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Archive for the ‘chemistry’ category: Page 137

Apr 10, 2022

Swiss Scientists crack muscle recovery, repairing age-related fatigue

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, life extension

A new supplement that stimulates a natural body process also promotes muscle recovery in humans. New research indicates that urolithin A can play an important role in improving muscles and prolonging activity – this is especially important as muscles decline with age, exposing us to the dangers of frailty.

Longevity. Technology sponsored content: As fast as we are unlocking the secrets of urolithin A we are also discovering obstacles. Urolithin A boosts mitochondrial and muscle function for sure, but it’s a metabolite, meaning it is made by the body from raw materials that we get from fruits, especially pomegranates; however, not everyone can make sufficient quantities of this antiaging molecule, and that’s where Mitopure steps in.

It seems to be universally accepted that the older we get, the more easily we get tired and the less energy we have – but perhaps it doesn’t have to be this way. The secret lies in our mitochondria, tiny organelles that pack a mighty punch when it comes to energy production. These minute powerhouses take oxygen and glucose and create a chemical called adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and this is the energy our bodies use for movement, growth and repair.

Apr 9, 2022

Scientists Transformed Plastic Bottles Into Edible Material Using Bacteria

Posted by in categories: chemistry, food, genetics

We produce more than 380 million tonnes of plastic every year, with over 8 million tons of plastic waste escaping into our oceans. Scientists have come up with a creative solution to address this growing plastic problem, and the best thing is that their solution smells and tastes divine.

By getting help from a genetically modified bacteria, a team of researchers at the University of Edinburgh was able to turn plastic bottles into vanilla flavoring. This is the first time a valuable chemical has been achieved from plastic waste.

The study, published in the journal Green Chemistry, explains how bacteria may be used to transform plastic into vanillin, a compound that is used not just in food, but also in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

Apr 8, 2022

Researchers at MIT and IBM Propose an Efficient Machine Learning Method That Uses Graph Grammar to Generate New Molecules

Posted by in categories: biological, chemistry, particle physics, robotics/AI

Chemical engineers and materials scientists are continuously looking for the following groundbreaking material, chemical, or medication. The emergence of machine-learning technologies has accelerated the discovery process, which may typically take years. Ideally, the objective is to train a machine-learning model on a few known chemical samples and then let it build as many manufacturable molecules of the same class with predictable physical attributes as feasible. You can develop new molecules with ideal characteristics if you have all of these components and the know-how to synthesize them.

However, current approaches need large datasets for training models. Many class-specific chemical databases only contain a few example compounds, restricting their capacity to generalize and construct biological molecules that might be generated in the real world.

This issue was addressed by a team of researchers from MIT and IBM by employing a generative graph model to create new synthesizable compounds within the same training data’s chemical class. The research was presented in a research paper. They model the production of atoms and chemical bonds as a graph and create a graph grammar — a linguistic analog of systems and structures for word ordering — that provides a set of rules for constructing compounds like monomers and polymers.

Apr 8, 2022

Age of skin cells reversed by 30 years

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, genetics, life extension

The researchers looked at multiple measures of cellular age. First, they used the epigenetic clock, where chemical tags throughout the genome indicate age. Secondly, they looked at the transcriptome, all the gene readouts produced by the cell. By these two measures, the reprogrammed cells matched the profile of cells that were 30 years younger, compared to reference data sets. In other words, cells from a woman of 53 now appeared like those of a woman aged 23.

The potential applications of this technique are dependent on cells not only appearing younger, but functioning like young cells too. Fibroblasts produce collagen – a molecule found in bones, skin tendons, and ligaments, helping provide structure to tissues and heal wounds. In this study, the rejuvenated fibroblasts produced more collagen proteins compared to control cells that did not undergo the reprogramming process. Fibroblasts also move into areas that need repairing. Researchers tested the partially rejuvenated cells by creating an artificial cut in a layer of cells in a dish, seen in the video below. The treated fibroblasts moved into the gap faster than older cells. This is a promising sign that one day this research could eventually be used to create cells that are better at healing wounds.

In the future, this research may also open up other therapeutic possibilities; the researchers observed that their method also influenced other genes linked to age-related diseases and symptoms. The APBA2 gene – associated with Alzheimer’s, and the MAF gene with a role in the development of cataracts – both showed changes towards youthful levels of transcription.

Apr 8, 2022

Dr. Peter J. Hotez — Baylor College of Medicine — Scientist, Researcher, Author, Science Explainer

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, health, neuroscience, science

Coming off multiple country approvals for his “patent free” Covid vaccine, Scientist, Researcher, Author, Science Explainer, Dr. Peter Hotez, MD, Ph.D. Baylor College of Medicine, drops by for an episode of Progress, Potential, And Possibilities.


Dr. Peter J. Hotez, M.D., Ph.D. (https://peterhotez.org/), is Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology and Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine (https://www.bcm.edu/people-search/peter-hotez-23229), where he is also Chief of the Section of Pediatric Tropical Medicine and the Texas Children’s Hospital Endowed Chair of Tropical Pediatrics (https://www.texaschildrens.org/find-a-doctor/peter-jay-hotez-md-phd).

Continue reading “Dr. Peter J. Hotez — Baylor College of Medicine — Scientist, Researcher, Author, Science Explainer” »

Apr 8, 2022

Blue Brain builds neurons with mathematics

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, computing, information science, mathematics, neuroscience

Santiago Ramón y Cajal, a Spanish physician from the turn of the 19th century, is considered by most to be the father of modern neuroscience. He stared down a microscope day and night for years, fascinated by chemically stained neurons he found in slices of human brain tissue. By hand, he painstakingly drew virtually every new type of neuron he came across using nothing more than pen and paper. As the Charles Darwin for the brain, he mapped every detail of the forest of neurons that make up the brain, calling them the “butterflies of the brain”. Today, 200 years later, Blue Brain has found a way to dispense with the human eye, pen and paper, and use only mathematics to automatically draw neurons in 3D as digital twins. Math can now be used to capture all the “butterflies of the brain”, which allows us to use computers to build any and all the billons of neurons that make up the brain. And that means we are getting closer to being able to build digital twins of brains.

These billions of neurons form trillions of synapses – where neurons communicate with each other. Such complexity needs comprehensive neuron models and accurately reconstructed detailed brain networks in order to replicate the healthy and disease states of the brain. Efforts to build such models and networks have historically been hampered by the lack of experimental data available. But now, scientists at the EPFL Blue Brain Project using algebraic topology, a field of Math, have created an algorithm that requires only a few examples to generate large numbers of unique cells. Using this algorithm – the Topological Neuronal Synthesis (TNS), they can efficiently synthesize millions of unique neuronal morphologies.

Apr 7, 2022

Hemp plants pull toxic “forever chemicals” from soil

Posted by in category: chemistry

To rid an indigenous tribe’s land of toxic forever chemicals, scientists are having hemp plants pull the contaminants straight from the soil.

Apr 4, 2022

A million times faster: DNA nanotechnology could speed up pharmaceutical development while minimizing costs

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, economics, nanotechnology

A new tool speeds up development of vaccines and other pharmaceutical products by more than 1 million times while minimizing costs.

In search of pharmaceutical agents such as new vaccines, industry will routinely scan thousands of related candidate molecules. A novel technique allows this to take place on the nano scale, minimizing use of materials and energy. The work is published in the journal Nature Chemistry.

More than 40,000 molecules can be synthesized and analyzed within an area smaller than a pinhead. The method, developed through a highly interdisciplinary research effort in Denmark, promises to drastically reduce the amounts of material, energy, and economic cost for .

Apr 4, 2022

Revolutionary DNA Nanotechnology Speeds Up Development of Vaccines

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, energy, nanotechnology

Revolutionary tool will meet future pandemics with accelerated response.

A new tool speeds up development of vaccines and other pharmaceutical products by more than one million times while minimizing costs.

In search of pharmaceutical agents such as new vaccines, industry will routinely scan thousands of related candidate molecules. A novel technique allows this to take place on the nano scale, minimizing use of materials and energy. The work is published in the prestigious journal Nature Chemistry.

Apr 2, 2022

Chemical-to-mechanical molecular computation using DNA-based motors with onboard logic

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry

Current DNA computation techniques are slow in generating chemical outputs in response to chemical inputs and rely heavily on fluorescence readouts. Here, the authors introduce a new paradigm for DNA computation where the chemical input is processed and transduced into a mechanical output in the form of macroscopic locomotion using dynamic DNA-based motors.