Research
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego have revealed new details about how cannibalistic bacteria identify peers suitable for consumption. The work, which employed imaging mass spectrometry, is a first step toward a broader effort to map all signalling molecules between organisms.
Read more: Imaging MS reveals key metabolic factors of cannibalistic bacteria
Kenneth Standing and Werner Ens from the University of Manitoba have won the Manning Innovation Award, which has been recognising and encouraging innovation in Canada since 1982. The award is given to Canadians who have demonstrated recent innovative talent in developing and successfully marketing a new concept, process or procedure.
Read more: ToF innovation produces award for Canadian scientists
Counterfeiting of drugs is a huge industry with an annual turnover of more than €50 billion. In Africa the situation is extremely serious: half of the malaria medication sold there could be ineffective or even harmful. Researchers from Lund University, Sweden, and King’s College London, UK, have now developed a technique based on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) that could provide a good way to identify counterfeit drugs.
Read more: Problem of fake medicines in developing countries could be solved by NMR
Infrared spectroscopy can detect E. coli faster than current testing methods and can cut days off investigations of outbreaks, according to a study at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.
Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy can distinguish between neurological diseases in patients without clear symptoms.
Read more: Research Heralds Potential for Early Diagnosis of Degenerative Brain Disorders
Water molecules are continuously forming short-lived networks called clusters. These can in turn bind positively charged protons, and such clusters can provide active functional groups in proteins. Using infrared spectroscopy, it is possible to determine the bond strengths, geometrical structures and chemical properties of protonated water clusters. In order to measure the spectrum of molecular vibrations in clusters it is, however, necessary to use other molecules as messengers. A team of physicists and chemists including Dr Gerald Mathias of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich and Professor Dominik Marx of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum has, for the first time, described how these messengers influence the assignment of spectral bands by infrared spectroscopy.
Read more: Mapping the Structure of Protonated Water Clusters
Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology, GA, USA, have attained very promising results on their initial investigations of a new test for ovarian cancer. Using a new technique involving mass spectrometry of a single drop of blood serum, the test correctly identified women with ovarian cancer in 100% of the patients tested.
Read more: Initial Trials on New Ovarian Cancer Tests with Mass Spec Exhibit Extremely High Accuracy
Laser pulses lasting less than 150 attoseconds have been used to observe, in real time, the motion of electrons in the outermost (“valence”) shell of ionised krypton atoms. This technical achievement, reported in Nature 466(7307), 739–742, lays the groundwork for observations in more complex systems, which should allow a detailed examination of the fundamental processes underlying the making and breaking of chemical bonds.
Read more: Tracking valence electrons in real time with pump–probe spectroscopy
Microscopy with atomic resolution could be useful in the determining the structure of some unknown organic compounds, such as medicinally important natural products, according to a study online in Nature Chemistry. This method could avoid the lengthy and expensive process of trying to synthesise the compound and then compare its structure with that of the natural one, which is necessary in some cases.
Read more: AFM and spectroscopic techniques determine unknown structure
A new technique for following chemical reactions in real time makes a virtue of necessity, by using the radiation from non-reacting molecules as part of the detection method. As reported in Nature, this implementation of “high-harmonic interferometry” can be used to monitor both molecular structure and electron dynamics, the latter with attosecond time resolution.
Read more: Tracking a chemical reaction using molecular interference
The ABS Trust invites UK-based university students undertaking spectroscopy research or utilising spectroscopy as a major component of their research to apply for a bursary award to attend a recognised scientific meeting to present an oral or poster presentation or to visit a place of learning to advance their spectroscopy knowledge and understanding.
More details and an application form may be requested from John Chalmers at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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