Drug discovery and development — in space?

The low-gravity environment could speed up the development and discovery of complex molecules used in medicines

21-Nov-2022 - Carrying out scientific experiments in space allows scientists to study and make drugs without gravity, which can lead to surprising results that improve research back on Earth. According to a cover story in Chemical & Engineering News, an independent news outlet of the American Chemical Society, ...

Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize for research into crystallisation processes

15-Mar-2021 - Prof. Dr. Anna Schenk, Junior Professor for Colloidal Systems at the University of Bayreuth, receives one of this year's Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prizes. The award worth € 20,000, is the most important prize for young scientists in Germany. A jury appointed by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and ...

Cellular powerplant recycles waste gases

The idea is to use the power of bacteria to turn toxic waste gases into valuable compounds such as acetate or ethanol

19-Nov-2020 - Carbon monoxide is a very poisonous gas. Humans die within minutes when they inhale it. However, some microorganisms tolerate carbon monoxide and even use it to breathe and replicate. Knowledge about how these bacteria survive opens a window into the primeval times of the earth and the origin of ...

Nature Unveiling Herself Before Science

Cutting-edge technology allows for real-time monitoring of biomineralisation

22-May-2020 - 21st century societal challenges such as demographic developments and an ageing population demand for new functional materials, such as for bone prostheses. Nature often serves as inspiration when designing these materials. In a recent study published in Analytical Chemistry, a team led by ERC ...

Chemistry breakthrough could speed up drug development

12-May-2020 - Scientists have successfully developed a new technique to reliably grow crystals of organic soluble molecules from nanoscale droplets, unlocking the potential of accelerated new drug development. Chemistry experts from Newcastle and Durham universities, working in collaboration with SPT Labtech, ...

Faster characterization of organic salts

27-Mar-2018 - UZH researchers have developed a novel method that speeds up the process of determining crystal structures of organic salts and significantly reduces the effort required to do so. As about 40 percent of all active pharmaceutical ingredients are salts, this new crystallographic method is set to ...

New tool for structural biology

New method of crystallising large membrane proteins

08-Mar-2018 - ETH researchers have developed a new method of crystallising large membrane proteins in order to determine their structure. This will be of benefit to biological research and the pharmaceutical industry. Membrane-embedded proteins are an essential part of cells and any form of life. They not only ...

Nanoscale virus features reconstructed from correlations of scattered X-rays

16-Oct-2017 - As part of an international research team, Jeff Donatelli, Peter Zwart and Kanupriya Pande of the Center for Advanced Mathematics for Energy Research Applications (CAMERA) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) contributed key algorithms which helped achieve a goal first proposed ...

A way to pack grains and drugs most efficiently

16-May-2017 - Scientists have discovered a way to solve a problem that has baffled humans for so long it is mentioned in the Bible: achieving the most efficient packing of objects such as grains and pharmaceutical drugs. Lead researcher Dr Mohammad Saadatfar from The Australian National University (ANU) said ...

Unexpected protein structure findings could lead to new therapies

07-Apr-2017 - Scientists have determined unexpected characteristics of a key protein linked to blood pressure control and to nerve growth, pain control and heart tissue regeneration. The findings opens doors to potential new therapies to control cardiovascular disease and pain. The protein, called AT2, is one ...