news 2011

Although many mental illnesses are uniquely human, animals sometimes exhibit abnormal behaviors similar to those seen in humans with psychological disorders. Such behaviors are called endophenotypes. Now, researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have found that mice lacking a gene that encodes a particular protein found in the synapses of the brain display a number of endophenotypes associated with schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders.

Researchers have shown for the first time how Golden orb web spiders (Nephila antipodiana) add a chemical to their web silk to repel invading ants. The finding adds a chemical defense to the impressive properties of spider silk, already known to be very strong, elastic and adhesive, and may provide new opportunities for pesticide design.

Hydrogen peroxide isn't just that bottled colorless liquid in the back of the medicine cabinet that's used occasionally for cleaning scraped knees and cut fingers. It's also a natural chemical in the body that rallies at wound sites, jump-starting immune cells into a series of events. A burst of hydrogen peroxide causes neutrophils, the immune system's first responders, to rush to the wound to fight microorganisms, remove damaged tissue and then start the inflammation process.

by Steven Schultz Conventional wisdom would say that blocking a hole would prevent light from going through it, but Princeton University engineers have discovered the opposite to be true. A research team has found that placing a metal cap over a small hole in a metal film does not stop the light at all, but rather enhances its transmission.

Researchers at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have developed a new method for counting molecules. Quantifying the amounts of different kinds of RNA and DNA molecules is a fundamental task in molecular biology as these molecules store and transfer the genetic information in cells.

Researchers at Yale University have discovered new chemical compounds that prevent HIV from replicating in human T-cells. These compounds could result in new, highly effective HIV treatments that are 10 to 2000 times more potent than HIV drugs now on the market. "The current compounds or slight variants could become drugs," said Professor William L. Jorgensen, one of two principal investigators behind the research.

Like a shadowy character just hidden from view, a mystery atom in the middle of a complex enzyme called nitrogenase had long hindered scientists' ability to study the enzyme fully. But now an international team of scientists led by Serena DeBeer, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology, has pulled back the curtain using powerful synchrotron spectroscopy and computational modeling to reveal carbon as the once-elusive atom.

The lowly and simple roundworm may be the ideal laboratory model to learn more about the complex processes involved in repairing wounds and could eventually allow scientists to improve the body's response to healing skin wounds, a serious problem in diabetics and the elderly.

Genetic mutations that cause schizophrenia could be linked to systems in the brain responsible for learning and memory. University researchers from Edinburgh have identified changes to genes - genetic mutations - in patients with schizophrenia who had not inherited the condition. The study, which was carried out with Cardiff University, showed that these mutations occurred among a set of proteins that play a key role in memory function.

The discovery by scientists in Cambridge and Alberta of a fifth adaptor protein - a tiny and vital component of many cells -will lay the foundations for a greater understanding of genetic disorders. This fundamental research could impact on the study of diseases where certain molecules fail to get trafficked correctly." —Dr Jennifer Hirst The people who work there call it the Titanic.

Reduced to the max: the emission-free, noiseless 4-wheel drive ca represents lightweight construction at its most extreme. The nano car consists of just a single molecule and travels on four electrically-driven wheels in an almost straight line over a copper surface. A number of chemists aim to use similar principles and concepts to design molecular transport machines, which could then carry out specific tasks on the nano scale.

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have shed light on the role of temperature in controlling a fabrication technique for drawing chemical patterns as small as 20 nanometers. This technique could provide an inexpensive, fast route to growing and patterning a wide variety of materials on surfaces to build electrical circuits and chemical sensors, or study how pharmaceuticals bind to proteins and viruses.

Iron overload is a common condition affecting millions of people worldwide. Excess iron in the body is toxic, and deposits can cause damage to the liver, heart and other organs. Current treatments, researchers say, are not ideal and have significant side effects. Iron in the body is regulated by a hormone called hepcidin, and a deficiency in this hormone can cause the iron overload seen in genetic disorders like hereditary hemochromatosis and Cooley's anemia.

Engineering researchers at the University of Toronto have developed the world's most efficient organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) on plastic. This result enables a flexible form factor, not to mention a less costly, alternative to traditional OLED manufacturing, which currently relies on rigid glass.

Genetic research at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna) yields remarkable insights on mould fungi. This opens the door to the specialized use of fungi in agriculture. We know them from our garden, from damp cellars or from the fridge - mould fungi can be found almost everywhere. Their success is due to their remarkable versatility: depending on external conditions, they can choose quite different lifestyles.

Studying chemical modifications in the chromosomes of cells is akin to searching for changes in coiled spaghetti. Scientists at Cornell have figured out how to stretch out tangled strands of DNA from chromosomes, line them up and tag them to reflect different levels of modification - which could lead to insights into how these chemical processes affect human health.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have found inborn traits in mice, which might explain why some individuals are more prone to develop anorexia/self starvation than others. A study showing that genetic defects in the cells power plant, the mitochondria, might cause the neurons in the feeding center of the brain to die, when they are exposed to starvation, is published today in the scientific journal PNAS.

The structure and function of a 'molecular motor' critical to the functioning of human organs and, when malfunctioning, implicated in cancer, kidney failure, and osteoporosis, has been revealed in unprecedented detail. An international team, led by chemists from Oxford University, has used highly sensitive mass-spectrometry to piece together a picture of how the motor, the energy-converting protein adenosine triphosphate (ATP) synthase, interacts with the fatty acids that form the membranes around our cells.

Scientists have discovered an enzyme that acts as a 'fertility switch', in a study published in Nature Medicine today. High levels of the protein are associated with infertility, while low levels make a woman more likely to have a miscarriage, the research has shown. The findings have implications for the treatment of infertility and recurrent miscarriage and could also lead to new contraceptives.

17 October 2011 When a new drug is developed, the manufacturer must be able to show that it reaches its intended goal in the body’s tissue, and only that goal. Such studies could be made easier with a new method now established at Lund University in Sweden. The method is a special type of mass spectrometry which can be used on drugs 'off the shelf', i.e. without any radioactive labelling which may change the behaviour of the drug.