Very soon, we need to become fossil free, not only in the energy sector, but as well in industry. Hydrocarbons or other raw chemicals can be produced in principle using renewable energy and abundant molecules such as water and carbon dioxide with the help of electrocatalytically active materials. But at the moment, those catalyst materials either consist of expensive and rare materials or lack efficiency. Key reaction in water splitting A team led by Dr. Prashanth W. Menezes (HZB/TU-Berlin) has…
Researchers at Berkeley Lab have made real-time movies of copper nanoparticles as they evolve to convert carbon dioxide and water into renewable fuels and chemicals. Their new insights could help advance the next generation of solar fuels. Since the 1970s, scientists have known that copper has a special ability to transform carbon dioxide into valuable chemicals and fuels. But for many years, scientists have struggled to understand how this common metal works as an electrocatalyst, a mechanism that uses energy…
A team of scientists led by Professor Tanja Gulder at Leipzig University’s Institute of Organic Chemistry, together with colleagues from the University of Regensburg, has developed a simplified and efficient method for the artificial production of terpenes. Terpenes are a very extensive and diverse class of natural products that perform a wide range of functions in nature and are also used industrially. Until now, producing them has required a wide variety of starting scenarios, some with harsh conditions, or has…
The so-called isolated REM-sleep behavior disorder is a condition that can provide an indication of Parkinson’s disease well in advance. A research team headed by Professor Dr Erdem Gültekin Tamgüney from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) has shown that a greater concentration of α-synuclein aggregates can be detected in the stool samples of sufferers. In the scientific journal “npj Parkinson’s disease”, which is published by the NatureSpringer group, they now present a method for detecting these aggregates, which they have…
Researchers from the DZNE have solved an important puzzle in neurobiology: the wiring and the movement of nerve cells are interwoven, but separately controlled. The study focuses on neuronal growth and migration: As nerve cells form, they wire the brain to enable communication with other nerve cells. One of these wires, the axon, becomes long; these wires are a basis for neuronal networks. At the same time, nerve cells migrate to a specific place in the brain, the cortex. Remarkably,…
Routing activity in the visual cortex. A new study by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research uses computer simulations to explore how patterns of spikes propagate in neuronal networks constrained by experimental data from the turtle visual cortex. The researchers found that rare but strong connections in the network could promote the reliability of propagation, providing a substrate to easily halt or promote propagation, resulting in a highly reliable system to route activity within these networks. The…
Advance offers a new way of investigating diseases—including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and different cancers—where mitochondria are disrupted. An advanced imaging-based method from scientists at Scripps Research offers a new way of studying mitochondria, which are best known as the “powerhouses” of cells. In their report on February 14, 2023, in the Journal of Cell Biology, the scientists described a set of techniques that enables the imaging and quantification of even subtle structural changes inside mitochondria, and the correlation of those changes…
Protein degrader shows promise against STAT5, which plays a role in leukemia, other cancers. The protein STAT5 has long been an appealing target against cancer, but after decades of research it was consigned to the “undruggable” category. Now, University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center researchers have found success with a new approach. By tapping into a cellular garbage disposal function, researchers found they could eliminate STAT5 from cell cultures and mice, setting the stage for potential development as a cancer…
– no desalination required. Researchers have developed a cheaper and more energy-efficient way to make hydrogen directly from seawater, in a critical step towards a truly viable green hydrogen industry. The new method from RMIT University researchers splits the seawater directly into hydrogen and oxygen – skipping the need for desalination and its associated cost, energy consumption and carbon emissions. Hydrogen has long been touted as a clean future fuel and a potential solution to critical energy challenges, especially for…
Control of specific gene-expression pathways could spur better treatment of many diseases. Rice University scientists have enlisted widely used cancer therapy systems to control gene expression in mammalian cells, a feat of synthetic biology that could change how diseases are treated. The lab of chemical and biomolecular engineer Xue Sherry Gao discovered a way to further tap the therapeutic potential of proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs), small molecules that are used as effective tools for treating cancer, immune disorders, viral infections and neurodegenerative diseases. Gao…
Scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, have removed a major roadblock to better understanding of mpox (formerly, monkeypox). They developed a mouse model of the disease and used it to demonstrate clear differences in virulence among the major genetic groups (clades) of mpox virus (MPXV). The research, appearing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, was led by Bernard Moss, M.D., Ph.D., chief of the Genetic Engineering…
The atomic structure of solid substances can often be analysed quickly, easily and very precisely using X-rays. However, this requires that crystals of the corresponding substances exist. Chemist Professor Oliver Oeckler from Leipzig University and his team are developing methods to make this possible even for very small crystals that cannot be seen with the naked eye. These include phosphorus oxide nitrides, which consist of phosphorus, nitrogen and oxygen and do not occur in nature. Unusual properties are attributed to…
N-Heterocyclic compounds are central active ingredients of many drugs and at the same time important building blocks of new organic materials for the energy transition. Researchers at the University of Bayreuth, led by Prof. Dr. Rhett Kempe, now present in “Nature Communications” a concept for the rational design of new classes of substances belonging to the group of N-heterocyclic compounds. At the same time, they present two new classes of substances synthesized on the basis of this concept. Today, innovations…
Researchers document the animal communities of a rare habitat. Santa Barbara Channel’s natural oil seeps are a beach-goer’s bane, flecking the shores with blobs of tar. But the leaking petroleum also creates fascinating geologic and biologic features. About 10 miles off the coast of Santa Barbara, several jet-black mounds interrupt the featureless sea floor. These asphalt volcanoes, virtually unique in the world, provide a rare habitat in a region known for its underwater biodiversity. Marine scientists have compiled the first…
Bound for the landfill, agricultural waste contains carbon sources that can be used to produce high-value compounds, such as p-coumaric acid, which is used in manufacturing pharmaceuticals. Electrodeionization, a separation method that uses ion-exchange membranes, is one way to capture the acids and other useful components. However, to capture large quantities at scale, improvements to the method must be made. A Penn State-led research team has invented a new class of ion-exchange membrane wafer assemblies that significantly improves electrodeionizaton’s ability…
Thanks to artificial intelligence: Engineering novel molecules and materials with specific properties can yield significant advances for industrial processes, drug discovery and optoelectronics. However, the search for novel molecules and materials is comparable to looking for a needle in a haystack, since the number of molecules in chemical space is of the unimaginable order of 10 to the power of 60. That is significantly more molecules than there are stars in the known universe. Scientists at Leipzig University and the…
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