Macromolecules News and Research

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New biophotonic imaging method monitors transformations of cellular macromolecules during apoptosis in real-time

Apoptosis, programmed cell death, is essential to normal development, healthy immune system function, and cancer prevention. The process dramatically transforms cellular structures but the limitations of conventional microscopy methods have kept much about this structural reorganization a mystery.

23 Jul 2010

Scientists discover world's first mass producible, low-cost organoclays for plastics

Scientists are reporting an in-depth validation of the discovery of the world's first mass producible, low-cost, organoclays for plastics. The powdered material, made from natural clay, would be a safer, more environmentally friendly replacement for the compound widely used to make plastics nanocomposites. A report on the research appears in ACS' Macromolecules, a bi-weekly journal.

22 Jul 2010

Disorder in degradation of proteins and other macromolecules in cells leads to serious diseases

The degradation of proteins and other macromolecules in cells is vital to survival. Disruption of this process can result in serious disease. The research group of Professor Thomas Jentsch (Leibniz Institute for Molecular Pharmacology, FMP/ Max Delbr-ck Center for Molecular Medicine, MDC, Berlin-Buch) has now succeeded in identifying an essential cellular process necessary for the transport and degradation of macromolecules in endosomes and lysosomes, respectively.

16 Jun 2010

Chiasma successfully completes Phase I clinical study of Octreolin

Chiasma, Inc., a privately held biopharma company, announced that it has successfully completed a Phase I clinical study evaluating the safety and pharmacokinetics (PK) of its proprietary product Octreolin, which contains the active ingredient octreotide actetate and is administered orally

14 Jun 2010

Malvern publishes online chemical imaging bibliography

By combining conventional spectroscopy with sophisticated mapping and imaging technology in its SyNIRgi chemical imaging system and ISys chemical imaging software, Malvern Panalytical has greatly extended the application of vibrational spectroscopy.

From Malvern Panalytical 3 Jun 2010

Vanderbilt University orders Bruker's AVANCE III 900 US2 NMR spectrometer

Bruker, the leader in analytical magnetic resonance instrumentation, announces a major multi-systems NMR order from Vanderbilt University, including an ultra-high field AVANCE™ III 900 US2 NMR spectrometer. This purchase was made possible in large part by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Vanderbilt will use these NMR instruments for a broad range of biophysical and structural analyses in biomedical research, as well as for cancer drug discovery using fragment-based approaches and structure-based drug design.

20 May 2010

European commission's FP7 programme allocated euro 6.10 billion

Europe is moving towards becoming a knowledge-based economy. Keeping in line with this objective, the European commission has instituted the Framework 7 (FP7) programme. Launched to support the re-launched Lisbon strategy, FP7 focuses on research themes rather than the framework programmes of the past. It has been designed to meet some of the persisting challenges of raising Europe to match global excellence in research, thereby benefiting the European life science funding.

27 Apr 2010

BioNanomatrix awarded patent covering nanochannel arrays for high-throughput macromolecular analysis

BioNanomatrix, Inc., a developer of breakthrough single-molecule genomic analysis technology, today announced the issuance of U.S. patent 7,670,770 for nanochannel arrays that enable high-throughput macromolecular analysis. Also disclosed are methods of preparing nanochannel array chips, methods of analyzing macromolecules such as entire strands of genomic DNA, and systems for implementing these methods.

31 Mar 2010

Scientists create tiny RNA molecule to synthesize proteins

An extremely small RNA molecule created by a University of Colorado at Boulder team can catalyze a key reaction needed to synthesize proteins, the building blocks of life. The findings could be a substantial step toward understanding "the very origin of Earthly life," the lead researcher contends.

23 Feb 2010

IBM, VLSCI scientists to use Blue Gene supercomputer to study human disease

IBM today announced a Research collaboratory in Melbourne, Australia, where scientists from the Victorian Life Sciences Computational Initiative at the University of Melbourne and the IBM Research Computational Biology Center will use high performance computing – including IBM's Blue Gene supercomputer – to study human disease.

12 Feb 2010

ABC Laboratories expands offering to include comprehensive support for large molecule development

Recognizing an increased industry need for outsourced biopharmaceutical drug development services, Analytical Bio-Chemistry Laboratories (ABC) has expanded its offering to include comprehensive support for large molecule development.

5 Feb 2010

New way of preventing potentially harmful plasticizers

Scientists have published the first report on a new way of preventing potentially harmful plasticizers - the source of long-standing human health concerns - from migrating from one of the most widely used groups of plastics.

4 Feb 2010

10 new kits available for fast and simple isolation of nucleic acids from blood, plasma and serum

Norgen Biotek Corp., an innovative privately held Canadian biotechnology company focusing primarily on advancing powerful tools for nucleic acids (NA) and protein purification, today announced the launch of 10 new kits for the fast and simple isolation of nucleic acids from blood, plasma and serum, including circulating nucleic acids.

3 Feb 2010

Novartis obtains exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize Chiasma's TPE technology

Chiasma, Inc., a privately held biopharma company, announced today that it has granted Novartis an option to obtain exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize the Company's Transient Permeability Enhancer (TPE) technology for use with certain related small molecule products either in development or currently marketed by Novartis.

19 Jan 2010

Scientists develop mucus-penetrating biodegradable nanoparticles to deliver drugs over time

Johns Hopkins University researchers have created biodegradable nanosized particles that can easily slip through the body's sticky and viscous mucus secretions to deliver a sustained-release medication cargo.

5 Jan 2010

Specially developed PACEM system installed at Max Planck Institute for Biophysics

PACEM is a transmission electron microscope (TEM) designed to image low-contrast biological specimens. It was specially developed and installed at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysics (MPI-BP) by optical expert Carl Zeiss in Oberkochen and researchers from the Macromolecular Complexes excellence cluster in Frankfurt.

3 Dec 2009

Novel initiative to improve NMR structure determination

In structural biology, the only technique available to predict the three dimensional structure of large complex molecules in solution, such as proteins and DNA, is NMR spectroscopy. To catalyze improvements in the techniques behind these predictions, the "eNMR" project has launched a new initiative. In September's Nature Methods the project issued an invitation to the entire biomolecular Nuclear Magnetic Resonance community to participate in a large scale test of modern computing algorithms.

30 Nov 2009