How scientists are accelerating chemistry discoveries with automation

New statistical-modeling workflow may help advance drug discovery and synthetic chemistry

12-Apr-2024 - A new automated workflow developed by scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has the potential to allow researchers to analyze the products of their reaction experiments in real time, a key capability needed for future automated chemical processes. The developed ...

Click, click, boom—150 new molecules within days instead of months

A new study calls accelerated SuFEx click chemistry “a robust platform for drug discovery”

08-Apr-2024 - Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) chemists have created a new collection of molecular compounds and begun testing them as potential leads in the search for new drugs. Among these molecules, they found several that show promise for development as antibiotics and cancer therapies. Sounds like a ...

Device 'smells' seawater to discover, detect novel molecules

Promising for drug discovery in fragile ecosystems, including coral reefs

10-Nov-2023 - Under the ocean’s surface, marine organisms are constantly releasing invisible molecules. Some of the chemical clues reveal which creatures are nearby, while others could be used someday as medications. Now, researchers in ACS Central Science report a proof-of-concept device that “sniffs” ...

The fountain of life: Water droplets hold the secret ingredient for building life

Chemists discover key to early Earth chemistry, which could unlock ways to speed up chemical synthesis for drug discovery

05-Oct-2022 - Purdue University chemists have uncovered a mechanism for peptide-forming reactions to occur in water — something that has puzzled scientists for decades. “This is essentially the chemistry behind the origin of life,” saidGraham Cooks, theHenry Bohn Hass Distinguished Professor of Analytical ...

Researchers dramatically downsize technology for fingerprinting drugs and other chemicals

Tiny photonic chip could fit comfortably within the tip of a finger

01-Sep-2020 - As new infectious diseases emerge and spread, one of the best shots against novel pathogens is finding new medicines or vaccines. But before drugs can be used as potential cures, they have to be painstakingly screened for composition, safety and purity, among other things. Thus, there is an ...

Visible light and nanoparticle catalysts produce desirable bioactive molecules

Simple photochemical method takes advantage of quantum mechanics

01-Nov-2019 - Northwestern University chemists have used visible light and extremely tiny nanoparticles to quickly and simply make molecules that are of the same class as many lead compounds for drug development. Driven by light, the nanoparticle catalysts perform chemical reactions with very specific chemical ...

Lefty or righty molecules lend a hand to material structures

Effort to build bottom-up chiral polymers with unique functions

14-Feb-2019 - As below, so above. That seems to be an operating principle for molecules that start with a basic chirality - or "handed-ness" -- and pass it on as they combine into larger structures. An international team that included Rice University materials scientist Edwin Thomas pried a new, fundamental ...

Harnessing the power of light to tackle asymmetrical molecules

06-Feb-2019 - No, molecules do not actually have hands. But scientists refer to them in this way when looking at asymmetric molecules that are mirror images of one another and therefore are not superimposable. Whether a molecule is a "lefty" or "righty" also influences how they behave -- critical information ...

Novel materials convert visible into infrared light

Penetrate of living tissue and other materials without damage by high-intensity light exposure

18-Jan-2019 - Columbia University scientists, in collaboration with researchers from Harvard, have succeeded in developing a chemical process to convert visible light into infrared energy, allowing innocuous radiation to penetrate living tissue and other materials without the damage caused by high-intensity ...

Researchers make major breakthrough in controlling the 3D structure of molecules

The new process offers tremendous promise for developing novel drug molecules

24-Sep-2018 - New drug discovery has long been limited by researchers' inability to precisely control the 3D structure of molecules. But a team led by scientists from The Graduate Center of The City University of New York (GC/CUNY) has made a major breakthrough in chemical synthesis that now makes it possible ...