Climate Change Research Grants for Nepali Students-2011

For MS students carrying out their research in Universities in Nepal. They will provide upto Rs 70000. Check out this link for details. Last date to submit is Nov 11, 2011.

http://nast.org.np/alluploads/Terms_of_Reference.pdf

Watch Nobel Prize in Chemistry Announcement LIVE on NepaChem

Molecular Scissors

Anant Babu Marahatta (ananta037@gmail.com)
Tohoku Univ.
Japan

You might wonder to know that molecules work like a scissors in the presence of UV radiation. Such molecules are called “molecular scissors”. Here is an example of it in which an azobenzene moiety acts as a handle, a ferrocene unit acts as a pivot point and two phenyl groups act as the blades.

The conformational changes induced by cis-trans isomerization of the azobenzene switch, due to alternating irradiation with UV and visible light, are translated into a rotational movement around the metal center of the ferrocene unit.

Source: a text book about “Controlled Rotary Motion at the Molecular Level”

Nepali scholar makes breakthrough in TB

An exciting news published in www.ekantipur.com. Congratulations Prof Lamichhane!!!

KATHMANDU, OCT 03 -2011.

Gyanu Lamichhane, a 35-year-old Nepali researcher at John Hopkins University School of Medicine, has drawn the world several steps closer in finding a better, faster and reliable cure for tuberculosis (TB), which kills over two million people across the globe each year.

His latest findings have paved the way for a much faster approach of weakening the TB causing bacterium, Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, which could potentially shorten TB treatment that now takes at least six months.

In recognition of his achievement, the US government’s National Institute of Health honoured Lamichhane with the coveted New Innovator Award-2011 on September 19 along with a direct funding of $ 1.5 million (Rs 117 million) for his research to be carried out at the university within five years. A statement issued by the Institute on September 19 stated that the award was conferred on Lamichhane and 48 other young scientists for various promising researches in health sciences. 

During his research at Johns Hopkins Centre for Tuberculosis Research, Lamichhane, the assistant professor at the university, discovered what exactly the cell wall of TB causing bacteria is made of. He revealed that the protective cell wall of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis is held together by an enzyme named L,D-transpeptidase. The revelation is said to have come as a breakthrough in the effort to develop medicine that could break the protective wall of the bacterium and thus weaken it and cure the disease altogether.

His research has a key finding that if L,D-transpeptidase is unable to function, Mycobacterium Tuberculosis will have its cell wall weakened and the remaining chemical linkages in the bacterial wall will be an easy target for drugs used in the treatment of TB. Lamichhane now intends to pursue his research on what effect antibiotics will have on L,D-transpeptidase and the possible cure for tuberculosis as well as other bacterial infections.

“My primary interest is the study of genes essential to the growth of mycrobacteria. In future I intend to study the cell division and regulation of cell cycle in mycrobacteria,” Lamichhane told the John Hopkins University publication after receiving the award. He had harboured the dream of finding a cure for TB since 1993, when he was a high school student in Chitwan. In an interview with the Post in 2009, he had stated that his grandfather's death from TB pushed him to find a cure for it.

"My team was doing research with the aim to identify how mycobacterium tuberculosis  grows. We found that an unusual enzyme is required for the bacteria to grow properly and cause disease," he told the Post over telephone from the US on Sunday.

“We have demonstrated what needs to be done to make new drugs. Now the challenge is to work on making drugs and testing them,” he added.

About one third of the world’s population is believed to be infected with M Tuberculosis with 10 million new cases each year.

Tuberculosis is a leading cause of death among those who are infected with both HIV virus and M Tuberculosis, causing for the death of nearly 500,000 people with infections of both.

The complete treatment of tuberculosis requires at least six months for a “short” course treatment. Lamichhane hopes that the findings  will help shorten the treatment duration to mere two weeks.

Lamichhane, who himself suffered from latent tuberculosis, had received a grant worth $ 100,000 from the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation in 2009 for the research on tuberculosis. He was also featured as one of the 36 best and brightest in America by Esquire magazine in 2007.

Key findings

•Lamichhane found what exactly the cell wall of TB causing bacteria is made of

•He discovered that the protective cell wall of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis is held together by an enzyme named L,D-transpeptidase

•Findings to shorten TB treatment duration considerably

Effective Scientific Writing -- Manuscripts and Grants

Name of movies produced by a Chemist!!! Fun Chemistry

Collected by Mahesh Bhatt. You can add more onto the comment box!!

1. Tero acid mero base
2. Rang de benzene
3. Hamara beaker aapke pas hai
4. Life in a Lab
5. Laga apron me daag
6. 3 test tubes
7. Hybridization kardi aapne
8. Munna bhai HCl
9. Ajab element ki gajab valency
10. My name is oxygen
11. I hate Dalton's theory
12. Jab we experiment
13. Kabhi oxidation kabhi reduction
14. Experiment ... aapna aapna
15. Jis rxn me ppt aata hai
16. Meri Boron ka Duplet
17. Compound na milage dobara
18. acid or base ka mahasangram
19. KABHI TYPHOID KHABI CHOLERA
20. MY NAME IS RHINO VIRUS
21. Bacteria ka dil virus ke pass hai
22. Hogi bacteria ki jeet
23. Once upon a time in Biotechlab
24. Ajab bacteria ka gazab disease
25. Jis bacteria me plasmid rahata he
26. Product Na Milega Dubara!!!

A Novel Platform to Investigate G-quadruplex and Ligand Interactions

A collaborative research of the scientists from United States, United Kingdom and Japan has introduced a novel platform to investigate the binding interactions between human telomeric G-quadruplexes and small molecule ligands at single molecule level. This research work has been recently published in Nature Chemistry (link: http://www.nature.com/nchem/journal/v3/n10/pdf/nchem.1126.pdf) which is one of the most reputed Journals in the related field. 

G-quadruplexes are four-stranded nucleic acid secondary structures formed by the guanine rich DNA and RNA sequences. The telomere is one of the critical parts of the eukaryotic chromosomes including those of humans which has propensity to form G-quadruplexes. Telomeres play a vital role in aging and cancer. In normal cells telomere is shortened each time when a cell divides and finally leads to the programmed death of the cell. However in most of the cancer cells, telomere length is maintained because of the over expression of an enzyme called telomerase. The telomerase acts on the telomere and extends its length which makes the cell immortal causing cancer.  The telomeric G-quadruplexes have been proposed to play an important role in the maintenance of telomere because quadruplex structures are not extended by the telomerase. The small molecule ligands have been demonstrated to bind to telomeric G-quadruplexes and suppress telomerase activity. This fact has begun the expansion of telomeric G-quadruplexes into potential therapeutic targets for cancer treatment. Therefore understanding the kinetic, thermodynamic, and mechanical properties of small molecule binding to these structures is important but the classical ensemble assays are unable to measure these properties simultaneously. This novel platform provides the all information at once.

The single molecule assay employs a telomeric G-quadruplex structure to evaluate its interaction with small-molecule ligands in a laser tweezers instrument. Using a force based single-molecule technique, it has been shown that ligand not only promotes the folding of human telomeric G-quadruplex but also increases its mechanical stability. This platform simplifies the dissociation constant assay without the requirement for ligand or receptor titration and offers a general platform that can be applied to other biologically relevant ligand-receptor systems. 

According to Deepak Koirala, a lead author of the paper from Nepal and PhD student of Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Kent State University, USA, this study highlights G-quadruplexes that are important dynamic structures involved in the mechanism of telomere elongation by the action of the enzyme complex telomerase. He adds "the mechanical information acquired by this system could provide novel perspectives for drug testing and design in the future".