Life Sciences and Chemistry

Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered genetic mutations in heart patients that make them vulnerable to heart failure because they produce an abnormal protein that can’t decode stress messages from the body.

Mayo researchers are the first to realize that these proteins do not recognize the stress alarm. As a result, they can’t properly respond to cue adjustments within the heart that normally manage stress. These defects make the heart muscle susceptible to damage. The Mayo Clini

A device invented at Ohio State University has dramatically boosted the production of a chemical that performs tasks as diverse as scenting perfume and flavoring Swiss cheese.

Engineers here have used their patented fibrous-bed bioreactor to genetically alter a bacterium so that it produces 50 percent more of the chemical propionic acid than the organism produces normally. And it did so without the aid of chemical additives employed in industry.

The device also reduced the amount of

Purveyors of snake oil and its mythical powers may not have had it all wrong, if preliminary findings with the Florida cottonmouth, bloodstains and a washing machine stay on target.

An enzyme extracted from the viper’s venom appears to help launder out notoriously stubborn blood spots on clothing, according to a report presented here today at the 227th national meeting of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

“We have partially isolated a

Virginia Tech students and faculty members are creating releasable coatings and thin films using the same chemistry that nature uses to bind the double helix of DNA.

They will present their research at the 227th national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Anaheim, Calif., March 28-April 1, 2004.

“We are coating a patterned surface with accepting molecules then applying donating molecules – that is, using molecular recognition — to create a molecular zipper,” explains Tim

A multi-university research team led by Virginia Tech University Distinguished Professor of Chemistry David G.I. Kingston has succeeded in enhancing the structure of paclitaxel (Taxol™) to make it more effective in killing cancer cells.

Having determined how paclitaxel fits into a cancer cell’s reproductive machinery, the team is optimistic that simpler molecules can be designed as future medicines.

Kingston will present the research that brought the team to this point a

Developing electronic paper that can be written on and then erased with the touch of a button is a challenge. Sometimes the ink must adhere to the paper and other times bead up.

Getting it just right requires knowing how, on a molecular level, the liquid ink interacts with the solid paper.

Now Jeanne E. Pemberton has clarified why changing the electrical charge on electronic paper affects how well ink will stick.

The finding will further efforts to make a reusable tablet