Developing a drug that is able to enter the cell and interact with its target is no mean feat, especially for large molecules. Read about how this group ‘masked’ large molecules to improve their cell permeability.
Category: Chemical biology
The Smell of Rain Has a Biological Function
The earthy smell of soil originates from the bacteria that live there. But why do they produce this particular scent?
DNA-based Nanocarriers to Improve the Preciseness of Drug Delivery
Tired of consuming 5 different medications a day? Read how the researchers are developing new ways to load different drugs in a single delivery system.
Unveiling cryptic compounds
How do you get microbes to produce cryptic compounds?
Biochemical Circuits: Modular Systems for Disease Detection
Instead of the wires, batteries, and light bulbs used in electric circuits, biochemical circuits use DNA and enzymes to get the job done.
Combating Viral Infection with Shape-Matching
Researchers developed a new way of tackling viral infection by designing nanostructures similar in shape to the virus particle.
Using Deep Learning to Expedite Drug Discovery
Let’s find out how researchers are using ‘artificial intelligence’ as a tool to the advancement of drug discovery.
Life in the Hot Springs: Bacterial Tricks for Thermal Stability
When cooking an egg, heat denatures proteins in the egg. How does a thermophilic bacteria prevent its proteins from denaturing too?
Release the molecule! Photolabile protecting groups
How do you design a “cage” for a molecule? And how do you release it again, selectively? Find out about a rationally designed red-light labile protecting group.
A Closer Look At The Walls of The Toughest Microbes
Mycobacteria are tough, pathogenic microbes that shield themselves with a hardy envelope known as the mycomembrane. Little is still known about the proteins that build or interact with this envelope, but these researchers are up to the challenge.
Visualising Chemistry
Appreciating the 3D structure of the tiny chemical compounds we work with can be really difficult – but what if you could project the structure onto your living room floor?
Want fluffy whole wheat bread? Use smaller flour particles
Chemists take a gander at how to make more appealing whole wheat loaves. For your COVID-19 baking needs and beyond!
Better Antibiotics: Active in the Body, Degraded in the Environment
Antibiotics are lifesaving, but current practices don’t keep them from accumulating in the environment where they can damage nature and human health. A new antibiotic design aims to solve this problem.
Expanding the Chemical Toolkit to Study Immune Cells
Their highly specialized roles of immune cells also mean they have molecular machineries that are a bit different from those in other cells, Find out here how researchers are using chemistry to advance our knowledge of one of such components, the immunoproteasome.
Chemistry & COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic is consuming our news feed at the moment – while you’re self-isolating read about some of the great science research going on to combat our newest virus.
Putting chemists out of business- the immunotherapy revolution
The development of chemotherapy revolutionised the treatment of cancer in the 20th century, however, side effects have remained problematic. Immunotherapy, using the body’s natural immune system to fight cancer, may be a safer and more effective alternative.
Downstream Effects of Adding Hydrochar Nutrients to Soil
Thermochemical degradation of plant matter can create a great plant fertilizer called hydrochar. But what effect does this hydrochar have on the soil ecosystem?
Seeing the Invisible
Ever wondered how scientists know what is going on inside a cell, or how you could design a chemical probe to tell you more? There’s a lot of things to consider, find out more here.
Vanilla substitute loosens up cell membranes to increase drug uptake
Could vanillin, the flavoring molecule extracted from vanilla bean, increase our body’s ability to absorb ingested drugs?
Stitching proteins together, piece by piece
New technology developed to build larger proteins
Rapidly Developing Disease-Specific Detection Methods
Antibodies in your body help fight disease by specifically targeting a viral or bacterial strain. This specificity makes antibodies useful for disease detection, but how do scientists reduce the chance of false positives and false negatives?
Controversial Mushrooms Can Be Useful After All
With a renewed interest in psilocybin — the psychedelic substance present in magic mushrooms — by the medical community, the Weng group at MIT sets up to study one of the enzymes that makes it.
How Long Do Nanoparticles Stay in the Body?
As nanotechnology is developed into drugs for human health, scientists need to study nanoparticle clearance rates from the body.
Development of Sensors for Amino Acids
Researchers develop an easy to use method to identify the chirality of the amino acids, amines and alcohols.
Detergents are for more than washing dishes
Studying membrane-bound proteins requires stabilizing their structure outside of the membrane – otherwise they fall apart. But our analytical techniques have not risen to the challenge. Sadaf et al. pushes us forward by developing novel detergents for stabilizing membrane proteins.