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Tag: Chemistry

  • Tunable “Affibodies” Offer a New Approach to Healing Bone Fractures

    Tunable “Affibodies” Offer a New Approach to Healing Bone Fractures

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    Newswise — Instead of bulky metal plates and screws, bone fractures might someday be healed via targeted, controlled delivery of a specialized bone-growth protein.

    University of Oregon researchers have developed a system to get that protein to the site of injury and release it gradually over time. Their approach uses small proteins called affibodies, which can be specially engineered to grab onto specific other proteins and release them at different rates.

    The team reports their results in a paper published June 28, 2023 in Advanced Healthcare Materials.

    Healing is a complex biological process, with many different proteins at the site of injury aiding in regeneration. “This initial proof of concept shows we can release things at different rates, like other proteins, to mimic how the bone would naturally regenerate,” said Jonathan Dorogin, a graduate student in Marian Hettiaratchi’s lab who led the design. Hettiaratchi is an assistant professor in the UO’s Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact.

    One of these many healing-related proteins is bone morphogenetic protein-2, or BMP-2. Early in development, it helps bones form. And when someone breaks a bone, cells around the site of the fracture secrete this protein to help new bone grow. Recently, scientists and doctors have been interested in giving patients infusions of BMP-2 as a treatment to hasten healing.

    But BMP-2 is so powerful that it can easily lead to off-target effects, causing bone growth where it’s not wanted and leading to unexpected complications.

    Hettiaratchi and her colleagues have been trying to develop a more controlled strategy. Affibodies piqued the lab’s interest as a possible solution because they’re small and relatively simple to engineer, Hettiaratchi said. These molecules are cousins to antibodies, immune system molecules that selectively latch onto bacteria or viruses. But affibodies’ pared-down size makes them easier to generate in the lab. And because they’re engineered to be highly specific to the proteins they’re sticking to, there’s less risk of them interacting with other things they’re not supposed to in the body.

    The team screened a set of affibodies by testing how well they stuck to BMP-2, looking for molecules that would stick solidly but still release the protein under the right conditions. As candidate for further testing, they picked one affibody that stuck to BMP-2 more strongly, and another that had a weaker connection.

    They linked those affibodies with a squishy material called a hydrogel, which is often used as a delivery vehicle in the body for BMP-2 and similar treatments. Then, they tested how the whole package behaved in a liquid solution that mimics the environment inside the body.

    Adding affibodies to the hydrogel made it release BMP-2 more slowly than an affibody-free hydrogel, the researchers found. And changing up the affibodies could alter the rate of release, too.

     “Our innovation has been to control when the protein comes out,” Dorogin said.  

    In collaboration with colleagues in the lab of Knight Campus researcher Parisa Hosseinzadeh, the team also used machine learning to better understand how the affibodies were interacting with BMP-2.

    Hettiaratchi and Dorogin anticipate the work will be most useful for severe or complex fractures, where there’s a higher likelihood of a bone not healing correctly. They’ve filed a patent for the design of this BMP-2 delivery strategy, and are moving on to further testing with the hopes that someday, this tunable approach could be used in human patients. 

    They see affibodies as far more than just a platform for BMP-2 delivery, though. Healing is complicated, and the natural process involves a cascade of different molecules rushing to the site of injury at different times and in different quantities.

    Hettiaratchi ultimately envisions an affibody-based system that could deliver many healing-related proteins to the site of an injury, each one tuned to come in at a specific rate depending on when it’s needed during the healing process.

    “BMP-2 was a great protein to start with, because we knew it would be clinically relevant,” Hettiaratchi said. “But the long-term goal is to apply this to many things in the clinic.”

     – By Laurel Hamers, University Communications

    This research is funded in part by the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health. The team also received a pilot grant from the Collins Medical Trust.

    About the Knight Campus 
    The Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact is a hub of discovery and innovation where teams of world-class bioengineers and bioscientists are driving groundbreaking scientific research and providing an innovative approach to technical training, professional development, and entrepreneurship. Made possible by a $500 million lead gift from Penny and Phil Knight in 2016 and a second $500 million gift in 2021, the Knight Campus is home to several research centers of excellence and offers a Ph.D. in bioengineering, a bioengineering minor and an accelerated master’s degree program with multiple industry focused tracks. 

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    University of Oregon

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  • New platform empowers high-entropy alloy electrocatalysis study

    New platform empowers high-entropy alloy electrocatalysis study

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    Newswise — Introduced in 2004, high-entropy alloys (HEAs) are alloys composed of multiple principal elements in nearly equiatomic proportions. Their unique chemical composition results in a high degree of chemical disorder, i.e. entropy, and produces remarkable properties such as high strength, ductility, and strong wear-and-tear resistance even at high temperatures. Scientists have dedicated a significant amount of attention to developing novel HEAs to help improve the performance of various electrocatalyst materials.

    Because they are made up of differing constituent elements, HEAs’ atomic-level surface designs can be complex. But unravelling this complexity is crucial, since the surface properties of materials often dictate their catalytic activity. Hence why researchers are seeking to understand the correlation between the atomic arrangement and the catalytic properties exhibited by HEAs.

    Now, a collaborative research team has created a new experimental platform that enables the control of the atomic-level structure of HEAs’ surfaces and the ability to test their catalytic properties. Their breakthrough was reported in the journal Nature Communications on July 26, 2023.

    “In our study we made thin layers of an alloy called a Cantor alloy, which contains a mix of elements (Cr-Mn-Fe-Co-Ni), on platinum (Pt) substrates,” explains Toshimasa Wadayama, co-author of the paper and a professor at Tohoku University’s Graduate School of Environmental Studies. “This produced a model surface for studying a specific reaction called the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR).”

    Using advanced imaging techniques, the group examined the atomic-level structure of the Pt-HEAs’ surfaces and studied their ORR properties. They discovered that the Pt-HEAs’ surfaces performed better in ORR compared to surfaces made of a platinum-cobalt alloy. This indicates that the atomic arrangement and distribution of elements near the surface, which creates a ‘pseudo-core-shell-like structure,’ contributes to the excellent catalytic properties of Pt-HEAs.

    Wadayama and his group stress the wide applicability of their findings, both for any constituent elements and to other nanomaterials.

    “Our newly constructed experimental study platform provides us with a powerful tool to elucidate the detailed relationship between multi-component alloy surface microstructures and their catalytic properties. It is valid for clarifying the precise correlations among the atomic-level, surface microstructure and electrocatalytic properties of HEAs of any constituent elements and ratios and, thus, would provide reliable training datasets for materials informatics. The platform is applicable not only to electrocatalysis but also in various fields of functional nanomaterials.”

    Looking ahead, the group hopes to expand this platform into practical electrocatalysis by using Pt-HEA-nanoparticles that seek to increase electrochemical surface areas.

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    Tohoku University

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  • Detecting the unseen particles

    Detecting the unseen particles

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    Newswise — How high are concentrations of microplastics in the environment, in our drinking water or in foods? Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed an automated analysis method for the identification and quantification of particles.

    Microplastics are everywhere in the environment. The tiny particles, with diameters of less than 5 millimeters, can also absorb and transport contaminants and toxins. “We urgently need analytical techniques to learn about the size, concentration and composition of these particles,” says Dr. Natalia Ivleva at the Chair of Analytical Chemistry and Water Chemistry at TUM. Together with her team, the scientist has developed a new process.

    To be able to detect microplastic particles, the researchers had several hurdles to overcome: The first was the problem of low concentrations. River water, for example, contains massive amounts of suspended solids and fine sand, with plastic accounting for less than 1 percent of the particles. These particles must first be isolated before their concentrations and ultimately their chemical composition are determined. Previous methods have relied on the analysis of the residues that are released when the samples are heated. With that approach, however, it is not possible to determine the number, size and shape of the plastic particles.

    Plastics can be identified through light scattering

    “Our approach is fundamentally different,” says Dr. Ivleva: “It is particle-based. That means that instead of destroying the particles, we analyze them directly.” To do this, the researchers use a method known as Raman microspectroscopy. It works by shining a monochromatic laser source onto a sample and detecting the light scattered by the molecules. Comparing the scattered light against the laser source provides information on the substance under investigation. To analyze plastic particles with a diameter greater than 1 µm (micrometer), they must first be filtered out of the aqueous solution, detected under the microscope and then illuminated with laser light. Because plastics such as polyethylene, polystyrene and polyvinyl chloride scatter the photons in characteristic ways, they each generate signals as unique as a fingerprint.

    Automation instead of manual measurements

    It took years to develop the tracing process: “When we started, we still had to make manual measurements,” recalls the chemist. “It took us months to investigate a few thousand particles.” In the meantime the team has succeeded in automating the detection of microplastics. A single analysis no longer takes weeks, but only a matter of hours. Although the tiny particles still have to be filtered out of the aqueous solution, followed by placement of the filter under the Raman microspectroscope, all remaining steps are carried out by the software developed by the team. The plastic particles are first localized with a light microscope, photographed and measured, and the particles are distinguished from fibers. The software uses these data to compute the number of particles and fibers and to select the image sections needed for a statistically significant result in the subsequent Raman spectroscopy.

    In the next step, the laser is directed onto the sample and the scattering is detected and analyzed. This allows quick and reliable analysis of the number, size, shape and composition of the microplastics. The open-source TUM-Particle Typer 2 software is now available to researchers around the world.

    Nanoplastics require special detection processes

    To investigate nanoparticles with diameters of less than 1 µm, however, Dr. Ivleva’s team is already working on a modified process. “Nanoparticles like these are difficult or even impossible to discern under a light microscope. To detect them, we first have to carry out size fractionation and then identify them,” explains the researcher.

    For this purpose, a field flow fractionation (FFF) system is used. This creates a water flow that captures the particles – depending on their size – and separates them by transporting them at varying speeds. A specially developed device, combined with Raman spectroscopy, permits the chemical characterization of different types of nanoplastics.

    “The new analytical processes permit rapid and precise investigation of concentration, size and composition of micro- and nanoplastics,” sums up Dr. Ivleva. “This will now make it possible to study the influence of these particles on the environment and human health.”

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    Technical University of Munich

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  • Actiphage TB awarded US Patent grant for diagnostic kit

    Actiphage TB awarded US Patent grant for diagnostic kit

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    Newswise — PBD Biotech developers of Actiphage TB, a ground-breaking phage-based diagnostic for laboratory tuberculosis testing, has today announced it has secured the grant of a US patent for its diagnostic kit. The company is exhibiting in the AACC Clinical Lab Expo on booth #4578.

    Grant of this US patent relating to Mycobacteria detection using bacteriophages, and specifically to the diagnostic kit, provides further important protection for the Actiphage technology.

    Jane Theaker CEO of PBD Biotech explains: “We already have a granted US Patent for the specific method steps, but this new allowance relates to the specific components that make up the Actiphage TB diagnostic kit, strengthening our rights.”

    “We are particularly pleased with this result, claims covering diagnostic kits are notoriously difficult to obtain before the USPTO as the components of the kit are generally considered individually and not in relation to how the kit is to be used.”

    PBD Biotech is a clinical-stage diagnostic company and pioneer in phage-based diagnostics. It is focused on the development of Actiphage TB as a blood test for the detection of tuberculosis in latent TB screening and drug management.

    PBD Biotech recently initiated one of the largest clinical trials for Actiphage TB to date, building on a prior study that demonstrated detection of Mycobacteria tuberculosis (Mtb) in the blood of naive pulmonary TB patients.

    PBD Biotech is one of eight start-ups selected to present at the DxPx Conference US 2023, part of the AACC Clinical Lab Expo in Anaheim, California on July 26 2023.

    PBD is actively seeking investment and life sciences partners to support Actiphage TB clinical development and commercialization.

    DxPx is the only conference dedicated to facilitating M&A, licensing, and financing opportunities for Diagnostics, Digital Health, Precision Medicine, and Life Sciences Tools companies. 

    PBD Biotech is exhibiting in the AACC Clinical Lab Expo on Booth #4578. 

    -ENDS-

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    2023 AACC Annual Scientific Meeting Press Program

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  • A Groundbreaking Addition to the Chemist’s Arsenal of Tools

    A Groundbreaking Addition to the Chemist’s Arsenal of Tools

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    Newswise — Microscopic materials made of clay designed by researchers at the University of Missouri could be key to the future of synthetic materials chemistry. By enabling scientists to produce chemical layers tailor-made to deliver specific tasks based on the goals of the individual researcher, these materials called nanoclays can be used in a wide variety of applications, including the medical field or environmental science. 

    A fundamental part of the material is its electrically charged surface, said Gary Baker, co-principal investigator on the project and an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry.      

    “Imagine a koosh ball where the thousands of rubber strands radiating from the ball’s core each sport an electrically charged bead on the end,” Baker said. “It’s analogous to a magnet — positively charged things will stick to negatively charged things. For instance, positively charged nanoclays could attract a group of harmful fluorinated chemicals known as PFAS, or “forever chemicals” which are negatively charged. Or, by making the nanoclay negatively charged, it can stick to things such as heavy metal ions like cadmium, which are positively charged, and help remove them from a contaminated body of water.”

    In addition to the electrical charge, each nanoclay can be customized with different chemical components, like mixing and matching different parts. This makes them usable in the design of diagnostic sensors for biomedical imaging or explosive and ordnance detection. 

    “Essentially, these nanoclays represent chemical building blocks designed with specific functions which are assembled into extremely thin, two-dimensional microscopic sheets — thinner than a strand of human DNA and 100,000 times thinner than a sheet of paper,” Baker said. “We can customize the function and shape of the chemical components presented at the surface of the nanoclay to make whatever we want to build. We’ve just exposed the tip of the iceberg for what these materials can do.”  

    Two-dimensional materials are highly sought after because they can superficially coat the outside of a bulky object in a thin, conformal layer and introduce completely different surface properties than the object underneath.

    “By mixing and matching a few things like different ions or gold nanoparticles, we can quickly design chemistry that’s never existed before, and the more we tailor it, the more it opens a wider range of applications,” Baker said.   

    “Surface programmable polycationic nanoclay supports yielding 100,000 per hour turnover frequencies for a nanocatalyzed canonical nitroarene reduction,” was published in ACS Applied Engineering Materials, a journal of the American Chemical Society. Co-authors are Nathaniel Larm at the United States Naval Academy, Durgesh Wagle at Florida Gulf Coast University and Piyuni Ishtaweera and Angira Roy at MU. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not represent the official views of the U.S. government. 

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    University of Missouri, Columbia

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  • Colombia’s marijuana farmers want out of the shadows. Will the government ever legalize their harvest? | News – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

    Colombia’s marijuana farmers want out of the shadows. Will the government ever legalize their harvest? | News – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

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    Cajibio (CNN) — On a recent Friday morning, about 200 coca and marijuana farmers gathered in the small town of Cajibio, southwestern Colombia, to hear the government out.

    Colombian’s government was still licking its wounds after an initiative to legalize recreational marijuana had sunk in Congress less than 10 days before.


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    MMP News Author

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  • Microbiome-Directed Therapies for Undernutrition, Big Data for Precision Medicine, Health Equity, and More to Be Explored at 2023 AACC Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo

    Microbiome-Directed Therapies for Undernutrition, Big Data for Precision Medicine, Health Equity, and More to Be Explored at 2023 AACC Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo

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    Newswise — ANAHEIM—At the 2023 AACC Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo, laboratory experts will present cutting-edge research and technology that is shaping the future of clinical testing and patient care. From July 23-27 in Anaheim, California, the meeting’s 250-plus sessions will deliver insights on a broad range of timely healthcare topics. Highlights include discussions about addressing childhood undernutrition using microbiome-directed therapies, harnessing the power of big data to practice precision medicine, creating more equitable healthcare systems, improving cardiovascular care for women, and using genomic-modification strategies to treat sickle cell disease. 

    Microbiome-Directed Therapies for Childhood Undernutrition. Scientists are exploring whether disruptions to the normal development of the human gut microbiome—a collection of microbes in the gastrointestinal tract—could play a role in causing childhood undernutrition. In the meeting’s opening plenary, Dr. Jeffrey I. Gordon discusses the possibility of developing microbiome-directed therapies to address this devastating global health problem. Dr. Gordon is the 2023 Wallace H. Coulter Lectureship Awardee and founding director of The Edison Family Center for Genome Sciences & Systems Biology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. 

    Practicing Precision Medicine from 700 Trillion Data Points. Over the past decade, researchers and clinicians have measured trillions of points of molecular, clinical, and epidemiological data that could be harnessed to improve disease diagnostics and therapeutics. In this plenary session, Dr. Atul Butte, chief data scientist at the University of California, San Francisco, highlights his center’s recent work on integrating electronic health records data from over 8 million patients and discusses how such big data could help providers to practice more precise medicine.

    Choosing Equity in Healthcare. The 2020 reckoning with racism in America had an intersectional impact on health, healthcare delivery, and medical education. Dr. Thea James, vice president of mission, associate chief medical officer, and co-executive director of the Health Equity Accelerator at Boston Medical Center, will share how one academic healthcare system approached an enterprise-wide transformation toward organizational equity. 

    Addressing Cardiovascular Disease in Women. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for U.S. women, yet the underrepresentation of women in medical research has led to pervasive sex-based gaps in knowledge and care delivery. In this plenary session, Dr. Nanette K. Wenger, professor of medicine in the division of cardiology at Emory University School of Medicine, calls for a cultural shift toward equity, including awareness campaigns that identify cardiovascular disease as the major health threat for women. 

    Advances in Curative Therapies for Sickle Cell Disease. In the meeting’s closing plenary, Dr. Mark C. Walters, chief of the hematology division and professor of pediatrics/hematology at the University of California, San Francisco, will discuss diverse new approaches for addressing sickle cell disease that apply genomic modifications to patients’ cells to elicit a therapeutic effect. He will present examples of both promising results and pitfalls, while also exploring how to ensure equitable access to these new therapies. 

    Additionally, at the Clinical Lab Expo, more than 900 exhibitors will display innovative technologies that are just coming to market in every clinical lab discipline. 

    “The 2023 AACC Annual Scientific Meeting program showcases the versatility of laboratory medicine professionals and the enormous impact they have on improving health and healthcare,” said AACC CEO Mark J. Golden. “From investigating promising therapies to translating data into better medicine to advancing equity in healthcare systems, our plenary speakers exemplify the pioneering vision and collaborative nature of the clinical laboratory community.”

    ______________________________________________________________________

    Session Information

    AACC Annual Scientific Meeting registration is free for members of the media. Reporters can register online here: https://www.xpressreg.net/register/aacc0723/media/landing.asp

     

    Microbiome-Directed Therapies for Childhood Undernutrition

    11001 Developing Microbiome-Directed Therapeutics for Treating Childhood Undernutrition

    Sunday, July 23

    5:00-6:30 p.m. U.S. Pacific Time

     

    Practicing Precision Medicine from 700 Trillion Data Points

    12001 Precisely Practicing Medicine from 700 Trillion Points of Data

    Monday, July 24

    8:45-10:15 a.m., U.S. Pacific Time

     

    Choosing Equity in Healthcare

    13001 Choosing Equity in Healthcare: An Organizational Transformation

    Tuesday, July 25

    8:45-10:15 a.m., U.S. Pacific Time

     

    Addressing Cardiovascular Disease in Women

    14001 Cardiovascular Disease in Women: Epidemiology, Awareness, Access, and Delivery of Equitable Health Care

    Wednesday, July 26

    8:45-10:15 a.m., U.S. Pacific Time

     

    Advances in Curative Therapies for Sickle Cell Disease

    15001 Advances in Curative Therapies for Sickle Cell Disease

    Thursday, July 27

    8:45-10:15 a.m., U.S. Pacific Time

     

    About the 2023 AACC Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo

    The 2023 AACC Annual Scientific Meeting offers 5 days packed with opportunities to learn about exciting science from July 23-27 in Anaheim, California. Plenary sessions will explore microbiome-directed therapies for undernutrition, big data for practicing precision medicine, healthcare equity, cardiovascular disease in women, and promising sickle cell disease treatments.

    At the Clinical Lab Expo, more than 900 exhibitors will fill the show floor of the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California, with displays of the latest diagnostic technology, including but not limited to COVID-19 testing, artificial intelligence, point-of-care, and automation.

    About the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (ADLM) 

    Dedicated to achieving better health through laboratory medicine, ADLM (formerly AACC) brings together more than 70,000 clinical laboratory professionals, physicians, research scientists, and business leaders from around the world focused on clinical chemistry, molecular diagnostics, mass spectrometry, translational medicine, lab management, and other areas of progressing laboratory science. Since 1948, ADLM has worked to advance the common interests of the field, providing programs that advance scientific collaboration, knowledge, expertise, and innovation. For more information, visit www.myadlm.org.

     

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    American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC)

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  • AACC Rebrands to the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine

    AACC Rebrands to the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine

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    Newswise — ANAHEIM—AACC, a global scientific and medical professional organization dedicated to better health through laboratory medicine, is pleased to announce a name change to the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine. 

    This new name reflects the association’s role as advocate and champion for a larger community who specialize in diagnostics and laboratory medicine, as well as the global reach of the organization. 

    While AACC has been the professional home for clinical chemists since it began, over the years the association’s programs have grown in their appeal to other specialty areas working in or adjacent to the clinical lab. Today, the association is already broadly serving those who work in or with the clinical laboratory.

    On April 21, AACC held a member vote on the proposal to change the name of the association from AACC to the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (ADLM). When final votes were tabulated, the motion was carried with more than a two-thirds majority voting to approve AACC becoming the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine.

    “I’m proud to say that this change has come about by listening to our members and focusing on the best way to ensure a bright future for our profession,” said association president Dr. Shannon Haymond. “This name change does not represent a change of direction for the association. Instead, it more accurately reflects an evolution within the field and the association that has long been underway. As we evolve into this new branding, I’d like to emphasize that the goal of the new brand is to broaden our invitation to collaborate, not narrow it.”

    ______________________________________________________________________

     

    About the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (ADLM) 

    Dedicated to achieving better health through laboratory medicine, ADLM (formerly AACC) brings together more than 70,000 clinical laboratory professionals, physicians, research scientists, and business leaders from around the world focused on clinical chemistry, molecular diagnostics, mass spectrometry, translational medicine, lab management, and other areas of progressing laboratory science. Since 1948, ADLM has worked to advance the common interests of the field, providing programs that advance scientific collaboration, knowledge, expertise, and innovation. For more information, visit www.myadlm.org. 

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    American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC)

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  • Renewable solar energy can help purify water, the environment

    Renewable solar energy can help purify water, the environment

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    BYLINE: Jenna Kurtzweil

    Using electrochemistry to separate different particles within a solution (also known as electrochemical separation) is an energy-efficient strategy for environmental and water remediation: the process of purifying contaminated water. But while electrochemistry uses less energy than other, similar methods, the electric energy is largely derived from nonrenewable sources like fossil fuels.

    Chemists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have demonstrated that water remediation can be powered in part — and perhaps even exclusively — by renewable energy sources. Through a semiconductor, their method integrates solar energy into an electrochemical separation process powered by a redox reaction, which manipulates ions’ electric charge to separate them from a solution like water.  

    Using this system, the researchers successfully separated and removed dilute arsenate — a derivative of arsenic, which is a major waste component from steel and mining industries — from wastewater.

    This work represents proof-of-concept for the applicability of such systems for wastewater treatment and environmental protection.

    “Global electrical energy is still predominantly derived from nonrenewable, fossil-fuel-based sources, which raises questions about the long-term sustainability of electrochemical processes, including separations. Integrating solar power advances the sustainability of electrochemical separations in general, and its applications to water purification benefit the water sector as well,” said lead investigator Xiao Su, a researcher at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering.

    This work appears in the journal Small at https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202305275.

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    Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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  • REACH animal testing: Numbers in the debate

    REACH animal testing: Numbers in the debate

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    Newswise — Sixteen years ago, the REACH chemical regulation came into force across Europe. REACH obliges the chemical industry to identify the health risks of all chemicals used in their products. The downside of REACH is that this hazard assessment requires a large number of animal tests. Just how many was not clear until now.

    The “Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing” (CAAT) based in Baltimore and at the University of Konstanz now wants to bring numbers into the REACH debate. In a current study, based on data from the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), the researchers show that so far around 4.2 million animals have been used for hazard assessment under REACH (of which 1.3 million animals are in ongoing studies). An additional 3.5 to 6.9 million animal tests are expected due to the revision of REACH in 2022.

    Animal-free, alternative test methods were relatively rarely used. What is known as read-across methods (prediction of toxicity from comparison with structurally similar, already tested chemicals) were rejected in 75 percent of cases.

    Animal-free alternative methods
    The researchers from Konstanz and Baltimore advocate the use of animal-free alternative methods (New Approach Methodologies, NAMs). “Some of these new methods are not only suitable for large-scale chemical screenings, but also provide more meaningful results than animal testing, as the chemicals are tested on human cells – naturally in a petri dish”, explains Thomas Hartung, Director of the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT) and professor at the University of Konstanz.

    “Animal-free alternative methods are available for an increasing range of test purposes. The goal must be to adapt the legislation to the current state of scientific knowledge”, demands Marcel Leist, professor of in-vitro-toxicology at the University of Konstanz and co-director of the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing Europe. The CAAT researchers emphasize the importance of bringing scientists, authorities and industry to the same table to advance the introduction of alternative methods.

    About CAAT-Europe
    The Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing Europe (CAAT-Europe) based in Konstanz was founded by Thomas Hartung and Marcel Leist. It is committed to reducing animal testing worldwide through the development and introduction of alternative methods. It combines research and information work, and creates exchange between scientists, authorities and industry. The CAAT scientists are also directly involved in the development of animal-free alternative methods. The 3R network Baden-Württemberg, Germany, as well as the Swiss Doerenkamp-Zbinden Foundation support their efforts. With the professorship of Marcel Leist, the University of Konstanz established the first professorship for alternative methods to animal testing in 2006. Among other achievements, the research team developed the world’s first in vitro toxicity test for the peripheral nervous system.

     

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    University of Konstanz

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  • Co-Diagnostics, Inc. to Host Booth and Discuss Recent Grant Awards at AACC 2023 in Anaheim, CA

    Co-Diagnostics, Inc. to Host Booth and Discuss Recent Grant Awards at AACC 2023 in Anaheim, CA

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    Salt Lake City, Utah – July 20, 2023 – Co-Diagnostics, Inc. (Nasdaq: CODX) (the “Company” or “Co-Dx”),  a molecular diagnostics company with a unique, patented platform for the development of molecular  diagnostic tests, announced today that it is hosting a booth at the American Association for Clinical Chemistry  (AACC) annual meeting and expo held July 23-27, 2023 in Anaheim, CA. 

    Co-Dx will also be holding a special milestone presentation and company update to discuss recent grant  activity announced earlier this month related to development of the upper respiratory (flu/COVID/RSV),  tuberculosis, and HPV tests on its upcoming Co-Dx PCR Home platform. This new platform is currently  undergoing clinical evaluations in anticipation of its submission to the FDA and an initial product launch for  a COVID-19 test. 

    The presentation will take place in Room 213C at 11:00 AM local time on Tuesday, July 25, and will include Co-Dx CEO Dwight Egan addressing the new grant awards. 

    In addition to the Company’s current and planned pipeline of testing products, both for the new platform and  for its existing customer base of distributors and clinical laboratories around the world, the Co-Dx booth will  showcase the Co-Dx PCR Home which is subject to FDA review and is not available for sale.  

    Attendees interested in learning more are invited to visit the Company at Booth 827. Information about the  AACC conference may be found here. 

    About Co-Diagnostics, Inc.: 

    Co-Diagnostics, Inc., a Utah corporation, is a molecular diagnostics company that develops, manufactures and markets  state-of-the-art diagnostics technologies. The Company’s technologies are utilized for tests that are designed using the  detection and/or analysis of nucleic acid molecules (DNA or RNA). The Company also uses its proprietary technology  to design specific tests for its Co-Dx PCR Home™ platform and to locate genetic markers for use in applications other  than infectious disease. 

    Forward-Looking Statements: 

    This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation  Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA) that are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking  statements can be identified by words such as “believes,” “expects,” “estimates,” “intends,” “may,” “plans,”  “will” and similar expressions, or the negative of these words. Such forward-looking statements are based on  facts and conditions as they exist at the time such statements are made and predictions as to future facts and  conditions. Forward-looking statements in this release include statements regarding our anticipation of a  submission to the FDA and an initial product launch for a COVID-19 test following clinical trials for our new  upcoming Co-Dx PCR Home platform. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated or  anticipated by such forward-looking statements. Readers of this press release are cautioned not to place undue  reliance on any forward-looking statements. There can be no assurance that any of the anticipated results will  occur on a timely basis or at all due to certain risks and uncertainties, a discussion of which can be found in our 

    Risk Factors disclosure in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission  (SEC) on March 16, 2023, and in our other filings with the SEC. The Company does not undertake any obligation  to update any forward-looking statement relating to matters discussed in this press release, except as may be  required by applicable securities laws. 

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    2023 AACC Annual Scientific Meeting Press Program

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  • QR codes made more secure using beetle-inspired liquid crystals

    QR codes made more secure using beetle-inspired liquid crystals

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    Newswise — A research group led by Dr. Jialei He of Nagoya University’s Graduate School of Engineering has developed a method for processing cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs) into micrometer-sized spherical particles. CLCs are a type of liquid crystal that possess a helical structure, giving them unique optical properties and the ability to selectively reflect light. By combining spherical CLC particles with commercially available pigments, the researchers developed a unique anti-counterfeiting QR code that can only be displayed under a specific circular polarizer. The results were published in the journal Advanced Optical Materials.

    CLCs are an example of how nature can be used in engineering. If you have ever noticed the iridescent wings of butterflies or the glossy coating on the exoskeletons of beetles, you have seen what CLCs can do. Once identified, CLCs that mimic the units that generate the colors of the exoskeletons of beetles are  synthesized in the laboratory because of their unusual colors and properties, which lie between liquids and crystals.

    Particularly useful are the optical properties of CLCs. They display unusual colors due to their unique molecular structure and optical properties that lead to the selective reflection of light at specific wavelengths. CLCs consist of long molecules that repeat themselves in the shape of a helix. In the helix, the vertical distance from where one region loops around and repeats itself is called the ‘pitch’. If the helix has repeating units that are close together, the liquid crystal has a short pitch and reflects shorter wavelengths of light, giving off blue and violet colors. However, those with a longer vertical space have longer wavelengths, leading to red or orange colors.

    To complicate matters further, because the molecules that make up the crystal are arranged in a helix, the color can change depending on the viewer’s orientation to the helix. Therefore, an infinite number of colors are possible depending on how the liquid crystal is viewed.

    To utilize CLCs more effectively, researchers make spherical CLC particles. These particles are spherical and include the helix in a 3D matrix so that scientists can better control their coloration. However, a major problem is size. Current methods create 100-micrometer spherical CLC particles, which is too large for most uses. To tackle this problem, researchers Jialei He (he/him) and Yukikazu Takeoka (he/him) from Nagoya University and their colleagues used a mixture of solvents to create spherical CLC particles with a controlled particle size of a few micrometers using a technique called dispersion polymerization.

    Since the samples were taken at room temperature, discovering the new technique was difficult. “The sample testing was a particularly challenging time due to the softness of the samples at room temperature, which is a property inherent to CLCs,” said Dr. He. “Consequently, a considerable amount of effort was required to find an appropriate method to characterize the samples without causing any damage.”

    Since the pitch of the cholesteric liquid crystal of spherical CLCs particles of this size varies with the curvature of the particles, the researchers made the particles spherical with a uniform size distribution. This is known as a monodisperse sphere. “During the experiment, we unexpectedly discovered that the particle size of the microspheres significantly influenced the resulting structural color. We could produce a variety of colors depending on particle size,” said Dr. He. “We also found that covering the spherical CLC particles with the polymer polydimethylsiloxane improved the coloration and thermal stability.”

    One potential application for this research is the creation of more secure QR codes that cannot be replicated. They could be created by taking advantage of a feature of the CLCs called chirality. Chirality refers to the property of an object or molecule that it cannot be superimposed onto its mirror image because of an asymmetry. CLCs are chiral and have optical activity, so an anti-counterfeiting QR code could be created by combining the color of spherical CLCs particles with commercially available non-chiral pigments. The code could only be read when a specific circular polarizer that allows the non-chiral light through but not the chiral light of the QR code is used..

    “The development of spherical CLC particles development resulting from this research will provide new possibilities for low-cost structural color functions different from those of conventional color materials,” said Dr. Takeoka. “As well as being used a special functional pigment for anti-counterfeiting, it can also be used for other applications that take advantage of the circularly polarized structural color with little angle dependence.”

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    Nagoya University

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  • Montana to crack down on synthetic marijuana – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

    Montana to crack down on synthetic marijuana – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

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    Montana will soon crack down on synthetic marijuana and intoxicating hemp products that have proliferated through regulatory loopholes despite concerns they pose a health risk to children. 

    The Cannabis Control Division, the marijuana regulatory arm of the Montana Department of Revenue, said Tuesday eradicating synthetic products will be the “biggest lift” for the agency between now and the 2025 Legislature. 

    “Most of these businesses that we will be inspecting will be glass shops, gas stations, vape shops,” division administrator Kristan Barbour told the committee. “We’re just going in and making sure they know that any synthetic cannabinoid or hemp intoxicating product is no longer carried.”

    The substances were identified by the agency in January as the likely culprit in a rash of youth hospitalizations raised by local health officials after the first year of marijuana legalization in Montana. 

    People are also reading…

    House Bill 948, carried by Republican Rep. Steve Galloway of Great Falls, established a statewide prohibition on the manufacturing and sale of synthetic marijuana and intoxicating hemp products. Such substances previously fell outside of purview of the Cannabis Control…

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    MMP News Author

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  • Collagen’s Weak Bonds: A Sacrifice for Tissue Protection

    Collagen’s Weak Bonds: A Sacrifice for Tissue Protection

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    Newswise — One of the more unusual ways objects can increase longevity is by sacrificing a part of themselves: From dummy burial chambers used to deceive tomb raiders, to a fuse melting in an electrical circuit to safeguard appliances, to a lizard’s tail breaking off to enable its escape. Sacrificial parts can also be found within collagen, the most abundant protein in our bodies. Scientists at the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS) have revealed how the rupture of weak sacrificial bonds within collagen tissue helps to localize damage caused by excessive force, minimize negative impacts on the wider tissue, and promote recovery. Published in Nature Communications, the work shines light on collagen’s rupture mechanisms, which is crucial for understanding tissue degradation, material ageing, and potentially advancing tissue engineering techniques.

    “Collagen’s remarkable crosslink chemistry appears to be perfectly adapted to handling mechanical stress,” says Frauke Gräter, who led the research at HITS. “By using complementary computational and experimental techniques to study collagen in rat tissue, our findings indicate that weak bonds within the crosslinks of collagen have a strong propensity to rupture before other bonds, such as those in the collagen’s backbone. This serves as a protective mechanism, localizes the detrimental chemical and physical effects of radicals caused by ruptures, and likely supports molecular recovery processes.”

    Collagen comprises roughly 30 percent of all proteins in the human body. It provides strength to bones, elasticity to skin, protection to organs, flexibility to tendons, aids in blood clotting, and supports the growth of new cells. Structurally, collagen resembles a triple-braided helix: Three chains of amino acids intertwine to form a strong and rigid backbone. Each collagen fibre contains thousands of individual molecules that are staggered and bound to each other by crosslinks, contributing to collagen’s mechanical stability. It was thought that collagen crosslinks are susceptible to rupture, however little was known about the specific sites of bond ruptures or why ruptures occur where they do.

    Scientists from the Molecular Biomechanics Group at HITS aimed to unravel these puzzles using computer simulations of collagen across multiple biological scales and under different mechanical forces. They validated their findings via gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry experiments conducted on rat tails, flexors, and Achilles tendons. By subjecting collagen to rigorous testing, the team was able to determine specific breakage points. They observed how force dissipates through the complex hierarchical structure of the tissue and how its chemical bonds bare the load.

    Mature crosslinks in collagen consist of two arms: one of which is weaker than other bonds in collagen tissue. When subjected to excessive force, the weaker arm is typically first to rupture, dissipating the force and localizing detrimental effects. The scientists found that in regions of collagen tissue where weak bonds are present, other bonds – both in the crosslinks and the collagen backbone – are more likely to remain intact, thereby preserving the structural integrity of the collagen tissue.

    Previous work led by HITS scientists revealed that excessive mechanical stress on collagen leads to the generation of radicals, which in turn cause damage and oxidative stress in the body. ”Our latest research shows that sacrificial bonds in collagen serve a vital role in maintaining the overall integrity of the material can help to localize the impacts of this mechanical stress that could otherwise have catastrophic consequences for the tissue”, explains Benedikt Rennekamp, the study’s first author. “As collagen is a major substituent of tissues in our bodies, by uncovering and understanding these rupture sites, researchers can gain valuable insights into the mechanics of collagen and potentially develop strategies to enhance its resilience and mitigate damage.”

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    Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS)

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  • New Insights on the Prevalence of Drizzle in Marine Stratocumulus Clouds

    New Insights on the Prevalence of Drizzle in Marine Stratocumulus Clouds

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    The Science

    Drizzle is light precipitation in droplets smaller than rain drops. Detecting drizzle in its early stages in marine stratocumulus clouds is important for studying how water in these clouds becomes rainfall. These clouds form off the west coasts of large land areas and are important to the Earth’s energy balance.  Drizzle and rain formation can alter their lifetime, structure, and how much sunlight they reflect to space. However, detecting the initial stages of drizzle is challenging for ground-based remote-sensing observations. Researchers developed a machine learning-based approach using unique radar Doppler spectra observations to identify the early stage of drizzle drops.

    The Impact

    The results demonstrate that drizzle is far more frequent than previously recognized by traditional methods. The method also provides essential information on light precipitation. This information challenges the detection limits of satellite-borne observations used in precipitation climate analyses for global climate model (GCM) evaluation.

    Summary

    Researchers commonly use radar reflectivity from millimeter-wavelength radar for drizzle detection, but it is unable to identify weak drizzle signals. Doppler skewness—a measure of Doppler spectral symmetry—has proven to be a more sensitive quantity for the detection of drizzle embryos. In this study, researchers from Brookhaven National Laboratory and Stony Brook University detected small drizzle droplets using a newly developed machine-learning technique from unique drizzle retrievals based on radar reflectivity and skewness from millimeter-wavelength radars operated by the Department of Energy’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility. The researchers evaluated the drizzle detection algorithm on aircraft in situ measurements and then applied them to ARM observational campaigns at three different sites (Eastern North Atlantic [ENA], Measurements of Aerosols, Radiation, and Clouds over the Southern Ocean [MARCUS], and Marine ARM GPCI Investigation of Clouds [MAGIC]) to investigate drizzle occurrence in marine stratocumulus clouds.

    The results show that drizzle is far more ubiquitous than previously recognized, and that the traditional approach significantly underestimates the drizzle occurrence, especially in thin clouds with low liquid water paths. Drizzle occurrence in marine boundary-layer clouds differs among the three ARM campaigns, indicating that drizzle formation and distribution is regime dependent, controlled by microphysical and dynamical processes in the local region. Further, spaceborne radar (i.e., CloudSat) observations used to generate precipitation climatologies have low sensitivity in the light precipitation region. The new method provides essential information in this region to challenge the conventional light precipitation climatology and can be used to improve the warm rain parameterization in GCMs.

     

    Funding

    Zeen Zhu’s contributions have been supported by the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, Atmospheric System Research (ASR) program’s Eastern North Atlantic Site Science award. Pavlos Kollias, Edward Luke, and Fan Yang have been supported by the DOE Office of Science ASR Program (contract no. DE-SC0012704).


    Journal Link: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Jun-2022

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    Department of Energy, Office of Science

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  • Fungus-Farming Ants Keep Gardens Healthy

    Fungus-Farming Ants Keep Gardens Healthy

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    Newswise — ‘Weed early and often’ is the key to a productive garden. Interestingly, certain species of ants are also avid gardeners, a practice they’ve refined over 50 million years. They too weed their underground fungus gardens, but how they know what to weed out has been a mystery. Now, a multidisciplinary team of scientists report in PNAS on June 15 how ants distinguish the good fungus from the bad.

    People rely on sight to identify weeds but ants grow fungus underground in the dark and must have other ways to sense undesirable garden denizens. A team led by Jonathan Klassen, Ph.D., at the University of Connecticut and Marcy Balunas, Ph.D., at the University of Michigan has found that the ants sniff out diseased fungus by detecting chemicals called peptaibols.

    The team focused on the ant species Trachymyrmex septentrionalis whose habitat follows the pine barren ecosystem from Long Island all the way south to East Texas. Trachymyrmex ants grow their fungus below ground and feed it fresh organic detritus. The fungus acts almost like an external gut for the ant colony; the fungus grows up and around the fresh food laid on top of it in honeycomb shapes, produces digested food for the ants as it grows, and then secretes waste.

    Klassen Lab graduate student Katie Kyle, a co-first author on the paper, experimentally infected ant nests with Trichoderma, a naturally occurring, disease-causing fungus that infects the ants’ gardens and found that the ants began working overtime to remove the infection from the nests, increasing their waste output.

    Over the winter, while the ants were dormant, the team analyzed the fungal biomes of several different ant nests collected from different locations and found Trichoderma in all of them.

    Co-first author Sara Puckett, Ph.D., a recent graduate from the Balunas’ UConn lab, prepared extracts of Trichoderma containing the organic compounds of the fungus to determine if the weeding was triggered by one or more of these compounds or simply by the presence of the pathogen’s cells. 

    “We were curious to see if the ants were weeding because of compounds produced by the infecting fungus,” Balunas said.

    The team found the Trichoderma extract, when applied to the fungus garden, sent the ants into frenzied weeding activity just as actual Trichoderma infections had.

    Working with scientists from University of California, San Diego and University of North Carolina, Greensboro, they discovered the nests contained peptaibols, a family of compounds known to be produced by Trichoderma. However, finding which specific peptaibols were causing ant weeding proved more challenging since these extracts contained many compounds. 

    The researchers tested pure peptaibols, including two new compounds called trichokindins VIII and IX.

    It turns out that all the peptaibols tested caused some level of ant weeding, a finding that implies it may not be one particular peptaibol but rather that the whole suite of peptaibols can induce the ants to weed their garden. 

    “This suite of Trichoderma compounds inducing ant behavior is in contrast to many other natural products whose activity can often be attributed to one compound,” Balunas says.

    Although their data support peptaibols as a signal to weed, it’s not clear what exactly the ants are perceiving. It may be that the invading Trichoderma fungus produces the peptaibols and the ants detect them and then weed, note the researchers. Or perhaps the ants are detecting a secondary response from the fungus garden itself.

     The next step is to figure out those details of ant-fungus communication, Klassen says.

    “Maybe the fungus is signaling ‘I’m sick’. Maybe the fungus is detecting the peptaibols. We need to flesh out the chain of signaling,” Klassen says. 

    The findings highlight one of the few known systems where an animal responds to a disease of its beneficial symbiotic partner instead of a disease of its own body, a phenomenon that Balunas and Klassen are calling an extended defense response, and one that they look forward to continuing to tease apart.

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    University of Connecticut

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  • BGSU researchers develop ‘green chemistry’ method to recycle, upcycle silicone

    BGSU researchers develop ‘green chemistry’ method to recycle, upcycle silicone

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    Newswise — Pioneering research out of Bowling Green State University is aiming to keep silicone out of landfills through an innovative process designed to recycle or upcycle the popular consumer product.

    Dr. Joe Furgal, associate professor in the BGSU Chemistry Department, is spearheading a research project studying the use of room-temperature depolymerization to repurpose silicone, saving massive amounts of energy required to create new polymers. 

    Used to make everything from gaskets to cinematic masks, silicone has a clear life cycle gap, Furgal said. After consumer use, there currently is no easy way to turn the material back into its original form and be reused like other materials. 

    “After you use it, you just throw it away because silicones aren’t recycled,” he said. “There’s no recycling number for silicone, and there’s not even really a good process for it out there.” 

    Green chemistry
    The process of turning silicones back into raw materials uses a process called depolymerization, which is the process of converting a polymer — with grouped subunits — back into a monomer or series of monomers that allows them to be reused.  

    Furgal’s lab uses a catalyst that breaks down the silicone’s bonds, a solvent to aid catalyst transfer into the silicone, followed by a calcium chloride bath to lock the new structure into place. The entire process takes place at room temperature. 

    The resulting liquid can be strained and reused in new silicone production — eliminating the energy-heavy first step of silicone creation. 

    “We can take silicones, silicone rubbers, elastomers, oil, and using catalysts at room temperature, we can convert them back to their starting material,” Furgal said. “After filtering, then you can put that right back into the initiator process to get back to silicone.” 

    The depolymerization method even can separate silicone from attached plastics without harming the latter as the solvent also kills any biohazards the silicone might have encountered during its first use.

    The patent-pending methodology has a promising future use that includes a grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to study the enhanced use of silicone with the controlled release of nitric oxide to prevent infection and blood clotting, a collaboration with associate professor Dr. Alexis Ostrowski at BGSU and two biomedical engineering faculty members at the University of Georgia, Dr. Elizabeth Brisbois and Dr. Hitesh Handa.

    The researchers are hopeful these methods will be useful and wide-ranging in reducing carbon emissions caused by the initial creation of silicone and similar polymers. 

    “This research opens the possibility of depolymerizing these materials in mild conditions and at room temperature,” Edirisinghe said. “This process will save resources, energy and cost because it’s environmentally beneficial and will contribute to green chemistry and the sustainable use of resources.” 

    Wide appeal
    Medical applications account for significant amounts of silicone usage — in tubing, hearing aids, implantable devices and prosthetics — but silicone also has significant everyday usage in things like kitchen tools, pacifiers, baby bottles, caulking and even children’s toys such as Silly Putty.

    Dr. Kalani Edirisinghe, a postdoctoral research associate in Furgal’s lab, said that silicone and other similar polymers offer many benefits, but when these polymers are discarded, the process of replacing them means significant, new energy usage. 

    “Siloxane-based polymers are widely used in everyday materials because they are low toxicity, and they’re chemically, mechanically and thermally stable,” Edirisinghe said. “The high energy cost in producing these materials is lost when they are discarded without recycling or upcycling, which will be a waste of resources and energy.”

    Similar to steel production, the creation of siloxane-based polymers requires carbothermal reduction at temperatures higher than 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit.

    Conservative estimates indicate every produced kilogram of the metal silicon, which is used to make the polymer silicone, releases at least 10 times that amount of carbon dioxide — and humans produce about 1.5 million tons of silicone per year.

    “We wanted to make the silicone life cycle more like steel,” said Dr. Buddhima Rupasinghe ’22, the author of a review on silicone degradation processes whose research as a BGSU student was responsible for moving this technology forward.

    But silicone is unlike steel after it is used by consumers. Most post-consumer steel is collected and reused, and Furgal said he wanted to use this research to “close the loop,” by returning polymers to their original forms, allowing them to be reused. 

    “Our inspiration comes from steel, which is made by a very similar process to silicon — but steel has an 88% recycling rate,” he said. “Think about that: 88% of all steel is reused, and steel scrap uses about 75% less energy than new steel.”

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    Bowling Green State University

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  • Mom of 6-year-old who shot VA teacher in court Monday – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

    Mom of 6-year-old who shot VA teacher in court Monday – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

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    The mother of a 6-year-old boy who shot his teacher in Virginia is expected to plead guilty in federal court Monday to using marijuana while possessing a firearm, which is illegal under U.S. law.

    Deja Taylor is accused of lying about her marijuana use on a form when she bought the gun, which her son later used to shoot Abby Zwerner in her classroom. The first-grade teacher was seriously wounded and has endured multiple surgeries.






    Taylor 



    The federal case against Taylor is separate from the charges she faces on the state level: felony child neglect and reckless storage of a firearm. A trial for those counts is set for August.

    …

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    MMP News Author

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  • Heat transport in energy materials

    Heat transport in energy materials

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    Newswise — The NOMAD Laboratory researchers have recently elucidated on fundamental microscopic mechanisms that offer to tailor materials for heat insulation. This development advances the ongoing efforts to enhance energy efficiency and sustainability.

    The role of heat transport is crucial in various scientific and industrial applications, such as catalysis, turbine technologies, and thermoelectric heat converters that convert waste heat into electricity. Particularly in the context of energy conservation and the development of sustainable technologies, materials with high thermal insulation capabilities are of utmost importance. These materials allow to retain and utilize heat that would otherwise go to waste. Therefore, improving the design of highly insulating materials is a key research objective in enabling more energy-efficient applications.

    However, designing strongly heat insulators is far from trivial, despite the fact that the underlying fundamental physical laws are known for nearly a century. At a microscopic level, heat transport in semiconductors and insulators was understood in terms of the collective oscillation of the atoms around their equilibrium positions in the crystal lattice. These oscillations, called “phonons” in the field, involve zillions of atoms in solid materials and hence cover large, almost macroscopic length- and time-scales.

    In a recent joined publication in Physical Review B (Editors Suggestions) and Physical Review Letters, researchers from the NOMAD Laboratory at the Fritz Haber Institute have advanced the computational possibilities to compute thermal conductivities without experimental input at unprecedented accuracy. They demonstrated that for strong heat insulators the above-mentioned phonon picture is not appropriate. Using large-scale calculations on supercomputers at of the Max Planck Society, the North-German Supercomputing Alliance, and the Jülich Supercomputing Centre, they scanned over 465 crystalline materials, for which the thermal conductivity had not been measured yet. Besides finding 28 strong thermal insulators, six of which featuring an ultra-low thermal conductivity comparable to wood, this study shed light on a hitherto typically overseen mechanisms that allows to systematically lower the thermal conductivity. “We observed the temporary formation of defect structures that massively influences the atomic motion for an extremely short period of time”, says Dr. Florian Knoop (now Linköping University), first author of both publications. “Such effects are typically neglected in thermal-conductivity simulations, since these defects are so short-lived and so microscopically localised compared to typical heat-transport scales, that they are assumed to be irrelevant. However, the performed calculations showed that they trigger lower thermal conductivities”, adds Dr. Christian Carbogno, a senior author of the studies.

    These insights may offer new opportunities to fine-tune and design thermal insulators on a nanoscale level through defect engineering, potentially contributing to advances in energy-efficient technology.

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    FRITZ HABER INSTITUTE – MAX PLANCK SOCIETY

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  • Early Earth chemistry: Salt alters polyester microdroplets

    Early Earth chemistry: Salt alters polyester microdroplets

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    Newswise — Billions of years ago, Earth was an extremely hostile planet with active volcanoes, a harsh atmosphere, and certainly no life! This prebiotic Earth, however, was filled with a wide array of abiotic organic molecules derived from its early environment, which underwent chemical reactions that eventually led to the origin of life. A class of such abiotic molecules abundant during the prebiotic era was the

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    Tokyo Institute of Technology

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