International – Pagina 3
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InternationalProducing antibodies non-stop
Huge batch reactors are still the norm in the bioprocessing industry. But they are not really sustainable, nor are they cheap. Start-up company SimAbs is now introducing a steady-state system in which antibodies are produced continuously.
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InternationalBorrowed 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.
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InternationalNatural 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.’
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InternationalAdrian Hergesell – Stretching plastic bonds for recycling
Adrian Hergesell is working on an alternative and much more sustainable way of recycling plastic using a ball mill and renewable energy.
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InternationalTicks 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.
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InternationalThe power of looking backwards
Isabelle shares how her personal journey taught her the value of looking backwards rather than forwards or sideways. She applies these insights to academia, encouraging PhD students and postdocs to acknowledge their progress and small wins.
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InternationalAn 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.
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InternationalTiny 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.
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InternationalE-boiler reduces gas consumption at Vopak Vlaardingen
Tank storage company Vopak has recently installed an e-boiler at its terminal in Vlaardingen. This could reduce gas consumption by a third. ‘The benefits lie in sustainability and CO2 reduction.’
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InternationalDrug 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.
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InternationalWashing 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.
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InternationalStereospecific 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.
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InternationalPrioritise your next step
Career planning is often overshadowed by the demands of research, leaving many PhD students unprepared for their next step. That’s why they should start planning their next career move early, says Isabelle Kohler.
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InternationalEphemeral 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.
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InternationalDelivery 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.
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InternationalDiels-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.
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InternationalWell marinated
Single-cell techniques offer many possibilities, but it is difficult to reach all the cells inside organs. Researchers at MIT have developed a new approach that brings those hard-to-reach parts into brilliant focus.
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InternationalPolymers 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.
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InternationalSustainable nitrogen control with biochar
Qian Zhou is working to solve the nitrogen problem using agricultural waste, such as plant stems and wood chips.
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InternationalGreen solvents for biogas membranes
To help make the agricultural sector more sustainable, a team from KU Leuven designed a membrane with a green solvent strategy for biogas purification.