Scientists have long known that the body rids itself of excess copper and various other minerals by collecting them in the liver and excreting them through the liver’s bile. However, a new study led by Johns Hopkins researchers and published June 22 in PLoS One suggests that when this route is impaired there’s another exit route just for copper: A molecule sequesters only that mineral and routes it from the body through urine.
Biologists at UC San Diego have discovered a chemical that offers a completely new and promising direction for the development of drugs to treat metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes—a major public health concern in the United States due to the current obesity epidemic.
Research on the Water Oxidation Reaction in Plants and Bacteria Helps Solve an Important Piece of the Solar Energy Conversion Puzzle; Represents a Major Step Toward a New Generation of Photovoltaics
“Paper of the week” shows that a master regulator protein brings plethora of coactivators to gene expression sites.
A chemistry professor describes how fireworks make those colors that keep eyes glued to the sky.
Using a new tool allowing proteins in a living cell to be manipulated in real time, researchers at Johns Hopkins have stumbled across the answer to a longstanding debate about where and how a certain protein is turned on in the cell. Reporting in the February 2012 issue of Nature Chemical Biology, scientists show that protein kinase A is also activated in the nucleus rather than inside the cell’s body, a challenge to traditional beliefs.
A key component found in an ancient anaerobic microorganism may serve as a sensor to detect potentially fatal oxygen, a University of Arkansas researcher and his colleagues have found. This helps researchers learn more about the function of these components, called iron-sulfur clusters, which occur in different parts of cells in all living creatures.
Scientists are racing to sequence DNA faster and cheaper than ever by passing strands of the genetic material through molecule-sized pores. Now, University of Utah scientists have adapted this “nanopore” method to find DNA damage that can lead to mutations and disease.
New findings from the Monell Center suggest that sucrose and menthol, ingredients commonly regarded as flavorings in cough drops or syrup, each act independently to reduce coughing. Implications range from medicinal to tobacco products.
A new set of computer models has successfully predicted negative side effects in hundreds of current drugs, based on the similarity between their chemical structures and those molecules known to cause side effects, according to a paper appearing online this week in the journal Nature.
An unappreciated aspect of chemical reactions on the surface of metal oxides could be key in developing more efficient energy systems, including more productive solar cells or hydrogen fuel cells efficient enough for automobiles.
Mayo Clinic researchers have identified an immune system deficiency whose presence shows someone is up to four times likelier to die than a person without it. The glitch involves an antibody molecule called a free light chain; people whose immune systems produce too much of the molecule are far more likely to die of a life-threatening illness such as cancer, diabetes and cardiac and respiratory disease than those whose bodies make normal levels. The study is published in the June issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
Georgia Tech researchers used experiments and numerical calculations to show that iron, in the absence of oxygen, can substitute for magnesium in RNA binding, folding and catalysis. The findings suggest that 3 billion years ago, on the early earth, iron did the chemical work now done by magnesium.
New findings from the Monell Center reveal that humans can identify the age of other humans based on differences in body odor.
Scientists at Arizona State University and NASA are developing a new approach to the medical challenge of detecting bone loss by applying a technique that originated in the Earth sciences. Their findings are presented in a paper published in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) the week of May 28, 2012.
Writing this week in the journal Angewandte Chemie, a Wisconsin group describes a new high-throughput method to identify electrocatalysts for water oxidation.
Materials scientist Yun Hang Hu has discovered a chemical reaction that gobbles up the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide and produces a couple of useful compounds. And, by the way, it releases energy.
Krzysztof Szalewicz, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Delaware, and Rafal Podeszwa of the University of Silesia Institute of Chemistry in Poland have developed and validated a more accurate method for predicting the interaction energy of large molecules, such as biomolecules used to develop new drugs.
Using newly developed imaging technology, University of Virginia chemist Brooks Pate and co-authors have confirmed years of theoretical assumptions about water molecules, the most abundant and one of the most frequently studied substances on Earth.
An international team of researchers has discovered how adding trace amounts of water can tremendously speed up chemical reactions—such as hydrogenation and hydrogenolysis—in which hydrogen is one of the reactants, or starting materials.
Scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College have discovered that the single protein -- alpha 2 delta -- exerts a spigot-like function, controlling the volume of neurotransmitters and other chemicals that flow between the synapses of brain neurons. The study, published online in Nature, shows how brain cells talk to each other through these signals, relaying thoughts, feelings and action, and this powerful molecule plays a crucial role in regulating effective communication.
Vanderbilt researchers have boosted the efficiency of a novel source of white light called quantum dots more than tenfold, making them of potential interest for commercial applications.
As vacationers prepare to spend time outdoors this summer, many of them will pack plenty of sunscreen in hopes it will protect their bodies from overexposure, and possibly from skin cancer. But researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology are discovering that sunscreen may not be so safe after all.
Ask Texas A&M University chemist Hong-Cai “Joe” Zhou to describe his research in simple terms, and more often than not, he’ll draw on a favorite analogy from childhood: playing with LEGOs. But if you’re tempted to view his work as child’s play, you might want to think again. The building blocks he and his group specialize in actually are a recently developed, increasingly versatile class of materials known as metal-organic frameworks (MOF).
A team of chemical engineers led by Paul J. Dauenhauer of the University of Massachusetts Amherst has discovered a new, high-yield method of making the key ingredient used to make plastic bottles from biomass. The process currently creates the chemical p-xylene with an efficient yield of 75-percent.
Researchers at McMaster University have developed a rapid testing method using a simple paper strip that can detect E. coli in recreational water within minutes. The new tool can close the gap between outbreak and detection, improving public safety.
Scientists at USC have developed a potential pathway to cheap, stable solar cells made from nanocrystals so small they can exist as a liquid ink and be painted or printed onto clear surfaces.
In a study in PLoS Computational Biology, two Santa Fe Institute researchers trace the development of life-sustaining chemistry to the earliest forms of life on Earth.
Researchers from New York University and the Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart reveal how protons move in phosphoric acid in a Nature Chemistry study that sheds new light on the workings of a promising fuel cell electrolyte.
Hitting the gas on a molecular rotor.
Research to green alternative energy technologies has led to a dye-sensitized solar cell that uses a bacteria and dye to generate energy. It is also friendlier to the environment and living organisms.
Researchers at the University of Montreal’s Sainte-Justine Hospital have identified how neural cells are able to build up resistance to opioid pain drugs within hours.
One of the outstanding questions of the early Earth is how ancient organisms made the transition from anoxygenic (no oxygen produced) to oxygenic photosynthesis. A team of scientists from Arizona State University has moved closer to solving this conundrum.
The food that inspires wariness is on course for inspiring even more wonder from a medical standpoint as scientists today reported the latest evidence that chili peppers are a heart-healthy food with potential to protect against the No. 1 cause of death in the developed world. The report was part of the 243rd National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society, being held here this week.
Scientists, public safety and law enforcement officials will hold a special session here on Monday, March 26, to reveal the behind-the-scenes planning that culminated in the December 9, 2010, burning of the infamous “bomb house” in Escondido, Calif. The session, titled “How to ‘safely’ burn down a house,” is part of the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society. The presentation is among more than 11,700 that will be delivered at the meeting, being held here through Thursday.
The American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society, today documented significant progress toward conserving energy and water, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and waste generation at its internationally known annual meetings during 2011.
A two-drug combination is one of the most promising advances in decades for the treatment of tuberculosis (TB) — a disease that kills 2 million people annually — a scientist reported today at the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). The treatment, which combines two medications already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), delivers a knockout punch to forms of TB that shrug off other antibiotics.
A research team has determined the structure of the kappa-opioid receptor—site of action of the widely abused hallucinogen Salvia divinorum – solving longstanding scientific mysteries and offering new insights for treating drug addiction, chronic pain and depression.
Chemists at the University of California, San Diego have produced the first high resolution structure of a molecule that when attached to the genetic material of the hepatitis C virus prevents it from reproducing.
A new method to reveal the structure of proteins could help researchers understand biological molecules - both those involved in causing disease and those performing critical functions in healthy cells.
Just like a road atlas faithfully maps real-word locations, our brain maps many aspects of our physical world: Sensory inputs from our fingers are mapped next to each other in the somatosensory cortex; the auditory system is organized by sound frequency. The olfactory system was believed to map similarly, where groups of chemically related odorants - amines, ketones, or esters, for example - register with clusters of cells that are laid out next to each other.
Cleaner! Faster! Cheaper! is a rallying cry for chemists working to limit the impact of their work on the environment. Here are a few examples of how chemists funded by NIH are going green by improving the chemical processes used to make medicines, plastics and other products.
A Florida State University researcher is developing technologies to miniaturize the first phase of a process used by pharmaceutical companies to discover new drugs. A breakthrough could ultimately lead to personalized and therefore more effective medical treatments, as well as major health care savings.
A team of researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine has developed the first “theranostic” agent for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). ALL is the most common type of childhood cancer diagnosed in approximately 5,000 new cases each year in the United States.
An engineering researcher at the University of Arkansas and his colleagues at the University of Utah have discovered a new method of making nanoparticles and nanofilms to be used in developing better electronic devices, biosensors and certain types of high-powered and highly specific microscopes used for scientific research.
As scientists struggle to find an effective way to prevent Alzheimer's disease, researchers at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public health may have found a new approach to interrupting the process that leads to the devastating disease.
Almost 80 percent of current farmland in the U.S. would have to be devoted to raising corn for ethanol production in order to meet current biofuel production targets with existing technology, a new study has found. An alternative, according to a study in ACS’ journal Environmental Science & Technology, would be to convert 60 percent of existing rangeland to biofuels.
Scientists have combined two new “designer” forms of aspirin into a hybrid substance that appears more effective than either of its forebears in controlling the growth of several forms of cancer in laboratory tests. Their report on the new NOSH-aspirin, so named because it releases nitric oxide (NO) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S), appears in the journal ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters.
An inexpensive device used by millions of people with diabetes could be adapted into a home DNA detector that enables individuals to perform home tests for viruses and bacteria in human body fluids, in food and in other substances, scientists are reporting in a new study. The report on this adaptation of the ubiquitous personal glucose monitor, typically used to test blood sugar levels, appears in ACS’ journal Analytical Chemistry.
Just as a wine glass vibrates and sometimes breaks when a diva sings the right note, carbon dioxide vibrates when light or heat serenades it. When it does, carbon dioxide exhibits a vibrational puzzle known as Fermi resonance. Now, researchers studying geologic carbon storage have learned a bit more about the nature of carbon dioxide.
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