Biochemistry – Page 5
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ResearchSoapbark tree’s biosynthetic pathway for vaccine adjuvant saponins
Researchers use genome mining and bioengineering techniques to map out route
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FeatureHow do plants sense stress?
How does an organism without a brain or a nervous system sense when it’s under attack? Hayley Bennett presents the plant world’s strange yet sophisticated system for responding to wounding
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ResearchA safer, coral-friendly sunscreen is on the horizon
Polymeric UV filter doesn’t harm algae, coral or mice in tests
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FeatureChanging the game in protein structure prediction
Have AlphaFold and other machine learning techniques essentially solved the formerly fiendish problem, or is there still more to be done? Clare Sansom reports
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NewsNobel laureate and recombinant DNA pioneer Paul Berg dies
Winner of the 1980 chemistry Nobel prize has passed away in his home on Stanford’s campus at 96
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ResearchLipophilicity helps explain psychedelic drugs’ therapeutic effects
Understanding why psychedelic drugs that bind to serotonin receptors promote neuron growth, while serotonin itself does not
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ResearchOyster mushroom unleashes chemical warfare on its nematode prey
Fungus discovered to be using 3-octanone to paralyse and kill worms
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FeatureOmega-3s and brain health
Modern diets can leave us short on essential fatty acids. Barbara Pinho looks into how this is affecting our health and our brains in particular
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ResearchSurprise discovery as clam found to be producing complex antibiotic
Erythromycin was previously believed to be only synthesised by bacteria
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FeatureCelebrating Louis Pasteur’s bicentenary
Mike Sutton reflects on the dramatic discoveries of Louis Pasteur, born 200 years ago
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OpinionMartin Chalfie: ‘I decided I wasn’t going to be a scientist’
The Nobel prizewinner on breaking a promise to himself and the test he had to pass to receive his medal
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FeatureHow click conquered chemistry
Katrina Krämer tells the story of how click and bioorthogonal chemistry came to win the 2022 Nobel prize
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OpinionNobel vision
Looking beyond the here-and-now let click chemistry open up a whole new world of possibility
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OpinionA citizen science app for teaching botany
App-based tools support botanical literacy and citizen science
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ResearchTheories on origin of enzymes’ catalytic power united
Transition state stabilisation and ground state destabilisation both reduce the energy barrier by enhancing charge density but vary in their timing
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ResearchMystery of how plants make strychnine solved 75 years after characterisation
Three-quarters of a century after Robinson and Woodward cracked structure chemists unravel poison’s biosynthesis
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OpinionFrom prebiotic soup to fine-grained RNA world
Theories about how life emerged need to be closely attuned to conditions on the early Earth
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OpinionAn idea that clicked
Bioorthogonal reactions – doing chemistry inside living cells without blasting everything in sight – are no mean feat
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FeatureThe bioorthogonal revolution
A set of reactions operating silently inside live cells or whole animals are lighting up chemical biology and inspiring new medicines, James Mitchell Crow finds
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FeatureThe incredible antibodies of sharks, llamas and camels
Sharks and llamas share a strange quirk of their immune systems. Hayley Bennett finds out how their ‘nanobodies’ could help us tackle Covid and a host of other diseases