Catalyst News and Research

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Birth of an enzyme

Mankind triumphed in a recent 'competition' against nature when scientists succeeded in creating a new type of enzyme for a reaction for which no naturally occurring enzyme has evolved.

25 Mar 2008

Designer enzymes

Chemists from UCLA and the University of Washington have succeeded in creating "designer enzymes," a major milestone in computational chemistry and protein engineering.

20 Mar 2008

Cutting edge computing sheds light on how life on earth may have originated

The UK's national computing grid, along with their counterparts in the US (TeraGrid) and Europe have helped UCL (University College London) scientists shed light on how life on earth may have originated.

19 Mar 2008

Hib meningitis eliminated in children under 5 in Uganda

Hib meningitis has been virtually eliminated in young children in Uganda just five years after the country introduced Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine nationwide, according to an independent study.

11 Mar 2008

Novel mechanism found that may boost impaired function of leukemia protein

A new study led by researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) reports on a novel mechanism that can enhance the function of a protein that is frequently impaired in patients with acute forms of leukemia.

3 Mar 2008

Adult-onset obesity seen in mice when gene ubiquitin disrupted

Texas and California scientists who disrupted one type of the gene ubiquitin (Ubb) in mice observed neuronal death in the hypothalamus, impaired control of energy balance and adult-onset obesity in the rodents.

27 Feb 2008

Curcumin reduces heart enlargement and may prevent heart failure

Eating curcumin, a natural ingredient in the spice turmeric, may dramatically reduce the chance of developing heart failure, researchers at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre of the Toronto General Hospital have discovered.

22 Feb 2008

Despite advances, atherosclerosis solution is years away

It's the leading cause of heart disease and stroke: atherosclerosis - a disease characterized by the thickening of arterial walls, restricting blood flow like a narrow pipe.

21 Feb 2008

Discovery of a new anticoagulant

The discovery of a new anticoagulant with promising therapeutic value is reported on the 20th of February issue of the journal PLoS ONE1.

20 Feb 2008

Suicide rates in young men at lowest levels since 1970s

The reasons for the steady decline in suicides among young people in the UK are explored in two studies by researchers from the University of Bristol published on bmj.com.

18 Feb 2008

Researchers find new U.S. trend in antibiotic resistance

A research team from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, examining bacterial isolates obtained in hospital and non-hospital clinical settings between 2000 and 2006, has identified drug-resistant strains of E. coli and Klebsiella bacteria in more than 50 blood, urine and respiratory samples.

11 Feb 2008

Moss protein plays role in Alzheimer's disease

Preventing Alzheimer's from developing is a goal of Raphael Kopan, Ph.D., professor of molecular biology and pharmacology at the Washington University School of Medicine.

11 Feb 2008

Less waste in the synthesis of anti-inflammatory drugs

Dr Francesca Paradisi of the Centre for Synthesis and Chemical Biology (CSCB) at University College Dublin, and Professor Daria Giacomini and co-workers at the University of Bologna, Italy, have developed a highly efficient enzyme-driven process which could be applied to the synthesis of drugs such as Ibuprofen, avoiding the 50% waste of the undesired byproduct generated by current processes.

4 Feb 2008

Government dietary guidelines, unintended consequences and public policy

In the years following the government promotion of a low-fat diet, obesity in America has reached almost epidemic levels.

4 Feb 2008

New method enables design, production of extremely novel drugs

A new chemical synthesis method based on a catalyst worth many times the price of gold and providing a far more efficient and economical method than traditional ones for designing and manufacturing extremely novel pharmaceutical compounds is described by its University at Buffalo developers in a review article in the current issue of Nature.

24 Jan 2008

MRSA spike among gay men: More effective prevention needed for MRSA, HIV and other STDs

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), today expressed concern over a recent study first reported publicly today in an 'Annals of Internal Medicine' article which found that sexually active gay men in San Francisco were 13 times as likely to contract methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a drug-resistant strain of bacteria, than their heterosexual counterparts.

15 Jan 2008

Study suggests link between genetic basis of height and arthritis

In studies involving more than 35,000 people and a survey across the entire human genome, an international team supported in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has found evidence that common genetic variants recently linked to osteoarthritis may also play a minor role in human height.

14 Jan 2008

Scientists find missing evolutionary link using tiny fungus crystal

The crystal structure of a molecule from a primitive fungus has served as a time machine to show researchers more about the evolution of life from the simple to the complex.

3 Jan 2008

Brains respond differently to thirst depending upon age

Twelve healthy subjects in their 60s and 70s showed a different pattern of brain activations during thirst and satiation than did 10 healthy subjects in their 20s who drank the same amounts and underwent imaging with positron-emission tomography (PET).

20 Dec 2007

Secret lives of enzymes revealed

In a new study in Nature, Brandeis University Howard Hughes Medical Investigator Dr. Dorothee Kern and collaborators pull back the curtain on the secret lives of enzymes, the ubiquitous proteins that catalyze chemical reactions in the cell.

13 Dec 2007