News articles
Microwave recycling of bulletproof vests
Researchers have succeeded in recycling powdered aramid fibres using microwave radiation, according to a paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Carnivore prefers bamboo
The dietary choice of giant pandas is a mystery to scientists because of their carnivorous gastrointestinal tract. The presence of bamboo microRNAs in the blood of pandas sheds new light on the exchange of microRNAs between plants and animals.
All tied up: germanene nanoribbons could be useful for quantum computers
Researchers from Twente and Utrecht have made strips of germanium atoms that are one atom thick and a few nanometres wide. The two-dimensional nanoribbons have properties that could be useful in future quantum computers.
Shedding light on off-targets
Using photoaffinity probes based on a motif found in kinase-targeting anticancer drugs, researchers from KU Leuven have shown that their off-targets are not only found in the kinase families, but also in other proteins. They have published their findings in Communications Chemistry.
Vici grants awarded
Dutch research funding organisation NWO selected 43 proposals for a Vici-grant. Among the laureates are four KNCV-members.
Borrowed hydrogen makes ‘green’ soap
Ben Feringa’s group has developed a simple, green method for attaching unprotected alcohols to amino acids, with only water as a by-product. All the possibilities are described in Chemistry A European Journal.
Natural and unnatural amino acids show synthetic synergy
A team from Groningen and Barcelona cleared up what takes place when you put a designer enzyme with unnatural amino acids through a directed evolution campaign, as shown in ACS Catalysis. ‘We didn’t anticipate this at all.’
Ticks owe their tenacity to glycine-rich proteins
Thanks to colloid chemistry, ticks can suck our blood at their leisure. By chance, two groups from Maastricht and Wageningen were the first to shed light on this, as they report in Nature Chemistry.
An X-ray lens on catalysts
Researchers in Ghent have found a method to determine the temperature of a catalyst very locally during a reaction, as reported in Nature Catalysis. Their work offers a new fundamental view of catalytic reactions.
Tiny tin
A spectacular image of an electrocatalyst that exhibits spectacular behaviour. During CO2 reduction, this combination of tin particles on a nanotextured carbon support manages to improve its performance. The secret: particle breakdown.
Drug probe fishes for off-targets
Attaching a biotin tail to a cancer drug makes it possible to see very specifically which proteins the drug targets in lysed cancer cells, as a Dutch team shows in ChemBioChem.
Washing your laundry in hydrochloric acid
Researchers in Amsterdam, together with technology company Avantium, have developed a process to extract glucose from polycotton and recycle the remaining polyester. It is already working on a pilot scale, Nature Communications reports.
Stereospecific superglue
Simple molecules can be used to make a biodegradable glue that is stronger than current petroleum-based mass products. And it does not have to be much more expensive, write US researchers in Science.
Ephemeral active sites form super acid
Research into plastic recycling with sulphated zirconium oxide took an interesting fundamental turn when a team of Dutch and American chemists found signs of transient superacidity, as reported in Angewandte Chemie International Edition.
Delivery for the bone marrow
Dutch researchers have developed a lipid anode particle that can be used to deliver nucleic acids into the bone marrow. They report in Nature Nanotechnology that it already works in mice.
Diels-Alder database for computing and experimenting
Researchers at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel have created a database for chemists working with Diels-Alder reactions, focusing on covalent adaptive networks, they state in Macromolecules.
Polymers that like to move
Soft materials for surgical robotics, that’s the goal of a group in Groningen. They have recently made a surprising step in the right direction.
Polymer skeleton keeps artificial cell in shape
Using diacetylene-based building blocks, researchers in Eindhoven have succeeded in creating an artificial cytoskeleton that closely mimics the mechanical properties of its living counterpart.
Gold and sugar to fight ovarian cancer
Combine gold atoms, thioglucosides and N-heterocyclic carbenes and you get a complex that targets ovarian cancer cells in vitro while leaving healthy tissue untouched.
Turbocharger for photosynthesis
Hornwort, a moss, is capable of highly efficient photosynthesis thanks to a ‘turbocharger’ that allows this tiny plant to concentrate CO2 in its cells.
