Feature Channels: Chemistry

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Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) have developed a computer algorithm that is helping scientists see how drugs produce pharmacological effects inside the body. The study, published in the journal Cell, could help researchers create drugs that are more efficient and less prone to side effects, suggest ways to regulate a drug's activity, and identify novel therapeutic uses for new and existing compounds.

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The Histone Antibody Specificity Database (www.histoneantibodies.com), is a newly launched online portal that lets scientists find the right antibodies for their research with a much higher degree of confidence than ever before.

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A biomedical breakthrough in the journal Nature reveals never-before-seen details of the human body’s cellular switchboard that regulates sensory and hormonal responses. The work is based on an X-ray laser experiment at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

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Noting a paradigm shift among consumers who are seeking greater control over their own healthcare, AACC issued a position statement today on direct-to-consumer laboratory testing, which allows people to order medical tests directly from a lab without having to work with their healthcare provider. The statement emphasizes direct-to-consumer test results must be accurate and easily understood—an area where laboratory medicine professionals play a vital role.

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Anyone who’s ever noticed a water puddle drying in the sun has seen an environment that may have driven the type of chemical reactions that scientists believe were critical to the formation of life on the early Earth.

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A new study from the Monell Center and collaborating institutions suggests that a single set of genes accounts for approximately 30 percent of person-to-person variance in sweet taste perception, regardless of whether the sweetener is a natural sugar or a non-caloric sugar substitute.

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In the U.S. and other industrialized nations, testing for infectious diseases and cancer often requires expensive equipment and highly trained specialists. In countries where resources are limited, performing the same diagnostics is far more challenging. To address this disparity, scientists are developing a portable, low-cost “paper machine” for point-of-care detection of infectious diseases, genetic conditions and cancer. Their report appears in the ACS journal Analytical Chemistry.

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An Argonne/University of Tennessee research team reconstructed the crystal structure of BAP, a protein involved in the process by which marine archaea release carbon, to determine how it functioned, as well as its larger role in carbon cycling in marine sediments.

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A team from the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) and their collaborators developed and evaluated the MiSI method for classifying microbial species that could be supplemented – as needed – by traditional approaches relied on by microbiologists for decades.

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According to a new series of studies out of NYU Langone Medical Center, two chemicals increasingly used during manufacturing to strengthen plastic wrap, soap, cosmetics, and processed food containers have been linked to a rise in risk of high blood pressure and diabetes in children and adolescents.

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Tests have shown that a new cancer drug, FY26, is 49 times more potent than the clinically used treatment Cisplatin.

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Studying brain scans and cerebrospinal fluid of healthy adults, scientists have shown that changes in key biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease during midlife may help identify those who will develop dementia years later, according to new research.

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Other topics include memories and protein, physics and gas mileage, agriculture and food safety, vaccine for Dengue, retinoblastoma proteins in cancer progression, and more.

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Researchers at the University of Adelaide have discovered a new method for culturing stem cells which sees the highly therapeutic cells grow faster and stronger.

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As fireflies are delighting children across the country with their nighttime displays, scientists are closing in on a better understanding of how the insects produce their enchanting glow.

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The production of petroleum from Canada's oil sands is on the rise with much of it destined for U.S. refineries. The current oil sands production of fuels from "well-to-wheels" releases about 20 percent more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than making gasoline and diesel from conventional crudes.

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Scientists have at their disposal a way to explore the possible prevention of genetic diseases before birth. But should they?

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Living with Type 1 diabetes requires constant monitoring of blood sugar levels and injecting insulin daily. The development of an implantable "artificial pancreas" that continuously measures a person's blood sugar, or glucose, level and can automatically release insulin as needed.

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Vanderbilt chemists Brian Bachmann and John McLean have shown that creating bacterial "fight clubs" is an effective way to discover natural biomolecules with the properties required for new drugs.

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Other topics include resurgence of whales off southern California, treating chronic kidney disease, and a breakthrough in a heart-specific type of stem cell.

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Other topics include weight loss, medical marijuana, smart traffic lights, diabetes, heart disease, and more.

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Two radioisotopes, lead-212 and bismuth-212, are of interest in targeted cancer therapies, but the short-lived radioisotopes were becoming hard to acquire until the DOE Isotope Program recently began producing the appropriate generators.

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Scientists for the first time tracked ultrafast structural changes, captured in quadrillionths-of-a-second steps, as ring-shaped gas molecules burst open and unraveled. Ring-shaped molecules are abundant in biochemistry and also form the basis for many drug compounds. The study points the way to a wide range of real-time X-ray studies of gas-based chemical reactions that are vital to biological processes.

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Topics include: A bioengineered patch to improve stem cell therapy for heart patients, Antacid meds raise risk of C. Diff. bacteria infection in kids, nutrition, new treatments for aggressive breast cancer, lab tests, genetic risks.

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Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have devised a powerful set of chemical methods for exploring the biology of proteins. The techniques are designed to reveal protein interactions with lipids.

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Scientists from the UNC School of Medicine provide the first direct experimental evidence for how primordial proteins developed the ability to accelerate the central chemical reaction necessary to synthesize proteins and thus allow life to arise not long after Earth was created.

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As a spinoff from their research aimed at fighting a specific parasite, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory and Brandeis University may have found a way around an infectious bacterium’s natural defenses.

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A full description of nanoscale thermal transport has defied understanding for decades. In a new study, researchers uncovered a regime of thermal transport near nanoscale structures, where counterintuitively, nanoscale hot spots cool more quickly when placed close together than when they are widely separated. The results suggest new approaches for addressing the significant challenge of heat management in nanosystems, with design implications for integrated circuits and other uses.

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For the first time, researchers have shown that a dissociation pathway called roaming radical dynamics is a possibility for not just simple, single molecule reactions but more complex, multiple molecule, or bimolecular, reactions.

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New discovery could have wide-reaching implications for the creation of manufactured goods, biofuels and therapeutic drugs.

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Scientists developed a versatile test-bed to facilitate evaluating new materials for electrochemical energy conversion systems without the need for expensive scale-up. The test-bed can expedite the discovery and optimization of new artificial photosynthesis and fuel cell technologies.

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Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: An anonymous donor for cancer research, solar storms and incidences of rheumatoid arthritis, vulnerabilities in genome’s ‘Dimmer Switches’, new treatments for Alzheimer's, How people make decisions for or against flu vaccinations.

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Challenging previously held views, scientific results show that californium can covalently bond with borate, dramatically altering the electronic characteristics of the californium ion. This research may show how to further optimize nuclear reactor fuel processes.

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Chemists at The Scripps Research Institute have invented the first practical, scalable method for synthesizing jiadifenolide, a plant-derived molecule that may have powerful brain-protecting properties.

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Chemists have witnessed atoms of one chemical element morph into another for the first time ever—a feat that produced an unexpected outcome that could lead to a new way to safely treat cancer with radiation.

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In a study published in Science June 12, Case Western Reserve and University of Texas-Southwestern researchers detail how a new drug repaired damage to the colon, liver and bone marrow in animal models — even saving mice who otherwise would have died in a bone marrow transplantation model.

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Along the way, the investigation sheds light on the long-held urban myth of the fluidity of stained glass.

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Canadian researchers are studying the role that methane nanobubbles might play in the formation and dissociation of natural gas hydrates, a currently untapped source of natural gas and a chief energy source in the United States. Gaining a better understanding of how nanobubbles impact their formation and dissociation could help design procedures to more efficiently and safely harvest hydrates for natural gas capture. The findings are published this week in The Journal of Chemical Physics.

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New research shows that the close linkage between the physical properties of amino acids, the genetic code, and protein folding was likely the key factor in the evolution from building blocks to organisms when Earth’s first life was emerging from the primordial soup.

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Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: neurology, cancer, immunotherapy, Alan Alda present science award, genetics, vision, lung cancer, prostate cancer, environmental health.

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Discovered in the 1970s, SERS is a sensing technique prized for its ability to identify chemical and biological molecules in a wide range of fields. It has been commercialized, but not widely, because the materials required to perform the sensing are consumed upon use, relatively expensive and complicated to fabricate. That may soon change. An international research team led by University at Buffalo engineers has developed nanotechnology that promises to make SERS simpler and more affordable. Described in a research paper published today in the journal Advanced Materials Interfaces, the photonics advancement aims to improve our ability to detect trace amounts of molecules in diseases, chemical warfare agents, fraudulent paintings, environmental contaminants and more.

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Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: income inequality, climate change, genetics, cancer, precision medicine, medical imaging, schizophrenia, research funding, molecular biology and skin cancer.

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For years scientists have been aware of the potential problems of antibiotics being present in wastewater, and the research of engineering professor Olya Keen is showing that treatments to clean wastewater may actually be creating new antibiotics and further contributing to the development of antibiotic resistance in the environment.

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Researchers have uncovered a new molecular mechanism - a function of the NONO protein - whereby cells protect their genome from the detrimental effect of UV radiation and govern DNA replication in cellular mitosis. A recent study investigates what happens when this molecular mechanism malfunctions.

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Two Williams College professors have been awarded an NSF grant to study inter-species dependencies called "mutualisms." The Biology and Chemistry professors will study how different species interact with and affect one another.

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Cannabis plus alcohol is one of the most frequently detected drug combinations in car accidents, yet the interaction of these two compounds is still poorly understood. A study appearing online today in Clinical Chemistry, the journal of AACC, shows for the first time that the simultaneous use of alcohol and cannabis produces significantly higher blood concentrations of cannabis’s main psychoactive constituent, Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), as well as THC’s primary active metabolite, 11-hydroxy-THC (11-OH-THC), than cannabis use alone.

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Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: genetics, cancer, nanotech, elderly care, marketing research, energy, children's health, and immunology.

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Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: genetics and cancer, diabetes and blindness, nanotech, engineering, personalized medicine, energy, and e-cigarettes.

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MicroRNA can serve as a “decoder ring” for understanding complex biological processes, a team of New York University chemists has found. Their study points to a new method for decrypting the biological functions of enzymes and identifying those that drive diseases.

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Chemists at The Scripps Research Institute have discovered a broad, strikingly inexpensive method for synthesizing “amines,” a class of organic compounds prominent in drugs and other modern products. The new reaction is particularly useful for synthesizing complex amines valuable in pharmaceuticals, but impractical—or impossible—to make with standard methods.