In organic chemistry, once your reaction is over you generally “work-up” the mixture. But what happens if the work-up changes the outcome?
Category: Research Bites
Combining Biomass and Carbon Dioxide Feedstocks Can Cut Polyurethane Emissions
Carbon dioxide and biomass combinations can reduce the carbon emissions of polyurethane production, but has negative effects on other environmental parameters.
How to distinguish two similar chemical functional groups
Distinguishing sulfation from phosphorylation
Side effect found to be responsible for antiviral activity of many repurposed drugs against SARS-CoV-2 during in vitro screens
Although many repurposed drugs entered trials against COVID-19 in the past year and a half, only one drug has been proven to be efficacious. What happened?
MicroRNAs: A New Assay Searches for Targets
If your DNA is a cookbook of “recipes” your cells could make, microRNAs help decide what’s for dinner.
What gives bird feathers such vivid colors?
Birds have a unique way of creating color in their wings and this is how they have become so colorful.
Prioritizing study of novel proteins
How scientists figure out what enzymes to study
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Towards enzymatic hydrocarbon remediation
Towards enzymatic bioremediation of oil spills
Another side (product) of synthesising antibiotic, daptomycin
Finding new antibiotics is difficult. Synthesising those new antibiotics can be just as hard, and sometimes is takes a long time to find a good approach. And sometimes the most important step in synthesis optimisation is characterising your side-products.
DISGUISING PEPTIDES FOR BETTER ANTI-DIABETIC MEDICINES
In diabetics, insulin production is reduced as a protease inactivates GLP1 responsible for insulin production. Administration of GLP1 could help, but it needs to be altered to sneak past the protease.
Can light break down antibiotics?
The antibiotics we take are beginning to build up in the environment. Researchers are beginning to look into different ways of removing those antibiotics, and subsequently reducing the harm to our environment, with varying degrees of success.
COVID-19 Vaccines: How They Work and the Threat Posed by Mutations
Binding of the spike protein is essential for the immune response generated from many COVID-19 vaccines. Mutations on this protein may pose a threat to the efficacy and reliability of our current vaccination strategies.
Tracing carbon atoms through the galaxy
Amino acids found on meteorites may have seeded the beginnings of life on Earth, but where do they come from? Based on their isotopic signatures, they may have come from interstellar space.
Blood tests over biopsies: Detecting lung cancer through differences in the blood
Your blood is made up of many different proteins, and the concentrations of these proteins are different in healthy individuals and cancer patients. By exploiting these differences, researchers have developed a new method for diagnosing lung cancer using just a simple blood test.
Biosensors from graphene-wrapped nanofibers
Using nanofibers to create biosensors decreases cost and wrapping them in graphene increases their conductivity.
Looking for Viruses in Wild Bats
Cataloguing viruses in bats and other animals may help predict or trace viral transmission to humans in the future.
What captures carbon?
What technology is currently in use to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere? What technologies lie ahead to help us catch up to our emissions?
Collagen-mimetic protein in the surface of bacteria helps them latch onto skin
Two proteins in the surface of GAS bacterium are able to bind to damaged collagen. Thus facilitating the infection of this pathogen in wounds.
Insight into how droplets drop
Microphysical properties of droplets and their possible implications on SARS-CoV-2 transmission
Measuring Pollutants in Urban River Sediments
Title: Organophosphate Diesters in Urban River Sediment from SouthChina: Call for More Research on Their Occurrence and Fate in FieldEnvironment Authors: Chan Liang, Bo Peng, Gao-Ling Wei, Yanyan Gong, Guoqiang Liu, Lixi Zeng, Liang-Ying Liu, and Eddy Y. Zeng Journal: ACS EST Water 2021, 1, 4, 871–880 Organophosphate triesters are used as flame retardants, as well as…
Drying droplets could have been compartments during the origin of life
Primary source information: Title: Impact of wet-dry cycling on the phase behavior and compartmentalization properties of complex coacervates Authors: Hadi M. Fares, Alexander E. Marras, Jeffrey M. Ting, Matthew V. Tirrell, and Christine D. Keating. Journal: Nat Commun 11, 5423 (2020) Think about combining oil and…
Stories told by molecular skeletons: Animal evolution may not be what we think
Half-a-billion-year-old molecular skeletons tell conflicting stories about the first animals that evolved on Earth.
Chemical brushes in the fight against bacterial infection
Researchers develop a new two-layer coating for medical devices that dramatically reduces the chance of infection.
More than SPF: Some Common Sunscreen Ingredients to Avoid
Buying sunscreen? Take a look at the ingredients list first.
