Tag: chemistry
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Molecular Probes Developed to Analyze Cancer Cells
Chemical engineers at University of California, Santa Barbara have created molecular probes that the developers say can lead to new drugs to treat cancer and other illnesses. Chemical engineering professor Patrick Daugherty and postdoc Abeer Jabaiah published their findings in a recent online issue of the journal Chemistry & Biology (paid subscription required). Their work…
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Merck to Offer Biotech Funding, Incubator in Israel
The global pharmaceutical company Merck in Darmstadt, Germany has opened the Merck Serono Israel Bioincubator Fund, to support Israeli biotech and materials science start up companies. Merck’s chairman Karl-Ludwig Kley announced the initiative yesterday during meetings with officials in Israel. Merck’s incubator program covers pharmaceuticals, life sciences, and high-performance materials. The program will offer start…
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University Studying Smart Polymer Film to Control Substrates
Researchers at Technische Universität Darmstadt in Germany are developing thin plastics with the ability to control the properties of materials to which they are attached. The films made of polymers — long, repeating chains of molecules — would contain elements that react to external stimuli, such as light or magnetic fields, and change the underlying…
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Molycorp, Ames Lab to Partner on Rare Earth Magnets
Molycorp Inc. in Greenwood Village, Colorado and Ames National Laboratory have signed a research and development agreement to devise new methods to create commercial-grade rare-earth permanent magnets. Ames Lab in Ames, Iowa is a division of the U.S. Department of Energy. Rare-earth elements are key components in modern electronic technologies, such as televisions, fluorescent light…
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Electrolyte Nanocrystals Increase Efficiency of Fuel Cells
Researchers at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands found that adding small crystals to solid electrolyte material can raise the efficiency of fuel cells. The TU Delft team published its findings, the second recent article on this subject, in the journal Advanced Functional Materials (paid subscription required). Fuel cells are devices that…
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Student Creates Self-Strengthening Nanocomposite Material
A graduate student at Rice University in Houston, Texas has created a synthetic material combining nanotechnology and polymers that gets stronger from repeated stress. The results of the research by Brent Carey and colleagues appear this month in the journal ACS Nano (paid subscription required). Carey, a Ph.D. candidate in the lab of materials science…
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Green Rust Can Protect Groundwater Against Radioactive Waste
Researchers in Denmark have found a naturally occurring substance called green rust can help protect groundwater against radioactive contamination from stored reactor waste. Bo Christiansen’s findings are published in the March issue of the journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (paid subscription required). Christiansen (pictured left) is a geochemist at the University of Copenhagen who has…
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U.K., Indian Spin Offs to Partner on Drug Discovery
InhibOx Ltd. in Oxford, U.K. and COSMIC Discoveries in Hyderabad, India, signed a partnership to offer drug discovery services combining their computational, medicinal, and synthetic chemistry capabilities. Both companies are spin-off enterprises of academic or research institutions — Oxford University and the Institute of Life Sciences, respectively. InhibOx provides computational drug discovery services, and has…
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Companies to Develop Renewable Chemistry Demo Facility
Genomatica, a developer of chemicals from renewable feedstocks, and Tate & Lyle, a provider of ingredients to the food and beverage industries signed an agreement for the demonstration-scale production of Genomatica’s Bio-BDO. The facility will be part of a Tate & Lyle plant in Decatur, Illinois expected to begin fermentations in the second quarter of…
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National Lab Develops Material for Safe Hydrogen Storage
Scientists with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California have designed a new composite material that allows hydrogen to be stored safely and at high densities, while still making it easily accessible.