A U.S. scientist has created a computer chip consisting of thousands of electrodes yielding molecules that bind to receptor sites.
Chemistry Professor Kevin Moeller of Washington University in St. Louis said the electrodes on the chip can be used to monitor the biological behavior of up to 12,000 molecules at the same time.
Moeller and colleagues are pioneering new methods for building libraries of small molecules on addressable electrode arrays so the molecules can be monitored in real-time and, in turn, used to probe the binding requirements of drug receptor sites.
The electrochemically addressable chips represent a new environment for synthetic organic chemistry, he said, changing the way chemists and biomedical researchers make molecules, build molecular libraries and understand the mechanisms by which molecules bind to receptor sites.
"We believe we can move most of modern synthetic organic chemistry to this electrochemically addressable chip," said Moeller. "It's a tool, still being developed, to map receptors. We're right at the cusp of things."
Moeller discussed the technology in a recent article in the Journal of the American Chemical Society and presented his work Monday in Chicago during the 211th National Meeting of the Electrochemistry Society.
Copyright 2007 by United Press International
Related stories:
Human genetic variation -- Science's 'Breakthrough of the Year'
In 2007, researchers were dazzled by the degree to which genomes differ from one human to another and began to understand the role of these variations in disease and personal traits.
Science and its publisher, AAAS, the nonprofit science society, recognize “Human Genetic Variation” as the Breakthrough of the Year, and identify nine other of the year’s most significant scientific accomplishments in the 21 December issue.
A new century of Alzheimer's disease research
Imagine the day when a routine visit to the family doctor includes a simple blood test to predict the risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD). If the test returns a worrisome result -- too many sticky brain proteins that might begin to gum up memory and thought in 10 to 15 years -- a person could be offered an aspirin-like pill to keep those proteins in check.
Technique monitors thousands of molecules simultaneously
A chemist at Washington University in St. Louis is making molecules the new-fashioned way — selectively harnessing thousands of minuscule electrodes on a tiny computer chip that do chemical reactions and yield molecules that bind to receptor sites. Kevin Moeller, Ph.D., Washington University professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, is doing this so that the electrodes on the chip can be used to monitor the biological behavior of up to 12,000 molecules at the same time.
The pocket laboratory
Made in Germany, the world’s first fully electric biochip can quickly, reliably and automatically detect pathogens or residual traces of antibiotics. For this development, the president of the Federal Republic awarded the German Future Prize to three researchers.
Is it influenza, or only a bad cold with a fever? An instant test gives the physician the answer.
He simply puts a few drops of the patient’s blood on an analyzer the size of a credit card, and just a few minutes later the doctor knows if his patient is suffering from genuine influenza. The system also tells him which medicine will be most effective for the sufferer and what the dosage should be.
Battling cancer, one cell at a time
New research suggests that the identification and examination of key cell signaling events required for initiation and progression of cancer might be best accomplished at the single cell level. The research, published by Cell Press in the October issue of the journal
Cancer Cell, provides new insight that may lead to better diagnosis and treatment of some complex cancers.
Scripps Research scientists define structure of important neurological receptor
Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute have determined the structure of an adenosine receptor that plays a critical role in a number of important physiological processes including pain, breathing, and heart function. The findings could lead to the development of a new class of therapeutics for treating numerous neurological disorders, including Parkinson's and Huntington disease.
Engineers pave way to 'artificial nose'
MIT biological engineers have found a way to mass-produce smell receptors in the laboratory, an advance that paves the way for "artificial noses" to be created and used in a variety of settings.
TB Bacterium Uses Its Sugar Coat To Sweeten Its Chances Of Living In Lungs
(PhysOrg.com) -- Common strains of tuberculosis-causing bacteria have hijacked the human body’s immune response to play tricks on cells in the lungs, scientists say.