Tag: biology

Researchers develop technique to reuse carbon dioxide and methane, slowing climate change

Researchers develop technique to reuse carbon dioxide and methane, slowing climate change

Reusing carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane waste emissions from industrial sources is closer to reality.

And this  thanks to recent findings from a project conducted at the Canadian Light Source and the University of Saskatchewan. CO2 and methane are the most significant greenhouse gases resulting from human activity, says Dr. Hui Wang, professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan.

Capturing CO2 and methane emissions from industrial sources and reusing them could reduce the threat on the world’s ecosystem by slowing climate change, says Dr. Wang, the principal researcher of a paper published in Catalyst Today.

CO2 and methane can be triggered to undergo chemical reactions with each other to create synthesis gas or syngas. Syngas is a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, which can be used to synthesize a variety of liquid fuels or ammonia.

This reaction between CO2 and methane, also called ‘dry reforming of methane’, has not been fully scaled-up for commercial use due to lack of an inexpensive and industrially viable catalyst. Catalysts are used to speed up chemical reactions.

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Molecular Movie

Molecular Movie

Researchers Create Molecular Movie of Virus Preparing to Infect Healthy Cells

With SLAC’s X-ray laser, scientists captured a virus changing shape and rearranging its genome to invade a cell.

A research team has created for the first time a movie with nanoscale resolution of the three-dimensional changes a virus undergoes as it prepares to infect a healthy cell. The scientists analyzed thousands of individual snapshots from intense X-ray flashes, capturing the process in an experiment at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

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Growing a better polio vaccine

Growing a better polio vaccine

Researchers use plants as factories to produce a safer polio vaccine

Successful vaccination campaigns have reduced the number of polio cases by over 99% in the last several decades. However, producing the vaccines entails maintaining a large stock of poliovirus, raising the risk that the disease may accidentally be reintroduced.
Outbreaks can also occur due to mutation of the weakened poliovirus used in the oral vaccine. In addition, the oral vaccine has to be stored at cold temperatures. To address these shortcomings, an international team of researchers across the UK has engineered plants that produce virus-like particles derived from poliovirus, which can serve as a vaccine.
They report the success of this approach in a paper appearing in Nature Communications. The team confirmed the structure of the virus-like particles by cryo-electron microscopy at Diamond Light Source’s Electron Bio-Imaging Centre (eBIC) and showed that the particles effectively protected mice from infection with poliovirus. This proof-of-principle study demonstrates that a safe, effective polio vaccine can be produced in plants and raises the possibility of using the same approach to tackle other viruses.
A Bacterial Jigsaw Puzzle Is Solved

A Bacterial Jigsaw Puzzle Is Solved

Scientists worked on bacterial microcompartments  and discovered how the pieces fit together.

Bacterial microcompartments (BMCs) are hollow protein shells that encapsulate enzymes involved in bacterial metabolism. They serve to co-localize the enzymes and their reactants for greater efficiency, as well as to sequester reaction products from the rest of the cell. Despite the availability of structural information on individual shell components, the principles governing how the pieces fit together have remained elusive.

Researchers have now performed protein crystallography studies at the ALS and at Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) of a fully assembled BMC as well as its separate building blocks. The resulting atomic-resolution views reveal the basic principles of shell construction and provide important information for fighting pathogens and for bioenergy or biotechnology applications.

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Direct and Efficient Utilization of Solid-phase Iron by Diatoms

Direct and Efficient Utilization of Solid-phase Iron by Diatoms

A research team indicates that diatoms, can directly uptake iron from insoluble iron sediments, and thereby potentially affect atmospheric carbon dioxide level.

A research team from Columbia University indicates that diatoms, photosynthetic marine organisms responsible for as much as 20% of photosynthesis in the world’s oceans, can directly uptake iron from insoluble iron sediments, and thereby potentially affect atmospheric carbon dioxide level. Although iron is often present in the ocean, usually there is insufficient iron for diatoms and other organisms to grow quickly unless this iron is dissolved and in a form that can be used readily. This research establishes that iron from mineral phases can be quite bioavailable, and that the diatoms can use most forms of iron, but appear to have a preference for a specific form of iron, ferrous iron, in the mineral phases. This research is applicable to a wide variety of questions in earth and ocean sciences, including basic biology of nutrient acquisition, the coupling of physical and geological processes such as glaciers to climate and geoengineering.

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Picture: Glacial striations seen near Upsala Glacier, Argentina, where scientists collected glacial samples. This physical scraping produces sediments and dust that can fertilize plankton when it is delivered to the ocean.
Photo by Michael Kaplan/Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

Illuminating extinct plants generates new knowledge

Illuminating extinct plants generates new knowledge

By using infrared micro-spectroscopy at beamline D7 situated at the MAX III storage ring (closed December 2015) scientists from Lund University, Vilnius University and the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm have been able to identify molecular signatures of fossil leaves. Through the research the scientists have been able to establish relationships between 200-million-year-old plants based on their chemical fingerprints.

Read more on the MAX-IV website

Image: Leaves on a Gingko tree growing on the inner yard of MAX IV Laboratory in Lund. Credit: MAX-IV

From Community to Molecule – on Track Towards a Zika Vaccine

From Community to Molecule – on Track Towards a Zika Vaccine

A potent new weapon against the Zika virus in the blood of people who have been infected by it.

A research team based at The Rockefeller University has identified a potent new weapon against the Zika virus in the blood of people who have been infected by it. This discovery could lead to new ways of fighting the disease. Detailed examination of the interaction between the virus and antibodies derived from human subjects in Brazil and Mexico, including crystallographic studies performed at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsourse (SSRL), have revealed a new potential strategy for developing a vaccine towards this virus.

Through collaborators working in Pau da Lima, Brazil, and Santa Maria Mixtequilla, Mexico, the research team obtained blood samples from more than 400 people, collected shortly after Zika was circulating.

In these samples, antibodies that block the virus from initiating an infection were found. Interestingly, the antibodies appeared to have been initially generated in response to an earlier infection by a related virus (DENV1) that causes dengue fever. It appears that, much like a vaccine, the DENV1 virus can prime the immune system to respond to Zika.

 

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