Feature Channels: Chemistry

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Today, for the first time ever, a team of researchers led by Robert Linhardt of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has announced in the October 9 Advanced Online Publication edition of the journal Nature Chemical Biology the sequence of a complete complex carbohydrate biopolymer. The surprising discovery provides the scientific and medical communities with an important and fundamental new view of these vital biomolecules, which play a role in everything from cell structure and development to disease pathology and blood clotting.

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University of Illinois at Chicago chemists led by Wonhwa Cho reports that they've developed a technique which successfully quantifies signaling lipids on live cell membranes in real time, opening up possible new routes for treating diseases. The finding is reported in Nature Chemistry.

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Thomas Jefferson University researchers uncover how two nuclear receptors—EcR/Usp and E75A—work against each other during Drosophila metamorphosis.

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Researchers recently isolated 63 unique dust particles from their laboratory – and that’s just the beginning. The chemists used a new kind of sensor to measure the composition of single dust particles.

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The Nobel Foundation today announced Dan Shechtman of Iowa State University, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory and Israel’s Technion has won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

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Chemists developed a method to design and test new catalysts, which speed chemical reactions and are crucial for producing energy, chemicals and industrial products. Using the new method, the chemists made a discovery that will make it easier to design future catalysts.

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Iowa State researchers have developed technologies to efficiently produce, recover and separate sugars from the fast pyrolysis of biomass. That's a big deal because those sugars can be further processed into biofuels.

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Three international teams of scientists, led by researchers at the University of California San Diego, University of Michigan and Stanford University, have published a trio of papers describing in unprecedented detail the structure and workings of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), a large family of human proteins that are the target of one-third to one-half of modern drugs.

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AMC's Breaking Bad makes chemistry entertaining but the show is not improving chemistry’s tarnished public image says Matthew Hartings, assistant professor of chemistry at American University.

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Breast cancer cells that mutate to resist drug treatment survive by establishing tiny pumps on their surface that reject the drugs as they penetrate the cell membrane - making the cancer insensitive to chemotherapy drugs.

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University of Kentucky spinoff company CoPlex Therapeutics has announced a global license with Hawthorn Pharmaceuticals to develop a treatment for Alzheimer's disease.

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New research from UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Cornell University identifies how the ring-shaped helicase enzymes that separate the strands of double helical DNA track forward along the DNA without slipping backward.

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Researchers at Vanderbilt University have identified chemical compounds that could lead to a major advance in the treatment of schizophrenia. In a transaction announced this week, Vanderbilt has licensed the compounds to Karuna Pharmaceuticals in Boston, Mass., for further development leading to human testing.

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The discovery that a protein in insect skin responsible for protecting the insect as it molts its skin opens the possibilities for selective pest control and new biomaterials like football padding or lightweight aircraft components.

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Assembly of nanostructures using DNA may lead to the production of new materials with a wide range of applications from electronics to tissue engineering. Researchers in the Institute for Nanoscience and Engineering at the University of Arkansas have produced building blocks for such material by controlling the number, placement and orientation of DNA linkers on the surface of colloidal nanoparticles.

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Cystic fibrosis is caused by a genetic defect. Although scientists do not fully understand how or why the defect occurs, researchers have found that a protein called ubiquitin ligase Nedd4 may hold a promising clue

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Scientists have identified a surprising new role for a new type of T cell in the immune system: some of them can be activated by nerves to make a neurotransmitter (acetylcholine) that blocks inflammation. The discovery of these T cells is novel and suggests that it may be possible to treat inflammation and autoimmune diseases by targeting the nerves and the T cells.

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Researchers from Iowa State University and the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory have developed chemistry and procedures that astronauts can use to test the quality of their drinking water at the International Space Station.

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University of Kentucky chemistry professor John Anthony's "fun" has led to an entire new area of organic materials research.

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UC Merced biochemistry professor Andy LiWang has found how three proteins in one of the most basic forms of life — cyanobacteria — keep track of time.

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Amid ongoing concerns about scientific illiteracy — with studies indicating that many citizens lack a firm grasp of basic scientific concepts and facts — the world’s largest scientific society today is holding a special symposium on how scientists can better communicate their work to the public.

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Billions of people owe their lives to nitrogen fertilizers — a pillar of the fabled Green Revolution in agriculture that averted global famine in the 20th century — but few are aware that nitrogen pollution from fertilizers and other sources has become a major environmental problem that threatens human health and welfare in multiple ways, a scientist said here today.

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Ever since scientists first began growing human cells in lab dishes in 1952, they have focused on improving the chemical soup that feeds the cells and helps regulate their growth. But surfaces also matter, says Laura Kiessling, a professor of chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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In this International Year of Chemistry (IYC), writers and producers for the most popular crime and science-related television shows and movies are putting out an all-points bulletin for scientists to advise them on the accuracy of their plots involving lab tests, crime scenes, etc., and to even give them story ideas.

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One of the most serious personnel shortages in the global science and engineering workforce — numbering more than 20 million in the United States alone — involves a scarcity of real-life versions of Superman, Superwoman and other superheroes and superheroines with charm, charisma, people skills and communication skills.

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Groups representing laundry product and fragrance manufacturers sharply rebutted seriously flawed statements regarding fragrances in laundry products based on a study that fails to meet the basic principles of scientific investigation.

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The researcher who used chemical sleuthing to uncover what’s in scented products now has turned her attention to the air wafting from household laundry vents. Air from laundry machines using the top-selling scented liquid detergent and dryer sheet contains hazardous chemicals, including two that are classified as carcinogens.

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Baylor University environmental researchers have proposed in a new study a different approach to predict the environmental safety of chemicals by using data from other similar chemicals.

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In a new study, University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have described a simple process to separate sugars from a carrier molecule, then attach them to a drug or other chemical.

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Yafang Cheng, a University of Iowa post-doctoral researcher, and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany, have found that soil nitrite can be released into the air in the form of nitrous acid (HONO) and indirectly enhance the self-cleansing capacity of the atmosphere.

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For the first time ever, scientists are using computers and genomic information to predict new uses for existing medicines. A National Institutes of Health-funded computational study analyzed genomic and drug data to predict new uses for medicines that are already on the market.

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Pegloticase can produce significant and sustained clinical improvements in many patients with chronic gout that is resistant to conventional therapies. In two clinical trials, pegloticase rapidly lowered high levels of uric acid, the biochemical abnormality in gout. Forty percent of patients had complete resolution of at least one of the painful swollen joint nodules that are a hallmark of severe gout.

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A novel microscopy method is helping scientists probe the reactions that limit widespread deployment of fuel cell technologies.

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Paper in Science Translational Medicine by Dr. Katerina Gurova and colleagues is the first published research on anticancer drugs called curaxins, and outlines the mechanism by which they inhibit tumor cell growth and division.

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A relatively simple combination of naturally occurring sugars and amino acids offers a plausible route to the building blocks of life, according to a paper published in Nature Chemistry co-authored by a professor at the University of California, Merced. The study shows how the precursors to RNA could have formed on Earth before any life existed, and it builds on the work of John D. Sutherland and Matthew W. Powner, published in 2009.

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At a recent Gordon Research Conference, Anna Gudmundsdottir of the University of Cincinnati described the work of her research team, including efforts to build organic magnets, and systems using light to release chemicals, including fragarances.

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A simple cut to the skin unleashes a complex cascade of chemistry to stem the flow of blood. Now, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have used evolutionary clues to reveal how a key clotting protein assembles. The finding sheds new light on common bleeding disorders.

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The Texas Tech study found only 8 to 9 percent coverage of oil on the shells of fertilized mallard duck eggs resulted in a 50 percent mortality rate. However, scientists also reported the amount of time the oil remained at sea and exposed to weather had a significant effect on its toxicity to the fertilized duck eggs.

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Researchers at New York University’s Department of Chemistry and NYU Langone Medical Center have developed a compound that blocks signaling from a protein implicated in many types of cancer.

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Researchers at the Salk Institute have been able to genetically incorporate "unnatural" amino acids, such as those emitting green fluorescence, into neural stem cells, which then differentiate into brain neurons with the incandescent "tag" intact.

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Roberta Colman, Willis F. Harrington Professor Emerita of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Delaware, ranks 23rd in the journal Biochemistry’s 50 most prolific authors. The journal, published by the American Chemical Society, is celebrating its 50th year of publication this year.

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Scientists have discovered fundamental steps of charging of nano-sized water droplets and unveiled the long-sought-after mechanism of hydrogen emission from irradiated water.

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There will be some very interesting passengers on the final mission of the NASA Space Shuttle Atlantis scheduled to launch July 8, 2011: thousands of bacteria.

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According to the CDC, about 20 percent of Americans with HIV don’t know it, greatly increasing their risk of transmitting the virus.

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By accounting for the floppy, fickle nature of RNA, researchers at the University of Michigan and the University of California, Irvine have developed a new way to search for drugs that target this important molecule. Their work appears in the June 26 issue of Nature Chemical Biology.

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A review published online June 22 ahead of print in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP) reports the conclusions of an international workshop on ways to improve chemicals safety testing for effects on the breast. The studies reviewed by workshop scientists indicate that chemical exposures during critical periods of development may influence breast growth, ability to breastfeed, and cancer risk. The scientists recommend that future chemical testing evaluate effects on the breast after prenatal and early-life exposure.

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Beer undergoes a lot research before the glass touches your lips, and one of the few Canadian scientists to pursue such research is Dalhousie professor Alex Speers. With a PhD from the University of British Columbia in brewing science, Dr. Speers is only the second person in Canada to be recognized as a Fellow by the Institute of Brewing and Distilling.

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Controversy over the F.D.A.’s proposal to withdraw approval of Avastin (bevacizumab) for breast cancer treatment will reignite June 28-29 with a new round of hearings. One oncologist who will be monitoring the hearings is Dr. Frederick C. Tucker Jr. of Fredericksburg Oncology in Virginia, whose recent New York Times op ed defended the F.D.A.’s position on scientific grounds.

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Scientists at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have zeroed in on the dose levels of the “sacred mushroom” chemical psilocybin yielding positive, life-changing experiences, while minimizing transient negative reactions. Former U.S. "Drug Czar" comments.

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Writing in the current online issue (June 9) of the journal Science, a team led by University of Wisconsin-Madison chemistry Professor Shannon Stahl reports a new, environmentally friendly way to make substituted aromatic molecules that can be customized for different industrial needs.