Latest Enzyme Stories
Prospecting for new and unusual cellulose-digesting enzymes for biofuels productionBy Robert Sanders, UC BerkeleyBioprospectors from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Maryland School of Medicine have found a microbe in a Nevada hot spring that happily eats plant material "“ cellulose "“ at temperatures near the boiling point of water.In fact, the microbe's cellulose-digesting enzyme, called a cellulase, is most active at a record 109 degrees Celsius (228...
The findings may lead to new therapies for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease and other conditionsFor several years, scientists have been pondering a question about a genetic disease called Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease type 2D: how can different types of mutations, spread out across a gene, produce the same condition?Now, a team of scientists at The Scripps Research Institute may have found the answer. By studying a gene called GARS, which is mutated in individuals with the disease, the team...
New information from fission yeast provides clues for research on cancer treatments When a cell divides, the genetic information in the chromosomes must be passed on error-free to the daughter cells. Researchers at the Friedrich Miescher Laboratory in Tübingen are studying this process using fission yeast as a model organism. In cooperation with researchers at the University of Tübingen, they succeeded in attributing additional tasks to the Aurora enzymes, which were already recognized...
In order to realize the full potential of advanced biofuels that are derived from non-food sources of lignocellulosic biomass"”e.g., agricultural, forestry, and municipal waste, and crops such as poplar, switchgrass and miscanthus"”new technologies that can efficiently and cost-effectively break down this biomass into simple sugars are required. Existing biomass pretreatment technologies are typically derived from the pulp and paper industry and rely on dilute acids and bases to break...
JUPITER, Fla., June 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Dyadic International, Inc. ("Dyadic") (OTC Pink: DYAI), a global biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development, manufacture and sale of enzyme and protein products for the industrial enzyme, bioenergy, and biopharmaceutical industries, announced today that it has entered into a long-term research, development and license agreement with a key provider of animal nutritional solutions throughout the world (the "Commercial Partner"), to...
A first of its kind combination of experiment and simulation at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory is providing a close-up look at the molecule that complicates next-generation biofuels.Lignin, a major component of plant cell walls, aggregates to form clumps, which cause problems during the production of cellulosic ethanol. The exact shape and structure of the aggregates, however, have remained largely unknown.A team led by ORNL's Jeremy Smith revealed the surface...
While alcohol has a wide range of pharmacological effects on the body, the brain is a primary target. However, the molecular mechanisms by which alcohol alters neuronal activity in the brain are poorly understood. Participants in a symposium at the June 2010 annual meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism in San Antonio, Texas addressed recent findings concerning the interactions of alcohol with prototype brain proteins thought to underlie alcohol actions in the brain.Proceedings will be...
Researchers funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)-led Integrated Biorefining Research and Technology (IBTI) Club have identified an enzyme in bacteria which could be used to make biofuel production more efficient. The research is published in the 14 June issue of the American Chemical Society journal Biochemistry.This research, carried out by teams at the Universities of Warwick and British Columbia, could make sustainable sources of biofuels, such as...
Johns Hopkins researchers solve mystery of Warburg effectIt's long been known that cancer cells eat a lot of sugar to stay alive. In fact, where normal, noncancerous cells generate energy from using some sugar and a lot of oxygen, cancerous cells use virtually no oxygen and a lot of sugar. Many genes have been implicated in this process and now, reporting in the May 27 issue of Cell, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have discovered that this so-called Warburg...
A new bacterium that uses caffeine for food has been discovered by a doctoral student at the University of Iowa. The bacterium uses newly discovered digestive enzymes to break down the caffeine, which allows it to live and grow."We have isolated a new caffeine-degrading bacterium, Pseudomonas putida CBB5, which breaks caffeine down into carbon dioxide and ammonia," says Ryan Summers, who presents his research today at the 111th General Meeting of the American Society for...
