Search

The effects of crowded conditions on proteins are discussed. Researchers have found that crowding has an effect on several protein properties such as structure, function, and activity. The excluded-volume effects can help in the understanding of protein under these conditions.

Research work that has been done on how Raman spectroscopy, a vibrational technique, could be applied in medical diagnosis is described. Bone analysis, early detection of dental caries, noninvasive metabolite profiling in blood, and tissue classification during cancer screening are among these applications. Limitations of Raman spectroscopy in medical diagnosis are also described.

Users of mass spectrometry had been provided with a wide array of instruments that offer greater resolving power and mass accuracy. These instruments include Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance and time-of-flight systems. Specific applications of these instruments are described.

The speed of ultra-high-pressure liquid chromatography enables scientist to run more samples in less time compared to more conventional chromatography methods. The speed ultimately translates to less demand for instruments, lab space, and saves money.

Chemist Richard Zare is honored with the 2010 Priestley Medal by the American Chemical Society. Zare entered Harvard thinking he might be a math major but he majored in chemistry and physics. Zare also took a job at MIT but left for the University of Colorado after he found himself stymied in what he wanted to do.

New technologies have resulted in the reduction of genome sequencing costs. Such technologies ease sample preparation and allow longer DNA stretches to be read at a time. Companies providing next-generation genome sequencing technologies are also presented.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Association of American Medical Colleges wrote a report which urged educators to revise the premedical curriculum. The report suggests replacing the old curriculum which includes a year each of biology, chemistry, physics, organic chemistry, and calculus, with one that specifies content rather than courses.

How scientists started to turn to mass spectrometry to provide deeper understanding of asphaltenes is presented. Asphaltenes were considered petroleum's recalcitrant fraction due to problems with its viscosity and their tendency to clog pipes. Scientists believe that knowing the detailed organic composition of petroleum enables the prediction of its properties and behavior.

Some researchers have turned to vibrational spectroscopy techniques such as infrared and Raman spectroscopy in observing amyloids, which are often elusive to investigations. These researchers have been seeing amyloids with a new clarity. Vibrational techniques may not be as powerful as X-ray crystallography, but they provide scientists with insights into the properties of fibrils.

Academic researchers and nonprofit organizations have been developing diagnostics for use by people in developing countries. Such technologies are seen to even lower healthcare costs in developed countries. Making diagnostic devices as simple as possible is seen as a major development.

Information about Yale University's Rainforest Expedition and Laboratory course, which gives undergraduates a career-defining appetite for research in rain forests, is presented. Students hunt endophytes, which produce chemicals that ward off other microorganisms. The other details of the program are also discussed.

Using of ion mobility spectroscopy with mass spectrometry in academic labs and commercial instrumentation enhances the MS technique. Commercial instruments incorporating this technology are being manufactured by Waters Corp. and Thermo Fisher Scientific.

The new type of degree program, the professional science master's degree and government grants to improve the existing PSM program is reviewed. The PSM prepares students for professional careers in scientific industries and the nonprofit sector complete with an exposure to industrial internship.

The article discusses about mass spectrometry and the use of DART (direct analysis in real time) ionization method for finding fakes and other applications.

Engineers and physical scientists along with biologists have shown that the channels and wells of microfluidic devices can mimic the chemistry and physics of biological systems.

The research work related to the single molecules fluorescent imaging technique for living cells which would uncover details of gene expression, structural proteins, and molecular motors is presented.

George M. Whitesides' contributions to chemistry have earned him this year's Priestley Medal, the American Chemical Society's honor. The Harvard University chemist teaches at Harvard and also directs an ambitious and productive research group of more than 40 students and post doctorates.

Scripps Florida, the new campus in Jupiter, Florida, of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California is pioneering new trails for translational medicine, the branch of medical research in which basic research is translated into clinical practice, specially new therapies. The Translational Research Institute focuses on drug discovery and technology development and has a department of infectology dealing with medications for cancer biology and also plans to start a unit for regenerative medicine.

Thermo Electron and Fisher Scientific, two major companies joined hands in a deal in which Thermo acquired Fisher for $10.6 billion in Thermo stocks. The deal created Thermo Fisher Scientific making it the largest player in the laboratory sector.

Merck's announcement of acquiring San Francisco-based Sirna Therapeutics, one of the major players in RNAi-based therapeutics shows that big pharma is confident about the potential of RNAi therapeutics. Industrial and academic researchers are investigating delivery systems for RNAi to have the therapeutic impact that people hope it will have.

Mass spectrometry is a key method for studying proteins, playing an increasingly important role in the study of proteins modifications, such as phosphorylation and structural biology. Although it is not the first technique for structural biology and lacks the high spatial resolution of techniques like X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, mass spectrometry helps to characterize complexes that are too fragile for other methods.

Systems biology provides a personalized approach to medicine, which helps in maintaining health and keeping the person disease free. The goal of the systems biology is to combine molecular information of various types in models that describe and predict function at the cellular, tissue, organ and even whole-organism levels which help the doctors recommend ways for an individual to maintain or improve health through either medication or behavior modification.

Archaeologist want to find out how people lived in earlier times and chemistry can answer a number of questions that can help with this reconstruction by dating artifacts. At the American Chemical Society national meeting held in Atlanta, a symposium of archaeology chemistry addressed these questions are speakers described a variety of projects.

Singapore is planning to build a strong research and development (R&D) value chain by building a research infrastructure with both foreign and homegrown talent. The Ministry of Trade & Industry has invested in setting up research institutes in the physical and biomedical sciences that can conduct research of their own and develop the scientific talent needed to populate public- and private-sector research laboratories.

The Human Toxicology Project Consortium is made up of corporations, the Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences, and the Humane Society of the U.S. The group is striving to develop a new method to human health risk assessment that does not rely on animal testing. The research into novel techniques in human health risk assessment are discussed.

Milestones in the career of Royce W. Murray's fiftieth year at the University of North Carolina (UNC) as electroanalytical chemist and professors are highlighted. Starting as an instructor in the UNC's chemistry department in August 1960, Murray spearheaded research that has an interdisciplinary approach. Murray's services to the broader chemistry community are also enumerated.

Scientists look to the potential of exposomes in advancing personalized and preventive medicine considering that genomes have not yet provided clues about the causes of human disease. Exposomes refer to records of environmental, infection-, and stress-related exposures an individual receives throughout his or her lifetime. Methods that have been proposed to study exposomes are described.

Atmospheric and indoor chemists met during a symposium at the American Chemical Society meeting in San Francisco to bring some attention to the nascent field of indoor chemistry. Several research in the field of indoor chemistry are discussed.

The use of analytical chemistry in assessing the toxicity of nanomaterials is discussed. Details on the disadvantages of several toxicity measurement techniques and studies on nanoparticles' affinity to proteins are presented.

Advances in DNA-sequencing technology is seen to result in clinical applications of whole genomes. Whole-exome sequencing is seen as a way to whole-genome sequencing. Genome sequencing costs are also seen to decrease over time.

3-D advances in fluorescence microscopy were the focus of a symposium sponsored by a division of the American Chemical Society. Superresolution microscopy combines really sophisticated optical physics with photochemistry and molecular biology and this helps answer some interesting structural questions in cell biology.

The Divisions of Physical Chemistry at the American Chemical Society's national meeting co-sponsored a symposium on enzyme dynamics. The various research and findings in the field that were presented at the symposium are presented. This includes the role of protein motions in enzyme function and the tunneling behavior of a thermophilic enzyme.

Model systems are used to understand the physical and chemical properties of the plasma membrane that surrounds biological cells. Some scientists say that model systems only helps in understanding the soft condense matter physics of cell membranes but not the cell biology.

College professors continue performing research or mentoring younger scientists after their retirement. These professors, some of which skip retirement, are taking advantage of age discrimination laws making mandatory retirement illegal and plan to carry on as long as their health allows them.

The Chemical Heritage Foundation has a new conference center and a science museum, which features the Masao Horiba Exhibit Halls for permanent science art exhibits and Clifford C. Hach Gallery for temporary exhibits. Details about the museum's design and display of books, documents and artwork are discussed.

Block copolymer lithography is being developed as an approach to build transistors smaller than 10 nanometers. This approach uses spontaneous self-assembly processes to create arrays of molecular-size features dictated by the chemistry of block copolymers.

Medical researchers and chemists using near-IR imaging have revealed the advantages and advances of the method in biomedical applications at a symposium organized by the American Chemical Society in Philadelphia. They explained that near-IR imaging eliminates problems linked to fluorescence imaging in the visible region.

The need to transpose basic science and technology into practical applications that will benefit in the diagnosis and treatment of disease was highlighted at the Pittcon conference 2008 held in New Orleans.

National Park Service program is providing funds for research in order to develop and apply technologies for the conservation of historical and cultural heritage. The research priorities of the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training have included the protection of cultural resources from vandalism, looting, terrorism and natural disasters.

Improved testing methods and techniques for food safety are being developed by analytical chemists.

Scientific organizations have found a new way to communicate with younger generation by posting videos on YouTube, the popular Google-owned online video website.

Development of simple and cheap methods for diagnosing tropical diseases was the focus of a symposium at Pittcon held in February 2007. Helen Lee of University of Cambridge and her team are researching on development of dipstick test that does not require any instruments.

Interdisciplinary science courses have introduced new concepts to science majors and non-majors in a single classroom. The different courses available at Harvard University, Princeton, and Columbia University are discussed.

Historically vaccines were complex mixtures that were difficult to characterize and often not well-defined, but scientists have tools to better define such complicated mixtures, and subunit vaccines consisting of only a few components that are easier to characterize are becoming more popular. In a symposium at Pittcon, researchers discussed efforts to develop vaccines for a number of diseases, including the associated analytical challenges.

The DNA replication process is still insufficiently understood. Some welcome research sheds light on a few of the gaps in the understanding of what is a key cellular process.

Neurosurgeons from London have developed a microfluidic device aimed at monitoring brain glucose levels in brain injury patients. The device allows glucose measurements at shorter time periods compared with periodic bulk sample collection techniques in a commercial microdialysis approach. How the device reveals connection between glucose and patient outcome in brain injury is discussed.

Printed textbooks have yet to be replaced despite the development of new technologies, speakers at the American Chemical Society 2010 meeting have forecasted. Authors have become more involved in the development of digital textbooks. Comments from members of the academe are also given.

Research work that has been conducted to assess the toxicity and composition of plant-derived dietary supplements and botanical remedies is described. These efforts have been motivated by the Government Accountability Office's report on trace contamination of the said supplements with pesticides and heavy metals.

Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Training is funding education programs where local universities partner with an international university with a higher standard to import the curriculum into the local school. Hanoi University is replicating the chemistry curriculum of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign under the program.

Scientists from the U.S. and Belgium have created computer algorithms to calculate probability of forming amyloids, a family of fibrils originating from protein sequences. Amyloidal formation could facilitate discovery of treatments for nerve-damaging diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. How each of these algorithms functions is discussed.