Feature Channels: Chemistry

• share
• favorite_border

Cornell University chemists have uncovered a fresh role for nitric oxide that could send biochemical textbooks back for revision.

• share
• favorite_border

Changes in a liquid as it becomes a glass are related to repulsion between atoms as they are crowded together. Although scientists have long believed the poorly understood glass transition must have atomic underpinnings, this is the first time they have been demonstrated experimentally.

• share
• favorite_border

JADAK, a business unit of Novanta Corporation, is exhibiting at the 69th annual AACC Clinical Lab Expo from August 1st – 3rd, 2017 in San Diego, CA, Booth #2818. JADAK’s exhibit will feature its new Clarity™ 2.0 Machine Vision & Image Analysis Software, demonstrated within a desktop analyzer, as well as its expanded line of Ultra High Frequency (UHF) RAIN RFID products and Near Field Communications (NFC) High Frequency (HF) RFID product line

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at the University of Washington have discovered a simple way to raise the accuracy of diagnostic tests for medicine and common assays for laboratory research. By adding polydopamine — a material that was first isolated from shellfish — to these tests at a key step, the team could increase the sensitivity of these common bioassays by as many as 100 to 1,000 times.

• share
• favorite_border

Abraxis, Inc., announces expansion of its AbraMag magnetic beads line for molecular biology, biochemistry and sample prep applications, with the addition of mRNA purification beads and kit.

• share
• favorite_border

Regulators, take note: A new international study shows that modern diesel passenger cars emit fewer carbonaceous particulates than gasoline-powered vehicles.

• share
• favorite_border

GVS Life Sciences is the Contract Manufacturing Services

• share
• favorite_border

A research team led by scientists at UC San Francisco has developed a computational method to systematically probe massive amounts of open-access data to discover new ways to use drugs, including some that have already been approved for other uses.

• share
• favorite_border

Charged surfaces submerged in an electrolyte solution can sometimes become oppositely charged. This nonintuitive phenomenon happens when excess counter ions adsorb to the surface. In certain situations, theory predicts that a highly charged surface not only changes sign, but can become more highly charged than the original surface. This is known as giant charge reversal, but remains controversial and has never been observed experimentally. Results reported this week in The Journal of Chemical Physics confirm giant charge reversal for a surface in contact with a trivalent electrolyte solution.

• share
• favorite_border

FIONA (For the Identification Of Nuclide A) is a newly installed device designed to measure the mass numbers of individual atoms of heavy and superheavy elements. FIONA will let researchers learn about the shape and structure of heavy nuclei, guide the search for new elements, and offer better measurements for nuclear fission and related processes.

• share
• favorite_border

A new Berkeley Lab algorithmic framework called multi-tiered iterative phasing (M-TIP) utilizes advanced mathematical techniques to determine 3D molecular structure of important nanoobjects like proteins and viruses from very sparse sets of noisy, single-particle data.

• share
• favorite_border

Virginia Tech researchers have developed a novel way to to defrost surfaces 10 times faster than normal.

• share
• favorite_border

Chemists have long sought to develop new reactions for the direct conversion of simple hydrocarbon building blocks into valuable materials such as pharmaceuticals in a way that dependably creates the same chemical bonds and orientations. UT Southwestern researchers have hit upon a novel way to do that.

• share
• favorite_border

The central hub for powerful electron beams at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is getting a makeover to prepare for the installation of LCLS-II – a major upgrade to the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), the world’s first hard X-ray free-electron laser. LCLS-II will deliver the most powerful X-rays ever made in a lab, with beams that are 10,000 times brighter than before, opening up unprecedented research opportunities in chemistry, materials science, biology and energy research.

• share
• favorite_border

A new method improves the high-yield, -purity and -activity purification of complex proteins by 10- to 500-fold, with crucial advantages for researchers and the pharmaceutical industry as potentially the most efficient and universal tool for high-throughput studies of significant biological systems.

• share
• favorite_border

Nobel laureate Sir Fraser Stoddart has been named one of 38 “Great Immigrants” for 2017 by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, which celebrates contributions of naturalized U.S. citizens annually on July 4.

• share
• favorite_border

A new look inside 2,000-year-old Roman concrete has provided new clues to the evolving chemistry and mineral cements that allow ancient harbor structures to withstand the test of time.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists from the University of Birmingham and Norwich Research Park have discovered a link between a major mechanism of antibiotic resistance and resistance to the disinfectant triclosan which is commonly found in domestic products.

• share
• favorite_border

SPOKANE, Wash. – Although school is out for summer for most Gonzaga University students, the science labs are teeming with undergraduates’ research. Sixty-four science students are working alongside 25 faculty mentors in the lab and field conducting innovative research on topics ranging from waterfowl ecology to methane production and consumption in anaerobic environments.

• share
• favorite_border

Taking inspiration from an unusual source, a Sandia National Laboratories team has dramatically improved the science of scintillators — objects that detect nuclear threats. According to the team, using organic glass scintillators could soon make it even harder to smuggle nuclear materials through America’s ports and borders.

• share
• favorite_border

Trace amounts of flame retardants, banned in the U.S. for more than a decade, are still being passed through umbilical cord blood from mothers to their babies, according to new Indiana University research.

• share
• favorite_border

Adding the equivalent of a miniature tornado to the interface between electrospray ionization (ESI) and a mass spectrometer (MS) has allowed researchers to improve the sensitivity and detection capability of the widely-used ESI-MS analytical technique.

• share
• favorite_border

It turns out your skin is crawling with single-celled microorganisms – ¬and they’re not just bacteria. A study by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the Medical University of Graz has found that the skin microbiome also contains archaea, a type of extreme-loving microbe, and that the amount of it varies with age.

• share
• favorite_border

Cornell University materials scientists and bioelectrochemical engineers may have created an innovative, cost-competitive electrode material for cleaning pollutants in wastewater.

• share
• favorite_border

Imagine being able to see the entire Statue of Liberty and a small ant on its nose simultaneously. The drastic difference in size between the two objects would seem to render this task impossible. On a molecular level, this is exactly what a team led by Sandia National Laboratories chemists David Osborn and Carl Hayden accomplished with a special, custom-made instrument that has enhanced the power of a method called photoelectron photoion coincidence, or PEPICO, spectroscopy. This enhanced method could yield new insights into chemical reactions in the troposphere (the lowest layer of the Earth’s atmosphere) and in low-temperature combustion.

• share
• favorite_border

A Stony Brook University-led team of researchers has determined the structure of a key enzyme involved with cell growth regulation in cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease.

• share
• favorite_border

Producing biofuels like ethanol from plant materials requires various enzymes to break down the cellulosic fibers. Researchers from ORNL and NC State used neutrons to identify the specifics of an enzyme-catalyzed reaction that could significantly reduce the total amount of enzymes used, improving production processes and lowering costs.

• share
• favorite_border

More atomic bonds is the key for performance in a newly discovered family of cage-structured compounds.

• share
• favorite_border

A Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center study, led by epidemiologist Dr. Parveen Bhatti, found that night shift work is associated with reduced ability to repair DNA lesions. Over time, DNA damage that is not repaired will cause mutations that can lead to cancer.

• share
• favorite_border

Most organisms share the biosynthetic pathways for making crucial nutrients because it is is dangerous to tinker with them. But now a collaborative team of scientists has caught plants in the process of altering where and how cells make an essential amino acid.

• share
• favorite_border

Engineers at Washington University in St. Louis and Princeton University developed a new way to dive into the cell's tiniest and most important components. What they found inside membraneless organelles surprised them, and could lead to better understanding of fatal diseases including cancer, Huntington's and ALS.

• share
• favorite_border

The peanut and its kin have not one, but two ways to make the amino acid tyrosine, one of the 20 required to make all of its proteins, and an essential human nutrient. That might seem small, but why this plant family has a unique way to make such an important chemical building block is a mystery that has captured the attention of Hiroshi Maeda, a professor of botany at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

• share
• favorite_border

Enhanced stability in the presence of water could help reduce smokestack emissions of greenhouse gases.

• share
• favorite_border

Epigenetics refers to how certain life circumstances can cause genes to be silenced or expressed, become dormant or active, over time. New research shows that adolescent binge drinking can lead to epigenetic reprogramming that predisposes an individual to later psychiatric disorders such as anxiety. These data will be shared at the 40th annual scientific meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA) in Denver June 24-28.

• share
• favorite_border

Decades after the discovery of anti-obesity hormone, scant evidence that leptin keeps lean people lean, scientists caution

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists have developed a new low-temperature catalyst for producing high-purity hydrogen gas while simultaneously using up carbon monoxide (CO). The discovery could improve the performance of fuel cells that run on hydrogen fuel but can be poisoned by CO.

• share
• favorite_border

Published in Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, the study demonstrates a process with great potential for developing technologies for reducing CO2 levels.

• share
• favorite_border

A review published today in AACC’s Clinical Chemistry journal has identified 10 genes that show promise in predicting how patients will respond to opioid pain medications. Using these genetic markers, healthcare providers could potentially tailor opioid therapy better to curb the skyrocketing rate of deaths from these drugs.

• share
• favorite_border

Named for the region in Tanzania where it comes from, the International Mineralogical Association has declared merelaniite Mineral of the Year for 2016. An international team of mineral enthusiasts and scientists unraveled the mysterious layers that make up merelaniite's unique structure.

• share
• favorite_border

A collaborative group of parent-driven organizations seeking a cure for Angelman syndrome has teamed up with F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, (Roche), one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical and diagnostics companies, in the first phase of a study that will support the design of human clinical trials and treatment development for the disorder.

• share
• favorite_border

Teams of researchers working in a multi-lab collaboration have designed, built, and tested two magnetic devices called superconducting undulators. The effort could lead to a next generation of more powerful, versatile, compact, and durable X-ray lasers.

• share
• favorite_border

In a new study appearing this week in The Journal of Chemical Physics, researchers demonstrate a new method to calculate excitation energies. They used a new approach based on density functional methods, which use an atom-by-atom approach to calculate electronic interactions. By analyzing a benchmark set of small molecules and oligomers, their functional produced more accurate estimates of excitation energy compared to other commonly used density functionals, while requiring less computing power.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

A team of researchers led by the University of California San Diego has identified for the first time what drives the observed differences in the chemical make-up of sea spray particles ejected from the ocean by breaking waves.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists have measured a thin film made of a single type of conjugated polymer — a conducting plastic — as it interacted with ions and electrons. They show how there are rigid and non-rigid regions of the film, and that these regions could accommodate electrons or ions — but not both equally.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study at the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM) and the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech has found a connection between common household chemicals and birth defects.

• share
• favorite_border

AACC, a global scientific and medical professional organization dedicated to better health through laboratory medicine, is pleased to announce that the impact factor of its journal, Clinical Chemistry, has risen to 8.008 in the 2016 Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports. This impact factor places Clinical Chemistry in the top 2.6% of 12,062 ranked academic journals and speaks to the significant influence of the science it publishes on laboratory medicine and patient care.

• share
• favorite_border

Javier Vela, scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory, believes improvements in computer processors, TV displays and solar cells will come from scientific advancements in the synthesis of low-dimensional nanomaterials.

• share
• favorite_border

The investigation found that the drug, geranylgeranyltransferase inhibitor GGTI-2418 suppresses a new defective PTEN cancer pathway discovered by Pagano’s group.

• share
• favorite_border

A team led by New York University researchers has identified and described how a major player in the repair process, called nucleotide excision repair or NER, works to recognize certain lesions for subsequent removal by the NER machinery.