A magazine providing a snapshot of the latest developments across the chemical sciences.
Issue 10
Stopping stickiness
The problem of molecules sticking to the inside of microfluidic channels is being tackled by researchers in the US. Non-specific adsorption of analytes causes significant problems in microfluidic devices, and can make analysis impossible. Now, Matthew Munson and co-workers at the University of Washington, Seattle, have shown that sheath flow, a type of flow configuration that results in one fluid completely surrounding another, can prevent the analytes sticking. The technique is particularly promising for miniaturised analysis of biological molecules.
Pocket-sized peptides
Drug discovery scientists at Cyclacel Ltd in Dundee, UK, have designed short, constrained peptide molecules that inhibit a key enzyme involved in cell multiplication, inducing cancer cells to commit suicide. Targeting this enzyme has enormous potential for specific, less toxic chemotherapeutic agents. The researchers have employed a wealth of structural information to explain why the conformational rigidity of their cyclic peptides makes them so potent. They have also optimised novel solid phase synthetic route chemistry that neatly integrates a cyclisation and a resin cleavage step.
Behind liver transplantation
Alterations occurring in the liver modify the physio-chemical state of fluorophores that are engaged in the metabolic processes, affecting the liver tissue's autofluorescence. Anna Croce and her team from the University of Pavia, Italy, have conducted a spectrofluorometric study on liver extracts in conditions that mimic phases of organ transplant. The team have characterised the nature of the fluorophores and their dependence on experimental conditions. This work could lead to the development of a real-time diagnostic technique for monitoring liver functional-metabolic conditions.
Ionic liquid energies
One of the advantages of ionic liquids, their negligibly low vapour pressures, also means that it is impossible to directly measure their internal energies of vaporisation experimentally. It is however possible to estimate these energies if the Hildebrand solubility parameter is known. Andrew McLean and colleagues at the University of Paisley, UK, are the first to successfully estimate this parameter for several ionic liquids, enabling researchers to predict which parameters most influence reactions in ionic liquids.
Essential Elements
ReSourCe - lighting the way to publication
ReSourCe - lighting the way to publication
Award winning journals
And finally......
Research Highlights
Dental x-rays reveal mummies' diets
Analysis of tooth cementum gives insight into ancient lives.
Novel chiral amplification with links to origin of life.
Non-destructive Raman spectroscopy may reveal lifestyles of historic figures.
New inhibitors may overcome bacteria's resistance to tuberculosis drugs.
Access granted: probing the single cell
A new way to manipulate the biochemical nature of a single cell's interior has been developed by scientists in the US.
Piersandro Pallavicini and colleagues at the University of Pavia, Italy, have developed a system for fluorescence signalling within a pH range rather than at a specific pH value.
UK scientists are using computational and NMR methods to predict three-dimensional crystalline structures.
BSE detection in live cattle a step closer
Detecting BSE in cattle early is critical, making a test for BSE in live cattle highly desirable.
Devices made from films printed with ink-jet technology have been improved thanks to research undertaken in the Netherlands.
Lanthanide complexes are showing potential for second order nonlinear optics (NLO), according to French researchers.
By using artificial ion channels based on gramicidin, a bacterial toxin, scientists from Canada and Germany are quite literally illuminating nerve cell processes.
