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Category: chemistry – Page 7

Ultra-processed foods linked to higher chronic disease risks, even at low intake

Even in moderation, consumption of ultra-processed foods is linked with measurable increases in risk for chronic diseases, according to research from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. Processed meat, sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), and trans fatty acids (TFAs) were associated with an increased disease risk, such as type 2 diabetes, ischemic heart disease (IHD), and colorectal cancer.

Multiple previous studies have linked ultra-processed foods, particularly processed meats, sugar-sweetened beverages, and trans fatty acids, with elevated chronic disease risks. Estimates suggest that diets high in processed meat contributed to nearly 300,000 deaths worldwide in 2021, while diets rich in sugar-sweetened beverages and trans fats accounted for millions of disability-adjusted life years.

Processed meats preserved through smoking, curing or chemical additives often contain compounds such as N-nitroso agents, and heterocyclic amines—compounds implicated in tumor development.

Targeting MXenes for sustainable ammonia production

In a hunt for more sustainable technologies, researchers are looking further into enabling two-dimensional materials in renewable energy that could lead to sustainable production of chemicals such as ammonia, which is used in fertilizer.

This next generation of low-dimensional materials, called MXenes, catalyzes the production of air into ammonia for foods and transportation for high-efficiency energy fertilizers.

MXenes has a wide range of possibilities that allow for highly flexible chemical compositions, offering significant control over their properties.

Microrobots shaped and steered by metal patches could aid drug delivery and pollution cleanup

Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have created a new way to build and control tiny particles that can move and work like microscopic robots, offering a powerful tool with applications in biomedical and environmental research.

The study, published in Nature Communications, describes a new method of fabrication that combines high-precision 3D printing, called two-photon lithography, with a microstenciling technique. The team prints both the particle and its stencil together, then deposits a thin layer of metal—such as gold, platinum or cobalt—through the stencil’s openings. When the stencil is removed, a metal patch remains on the particle.

The particles, invisible to the naked eye, can be made in almost any shape and patterned with surface patches as small as 0.2 microns—more than 500 times thinner than a human hair. The metal patches guide how the particles move when exposed to electric or magnetic fields, or chemical gradients.

Quantum battery device lasts much longer than previous demonstrations

Researchers from RMIT University and CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, have unveiled a method to significantly extend the lifetime of quantum batteries—1,000 times longer than previous demonstrations.

A quantum battery is a theoretical concept that emerged from research in and technology.

Unlike traditional batteries, which rely on , quantum batteries use quantum superposition and interactions between electrons and light to achieve faster charging times and potentially enhanced storage capacity.

When stem cells feel the squeeze, they start building bone

In a discovery that could reshape approaches to regenerative medicine and bone repair, researchers have found that human stem cells can be prompted to begin turning into bone cells simply by squeezing through narrow spaces.

The study suggests that the physical act of moving through tight, confining spaces, like those between tissues, can influence how stem cells develop. This could open new possibilities for engineering materials and therapies by guiding using physical, rather than chemical, signals.

The research was led by Assistant Professor Andrew Holle from the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the College of Design and Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS), and the Mechanobiology Institute (MBI) at NUS, and was published on 8 May 2025 in the journal Advanced Science.

Hydrogen atom transfer method selectively transforms carboxylic acids using an inexpensive photocatalyst

Carboxylic acids are ubiquitous in bioactive organic molecules and readily available chemical building blocks. Carboxylic acids can be converted into carboxy radicals that can initiate versatile carbon–carbon and carbon–heteroatom bond formations, which are highly desirable for developing materials and pharmaceuticals. Currently, however, there are few applicable methods that use inexpensive catalysts.

To this end, researchers from WPI-ICReDD and University of Shizuoka have developed a facile hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) method that selectively transforms into carboxy radicals using xanthone, an inexpensive commercial organic ketone photocatalyst. This research was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

HAT converts substrates into radical species by removing a hydrogen atom and ketones are highly accessible, inexpensive, and known for HAT photocatalysis. However, selective HAT for carboxylic acids is challenging because the O–H bond is stronger than adjacent C–H bonds. Nonetheless, using the artificial force–induced reaction (AFIR) method, a developed at ICReDD, the authors identified xanthone as a promising ketone photocatalyst for selective O–H bond HAT.

Scientists Mapped the Secret World of Platinum Atoms — And It Changes Everything

Scientists at ETH Zurich have developed a powerful method to look deep inside single-atom catalysts—materials where every atom plays a vital role in driving chemical reactions. By using a technique called nuclear magnetic resonance (similar to the technology behind MRI scans), they’ve uncovered how

Natural compounds and strategies for fighting against drug resistance in cancer: a special focus on phenolic compounds and microRNAs

Bioactive phytochemicals, phenolic compounds, terpenoids, and alkaloids, exert antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, antigenotoxic, and anticancer effects, simultaneously showing minimal or no toxicity on normal, healthy cells. Phytochemicals targeting various signaling pathways and multiple mechanisms underlying intrinsic and acquired multidrug resistance (MDR) in cancer cells make them invaluable tools for the development of novel strategies for fighting against anticancer drug resistance in different types of cancer, which is one of the ultimate goals of modern oncology research. As MDR is described to be a simultaneous development of resistance to multiple drugs with different chemical structures, mechanisms of action, and targets it is not surprising that multiple factors, such as genetic and epigenetic changes, as well as noncoding RNAs, including microRNAs may significantly contribute to the development MDR in cancer cells, and its targeting and modulation of their expression to sensitize cells to treatment. This review implies that some natural compounds, such as curcumin, resveratrol, kaempferol, allicin, and quercetin, have the potential to interact with highly oncogenic and/or proinflammatory miRNAs, such as miR-21/155/663/146a, significantly influencing the response to cancer therapy. This article aims to point out how natural compounds may be used, accompanied by miRNAs mimics or miRNA inhibitors to treat specific types of cancer and its subtypes to overcome multidrug resistance. The main challenge is to determine the proper doses and concentrations of both miRNAs and compounds.