neckers knew Carl Johnson here
on the faculty very well and said to Carl,
‘You ought to interview and take a look
at this young man, Schaap.’ I came here
and gave a lecture and interview and was
offered a position as an assistant professor.
That was in 1970.
When I was interviewing, I believe there
were three universities in the entire country
— only three — that had positions for
organic chemistry faculty. One was at
Wayne State. I interviewed at the other
two, and before I had heard anything
about them, I accepted this position. It’s
strictly because of the quality of the faculty
who were here — the faculty who would
become my colleagues. I just recognized
that there was something special about the
culture of this department.
WSU: How did your research here lead
to the founding of Lumigen?
PS: My graduate work at Harvard with
Professor Bartlett involved making
one of these molecules, a dioxetane.
It became the focus of my academic
career here. And over the course of 16
years, collaborating with undergraduate
students, graduate students and post-
docs, we worked together to make many
of these dioxetanes and study their
properties. Some of them turned out to be
a little more stable, some had a little more
luminescence. But none of the molecules
had all of the properties we desired. But
after 16 years [July 1986], we were able
to make the molecule that had all the
properties that we wanted.
Additional derivatives of this molecule
became useful in medical diagnostic tests.
Companies began to get in touch with us
asking for samples that they could use to
test and see if it improved their assays. And
then they said, ‘Let’s find a way to obtain
commercial quantities of your material.’ That
led me to form the company, Lumigen Inc.,
and then to approach the university about
collaborating with us.
Wayne State became one of the key
shareholders at the start of the company.
They were kind enough to lease some
of my laboratory space to me so that
we could incubate the company in
this building. This was before the days
of TechTown and there just was no
laboratory space anywhere for us to start
the company. It was a very satisfying
relationship. And they also were willing
to take a chance on a faculty member —
myself — who had no business experience,
and give me and my colleagues a chance
to commercialize the technology. And for
that, I remain extremely grateful.
WSU: You’ve been a major supporter
of Wayne State. Most notably, the
chemistry building was renovated and
expanded with substantial help from
you. Why was this project so important?
PS: In the 30 years from when I started
to when I retired, this building and the
laboratories in particular had really begun
to show their age… It had become difficult
to attract students, difficult to retain faculty
members. So this building was in need of
total renovation which, of course, was a
very expensive proposition, but it needed
to be done. The university issued bonds
for the renovation, and Carol and I funded
the expansion. Today, we’re sitting in a
chemistry building that is fully renovated.
In addition, we have some spaces that
we didn’t have years ago. And within the
building, there are some elements that
are also new and very important. These
are interaction areas. Each floor has a
special area that’s now set aside. They
have windows, and are dedicated to the
interaction of students, faculty and post-
docs from different groups so that they
can come together and talk about science.
This is the way modern science occurs; it’s
no longer stay in your own laboratory and
be in what’s called a silo, but scientists are
urged to collaborate, to interact, to develop
joint programs.
WSU: What are you most grateful for,
looking back on your own education?
What was essential to making you who
you are today?
PS: That’s an easy one — scholarships. I
would not have been able to go to Hope
College but for scholarships. My dad was
a Presbyterian minister; it goes without
saying they don’t make a lot of money.
And so to go to college was possible only
because of scholarships from Hope College
and from people I’ve never met.
Schaap demonstrates the
luminescence experiment that
ultimately led to the founding
of Lumigen Inc.

That’s at the heart of the philanthropy
that Carol and I do; it’s scholarships at all
levels. It’s trying to give back in a way that
helped me.
WSU: Have you been able to see how
specific students have benefited from
those scholarships?
PS: Sure. We provide scholarships to students
at an inner-city charter school who are
graduating from the eighth grade, and it
allows them to go on to really high-quality
high schools. Some of these students are
now graduating from these high schools
and going on to college. I met a brother
and a sister who are both now at Kalamazoo
College and doing extremely well. That’s the
end result that you want to see.
WSU: You’ve been a supporter of
Detroit’s revitalization. Why is it so
important that both Detroit and Wayne
State continue to thrive?
PS: Wayne State, of course, is and has
been ever since it started, in the middle
of Detroit. So it is linked to the city, and
it’s fair to say that the city has benefited
from the presence of Wayne State in its
midst. I believe it’s the intellectual center
of the city of Detroit. I believe it is an
unbelievably important economic engine
for the city of Detroit. On the same hand,
the city of Detroit has a huge impact
on the quality of the existence of the
university. The two institutions — the city
and the university — are linked. So it’s
important that Wayne State do whatever
it can to help the city of Detroit.
WSU: What would you tell someone
who was interested in making a gift or
donation to Wayne State?
PS: Find something at the university that
you’re passionate about. For me, it’s
chemistry, it’s science, it’s students. But for
someone else, it might be engineering. It
might be business. It might be dance. It
might be medicine. But find something
that you’re excited about, that you’re
passionate about, and then find a way to
make a difference. Whether it’s to improve
facilities, to set up scholarships, to set up
endowed chairs, there are lots of ways to
help and lots of ways to take what you’re
interested in to the next level. But make
sure you start off by finding something
that you’re passionate about.
This transcript is edited from a longer
interview.
Carol Schaap’s time at Wayne State began
almost a decade before her future husband
would come to campus. During her time here,
she saw the university change dramatically.
WSU: What brought you to Wayne
State?
CS: I was working in the legal department,
patent division, of Parke Davis, which
at that time was a huge pharmaceutical
company located on the Detroit River. One
of the chairman’s Ph.D. students was an
attorney in the patent department, and he
approached me and said, ‘My professor,
Cal Stevens, has become chairman of
the chemistry department and he is
looking for a new secretary. Would you be
interested?’ I said, ‘I think I would like to
move forward in my career, so I’m in.’ So I
was interviewed by Professor Stevens and
hired, and became his secretary in 1961.
WSU: How long were you at Wayne
State? How did your career grow?
I was at Wayne State approximately
30 years. I worked in the chemistry
department for 18 years. I met a lot
of wonderful people, got familiar with
what was going on on campus. Then
I moved to the upper administration.
Professor Stevens became vice president
of research and asked me to go with
him — at that time, we were almost
buddies — so I became the secretary
to the vice president of research. Then
he became the interim provost and I
became secretary to the provost. Cal left
that post, but I continued my service
as secretary to the provost, and then
at one point the executive secretary to
President David Adamany moved on
to another position and I was asked if
I would be interested in moving to the
president’s office. This is one of the top
positions in the secretarial world in the
city of Detroit, so I said, ‘Sure, I’d be
interested.’ So David interviewed me and
I became his executive secretary. That’s
the position I left when I retired.
WSU: What was the university like at
that time? How did it change?
CS: It was certainly smaller than it is
now, with not as many buildings. In fact,
Second Avenue ran right through the
middle of campus — what is now Gullen
Mall. Second Avenue had traffic running
through it with mud parking lots where
the employees used to park.
There are so many more buildings now.
David Adamany, I think, was responsible
for the beautification of campus, because
he was going around almost daily taking
notes of flowers and trees. He just did a
marvelous job of updating facilities and
really beautifying the campus.
WSU: What kept you at Wayne State for
30 years?
I liked the atmosphere and the collegiality
and what good the university was doing
in educating the students. Students are
the university. In the city of Detroit, I’m
sure I would have had an opportunity
at some place like General Motors or
Chrysler or one of the other corporations,
but I’m glad I chose Wayne State.
05
Carol Schaap
returns to
Wayne State

Crich influences
students worldwide
In a prestigious career that’s taken him around
the world, Schaap Professor of Organic
Chemistry David Crich seems to have found his
home at Wayne State University.
Born and raised in Chesterfield, England, Crich
came to WSU in 2007 after 17 years at the
University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), where
he rose to the rank of liberal arts and sciences
distinguished professor of organic chemistry.
Before that, he spent five years as a lecturer
in the Christopher Ingold laboratories at
University College London.
Over the course of his career, Crich has
graduated some 60 Ph.D. candidates from his
lab — perhaps none more memorable than the
10 students he brought with him to Wayne State
from UIC in 2007. The 12-person group — plus
their children, spouses and significant others
— formed a caravan of chemists on the road
from Chicago to Detroit, with Crich leading the
way in a U-Haul truck packed with his students’
belongings and lab equipment.
In 2009, Crich was offered the position
of director of the Institut de Chimie de
FACULTY
PROFILE06
Crich, pictured at the Great Wall of China, has
seen his career take him around the globe.

Substances Naturalles (ICSN) in Gif sur Yvette,
France — the same laboratory where he
conducted his undergraduate, graduate and
postdoctoral research from 1979-85. Unable
to pass up the opportunity, Crich moved his
family overseas. But this time, his team of
nomadic Ph.D.s couldn’t make the journey.
The research group stayed intact at WSU, and
through countless video conferences, phone
conversations and visits, Crich continued
to lead the group from France, ultimately
graduating all 10 students — two of whom
have recently been appointed to faculty
positions themselves.
After only two years at the ICSN, Crich decided
to return to Wayne State.
“I wanted to come back here, and I owed it to
WSU and Paul and Carol Schaap to finish what
I set out to do,” Crich said.
At WSU, Crich has established a laboratory
of 14 graduate students and postdoctoral
fellows — with more on the way. He also
teaches a variety of chemistry courses,
conducts cutting-edge research and secures
grant funding to support it. He’s renowned
for his NIH-supported work in carbohydrate
chemistry and reactivity, which enables
complex oligosaccharide synthesis for
drug design applications. His research has
brought him many accolades over the years,
most recently a Cope Scholar Award from
the American Chemical Society and the
prestigious Haworth Memorial Medal of the
Royal Society of Chemistry in the United
Kingdom.
“I’ve never had a ‘real’ job,” Crich said.
“I’ve always been a faculty member and a
researcher, and I consider myself very lucky in
that respect. It’s great fun.”
At the moment, a major focus of the Crich
lab is a collaboration with the University of
Zürich (UZH). Working with colleagues Erik
Böttger and Andrea Vasella, Crich and his
team are trying to develop new, less-toxic
antibiotics to target drug-resistant bacteria.
Their research focuses on aminoglycosides
— large molecules that are among the
earliest and most widely used antibiotics
— and reducing their propensity to cause
ototoxicity, or hearing loss.
Crich explained that as many as 20 percent
of patients who take a sustained course
of aminoglycosides suffer some degree of
permanent hearing loss. Böttger and Vasella
determined that this amino-induced ototoxicity
arises through the binding of the drug to
human mitochondrial ribosomal RNA. Crich
and his team design and synthesize modified
aminoglycosides to reduce and eliminate this
side effect.
“We have a variety of tests that allow us to
screen for binding to mitochondrial and
bacterial ribosomes, so we’re able to optimize
our compounds on that basis,” Crich said.
Because this research deals with large,
carbohydrate-like molecules, Crich’s expertise
is crucial. The project also gives his students
unparalleled training in organic chemistry and
the opportunity to pioneer new discoveries
in the field. It’s a passion for these discoveries
that’s kept Crich in the same profession for
more than 30 years.
“We should always be looking for new ways
to do things and be on the lookout for the
unexpected,” he said. “I sit and plan synthetic
schemes, and when they work, it’s good. But
for me, the most exciting thing is when what I
planned goes wrong.”
Crich’s career has taken him across states,
countries, continents and back again. But his
dedication to the field and his students has
remained constant.
“I came from a working-class background,”
he said. “A lot of people helped me along the
way, so I’m always happy when I can do that
for others.”
07

Over a little more than three years, the Wayne
State University American Chemical Society
Student Affiliates (ACSSA) went from a fizzled
student group with just five members to a
liquid nitrogen-toting, gas bubble-popping
powerhouse. Now, with more than 70
members, the ACSSA is one of the largest
student groups on campus, and has scored
itself a few national awards.
After lying inactive for a few years, the group
was re-established in 2011 by students looking
to get more out of their education and time
at Wayne State. The organization’s dramatic
resurgence is due, in part, to its energetic
leadership and dedication to showcasing how
fun chemistry can be.
The ACSSA has organized several annual
events throughout the university community
to provide a fun and engaging introduction
to chemistry. Curling with dry ice in the A.
Paul Schaap Chemistry Building lobby and
making ice cream with liquid nitrogen are
just some of the ways the group has garnered
attention from more than just science fans.
With members majoring in everything from
biochemistry to English, this all-inclusive
organization connects with a diverse range of
people. ACSSA leadership says that’s precisely
what makes the group so valuable.
“We’re constantly learning from each
other,” said current organization president
Katherine Mullan. “The only requirement to
join is that you love chemistry and want to
get involved.”
WSU administration attributes a new sense of
departmental unity to the ACSSA. Matt Allen,
associate professor of chemistry and one of the
group’s faculty advisors, fondly recalled the
recent dry ice curling competition, which pit
students against faculty members.
“It was amazing to see all these different
people bring this department together in one
place having a great time,” said Allen. “I can’t
say enough about this group.”
Balancing fun and games with professional
development and networking is paramount
to the ACSSA’s mission. Last year, the
group organized networking mixers, several
chemical company site tours and the For
the Love of Chemistry symposium, which
focused on bringing professionals and other
local American Chemical Society (ACS)
Student organization brings love
of chemistry to campus, city08
ACSSA members Joe Degg and
Chandni Patel show how to make ice
cream using liquid nitrogen.
STUDENT
FOCUS

09
student chapters together to discuss the job
market and the value of a chemistry degree.
Outreach events, such as the annual hands-
on chemistry demonstration at the Detroit
Zoo’s Zoo Boo, also help the group spread
its love of science to a new generation of
potential chemists.
This hard work has not gone unnoticed. In
March, the organization was recognized
at the ACS national meeting for its
outstanding activities as an ACS chapter —
an accomplishment that the team’s student
leaders say is due to the immense support
they receive from Wayne State faculty and
administration.
“The only reason we’re able to do half of
these events is because we have a department
that believes in us and a school that supports
us,” said ACSSA treasurer Susan White. “Dr.
Matthew Allen will answer any question we
have, 24 hours a day. Dr. Mary Kay Pflum is so
supportive of us, always making sure we don’t
burn out. Dr. James Rigby has been on our
side since day one, and the Dean of Students
Office goes out of its way to make sure we
have the financial support we need.”
But more than the support that comes from
the university, ACSSA members value the
backing their fellow students provide each
other. “We don’t all come from families
or backgrounds where we can go and talk
about the things we’re learning here,” said
White. “This gives me a place where I can
talk about all the crazy things we chemistry
students go through.”
“This group is so much more than just
another student organization to me,” Mullan
echoed. “This is a mentor group, a support
group and a community of people who truly
understand me.”
To find out more about the ACSSA, visit chem.
wayne.edu/acs-sa/American_Chemical_
Society_Static_Page/American_Chemical_
Society.html or the American Chemical
Society WSU Student Affiliates Facebook page.
Members encourage fellow students to get
involved learning more about chemistry
during several events on and off campus.
From left: Susan White, Shapnil Bhuiyan,
Riane Dixon and Katherine Mullan.

Charles Winter
doesn’t want to
make predictable
discoveries. He wants
to make waves.
“I don’t want to
make evolutionary
steps; I want to
make disruptive
ones,” said
Winter, professor
and associate
chair of Wayne
State’s chemistry
department.
“Advancements that
change the way
people think about
and do things.”
Winter is a leading
researcher in the
field of Atomic Layer
Deposition (ALD)
— a process for
growing thin films using chemical compounds
— and the work done by his research team
in the area of growing metallic films using his
processes is leading to major advancements in
the microelectronics industry.
Since its development in Finland in the
1970s, ALD has been recognized as a useful
tool for developing thin films and improving
microelectronic components such as
transistors. Through ALD, films only grow a
monolayer at a time, following the contours
of the substrate and allowing manufacturers
to calculate the film’s thickness precisely.
“We recently discovered a general class of
strong reducing agents, and we can now
deposit metals by ALD that haven’t been
possible before, such as first-row transition
metals and difficult metals like aluminum. This
is having a very large impact on the field. It’s
early, but I’m optimistic that our reagents will
become widely used in the microelectronics
industry,” Winter said.
Growing metallic films using ALD is a complex
process. Currently, only three universities in
the world — Wayne State, Harvard and the
University of Helsinki — have vibrant research
programs in this area. Winter said his ALD
expertise and background as a synthetic
chemist give him unique insight into this
growing focus area.
“You have to make molecules that have a very
specific set of properties, including thermal
stability, volatility and high reactivity toward a
second reagent to get the material you want,”
he said. “No one knows how to do that; you
have to learn it by discovery.”
Winter works closely with Wayne State’s
Technology Commercialization Office and
industry partners to transition his discoveries
to the marketplace, interacting with
chemical suppliers, tool manufacturers and
microelectronics fabrication plants to ensure
that the research conducted in Midtown finds
its way to end users.
Winter was recognized for his research at the
2014 ALD Conference in Kyoto, Japan, where
he took home a Best Innovation Award for
his paper, “Silyl Elimination Reactions in the
Atomic Layer Deposition of Titanium, Zinc
and Other Element Films.” Never one to rest
on his laurels, he said there is still a lot of work
to be done.
“I hope that within five years we have ALD
precursors and processes for all reasonable
metals in the periodic table,” Winter said.
“We’re on the right track, and providing that
chemistry will be a huge service to the ALD
world and the microelectronics industry.”
Winter leads the way
in ALD research
FACULTY
PROFILE
10
Mark Salay, a former Ph.D. student
of Winter’s, conducts work in
Wayne State’s ALD lab. Salay is
now employed at Applied Materials.
RESEARCH
FOCUS

Surendra Gupta came to the United States in 1963
— on a very slow, 23-day boat trip — to earn a Ph.D.
at Wayne State on the recommendation of one of
his professors at the Indian Institute of Technology in
Mumbai, India. Two key things happened at Wayne
State that would forever change the course of his life: a
dissertation topic focusing on carbohydrate chemistry,
and meeting the woman who would eventually
become his wife.
His specialization helped him get his first industrial job
in Boston. He applied to one of only two radioactive
carbohydrate chemical supply companies in the
world at the time — New England Nuclear — that
was looking for a group leader for their carbohydrate
group. Because of his specialization, he got the job
supervising a group of seven people and learned a
great deal about radioactive chemicals and just how
profitable they can be.
“No one, not even my advisor, thought I would
succeed — they were all shocked when I passed my
Ph.D. qualifying exam,” said Gupta.
After six years, Dupont bought out the company, and
Gupta left for a smaller company, Pathfinder Labs in
St. Louis, where he was a group leader involved with
not only R&D and production, but also marketing.
Because of the added responsibilities, Gupta was able
to attend numerous conferences, where he built up
a list of contacts within the industry. During his first
two years with Pathfinder Labs, Gupta grew annual
sales volume from $60,000 to $250,000. In 1983, the
company was suffering financial difficulties due to the
downfall in the U.S. economy. Gupta wasn’t getting
the resources he felt he needed and decided to start
his own company.
“Last year was an important year for me,” Gupta
recalled. “It marked the 30-year anniversary of my
company and 50 years that I’ve been in the United
States.”
Coming from a family of business owners, Gupta
understood the importance of operating with a
low budget. He started American Radiolabeled
Chemical (ARC) Inc. in 1983 with a small business
loan of $60,000 that he paid off within the first
year. Without any advertising or marketing, Gupta
convinced customers that the quality of ARC’s
chemicals was as good as what they were currently
buying and he offered them at a quarter of their
cost. Word spread rapidly, and so did ARC’s sales
volumes. In 1985, Gupta moved his company from
downtown St. Louis to a five-acre parcel outside
of town where they have grown to five buildings,
25,000 square feet of office space, 10,000 square
feet of production and 35 employees. ARC serves
customers worldwide, with distributors in 30
countries, and has grown to become the largest
catalog business in the world. The company’s
catalog (the largest in the industry) contains more
than 5,000 radiolabeled and unlabeled chemicals
for life science research — 75 percent of which are
exclusively available through ARC. In addition to
catalog items, ARC offers a wide range of custom
synthesis services using carbon-14 and tritium. ARC
is a debt-free, family-owned business.
This article was previously published in Wayne State’s
alumni magazine.
Alumnus shows
entrepreneurial spirit ALUMNI
PROFILE 11
Gupta (right) and his wife, Karen, met at
Wayne State and founded ARC in 1983.

FACULTY NEWS
Stephanie L. Brock named ACS fellow
Inorganic Chemistry Professor Stephanie
Brock was among a select group of
scientists named to the prestigious
2014 American Chemical Society (ACS)
Fellows program. Only 99 scientists
across the globe were inducted this
year. Brock joins two other WSU faculty
members — James H. Rigby (2010)
and H. Bernard Schlegel (2012) —
as an ACS fellow. Brock has been
recognized for her research work on the
synthesis of nanoscale materials, which
have functional properties that may
potentially address a number of global
technological and societal challenges
in the areas of renewable/clean energy,
environmental remediation, data
storage and refrigeration/microclimate
control. Her work with Wayne State’s
GO-GIRL program was also recognized
by the society. Brock was inducted at a
special event held at the ACS National
Meeting in San Francisco on August 11.
David Coleman retires
Recently, a large group gathered
at Detroit’s Bayview Yacht Club to
celebrate the retirement of Professor
David Coleman. Coleman joined the
department in 1977 following Ph.D.
and post-doc studies at the University
of Wisconsin. During his tenure, he
graduated 14 Ph.D. students in the
field of analytical atomic spectroscopy,
as well as numerous M.S. and B.S.
candidates. He also served as associate
chairman of the department. For
the past 12 years, he was director
of the Lumigen Instrument Center
and saw that facility through its
largest period of development —
including serving as PI for multiple
new instruments and overseeing the
design and implementation of a $3
million renovation. For three years,
he also served as director of the WSU
Nanofabrication Laboratory (nFab).
Coleman also played key roles in every
aspect of the $80 million renovation of
the A. Paul Schaap Chemistry Building;
he continues to informally consult for
the LIC. David and his wife, Patricia,
plan to spend time at their retirement
home in northern Minnesota and
enjoy time with their children and
grandchildren. David also enjoys playing
jazz trombone with various ensembles,
large and small. He said he is grateful
to the chemistry department for a
wonderful career.
RESEARCH GROUP UPDATES
Young-Hoon Ahn
Assistant Professor
Biochemistry
Young-Hoon Ahn joined the chemistry
faculty in 2012, following post-doctoral
work in Philip Cole’s lab at Johns Hopkins
University. His research group focuses
on developing novel chemical tools for
understanding complex oxidative protein
modifications that may occur in cancer
and cardiovascular disease. His group
recently reported the new chemical
method for detecting glutathionylation
by engineering glutathione synthetase
enzymes in the Journal of American
Chemical Society. This new approach has
great potential for understanding protein
glutathionylation in pathological diseases
in the future. Ahn received B.S. and
M.S. degrees in chemistry from Pohang
University of Science and Technology in
Korea in 1999 and 2001. He then moved
to the United States and received his
Ph.D. in chemistry at New York University
under the guidance of Young-Tae Chang.
Matthew Allen
Associate Professor
Inorganic Chemistry
Research from Matthew Allen’s group
involves the aqueous chemistry of
lanthanides or has relevance in medical
imaging. Over the last few years, the
group’s research assistants have made
many exciting discoveries and received
several awards. Zhijin Lin discovered
that water-exchange rate trends are
reversed in ionic liquids compared
to water or organic solvents, and
Levi Ekanger found a way to detect
changes in oxidation using europium
complexes encapsulated in liposomes
with magnetic resonance imaging that
is independent of the concentration
of europium. These recently published
findings have implications in the fields
of catalysis and disease diagnosis, and
are supported by the National Science
Foundation (NSF) and the National
Institutes of Health (NIH). A complete
list of publications can be found at
chem.wayne.edu/allengroup.
Andrew Feig
Associate Professor
Biochemistry
Great things have been happening
in the Feig lab over the last two
years. Four students defended their
doctorates and moved on to positions
across the country. Also, several new
grants have helped fund laboratory
What’s happening in chemistry?
If it’s been awhile since you’ve checked in with us, you may be curious about what’s
happening in our classrooms and labs. Here’s a peak at some of the latest developments
happening throughout our department.12

13
research and related educational
initiatives, including the recent NIH-
funded REBUILD Detroit grant — a $21
million collaboration between Wayne
State University, University of Detroit
Mercy, Marygrove College and Wayne
County Community College District
to promote institutional changes at all
four Detroit institutions to enhance the
educational experiences of minority
students and improve retention within
STEM, improve graduation rates
across campus and more successful
articulation between schools. Two new
graduate students — Brianna Jackman
and Adam Boyden — joined the lab
last November to carry on their work
with Clostridial toxins.
Federico A. Rabuffetti
Assistant Professor
Inorganic Chemistry
The Rabuffetti group focuses on the
development of luminescent solid-
state materials and nanomaterials
employed in bioimaging (fluorescent
biomarkers) and solid-state lighting
(phosphors for white LEDs). Both
topics are at the forefront of
fundamental and applied research
relevant to medical imaging and
diagnostics and energy conversion.
The group seeks to develop new
classes of functional materials that
surpass the current state-of-the-art via
a precise control over the materials’
composition and morphology. Once
in hand, these materials will be
characterized using complementary
spectroscopic techniques to achieve
a comprehensive description of
composition-structure-function
relationships. This information is
critical to develop materials by design
as it enables understanding of the
effect of chemical composition on the
behavior of functional chemical units.
Structural studies will be an integral
part of the research performed in
the group and systematically guide
synthetic efforts.
Sarah Trimpin
Associate Professor
Analytical Chemistry
In research supported by an NSF
CAREER award, Trimpin’s research
group discovered new methods
for converting compounds such as
drugs, lipids, peptides, proteins and
synthetic polymers into gas-phase
ions for characterization using mass
spectrometry. These new ionization
methods have advantages of simplicity
and speed of analysis relative to the
traditional ionization technologies
that previously opened new areas
for materials characterization using
mass spectrometry and earned the
inventors a portion of the 2002
Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The Trimpin
group discovered astonishing matrix
compounds that lift even large
proteins into gas-phase ions simply
by exposure to the vacuum inherent
with any mass spectrometer. Trimpin
has applied for several patents on
this work. The fundamental research
resulted in another NSF award to
continue studying the fundamentals
of this unprecedented ionization
process. In November 2013, Trimpin
and a collaborator started MSTM LLC,
a company dedicated to converting
these inventions to products with
the goal of replacing current
ionization technology in areas such
as proteomics and lipidomics, and
to eventually open new areas such
as clinical analyses and homeland
security using Trimpins’ new
technology with mass spectrometry.
Trimpin has received numerous
accolades from industry, professional
societies and Wayne State University.
She recently accepted a secondary
appointment in Wayne State’s
Cardiovascular Research Institute.
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Wayne State University Board of Governors
Debbie Dingell, chair, Gary S. Pollard, vice chair, Eugene Driker, Diane L. Dunaskiss, Paul E. Massaron,
David A. Nicholson, Sandra Hughes O’Brien, Kim Trent, M. Roy Wilson, ex officio
Department of Chemistry
5101 Cass Avenue
Detroit, MI 48202
chem.wayne.edu
Thank you for reading the first edition of the Wayne State University Department of
Chemistry newsletter. We look forward to providing you with the latest updates on
our faculty, staff, students and researchers. If you are a former student and would like
to tell us what you’re up to, or if you have any suggestions for future editions of this
newsletter, please email us at info@chem.wayne.edu or write to:
Chair, Department of Chemistry, Wayne State University
5101 Cass Avenue
Detroit, MI 48202

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