The Alchemist Newsletter: September 30, 2010

Keeping up the fight against cancer

Combining the anticancer drug doxorubicin with the erectile dysfunction drug sildenafil citrate, better known as Viagra, toughens up the drug's ability to treat prostate cancer and at the same time reduce the irreversible damage to the heart that can occur in doxorubicin use. Investigators at Virginia Commonwealth University discovered that the combination stimulates production of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species, which trigger programmed cell death in prostate cancer cells but not in healthy prostate epithelial cells.

Researchers Discover a Drug Combination That Shrinks Tumors in vivo

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Dry water

A material comprising 95 percent water that exists as a dry powder could be the new hope for amelioration of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, according to researchers speaking at the recent American Chemical Society meeting. The material, first identified in 1968 when it was used in cosmetics, it then "rediscovered" by UK chemists who spotted its potential for absorbing large volumes of CO2. The material is made up of tiny particles of silica within which water is trapped. Absorbed gases form hydrates within the silica particles, whether carbon dioxide or methane to be used as fuel.

'Dry water' could make a big splash commercially

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Cool it!

A new method of laser cooling molecules to close to absolute zero has been developed by scientists at Yale University. The technique represents another step towards using individual molecules, or collections of molecules as information bits in quantum computing. Laser cooling of atoms is relatively commonplace, but this is the first demonstration of applying the technique successfully to molecules, specifically strontium monofluoride. Team leader David DeMille suggests that the technique could be used for other molecular entities and opens up a range of possibilities in this chilly field.

Scientists Using Lasers to Cool and Control Molecules

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Cell death award

Texas Tech University chemist Dimitri Pappas has received a $520,000 grant to find better methods of studying apoptosis, or programmed cell death. His research could lead to more useful pharmaceutical products for heart disease and cancer. The assistant professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry receives the three-year grant from the National Institutes of Health. Currently, ways to measure apoptosis are time-consuming and limit scientists' understanding of how it might be manipulated, he said. Pappas will use the grant to discover new methods to rapidly measure the rate of death in a number of cells. The work should uncover new targets for pharmaceutical intervention.

Texas Tech Chemist to Study Cell Death with $520,000 NIH Grant

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