Car and Parrinello are known for their invention of a method for mapping and predicting the behavior of atoms in motion, known as the Car-Parrinello method. Their original paper detailing this technique, which is a powerful tool for studying chemical structures with applications in both physics and chemistry, was published in Physical Review Letters and is one of the journal's most highly cited papers.

Kapteyn and Murnane, a husband-and-wife research team, are awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics for their groundbreaking research on lasers and light and their contributions to the field of coherent ultra-fast x-ray laser light sources. Their research has led to numerous applications in science, from imaging to energy-efficient electronics.

Laureates will receive their medals and a cash prize of $250,000 each at a ceremony on April 30, 2020, at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. The Franklin Institute of Philadelphia was founded in 1824 to honor the legacy of Benjamin Franklin. The 2020 recipients of Benjamin Franklin Medals join other notable scientists and inventors including Marie Curie, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, Jane Goodall, and Bill Gates.

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2020 Benjamin Franklin Medals in Physics and Chemistry Awarded to APS Fellows - Physics

Cell behaviour, tissue formation/regulation, physiology and disease are all influenced by cellular mechanics and physical forces. The field of mechanobiology has for a long time striven to fully understand how these forces affect biological and cellular processes, as well as developing new analytical techniques. At the same time, the properties of advanced smart materials, such as self-healing, self-reporting and responsive polymers, have been determined by a complex interplay between the thermodynamics, kinetics and mechanics of dynamic bonding strategies. These are tightly connected to the field of mechanochemistry, whichaims to elucidate and harness molecular level design principles and translate these to the bulk material level as emergent properties. At this interface between disciplines lies an emerging and exciting research area that has been strongly facilitated by the collaboration of physicists, chemists, engineers, materials scientists, and biologists.

We had the pleasure of speaking to Kerstin Blank and Matthew Harrington, who have been working on how mechanical forces influence biological systems, molecules and responsive biomaterials, about their views of the field and the recent Multiscale Mechanochemistry and Mechanobiology conference of which PLOS ONE was one of the proud sponsors.

How did you first become interested in this topic?

Kerstin: When I started in this field in 2000, I was mostly impressed by the technical possibilities. I was working with Hermann Gaub, one of the leaders in single-molecule force spectroscopy. I found it fascinating that we could stretch a single biological molecule and observe its response. I did ask myself sometimes if this was just something that physicists like to play with or if one could solve biomedically relevant questions with this approach. Now, almost 20 years later, it has become very evident that a large number of biological systems are regulated by mechanical forces in many different ways.

Matt: My educational background was primarily in biology and biochemistry, but I became fascinated with the capacity of certain biological materials to exhibit self-healing responses in the absence of living cells. I reasoned that this must arise from specific chemical and physical design principles in the material building blocks themselves, and I became obsessed with figuring out how this works. This led me to the self-healing materials community, which was largely populated with chemists and materials engineers, but not so many biologists. When I began to see that many of the same principles at play in synthetic self-healing materials were present in nature, and that in some cases nature was going well beyond the state of the art in synthetic self-healing materials, I realized the enormous potential at the interface of mechanobiology and mechanochemistry. I havent looked back since.

Which areas are you most excited about?

Kerstin: I find it very intriguing how cells utilize mechanical information from their environment and then feed it into intracellular biochemical signalling cascades. Understanding these mechanosensing and mechanotransduction processes requires knowledge of the cellular players and their interactions. But to develop the complete picture, we also need to investigate how cells interact with their extracellular environment. This also involves understanding the microscopic and macroscopic mechanical properties of the extracellular environment. I am highly excited about the development of molecular force sensors that convert mechanical force into a fluorescent signal. This allows for the localized detection of cell traction forces and, in the future, will also enable us to visualize force propagation inside materials that mimic the natural extracellular matrix.

Matt: I am currently most excited about understanding how and why nature uses different transient interactions to control the fabrication and viscoelastic mechanical responses of biopolymeric materials and the potential this has for the development of sustainable advanced polymers of the future. Recent discoveries in the field clearly show that in contrast to traditional polymers, living organisms commonly use specific supramolecular interactions based on dynamic bonds (e.g. hydrogen bonding, metal coordination or pi-cation interactions) to guide the self-assembly and mechanical properties of protein-based materials. The thermodynamic and kinetic properties of these labile bonds enable a certain dynamicity and responsiveness in these building blocks that provides potential inspiration for environmentally friendly materials processing and active/tuneable material properties. These concepts are already being adapted in a number of exciting bio-inspired polymers.

What progress has the field made in the last years?

Kerstin: It is now well-established that cells are able to sense and respond to the elastic and viscoelastic properties of the material they grow in. We have also learned a lot about how the mechanical signal is converted into biochemical signalling on the intracellular side. This is a direct result of many new technological developments, including the molecular force sensors described above. It is further a result of the increasing development of extracellular matrix mimics with well-defined and tuneable mechanical properties and microstructures.

Matt: Due to recent technological advances it is becoming possible to link specific aspects of mechanical material responses directly to structural features at multiple length scales. The better we understand these structure-property relationships, the better we can optimize the material response. This provides an intimate feedback loop that has enabled major breakthroughs in the fields of active matter, including self-healing and self-reporting polymers.

What is the real-world impact?

Kerstin: It is widely accepted that mechanical information plays a key role in stem cell differentiation. It has further been shown that mutated cells, e.g. in cancer or cardiovascular diseases, have different mechanical properties and show alterations in processing mechanical information. Understanding the origin of these changes and being able to interfere with them will have direct impact in disease diagnostics and treatment. Engineering materials with molecularly controlled structures and mechanical properties will further enable the community to direct stem cell differentiation in a more defined manner for applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

Matt: Aside from biomedical impacts, the insights gained from understanding the structure-function relationships defining the mechanical response of molecules are also extremely relevant for the development and sustainable fabrication of next generation advanced polymers. Given the global threat of petroleum-based plastics processing and disposal, this is an extremely important aspect of the research in this field.

What are the challenges and future developments of the field?

Kerstin: At this moment, we usually try to relate the macroscopic material properties (measured in the lab) with the microscopic environment that cells sense. In my view, we are missing a key piece of information. We need to understand how the macroscopic properties of a material emerge from its molecular composition, topography and hierarchical structure. In combination, all these parameters determine the mechanical properties of a material and, more importantly, what the cells see. In fact, this is not only key for the development of new extracellular matrix mimics. The same questions need to be answered for understanding how nature assembles a wide range of structural and functional materials with outstanding properties, such as spider silk, cellulose composites and nacre. Here, I see a great potential for future collaboration between disciplines.

Matt: There are enormous challenges on the bio-inspiration si
de of the field involved with transferring design principles extracted from biological materials into synthetic systems. Biology is inherently complex, so there is a common tendency to distil the extracted concept to a single functional group or concept, while often there are collective effects that are lost by this more reductionist approach. On the biological side, a key challenge is ascertaining which are the relevant design principles. On the bio-inspired side, there are challenges in finding appropriate synthetic analogues to mimic the chemical and structural complexity of the natural system. Overcoming this barrier requires cross-disciplinary communication and feedback and is an extremely exciting and active area in our field.

Why and when did you decide to organize a conference on this topic?

Kerstin & Matt: While both working at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, we quickly realized that the cell biophysics, biomaterials, mechanochemistry and soft matter communities are all interested in very similar questions while using similar methods and theoretical models; however, we had the impression that they hardly interact with each other. We thought of ways to change this and organizing a conference was clearly one way to do it. The first conference with the topic Multiscale Mechanochemistry and Mechanobiology: from molecular mechanisms to smart materials took place in Berlin in 2017. When bringing this idea forward in our respective communities, we immediately realized that we hit a nerve. Now that the conference has taken place for the second time in Montreal in 2019, we really got the feeling that we are starting to create a community around this topic. There will be another follow up conference from August 23-25, 2021 in Berlin (@mcb2021Berlin).

What are the most interesting and representative papers published in PLOS ONE in this field?

Kerstin: The paper Monodisperse measurement of the biotin-streptavidin interaction strength in a well-defined pulling geometry, published by Sedlak et al., is a highly interesting contribution to the field of single-molecule force spectroscopy, which was also presented at the conference. This work highlights the methodological developments in single-molecule force spectroscopy since its very early days. The authors from the Gaub labhave re-measured the well-known streptavidin-biotin interaction, now with a very high level of control over the molecular setup. It clearly shows how far the field has come and also that protein engineering, bioconjugation chemistry, instrumentation development and data analysis all need to go hand in hand to obtain clear and unambiguous experimental results. Clearly, considering a defined molecular setup is not only crucial for this kind of measurement but also for the development of biomimetic materials with controlled mechanical properties.

Sedlak SM, Bauer MS, Kluger C, Schendel LC, Milles LF, Pippig DA, et al. (2017) Monodisperse measurement of the biotin-streptavidin interaction strength in a well-defined pulling geometry. PLoS ONE 12(12): e0188722,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0188722

Matt: Accurately detecting and measuring the mechanical forces at play inside living cells is one of the key challenges in the field of mechanobiology, given the small size and dynamic nature of the intracellular environment. However, this information is extremely important for understanding the role of mechanics in regulating cellular functions such as growth, differentiation and proliferation, as well as disease states. In the Nuclei deformation reveals pressure distributions in 3D cell clusters paper from the Ehrlicher group, the authors address this challenge by using fluorescently labelled proteins in the cell nucleus coupled with confocal microscopy to measure compressive pressures within cells and cell clusters. Using this methodology, they explored the effect of cell number and shape of multicellular clusters on the internal compressive pressure within cells, providing potentially important insights for cellular signalling and function. These studies have potential applications in both in vitro and in vivo models, and provide a relatively simple methodology for acquiring intracellular mechanical data.

Khavari A, Ehrlicher AJ (2019) Nuclei deformation reveals pressure distributions in 3D cell clusters. PLoS ONE 14(9): e0221753,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0221753

Other PLOS ONE representative papers:

Kerstin Blank studied Biotechnology at the University of Applied Sciences in Jena and obtained her PhDin Biophysics under the supervision of Prof Hermann Gaub at Ludwig-Maximilians Universitt in Munich. After two postdocs at the Universit de Strasbourg and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, she became an Assistant Professor at Radboud University in Nijmegen in 2009. In 2014, she moved to the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces where she holds the position of a Max Planck Research Group Leader. Her research interests combine biochemistry and single molecule biophysics with the goal of developing molecular force sensors for biological and materials science applications.

Matthew J. Harrington is Canada Research Chair in Green Chemistry and assistant professor in Chemistry at McGill University since 2017. He received his PhD in the lab of J. Herbert Waite from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Afterwards, he was a Humboldt postdoctoral fellow and then research group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in the Department of Biomaterials. His research interests are focused on understanding biochemical structure-function relationships and fabrication processes of biopolymeric materials and translating extracted design principles for production of sustainable, advanced materials.

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Physical forces at the interface with biology and chemistry - PLoS Blogs

Teaching often means using creative ways to get through to students about complex subjects. For example, an assignment led one Marquette University undergrad to create a comic book about chemistry. WUWM's Chuck Quirmbach reports.

Teaching often means using creative ways to get through to students about complex subjects.For example, at Marquette University, an assignment has led one undergrad to create a children's comic book about chemistry.

Art has often been used to teach, including about science. Even very commercial art. For example, in the 1966 science fiction film Fantastic Voyage, a submarine crew was made tiny and sent inside a man. A trailer from the film boasted, "Off on a fantastic voyage, actually entering, inside, the human body, exploring an unknown universe! Unknown danger!"

About 30 years later, the cartoon The Magic School Bus shrunk the bus, teacher Ms. Frizzle and most of her students, and sent them inside a classmate named Arnold. "We're heeeere. Yay, we're back where we started. These are Arnold's skin cells. Cool!" the travelers exclaimed.

When Pouya Mirzaei was growing up, the first year Marquette University student was a fan of The Magic School Bus. He says that helped whenhis general chemistry professor asked their class last fall to create a children's book about chemistry.

Mirzaei eventually decided to shrink his characters, Danny and Noble, so Danny could get a better understanding of atoms.

"Specifically, it's atomic bonds, so how atoms interact with each other. It's one of the more basic principles of chemistry. So since this is targeted towards children, I thought the best principles to choose are the basic ones," Mirzaei recently told WUWM.

Mirzaei is majoring in biomedical sciences and hopes to go to medical school. But he decided he make his assignment a comic book because he's also had another ambition.

''Ever since I was a kid, I loved reading comic books. It was like one of my favorite pastimes. And one of my dreams, is to create a comic book when I am older. So, I thought this is a good chance to practice. It'll take me some extra time, but why not? Mirzaei said.

Stuck With Atomic Bonds is the title of the comic book. Mirzaei says he got a little stuck trying to finish the 12 pages of illustrations.

"Doing all that in a small, compact time, it takes a lot out of you," Mirzaei said.

Mirzaei says to finish the comic book and keep up in other classes required about 20 hours of work, including an all-nighter or two. But he says the effort was worth it, as Marquette University chemistry professor Llanie Nobile says Mirzaei got an A on the assignment.

The instructor only found out during our interview that the character Noble is named after her. Nobile says one of her goals was to see if her students picked up what she was teaching them, by having them explainit to others.

"Because I think it was Albert Einstein that said, 'If you can explain something simply, you understand it,' " she said.

That's also a skill useful for adults, Nobile adds.

"A lot of times, if we work with just other scientists, we can keep things pretty complicated. But when you look outside, when we're dealing with the media, or dealing with the business side, finances, for us to understand what we know on more layman's terms, is a bit challenging," Nobile said.

Keeping things simple, fun and creative are things many educators do every day. But Mirazaei says he'd like to see more of that.

"Anything that's not just beingtold facts. That seems like it would spark a lot more interest," Mirzaei said.

Mirazaei knows something about keeping things interesting. His comic book ends with the cliffhanger of characters Danny and Noble not knowing how to get back to normal size. Do they make it, eventually?

"We'll have to see," Mirzaei answered, adding that Stuck With Atomic Bonds may have a sequel.

Do you have a question about innovation in Wisconsin that you'd like WUWM's Chuck Quirmbach to explore? Submit it below.

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Chemistry Goes To The Comics Thanks To One Marquette University Student - WUWM

The Pentagons internal watchdog will review the militarys response to a cancer-linked chemical spread in part by its use of firefighting foam.

A class of chemicals abbreviated as PFAS has contaminated water in at least 425 military sites, pushing Department of Defense (DOD) Secretary Mark EsperMark EsperOvernight Defense: VA deputy secretary fired | Impeachment trial winds down with closing arguments | Pentagon watchdog to probe use of cancer-linked chemical DOD watchdog will review military use of cancer-linked chemical US Africa Command chief makes pitch for military presence amid reported plans for cuts MORE to take action on his first day in office and start a task forceto address the substance.

The review from the DODs Office of Inspector General (OIG) is a response to a request spearheaded Rep. Dan KildeeDaniel (Dan) Timothy KildeeOvernight Defense: VA deputy secretary fired | Impeachment trial winds down with closing arguments | Pentagon watchdog to probe use of cancer-linked chemical DOD watchdog will review military use of cancer-linked chemical Pelosi digs in on impeachment rules fight MORE (D-Mich.) that asks how long the DOD has known PFAS was harmful to human health, how the military will address cleaning up the substance, and howit will take care of service members and communities harmed by PFAS.

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Simply, it appears the scope of the problem far outweighs the allocated resources and focus of the DOD, lawmakers wrote in their July request.

Lawmakers have undertaken numerous efforts to push the military to take greater steps to address PFAS, including measures in the defense policy actthat required the military to end its use of PFAS-laden firefighting foam.

OIGs decision to review the militarys response could be something of a road map for the DOD but also for lawmakers eager to make sure funds allocated for cleanup are being used effectively.

The agencys own PFAS task force, however, is also expected to release its findings shortly.

The militarys financial liability on PFAS is already expected to exceed its original $2 billion estimate.

The DOD did not respond to request for comment.

Originally posted here:
DOD watchdog will review military use of cancer-linked chemical | TheHill - The Hill

Credit: Stephen McNeil

At the start of the course, students at the University of British Columbias Okanagan campus work collaboratively to identify how chemistry might help address the United Nations sustainable development goals.

At the University of British Columbias Okanagan campus, two chemistry teachers have used systems thinking to help them redesign their general chemistry curriculum around the United Nations sustainable development goals (UN SDGs).

The small campus and team have meant that W. Stephen McNeil and Tamara K. Freeman have had a lot of flexibility in their work, according to McNeil. Theyve been revising all aspects of the general chemistry curriculum since around 2013. That course is taken by between 750 and 800 first-year science students annually. In the past, the course has lacked context to explain the relevance of chemistry in the students everyday lives, McNeil says. So he and Freeman, who is the first-year coordinator at the Okanagan campus, decided to rebuild the curriculum from scratch. To help them do that, the pair turned to the UN SDGs: 17 topics that the UN has identified as important for building a sustainable world.

Were not the first people to realize this, McNeil says, but the United Nations sustainable development goals are a really rich thematic framework that we thought that we could make use of.

So thats where the pair started. Their aim, McNeil explains, was to get students to realize that chemistry is a human endeavor that can help solve the SDGs as well as be part of problems such as pollution and climate change. They recognized that just telling the students about chemistrys importance wouldnt be enough. We wanted to give our students opportunities to explore for themselves, McNeil says.

Credit: Stephen McNeil

Students at the University of British Columbias Okanagan campus work together on activities linking what they have learned to the United Nations sustainable development goals.

The two began by developing a vision of what the new course might be. Rather than try to do it all at once, we worked toward it incrementally, McNeil says. Using systems thinking, they slowly developed the curriculum by introducing small changes each year and then building upon them.

The work is a little like a retrosynthesis in organic chemistry, according to McNeil. The pair picked an SDG and then tried to find topics or themes that could be linked to that goal; they then chose chemical concepts applicable to those topics. For example, six SDGs are related to the topic of ozone and chlorofluorocarbons, and that can be linked to several chemical concepts.

This new approach has changed the content of the coursefor example, adding spectroscopy and other analytical ideas that McNeil says traditionally dont show up in a first-year curriculum but can provide evidence to the students.

We havent landed yet on a single operational definition of what systems thinking means or within the context of chemistry education what it should imply in terms of our practice.

W. Stephen McNeil, chemistry professor, University of British Columbia, Okanagan campus

Freeman and McNeil have also changed the delivery of the course to fit the SDG framework. After introducing different concepts, for example, the teachers give the students time to reflect and put the concepts into context. There are points in the course where we pause for a moment and say, OK, lets think about everything weve just been discussing for the last 46 weeks and talk about an issue, McNeil explains.

For example, students first learn about gas laws and kinetic molecular theory, introductory spectroscopy and Lewis structures, resonance, and the correlation of bond order with chemical bond strengths. Then the teaching pauses and McNeil or Freeman introduces a case study looking at the role of chlorofluorocarbons in refrigeration and the depletion of the ozone layer.

According to McNeil, these case studies were originally designed to add context to what the students were learning, but through surveys and interviews with students, they found that the students believe the activities also help reinforce learning.

While systems thinking strongly guided the development of the case study exercises and the SDG framework, Freeman and McNeil have not explicitly included the development of systems thinking skills as learning objectives for their course. However, they suspect some of those skills are developed by the students anyway.

And that ambiguity highlights what McNeil describes as a point of tension among chemistry educators. We havent landed yet on a single operational definition of what systems thinking means or within the context of chemistry education what it should imply in terms of our practice, he says. There is a diversity of approach and a diversity of interpretation.

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In these classrooms, chemistry is part of a larger whole - Chemical & Engineering News

Amongst all the different types of cancer treatment,photodynamic therapy- where light in is used to destroy malignant cells - might have one of the strangest side effects: patients are often better able to see in the dark.

Now researchers have figured out why this happens:rhodopsin,a light-sensitive protein in the retinas in our eyes,interacts with a photosensitive compound called chlorin e6, a crucial component of this type of cancer treatment.

The work builds on what scientists already know about the organic compound retinal, which is found in the eye and usually isn't sensitive to infrared light.

Visible light triggers retinal to separate from rhodopsin - this is converted into the electrical signal our brains interpret to see. While we don't get much visible light at night, it turns out this mechanism can also be triggered with another combination of light and chemistry.

Under infrared light and with a chlorin injection, retinal changes in the same way as it does under visible light.

"This explains the increase in night-time visual acuity," chemist Antonio Monari, from the University of Lorraine in France, told Laure Cailloce at CNRS.

"However, we did not know precisely how rhodopsin and its active retinal group interacted with chlorin. It is this mechanism that we have now succeeded in elucidating via molecular simulation."

Together with some high-level chemistry calculations, the team used a molecular simulation to model the movements of individual atoms (in terms of their respective attraction or repulsion), as well as the breaking or creating of chemical bonds.

The simulation was run for several months and chewed through millions of calculations before it was able to accurately model the chemical reaction caused by infrared radiation. In real life, the reaction would happen in mere nanoseconds.

"For our simulation we placed a virtual rhodopsin protein inserted in its lipid membrane in contact with several chlorin e6 molecules and water, or several tens of thousands of atoms," Monari told CNRS.

As chlorin e6 absorbs the infrared radiation, it interacts with the oxygen in the eye tissue, transforming it into highly reactive singlet oxygen as well as destroying cancer cells, singlet oxygen can also react with retinal and enable a boost in night vision, the molecular simulation shows.

Now scientists know the chemistry underpinning this weird side effect, they might be able to limit the chance of it happening in patients undergoing photodynamic therapy, who have reported seeing silhouettes and outlines in the dark.

Further down the line, this chemical reaction could even be harnessed to help treat certain types of blindness or over-sensitivity to light though it's absolutely not recommended trying to use chlorin e6 to give yourself superhuman night vision.

It's another example of the insights we can get from molecular simulations too, and how the most powerful computers on the planet are able to give us a deeper understanding of science than we would have otherwise.

"Molecular simulation is already being used to shed light on fundamental mechanisms for example, why certain DNA lesions are better repaired than others and enable the selection of potential therapeutic molecules by mimicking their interaction with a chosen target," Monari told CNRS.

The research has been published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.

Originally posted here:
There's a Cancer Treatment That Gives People 'Night Vision', And We Finally Know Why - ScienceAlert

A team of MIT chemists has discovered the structure of a key influenza protein, a finding that could help researchers design drugs that block the protein and prevent the virus from spreading.

The protein, known as BM2, is a proton channel that controls acidity within the virus, helping it to release its genetic material inside infected cells.

If you can block this proton channel, you have a way to inhibit influenza infection, says Mei Hong, an MIT professor of chemistry and senior author of the study. Having the atomic-resolution structure for this protein is exactly what medicinal chemists and pharmaceutical scientists need to start designing small molecules that can block it.

MIT graduate student Venkata Mandala is the lead author of the paper, which appears today in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology. Other authors include graduate students Alexander Loftis and Alexander Shcherbakov and associate professor of chemistry Bradley Pentelute.

Atomic-scale resolution

There are three classes of influenza virus A, B, and C and each of them produces a different version of the M2 protein. M2 is an ion channel that carries protons through the viruss outer membrane, known as the lipid envelope. These protons usually flow into the virus, making the interior more acidic. This acidity helps the virus to merge its lipid envelope with the membrane of a cellular compartment called an endosome, allowing it to release its DNA into the infected cell.

Until now, most structural studies of the M2 protein have focused on the version of M2 found in influenza A, which is usually the most common form, especially earlier in the flu season. In this study, the researchers focused on the version of M2 found in influenza B viruses, which usually dominate in March and April. However, in contrast to previous patterns of seasonal flu infections, this winter, influenza B has been unusually dominant, accounting for 67 percent of all flu cases reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control since last September.

The A and B versions of M2 vary significantly in their amino acid sequences, so Hong and her colleagues set out to study what structural differences these proteins might have, and how those differences influence their functions. One key difference is that the BM2 channel can allow protons to flow in either direction, whereas the AM2 channel only allows protons to flow into the viral envelope.

To investigate the structure of BM2, the researchers embedded it into a lipid bilayer, similar to a cell membrane, and then used nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to analyze the structure with atomic-scale resolution. Very few ion channels have been studied at such high resolution because of the difficulty of studying proteins embedded within membranes. However, Hong has previously developed several NMR techniques that allow her to obtain accurate structural information from membrane-embedded proteins, including their orientation and the distances between atoms of the protein.

This model depicts an M2 protein channel embedded in the viral envelope of an influenza B virus.Credit: Venkata Shiva Mandala

The M2 channel is made of four helices that run parallel to each other through the membrane, and Hong found that the alignment of these helices changes slightly depending on the pH of the environment outside the viral envelope. When the pH is high, the helices are tilted by about 14 degrees, and the channel is closed. When the pH goes down, the helices increase their tilt to about 20 degrees, opening up like a pair of scissors. This scissoring motion creates more space between the helices and allows more water to get into the channel.

MIT chemists created this model of how the four helical proteins that make up the BM2 channel tilt when the channel is open. Credit: Venkata Shiva Mandala

Previous studies have found that as water flows into the M2 channel, the amino acid histidine grabs protons from the water in the top half of the channel and passes them to water molecules in the lower half of the channel, which then deliver the excess protons into the virion.

Unlike the AM2 channel, the BM2 channel has an extra histidine at the virion-facing end of the channel, which the MIT team believes to explain why protons can flow in either direction through the channel. More study is needed to determine what kind of advantage this may provide for influenza B viruses, the researchers say.

Blocking the channel

Now that chemists know the structure of both the open and closed states of the BM2 channel at atomic resolution, they can try to come up with ways to block it. There is precedent for this type of drug development: Amantadine and rimantadine, both used to treat influenza A, work by wedging themselves into the AM2 channel pore and cutting off the flow of protons. However, these drugs do not affect the BM2 channel.

Hongs research group is now investigating another one of BM2s functions, which is generating curvature in lipid membranes in order to allow progeny viruses to be released from cells. Preliminary studies suggest that a portion of the protein that sticks out from the membrane forms a structure called a beta sheet that plays a role in inducing the membrane to curve inward.

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

See more here:
Chemists unveil the structure of an influenza B protein - MIT News

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb 4, 2020--

The IoT in Chemical Industry Market by Technology Type (Enabling Technology and Operational Technology), Chemical Verticals (Mining & Metals, Food & Beverages, Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Paper & Pulp), Region - Global Forecast to 2024 report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.coms offering.

The IoT in Chemical Industry market is estimated to grow from USD 48.9 billion in 2019 to USD 77.9 billion by 2024, at a CAGR of 9.7%.

Increasing emphasis on technology for various industrial applications is expected to drive the IoT in Chemical Industry market.

It is largely driven by the increasing emphasis on technology for various industrial applications, such the growing use of IoT in the manufacturing process and the introduction of AI base models in predictive analytics for asset management and condition monitoring.

Enabling technology is expected to be the fastest-growing type segment of the IoT in Chemical Industry market, in terms of value, between 2019 and 2024.

The enabling technology segment is projected to register the highest growth, in terms of value, during the forecast period. The growing concern toward the reduction of risk associated with chemical and metal industries, rising environmental concerns due to chemical release from the plants, and the rising emphasis on circular economy are driving the demand for digital transformation, which is leading to the growth in the IoT in Chemical Industry market.

Chemical verticals segment is estimated to register the highest growth rate, between 2019 and 2024.

The chemical verticals segment is estimated to register the highest growth rate, in terms of value, between 2019 and 2024. This is owing to the increase in chemical production across various regions and rise in demand for specialty chemicals in advanced engineering processes. The chemicals segment is expected to reach USD 5 trillion in next 5 years. This also reflects the growing chemical production facilities and infrastructure globally. The increased number of chemical refineries and production plants is expected to impact the market positively since new plants are highly anticipated to adopt technologies such as IoT, big data, augmented reality, and industrial robots.

Rising customer demand from food & beverage and pharmaceutical industries and the growth in chemical production are likely to drive the demand for IoT in Chemical Industry in APAC.

The APAC IoT in Chemical Industry market is estimated to witness significant growth during the forecast period. The growing chemical production in China and increasing urbanization and industrialization are driving the IoT in Chemical Industry market in the region. In addition, the rise of mining and metal companies in the region will further drive the IoT in Chemical Industry market. APAC has some of the highest growing countries in the world. This is possible due to the growth in industrial infrastructure and increased foreign investments. Various plants and production facilities are anticipated to start in the region in the coming years. Greenfield projects are likely to integrate new processing technologies, thus further boosting the growth of the IoT in Chemical Industry market.

Reasons to Buy this Report

This research report is focused on various levels of analysis - industry analysis (industry trends), market ranking analysis of top players, and company profiles, which together provide an overall view on the competitive landscape; emerging and high-growth segments of the IoT in Chemical Industry market; high-growth regions; and market drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges.

The report provides insights on the following pointers:

Key Topics Covered:

1 Introduction

1.1 Objectives of the Study

1.2 Market Definition

1.3 Scope of the Study

1.4 Currency

1.5 Limitations

1.6 Stakeholders

2 Research Methodology

2.1 Research Data

2.2 Market Size Estimation

2.3 Secondary Data

2.4 Primary Data

3 Executive Summary

4 Premium Insights

4.1 Attractive Growth Opportunities in the Chemical 4.0 Market

4.2 Chemical 4.0 Market, By Region (2019-2024)

4.3 APAC: Chemical 4.0 Market, By Enabling Technology and Country

4.5 Chemical 4.0 Market, By Operational Technology

5 Market Overview

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Market Dynamics

5.2.1 Drivers

5.2.2 Restraints

5.2.3 Opportunities

5.2.4 Challenges

6 Chemical 4.0 Market, By Type

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Operational Technology

6.3 Distributed Control System (DCS)

6.4 Programmable Logic Controller (PLC)

6.5 Manufacturing Execution System (MES)

6.6 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

6.7 Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA)

6.8 Plant Asset Management (PAM)

6.9 Human Machine Interface (HMI)

6.10 Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)

6.11 Enabling Technology

6.12 Industrial Robotics

6.13 Machine Vision

6.14 Internet of Things (IoT)

6.15 3D Printing

6.16 Big Data

6.17 Machine Condition Monitoring

6.18 Augmented Reality (AR) & Virtual Reality (VR)

6.19 Artificial Intelligence (AI)

6.20 Digital Twin

7 Chemical 4.0 Market, By Industry Vertical

7.1 Shift in Revenue Streams Due to Megatrends in Chemical Industry

7.2 Introduction

7.3 Metals & Mining

7.4 Food & Beverage

7.5 Chemical

7.6 Pharmaceutical

7.7 Pulp & Paper

7.8 Used Cases

8 Chemical 4.0 Market, By Process

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Research & Development (R&D)

8.3 Manufacturing

8.4 Procurement

8.5 Packaging

8.6 Supply Chain Management and Logistics

9 Chemical 4.0 Market, By Region

9.1.1 Introduction

9.1.2 APAC

9.1.3 Europe

9.1.4 North America

9.1.5 Middle East & Africa

9.1.6 South America

10 Competitive Landscape

11 Company Profiles

11.1 Siemens AG

11.2 General Electric Co.

11.3 ABB Ltd.

11.4 Rockwell Automation, Inc.

11.5 Emerson Electric Co.

11.6 Yokogawa Electric Corporation

11.7 Honeywell International Inc.

11.8 Mitsubishi Electric Corporation

11.9 Schneider Electric SE

11.10 Fanuc Corporation

11.11 Fortive

11.12 International Business Machines Corporation

11.13 Cisco Systems, Inc.

11.14 Microsoft Corporation

Read the rest here:
The IoT in Chemical Industry Market is Estimated to Grow From USD 48.9 Billion in 2019 to USD 77.9 Billion by 2024, with a CAGR of 9.7% -...

The Department of Energy is partnering with the American Chemistry Council to develop technologies to recycle plastic and keep waste out of rivers, oceans, and landfills.

The Energy Department will sign a memorandum of understanding on Monday afternoon with the chemical industry's trade group that enables them to collaborate on a number of projects.

These include creating technologies that collect plastic more easily once it has entered waterways, producing new plastics that are recyclable by design, and developing technologies that upcycle waste chemicals from plastic into other commercial products.

For example, the Energy Department cited the possibility of reclaiming material contained in the plastic of a water bottle and selling that to automakers for use in building vehicles.

Through this partnership with the American Chemistry Council, the Department of Energy is furthering its mission to spur American innovation and leadership in energy efficient recycling technologies and the manufacture of new plastics that are recyclable by design to reduce plastic waste in our rivers, oceans, and landfills," said Mark W. Menezes, the Energy Departments undersecretary of energy.

The partnership is part of the Energy Departments "Plastics Innovation Challenge, an initiative announced by former Secretary Rick Perry late last year that encourages collaboration with the private sector to accelerate energy-efficient technologies that reduce plastic waste in oceans and landfills. Most of the plastic used by people today is not recycled but instead turns up in landfills or leaks into the environment.

The Energy Department framed the project as an extension of the Trump administration's approach to energy policy, in which it looks to incentivize private sector innovation, as opposed to imposing regulations or mandates to pursue aims.

Seeking to court swing voters ahead of President Trump's reelection campaign, the administration is looking to promote aspects of its environmental record related to traditional agenda items, such as cleaning up toxic waste sites, combating lead in drinking water, and cleaning up oceans, while downplaying the threat of climate change.

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Energy Department partners with chemical group to keep plastic waste out of oceans - Washington Examiner

This digitally-colorized transmission electron microscopic image depicts the ultrastructural details of an influenza virus particle. Credit: CDC, Frederick Murphy

A team of MIT chemists has discovered the structure of a key influenza protein, a finding that could help researchers design drugs that block the protein and prevent the virus from spreading.

The protein, known as BM2, is a proton channel that controls acidity within the virus, helping it to release its genetic material inside infected cells.

If you can block this proton channel, you have a way to inhibit influenza infection, says Mei Hong, an MIT professor of chemistry and senior author of the study. Having the atomic-resolution structure for this protein is exactly what medicinal chemists and pharmaceutical scientists need to start designing small molecules that can block it.

MIT graduate student Venkata Mandala is the lead author of the paper, which was published on February 3, 2020, in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology. Other authors include graduate students Alexander Loftis and Alexander Shcherbakov and associate professor of chemistry Bradley Pentelute.

There are three classes of influenza virus A, B, and C and each of them produces a different version of the M2 protein. M2 is an ion channel that carries protons through the viruss outer membrane, known as the lipid envelope. These protons usually flow into the virus, making the interior more acidic. This acidity helps the virus to merge its lipid envelope with the membrane of a cellular compartment called an endosome, allowing it to release its DNA into the infected cell.

Until now, most structural studies of the M2 protein have focused on the version of M2 found in influenza A, which is usually the most common form, especially earlier in the flu season. In this study, the researchers focused on the version of M2 found in influenza B viruses, which usually dominate in March and April. However, in contrast to previous patterns of seasonal flu infections, this winter, influenza B has been unusually dominant, accounting for 67 percent of all flu cases reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control since last September.

The A and B versions of M2 vary significantly in their amino acid sequences, so Hong and her colleagues set out to study what structural differences these proteins might have, and how those differences influence their functions. One key difference is that the BM2 channel can allow protons to flow in either direction, whereas the AM2 channel only allows protons to flow into the viral envelope.

To investigate the structure of BM2, the researchers embedded it into a lipid bilayer, similar to a cell membrane, and then used nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to analyze the structure with atomic-scale resolution. Very few ion channels have been studied at such high resolution because of the difficulty of studying proteins embedded within membranes. However, Hong has previously developed several NMR techniques that allow her to obtain accurate structural information from membrane-embedded proteins, including their orientation and the distances between atoms of the protein.

The M2 channel is made of four helices that run parallel to each other through the membrane, and Hong found that the alignment of these helices changes slightly depending on the pH of the environment outside the viral envelope. When the pH is high, the helices are tilted by about 14 degrees, and the channel is closed. When the pH goes down, the helices increase their tilt to about 20 degrees, opening up like a pair of scissors. This scissoring motion creates more space between the helices and allows more water to get into the channel.

Previous studies have found that as water flows into the M2 channel, the amino acid histidine grabs protons from the water in the top half of the channel and passes them to water molecules in the lower half of the channel, which then deliver the excess protons into the virion.

Unlike the AM2 channel, the BM2 channel has an extra histidine at the virion-facing end of the channel, which the MIT team believes to explain why protons can flow in either direction through the channel. More study is needed to determine what kind of advantage this may provide for influenza B viruses, the researchers say.

Now that chemists know the structure of both the open and closed states of the BM2 channel at atomic resolution, they can try to come up with ways to block it. There is precedent for this type of drug development: Amantadine and rimantadine, both used to treat influenza A, work by wedging themselves into the AM2 channel pore and cutting off the flow of protons. However, these drugs do not affect the BM2 channel.

Hongs research group is now investigating another one of BM2s functions, which is generating curvature in lipid membranes in order to allow progeny viruses to be released from cells. Preliminary studies suggest that a portion of the protein that sticks out from the membrane forms a structure called a beta sheet that plays a role in inducing the membrane to curve inward.

Reference: Atomic structures of closed and open influenza B M2 proton channel reveal the conduction mechanism by Venkata S. Mandala, Alexander R. Loftis, Alexander A. Shcherbakov, Bradley L. Pentelute and Mei Hong, 3 February 2020, Nature Structural and Molecular Biology.DOI: 10.1038/s41594-019-0371-2

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

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Chemists Discovered the Structure of a Key Influenza Protein Breakthrough Could Lead to Flu Treatment - SciTechDaily

Cigarettes aren't just toxic when they're being smoked. Even when the butts are scrunched up and cold, new research has found they continue to emit harmful compounds in the air.

In the first 24 hours alone, scientists say a used cigarette butt will produce 14 percent of the nicotine that an actively burning cigarette would. And the airborne emissions don't stop there.

While most of these chemicals are released within a day of being extinguished, an analysis for the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found concentrations of nicotine and triacetin - a plasticiser in cigarette filters - had fallen by just half a whopping five days later.

"I was absolutely surprised," says environmental engineer Dustin Poppendieck from the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

"The numbers are significant and could have important impacts when butts are disposed of indoors or in cars."

While much attention has been paid to the health impacts of first-hand, second-hand and now third-hand smoking - where chemical residues linger on walls and furniture - the actual butt of the matter has been paid little attention.

To measure airborne emissions from this forgotten remnant, Poppendieck and his team placed 2,100 recently extinguished cigarettes inside a walk-in chamber made of stainless steel.

Of course, they didn't smoke all these themselves. Instead, the team built a machine to take six puffs per cigarette, mimicking the behaviour of actual humans in robotic-like movements.

Once the freshly-extinguished ends were sealed away, the team measured eight chemicals commonly emitted by cigarettes, four of which the FDA have their eye on for being harmful or potentially so.

Triacetin is not one of the dangerous ones, but because it's so common in cigarette filters and doesn't evaporate easily, it's a good indicator of how other sticky chemicals are breaking down.

Fiddling with the room's temperature, humidity and saturation, the authors tested how emissions changed under certain conditions.When the air temperature of the room was higher, for instance, they noticed the butts emitted these chemicals at higher rates.

In other words, leaving ashtrays out for days at a time, especially in the heat seems like a bad idea, and could potentially expose smokers and nonsmokers to even more harmful chemicals than we thought.

"Hence," the study authors conclude, "the emitted nicotine mass from a butt over five days could be comparable to the nicotine mass emitted from mainstream and sidestream smoke, especially at higher temperatures."

The findings are limited because they only implicate one leading brand of cigarettes and there are few other studies to compare them to. Nevertheless, if the numbers are accurate, it means we've been overlooking a big factor of cigarette smoking.

Today, it's estimated that more than five trillion buttsare produced worldwide each year, and many of these don't get fully extinguished or thrown away properly, causing ground pollution as well, since cigarette butts are not biodegradable.

"You might think that by never smoking in your car when kids are present, you are protecting the nonsmokers or children around you," Poppendieck says.

"But if the ashtray in your hot car is full of butts that are emitting these chemicals, exposure is happening."

The studies were published in the International Journal of Indoor Environment and Health and Science of the Total Environment.

Originally posted here:
Cigarettes Produce Invisible Chemical Emissions Even After They've Been Extinguished - ScienceAlert

Scientists have come up with a new way of recycling plastic, returning the material to its "virgin" state.

The U.S. recycles hundreds of thousands of tons of plastic each year, which is still just a tiny fraction of the sum chucked into the landfill, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

One of the problems with traditional methods of recycling is that it lowers the quality of the substance, so that the recycled plastic is of a lower grade than that of the original.

In practical terms, this means a plastic water bottle cannot be recycled and turned into another plastic water bottle over and over again. Rather, the recycled plastic can be used for products like piping and traffic cones that can be made from a lesser quality material.

The method developed by scientists, writing in ChemSusChem, is a form of chemical recycling as opposed to mechanical recycling, which is frequently used in everyday recycling processes.

The latter involves chipping the plastic into parts and melting it so that it can then be molded into something new. The actual material (or resin) doesn't change, except to degrade in quality.

Chemical recycling, on the other hand, alters the physical state of the plastic, returning the material to its constituent parts (or building blocks) and thus a more purified (or "virgin") form, by dissolving it in chemicals or breaking it down it with heat. It can then be returned to the industry and made into brand-new, high-quality plastic objects.

"Essentially, we are taking a repeating chain and cutting it up at regular intervals to give molecules that we can use again and again," lead author Professor Matthew Jones, from the Centre for Sustainable & Circular Technologies at the U.K.'s University of Bath, told Newsweek.

"We can use the material for its intended use and then more easily recycle it."

"Our method of chemical recycling could allow carbon to be recycled indefinitely," Paul McKeown from the University of Bath in the U.K. said in a statement.

This could help create a "circular economy," removing the need to "dig up" more fossil fuel from the ground to create new plastic or release it into the air as greenhouse gas, he added.

So far, the method has been tested with plant-based polylactic acid (PLA), a more environmentally-friendly type of plastic made using starch and crop waste (as opposed to fossil fuels) found in food packaging and disposable cutlery.

"PLA is being increasingly used as a sustainable alternative for single-use plastics," said McKeown. "Whilst it's biodegradable under industrial conditions, it doesn't biodegrade with home composting, and isn't currently recycled, so at the moment it commonly ends up contributing to the tonnes of plastic waste in landfill and oceans."

Jones, McKeown and colleagues have begun tests on PETa plastic used for bottles and containersemploying a similar process. They are also working with scientists at the University of Birmingham in the U.K. to scale up the process so that it can be used on a more industrial scale, as opposed to the much smaller scale discussed in the paper.

When it comes to scaling up, there are two main challenges, Jones told Newsweek.

"One is the stability of our catalysts, which do all the work," he said. "The other is designing the reactor, defining reaction parameters and deciding how long the process needs to be to get the optimum results."

"Our method of chemical recycling overcomes this problem by breaking down plastic polymers into their chemical building blocks, so they can be used all over again to make virgin plastic without losing any properties"

"The problem of plastic recycling is unlikely to be solved by one solution due to the diverse range of materials available," Jones told Newsweek. "However, for PLA there is good reason for chemical recycling and we hope our work inspires further work into this recycling method."

The article has been updated to include comments from Professor Matthew Jones.

Read more here:
Chemical Recycling Could Transform Plastic Recycling by Returning Waste to Its 'Virgin' State - Newsweek

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (WIVB)A new lawsuit filed this week is alleging the City of Niagara Falls and several companies, including Occidental Chemical Corporation, are responsible for illnesses residents face as a result of dumping toxic substances around Love Canal and the surrounding area.

Attorneys representing these residents say their investigation shows just how much Occidental has polluted the City of Niagara Falls and those who live there.

Theyre now seeking justice.

In a 72 page lawsuit, several attorneys representing 56 residents who currently live or previously resided in the city say Occidental Chemical Corporation was reckless and negligent, dumping toxic substances in and around the Love Canal neighborhood.

The lawsuit also alleges the company continues to spread toxins in the surrounding community.

Theyre blaming Occidental, previously known as Hooker Chemical Company, for creating a public health catastrophe. Back in the 1940s, Hooker Chemical was responsible for using Love Canal as its dumpsite for many gallons of toxic waste, leading the city to seal the canal.

The lawsuit states Chemicals have been and continue to be visible to the naked eye on area roads, sidewalks, and grass..In addition to the illness and disease suffered by plaintiffs, the love canal community to this day presents the stigmata of widespread contamination.

According to the lawsuit, residents suffer from several illnesses, including autoimmune diseases and cancer, all caused by toxins in the Love Canal area.

In a statement, one of the attorneys who filed this lawsuit, Melissa Stewart states Occidental has polluted the community and exposed our clients to toxic substancesWe continue to seek justice for our clients.

OxyChem spokesperson Eric Moses shared this response to the lawsuit Tuesday night:

In the nearly eight years sincefirstfiling suit, thePlaintiffs attorneyswho brought thesecases,alleging that the Love Canal landfill remedial system is not working as designed,havefailed tosubstantiatethis claim.Instead of withdrawing these baseless lawsuits, Plaintiffs attorneys are nowseeking to addcompletely new and unrelated claims about OxyChems other Niagara Falls historic operations that are equallymeritless. There is no credible evidence in these claims that OxyChems operations have caused these alleged injuries.

New York State health officials have continuously reviewed and monitored all of OxyChem sites, including Love Canal, have not raised any concerns over the operations or remedial activities.Further, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)and theNew York State Department of Environmental Conservation, since the 1980s, have conducted hundreds of site visits, analyzed decades of dataandpublished dozens of annualreports, concluding that the facilities are operating as designed and within the terms of their permits.

OxyChemcontinues to becommitted to the health and safety of the Niagara Falls communityand will vigorously defend itself against these spurious claims.

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New lawsuit blames chemical company for illnesses as a result of dumping toxic substances in NF - WIVB.com - News 4