Tag Archives: acids

Alzheimer and Arachidonic Acid

Posted by spinneret on October 20, 2008 Comments Off

Researchers at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease at the University of California San Francisco have found that removing a brain enzyme that regulates the concentration of arachidonic acid, a fatty acid, reduces cognitive deficits in a mouse model of …

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Overton Overturned

Posted by spinneret on August 26, 2008 Comments Off

A century-old rule used throughout the pharma industry may have been overturned by new research in the UK. Researchers at the University of Warwick have demonstrated that drug transport rates across cell membranes may be hundreds of times slower than …

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Naturally Fibrous Mimic

Posted by spinneret on May 20, 2008 Comments Off

One of the important components of the extracellular matrix is collagen, which comprises the major structural protein component of higher organisms. However, it remains a major challenge to emulate the unique structural and biological properties of native collagenous biomaterials in …

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Living Chirality

Posted by spinneret on June 15, 2007 Comments Off

Yet another possible explanation for the bias in life’s handedness – the fact that nature uses mainly only form of the building blocks of proteins – comes from Dutch chemists experimenting with the sublimation of amino acids. Writing in the …

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Bioethanol Boom or Bust

Posted by spinneret on May 15, 2007 Comments Off

Bioethanol, or strictly speaking cellulose-derived ethanol is fast becoming the front-runner in efforts to reduce our reliance on oil. There are problems associated with its production, not least issues of water supply and the environmental impact. The high production cost …

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Fried Rust Could Prevent Arsenic Poisoning

Posted by David Bradley on November 1, 2006 2 comments

A subject that we have returned to on several occasions, arsenic-contaminated drinking water, could one day become a thing of the past thanks to the unexpected discovery of the magnetic properties of rusty nanoparticles. Researchers at Rice University’s Center for …

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