Feature Channels: Chemistry

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In response to drug-resistant “superbugs” that send millions of people to hospitals around the world, scientists are building tiny, “molecular drill bits” that kill bacteria by bursting through their protective cell walls. They presented some of the latest developments on these drill bits, better known to scientists as antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), at the 247th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

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When cancer spreads, it becomes even more deadly. It moves with stealth and can go undetected for months or years. But a new technology that uses “nano-flares” has the potential to catch these tumor cells early. Today, at the 247th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, scientists presented the latest advances in nano-flare technology as it applies to the detection of metastatic breast cancer cells.

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Sunlight plus a common titanium pigment might be the secret recipe for ridding pharmaceuticals, pesticides and other potentially harmful pollutants from drinking water. Scientists reported today at the 247th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society that they have combined several high-tech components to make an easy-to-use water purifier that could work with the world’s most basic form of energy, sunlight, in a boon for water purification in rural areas or developing countries.

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Leftover cigarette smoke that clings to walls and furniture is a smelly nuisance, but now research suggests that it could pose a far more serious threat, especially to young children who put toys and other smoke-affected items into their mouths. Scientists reported today at the 247th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society that one of the tobacco-specific nitrosamines newly formed in “third-hand smoke” damages DNA and could potentially cause cancer.

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Advances in renewable and sustainable energy, including mimicking photosynthesis and optimizing lithium-ion batteries, are the topics of three plenary talks at the 247th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society, taking place here through Thursday. The presentations will be held on Sunday, March 16, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Ballroom A of the Dallas Convention Center.

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A hands-on outreach program about the world of chemistry for children and their families and a symposium on the many benefits of chemistry are among several special Presidential Events at the American Chemical Society’s 247th National Meeting & Exposition next month. The meeting will be held in Dallas, March 16-20.

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Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) have created a synthetic form of low-molecular-weight heparin that can be reversed in cases of overdose and would be safer for patients with poor kidney function.

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A new study by scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute has uncovered a mechanism of drug resistance. This knowledge could have a major impact on the development of a pair of highly potent new antibiotic drug candidates.

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An ancient chemical, present for billions of years, appears to have helped proteins function properly since time immemorial.

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​In a recent early online edition of Nature Chemistry, ASU scientists, along with colleagues at Argonne National Laboratory, report advances toward perfecting a functional artificial leaf.

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Scientists from the Monell Center have used analytical organic chemistry to identify the presence of odor-producing chemical compounds in human earwax. Further, the amounts of these compounds differ between individuals of East Asian origin and Caucasians. The findings suggest that human earwax could be an overlooked source of personal information.

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Tulane University Chemistry Professor Igor Rubtsov and a team of graduate students can lay claim to inventing an important new scientific instrument - the world’s first fully automated dual-frequency two-dimensional infrared spectrometer.

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The sponges of the future will do more than clean house. Delivering drugs and trapping gases are all potential applications. That's what chemist Jason Benedict had in mind when he led the design of a new, porous material whose pores change shape in response to ultraviolet light.

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Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have identified a critical regulator of a molecule deeply involved in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

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Today, January 21, JoVE, the Journal of Visualized Experiments, published a modern approach to a famed experiment that explored one of the most intriguing research questions facing scientists today—the origin of life on earth.

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Using a plant-derived chemical, University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have developed a process for creating a concentrated stream of sugars that’s ripe with possibility for biofuels.

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Cartilage is notoriously difficult to repair or grow, but researchers at Duke Medicine have taken a step toward understanding how to regenerate the connective tissue. By adding a chemical to cartilage cells, the chemical signals spurred new cartilage growth, mimicking the effects of physical activity.

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Qi Zhang, an assistant professor of biochemistry and biophysics and member of the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, and his team have developed a new way to visualize the shape and motion of RNA at the atomic level using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR).

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Before catalysis unfolds in a laboratory, scientists painstakingly assemble the materials and spark a reaction. But many experimental techniques only capture the static details before and after the reaction. Now, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have demonstrated an unprecedented ability to peer into the dynamic, real-time reactions blazing along at scales spanning just billionths of a meter, producing a sort of play-by-play view of the chemistry in action.

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A new Q&A in the “Advancing Women’s Health” issue of Clinical Chemistry, the journal of AACC, explores the ethics of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, a form of genetic testing that has already made it possible for parents to conceive a child who is a donor match for a sick relative, who shares their minor disability (such as deafness), or to select gender.

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The symptoms of heart disease are often less obvious in women than in men, and as a result, some experts have recommended changing current medical practice and using separate criteria to identify the disease and predict its progression in women. However, new findings in the “Advancing Women’s Health” issue of Clinical Chemistry, the journal of AACC, suggest that sex-specific criteria do not improve the prognostic accuracy of blood tests for diagnosing heart disease.

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Two new papers in the “Advancing Women’s Health” issue of Clinical Chemistry, the journal of AACC, show for the first time that measuring the amount of certain protein fragments and microRNAs in a woman’s blood and breast tissue might enable the early diagnosis of breast cancer or prediction of its metastasis, respectively.

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The new special “Advancing Women’s Health” issue of Clinical Chemistry, the journal of AACC, showcases nearly 50 studies that close the gap between men’s and women’s healthcare by shedding light on how heart disease, cancer, reproductive problems, and other common health issues manifest differently in women than in men at the molecular and genetic level.

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Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute have revealed an atomic-level view of a genetic defect that causes a form of muscular dystrophy, myotonic dystrophy type 2, and have used this information to design drug candidates with potential to counter those defects—and reverse the disease.

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A team of scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has successfully developed a method to chemically exfoliate molybdenum disulfide crystals into high quality monolayer flakes, with higher yield and larger flake size than current methods.

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All good research breaks new ground, but rarely does the research unearth truths that challenge the foundation of a science. That’s what Artem R. Oganov has done, and the professor of theoretical crystallography in the Department of Geosciences will have his work published in the Dec. 20, 2013 issue of the journal Science.

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A chemical bond discovered by Vanderbilt University scientists that is essential for animal life and which hastened the “dawn of the animal kingdom” could lead to new therapies for cancer and other diseases.

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UI researchers describe the evolution of various forms of the enzyme “dihydrofolate reductase” as it occurred from bacteria to humans. Their paper, which appears in the Dec. 13 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, may prove useful to scientists in the design of future drugs and catalysts.

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It takes dozens of chemical reactions for a cell to make isoprenoids, a diverse class of molecules found in every type of living organism. Cholesterol, for example, an important component of the membranes of cells, is a large isoprenoid chemical. The molecule that gives oranges their citrusy smell and taste is an isoprenoid, as is the natural antimalarial drug artemisinin.

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To technology insiders, graphene is a certified big deal. The one-atom thick carbon-based material elicits rhapsodic descriptions as the strongest, thinnest material known. It also is light, flexible, and able to conduct electricity as well as copper. Graphene-based electronics promise advances such as faster internet speeds, cheaper solar cells, novel sensors, space suits spun from graphene yarn, and more. Now a research team at NIST may help bring graphene’s promise closer to reality.

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Arizona State University scientists have developed a microfluidic chip that can sort good germs from bad. The team, led by professor Mark A. Hayes, hopes to create handheld, battery-operated devices that could deliver clinical answers in minutes, instead of days.

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Richard Martel and his research team at the Department of Chemistry of the Université de Montréal have discovered a method to improve detection of the infinitely small. Their discovery is presented in the November 24 online edition of the journal Nature Photonics.

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Finger pricks may soon be a thing of the past for diabetics. Researchers at Western New England University have created a breathalyzer that may help control blood sugar by measuring the amount of acetone in the breath.

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Researchers have created magnetic replicas of sunflower pollen grains using a wet chemical, layer-by-layer process that applies highly conformal iron oxide coatings. The replicas possess natural adhesion properties from the pollen while gaining magnetic behavior.

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A new blood test for the early detection of breast cancer was shown in preliminary studies to successfully identify the presence of breast cancer cells from serum biomarkers.

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Chemists develop new way to kill cancer cells resistant to the chemotherapy drug cisplatin.

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Microbes in tap water are mostly harmless, with a few exceptions. A Virginia Tech research team is investigating four harmful pathogens that have been documented in tap water and suggest a natural, probiotic way to deal with dangerous germs.

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A small molecule called VIP, known to synchronize time-keeping neurons in the brain’s biological clock, has the startling effect of desynchronizing them at higher dosages, says a research team at Washington University in St. Louis. Neurons knocked for a loop by a burst of VIP are better able to re-synchronize to abrupt shifts in the light-dark cycle like those that make jet lag or shift work so miserable.

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Meteorite bombardment left large craters that contained water and chemical building blocks for life, which ultimately led to the first organisms.

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New research from the Monell Chemical Senses Center and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reveals that avian influenza, which typically is asymptomatic, can be detected based on odor changes in infected birds. The results suggest a rapid and simple detection method to help prevent the spread of influenzas in avian populations.

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Discovery of chemical compounds that block the ability of bacteria to make vitamins and amino acids, processes that are emerging as Achilles’ heels for bacteria that infect the human body.

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Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel have been awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for the developments of multiscale models for complex chemical systems,” which highlights the cross-disciplinary nature of today’s research environment.

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NYU chemists have discovered crystal growth complexities, which at first glance appeared to confound 50 years of theory and deepened the mystery of how organic crystals form. But, appearances can be deceiving.

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Mississippi has the dubious honor of having more documented glyphosate-resistant weed species than any other state. Mississippi State University scientists are leading the charge in the fight against glyphosate-resistant Italian ryegrass with a research-based plan of attack.

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Chemists at The Scripps Research Institute have devised a new technique for connecting drug molecules to antibodies to make advanced therapies.

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A study appearing online today in Clinical Chemistry, the journal of AACC, shows for the first time that low quality commercial lab kits may be one factor hampering the progress of cancer diagnostics.

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Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute report a highly programmable and controlled platform for preparing and experimentally probing synthetic cellular structures.

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Researchers have developed a new kind of “x-ray vision”—a way to peer inside real-world devices such as batteries and catalysts to map the internal nanostructures and properties of the various components, and even monitor how properties evolve as the devices operate.

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Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have made a discovery that, if replicated in humans, suggests a shortage of zinc may contribute to diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, which have been linked to defective proteins clumping together in the brain.