Imaging the smallest atoms provides insights into an enzyme's unusual biochemistry

This could help in the design of enzymes for the chemical industry

29-Sep-2023 - When your wounds heal and your liver detoxifies a poison such as histamine you ingested, you can thank the class of enzymes known as copper amine oxidases for their assistance. Identifying the exact positions of the smallest hydrogen atoms in these enzymes is challenging with commonly used ...

A taste for plastic

Discovered for the first time: New deep-sea enzyme breaks down PET plastic

27-Sep-2023 - Plastic pollution is increasingly affecting the health of coasts and oceans. One well-known problem is plastic bottles made from polyethylene terephthalate, or PET. A new study involving scientists from Professor Ruth Schmitz-Streit's research group at Kiel University has shown for the first ...

Tiny microbes could brew big benefits for green biomanufacturing

The discovery could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the manufacturing of fuels, drugs, and chemicals

15-May-2023 - Scientists find new route in bacteria to decarbonize industry. A research team led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley has engineered bacteria to produce new-to-nature carbon products that could provide a powerful route to sustainable biochemicals. The advance ...

Sustainable scents from the mountain of the gods

ETH Zurich chemist Michailidou could see herself founding her own start-​up: “That would be a dream come true”

15-Nov-2022 - ETH Zurich chemist Freideriki Michailidou is developing novel processes for the sustainable production of fragrance ingredients. As a first step, she studied the scents of rare aromatic plants that grow only on Mount Olympus in Greece. How a product smells affects how we respond to it. So it ...

US company acquires spin-off from Jacobs University researchers

31-Mar-2021 - Two years ago, Sebastian Springer, Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Jacobs University Bremen, founded Tetramer-Shop together with scientists from the Technical University of Denmark. Now the pioneer in biomedical reagents for cancer diagnostics, based in Copenhagen, has been sold to ...

Drug to rejuvenate muscle cells developed

Elderly to feel fitter, faster and stronger

18-Feb-2019 - Researchers from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have developed a promising drug that has proven to significantly increase muscle size, strength and metabolic state in aged mice, according to a study. As we age, our bodies increasingly lose the ability to repair and rebuild ...

Theory unlocks the secret behind protein-membrane interactions

Understanding cell behavior better by elucidating how proteins work with cell membranes

28-Jan-2019 - Trillions of cells -- all different shapes and sizes -- form a human body's structure. Surrounding each cell is a membrane, jointly acting as hostess and security -- welcoming certain information into the cell while making sure its components don't spill out into the body's void. Much is known ...

New sepsis therapy approaches with evolution of signaling molecules

Protein engineering extends immune cell vocabulary

25-Jan-2019 - Small infections can be fatal: Millions of people die each year from sepsis, an overreaction of the immune system. A new immune signaling molecule, designed by a research team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), now provides the basis for potential new approaches in sepsis therapy. The ...

AI researchers join forces to develop the 'ImageNet' of generative drug discovery

04-Dec-2018 - Insilico Medicine, an artificial intelligence company developing an end-to-end drug discovery pipeline for age-related diseases, announced an open research collaboration. Researchers are invited to contribute to the new platform MOSES (Molecular Sets), described in the paper titled "Molecular ...

How to produce fluorescent nanoparticles for medical applications in a nuclear reactor

12-Nov-2018 - Under the leadership of Petr Cígler from the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry (IOCB Prague) and Martin Hrubý from the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry (IMC), both of which are part of the Czech Academy of Sciences, a team of researchers has developed a revolutionary method for ...