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Arzneimittel in der Umwelt sind eine globale Herausforderung

By Guest PostApril 9, 2014Environment, Healthalana feld, alex fauler, detektorsystem, Environment, fmf, joshua schiffman, kenneth feld, li fraumeni, lisa abegglen, michael fiederle, pharmaceuticals, uba, umwelt, umweltbundesamt, unep, walking conundrum, xie

Hunderte Wirkstoffe und Abbauprodukte belasten Gewässer und Böden nahezu weltweit.

Welches Ausmaß die Umweltbelastung mit Arzneimitteln erreicht, zeigt ein Forschungsprojekt im Auftrag des Umweltbundesamtes: Spuren von mehr als 630 verschiedenen Arzneimittelwirkstoffen sowie deren Abbauprodukte lassen sich in vielen Teilen der Erde nachweisen. Sie sind in Gewässern, Böden, Klärschlamm und Lebewesen zu finden. Sehr häufig kommt das Schmerzmittel und der Entzündungshemmer Diclofenac vor. Der verwendete Wirkstoff wurde bisher in Gewässern von insgesamt 50 verschiedenen Ländern gemessen. Das Umweltprogramm UNEP der Vereinten Nationen prüft jetzt, ob „Arzneimittel in der Umwelt“ ein neues wichtiges Handlungsfeld im internationalen Chemikalienprogramm SAICM werden soll. Um dies zu unterstützen, initiieren das Umweltbundesamt (UBA) und das Bundesumweltministerium am 8. und 9. April 2014 einen internationalen Arzneimittel-Workshop in Genf. Thomas Holzmann, der amtierende Präsident des UBA: „Das Umweltbundesamt kann jetzt sicher belegen, dass Arzneimittelrückstände in der Umwelt weltweit ein relevantes Problem darstellen. Lösen können wir es nur global, indem wir die internationale Chemikaliensicherheit stärken. Zum Beispiel im Rahmen des internationalen Chemikalienprogramms SAICM. Mit unserem vierjährigen Forschungsprojekt, welches den internationalen Wissensstand zu Arzneimitteln in der Umwelt analysiert und transparent macht, leisten wir dazu einen Beitrag.“ (more…)

Database Tracks Toxic Side Effects of Pharmaceuticals

By Guest PostDecember 22, 2013Environment, Healthahmed enayetallah, allan peter davis, chemical toxicity, comparative toxicogenomics database, ctd, daniela sciaky, database, environmental science, gene testing patients, hypertension, jean lay, kelley lennon hopkins, kidney failure, liver disease, north Carolina, novel prediction, pfizer, pharmaceuticals, phenotype module, prediction, project, seizures, state university, thomas wiegers, toxic endpoints, toxic side effects

Sometimes the cure can be worse than the disease. Pharmaceutical drugs are known for their potential side effects, and an important aspect of personalized medicine is to tailor therapies to individuals to reduce the chances of adverse events. Now researchers from North Carolina State University have updated an extensive toxicology database so that it can be used to track information about therapeutic drugs and their unintentional toxic effects.

“Environmental science actually shares a common goal with drug makers: to improve the prediction of chemical toxicity,” says Dr. Allan Peter Davis, lead author of a paper on the work and the biocuration project manager of the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD) in NC State’s Department of Biological Sciences. (more…)

New device could cut costs on household products, pharmaceuticals

By Guest PostMay 13, 2013Sciencealice dohnalkova, amy shen, cost, flow of liquid, flow procedure, fluid, household products, joshua cardiel, microfluidics, micron level, microscopic channels, nanoscale packages, neville dubash, pharmaceuticals, pump water, soap products, toxic, university of washington, web, ya zhao

Sometimes cost saving comes in nanoscale packages.

A new procedure that thickens and thins fluid at the micron level could save consumers and manufacturers money, particularly for soap products that depend on certain molecules to effectively deal with grease and dirt. Researchers at the University of Washington published their findings online April 9 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Read the back of most shampoos and dishwashing detergents and you’ll find the word “surfactant” in the list of active ingredients. Surfactant molecules are tiny, yet they are the reason dish soap can attack an oily spot and shampoo can rid the scalp of grease. (more…)

Study Determines Theoretical Energy Benefits and Potential of Algae Fuels

By Guest PostJuly 26, 2012Environment, Sciencealgae, algae fuels, algae pump, algeternal technologies, austin, austin startup, city of austin, colin beal, electricity, electromechanics, energy benefits, energy input, fertilizers, food, green source, michael webber, openalgae, pharmaceuticals, public policy, robert hebner, university of texas, viability of algae

AUSTIN, Texas — It’s theoretically possible to produce about 500 times as much energy from algae fuels as is needed to grow the fuels, according to a new study by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin.

However, limited by existing technology, the researchers found in a separate study that their algae growing facility is getting out about one-five hundredth as much energy as it currently puts in to grow the fuels.

“The search for cost-effective biofuels is one of the noble endeavors of our time, and these papers shed insight on where the boundaries are in algae research,” said Robert Hebner, a professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering and director of the Center for Electromechanics. “One of the responsibilities of a top research university is to discover and explain what the boundaries are so we can innovate within those boundaries or create ways to expand them.” (more…)

Berkeley Lab Researchers Ink Nanostructures with Tiny ‘Soldering Iron’

By Guest PostNovember 8, 2011Scienceafm, atomic force microscope, berkeley lab, chemical patterns, chemical sensors, debin wang, dip pen nanolithography, electrical circuits, Environment, fabrication technique, gold surfaces, human hair, ink molecules, jim deyoreo, jonathan felts, mercaptohexadecanoic acid, molecular diffusion, nanofabrication techniques, nanoheater, nanometers, nanoscale structures, nanoscience, organic molecule, pharmaceuticals, role of temperature, sungwook chung, thermal dip pen nanolithography, university of illinois at urbana champaign, william p king

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have shed light on the role of temperature in controlling a fabrication technique for drawing chemical patterns as small as 20 nanometers. This technique could provide an inexpensive, fast route to growing and patterning a wide variety of materials on surfaces to build electrical circuits and chemical sensors, or study how pharmaceuticals bind to proteins and viruses.

One way of directly writing nanoscale structures onto a substrate is to use an atomic force microscope (AFM) tip as a pen to deposit ink molecules through molecular diffusion onto the surface. Unlike conventional nanofabrication techniques that are expensive, require specialized environments and usually work with only a few materials, this technique, called dip-pen nanolithography, can be used in almost any environment to write many different chemical compounds. A cousin of this technique — called thermal dip-pen nanolithography — extends this technique to solid materials by turning an AFM tip into a tiny soldering iron. (more…)

Largest-Ever Map of Interactions of Plant Proteins Produced

By Guest PostJuly 31, 2011Scienceagriculture, arabidopsis, arabidopsis interactome mapping consortium, arabidopsis network map, arabidopsis thaliana, crop plants, interactome, joseph ecker, map of protein interactions, model organism for biological studies of plants, model plant, mustard plant, national science foundation, pharmaceuticals, plant growth and disease resistance, protein to protein, salk institute

*New map of protein interactions in model plant may help scientists improve plant species used in agriculture and pharmaceuticals*

An international consortium of scientists has produced the first systematic network map of interactions that occur between proteins in the plant Arabidopsis thaliana. (Arabidopsis is a mustard plant that has 27,000 proteins and serves as a popular model organism for biological studies of plants, analogous to lab rats that serve as popular model organisms for biological studies of animals.)

Known as an “interactome,” the new Arabidopsis network map defines 6,205 protein-to-protein Arabidopsis interactions involving 2,774 individual proteins. By itself, this map doubles the volume of data on protein interactions in plants that is currently available. (more…)

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