Tag Archives: x ray crystallography

New Technique Lets Scientists Peer Within Nanoparticles, See Atomic Structure in 3-D

UCLA researchers are now able to peer deep within the world’s tiniest structures to create three-dimensional images of individual atoms and their positions. Their research, published March 22 in the journal Nature, presents a new method for directly measuring the atomic structure of nanomaterials.

“This is the first experiment where we can directly see local structures in three dimensions at atomic-scale resolution — that’s never been done before,” said Jianwei (John) Miao, a professor of physics and astronomy and a researcher with the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) at UCLA. (more…)

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Clearing a Potential Road Block to Bisabolane

*Joint BioEnergy Institute Researchers Identify Key Enzyme Structure*

The recent discovery that bisabolane, a member of the terpene class of chemical compounds used in fragrances and flavorings, holds high promise as a biosynthetic alternative to D2 diesel fuel has generated keen interest in the green energy community and the trucking industry. Now a second team of researchers with the U.S Department of Energy (DOE)’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) has determined the three-dimensional crystal structure of a protein that is key to boosting the microbial-based production of bisabolane as an advanced biofuel.

The JBEI research team, led by bioengineers Paul Adams and Jay Keasling, solved the protein crystal structure of an enzyme in the Grand fir (Abies grandis) that synthesizes bisabolene, the immediate terpene precursor to bisabolane. The performance of this enzyme – the Abies grandis α-bisabolene synthase (AgBIS) – when engineered into microbes, has resulted in a bottleneck that hampers the conversion by the microbes of simple sugars into bisabolene. (more…)

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Discovery of Why Influenza B Virus Exclusively Infects Humans Opens Door for Drugs to Fight Seasonal Epidemics Caused by Virus

AUSTIN, Texas — The three-dimensional structure of a site on an influenza B virus protein that suppresses human defenses to infection has been determined by researchers at Rutgers University and The University of Texas at Austin.

The discovery could help scientists develop drugs to fight seasonal influenza epidemics caused by the common influenza B strain.

Their discovery also helps explain how influenza B is limited to humans, and why it cannot be as virulent as A strains that incorporate new genes from influenza viruses that infect other species. (more…)

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