BISHOPS STORTFORD, UNITED KINGDOM--(Marketwire -04/24/12)- Dotmatics, a leading provider of informatics solutions and services to the pharmaceutical and bio-technology industries, today announced that it will showcase a new chemistry add-in for Microsoft Office at the Bio-IT World Conference and Expo (Booth 323). The software, Dotmatics for Office, will facilitate communication and sharing of scientific data across applications and teams.

Dotmatics for Office allows scientists to easily import, create and modify scientific data in Microsoft Excel, Word, Outlook and PowerPoint as well as seamlessly move data between applications. Users can perform structure searches and scientific property calculations without leaving familiar Office applications. Integration with Browser, the flagship enterprise search platform from Dotmatics, allows the add-in to effortlessly incorporate data from multiple databases in an Office document. Information can be shown in a variety of formats chosen by the user, or according to predefined templates. Further analysis can be carried out within Vortex, Dotmatics' exploratory data analysis platform.

"We are delighted to announce our latest developments at Bio-IT World. The addition of Chemistry into Microsoft Office gives our customers a simple and efficient way to work with their research data within industry standard Office applications. Dotmatics for Office brings a new level of integration and efficiency to this important part of the discovery process." said Dr Mike Hartshorn, Director and CSO of Dotmatics. "The integration of Dotmatics for Office with Browser will enable scientists to uncover and retrieve data hidden in enterprise systems such as corporate registration databases and electronic notebooks into the user friendly Office applications. This avoids transcription errors, uncovers trends and, ultimately, expedites research" he added.

About Dotmatics for Office: Dotmatics for Office is a common set of tools across the Microsoft Office suite that gives you chemistry and data at the touch of a button.

About Browser: Browser is a flexible and powerful web-based query and reporting solution that interacts with relational databases to give scientists an integrated view of their data.

About Vortex: Chemically intelligent, intuitive and versatile data visualization and analysis solution that enables scientists to explore and understand data sets of any complexity or size.

About Dotmatics

Dotmatics has rapidly emerged as a preferred informatics supplier to many of the top global pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and academic organisations. Dotmatics is a scientific software company deploying web-based knowledge solutions that dramatically improve the way scientific data is queried, managed and shared within companies. Dotmatics has significant expertise in chem- and bioinformatics techniques including chemical databases, SAR analysis, data management and data visualization. A privately owned company, Dotmatics was founded in 2005 and has its head office based south of Cambridge, UK.

Original post:
Dotmatics Launches Novel Chemistry Add-In for Microsoft(R) Office at the Bio-IT World Conference & Expo

HAMBURG, Germany, April 26, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Evotec AG (EVT.F - News) (TecDAX) today announced that it has extended and expanded its medicinal chemistry collaboration with Active Biotech AB (NASDAQ OMX: ACTI), to further advance an existing programme, which has entered the lead optimisation phase. The programme aims to find novel small molecule modulators of a priority biological target, selected by Active Biotech, involved in immune disorders and cancer.

The programme was initiated in 2010 with a high throughput screen followed by extensive hit validation and hit-to-lead activities, leveraging Evotec's hit identification and integrated medicinal chemistry platforms.

Dr Mario Polywka, Chief Operating Officer at Evotec stated: "We are delighted that our already successful collaboration with Active Biotech has been extended and expanded with the aim of taking this exciting programme through lead optimisation towards candidate nomination. This is an area where Evotec has a significant track record of success and we look forward to leveraging our expertise to assist Active Biotech in finding novel treatments addressing cancer and autoimmune disorders."

Dorthe da Graca Thrige, Director of Development of Active Biotech, commented: "Active Biotech strives to develop, efficiently and cost-effectively, new remedies for illnesses where today's treatment options are inadequate, especially in the area of cancer and autoimmune diseases. It is key for us to collaborate with first class companies and we have been very impressed with Evotec's hit identification and subsequent hit to lead activities on this important target and now look forward to progressing the leads through to candidate drug selection."

No financial details are disclosed.

ABOUT EVOTEC AG

Evotec is a drug discovery alliance and development partnership company focused on rapidly progressing innovative product approaches with leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. We operate worldwide providing the highest quality stand-alone and integrated drug discovery solutions, covering all activities from target-to-clinic. The Company has established a unique position by assembling top-class scientific experts and integrating state-of-the-art technologies as well as substantial experience and expertise in key therapeutic areas including neuroscience, pain, metabolic diseases as well as oncology and inflammation. Evotec has long-term discovery alliances with partners including Boehringer Ingelheim, CHDI, Genentech, Medimmune/Astra Zeneca, Novartis and Ono Pharmaceutical. In addition, the Company has existing development partnerships and product candidates both in clinical and preclinical development. These include partnerships with Boehringer Ingelheim, MedImmune and Andromeda (Teva) in the field of diabetes, and with Roche in the field of Alzheimer's disease. For additional information please go to http://www.evotec.com.

ABOUT ACTIVE BIOTECH AB

Active Biotech AB (NASDAQ OMX NORDIC:ACTI) is a biotechnology company with focus on autoimmune/inflammatory diseases and cancer. Projects in pivotal phase are laquinimod, an orally administered small molecule with unique immunomodulatory properties for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, TASQ for prostate cancer and ANYARA for use in cancer targeted therapy, primarily of renal cell cancer. In addition, laquinimod is in Phase II development for Crohn's and Lupus. Further projects in clinical development comprise the two orally administered compounds, 57- 57 for SLE and Systemic Sclerosis as well as RhuDexTM for RA. Please visit http://www.activebiotech.com for more information.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS -- Information set forth in this press release contains forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements contained herein represent the judgement of Evotec as of the date of this report. Such forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, and which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in these forward-looking statements. We expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statements to reflect any change in our expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.

The rest is here:
Evotec and Active Biotech Extend and Expand Medicinal Chemistry Collaboration

Chicago, already assured of the top seed in the NBA's Eastern Conference playoffs, used Derrick Rose and other key players in their 92-87 victory over playoff-bound Indiana.

Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said injuries throughout the season had left his preferred starting unit of Rose, Richard Hamilton, Luol Deng, Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah needing more playing time together.

Some other playoff-bound teams were opting to rest their stars on the penultimate night of the lockout-shortened regular season.

"We still need to find some rhythm with guys," Thibodeau said. "They need some time together."

Deng played 33 minutes and Rose, who has been sidelined for 26 games, played 26 minutes and said he welcomed the opportunity.

"I love playing games, getting my rhythm back," Rose said. "I'm coming along, man. I'm very positive. My spirits are up."

The Bulls lost to Miami in the Eastern Conference finals last season after posting the league's best record.

Thibodeau, therefore, was low-key on the importance of holding the top seed in the East.

"It's the next step along the way," he said. "You try to put as many things in your favor as possible. It's not the end-all. It doesn't guarantee anything. But I think it also gives you your best chance."

In New York, the Knicks held off the charging Los Angeles Clippers 99-93, denying the Clippers a chance to claim home court advantage over Memphis in the first round of the playoffs.

Continue reading here:
Chicago Bulls work chemistry heading into NBA playoffs

Have a you ever wondered what you could do with an acoustic guitar, a tablet computer and a limitless supply of small pneumatic gas valves?

No, of course you haven’t. But it turns out that the creative chaps at US valve maker Clippard Instrument Laboratory have, and better still they’ve put it together. Here is the ‘air’ guitar doing its thing at laboratory sciences trade show Analytica in Munich, Germany, where it pulled in plenty of punters with its clickety clackety renditions of fingerstyle favourites.

Which leads us to: what’s the best song for this rig? My votes go to Classical Gas by Mason William, Solid Air by John Martyn and Pump It by the Black Eyed Peas, although I suppose anything by 70s punk outfit The Valves would work too. Got any more suggestions?

Andrew Turley

                  

Source:
http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/cw/?feed=rss2

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Carolina Liquid Chemistries announces the market launch of the CLC 720 floor model chemistry analyzer. The system received FDA 510(k) clearance on March 23, 2012, and is the second chemistry analyzer to be developed and FDA-cleared from Carolina Chemistries efforts in the Piedmont Triad Research Park (PTRP). The CLC 720 is the first product to be launched from the new Wake Forest Biotech Place.

This chemistry analyzer is the first in its class to be designed since the 1990s, says Phil Shugart, President of Carolina Liquid Chemistries. The CLC 720 is the newest, most technologically sophisticated chemistry analyzer in America. We took advantage of the latest advances in software, electronics, motion control and fluidics in order to offer customers a truly exceptional product.

The CLC 720 analyzes 100 different blood chemistry tests, such as glucose, cholesterol and drugs of abuse with a throughput of 400 photometric tests per hour and 320 ISEs per hour. The systems design is greener, which means it generates less heat, operates more quietly and consumes 40 percent less chemicals, 25 percent less water, 20 percent less serum and 50 percent less electricity. The CLC 720 also takes up 25 percent less space and is less expensive than other systems in its class. With its large menu, small footprint and easy Windows 7 software, its an excellent fit for a large clinic, small- to medium-sized hospital or a small reference lab, Shugart says.

The launch of the CLC 720 exemplifies the mission of the PTRP, which is the journey from mind to market, says John D. McConnell, M.D., chief executive officer of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. Carolina Liquid Chemistries has successfully taken innovative technology from inception to commercialization, and we congratulate them on their new product launch.

The market for the CLC 720 is 400 instruments per year. Carolina Chemistries, a company that makes customer satisfaction its top priority, expects to obtain a 20 percent market share within the first two years of sales. Customers from all over the United States will come to the Winston-Salem, N.C., headquarters to take part in system operation training classes in Carolina Chemistries state-of-the-art training facilities at Wake Forest Biotech Place. In addition, Carolina Chemistries has a nationwide staff of field service engineers, technical specialists and sales representatives.

In addition to its chemistry analyzers such as the benchtop Biolis 24i, the CLC 480 and the CLC 720, Carolina Chemistries offers a complete line of bar-coded, liquid, ready-to-use reagents and service for use on Olympus and Beckman instruments. The company can provide the large physician clinic or the small- to medium-sized hospital with a complete stat lab consisting of chemistry, hematology and an immunochemistry analyzer, along with a laboratory information system (LIS).

About Carolina Liquid Chemistries Corp.

Founded in 1997 in Brea, Calif., Carolina Liquid Chemistries is a manufacturer, distributor and service provider of chemistry systems and reagents for hospitals, clinical reference laboratories and physician practices. Now headquartered in the new Wake Forest Biotech Place of the Piedmont Triad Research Park of Winston-Salem, N.C., Carolina Chemistries offers chemistry instruments that range in throughput from 180 to 1,400 tests per hour and can provide the complete laboratory package consisting of chemistry, hematology and an immunochemistry analyzer, along with a laboratory information system (LIS). Visit http://www.carolinachemistries.com.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=50250509&lang=en

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Carolina Liquid Chemistries Brings CLC 720 Chemistry Analyzer to Market

— Bluebells growing in the Snowdonia National Park

Each Spring, on a farm set against the beautiful backdrop of the Snowdonia mountain range in North Wales, Vera Thoss is rewarded with a sight that makes the view even better – an impressive carpet of bluebells covering the land. Vera encourages the growth of the wild British bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) on her farm and is the only licensed bluebell seller in Wales.

But there is another side to her: Vera is an environmental chemistry lecturer at Bangor University and she’s been studying the composition of bluebell seeds, together with Patrick Murphy and colleagues, to determine how they could be used in the future.

With an eye to this, the team determined the fatty acid composition of the seeds using ¹H and ¹³C NMR and GC-MS. The seed oil is highly unsaturated (>85%), contains 20% gondoic acid (cis-icos-11-enoic acid, which is found in fish and vegetable oils) and an unusually high proportion of fatty acids with 20 or more carbon atoms. This particular composition indicates that one application of the seeds could be as a biodiesel source, they say.

British bluebells are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (as amended 1998), which is why their sale is only permitted with a licence. But the team says that their work could benefit conservation because a percentage of the gathered seeds would be used to seed new areas suitable for growing bluebells. This is important for bluebell conservation as they regenerate predominantly by seeds, but their seeds are too heavy to be windborne, say the researchers.

Bluebells are poisonous but were used for medicinal purposes in 13th century Wales, as mentioned in the ancient text of the Physicians of Myddvai (Meddygon Myddfai in Welsh), in which bluebells were suggested as a cure for leprosy. The Physicians of Myddvai were healers at the court of Rhys Grug, Lord of Dinefwr in Carmarthenshire, South Wales. They lived in the parish of Myddfai, close to the Black Mountain, and with that view in the background, just like Vera, you can easily see why they were inspired by nature.

Elinor Richards

                  

Source:
http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/cw/?feed=rss2

The molecular junction is surprisingly insensitive to structural changes

The field of molecular electronics is one sown with expectation. Subtle changes in the structure of molecules could, the proponents argue, have drastic effects on their ability to transport charge. The promise of tailoring the electronic properties of circuitry using the near limitless electronic architecture of molecules is therefore extremely attractive and has enticed scientists the world over.

But amid all this excitement comes a somewhat sobering paper from perennial pie-poker George Whitesides. In a recent publication, Whitesides et al take a systematic, empirical approach to investigating these effects and come up with some results that might be described as a surprising disappointment.

In their experiment, a series of organic molecules are called upon to perform as the junction in an electrical circuit. Each molecule is the same apart from the terminal functional group, which varies in chemical nature or structure over a range of common moieties that might be expected to exert some influence on the junction’s properties. But regardless of the nature of the functional group, the performance of the junction remained effectively unchanged. Instead, the transport properties of the junction appear to depend simply upon its thickness. To borrow the authors’ own colloquialism – ‘it’s all fat’.

However, the interest of this paper lies not just in this seemingly unexpected finding but, more generally, in its significance as a report of research composed entirely of what could be viewed as ‘negative’ results.

It’s tempting to imagine an eager postgraduate, ready to deduce the rules by which molecular devices should be constructed and to pen the manual of molecular electronics by faithfully recording and interpreting the nuances borne of each delicate molecular difference. Then, after doggedly investigating, week after week, experiment after experiment, they fail to find any effect at all. Surely even the best laid plans of George Whitesides must fall foul of the vicissitudes of research? Thankfully, someone wisely advises our dejected researcher that failing to find something is itself a discovery and another Angewandte paper is born.

That is, of course, speculative fancy and may be a rather blunt cut with Occam’s butter knife. But whatever the story behind the paper it deserves a notable mention for its remarkable feat of containing no positive result. In other hands, the tiny variations that were observed might have been dissected and presented as evidence supporting the hypothesis; the results may have found their way into a minor publication or perhaps even under the carpet. Instead, the paper proudly bears its negative results and what might have been regarded as a failure becomes a thought-provoking, if not illuminating, triumph.

It is arguable that great scientists not only conduct excellent science, but also know how to spot it.

Philip Robinson

H J Yoon et al., Angew. Chem., Int. Ed., 2012, 51, 1 (DOI:10.1002/anie.201201448)

                  

Source:
http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/cw/?feed=rss2

Marilyn Monroe’s mystique might have suffered if she’d admitted that 2-methylundecanal was all she wore to bed. Chanel No. 5 has a much classier ring to it. Simon Cotton discusses the chemistry behind an iconic fragrance in this week’s Chemistry in its element podcast.

                  

Source:
http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/cw/?feed=rss2

You've probably heard of Pi Day, which takes place on March 14, but the Chemistry Club wants to remind you of another unconventional holiday this weekend: Mole Day.

According to moleday.org, "Mole Day commemorates Avogadro's Number (6.02 x 10^23), which is a basic measuring unit in chemistry. Mole Day was created as a way to foster interest in chemistry."

The Chemistry Club will celebrate the day with their second annual Mole Day 6k Fun Run on Saturday. Junior Andy Kasick, the group's president, said they hope to match the participation of last year's inaugural run. "Last year, we held the run and about 60 to 70 people participated, so we are preparing for an equally good turn out this year."

This year's run is nicknamed the "Helium Run," because that is the second element on the periodic table. "It's our fun little way of making our run unique," Kasick said. Participants will start at Don Drumm and travel along the river trail, then return after reaching a halfway point.

"We try to carry the chemistry theme throughout the race; for instance, the runners and walkers will receive periodic elements in place of participant numbers," Kasick added.

The club will also be kicking off their National Chemistry Week events on Friday, Oct. 28, with demonstrations on the Christy Mall. During the week, Kasick said they will be trying to raise money for a local charity with their annual "Collect a Mole of Pennies" campaign.

The final Chemistry Week event will include similar demonstrations at Grand Central Mall in Vienna, W. Va.

Read this article:
Chemistry students plan moles of activities

Although the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determined hydraulic fracturing didn't contaminate private water wells in Dimock, Pa., the water there is probably not safe to drink, said Ron Bishop, a professor of chemistry at State University of N.Y. at Oneonta.

In fact, Bishop said he isn't sure the EPA is doing a good job educating the area's residents about the potential hazards present in their water.

Dimock, Pa., has been at the front line in the national debate on natural gas drilling through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The drilling technique calls for thousands, possibly millions of gallons of water to be pumped underground with toxic drilling chemicals and sand to fracture natural gas bearing rocks. The water that remains is a toxic sludge -- and a dozen households accuse local drillers of failing to properly clean their private wells after previously contaminating them.

Some area residents say their water looks like chocolate milk. Others have described the water as the color of milk and coffee.

The accusation has been the subject of several investigations by Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. (NYSE: COG), the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, and most recently the EPA. So far, all findings suggest the water is potable.

Federal regulators in March found traces of arsenic, sodium, methane, chromium and bacteria in the water but those levels were "within safe ranges," the EPA reported.

But Bishop said the levels of heavy metals and salts may not be what is most threatening to human health. He said he is wary of the EPA's declarative conclusions when federal regulators have yet to release their entire data.

Bishop Concerned About Methane

"What we have so far is still preliminary," Bishop said, who added he is convinced the methane present in some of the town's wells came from deep underground -- the natural gas that Cabot Oil is trying to harvest. "Out all the things that give me the most concern, it's the methane."

Methane's solubility with water changes as water gets heated. When water is cold, methane is more soluble and often times fully dissolved, but as water is heated, methane starts breaking off from the water molecules it was attached to, Bishop said. The change in water temperature does not have to be great for methane gas to start leeching from running hot water in either sinks and showers.

Read more here:
Chemistry Prof Questions Safety Of Dimock, Pa. Water, Challenges EPA

The late Sherwood Rowland got his Nobel prize for his work on this week’s molecule. But it’s best kept at a safe distance. David Lindsay takes a look at ozone in this week’s Chemistry in its element podcast to find out why.

                  

Source:
http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/cw/?feed=rss2

Here at the Chemistry World homestead we’re coming over all patriotic with the diamond jubilee of the Queen this year. So the news that the chaps responsible for the wonderful periodic table of videos have engraved the world’s smallest portrait of the Queen onto a diamond to celebrate the jubilee brought a tear to my eye.

The periodic videos team at the University of Nottingham dug out the diamond to be engraved from an old, broken infrared spectroscopy mount. They then had a quick word with some colleagues in the nanotechnology department and borrowed their engraving device to fire high speed gallium ions at the diamond to etch out the portrait. Using the picture of the Queen found on a stamp they produced a portrait just 46µm by 32µm – you could get 300,000 of these onto a postage stamp.

Martyn Poliakoff, a professor of chemistry at Nottingham and the presenter of the periodic table of videos, says that they’ve thought about giving the portrait to the Queen to celebrate the jubilee but aren’t sure what she’d do with it. They now considering donating it to an exhibition of some kind. If you have any ideas about a home for the diamond portrait they’d like to hear from you.

Patrick Walter

                  

Source:
http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/cw/?feed=rss2

First it was the snails, now it’s the turn of the clams to be plugged in and used as living batteries. The same group of scientists from the US and Israel, led by Evgeny Katz, has now implanted biofuel cells into clams and integrated them into batteries.

The researchers implanted the battery’s electrodes in the clam through holes cut into their shells. To produce power, enzymes on the electrodes catalyse the oxidation of glucose, which the clams produce when they metabolise food.

The cyborg clam: implanted with biocatalytic electrodes

Katz’s team even set up the clams in series and parallel and tested their power outputs, comparing the two arrangements. Three clams set up in series produced a measly 5.2µW; three clams in parallel generated a massive 37µW.

They hooked up the clams to a capacitor to collect the energy for an hour and then discharged it through an electrical motor and managed to make the motor rotate a quarter of a full turn. The team says this is the first step on the long journey to bioelectronic self-powered cyborgs for potential military and homeland security applications. Self-powered cybernetic organisms? Now I can’t get the image of a Terminator clam brandishing an Uzi 9mm out of my head!

Hasta la vista, baby!

Elinor Richards

                  

Source:
http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/cw/?feed=rss2

— Interns wanted

We are looking for a student member to join us this summer for a science writing internship.  The selected candidate will gain experience as a science journalist on both Chemistry World and Education in Chemistry and will receive a hands-on introduction to the complete editorial process from picking what news to report, through writing and editing, right up to final web and print publication.

This eight-week position is supported by the Marriott Bequest Trust with a bursary of £1750. Applicants should have an interest in science communication, demonstrate an enthusiasm for writing and are also (probably) coming towards the end of a chemical science undergraduate degree or postgraduate course. Visit the RSC recruitment pages to find out more and/or apply.

Past interns Josh Howgego and Akshat Rathi have recently confirmed they’ll be heading for The Times Higher and The Economist for some work experience this summer so it really is a once in a life time opportunity. We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Bibiana Campos-Seijo

PS: The deadline is 25 May

                  

Source:
http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/cw/?feed=rss2

In the April podcast, we’re tackling the big questions: How do you make a diamond out of an onion? What’s a ’salt burst’? Where did Lewis and Clark go to the toilet? What does Patrick sound like? The answers are all here in the podcast. Plus, we’ve got Michael Hamblin on the lighter way to treat disease with photodynamic therapy, and Volker Hessel discusses the future of flow. Your auditory edification awaits…

                  

Source:
http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/cw/?feed=rss2

Happy Easter everyone! As the bank holiday draws near we thought we’d leave you with a little seasonal news about how egg shells are being investigated as a new material for, um, protecting eggs. I think the phrase here is meta.

— Eggs!

So yes, egg shells surround the egg, either protecting a growing chick embryo or the makings of a yummy breakfast, but they aren’t all that great. After all, we don’t buy eggs and just chuck them in our shopping bags without the protection of an egg box do we? Egg shells are brittle – they’re mainly calcium carbonate held together with a protein matrix, but it’s the starch within the shells that’s relevant for our tale today. The University of Leicester, and more particularly Andrew Abbott’s group of chemists, are now investigating how to extract the glycosaminoglycans in the shells and turn them into starch-based plastics.

Abbott has already created starch based plastics using salts as plasticisers that break up the hydrogen bonding between the glucose rings. So it’s likely that something similar will be used on the extracted glycosaminoglycans.

And why egg shells? Well, because the food industry uses millions of eggs and creates tonnes and tonnes of waste in the form of egg shells. Leicester firm Just Egg, for example, sends about 480 tonnes of egg shells to landfill every year, at a cost of around £30,000. So saving money and reducing oil based plastic consumption sounds like a doubly good idea. The ultimate in recycling – turning eggs’ protective shells into protective packaging for eggs.

Mumble mumble, reborn, mumble mumble…

Laura Howes

                  

Source:
http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/cw/?feed=rss2

April: Rockets

Scenes from the Rockets' games in April. Click SHOW CAPTION for more information.

Rockets guard Goran Dragic heads to the basket past Lakers guard Ramon Sessions (7). (Harry How / Getty Images)

Lakers forward Josh McRoberts throws down a dunk. (Harry How / Getty Images)

Los Angeles' Metta World Peace (15) scores on a layup in front of Courtney Lee. (Harry How / Getty Images)

Rockets forward Luis Scola (4), of Argentina, and Los Angeles Lakers forward Pau Gasol (16) fight for a loose ball in the first half. (Gus Ruelas / Associated Press)

Kobe Bryant reacts as he is fouled in front of Goran Dragic. (Harry How / Getty Images)

Paul Gasol scores on a dunk in front of Courtney Lee. (Harry How / Getty Images)

Kobe Bryant scores in front of Courtney Lee (5) and Goran Dragic (3). (Harry How / Getty Images)

Andrew Bynum reacts to a foul call. (Harry How / Getty Images)

See the article here:
With latest road victory, the change in Rockets is clear: Better basketball through chemistry

Enzymatic reactions are cleaner, produce fewer byproducts and use less energy, she explained. But attempts to replicate natural enzymes for industrial applications are limited by our incomplete knowledge of these proteins.

Ondrechen and Penny J. Beuning, an assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology, have received a three-year, $565,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a better understanding of enzyme activity.

If you want to design proteins to catalyze a particular reaction, its good to understand how they work, said Ondrechen.

Enzymes, she explained, are made up of a string of amino acids coded by the gene sequence. Each amino acid has a different role in the protein: Some are structurally important while others are required for the enzymes catalytic properties.

There are cavities on the surface of a protein where a molecule can come in and sit down, Ondrechen said. The enzyme does a reaction on it and the product goes away.

The current body of research on enzyme activity mostly focuses on the amino acids in that cavity, which come into direct contact with the reactive molecule. But over the years, some research has suggested that amino acids far away from the active site also play a role in catalysis.

Ondrechens team, using a method she developed 10 years ago, will be able to predict which remote amino acids will impact reactivity. Beunings team will test these predictions experimentally.

My lab is really interested in specificity of enzymes, Beuning said. We look enzymes and figure out how they recognize their substrates.

To do this, her team takes a protein engineering approach in which they manipulate the enzymes composition and observe how it affects its function.

Beunings experimental data can be used to train the computational method to make even better predictions about which amino acids are important to catalysis.

Link:
Form and function in enzyme activity

Happy Birthday Robert Bunsen!

Just a quick post to note that it’s Robert Bunsen’s birthday today. He’d be 201 years old if he were alive. If you’d like to learn a bit more about the burner named after this German chemist why not check out our Classic Kit entry on the Bunsen burner. If you want to learn a bit more about the man, rather than the burner, then we’ve got a whole feature on Robert Bunsen, who ought to be remembered for far more than this humble piece of lab equipment.

Part of what made Bunsen such a great chemist was his diverse interests and during his lifetime he was called upon to investigate volcanoes and geysers and the gases exiting blast furnaces (by today’s standards he was a bit cavalier with his safety and had to be rescued on one occasion when he was overcome by fumes and blew himself up on another occasion). He was a man driven by an insatiable curiosity and made contributions to electrochemistry, toxicology and spectroscopy, but perhaps his greatest passion was teaching. So let’s light a candle for him today.

Patrick Walter

                  

Source:
http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/cw/?feed=rss2

Mena Suvari and Chis Klein have talked about what makes the American Reunion cast so special.

The two actors, who have played the ex-couple Heather and Oz in the comedy franchise, shared that American Reunion still has the same chemistry among the cast as seen in the 1999 film American Pie.

PA Images / Matt Sayles/AP

"At the end of American Reunion, there's a lot of photos from the first and second American Pie films in there," Suvari explained to Collider. "When you do look at those, it becomes a reality that it has been that long, but there's so much of this essence that it hasn't been.

"It feels like no time has passed at all. We have so much chemistry with one another that it's so natural. It's the same vibe."

American Reunion, the fourth instalment of the original series, brings back the cast - Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan, Klein, Suvari, Tara Reid, Seann William Scott, Thomas Ian Nicholas and Eddie Kaye Thomas - for their high school reunion at East Great Falls.

"We have such a beautiful time, making these movies," Klein said. "The chemistry that you see, as audience members, in these movies is palpable and you can't create that. That is something that either exists in films or doesn't.

"You've watched enough movies where the chemistry isn't there, but in these, it is. We believe in these characters and we can follow these characters. To be a part of something like that, for 13 years now, and to revisit that, it's a really, really cool thing. We're having a lot of fun."

American Reunion opens on April 6 in the US and May 2 in the UK.

Watch the trailer for American Reunion below:

Read more from the original source:
Mena Suvari, Chris Klein: 'American Reunion cast chemistry is natural'