http://www.physorg.com/chemistry-news/ en-us PhysOrg.com provides the latest news on chemistry, biochemistry, polymers, materials science A gene commonly studied by cancer researchers has been linked to the metabolic inflammation that leads to diabetes. http://www.physorg.com/news179776847.html Chemistry Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:02:19 EST news179776847 Scientists have designed a synthetic protein that is both a structural model and a functional model of a native protein, nitric-oxide reductase. http://www.physorg.com/news179667132.html Chemistry Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:34:48 EST news179667132 (PhysOrg.com) -- In a study that elevates the role of entropy in creating order, research led by the University of Michigan shows that certain pyramid shapes can spontaneously organize into complex quasicrystals. http://www.physorg.com/news179588725.html Chemistry Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:30:10 EST news179588725 (PhysOrg.com) -- A single bacterium can act alone, performing the same kinds of actions that a group normally does. The behavior of that bacterium can be manipulated at the cellular level. That`s the intriguing finding by a group of researchers from UNM, the Dartmouth Medical School, the New Mexico Veterans Health Care System, and Sandia National Laboratories. The results are reported in the Nov. 22 issue of Nature Chemical Biology. A possible application is halting drug resistant bacteria found in hospital settings. http://www.physorg.com/news179520110.html Chemistry Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:42:40 EST news179520110 (PhysOrg.com) -- Ground-breaking discoveries by Michigan State University researchers could help protect honeybees from deadly parasites that have devastated commercial colonies. http://www.physorg.com/news179515713.html Chemistry Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:20:02 EST news179515713 Researchers have discovered how the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, which causes Chagas' disease, prolongs its survival in infected cells. A protein on the parasite activates the enzyme Akt, which blocks cell death signals, preventing cell destruction and parasite elimination. Chagas' disease affects some 8 to 11 million people throughout Latin America and even the United States. http://www.physorg.com/news179502191.html Chemistry Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:45:49 EST news179502191 (PhysOrg.com) -- MIT chemists have developed a new platinum compound that is as powerful as the commonly used anticancer drug cisplatin but better able to destroy tumor cells. http://www.physorg.com/news179426472.html Chemistry Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:00:03 EST news179426472 There is more to the snowflake than its ability to delight schoolchildren and snarl traffic. http://www.physorg.com/news179416713.html Chemistry Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:26:57 EST news179416713 In an encouraging new development, a team led by Scripps Research Institute scientists has restored partial function to lung cells collected from patients with cystic fibrosis. While there is still much work to be done before the therapy can be tested in humans, the discovery opens the door to a new class of therapies for this and a host of other chronic diseases. http://www.physorg.com/news179328978.html Chemistry Sun, 06 Dec 2009 13:37:24 EST news179328978 (PhysOrg.com) -- Antonio Stradivari is the most famous instrument maker of all time. He was especially famous for his violins, which he produced in Cremona from about 1665 until his death in 1737. In particular, the legendary varnish on his instruments has fascinated musicians, violinmakers, historians, and chemists since the beginning of the 19th century -- inciting controversial speculation about "secret" ingredients. The use of analytical processes has allowed a team of scientists from various French and German institutions to shine a light on the mystery. http://www.physorg.com/news179148281.html Chemistry Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:25:36 EST news179148281 A team at The Scripps Research Institute has made major strides in solving a problem that has been plaguing chemists for many years: how best to break carbon-hydrogen bonds and then to create new bonds to join molecules together. This problem is of great interest to the pharmaceutical industry, which currently relies on a method to accomplish this feat that is relatively inefficient and sometimes difficult to perform. http://www.physorg.com/news179148095.html Chemistry Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:22:20 EST news179148095 Most scientists believe that staph infections are caused by many bacterial cells that signal each other to emit toxins. The signaling process is called quorum sensing because many bacteria must be present to start the process. http://www.physorg.com/news179070935.html Chemistry Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:56:14 EST news179070935 (PhysOrg.com) -- An enzyme in our blood that enables our lungs to exhale carbon dioxide could be the key to isolating carbon dioxide emissions from coal plants in order to store them safely underground. A company called Carbozyme, based in New Jersey, is developing a synthetic version of the blood enzyme that could capture carbon dioxide using one-third less energy than other methods. http://www.physorg.com/news179068055.html Chemistry Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:08:37 EST news179068055 Scientists at Boston Biomedical Research Institute (BBRI) and the University of Pennsylvania have found that combining two chemicals, one of which is the green tea component EGCG, can prevent and destroy a variety of protein structures known as amyloids. Amyloids are the primary culprits in fatal brain disorders such as Alzheimer's, Huntington's, and Parkinson's diseases. Their study, published in the current issue of Nature Chemical Biology (December 2009), may ultimately contribute to future therapies for these diseases. http://www.physorg.com/news179060136.html Chemistry Thu, 03 Dec 2009 10:57:46 EST news179060136 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new study using solid-state NMR spectroscopy to analyze intact bone paves the way for atomic-level explorations of how disease and aging affect bone. The research by scientists at the University of Michigan is reported in the Dec. 2 issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society. http://www.physorg.com/news178994090.html Chemistry Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:20:01 EST news178994090 Two new University of Illinois studies report that lunasin, a soy peptide often discarded in the waste streams of soy-processing plants, may have important health benefits that include fighting leukemia and blocking the inflammation that accompanies such chronic health conditions as diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. http://www.physorg.com/news178990755.html Chemistry Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:42:56 EST news178990755 An important Brandeis study appearing in the December 3 issue of Nature raises the curtain on the hidden lives of proteins at the atomic level. The study reports that for the first time, researchers used x-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques to directly visualize protein structures essential for catalysis at the rare high-energy state. The study also showed how the motions of these rare, or hidden, structures collectively, directly contribute to enzyme catalysis. http://www.physorg.com/news178987418.html Chemistry Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:30:01 EST news178987418 Before one of your muscles can twitch, before the thought telling it to flex can race down your nerve, a tiny floodgate of sorts -- called an ion channel -- must open in the surface of each cell in these organs to let in the chemical signals that spur the cell to action. New research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology has allowed scientists to observe ion channels within the surface membrane for the first time, potentially offering insights for future drug development. http://www.physorg.com/news178979870.html Chemistry Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:38:21 EST news178979870 (PhysOrg.com) -- Hydrogen is a promising alternative energy carrier that can be efficiently converted into electrical energy in fuel cells. One hurdle to the introduction of sustainable hydrogen technology is the fact that the large-scale industrial production of hydrogen through reforming processes is still largely based on fossil fuels, and thus is not carbon neutral. http://www.physorg.com/news178969673.html Chemistry Wed, 02 Dec 2009 10:30:01 EST news178969673 (PhysOrg.com) -- Chemistry professor Harry Frank led an international group of researchers that identified the molecules in algae which direct the organisms to convert sunlight into oxygen. The findings may ultimately help in developing new solar energy conversion devices. http://www.physorg.com/news178964604.html Chemistry Wed, 02 Dec 2009 08:24:06 EST news178964604 (PhysOrg.com) -- A whole microcosm of various bizarrely shaped life forms opens up when you look at diatoms, the primary component of ocean plankton, under a microscope. The regularly structured silica shells of these tiny individual life forms have attracted scientists because they are particularly interesting examples of natural hybrid materials and also demonstrate unusual mechanistic and optical properties. The mechanisms of the underlying biomineralization process are not yet fully understood, but the silica shells often provide inspiration for the synthesis of man-made nanostructures. http://www.physorg.com/news178901054.html Chemistry Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:51:39 EST news178901054 In a world first, a Monash University-led international research team has developed an innovative way to boost the output of the next generation of solar cells. http://www.physorg.com/news178889850.html Chemistry Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:38:01 EST news178889850 (PhysOrg.com) -- Lara Estroff and colleagues have taken a deep, detailed look at the way lab-created calcite crystals, similar to those found in nature, grow in tandem with proteins and other large molecules. http://www.physorg.com/news178823885.html Chemistry Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:19:17 EST news178823885 (PhysOrg.com) -- Bacteria don`t have easy lives. In addition to mammalian immune systems that besiege the bugs, they have natural enemies called bacteriophages, viruses that kill half the bacteria on Earth every two days. http://www.physorg.com/news178816618.html Chemistry Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:19:21 EST news178816618 (PhysOrg.com) -- Finding and treating a tumor without disturbing normal tissue presents challenges - sometimes the most effective therapies can be invasive and harsh. http://www.physorg.com/news178804691.html Chemistry Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:58:49 EST news178804691 (PhysOrg.com) -- The copper sequestering drug tetrathiomolybdate (TM) has been shown in studies to be effective in the treatment of Wilson disease, a disease caused by an overload of copper, and certain metastatic cancers. That much is known. Very little, however, is known about how the drug works at the molecular level. http://www.physorg.com/news178458552.html Chemistry Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:00:03 EST news178458552 (PhysOrg.com) -- Research into Alzheimer's disease seems an unlikely approach to yield a better way to fight urinary tract infections (UTIs), but that's what scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and elsewhere recently reported. http://www.physorg.com/news178359416.html Chemistry Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:20:01 EST news178359416 (PhysOrg.com) -- The scientists anticipate their "LithoParticles" will have significant applications in photonics, optical communications and other areas. http://www.physorg.com/news178358457.html Chemistry Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:40:01 EST news178358457 Scientists have crystallised a protein that may help gut bacteria bind to the gastrointestinal tract. The protein could be used by probiotic producers to identify strains that are likely to be of real benefit to people. http://www.physorg.com/news178285643.html Chemistry Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:00:01 EST news178285643 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have built a machine that uses the sun's energy to convert carbon dioxide waste from power plants into transportation fuels such as gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. The system could provide an alternative to carbon sequestration; instead of permanently storing CO2 underground, the CO2 could be recycled and put to use. http://www.physorg.com/news178203219.html Chemistry Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:06:36 EST news178203219