Symyx Technologies Research Articles

ACCELRYS, SYMYX SIGN MERGER DEAL

ACCELRYS AND SYMYX Technologies have agreed to merge and form a scientific software company with a projected $170 million in annual sales. The headquarters of the yet-to-be-named firm will be Accelrys’ home base in San Diego. Combining will help the companies better address changing customer needs, according to Accelrys CEO Max Carnecchia. Scientific R&D organizations are being challenged to increase productivity in the face of budgetary pressures, restructurings, and other shifts in their work processes, he explains. “New software solutions are urgently required to address these fundamental changes.” The merger will bring together largely complementary product lines across chemistry, biology, and materials science. Accelrys focuses on computer modeling and simulation products, whereas Symyx’ strengths lie in cheminformatics and electronic lab notebooks. The firms expect these areas to experience double-digit annual growth over the next few years. In pursuit of such growth, Symyx decided last month to bec...

Heterogeneous Copolymerization of Ethylene and α‐olefins Using Aluminohydride‐Zirconocene/SiO2/MAO by High‐Throughput Screening

AbstractCopolymerizations of ethylene and α‐olefins (1‐hexene and 1‐octene) using a supported catalyst derived from the activation of a zirconocene aluminohydride complex with PMAO and MMAO are reported. The supported (nBu‐Cp2ZrH3AlH2)/SiO2/MAO system was evaluated by high‐throughput techniques, in order to find approaches to the optimal copolymerization conditions. The polymerization reactions were carried out in a parallel polymerization reactors system (PPR) by Symyx Technologies, Inc. The screening of the activity of the supported system and the molecular weight (MW) of the polymers and copolymers obtained in the PPR, allowed us to optimize copolymerization conditions, like hydrogen (H2) addition to control MW and molecular weight distribution (MWD), polymerization temperature, cocatalyst ratio, and solvent type. The copolymerization reactions were scaled‐up in order to validate the performance of the catalytic system at higher polymerization scales, according to the results obtained in the combinatorial phase. The scaled‐up copolymerizations of ethylene with 1‐hexene and 1‐octene, showed high activities and MW, and low comonomer incorporation (from 0.3 to 1.3 mol‐%, determined by 13C NMR). However, the crystallinity (Xc), thermal properties (Tc and Tm) and densities of the polyethylenes obtained with the supported (nBu‐Cp2ZrH3AlH2)/SiO2/MAO system, were significantly modified, approaching those of metallocene linear low‐density polyethylenes (mLLDPE).

A TRANSATLANTIC POLYMERIC SOLUTION

A START-UP started by a start-up, California-based Ilypsa is a biopharmaceutical company that in just four years has brought a drug into Phase II clinical trials. Now, with the help of the German custom manufacturer Saltigo, Ilypsa is looking ahead to the product's final stage of clinical testing and potential commercial launch. Although a robust 70-person company today, Ilypsa was just two people and a good idea in May 2003, when it was spun off of Symyx Technologies. At the time, Symyx, a specialist in materials research and highthroughput experimentation (HTE), had been a public company for only four years. Gerrit Klaerner, a German polymer chemist, remembers that time well. Now Ilypsa's chief business officer, he had come to the U.S. in 1997 for a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center on Polymer Interfaces & Macromolecular Assemblies, a National Science Foundation-sponsored partnership among Stanford University, IBM's Almaden Research Center, and the Davis and ...

The Extended Core Module Robot: A Flexible, Modular Platform for High-Throughput Development Workflows

As parallel experimentation workflows become more complex, additional functionality and capability is required from laboratory robotics. These robotic platforms are no longer being used exclusively for liquid handling or for dedicated workflows but are being tasked to support a variety of analytical probes, heated tips, vial grippers, and a variety of other functions. To respond to this need, Symyx Technologies (Santa Clara, CA) has introduced the Extended Core Module (XCM) robotic system. The XCM features a robust robotic platform designed with a unique architecture that enables the straightforward addition of functionality through self-contained elements. These elements only require power, pneumatic connections (if required) and communication connections, which are provided by standard interfaces within the XCM deck. The XCM operates using Symyx Technologies, Inc. Renaissance® Software. Several workflows have been built using the Symyx XCM configurable architecture, encompassing both chemical and pharmaceutical workflows, and are described herein.

Automated Integrated Forced Degradation and Drug-Excipient Compatibility Studies

An integrated high-throughput tool for forced degradation studies during pharmaceutical development is described. A series of experiments are conducted with the Symyx Technologies (Santa Clara, CA) Automated Forced Degradation System. The hardware and software of the workflow are described. Degradation libraries of stressed samples of liquid formulations of drug A were created, analyzed for room temperature solubility, and then replicates of each library were heated and sampled over time at 55, 70, and 85 °C to monitor for parent product degradation. Library arrays of first-order kinetic plots were generated, and predictions of room temperature stability were made. Several viable solution formulations were identified. (JALA 2005;10:374–80)

Metathesis Polymerization. Advances in Polymer Science, Volume 176 Edited by Michael R. Buchmeiser (University of Innsbruck). Springer: Berlin, Heidelberg, New York. 2005. xii + 142 pp. $139.00. ISBN 3-540-23358-X.

ADVERTISEMENT RETURN TO ISSUEPREVBook ReviewNEXTMetathesis Polymerization. Advances in Polymer Science, Volume 176 Edited by Michael R. Buchmeiser (University of Innsbruck). Springer: Berlin, Heidelberg, New York. 2005. xii + 142 pp. $139.00. ISBN 3-540-23358-X.Anne M. LaPointeView Author Information Symyx Technologies, Inc.Cite this: J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2005, 127, 42, 14950–14951Publication Date (Web):September 21, 2005Publication History Published online21 September 2005Published inissue 1 October 2005https://doi.org/10.1021/ja0597597Copyright © 2005 American Chemical SocietyRIGHTS & PERMISSIONSArticle Views160Altmetric-Citations-LEARN ABOUT THESE METRICSArticle Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Find more information about Crossref citation counts.The Altmetric Attention Score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a research article has received online. Clicking on the donut icon will load a page at altmetric.com with additional details about the score and the social media presence for the given article. Find more information on the Altmetric Attention Score and how the score is calculated. Share Add toView InAdd Full Text with ReferenceAdd Description ExportRISCitationCitation and abstractCitation and referencesMore Options Share onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InReddit Read OnlinePDF (28 KB) Get e-AlertsSUBJECTS:Catalysts,Metathesis,Metathesis polymerization,Polymers Get e-Alerts

ACCELERATING R&D

SYMYX TECHNOLOGIES IS BUILDing a business on the premise that researchers in the chemical, pharmaceutical, and other high-tech industries could be much more efficient than they are today. For 10 years now, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company has conducted high-throughput experimentation (HTE) for firms like Dow Chemical and ExxonMobil or sold them tools to speed up their own research. It recently entered the business of developing electronic laboratory notebooks that are replacing the hardcover ledgers used by scientists for centuries. Together, Chief Executive Officer Steven D. Goldby and President Isy Goldwasser have a goal for Symyx that is straightforward yet audacious: to accelerate and transform every step in the scientific experimentation process—from discovery to design to testing to analysis. Goldwasser became Symyx' first employee almost by accident in 1994 when, after earning a master's degree in chemical engineering from Stanford University, he took a summer job with chemistry professor Pete...

Advanced catalyst technology and applications for high quality fuels and lubricants

Within the petroleum refining and petrochemical industries, catalysts provide the opportunity for drop-in solutions for addressing ever more stringent product quality and environmental specifications. Improved catalysts have also been instrumental in debottlenecking many refining and chemical processes. In order to stay competitive, many companies are focused on taking advantage of higher activity and more selective catalysts to facilitate “capacity creep”. Increasingly, these catalyst advances stem from the commitment to develop and nurture active materials platforms. ExxonMobil has focused its platform efforts in several areas including micro- and mesoporous molecular sieves, supported metals, and mixed metal oxides and sulfides. The recently announced alliance between ExxonMobil and Symyx Technologies, Inc. (Santa Clara, CA) is a further step in the company's commitment to strengthen its materials platforms.

Combinatorial Exploration of Polymeric Transport Agents for Targeted Delivery of Bioactives to Human Tissues

AbstractSummary: Recently, in material science domain, combinatorial approaches in design, construction and screening of novel compounds and formulations have led to a significant acceleration of discovery and development. The versatility of polymeric materials offers a great opportunity to dial‐in a desired set of performance features via a proper combination of various building blocks such as monomer units or polymer chain segments. Further enhancement comes from the formulation of the polymer into its final environment in a combinatorial way. Within the last few years, a variety of parallel polymerization, purification and formulation techniques, supported by rapid automated analyses in combination with a suite of high‐throughput protocols for application‐related benefit screening, were developed and successfully applied in different fields of industry. At Symyx Technologies Inc., we have integrated a variety of synthesis, screening and information tools and procedures into robust workflows, targeting discovery and development of novel polymeric materials. In addition to the performance features of the polymeric materials, controlled by their chemical, physical and mechanical properties, we can monitor interactions of polymers with a variety of molecules and substrate surfaces. That allows us to extend the applicability of the combinatorial approach towards the macromolecular delivery agents with a wide range of use in personal care, biotech and pharma areas. The current paper reports on a generic workflow developed and applied for identification of selective transport agents for targeted delivery of bioactives to human tissues.Hit selection using screening data on polymer substantivity to substrates representing the tissue‐1 as object of preferred delivery (left) and the competitive tissue‐2 (right).magnified imageHit selection using screening data on polymer substantivity to substrates representing the tissue‐1 as object of preferred delivery (left) and the competitive tissue‐2 (right).

Dow’s new hafnium polymerization catalyst

High-throughput primary synthesis and screening methods have been applied to the heterogeneously-catalyzed gas phase oxidation of ethane to acetic acid using mixed metal oxide catalysts. The discovery libraries consisted of 16×16 arrays of 256 catalysts on 3″×3″ quartz wafers. Catalysts were prepared using automated liquid-dispensing techniques and screened in parallel for catalytic activity in a Symyx Technologies 256-channel microfluidic reactor. Product detection was performed using parallel colorimetric techniques on products adsorbed on silica-coated glass TLC plates. This workflow allows the screening of more than 3000 samples per day. Promising leads were confirmed in focus libraries and are being optimized in secondary screening. MoV was identified as the most active binary of redox metals and was subsequently doped with main group, rare earth, and transition metals to form ternaries. Prior art MoVX (X=Nb, Ni, Sb) catalysts were successfully reproduced and it was shown that Pd doping significantly increases the catalytic activity of these systems. Three novel MoVY ternary systems were discovered.

Gas phase oxidation of ethane to acetic acid using high-throughput screening in a massively parallel microfluidic reactor system

High-throughput primary synthesis and screening methods have been applied to the heterogeneously-catalyzed gas phase oxidation of ethane to acetic acid using mixed metal oxide catalysts. The discovery libraries consisted of 16×16 arrays of 256 catalysts on 3″×3″ quartz wafers. Catalysts were prepared using automated liquid-dispensing techniques and screened in parallel for catalytic activity in a Symyx Technologies 256-channel microfluidic reactor. Product detection was performed using parallel colorimetric techniques on products adsorbed on silica-coated glass TLC plates. This workflow allows the screening of more than 3000 samples per day. Promising leads were confirmed in focus libraries and are being optimized in secondary screening. MoV was identified as the most active binary of redox metals and was subsequently doped with main group, rare earth, and transition metals to form ternaries. Prior art MoVX (X=Nb, Ni, Sb) catalysts were successfully reproduced and it was shown that Pd doping significantly increases the catalytic activity of these systems. Three novel MoVY ternary systems were discovered.

FINDING CATALYSTS FASTER

A FOUR-YEAR COLLABORATION between Symyx Technologies and Dow Chemical has borne fruit in the discovery of a new class of single-site catalysts for olefin polymerization. new amide-ether-based hafnium catalysts were found using a fully integrated high-throughput screening methodology { J. Am. Chem. Soc. , 125, 4306(2003)}. The results are stunning, says one of the coauthors, Dow chemist James C. Stevens, because the new screening methodology enabled them to do in days or weeks what used to take many months or years. Dow-Symyx researchers set out to discover new catalysts with potential for the production of linear low-density polyethylene, which is a copolymer of ethylene and an α-olefin, such as 1-octene. They first synthesized a library of hafnium and zirconium complexes containing 23 different bidentate and tridentate ligands. To screen these complexes under different activation conditions, they carried out 384 polymerization experiments in just a few hours. work uncovered many catalytical...

Symyx Technologies and Celanese extend materials research collaboration

Symyx Technologies and Celanese extend materials research collaboration

Symyx Technologies: patent rights

Symyx Technologies: patent rights

High-throughput approaches for the discovery and optimization of new olefin polymerization catalysts.

The discovery of new olefin polymerization catalysts is currently a time-intensive trial-and-error process with no guarantee of success. A fully integrated high-throughput screening workflow for the discovery of new catalysts for polyolefin production has been implemented at Symyx Technologies. The workflow includes the design of the metal-ligand libraries using custom-made computer software, automated delivery of metal precursors and ligands into the reactors using a liquid-handling robot, and a rapid primary screen that serves to assess the potential of each metalligand-activator combination as an olefin polymerization catalyst. "Hits" from the primary screen are subjected to secondary screens using a 48-cell parallel polymerization reactor. Individual polymerization reactions are monitored in real time under conditions that provide meaningful information about the performance capabilities of each catalyst. Rapid polymer characterization techniques support the primary and secondary screens. We have discovered many new and interesting catalyst classes using this technology.

Combinatorial materials science: Paradigm shift in materials discovery and optimization

AIChE JournalVolume 46, Issue 1 p. 2-5 Perspective Combinatorial materials science: Paradigm shift in materials discovery and optimization James R. Engstrom, James R. Engstrom Symyx Technologies, Santa Clara, CA 95051Search for more papers by this authorW. Henry Weinberg, W. Henry Weinberg Symyx Technologies, Santa Clara, CA 95051Search for more papers by this author James R. Engstrom, James R. Engstrom Symyx Technologies, Santa Clara, CA 95051Search for more papers by this authorW. Henry Weinberg, W. Henry Weinberg Symyx Technologies, Santa Clara, CA 95051Search for more papers by this author First published: 16 April 2004 https://doi.org/10.1002/aic.690460102Citations: 26AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume46, Issue1January 2000Pages 2-5 RelatedInformation

Spectral Properties of Various Cerium Doped Garnet Phosphors for Application in White GaN-based LEDs

ABSTRACTRecently, a renewed research interest has emerged for the development of visible light, down-converting phosphors for application in white light emitting diodes (LEDs). In such devices, a blue GaN LED can act as the primary light source, exciting photoluminescence in a phosphor with subsequent broad-band emission occurring at lower energies. It was recently reported that use of a combinatorial approach to synthesize and screen potential inorganic phosphors for such an application could aid in identifying improved phosphors for blue to yellow down conversion. Using solution chemistry techniques developed by Symyx Technologies, solid state thin-film arrays (libraries) based on the garnet structure (A1-xBx)3(C1-yDy)5O12:Ce3+, where x and y = 0 to 1.0 and A, B = Y, Gd, or Lu; C., D = Al or Ga, were synthesized. X-ray diffraction was used to select library samples of the crystalline garnet phase. Libraries of these various garnets were then characterized, and their spectral properties compared to traditionally prepared bulk powder phosphors of similar composition. Emission and excitation trends show that as larger cations are substituted for Y (A = Y), emission and excitation are red-shifted and as larger cations are substituted for Al (C = Al), emission and excitation are blue-shifted. If smaller cations are substituted for Y and Al, an opposite trend is observed.