Category Archives: Biochemistry

In DNA, scientists find a solution to building a superconductor that could transform technology.

Scientists have used DNA to overcome a nearly insurmountable obstacle to engineering materials that will revolutionize electronics. Published in the journal Science on July 28, the work was performed by researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and their collaborators.

One possible outcome of these engineered materials could be superconductors, which have zero electrical resistance, allowing electrons to flow unimpeded. That means that, unlike current means of electrical transmission, they dont lose energy and dont create heat. Development of a superconductor that could be used widely at normal pressures and room temperature instead of at extremely high or low temperatures, as is now possible could lead to many technological wonders. These include hyper-fast computers, shrinking the size of electronic devices, allowing high-speed trains to float on magnets and slash energy use, and many more.

One such superconductor was first proposed by Stanford physicist William A. Little more than 50 years ago. Scientists have spent decades trying to make it work. However, even after validating the feasibility of his idea, they were left with a challenge that appeared impossible to overcome. Until now.

Edward H. Egelman, PhD, of the University of Virginia School of Medicines Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, has been a leader in the field of cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), and he and his colleagues used cryo-EM imaging for this seemingly impossible project. It demonstrates, he said, that the cryo-EM technique has great potential in materials research. Credit: Dan Addison, UVA Communications

Edward H. Egelman, PhD, of UVAs Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, has been a leader in the field of cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), and he and Leticia Beltran, a graduate student in his lab, used cryo-EM imaging for this seemingly impossible project. It demonstrates, he said, that the cryo-EM technique has great potential in materials research.

One possible way to realize Littles idea for a superconductor is to modify lattices of carbon nanotubes. These are hollow cylinders of carbon so tiny they must be measured in nanometers billionths of a meter. However, there was a huge challenge: controlling chemical reactions along the nanotubes so that the lattice could be assembled as precisely as needed and function as intended.

Egelman and his colleagues found an answer in the very building blocks of life. They took DNA, the genetic material that tells living cells how to operate, and used it to guide a chemical reaction that would overcome the great barrier to Littles superconductor. In short, they used chemistry to perform astonishingly precise structural engineering construction at the level of individual molecules. The result was a lattice of carbon nanotubes assembled specifically as needed for Littles room-temperature superconductor.

This work demonstrates that ordered carbon nanotube modification can be achieved by taking advantage of DNA-sequence control over the spacing between adjacent reaction sites, Egelman said.

For now, the lattice they built has not been tested for superconductivity. However, it offers proof of principle and has great potential for the future, the researchers say. While cryo-EM has emerged as the main technique in biology for determining the atomic structures of protein assemblies, it has had much less impact thus far in materials science, said Egelman, whose prior work led to his induction in the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors a scientist can receive.

Egelman and his collaborators say their DNA-guided approach to lattice construction could have a wide variety of useful research applications, especially in physics. But it also validates the possibility of building Littles room-temperature superconductor. The scientists work, combined with other breakthroughs in superconductors in recent years, could ultimately transform technology as we know it and lead to a much more Star Trek future.

While we often think of biology using tools and techniques from physics, our work shows that the approaches being developed in biology can actually be applied to problems in physics and engineering, Egelman said. This is what is so exciting about science: not being able to predict where our work will lead.

The researchers have published their findings in the journal Science. The team consisted of Zhiwei Lin, Leticia Beltran, Zeus A. De los Santos, Yinong Li, Tehseen Adel, Jeffrey A Fagan, Angela Hight Walker, Egelman and Ming Zheng.

Reference: DNA-guided lattice remodeling of carbon nanotubes by Zhiwei Lin, Leticia C. Beltran, Zeus A. De los Santos, Yinong Li, Tehseen Adel, Jeffrey A Fagan, Angela R. Hight Walker, Edward H. Egelman and Ming Zheng, 28 July 2022, Science.DOI: 10.1126/science.abo4628

The work was supported by the Department of Commerces National Institute of Standards and Technology and by National Institutes of Health grant GM122510, as well as by an NRC postdoctoral fellowship.

Read the original:
Overcoming the Impossible With DNA to Building Superconductor That Could Transform Technology - SciTechDaily

Isaac Santino-Garcia and Jaydin Fairbanks are frequent camp goers. In the summers, they attend the various media camps ThreeSixty Journalism hosts, like the podcast camp and its news reporter academy.

This year, they were at the television broadcast camp, where they worked on creating a broadcast news story. Santino-Garcia and Fairbanks dove into the topic of Native American boarding schools with their video.

Article continues after advertisement

Topics like this need to be covered more, Santino-Garcia, an incoming junior at Cretin Derham Hall High School, said. And the best way to tell stories about different communities is to have those communities involved and lead the process.

Newsroom employees are more likely to be more white and male than U.S. workers overall, and more than three-quarters (77%) of newsroom employees are white, according to the Pew Research Center. ThreeSixty Journalism has been around for more than 20 years, partnering with the University of St. Thomas with a mission is to change how newsrooms look and the resulting narratives.

Santino-Garcia, who is Lower Sioux Dakota and White Earth Ojibwe, and half Mexican, thinks ThreeSixty puts underrepresented and marginalized voices first.

Every story Ive seen or at least heard about (in the program) has been somebody whos not Caucasian and a story that might not have been regularly told, he said.

For program graduate Samantha HoangLong, being surrounded by so many kids of color was uplifting.

It was like the first space to be a space that young with a class full of people who are also young journalists of color, she said. I feel really lucky that I was in a class full of diversity at that young age.

Part of bringing diversity into newsrooms is creating incentive, said Chad Caruthers, executive director of the journalism program. ThreeSixty also helps by giving stipends to the participants for their time and work.

It was the only reason (I attended) at first, but then I kept doing other things (camps), and I stayed because I always liked it, said Fairbanks, who is going to be a senior at Osseo High School.

The stipend allows people of various socioeconomic backgrounds to participate without the financial strain of losing income for a couple of weeks.

Article continues after advertisement

As students get older in high school, they work more, they need to support their families, they need to support themselves, whatever it may be. To come to a program thats a week-long or two weeks long at St. Thomas during the summer means that they dont work over that period of time, Caruthers said. If its not extra money in their pocket, we hope that it is replacing any income that they would lose by joining us.

Because of the program, some kids are considering studying journalism or some form of media. Santino-Garcia wants to attend St. Thomas, where ThreeSixty offers a four-year scholarship.

I like learning new things, and journalism gives me a good life experience that you may not learn other places, Santino-Garcia said. It just fascinates me because I can go out and tell other peoples stories that may not have been told.

Samantha HoangLong

I actually wanted to be a dentist before that. I was like applying to college with biology and biochemistry, and I was ready to go to dental school. And then I did this camp, she said. I learned that you can talk to people for a living and learn about what they do. I thought that was really cool, so I kind of just stuck with it.

After graduating high school, she interned for ThreeSixty Journalism and learned more about video production. She received a four-year scholarship from ThreeSixty to study communication and journalism at St. Thomas.

At the most recent camp, Babs Santos from Fox 9 and Jeff Wagner from WCCO taught the students how to speak on air and how to structure a story. Another component of the program, HongLong said, was touring a newsroom.

HongLong appreciated seeing what happens behind the scenes in a newsroom.

Article continues after advertisement

I think having that experience right after high school gave me an advanced look of what it could be if I worked in that job, she said. Being able to access and walk through the newsrooms was really cool. Thats what made me want to go into broadcast TV.

She went on to intern at Fox 9, then worked there after graduating college. Shes now on the audience team at Sahan Journal.

ThreeSixty does some recruiting for potential participants but also partners with various schools that identify students who would be a good fit for the program. It offers seasonal journalism workshops throughout the year and a camp per week during the summer.

Caruthers said that free and reduced lunch eligible students pay nothing for the program, but theres flexibility for other income levels. Typically, the organization aims for 80% of its participants to be free and reduced lunch qualified.

But the pandemic reduced that figure to between 50 and 75%.

Harder to reach students became, in many cases, harder to reach during the pandemic, Caruthers said. You look at all the gaps that many of us hear about in terms of education gaps, health disparities, things like that. Technology gaps are a big one, and thats part of it. When everything went to virtual, we had to do the same, and unfortunately, not all of our students have equal access to the technology that was required.

Of the total participants, roughly 10 percent pay to attend, Caruthers said. Its able to do so because of partnerships with the Center for Prevention at Blue Cross Blue Shield, which funds the projects, and helps with the topics.Blue Cross Blue Shield is a sponsor of the Race and Health Equity fellowship at MinnPost, but has no editorial say in content.

People whove attended ThreeSixty have gone on to work in newsrooms across the state. Some alumni are now at the Star Tribune, Fox 9, Sahan Journal, and MPR, among other places, Caruthers said.

MinnPost's in-depth, independent news is free for all to access no paywall or subscriptions. Will you help us keep it this way by supporting our nonprofit newsroom with a tax-deductible donation today?

Read more from the original source:
ThreeSixty Journalism summer camps aim to increase diversity within media - MinnPost

Despite being some of the most versatile building blocks in organic chemistry, compounds called carbenes can be too hot to handle. In the lab, chemists often avoid using these highly reactive molecules due to how explosive they can be. Yet in a new study, published today in the journal Science, researchers from The Ohio State University report on a new, safer method to turn these short-lived, high-energy molecules from much more stable ones.

Carbenes have an incredible amount of energy in them, said David Nagib, co-author of the study and a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Ohio State. The value of that is they can do chemistry that you just cannot do any other way.

In fact, members of the Nagib Lab specialize in harnessing reagents with such high chemical energy, and have helped invent a multitude of new substances and techniques that would otherwise be chemically unobtainable.

In this study, the researchers developed catalysts made out of cheap, Earth-abundant metals, like iron, copper and cobalt, and combined them to facilitate their new method of harnessing carbene.

They were able to successfully use this new strategy to channel the power of reactive carbenes to fabricate valuable molecules on a larger scale and much more quickly than traditional methods. Nagib compared this leap to engineers figuring out how to use steel to build skyscrapers rather than brick and mortar.

For instance, one molecular feature that chemists have been hard-pressed to create is cyclopropane, a small, strained ring of twisted chemical bonds found in some medicines. More recently, cyclopropane has been used as a key ingredient in the oral antiviral pill called Paxlovid. Used to treat COVID-19, the pill reduces the severity of the disease by stopping the virus from replicating, rather than killing it outright.

Although the cyclopropane needed to fabricate the drug has been difficult to create in large quantities, Nagib said he believes his labs new method could be applied to create the drug more quickly and at a larger scale. Our new method will enable better access to dozens of types of cyclopropanes for incorporation into all kinds of medicines to treat disease, he said.

While the teams research does have potential applications outside the pharmaceutical realm, like agrochemicals, Nagib said hes most passionate about how their tool could speed up the discovery of new, targeted medicines. You could technically apply our methods to anything, he said. But in our lab, we're more interested in accessing new types of more potent drugs.

Nagib predicts that, using the process his team developed, a chemical reagent that currently takes 10 or 12 steps to make (by explosive intermediates) could be done in four or five, knocking off nearly 75% of the time it takes to fabricate.

Overall, Nagib said he hopes this research will help other chemists do their work.

There are lots of really great scientists around the world who do this kind of chemistry and using our tool they could potentially have a safer lab, Nagib said. The flavor of science that we do, the most satisfying reward is when other people use our chemical methods to make important molecules better.

Other co-authors were Lumin Zhang, a former postdoctoral fellow, as well as Bethany M. DeMuynck, Alyson N. Paneque and Joy E. Rutherford, all graduate students in the department of chemistry and biochemistry and members of the Nagib Lab. The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Sloan Foundation.

See the rest here:
An easier and safer way to synthesize medicines - The Ohio State University News

Researchers at the University of WisconsinMadison have described the way an enzyme and proteins interact to maintain the protective caps, called telomeres, at the end of chromosomes, a new insight into how a human cell preserves the integrity of its DNA through repeated cell division.

DNA replication is essential for perpetuating life as we know it, but many of the complexities of the process how myriad biomolecules get where they need to go and interact over a series of intricately orchestrated steps remain mysterious.

From left, Qixiang He, Ci Ji Lim, Xiuhua Lin.

The mechanisms behind how this enzyme, called Pol-primase, works have been elusive for decades, says Ci Ji Lim, an assistant professor of biochemistry and principal investigator on new research into DNA replication published recently in Nature. Our study provides a big breakthrough in understanding DNA synthesis at the ends of chromosomes, and it generates new hypotheses about how Pol-primase a central cog in the DNA replication machine operates.

Every time a cell divides, the telomeres at the end of the long DNA molecule that makes up a single chromosome shorten slightly. Telomeres protect chromosomes like an aglet protects the end of a shoelace. Eventually, the telomeres are so short that vital genetic code on a chromosome is exposed and the cell, unable to function normally, enters a zombie state. Part of a cells routine maintenance includes preventing excessive shortening by replenishing this DNA using Pol-primase.

At the telomere construction site, Pol-primase first builds a short nucleic acid primer (called RNA) and then extends this primer with DNA (then called RNA-DNA primer). Scientists thought Pol-primase would need to alter its shape when it switches from RNA to DNA molecule synthesis. Lims lab found that Pol-primase makes the RNA-DNA primer at telomeres using a rigid scaffold with the help of another cog in the telomere replication machine, an accessory protein called CST. CST acts like a stop-and-go sign that halts the activity of other enzymes and brings Pol-primase to the construction site.

Before this study, we had to imagine how Pol-primase works to complete telomere replication at the ends of chromosomes, says Lim. Now, we have high-resolution structures of Pol-primase bound to an accessory protein complex called CST. We found that after CST binds to the template DNA strand at the telomere, it facilitates the action of Pol-primase. In doing so, CST sets the stage for Pol-primase to first synthesize RNA and then DNA using a unified architectural platform.

The researchers also got a glimpse into how Pol-primase might initiate DNA synthesis elsewhere along the length of a chromosome. Other scientists have also found the CSTpol--primase complex at sites where DNA damage is being repaired and where DNA replication has stalled.

Because Pol-primase plays a central and very important role in DNA replication in telomeres and elsewhere along chromosomes its the only enzyme that makes primers on DNA templates from scratch for DNA replication our CSTPol-primase structure provides new insights into how Pol-primase can also do its job during genomic DNA replication, Lim says. Its a very elegant solution that nature has evolved to accomplish this complicated process.

Our findings reveal an unprecedented role that CST plays in facilitating this Pol-primase activity, explains first author Qixiang He, a graduate student in the UWMadison biophysics graduate program. It will be interesting to see if accessory factors involved in DNA replication elsewhere on chromosomes set up Pol-primase the same way as CST does for telomeres.

The researchers built the structural model of CSTPol-primase using an advanced imaging technique called cryo-electron microscopy single-particle analysis. In cryo-EM, rapidly frozen samples are suspended in a thin film of ice, then imaged with a transmission electron microscope, resulting high-resolution, 3D models of biomolecules like the enzymes at work in DNA replication.

Lims team used cryo-EM single particle analysis to first determine the structure of CSTPol-primase and then home in on visualizing moving parts of the complex in greater detail. They collected data at the UWMadison Cryo-Electron Microscopy Research Center (CEMRC), housed in the UWMadison Department of Biochemistry, and the NCI-funded National Cryo-Electron Microscopy Facility at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research.

We started with a conundrum from our biochemical assay, but once we imaged the CSTpol--primase co-complex and saw its cryo-EM structures, everything immediately became clear. This was extremely satisfying for everyone on the team. Beyond that, the structures also provide ideas that we can now design experiments to test, says Xiuhua Lin, lab manager and co-author of the new study.

Among these ideas are capturing how CSTpol-/primase works in more detail. The researchers also want to map the entire human telomere replication process, and theyre studying how CSTpol-/primase terminates its activity once the DNA at telomeres is copied.

You cant really study how a car moves by looking at its individual parts you have to assemble the parts and observe how they work together. But biomolecular machinery often has so many moving parts that it can be difficult to study, Lim says. Thats where the power and versatility of cryo-electron microscopy single-particle analysis come in. This approach allowed us to put together a high-resolution atomic model and provided critical insights into how it moves, which in turn facilitated our understanding of how the human CSTPol-primase works.

The research was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (R00GM131023).

Continue reading here:
Enzyme, proteins work together to tidy up tail ends of DNA in dividing cells - University of Wisconsin-Madison

image:Edward H. Egelman, PhD, of the University of Virginia School of Medicine's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, has been a leader in the field of cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), and he and his colleagues used cryo-EM imaging for this seemingly impossible project. It demonstrates, he said, that the cryo-EM technique has great potential in materials research. view more

Credit: Dan Addison | UVA Communications

Scientists at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and their collaborators have used DNA to overcome a nearly insurmountable obstacle to engineer materials that would revolutionize electronics.

One possible outcome of such engineered materials could be superconductors, which have zero electrical resistance, allowing electrons to flow unimpeded. That means that they dont lose energy and dont create heat, unlike current means of electrical transmission. Development of a superconductor that could be used widely at room temperature instead of at extremely high or low temperatures, as is now possible could lead to hyper-fast computers, shrink the size of electronic devices, allow high-speed trains to float on magnets and slash energy use, among other benefits.

One such superconductor was first proposed more than 50 years ago by Stanford physicist William A. Little. Scientists have spent decades trying to make it work, but even after validating the feasibility of his idea, they were left with a challenge that appeared impossible to overcome. Until now.

Edward H. Egelman, PhD, of UVAs Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, has been a leader in the field of cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), and he and Leticia Beltran, a graduate student in his lab,used cryo-EM imaging for this seemingly impossible project. It demonstrates, he said, that the cryo-EM technique has great potential in materials research.

Engineering at the Atomic Level

One possible way to realize Littles idea for a superconductor is to modify lattices of carbon nanotubes, hollow cylinders of carbon so tiny they must be measured in nanometers billionths of a meter. But there was a huge challenge: controlling chemical reactions along the nanotubes so that the lattice could be assembled as precisely as needed and function as intended.

Egelman and his collaborators found an answer in the very building blocks of life. They took DNA, the genetic material that tells living cells how to operate, and used it to guide a chemical reaction that would overcome the great barrier to Littles superconductor. In short, they used chemistry to perform astonishingly precise structural engineering construction at the level of individual molecules. The result was a lattice of carbon nanotubes assembled as needed for Littles room-temperature superconductor.

This work demonstrates thatordered carbon nanotube modification can be achieved by taking advantage of DNA-sequence control over the spacing between adjacent reaction sites, Egelman said.

The lattice they built has not been tested for superconductivity, for now, but it offers proof of principle and has great potential for the future, the researchers say. While cryo-EM has emerged as the main technique in biology for determining the atomic structures of protein assemblies, it has had much less impact thus far in materials science, said Egelman, whose prior work led to his induction in the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors a scientist can receive.

Egelman and his colleagues say their DNA-guided approach to lattice construction could have a wide variety of useful research applications, especially in physics. But it also validates the possibility of building Littles room-temperature superconductor. The scientists work, combined with other breakthroughs in superconductors in recent years, could ultimately transform technology as we know it and lead to a much more Star Trek future.

While we often think of biology using tools and techniques from physics, our work shows that the approaches being developed in biology can actually be applied to problems in physics and engineering, Egelman said. This is what is so exciting about science: not being able to predict where our work will lead.

Findings Published

The researchers have published their findings in the journal Science. The team consisted ofZhiwei Lin, Leticia Beltran, Zeus A. De los Santos, Yinong Li, Tehseen Adel, Jeffrey A Fagan, Angela Hight Walker, Egelman and Ming Zheng.

The work was supported bythe Department of CommercesNational Institute of Standards and Technology and by National Institutes of Health grant GM122510, as well as by an NRC postdoctoral fellowship.

To keep up with the latest medical research news from UVA, subscribe to theMaking of Medicineblog at http://makingofmedicine.virginia.edu.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

Here is the original post:
In DNA, scientists find solution to building superconductor that could transform technology - EurekAlert

The Summer Scholars Program in Genome Sciences & Medicine, a collaboration between the Duke Program in Precision Medicine, the Duke Center for Genomic and Computational Biology (GCB), andNorth Carolina Central University (NCCU), concluded the 10-week program last week in Durham, North Carolina.

This summer, eight scholars from across the country were paired with a faculty research mentor to learn laboratory skills, designing a research project, and effectively presenting future research.

This summer program has provided me with the skills I need for the rest of my research career, said Paola J. Maldonado, a rising sophomore from the University of Puerto Rico. Working in research is what I want to do, and this experience really solidified that for me. Maldonado was mentored by Jen-Tsan Ashley Chi, PhD, associate professor of molecular genetics and microbiology and assistant professor of medicine in the division of rheumatology and immunology.

Brielle-Anne Michel, a rising junior at Wake Forest University studying biochemistry and molecular biology, was mentored by HiroakiMatsunami, PhD, professor of molecular genetics and microbiology and neurobiology at Duke. The most exciting part of this program was getting to work with the scientific technologies Ive learned about in undergrad classes but havent seen firsthand, she said. I had mentorsshow me the steps to take, and I was able to do several trials completely by my myself, which was exciting.

Students experienced 10 weeks of everything from working in labs, weekly seminars with Duke professors and graduate student mentors, and tips on networking. Among the many skills obtained, they learned more about how to form research abstracts, posters, writing personal statements and CVs, and presenting their research effectively.

The Summer Scholars program gave me my first opportunity to do hands-on research, said Sydney Vander, a pre-med chemistry major at Xavier University of Louisiana. Thanks to this program, I was able to develop important skills, such as, critical thinking, problem solving, and effective communication. Vander aspires to be a physician and shared how the Summer Scholars program helped her realize that she can incorporate research into her future career path. One day she hopes to perform clinical research while also providing care for patients.

The Summer Scholars Program in Genome Sciences & Medicine is supported by an R25 grant by the National Human Genome Research Institute at NIH and is designed for full-time first- and second-year underrepresented in STEMstudents at any college or university.

A special thanks to 2022 faculty mentors, Ashley Chi, PhD; Ornit Chiba-Falek, PhD; Lindsey Constantini, PhD (NCCU); Charlie Gersbach, PhD; Paul Magwene, PhD; Alex Marshall, PhD (NCCU); Hiro Matsunami, PhD; and Anne West, MD, PhD

Learn more about the Summer Scholars Program in Genome Sciences & Medicine

View all photos from the Summer Scholars Poster Session on July 29, 2022

See original here:
Summer Scholars leave Duke with a once-in-a-lifetime research experience - Duke University