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Tag: "atom" at biology news

Chemists create 'Superbowl' molecule; May lead to better health

...ngle buckyball is designed to hold either a single atom or a hydrogen molecule, a superbowl molecule can hold large molecules of up to a hundred atoms, particularly those of medicinal value, Sherburn says. "I'm sure that we will be able to encapsulate compounds such as [the anticancer drug] taxol in the ...

UIC developing drug for SARS

...o reconstruct the enzyme's molecular configuration atom by atom. The detailed structures will reveal the precise locations and chemical properties of pockets where the enzymes bind the SARS virus's long protein chain. This information will help Arun Ghosh, professor of chemistry at UIC, build protease i...

Researchers Create DNA-Based Sensors for Nano-Tongues and Nano-Noses

...hen rolled. It is a unique material in which every atom is on both the surface and the interior. Although nanotubes have many applications, they are extremely sensitive to electrostatic variations in their environment, whether the nanotube is in a liquid or in air. "When the DNA portion of the nanosensor...

Green diesel: New process makes liquid transportation fuel from plants

...olecule of hydrogen is used to convert each carbon atom in the carbohydrate reactant to an alkane. It's a very high yield. We don't lose a lot of carbon. The carbon acts as an effective energy carrier for transportation vehicles. It's not unlike the way our own bodies use carbohydrates to store energy." ...

Modifications render carbon nanotubes nontoxic

...ollow molecules of pure carbon with walls just one atom thick. They are related to buckyballs, tiny spheres of pure carbon that are about the same diameter. In previous studies with buckyballs, CBEN found that even minor surface modifications could dramatically reduce cytotoxicity. The nanotube study fou...

Biotechnology's newest chemical tool

... adding a simple cluster of four atoms -- a carbon atom attached to three hydrogens, known to chemists as a methyl group -- to specific bases within a DNA sequence, methyltransferases can effectively shut a gene off. Methylation plays an important role in embryonic development, genomic imprinting, and car...

Membrane research opens window to benefits for plants, humans

...ins in full detail. "We could see how every single atom moves and how collective motions of a large number of atoms resulted in the opening of the channel," he said. Aquaporins -- discovered in 1991 by Peter Agre, now vice chancellor for science and technology at Duke University Medical Center -- help ce...

Superconducting magnet attracts molecular research

.... The electrons, neutrons and protons within the atom have an intrinsic property known as "spin" and within the electromagnetic field created by the magnet, the frequency of the spinning motion of the atoms reveals information about the physical, chemical, structural and electronic characteristics of th...

MIT chemist discovers secret behind nature's medicines

...pecific chemical bonds and then replace a hydrogen atom with a halide, one of the elements from the column...t syringomycin, he discovered it had a single iron atom in the protein's active site, the part responsible for the chemical reaction. Drennan and her gradu...

Wisconsin scientists find a way to make human collagen in the lab

...ines. "We are able to build these molecules up one atom at a time and we can manipulate them in very precise ways." The new Wisconsin study, which was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, lays a foundation for bringing human collagen to the clinic, says Raines. But he notes there i...

Scientists re-engineer a well-known antibiotic to counter drug resistance

The scientists replaced a single atom from the molecular structure of vancomycin aglycon...repare the new antibiotics; in this case, a single atom in vancomycin was altered to counter an analogous single atom change in the bacterial cell wall that...

Groovy protein essential for promoting cancer development

...l map, elucidating the position of each individual atom within the TEN domain. Their studies revealed that TEN was characterized by a deep groove on its surface. "But," Cech said, "a protein crystal structure without its relevant partners is not very informative." So the team went on to do further analysi...

Report lists top 20 most-vulnerable African carnivores

...l map, elucidating the position of each individual atom within the TEN domain. Their studies revealed that TEN was characterized by a deep groove on its surface. "But," Cech said, "a protein crystal structure without its relevant partners is not very informative." So the team went on to do further analysi...

Scientists identify molecular structure of key viral protein

...d their colleagues determined the location of each atom within the structure. Jardetzky credits the very high intensity X-rays for enabling the researchers to image the structure at 2.85 angstroms. (An angstrom is one ten-billionth of a meter, or about one-hundred-millionth of an inch.) This resolution w...

Scientists take 'snapshots' of enzyme action

...eted. "For FMOs, the end result -- that an oxygen atom gets added to make these compounds soluble -- is s... to perform the function of transferring an oxygen atom from the enzyme to the substrate. "Our finding shows that the substrate and cofactor are binding to ...

Uniform tungsten trimers stand and deliver

...ule on the titanium dioxide platform. One tungsten atom from each cluster is raised slightly, holding forth the potential to execute catalytic reactions. The nanostructures constitute a new model system, a simplified version of a catalyst that would be used in an application. Such models reveal to chemi...

Motorola researchers develop selective sensors based on carbon nanotubes

...atoms rolled into a tube," Tao said. "Every single atom in the tube is exposed to the environment and can interact with chemicals and molecules. That is why it is so sensitive. But without the peptides, it would not recognize specific compounds." "The potential for the carbon nanotubes is extraordinary,...

Carnegie Mellon scientists use 'green' approach to transform plastics manufacturing

... paint coatings. The revolutionary improvement in atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) now enables large-scale production of many specialty plastics, according to the scientists, whose work appears in a special issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) devoted to material...

BC catalyst discovery promises faster, cheaper drug production

...taches, with extremely high selectivity, a silicon atom to an alcohol group so that only one enantiomer is formed. Other molecules are known to promote this important reaction, but the new catalyst is the first to control the handedness of the process at the same time. "What makes this discovery enormo...

New technique boosts size of proteins that can be analyzed

...ed within that section, which means that an oxygen atom (with an atomic weight of 16) was added. "When you isolate a protein from a mixture, your first problem is to know which one it is," said Fred McLafferty, Cornell's Peter J.W. Debye Professor Emeritus of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and senior au...

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