Biochemistry delves into the chemical processes of living organisms. In other words, biochemists apply their knowledge of chemicals and perform different chemical techniques and experiments to decipher biological problems.

People who thrive on finding solutions to problems and are science-minded are a good fit for this profession. One of those people is Bruce Alberts, who grew up reading Sinclair Lewis' "Arrowsmith," a novel about a rags-to-riches American doctor who makes a great scientific discovery. "Everybody in my generation who became a scientist read 'Arrowsmith,'" Alberts laughs. "It provided an idealistic view of what our future could be like as a scientist." However, similar to the protagonist in the novel, Alberts first set out to be a doctor.

Alberts got into Harvard University and started down the premed track. He enjoyed his courses, especially physical chemistry, but he loathed the formulaic laboratory portions that accompanied them. He likened these labs more to cooking classes than to science. But one of those boring labs would forever change the course of his career.

The labs were "not even vaguely interesting," Alberts says, so during his junior year he petitioned the school to get out of all of the course labs. The school administrators rejected his petition, but they said Alberts could switch into a research lab instead. And there, among the doctoral students and post-docs who were performing experiments and completing exciting research, he found his true calling. The summer between his junior and senior year at Harvard, he worked 100-hour weeks in the research lab. And instead of applying to medical schools, he applied to Ph.D. programs.

Today, Alberts' resume could cover just about as many pages as the novel he read as a kid. Alberts' research has centered on "the functions of a set of proteins that form the protein machine that carries out chromosomal replication." He has also taught at Princeton and the University of California-San Francisco. He's co-written several iterations of well-regarded textbooks, including "Molecular Biology of the Cell" and "Essential Cell Biology." He has served as the editor-in-chief of "Science" magazine and as the president of the National Academy of Sciences. He also served as a United States Science Envoy. In 2014, President Obama awarded him the National Medal of Science.

But after all these years of important positions and accolades, his favorite part of his career is finding solutions to problems.

"Like all scientists, I get pleasure out of solving problems," Alberts says. But these days, he's concentrating on getting kids to understand and develop an interest in science. "The chemistry of life is incredibly complex. A living cell is the most amazing thing in the universe," he says. And he hopes that by creating a new curriculum, built on inquiry-based learning, which is basically getting children to ask questions of the world and answer them on their own, kids too will see the wonder and magic of science.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 6.3 percent employment growth for biochemists between 2018 and 2028. In that period, an estimated 1,900 jobs should open up.

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Biochemist - Career Rankings, Salary, Reviews and Advice ...

Read: How negativity can kill a relationship

Irrational anxieties and emotional repression can of course cause relationship problems, so its feasible that a few hours of reduced inhibitions and fears, paired with some gentle guidance from a therapist, might help some couples. The two psychiatrists found that some 90 percent of their clients benefited, and many of them reported that they felt more love toward their partners and were better able to move beyond past pain and pointless grudges.

Earp and Savulescu are careful to point outat several points throughout their bookthat drugs like these have shown promise in some settings, but require much more research before they should ever be considered viable mainstream treatment options. And if they ever reach that status, Such drugs should never be taken in a vacuum, alone or with unprepared others, without the right mental or emotional groundwork, or with the expectation that they will induce improvements all on their own, the authors write. They wont.

Dominic Sisti, who teaches medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania, notes a widely shared view among bioethicists: Certain drugs and pharmaceuticals can and should be used in therapy contexts. MDMA especially can help reform the bonds that maybe were under stress, or broken through years of challenges or difficulties in a relationship. Or it can provide insight that maybe the relationship is over, he told me. Those are things that often take weeks, months, years of therapy to get to, but MDMA sort of catalyzes that.

Sisti also agreed with Savulescu and Earps identification of gray marriages with kids as having the most to gain from chemical intervention. Still, he said that some in the bioethics field object to the love drugs ideamainly due to religious or quasi-religious beliefs about love and marriage. The most common argument [against it] is that youre sullying something thats divine, he said, that its a spark given by God, or preternatural in some way that we shouldnt be screwing around with.

Earp and Savulescu acknowledge the criticism, but they ask readers to consider romantic love the same way they might consider another one of lifes (smaller) pleasures: cake. Imagine the way it feels to eat the first bite of a delicious baked good, they writeand then, imagine that you helped bake it. Does the cake taste any less delicious to you now? Does knowing the recipe, the chemical makeup of the various ingredients, somehow rob your tongue of the flavor it so craves?

Indeed, the authors suggest that familiarity with somethings inner workingshow all the ingredients affect one another, how adjusting their ratios might help or hurt the end productnot only wont spoil the magic, but might enhance it. And in the case of a relationship that has produced a family, that knowledge might just save it.

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.

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Should Marriage Therapists Give Couples MDMA? - The Atlantic

January 24, 2020• Physics 13, 8

A new theory accurately predicts a wide range of leaf shapes and explains the differences between dry lotus leaves and those that grow on water.

In many ponds in Asia, flat, circular, lotus leaves with wrinkled edges float near other elevated stems of the same plant holding cupped leaves with gently wavy borders. Theoretical work and experiments with leaflike membranes now reveal that genetically identical leaves can grow into distinctly different shapes as a result of mechanical effects, such as the support of water under a floating leaf. The researchers extended a theory for the growth of thin, elastic tissues to account for some previously unexplored mechanical aspects of the environments of lotus and other plants. The findings bolster mounting recognition of the major role that mechanical influences play alongside genes and biochemistry in determining plant shapes.

Modeling the growth of soft tissues in plants and animals has challenged scientists and engineers because these structures deform in ways that are difficult to describe mathematically. More than 25 years ago, researchers proposed a mathematical framework to describe soft tissue growth in which proliferation of new cells takes place in tandem with stretching and shifting of existing tissues [1]. In 2008. physicists in France adapted the theory to elastic membranes (see Focus: Elizabethan Geometry) [2], providing insights into some developmental patterns of algae and mushrooms.

In 2018, mechanical engineer Fan Xu of Fudan University in Shanghai saw several different lotus leaf shapes in a pond on campus, which led him to study the shapes of growing leaves. He and his colleagues now report extending the 2008 model to produce a more complete description of the growth of thin tissues, and it accurately predicts a range of complex leaf shapes. The team used some specialized numerical techniques that allowed them to solve more complicated equations than researchers could previously manage.

F. Xu et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. (2020)

F. Xu et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. (2020)

Their theory incorporates two new elements: support for floating leaves from the water beneath them and the option for different leaf layers to grow at different rates, which can cause leaf bending. This second element was needed to accurately represent how leaves grow. For example, sunlight-induced growth of lotus leaves can occur faster on the side opposite the light, which tends to curve the leaf toward the sun. Related light-induced motion occurs in other plants, says Xu. Sunflowers harness this bending effect to face the Sun.

To supplement their calculations with experiments, the Fudan team cut leaf facsimiles from sheets of a material that grows when contacted by water. They selectively wetted the material at locations where growth in real leaves was anticipated or allowed the fake leaves to float for a prescribed duration to mimic growth constrained by underlying water. This growth-like expansion produced leaf shapes in agreement with the simulations and with observations of real leaves.

Simulations using the model, validated by observations of floating lotus leaves in the wild, showed that the water-supported leaves grow flat and largely smooth except near their edges, which have short-wavelength ruffles. In contrast, lotus leaves suspended on stems assume cupped shapes with long-wavelength undulations.

In each case, the edge waves appear because the growing leaf produces more surface area than can fit in a perfectly smooth sheet. The model favors the lowest-energy configuration, and a water-bound leafs short-wavelength, low-amplitude waves minimize the energy needed to lift the water that adheres to the leafs underside, compared with long-wavelength, high-amplitude waves. But a dry, suspended leaf is free to develop longer-wavelength oscillations that are less energetically costly in the absence of water. However, leaves with more robust stems and veins have shorter wavelengths than flimsier leaves because the stiffness also imposes an energy cost to large-amplitude waves.

For suspended leaves, different growth rates in different layers leads to a bending force that can also affect leaf shape. Under some conditions, this bending force transforms flat leaves into deep, steep-sided bowls without their characteristic wavinessanother shape that has been observed in nature.

The findings by the Fudan team reflect a revival of interest in recent years in the role of mechanicsas opposed to genetics and biochemistryin determining the shapes of biological structures, according to Ellen Kuhl, a mechanical and bioengineer at Stanford University in California. In studies of brain-tissue folding, for example, people have always looked at just the cells, she says, but now theyre starting to recognize the importance of mechanical forces.

This research is published in Physical Review Letters.

Peter Weiss

Peter Weiss is a freelance science reporter and editor in Washington, D. C.

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Focus: Explaining the Ruffles of Lotus Leaves - Physics

In the past few decades, it was discovered that the rate at which we age is strongly influenced by biochemical processes that, at least in animal models, can be controlled in the laboratory. Telomere shortening is one of these processes; another one is the ability of cells to detect nutrients mediated by the mTOR protein. Researchers have been able to prolong life in many species by modifying either one of them. But what if we manipulate both? A team from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) now studied it for the first time, with unexpected results. Blocking nutrient sensing by treatment with rapamycin, an mTOR inhibitor, delays the ageing of healthy mice but, curiously, it worsens diseases and premature ageing that occur in mice with short telomeres. This finding has important implications for the treatment of diseases associated with short telomeres, but also for age-related diseases that are also associated with short telomeres. The study, done by the Telomeres and Telomerase Group headed by Maria Blasco at the CNIO, is published inNature Communicationswith Iole Ferrara-Romeo as the first author.

Telomeres, at the end of chromosomes, preserve the genetic information of the cells. They shorten with age until they can no longer fulfil their function: the cells stop dividing and the tissues age since they are no longer able to regenerate.

On the other hand, the ability of cells to detect nutrients depends on a cascade of biochemical signals that activates the mTOR protein. This is a fundamental molecular pathway because it controls the growth of cells and the whole organism. It also plays a central role in ageing: if the mTOR pathway is blocked, ageing slows down. But this had only been demonstrated in young and healthy mice. What happens when mice have short telomeres, associated with ageing and certain diseases called telomere syndromes?

An mTOR inhibitor is rapamycin, a drug that prolongs life in yeasts, flies, worms and mice, and that significantly reduces the incidence of cancer in mice with normal telomeres.

The researchers wanted to test whether rapamycin could also extend the life of mice with short telomeres, but they found that the opposite happens: they age up to 50% faster. This basic finding allowed the authors to discover that mTOR is, in fact, important for the survival of mice with short telomeres, and therefore blocking it has a negative effect.

Implications for the treatment of the telomere syndromes

But it also has clinical implications. Short telomeres are associated with or are the cause of the so-called telomere syndromes, diseases such as dyskeratosis congenita, aplastic anaemia, pulmonary and hepatic fibrosis, and other degenerative diseases for which few treatments exist. Blocking the mTOR pathway with rapamycin was considered a possible strategy against these diseases, but the results of the study suggest that it would not work and could even be harmful.

In light of all the beneficial effects of inhibition of the mTOR pathway in extending longevity, here we set to address whether rapamycin treatment could also ameliorate the premature ageing phenotypes and the decreased lifespan of telomerase-deficient mice with short telomeres, the authors write. But, although in control mice [with normal telomeres] rapamycin extended the lifespan, in mice with short telomeres it reduced it. We did not expect that. These results are of clinical interest for human diseases in which patients have critically short telomeres, explain Maria Blasco and Paula Martnez, authors of the paper.

More sensitive to nutrients

Another surprise for the researchers was the finding that in mice with short telomeres the mTOR pathway is hyper-activated, that is, their cells are more sensitive than usual to the presence of nutrients. The authors interpret that it is precisely the greater ability to detect nutrients that allows these mice to survive, an unexpected conclusion that could open new avenues for research in the treatment of telomere syndromes.

This discovery indicates that hyper-activation of the mTOR pathway is necessary to compensate for problems arising from having short telomeres, Blasco explains.

In fact, it is known that mTOR is also hyper-activated in some organs of elderly mice, which may indicate that this is a phenomenon associated not only with abnormally accelerated ageing but also with natural physiological ageing.

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Rapamycin has harmful effects when telomeres are... - ScienceBlog.com

Yajun Yan, a professor in the College of Engineering, conducts research that leads to the development of new technologies to solve real-world challenges in energy, the environment and health.

When did you come to UGA and what brought you here?I joined UGA in spring 2010 as an assistant professor, when UGA started to expand its engineering programs and search for faculty members in the area of engineering biological systems. During my interview, I was impressed and attracted by the vitality of the students and faculty at UGA and the unique lifestyle of the college town of Athens, Georgia. So here I am.

What are your favorite courses and why?I enjoy teaching our biochemical engineering elective, Metabolic Engineering and Synthetic Biology, because the course involves the knowledge and techniques of biology, chemistry and engineering. The course consists of both lecture and laboratory sessions and is offered to upper-level undergraduate students and lower-level graduate students. The students work as a team to learn the basic lab skills and techniques needed by the biotechnology industry and are exposed to the most recent research advances in engineering biology, which demand extensive communications and interactions among students and me. It is always my joy to see the improvements of the students in team collaboration, problem identification and critical thinking.

How do you describe the scope and impact of your research or scholarship to people outside of your field?To people outside of my field, I always tell them that my research is about developing enzymatic and microbial approaches for the green manufacturing of fuels, chemicals and pharmaceutically important compounds from renewable carbon sources. By introducing genetic modifications to microorganisms, we engineer them to have new functions and capabilities to do good things. As for the impact, my research leads to the development of new technologies to solve real-world problems in energy, environment and health, as well as contributing to our fundamental understanding of the science of cellular metabolism and regulation.

Professor Yajun Yan works with graduate student Chenyi Li in his Riverbend Research Lab South. (Photo by Andrew Davis Tucker/UGA)

How does your research or scholarship inspire your teaching, and vice versa?As a faculty member with efforts in both research and teaching, I see my research and teaching benefit from each other. My research helps me integrate the emerging concepts and technologies into my teaching materials and inform students of the most recent progress in our field. The interactions with students during my teaching also inspire me to get new ideas and approaches to address many research problems.

What do you hope students gain from their classroom experience with you?In addition to gaining the knowledge in textbooks, I hope my students develop the ability to apply that knowledge to solve real-world problems, which requires critical thinking, teamwork, life-long learning, etc.

The one UGA experience I will always remember will be I have been a faculty member at UGA for over nine years. There are many memorable experiences. However, if I need to name only one UGA experience I always remember, it ought to be the experience of walking into my office on my first day of work. It was so exciting and joyful, because it meant the beginning of my career.

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Yajun Yan - University of Georgia

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Since arriving at Yale in 1995, Scott Strobel, now the Henry Ford II Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, has taken on a series of administrative roles: chair of his department; vice president for West Campus planning and program development; deputy provost for teaching and learning; and vice provost for science initiatives. Now, in his highest-profile assignment yet, Strobel has been tapped by President Peter Salovey 86PhD as Yales new provostthe universitys chief academic and budgetary officersucceeding Ben Polak, who is returning to the economics faculty.

Strobel grew up around science, playing in the lab of his father, a plant pathologist at Montana State University. (I was probably doing stuff you shouldnt really let a kid do in a lab, he says.) He obtained his undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Brigham Young University, earned his doctorate at Caltech, and did postdoctoral work at the University of Colorado.

The other major influence in his early years: membership in the Bozeman Hawkers, his high schools speech and debate team. Being on that team transformed who I was and what I realized I could do, Strobel says. Its where I became comfortable in front of a classroom and in public settings.

Strobels dedication to the classroom is evidenced by the several Yale and national awards he has won for teaching and mentoring. He also oversaw the creation of Yales Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning, accessible to everyone in Sterling Library. Its glass walls, he notes, are a reminder that teaching is a public experience that should be shared in a community of scholars.

When Strobel first moved into administration, he continued teaching his award-winning Rainforest Expedition and Laboratory course, a spring-term and summer undergraduate biology class that took Strobel and his students to the South American rain forest to analyze microorganisms they found in plant tissues. Eventually, he stopped teaching to focus on administrative responsibilities, including transforming a vast former pharmaceutical research complex into Yales West Campus, which now houses seven interdisciplinary institutes as well as the School of Nursing. (In his off hours, he has turned his wood-turning hobby into a business: he makes bowls and pens with wood salvaged from trees on the Yale campus that have been removed because of overgrowth, disease, or construction.)

When his appointment was announced in November, Strobel set a goal of meeting with every dean and speaking to as many faculty members as possible to better understand the totality of the university, pledging to be a student of Yale as well as one of its leaders. And hes not willing to give up teaching entirely: he plans to guest-lecture next spring in Donald Engelmans Biology, the World and Us, an introductory science course for nonscience majors.

Being offered a position at Yale 25 years ago was a dream come true, Strobel says. I hoped it would be an institution where my two passions of teaching and research were fully integrated. I am deeply grateful to President Salovey for the trust he is placing in me to help shape Yales future, and to determine how best to use its resources to help improve the world.

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New provost will be a "student of Yale" - Yale Alumni Magazine

Autism spectrum disorder affects a huge number of children both globally and in the United States. Experts have long acknowledged the importance of detecting autism early, but current diagnosis tools are purely behavioral and not entirely accurate. New research, however, proposes a biological method for accurately predicting whether a child will go on to develop autism.

Worldwide, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is estimated to affect 1.5 percent of all children, and 1 in 68 U.S. children were diagnosed with ASD in 2014.

The number of ASD diagnoses has drastically increased over the past few decades, and in the U.S., the estimates show a 30 percent increase in the number of children with ASD compared with previous years.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) highlight the importance of early ASD detection. However, most of the current diagnosis practices and psychometric tools rely purely on the detection of behavioral signs.

Research from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York identifies a new method for predicting whether a child is on the ASD spectrum based on substances that are detectable in the blood.

The study, led by Juergen Hahn and Daniel Howsmon, was published in the journal PLOS Computational Biology.

The team analyzed data from the blood samples of 83 children with autism and 76 neurotypical children - that is, they were not affected by ASD. The data was initially collected as part of the IMAGE study carried out by the Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute.

The children were aged between 3 and 10. The scientists set out to measure metabolite concentrations resulting from two metabolic processes: the folate-dependent one-carbon (FOCM) metabolism and transsulfuration (TS) pathways.

Both of these substances have previously been shown to become altered in people with an increased risk of ASD.

The researchers also developed multivariate statistical models that accurately classified children with autism based on their neurological status.

The authors note that their models "have much stronger predictability than any existing approaches from the scientific literature."

Using these tools, Hahn and team correctly identified 97.6 percent of the children that had autism, and 96.1 percent of those who were neurotypical.

"This level of accuracy for classification as well as severity prediction," the authors conclude, "far exceeds any other approach in this field and is a strong indicator that the metabolites under consideration are strongly correlated with an ASD diagnosis."

"The method presented in this work is the only one of its kind that can classify an individual as being on the autism spectrum or as being neurotypical. We are not aware of any other method, using any type of biomarker that can do this, much less with the degree of accuracy that we see in our work."

Juergen Hahn

However, Hahn also concedes that more research is needed to confirm the results. In the future, the researchers aim to investigate the possibility of developing FOCM and TS-based treatments that could alleviate ASD symptoms.

Learn how autism may be linked with mutations in mitochondrial DNA.

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New biochemical method accurately diagnoses autism in children - Medical News Today

Veterinary Biochemistry Analyzers Market is expected to witness growth of international market with respect to advancements and innovations including development history, competitive analysis and regional development forecast.

The report starts with a basic Veterinary Biochemistry Analyzers market overview. In this introductory section, the research report incorporates analysis of definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. Besides this, the report also consists of development trends, competitive landscape analysis, and key regions development status.

Browse Detailed TOC, Tables, Figures, Charts and Companies Mentioned in Veterinary Biochemistry Analyzers Market @ http://www.360marketupdates.com/10638581

Next part of the Veterinary Biochemistry Analyzers Market analysis report speaks about the manufacturing process. The process is analysed thoroughly with respect three points, viz. raw material and equipment suppliers, various manufacturing associated costs (material cost, labour cost, etc.) and the actual process.

Further in the report, Veterinary Biochemistry Analyzers Market is examined for price, cost and gross revenue. These three points are analysed for types, companies and regions. In prolongation with this data sale price for various types, applications and region is also included. The Veterinary Biochemistry Analyzers Industry consumption for major regions is given. Additionally, type wise and application wise consumption figures are also given.

Top key players of industry are covered in Veterinary Biochemistry Analyzers Market Report: BPC BioSed, DiaSys Diagnostic Systems, Diconex, Heska, Randox Laboratories, Idexx Laboratories, Scil Animal Care, Woodley Equipment And Many Others. Split by Product Type: Automatic, Semi-automatic Split by Application: Pet Hospital, Research Center, Inspection and Quarantine Departments, Other Split by Region: United States, China, Europe, Japan, Southeast Asia, India

With the help of supply and consumption data, gap between these two is also explained.

Get Sample PDF of report@ http://www.360marketupdates.com/enquiry/request-sample/10638581

This section of the market research report includes analysis of major raw materials suppliers, manufacturing equipment suppliers, major players of the Veterinary Biochemistry Analyzers industry, key consumers, and supply chain relationship. The contact information is also provided along with this analysis.

Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis: Manufacturing Cost Analysis-Raw Materials Analysis-Price Trend of Key Raw Materials-Key Suppliers of Raw Materials-Market Concentration Rate of Raw Materials-Labour Cost.

Along with this, analysis of depreciation cost, manufacturing cost structure, manufacturing process is also carried out. Price, cost, and gross analysis of the Veterinary Biochemistry Analyzers market is also included in this section.

Trade and Distribution Analysis: Marketing Channel-Direct Marketing-Indirect Marketing-Marketing Channel Development Trend-Market Positioning-Pricing Strategy-Brand Strategy-Distributors/Traders List.

This section of the Veterinary Biochemistry Analyzers market report consists of marketing channel status and end buyer price analysis. It also provides contact information of the traders and distributors.

Market Effect Factors Analysis: Technology Progress/Risk-Substitutes Threat-Technology Progress in Related Industry-Consumer Needs/Customer Preference Change-Economic/Political Environmental Change.

This particular section of the Veterinary Biochemistry Analyzers market report includes analysis of gross margin, cost and price.

The Veterinary Biochemistry Analyzers industry research report is a valuable source of guidance and direction. It is helpful for established businesses, new entrants in the market as well as individuals interested in the market. The Veterinary Biochemistry Analyzers market report provides important statistics on the existing state of the said market.

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Veterinary Biochemistry Analyzers Market Growth by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Analysis to 2022 - DailyNewsKs

A new report shows the equivalence of YSIs 2300 STAT Plus Glucose and Lactate Analyser and their new 2900D Biochemistry Analyser for reference measurements and system calibration of blood glucose monitoring systems.

YSI, a Xylem brand, have an established reputation in laboratory and field analytical instrumentation. Their YSI 2300 STAT Plus Glucose and Lactate Analyser (YSI 2300) was a Class II in-vitro diagnostics (IVD) medical device that became widely accepted by manufacturers as a method for reference measurements and system calibration of blood glucose monitoring systems.

YSIs next-generation 2900D biochemistry analyser is a laboratory instrument that employs the same biosensor technology as the YSI 2300, but is a non-IVD analyser. The YSI 2900 is intended for use in research, biotechnology and food-processing applications, but it is not specifically designed for clinical diagnostics and sports physiology applications, although it has been increasingly adopted as a reference standard by blood glucose monitoring system manufacturers.

A paper now available reports on a study that compares the YSI 2900 and YSI 2300 in order to evaluate their precision and accuracy for human whole blood and plasma analysis. Non-pooled samples from six lots of human blood from a local blood bank were used for the study to assess instrument validity and reliability. Two analysers of each YSI model were employed with 288 human whole blood and 288 plasma samples, across a range of values, were analysed.

Data collected on the YSI 2900 analysers indicate that the 2900 provided precise and accurate whole blood and plasma glucose readings across a wide range of blood glucose concentrations. Based on the results of this study, it was concluded that the YSI 2900 demonstrated analytical comparability to that of the YSI 2300.

The full report can be read as a PDF, available for download on this website. Please click on the link below for more details.

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YSI's 2900D Biochemistry Analyser as a reference standard for blood glucose monitoring systems - Laboratory Talk

Cal State Fullerton undergraduate Miguel Tellez is an aspiring biomedical researcher who wants to contribute to a better understanding of the human body and use that knowledge to develop novel therapies for human diseases.

To accomplish this goal, he is conducting research in the lab of Maria C. Linder, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, focusing on an aspect of copper metabolism in the body that holds promise for new discoveries.

For his research efforts, Tellez has received a $3,500Howell-CSUPERB Research Scholar Awardfrom the California State University Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology (CSUPERB) for his project on the "Purification and Characterization of a Small Copper Carrier From Blood Plasma A Structural and Physiological Study." CSUPERB partners with the Doris A. Howell Foundation for Women's Health Research to fund undergraduate student research projects on topics related to women's health.

Tellez's research centers on purifying and characterizing a copper-containing component that is present in the blood plasma of most mammals and is elevated in conditions where copper accumulates in the liver. This occurs in certain genetic diseases; it is also common in dogs, who frequently die of copper overload, said Linder.

"My project will allow me to contribute to the field of copper research by bringing to light the identity of small copper-carrying components," said Tellez, a biochemistry major who is on track to graduate in May and is the first in his family to attend college. He plans to begin his doctoral studies this summer in the biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology graduate program at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Tellez is a research scholar in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) program, led by Linder, and a past scholar in the CSU Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation program.

"He is a young man of enormous potential," Linder said. "His project is exciting and is likely to lead to a breakthrough in the field of copper metabolism."

During pregnancy, copper transport and metabolism during embryogenesis involves aspects of copper metabolism, which are still poorly understood. Yet, every cell in a developing fetus needs copper. Additionally, we have evidence that when women take estrogen-based birth control, it changes the distribution of copper in plasma and elicits large amounts of small copper carrying components. As such, understanding these small copper carriers in the blood plasma is paramount to understanding healthy copper metabolism in women during menstruation and pregnancy.

Because of this research project, I have learned many analytical and biochemical techniques. I've also had the opportunity to present my work at conferences, and by being a part of the HHMI undergraduate program, I learned how to read scientific literature and now better understand other areas of science.

After working with Dr. Linder, I discovered what it meant to be a researcher. She has given me encouragement and has helped me down the academic pathway to earn a doctorate.

In the first grade, I became interested in science after I fed a caterpillar. After some time, it turned into a butterfly, and I was in awe. I wanted to understand what I was seeing. My love for science pushed me to do well in school so I could pursue a career as a scientist.

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Women's Health Research Leads to CSU Award, Graduate School - CSUF News

We are pleased to welcome all the interested participants to International Conference and Exhibition on Biochemistry during November 02-03, 2017 at Chicago, Illinois, USA. Biochemistry Conference 2017 welcomes all the members form universities, clinical examination foundations and organizations, biochemists, scientists, researchers, academicians, entrepreneurs, research scholars and delegates from biochemistry labs, industries and healthcare sectors to be a part of the conference to share their knowledge on all parts of this rapidly expanded field and then, by providing a showcase of the research in the field on Biochemistry.

The conference focuses on the theme "Biochemistry Rethink Rebuild Reclaim".

Biochemistry Conference 2017 aims to provide scientific platform for face to face exchange of knowledge and ideas across the Biochemistry. The conference is designed to give knowledge, ideas and to think out of the box. The aim of the conference is to promote research in the field of Biochemistry with another goal to facilitate exchange of new ideas in these fields and to create a dialogue between scientists, practitioners and biochemists.

For more details, please visit: http://biochemistry.alliedacademies.com/

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March 2, 2017 A schematic depiction of how an early metabolism could have expanded from an initial set of prebiotic molecules, with thioester (S) vs. phosphate (P) as the main driving force. Credit: Joshua Goldford and Daniel Segr

One major mystery about life's origin is how phosphate became an essential building block of genetic and metabolic machinery in cells, given its poor accessibility on early Earth. In a study published on March 9 in the journal Cell, researchers used systems biology approaches to tackle this long-standing conundrum, providing compelling, data-driven evidence that primitive life forms may not have relied on phosphate at all. Instead, a few simple, abundant molecules could have supported the emergence of a sulfur-based, phosphate-free metabolism, which expanded to form a rich network of biochemical reactions capable of supporting the synthesis of a broad category of key biomolecules.

"The significance of this work is that future efforts to understand life's origin should take into account the concrete possibility that phosphate-based processes, which are essential today, may not have been around when the first life-like processes started emerging," says senior study author Daniel Segr of Boston University. "An early phosphate-independent metabolism capable of producing several key building blocks of living systems is in principle viable."

Phosphate is essential for all living systems and is present in a large proportion of known biomolecules. A sugar-phosphate backbone forms the structural framework of nucleic acids, including DNA and RNA. Moreover, phosphate is a critical component of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which transports chemical energy within cells, and a compound called NADH, which has several essential roles in metabolism. But it is unclear how phosphate could have assumed these central roles on primordial Earth, given its scarcity and poor accessibility.

In light of this puzzle, some have proposed that early metabolic pathways did not rely on phosphate. In many of these scenarios, sulfur and iron found on mineral surfaces are thought to have fulfilled major catalytic and energetic functions prior to the appearance of phosphate. One notable origin-of-life scenario suggests that the role of ATP was originally assumed by sulfur-containing compounds called thioesters, which are widely involved in protein, carbohydrate, and lipid metabolism. Despite the availability of iron and sulfur on early Earth, concrete evidence supporting these scenarios has been lacking.

To test the feasibility of the "iron-sulfur world hypothesis" and the "thioester world scenario," Segr and his team used computational systems biology approaches originally developed for large-scale analyses of complex metabolic networks. The researchers used a large database to assemble the complete set of all known biochemical reactions. After exploring this so-called "biosphere-level metabolism," the researchers identified a set of eight phosphate-free compounds thought to have been available in prebiotic environments. They then used an algorithm that simulated the emergence of primitive metabolic networks by compiling all possible reactions that could have taken place in the presence of these eight compounds, which included formate, acetate, hydrogen sulfide, ammonium, carbon dioxide, water, bicarbonate, and nitrogen gas.

This analysis revealed that a few simple prebiotic compounds could support the emergence of a rich, phosphate-independent metabolic network. This core network, consisting of 315 reactions and 260 metabolites, was capable of supporting the biosynthesis of a broad category of key biomolecules such as amino acids and carboxylic acids. Notably, the network was enriched for enzymes containing iron-sulfur clusters, bolstering the idea that modern biochemistry emerged from mineral geochemistry. Moreover, thioesters rather than phosphate could have enabled this core metabolism to overcome energetic bottlenecks and expand under physiologically realistic conditions.

"Before our study, other researchers had proposed a sulfur-based early biochemistry, with hints that phosphate may not have been necessary until later," Segr says. "What was missing until now was data-driven evidence that these early processes, rather than scattered reactions, could have constituted a highly connected and relatively rich primitive metabolic network."

Although this non-experimental evidence does not definitively prove that life started without phosphate, it provides compelling support for the iron-sulfur world hypothesis and the thioester world scenario. At the same time, the study calls into question the "RNA world hypothesis," which proposes that self-replicating RNA molecules were the precursors to all current life on Earth. Instead, the results support the "metabolism-first hypothesis," which posits that a self-sustaining phosphate-free metabolic network predated the emergence of nucleic acids. In other words, nucleic acids could have been an outcome of early evolutionary processes rather than a prerequisite for them.

"Evidence that an early metabolism could have functioned without phosphate indicates that phosphate may have not been an essential ingredient for the onset of cellular life," says first author Joshua Goldford of Boston University. "This proto-metabolic system would have required an energy source and may have emerged either on the Earth's surface, with solar energy as the main driving force, or in the depth of the oceans near hydrothermal vents, where geochemical gradients could have driven the first life-like processes."

In future studies, the researchers will continue to apply systems biology approaches to study the origin of life. "My hope is that these findings will motivate further studies of the landscape of possible historical paths of metabolism, as well as specific experiments for testing the feasibility of a phosphate-free sulfur-based core biochemistry," Segr says. "The idea of analyzing metabolism as an ecosystem-level or even planetary phenomenon, rather than an organism-specific one, may also have implications for our understanding of microbial communities. Furthermore, it will be interesting to revisit the question of how inheritance and evolution could have worked prior to the appearance of biopolymers."

Explore further: Metabolism may have started in our early oceans before the origin of life

More information: Cell, Goldford et al: "Remnants of an Ancient Metabolism without Phosphate" http://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(17)30133-2 , DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2017.02.001

Journal reference: Cell

Provided by: Cell Press

The chemical reactions behind the formation of common metabolites in modern organisms could have formed spontaneously in the earth's early oceans, questioning the events thought to have led to the origin of life.

The phosphate ion is almost insoluble and is one of the most inactive of Earth's most abundant phosphate minerals. So how could phosphate have originally been incorporated into ribonucleotides, the building blocks of RNA, ...

(Phys.org)A gigantic number of chemical reactions take place inside our bodies every second, all synchronizing with each other to produce the energy and chemical compounds that we need to survive. Together these reactions ...

On the early Earth, light came not only from the sun but also from the incessant bombardment of fireball meteorites continually striking the planet. Now, the recent work of University of South Florida (USF) associate professor ...

(Phys.org) A trio of researchers at the University of Nevada has found that phosphate found in minerals on Mars, is far more soluble than it is in natural Earth minerals. In their paper published in the journal Nature ...

Inorganic phosphate is an essential building block of cell membranes, DNA and proteins. It is also a main component of ATP, the "cell currency" of energy transfer. All cells therefore need to maintain a sufficient concentration ...

Biophysicists at JILA have measured protein folding in more detail than ever before, revealing behavior that is surprisingly more complex than previously known. The results suggest that, until now, much about protein behavior ...

One major mystery about life's origin is how phosphate became an essential building block of genetic and metabolic machinery in cells, given its poor accessibility on early Earth. In a study published on March 9 in the journal ...

(Phys.org)A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in China has found that adding a certain type of salt to liquid pesticides greatly reduces waste due to splashing. In their paper published in the journal ...

The chemical industry can learn a lot from the common mussel. Not only are the mollusc's mother of pearl and tough threads with which it clings to the seafloor remarkable, but the way in which these materials are produced ...

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Using 3-D electron microscopy, structural biologists from the University of Zurich succeeded in elucidating the architecture of the lamina of the cell nucleus at molecular resolution for the first time. This scaffold stabilizes ...

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Intended to meet rapidly growing needs of the biopharmaceutical sector

WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana (PRWEB) February 16, 2017

SSCI, a division of Albany Molecular Research Inc. has further extended its industry leading Biochemistry Services specifically targeting the rapidly growing needs of the biopharmaceutical sector. This service offers state-of-the-art cGMP techniques and methods for the biochemical and biosimilar characterization, product-related impurity characterization, aggregation state characterization, structure elucidation, protein formulation development, comparability, analytical method development and validation, and protein and peptide crystallization. Included in the diverse array of services available, an ultra-high resolution Q-TOF mass spectrometry is the cornerstone a state of the art instrument that significantly enhances SSCI's capabilities in analysis and data interpretation for large molecules, including biologic drugs such as antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates, metabolites and polymers to meet the expectations outlined in the ICH Q6B Specifications: Test Procedures and Acceptance Criteria for Biotechnological/ Biological Products.

"Innovative proteins and biopharmaceuticals comprise the fastest growing class of new chemical entities in the industry," commented Patrick Tishmack, PhD, Director Analytical Development , who leads the Biochemistry Services at SSCI. "Many of these therapeutic proteins typically exist in the solid state as lyophilized powders during their manufacture or in a final formulation. Few proteins are produced as crystals or formulated as mixtures of crystalline and amorphous protein. Therefore, SSCI is uniquely positioned to provide an understanding of the properties of biologics in the solid-state or as liquid formulations, which is of critical importance both in the development of the product and for regulatory approval."

About SSCI SSCI, a division of Albany Molecular Research Inc., provides industry leading contract solid-state and analytical testing services and exists to help companies in the pharmaceutical, food, agrochemical, and other chemical industries develop better products and get them to market more quickly. Over the past quarter century, SSCI has provided comprehensive cGMP research and analytical services in the characterization and chemistry of solid materials, with particular expertise in small and large molecules being investigated for pharmaceutical use. As the AMRI's Center of Excellence for Solid State Chemistry, its offerings include early candidate support services (in vitro analysis, stability, solubility, dissolution, excipient compatibility), solid form screening and polymorph, salt and cocrystal screening, form selection, particle engineering (process development, particle size method development), property improvement, crystallization of difficult materials, process control, biochemical analysis, full analytical chemistry support including method development and validation, intellectual property consulting and litigation support, and related research activities.

For more information about SSCI's biochemistry services, please contact 1-800-375-2179 or visit http://www.ssci-inc.com.

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SSCI Expands Biochemistry Services to Meet Growing Industry ... - Benzinga

The Department of Chemistry and Physics at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff has added two new bachelors degree options in chemistry which have been recently approved by the Arkansas Department of Higher Education: concentration in Forensic Chemistry. Both degrees are now open for enrollment in the fall semester.

The Forensics option is designed for students who wish to pursue careers in Forensic Science. Offered in collaboration with the department of criminal justice, students in this option will take courses in criminal justice as well as new courses in forensic chemistry.

The Biochemistry option is designed for students who either plan careers in the health professions or in biomedical research. The added emphasis on biochemistry and additional biology courses will assist students with professional school entrance exams and with courses taught in professional schools. It will also better prepare students who wish to pursue graduate degrees in the biomedical sciences and pursue research careers in these areas. This degree option would also be useful for students who wish to pursue advanced degrees and research careers in the agricultural sciences.

We are very glad to be able to offer these new opportunities for our students, said Chemistry and Physics Chairperson, Dr. Grant Wangila. We believe that they will enhance the competitiveness of our students for science or health professional careers as well as open up new career opportunities.

For more information about the degrees, contact Dr. Wangila at (870) 575-8382 or wangilag@uapb.edu .

###

Tisha Arnold

Public Information Officer

University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff

W: (870) 575-8946 | F: (870) 575-4628 | C: (870) 489-8062

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February 13, 2017 A diagram showing synapses in the reward circuit of mice when exposed to cocaine: on left, a normal mouse, and on right, a mouse with increased levels of cadherin. Credit: University of British Columbia

Scientists at the University of British Columbia have genetically engineered a mouse that does not become addicted to cocaine, adding to the evidence that habitual drug use is more a matter of genetics and biochemistry than just poor judgment.

The mice they created had higher levels of a protein called cadherin, which helps bind cells together. In the brain, cadherin helps strengthen synapses between neurons - the gaps that electrical impulses must traverse to bring about any action or function controlled by the brain, whether it's breathing, walking, learning a new task or recalling a memory.

Learning - including learning about the pleasure induced by a stimulant drug - requires a strengthening of certain synapses. So Shernaz Bamji, a Professor in the Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences, thought that extra cadherin in the reward circuit would make their mice more prone to cocaine addiction.

But she and her collaborators found the opposite to be true, as they explain in an article published today in Nature Neuroscience.

Dr. Bamji and her collaborators injected cocaine into mice over a number of days and immediately placed in a distinctly decorated compartment in a three-room cage, so that they would associate the drug with that compartment. After several days of receiving cocaine this way, the mice were put into the cage and allowed to spend time in any compartments they preferred. The normal mice almost always gravitated to the cocaine-associated compartment, while the mice with extra cadherin spent half as much time there - indicating that these mice hadn't formed strong memories of the drug.

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To understand that unexpected result, Dr. Bamji and her associates in UBC's Life Sciences Institute analyzed the brain tissue of the genetically engineered mice.

They found that extra cadherin prevents a type of neurochemical receptor from migrating from the cell's interior to the synaptic membrane. Without that receptor in place, it's difficult for a neuron to receive a signal from adjoining neurons. So the synapses don't strengthen and the pleasurable memory does not "stick."

"Through genetic engineering, we hard-wired in place the synapses in the reward circuits of these mice," says graduate student Andrea Globa, a co-lead author with former graduate student Fergil Mills. "By preventing the synapses from strengthening, we prevented the mutant mice from 'learning' the memory of cocaine, and thus prevented them from becoming addicted."

Their finding provides an explanation for previous studies showing that people with substance use problems tend to have more genetic mutations associated with cadherin and cell adhesion. As studies such as this one illuminate the biochemical underpinnings of addiction, it could lead to greater confidence in predicting who is more vulnerable to drug abuse - and enable people to act on that knowledge.

Unfortunately, finding a way of augmenting cadherin as a way of resisting addiction in humans is fraught with pitfalls. In many cases, it's important to strengthen synapses - even in the reward circuit of the brain.

"For normal learning, we need to be able to both weaken and strengthen synapses," Dr. Bamji says. "That plasticity allows for the pruning of some neural pathways and the formation of others, enabling the brain to adapt and to learn. Ideally, we would need to find a molecule that blocks formation of a memory of a drug-induced high, while not interfering with the ability to remember important things."

Explore further: Molecular underpinnings of addiction produce strong addiction-related memories

More information: Cadherins mediate cocaine-induced synaptic plasticity and behavioral conditioning, Nature Neuroscience, nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nn.4503

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Hormonal fluctuations women undergo make them particularly sensitive, compared to men, to the addictive properties of cocaine, according to a study conducted at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published January ...

Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have found that a key receptor in the brain, once thought to only strengthen synapses, can also weaken them, offering new insights into the mechanisms driving ...

(Medical Xpress)A team of UBC neuroscientists has found that synapses that are too strong or 'sticky' can actually hinder our capacity to learn new things.

University of Iowa researchers have discovered a new form of neurotransmission that influences the long-lasting memory created by addictive drugs, like cocaine and opioids, and the subsequent craving for these drugs of abuse. ...

The feel-good brain chemical dopamine appears to play a role in the development of a healthy bond between a mother and baby, a new study suggests.

The discovery of a new mechanism that controls the way nerve cells in the brain communicate with each other to regulate our learning and long-term memory could have major benefits to understanding how the brain works and ...

Scientists at the University of British Columbia have genetically engineered a mouse that does not become addicted to cocaine, adding to the evidence that habitual drug use is more a matter of genetics and biochemistry than ...

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Scientists create mouse that resists cocaine's lure - Medical Xpress

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

By Nicholas Snow

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Rose Mercadante Seminar Series is pleased to present a seminar entitled "Effect of Cold Plasma Processing on Sweet Basil and the Chemistry of its Essential Oils" by Fr. Gerald Buonopane, Dr. Cosimo Antonacci and Dr. Jose Lopez of the Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Physics of Seton Hall University.

The seminar will take place in the Helen Lerner Amphitheater, Science and Technology Center, Seton Hall University at 5:45 P.M. on Tuesday February 21, 2017. Refreshments are available at 5:30 PM.

This interdisciplinary research project, which focuses on the emerging field of plasma agriculture, seeks to better understand the chemical and physical effects of cold plasma processing on plants and their essential oils. Cold plasma processing has been shown to be a rapid, economical, and pollution-free method to improve plant seed performance and crop yield. Essential oils are aromatic oily liquids extracted from different parts of plants, such as the leaves, flowers, and roots. Among the various beneficial properties of essential oils is their demonstrated antioxidant effect directly applicable to foods that are prone to oxidative consequences such as poor flavor, bad odors, and spoilage. Antioxidants, either synthetic (e.g., butylated hydroxytoluene, BHT) or natural (e.g., Vitamin C), are routinely added to processed foods to inhibit or delay oxidation. Essential oils are examples of natural antioxidants. Although synthetic antioxidants like BHT and BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) are very effective, they have been shown to be potentially harmful to human health with demonstrated evidence of causing cancer in laboratory animals. As a result, food scientists have been seeking alternative natural compounds as substitute antioxidants, such as essential oils. We have observed a growth effect in our preliminary studies treating basil plants with cold plasmas. We have also observed that plasma treatment increases the antioxidant activity of essential oils. Our preliminary work further revealed a difference in the composition of individual antioxidant components between the plasma-treated and non-plasma-treated basil. In follow-up studies, we seek to better understand cold plasma's physical and biochemical-molecular effects on basil plants.

Ordained as a priest of the Archdiocese of Newark in 2006, Fr. Gerry's area of specialization is food chemistry. He earned a B.S. in Biology from Northeastern University (1978), a M.S. in Nutritional Science from the University of Connecticut (1981) and a Ph.D. in Food Science from Penn State University (1988). Prior to seminary and the priesthood, Fr. Gerry held a number of positions in academia, the federal government (USFDA), and in the food and pharmaceutical industries. His research areas of interest are: Chemical Deterioration of Food Lipids: Oxidative Reactions; Essential Oils as Natural Antioxidants; and Cold Plasma Treatment of Botanicals and Essential Oils.

Dr. Cosimo Antonacci holds BS and PhD degrees in Chemistry from Seton Hall University. He is currently Undergraduate Laboratory Manager in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, where he supervises all activities in the department's teaching laboratories. He is an active researcher in biochemistry with ongoing collaborations in Biochemistry, Biological Sciences and Physics.

Professor Jose L. Lopez is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey, USA. He earned a B.S. in Physics from Saint Peter's University in Jersey City, New Jersey in 2000, an M.S. in Physics in 2003 and a Ph.D. in Physics in 2006 from the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey.

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Chemistry Seminar by Fr. Gerald Buonopane - Seton Hall University News & Events

Adjunct and three-quarter time Rowan professor Timothy Sheehan diedon Feb. 13, according to a Rowan Announcer Extra Edition email sent to facultyTuesdayevening.

Sheehan was a professorin the chemistry and biochemistry department and worked at Rowan since spring 2009, according toGregory Caputo, chemistry and biochemistry department chair.

According to Caputo,Sheehan taught two general chemistry courses as well as an advanced college chemistry series.

One thing that always stood out about Tim was that he was always really positive and really upbeat and energetic and really brought that into the classroom, Caputo said in a phone interview. [His passing] came as a real shock to all of us.

According to his obituary from legacy.com, Sheehan was a father, husband and grandfather from Mt. Laurel, New Jersey. He died age 66 from natural causes.

Assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry Tim Vaden was similarly shocked and saddened by the news of Sheehans death.

Up until last week, he seemed healthy and normal, Vaden said. He was very positive and never complained about anything at all.

Vaden admiresSheehan for his reliability, saying, Whether it was 8 a.m. or evening classes, he was always open to whatever we needed him to do, with a smile on his face.

Along with the faculty, Rowan students shared positive remembrances about Sheehan as an individual.

Sophomore biology major Jenn Hopkins, who had Sheehan for Chemistry 2, appreciated his frequent anecdotes.

He shared a lot of stories and experiences about his work in chemistry throughout the class, which made it really interesting to learn from him, she said.

Freshman biochemistry major Justin Roldan respected Sheehans affability and clarity.

He was always friendly, like a grandpa figure to the class, Roldan said. Even if the lessons would get confusing, professor Sheehan would take time to make the lessons more relatable and talk about his past experiences in pharmaceutical companies.

Roldan added that two grieving counselors were available for his class during lecture period.

Freshman biochemistry major Edward Taggart, paralleled the comments expressed by others, touching on Sheehans helpful nature, extensive experience and the feelings of grief that have come as a result of hisdeath.

He was a kind man with a lot of personality, and it came as a great shock to me and the entire class the morning after he passed. Im just more at a loss for words, and hoping the rest of the semester proceeds as he would have wanted, he said.

Additional reporting by Justin Decker.

For comments/questions about this story, email news@thewhitonline.com or tweet @thewhitonline.

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Rowan staff and students mourn loss of chemistry professor Timothy Sheehan - The Whit Online

The history of biochemistry can be said to have started with the ancient Greeks who were interested in the composition and processes of life, although biochemistry as a specific scientific discipline has its beginning around the early 19th century.[1] Some argued that the beginning of biochemistry may have been the discovery of the first enzyme, diastase (today called amylase), in 1833 by Anselme Payen,[2] while others considered Eduard Buchner's first demonstration of a complex biochemical process alcoholic fermentation in cell-free extracts to be the birth of biochemistry.[3][4] Some might also point to the influential work of Justus von Liebig from 1842, Animal chemistry, or, Organic chemistry in its applications to physiology and pathology, which presented a chemical theory of metabolism,[1] or even earlier to the 18th century studies on fermentation and respiration by Antoine Lavoisier.[5][6]

The term biochemistry itself is derived from the combining form bio-, meaning "life", and chemistry. The word is first recorded in English in 1848,[7] while in 1877, Felix Hoppe-Seyler used the term (Biochemie in German) in the foreword to the first issue of Zeitschrift fr Physiologische Chemie (Journal of Physiological Chemistry) as a synonym for physiological chemistry and argued for the setting up of institutes dedicate to its studies.[8][9] Nevertheless, several sources cite German chemist Carl Neuberg as having coined the term for the new discipline in 1903,[10][11] and some credit it to Franz Hofmeister.[12]

The subject of study in biochemistry is the chemical processes in living organisms, and its history involves the discovery and understanding of the complex components of life and the elucidation of pathways of biochemical processes. Much of biochemistry deals with the structures and functions of cellular components such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids and other biomolecules; their metabolic pathways and flow of chemical energy through metabolism; how biological molecules give rise to the processes that occur within living cells; it also focuses on the biochemical processes involved in the control of information flow through biochemical signalling, and how they relate to the functioning of whole organisms. Over the last 40 years the field has had success in explaining living processes such that now almost all areas of the life sciences from botany to medicine are engaged in biochemical research.

Among the vast number of different biomolecules, many are complex and large molecules (called polymers), which are composed of similar repeating subunits (called monomers). Each class of polymeric biomolecule has a different set of subunit types. For example, a protein is a polymer whose subunits are selected from a set of twenty or more amino acids, carbohydrates are formed from sugars known as monosaccharides, oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides, lipids are formed from fatty acids and glycerols, and nucleic acids are formed from nucleotides. Biochemistry studies the chemical properties of important biological molecules, like proteins, and in particular the chemistry of enzyme-catalyzed reactions. The biochemistry of cell metabolism and the endocrine system has been extensively described. Other areas of biochemistry include the genetic code (DNA, RNA), protein synthesis, cell membrane transport, and signal transduction.

In these regards, the study of biochemistry began when biology first began to interest societyas the ancient Chinese developed a system of medicine based on yin and yang, and also the five phases,[13] which both resulted from alchemical and biological interests. It began in the ancient Indian culture also with an interest in medicine, as they developed the concept of three humors that were similar to the Greek's four humours (see humorism). They also delved into the interest of bodies being composed of tissues. As in the majority of early sciences, the Islamic world greatly contributed to early biological advancements as well as alchemical advancements; especially with the introduction of clinical trials and clinical pharmacology presented in Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine.[14] On the side of chemistry, early advancements were heavily attributed to exploration of alchemical interests but also included: metallurgy, the scientific method, and early theories of atomism. In more recent times, the study of chemistry was marked by milestones such as the development of Mendeleev's periodic table, Dalton's atomic model, and the conservation of mass theory. This last mention has the most importance of the three due to the fact that this law intertwines chemistry with thermodynamics in an intercalated manner.

As early as the late 18th century and early 19th century, the digestion of meat by stomach secretions[15] and the conversion of starch to sugars by plant extracts and saliva were known. However, the mechanism by which this occurred had not been identified.[16]

In the 19th century, when studying the fermentation of sugar to alcohol by yeast, Louis Pasteur concluded that this fermentation was catalyzed by a vital force contained within the yeast cells called ferments, which he thought functioned only within living organisms. He wrote that "alcoholic fermentation is an act correlated with the life and organization of the yeast cells, not with the death or putrefaction of the cells."[17]

Anselme Payen discovered in 1833 the first enzyme who called diastase[18] and in 1878 German physiologist Wilhelm Khne (18371900) coined the term enzyme, which comes from Greek "in leaven", to describe this process. The word enzyme was used later to refer to nonliving substances such as pepsin, and the word ferment used to refer to chemical activity produced by living organisms.

In 1897 Eduard Buchner began to study the ability of yeast extracts to ferment sugar despite the absence of living yeast cells. In a series of experiments at the University of Berlin, he found that the sugar was fermented even when there were no living yeast cells in the mixture.[19] He named the enzyme that brought about the fermentation of sucrose "zymase".[20] In 1907 he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his biochemical research and his discovery of cell-free fermentation". Following Buchner's example; enzymes are usually named according to the reaction they carry out. Typically the suffix -ase is added to the name of the substrate (e.g., lactase is the enzyme that cleaves lactose) or the type of reaction (e.g., DNA polymerase forms DNA polymers).

Having shown that enzymes could function outside a living cell, the next step was to determine their biochemical nature. Many early workers noted that enzymatic activity was associated with proteins, but several scientists (such as Nobel laureate Richard Willsttter) argued that proteins were merely carriers for the true enzymes and that proteins per se were incapable of catalysis. However, in 1926, James B. Sumner showed that the enzyme urease was a pure protein and crystallized it; Sumner did likewise for the enzyme catalase in 1937. The conclusion that pure proteins can be enzymes was definitively proved by Northrop and Stanley, who worked on the digestive enzymes pepsin (1930), trypsin and chymotrypsin. These three scientists were awarded the 1946 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.[21]

This discovery, that enzymes could be crystallized, meant that scientists eventually could solve their structures by x-ray crystallography. This was first done for lysozyme, an enzyme found in tears, saliva and egg whites that digests the coating of some bacteria; the structure was solved by a group led by David Chilton Phillips and published in 1965.[22] This high-resolution structure of lysozyme marked the beginning of the field of structural biology and the effort to understand how enzymes work at an atomic level of detail.

The term metabolism is derived from the Greek Metabolismos for "change", or "overthrow".[23] The history of the scientific study of metabolism spans 800 years. The earliest of all metabolic studies began during the early thirteenth century (1213-1288) by a Muslim scholar from Damascus named Ibn al-Nafis. al-Nafis stated in his most well-known work Theologus Autodidactus that "that body and all its parts are in a continuous state of dissolution and nourishment, so they are inevitably undergoing permanent change."[24] Although al-Nafis was the first documented physician to have an interest in biochemical concepts, the first controlled experiments in human metabolism were published by Santorio Santorio in 1614 in his book Ars de statica medecina.[25] This book describes how he weighed himself before and after eating, sleeping, working, sex, fasting, drinking, and excreting. He found that most of the food he took in was lost through what he called "insensible perspiration".

One of the most prolific of these modern biochemists was Hans Krebs who made huge contributions to the study of metabolism.[26] He discovered the urea cycle and later, working with Hans Kornberg, the citric acid cycle and the glyoxylate cycle.[27][28][29] These discoveries led to Krebs being awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology in 1953,[30] which was shared with the German biochemist Fritz Albert Lipmann who also codiscovered the essential cofactor coenzyme A.

In 1960, the biochemist Robert K. Crane revealed his discovery of the sodium-glucose cotransport as the mechanism for intestinal glucose absorption.[31] This was the very first proposal of a coupling between the fluxes of an ion and a substrate that has been seen as sparking a revolution in biology. This discovery, however, would not have been possible if it were not for the discovery of the molecule glucose's structure and chemical makeup. These discoveries are largely attributed to the German chemist Emil Fischer who received the Nobel Prize in chemistry nearly 60 years earlier.[32]

Since metabolism focuses on the breaking down (catabolic processes) of molecules and the building of larger molecules from these particles (anabolic processes), the use of glucose and its involvement in the formation of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is fundamental to this understanding. The most frequent type of glycolysis found in the body is the type that follows the Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas (EMP) Pathway, which was discovered by Gustav Embden, Otto Meyerhof, and Jakob Karol Parnas. These three men discovered that glycolysis is a strongly determinant process for the efficiency and production of the human body. The significance of the pathway shown in the adjacent image is that by identifying the individual steps in this process doctors and researchers are able to pinpoint sites of metabolic malfunctions such as pyruvate kinase deficiency that can lead to severe anemia. This is most important because cells, and therefore organisms, are not capable of surviving without proper functioning metabolic pathways.

Since then, biochemistry has advanced, especially since the mid-20th century, with the development of new techniques such as chromatography, X-ray diffraction, NMR spectroscopy, radioisotopic labelling, electron microscopy and molecular dynamics simulations. These techniques allowed for the discovery and detailed analysis of many molecules and metabolic pathways of the cell, such as glycolysis and the Krebs cycle (citric acid cycle). The example of an NMR instrument shows that some of these instruments, such as the HWB-NMR, can be very large in size and can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to millions of dollars ($16 million for the one shown here).

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is the primary gene amplification technique that has revolutionized modern biochemistry. Polymerase chain reaction was developed by Kary Mullis in 1983.[33] There are four steps to a proper polymerase chain reaction: 1) denaturation 2) extension 3) insertion (of gene to be expressed) and finally 4) amplification of the inserted gene. These steps with simple illustrative examples of this process can be seen in the image below and to the right of this section. This technique allows for the copy of a single gene to be amplified into hundreds or even millions of copies and has become a cornerstone in the protocol for any biochemist that wishes to work with bacteria and gene expression. PCR is not only used for gene expression research but is also capable of aiding laboratories in diagnosing certain diseases such a lymphomas, some types of leukemia, and other malignant diseases that can sometimes puzzle doctors. Without polymerase chain reaction development, there are many advancements in the field of bacterial study and protein expression study that would not have come to fruition.[34] The development of the theory and process of polymerase chain reaction is essential but the invention of the thermal cycler is equally as important because the process would not be possible without this instrument. This is yet another testament to the fact that the advancement of technology is just as crucial to sciences such as biochemistry as is the painstaking research that leads to the development of theoretical concepts.

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History of biochemistry - Wikipedia

Guanidine is the compound with the formula HNC(NH 2)2. It is a colourless solid that dissolves in polar solvents. It is a strong base that is used in the production of plastics and explosives. It is found in urine as a normal product of protein metabolism. Guanidine is the functional group on the side chain of arginine.

Guanidine can be thought of as a nitrogenous analogue of carbonic acid. That is, the C=O group in carbonic acid is replaced by a C=NH group, and each OH is replaced by a NH 2 group.[3] A detailed crystallographic analysis of guanidine was elucidated 148 years after its first synthesis, despite the simplicity of the molecule.[4] In 2013, the positions of the hydrogen atoms and their displacement parameters were accurately determined using single-crystal neutron diffraction.[5]

Guanidine can be obtained from natural sources, being first isolated by Adolph Strecker via the degradation of guanine.[6]

The compound was first synthesized in 1861 by the oxidative degradation of an aromatic natural product, guanine, isolated from Peruvian guano.[7] The commercial route involves a two step process starting with the reaction of dicyandiamide with ammonium salts. Via the intermediacy of biguanidine, this ammonolysis step affords salts of the guanidinium cation (see below). In the second step, the salt is treated with base, such as sodium methoxide.[6]

With a pKb of 0.4, guanidine is a strong base. In neutral water, it exists exclusively as guanidinium (C(NH 2)+ 3). Most guanidine derivatives are in fact such salts.

The main salt of commercial interest is the nitrate [C(NH 2)3]NO 3. It is used as a propellant, for example in air bags.

Guanidine is protonated in physiological conditions. This conjugate acid is called the guanidinium cation, (C(NH 2)+ 3). It is a highly stable +1 cation in aqueous solution due to the efficient resonance stabilization of the charge and efficient solvation by water molecules. As a result, its pKa is 13.6[8] meaning that guanidine is a very strong base in water.

Guanidinium chloride has chaotropic properties and is used to denature proteins. Guanidine hydrochloride is known to denature proteins with a linear relationship between concentration and free energy of unfolding. In aqueous solutions containing 6M guanidinium chloride, almost all proteins lose their entire secondary structure and become randomly coiled peptide chains. Guanidinium thiocyanate is also used for its denaturing effect on various biological samples. Guanidine hydrochloride[9] is used as an adjuvant in treatment of botulism, introduced in 1968,[10] but now its role is considered controversial[11] because in some patients there was no improvement after this drug administration.

Guanidinium hydroxide is the active ingredient in some non-lye hair relaxers.

Guanidines are a group of organic compounds sharing a common functional group with the general structure (R 1R 2N)(R 3R50 4. The central bond within this group is that of an imine, and the group is related structurally to amidines and ureas. Examples of guanidines are arginine, triazabicyclodecene, saxitoxin, and creatine.

Galegine is isoamylene guanidine.[12]

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