Editorial Material
Chemistry, Physical
Ida Sognnaes
Summary: In a new paper published in Nature Energy, Odenweller et al. analyze the feasibility of green hydrogen supply using uncertainty analysis. Their findings indicate that despite the rapid growth in electrolysis capacity similar to wind and solar power, the availability of green hydrogen will remain scarce in the short term and uncertain in the long term.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Dongdong Yang, Haijun Qiu, Yaru Zhu, Zijing Liu, Yanqian Pei, Shuyue Ma, Chi Du, Hesheng Sun, Ya Liu, Mingming Cao
Summary: Adjacent landslides with different movement processes occurred in Hualong County, China. Displacement processes of these landslides were detected using InSAR techniques. Effective antecedent precipitation and existing landslide deformation can trigger new landslides.
Editorial Material
Biology
Julia A. Schwartzman
Summary: The Western honey bee serves as a model system for studying how different species of bacteria can coexist in a single community.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Maria Elena Crespo-Lopez, Marcus Augusto-Oliveira, Amanda Lopes-Araujo, Leticia Santos-Sacramento, Priscila Yuki Takeda, Barbarella de Matos Macchi, Jose Luiz Martins do Nascimento, Cristiane S. F. Maia, Rafael R. Lima, Gabriela P. Arrifano
Summary: Mercury is among the top ten most dangerous chemicals for public health worldwide, with increasing emissions particularly in South America, notably the Amazon region. Human populations in this area are highly exposed to methylmercury through contaminated fish consumption, with levels far exceeding those of other regions globally.
ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL
(2021)
Article
Business, Finance
Dan Zhang, Biangxiang Li
Summary: This paper investigates the predictive power of the financial stress index for stock returns and finds that it is efficient in predicting stock returns. Additionally, the financial stress index provides incremental information compared to traditional macroeconomic variables. The study also reveals that the financial stress index achieves the highest CER and SR gains among the predictors, considering different investor risk aversion coefficients.
FINANCE RESEARCH LETTERS
(2022)
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Zaida L. Almeida, Rui M. M. Brito
Summary: Protein aggregation and the formation of insoluble amyloid fibrils are intrinsic characteristics of amyloid diseases. Soluble oligomeric species formed during amyloid formation are highly cytotoxic and can lead to cell death and organ dysfunction. Disassembling preformed amyloids is a potential therapeutic strategy to arrest the progression of organ deterioration in amyloidosis. In this review, various chemical and biochemical agents capable of disaggregating amyloids are discussed, including their mode of action, structure, interactions with fibrillar structures, toxicity, and potential as treatment options.
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Sara Maslanka Figueroa, Daniel Fleischmann, Achim Goepferich
Summary: Viruses, as nanomaterials, possess unique properties that allow for efficient infection of host cells and evasion of the immune system. While there have been efforts to mimic viral traits to improve nanomaterial performance, a comprehensive evaluation of the impact of virus-mimetic material design on the targeting efficiency of nanomaterials is currently lacking.
JOURNAL OF CONTROLLED RELEASE
(2021)
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Kristian Hoelscher, Hanne Cecilie Geirbo, Lisbet Harboe, Sobah Abbas Petersen
Summary: The transition towards urban living poses challenges and vulnerabilities. Despite the crises cities face, innovative policies and practices can emerge to support urban resilience and sustainable development. Knowledge and practices from urban crisis contexts offer valuable insights for addressing urban challenges.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Wenbo Pan, Weiwei Li, Lijing Liu, Huawei Zhang
Summary: Viruses cause severe diseases in plants and animals, prompting exploration of new antiviral strategies. Some animals like bats are predicted natural reservoirs of multiple viruses and possess broad-spectrum antiviral capabilities. Disruption of the AtTHFS gene enhances plant resistance to different plant viruses, suggesting a novel antiviral strategy for plant breeding.
JOURNAL OF INTEGRATIVE PLANT BIOLOGY
(2022)
Review
Plant Sciences
Przemyslaw Prusinkiewicz, Teng Zhang, Andrew Owens, Mikolaj Cieslak, Paula Elomaa
Summary: This study investigates the phyllotactic patterns in fasciated flower heads in the Asteraceae plant family, highlighting the differences and problems in non-circular phyllotaxis. The findings suggest that some concepts, such as parastichies and parastichy numbers, maintain their significance in non-circular phyllotaxis, while others, like the divergence angle, need to be extended or lose their role. These observations identify several open problems related to phyllotaxis that could be addressed through further studies of fasciated heads.
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY
(2022)
Review
Cell Biology
Hongyu Li, Lixiong Gao, Jinlin Du, Tianju Ma, Zi Ye, Zhaohui Li
Summary: Organoids, derived from 3D culture systems, serve as a crucial bridge between 2D cell cultures and in vivo animal models, showing promising applications in various fields. However, current organoids lack some essential components found in tissues, such as blood vessels and communication with surrounding tissues. On the other hand, teratomas, a recently discovered in vivo model, exhibit complex tissue-like organization and can mimic multilineage human development. This unique characteristic of teratomas provides opportunities to promote vascularization and maturation of organoids within an in vitro 3D culture system.
FRONTIERS IN CELL AND DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY
(2021)
Review
Plant Sciences
Sherine E. Thomas, Martin Balcerowicz, Betty Y. -W. Chung
Summary: RNA molecules can form various structures, and their formation is influenced by the environment. Temperature is an important factor that affects RNA structure dynamics, and thermosensitive RNA structures have been found in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Recent discoveries have shown that thermosensitive RNA structures also exist in plants and affect RNA function in a temperature-dependent manner.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Patricia K. Coyle
Summary: Multiple sclerosis is a major central nervous system disease that predominantly affects young adults, with females being more susceptible than males. Research has shown that sex-based differences influence various aspects of multiple sclerosis, leading to new insights in understanding, management, and treatment of the disease.
JOURNAL OF PERSONALIZED MEDICINE
(2021)
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Francesco Liguori, Elisa Mascolo, Fiammetta Verni
Summary: Diabetes mellitus is a heterogeneous disease characterized by high blood sugar caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors, with both monogenic and multigenic forms. While many putative causative genes have been identified, a large percentage of cases remain undiagnosed, indicating a need for further research to identify causal variants of diabetes.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2021)
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Andrea D'Arino, Silvia Caputo, Laura Eibenschutz, Paolo Piemonte, Pierluigi Buccini, Pasquale Frascione, Barbara Bellei
Summary: Aging is a natural process associated with the loss of fibrous tissue and a reduction in immune system competence. Environmental factors, particularly ultraviolet radiation, contribute to the extrinsic damage in skin, causing photoaging. The rise of senescence cells, characterized by reduced proliferation and aberrant hyper-secretory activity, plays a dual role in cancer biology. While senescence prevents uncontrolled cell proliferation, cumulative insults and poor clearance of injured cells in the elderly increase cancer incidence. It is yet to be proven if aged skin creates a permissive environment for tumor onset. However, tumor cells can activate resident fibroblasts into a pro-tumorigenic phenotype, resembling that of senescent fibroblasts, suggesting a potential role of aged fibroblasts in cancer progression.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Philipp J. Heckmeier, Jeannette Ruf, David Buhrke, Brankica G. Jankovic, Peter Hamm
Summary: The protein MCL-1 is essential in regulating apoptosis in various cancers by binding to BIM according to an induced fit mechanism, leading to a cascade of structural rearrangements across a wide range of time scales.
JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
(2022)
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Olga Bozovic, Brankica Jankovic, Peter Hamm
Summary: Controlling protein activity with azobenzene photoswitches is a powerful tool to manipulate biological function, allowing changes in binding affinities, control of allostery, and initiation of out-of-equilibrium processes. By combining the potency of azobenzene photoswitching with transient spectroscopic techniques, researchers can reveal the order of events and experimentally observe biomolecular interactions in real time, providing insights into the dynamic nature of proteins.
NATURE REVIEWS CHEMISTRY
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Seyyed Jabbar Mousavi, Arian Berger, Peter Hamm, Andrey Shalit
Summary: In this study, two-dimensional Raman-THz spectroscopy was used to investigate the crystalline structure of bromoform. The results showed that the cross peaks in the crystalline sample were sharper and could be assigned to specific vibrational modes. The frequency positions of these cross peaks corresponded to the intramolecular bending modes in the Raman dimension and the lattice modes in the THz dimension. This work expands the applicability of this spectroscopic technique to solid samples and provides new experimental evidence for the coupling between intra- and intermolecular vibrational modes.
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Kai Toepfer, Andrea Pasti, Anuradha Das, Seyedeh Maryam Salehi, Luis Itza Vazquez-Salazar, David Rohrbach, Thomas Feurer, Peter Hamm, Markus Meuwly
Summary: This study investigates the spectroscopy and structural dynamics of a deep eutectic mixture with varying water content using 2D IR and THz spectroscopy. Molecular dynamics simulations accurately describe the dependence of spectroscopic signatures on water content. The results demonstrate that the combination of structure-sensitive spectroscopies and molecular dynamics simulations provides molecular-level insights into the heterogeneity of such mixtures.
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
David Buhrke, Norbert Michael, Peter Hamm
Summary: Phytochromes are commonly found photoreceptor proteins that undergo secondary structure refolding in response to chromophoric group photoisomerization. Two-dimensional infrared absorption spectroscopy is used to study the photoreaction of bacterial phytochrome Agp1, showing that dipole coupling between the chromophore and the tongue region plays a role in stabilizing the protein in the light-activated state.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Sourav Maiti, Sunayana Mitra, Clinton A. Johnson, Kai C. Gronborg, Sean Garrett-Roe, Paul M. Donaldson
Summary: This study investigates the dynamics of excess protons in a protic ionic liquid using visible pump mid-infrared probe spectroscopy. The findings reveal that proton transfer occurs through preformed hydrogen-bonded complexes, and the protons only diffuse a few solvent shells before recombining.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Kai C. Gronborg, Sydney M. Giles, Sean Garrett-Roe
Summary: Angular momentum transfer and wavepacket dynamics of CO2(g) were measured on the picosecond time scale using polarization-resolved two-dimensional infrared (2D-IR) spectroscopy. Multiple rotational levels were observed simultaneously at room temperature, and the structure and spectral diffusion of the rotationally resolved 2D-IR spectrum were explained using nonlinear response function theory.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Beliz Sertcan, Seyyed Jabbar Mousavi, Marcella Iannuzzi, Peter Hamm
Summary: Theoretical calculations of low-frequency anharmonic couplings in the beta-phase of crystalline bromoform were conducted based on density functional theory quantum chemistry calculations. The dominant role of electrical anharmonicity in the 2D Raman-THz response of both crystalline and liquid bromoform was revealed. The difference in relative cross-peak intensities between intramolecular and intermolecular modes in bromoform can be explained by the C-3v symmetry of bromoform along with orientational averaging.
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Philipp J. J. Heckmeier, Jeannette Ruf, Brankica G. G. Jankovic, Peter Hamm
Summary: The study investigates the interaction between the allosteric protein MCL-1 and its natural inhibitors PUMA, BIM, and NOXA. Photoswitchable versions of MCL-1/PUMA and MCL-1/NOXA were designed, and the protein response was studied using transient infrared spectroscopy. Partial alpha-helical unfolding was observed in all cases, with varying timescales, suggesting a BH3-only-specific structural resilience in MCL-1's binding pocket.
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Brankica Jankovic, Olga Bozovic, Peter Hamm
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Paul M. Donaldson, Greg M. Greetham, Chris T. Middleton, Bradley M. Luther, Martin T. Zanni, Peter Hamm, Amber T. Krummel
Summary: Ultrafast spectroscopy and imaging have become essential tools for scientists in various fields. The commercialization of advanced spectrometers, such as transient absorption spectrometers and vibrational sum frequency generation spectrometers, has made these measurements available to non-experts in ultrafast spectroscopy. The shift to new Yb-based lasers offers exciting new possibilities in the chemical and physical sciences, with higher efficiency and improved noise characteristics.
ACCOUNTS OF CHEMICAL RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Jan Helbing, Peter Hamm
Summary: This article introduces several ways to electronically synchronize different types of amplified femtosecond laser systems using a single freely programmable electronics hardware. These methods allow for rapid probing of a wide range of timescales in a single transient absorption experiment without the need to move any delay stage. The approach is versatile and can synchronize different lasers, such as a Ti:Sa amplifier and a 100 kHz Yb-laser system. The time-resolution in the transient experiment ranges from 1 to 3 ps, depending on the method.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY A
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
David Buhrke, Yigal Lahav, Aditya Rao, Jeannette Ruf, Igor Schapiro, Peter Hamm
Summary: In this study, the researchers explored a cyanobacteriochrome called Slr1393-g3, which can switch between red-absorbing and green-absorbing forms. They used advanced IR spectroscopic methods to track the intermediates during the photocycle and discovered a new intermediate with distinct spectroscopic features. Additionally, they measured the vibrational couplings and structural disorder in these intermediate states using stationary and transient 2D IR experiments. Anharmonic QM/MM calculations were also performed to predict the spectra and suggest structural changes of the intermediates.
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Seyedeh Maryam Salehi, Silvan Kaeser, Kai Toepfer, Polydefkis Diamantis, Rolf Pfister, Peter Hamm, Ursula Rothlisberger, Markus Meuwly
Summary: In this work, the structural dynamics and infrared spectroscopy of para-fluorophenol and phenol in the gas phase and in water were investigated using a combination of experiment and molecular dynamics simulations. The study found that the CF group of para-fluorophenol is highly hydrophobic, which is particularly relevant for applications in pharmaceutical chemistry.
PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY CHEMICAL PHYSICS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Kerstin T. Oppelt, Laurent Severy, Mirjam Utters, S. David Tilley, Peter Hamm
Summary: This study investigated the solid-liquid interface of a rhenium-tricarbonyl complex embedded in a zirconium oxide layer deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) using time-resolved and steady state infrared spectroscopy. The research revealed correlations between the thickness of the ALD layer and the spectroscopic response of the system. A transition from flexible to rigid molecular environment, as well as limitations to ligand exchange and excited state quenching on the embedded complexes, were observed when the ALD layer matched the height of the molecules.
PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY CHEMICAL PHYSICS
(2021)