Researchers led by Prof. Sébastien Sauvé of the University of Montreal’s Department of Chemistry have discovered that traces of caffeine are a useful indicator of the contamination of our water by sewers.
Like a shadowy character just hidden from view, a mystery atom in the middle of a complex enzyme called nitrogenase had long hindered scientists’ ability to study the enzyme fully. But now a Cornell-led scientific team reveals the once-elusive atom. (Science, online, Nov. 17, 2011).
Georgia Tech has developed a computer program that can study larger molecules faster than any other program in existence. The analysis program is designed to improve knowledge about why certain molecules are attracted to each other and how those relationships can be "tuned" to improve drug development.
An experimental treatment for urinary tract infections has easily passed its first test in animals, alleviating weeks-long infections in mice in as little as six hours.
Experts from around the globe came together at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Nov. 4-5 at the Baruch ’60 Center for Biochemical Solar Energy Research to discuss the development of technologies that run on the cleanest and safest energy production process on Earth: photosynthesis.
A protein called “fascin” appears to play a critical transformation role in TGF beta mediated tumor metastasis, say researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center, who published a study in a recent issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Because the incidence of malignant melanoma is rising faster than any other cancer in the U.S., researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues at Intezyne Technologies, Inc., Western Carolina University and the University of Arizona are working overtime to develop new technologies to aid in both malignant melanoma diagnosis and therapy. A tool of great promise comes from the world of nanomedicine – where tiny drug delivery systems are measured in the billionths of meters and are being designed to deliver targeted therapies.
In a significant step toward reducing the threat of HIV, UC Merced Professor Patricia LiWang has designed what may be the most effective chemical inhibitor against infection of the virus.
Two Temple University pharmaceutical experts are available to discuss drug shortages and President Obama's FDA directive to address the growing shortage of prescription drugs.
1) Suloxdexide is no better than placebo at preventing kidney failure or reducing urinary protein excretion in diabetes patients with kidney failure. 2) Kidney disease due to diabetes is the most common cause of kidney failure in developed countries. 3) The prevalence of type 2 diabetes is expected to double by 2030. Kidney disease cases are sure to rise in parallel.
Robert Linhardt is working to forever change the way some of the most widely used drugs in the world are manufactured. Today, in the journal Science, he and his partner in the research, Jian Liu, have announced an important step toward making this a reality. The discovery appears in the October 28, 2011 edition of the journal Science in a paper titled “chemoenzymatic synthesis of homogeneous ultra-low molecular weight heparins.”
In what is so far the largest investigation of its kind, researchers uncovered a wide range of new insights about common diseases and how they are affected by differences between two persons' genes. The results from this study could lead to highly targeted, individualized therapies.
Boston University researchers, in a paper published in the journal Nature Chemistry, present a new approach to accessing new, biorelevant structures by "remodelling" natural products. In this case, they demonstrate how the natural product derivative fumagillol can been remodelled to access a collection of new molecules using highly efficient chemical reactions.
A small molecule developed at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital advances progress toward more tailored drugs in research that also offers insight into the biology of thyroid hormone.
Scientists for the first time have identified and mapped the chemical structure of molecules used by certain species of marine seaweed to kill or inhibit the growth of reef-building coral.
An international research team has discovered that a pervasive human RNA modification provides the physiological underpinning of the genetic regulatory process that contributes to obesity and type II diabetes.
A newly developed method for microscopically extracting, or "mining," information from genomes could represent a significant boost in the search for new therapeutic drugs and improve science's understanding of basic functions such as how cells communicate with one another.
Physicists have predicted that under the influence of sufficiently high electric fields, liquid droplets of certain materials will undergo solidification, forming crystallites at temperature and pressure conditions that correspond to liquid droplets at field-free conditions. This electric-field-induced phase transformation is termed electrocrystallization. The study was performed by scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
University of Kentucky spinoff company CoPlex Therapeutics has announced a global license with Hawthorn Pharmaceuticals to develop a treatment for Alzheimer's disease.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.