An innovative, nature-inspired system that efficiently captures, transports, and stores fluids while providing passive cooling through controlled fluid dynamics.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed an aluminum catalyst that enables fast, base-free transfer hydrogenation of aldehydes and ketones using isopropanol as a hydrogen source.

Combinatorial encoded library technologies can provide a set of tools for discovering protein-targeting ligands (molecules) and for drug discovery. These techniques can accelerate ligand discovery by leveraging chemical diversity achievable through genetically encoded combinatorial libraries, for example, by combinatorial permutation of chemical building blocks. Although display technologies such as mRNA and phage display use biological translation machinery to produce peptide-based libraries, hits from these libraries often lack key drug-like properties, for example, cell permeability. This limitation can arise from the peptide backbone's inherent polarity and the tendency to select compounds with polar/charged side chains. Backbone N-methylation can increase scaffold lipophilicity in mRNA display; however, codon table constraints can necessitate longer sequences to fully utilize the available space.DNA-encoded libraries (DELs) offer an alternative approach towards discovering hits against drug targets. However, like other encoded library techniques, DELs face significant obstacles in affinity selections, which tend to enrich library members bearing polar and/or charged moieties, which can have low (poor) passive cell membrane permeability, especially in larger molecular weight libraries, resulting in hits with poor drug-like properties. This selection bias is especially problematic for larger constructs beyond the rule of 5, where fine-tuning lipophilicity can be critical. Furthermore, DNA-encoded libraries can be of low quality. Although algorithmic predictions of lipophilicity exist, these two-dimensional (2D) atomistic calculations cannot capture conformational effects exhibited by larger molecules like peptide macrocycles. Despite over a decade of DEL technology development, no method exists to measure physical properties of encoded molecules across an entire DNA-encoded library. That is, successful translation of hits from encoded library selections can be impeded by low quality libraries and enrichment of highly polar members which tend to have poor passive cell permeability, especially for larger molecular weight libraries.DELs are produced through split-pool synthesis with DNA barcoding to encode the building block of each chemical step. Although this approach can draw on a large number of building blocks and allow for the formation of non-peptidic libraries with a large number of members, synthetic challenges persist. The formation of DELs can be synthetically inefficient. Truncations multiply ( are compounded) throughout synthesis, reducing the representation of properly synthesized constructs. Although strategies to improve library purity, to enable reaction monitoring for macrocycle formation, and to identify problematic chemistry affecting DNA tag amplification may be applied, a direct method for assessing DEL quality on a library-wide basis has yet to be developed.   

Researchers at UC Santa Cruz have expanded the knowledge on the rippled β-sheet, a protein structural motif formed by certain racemic peptides. Rippled β-sheets already show potential for Alzheimer’s research and drug delivery and leads to formation of hydrogels with enhanced properties. Researchers at UC Santa Cruz have further added to the structural foundation of rippled β-sheets, better understanding how rippled β-sheet formation can be controlled at the molecular level.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed an advancement in the field of healthcare technology, specifically in the development and application of silyl lipids for RNA vaccines.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed a potential therapeutic strategy aiming at disrupting intercellular communication of pathogens using quorum sensing molecules and silicon-based pharmacophores.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed a therapeutic use of cannabinoids for the treatment of Neurodegenerative Disorders (NDDs).

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Amyloid-β (Aβ) is a protein that is implicated in Alzheimer’s disease. Aβ oligomers aggregate to form amyloid plaques, which are found in the brains of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease. These plaques have high polydispersity; they vary in shape and size. Previously, researchers at UC Santa Cruz demonstrated that using a racemic mixture of Aβ promoted fibril formation, an aggregation that is less neurotoxic than plaques of high polydispersity. Furthermore, these racemic counterparts form rippled β-sheets.

A novel polymer-based fluorescent sensor that enables real-time local sensing of water activity at all pH levels with high spatial resolution for use in carbon removal technologies.

An innovative advanced material coating with superior cooling performance across all wavelengths that is crucial for energy consumption and heat management applications.

Something that is chiral cannot be superposed over its mirror image, no matter how it is shifted (ex. our hands). These two mirror images, called enantiomers, rotate plane-polarized light in opposite directions.Chiral nanostructures have unique materials properties that can be used in many applications. In pharmaceutical research and development, chiral analysis is critical, as one enantiomer may be more effective than the other. Researchers at UC Santa Cruz have developed new ways of performing enantiomeric analyses using the plasmonic circular dichroism absorption qualities of nanostructures. 

Nucleic acids such as DNA and RNA find many different applications in research. They can act as research reagents, diagnostic agents, therapeutic agents, and more. Nucleic acids are made by enzymes, which are macromolecules that catalyze reactions. Since nucleic acids are so frequently used in research, there is continued interest in finding new and improved ways to synthesize them. Researchers at UC Santa Cruz have developed ways to continuously synthesize nucleic acids without the use of enzymes.

Kainate receptors, also known as kainic acid receptors are ionotropic receptors that bind to and are responsive to glutamate in neurons. These were originally identified as being activated by the compund kainic acid, orignally isolated from algae. Postsynaptic kainate receptors are involved in excitatory neurotransmission while presynaptic kainate receptors are involved in inhibitory neurotransmission. Kainic acid is a potentially very useful compound but very difficult to synthesize. As a result, there are very few pharmacological tool compounds to study kainate receptors and none that are readily tunable to install labeling compounds. 

This invention introduces a novel approach to cardiac tissue stimulation and maturation through the use of photoactive organic and biological material blends.

Production of chiral chemicals through biotransformation requires an oxidoreductase enzyme and an efficient redox cofactor system comprising electron donors coupled to a dehydrogenase enzyme to regenerate the reduced cofactors.The researchers at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), provide a way to computationally design and optimize hydrogenase enzyme interaction with biomimetic cofactor analogs to improve increase enzymatic efficiency. The group has produced the modified enzyme and show that it is capable of a diverse range of chemical biotransformation.

This technology revolutionizes hydrogen production by using induction heating for catalytic methane decomposition, significantly increasing hydrogen yield.

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A revolutionary approach to treating stone disease and improving ureteral distensibility through pharmacological means.

An electrolyte containing a compound with a unique molecular structure is disclosed for use in symmetric, air-tolerant and membraneless all-organic flow batteries. The innovation addresses challenges in large-scale energy storage, offering a safer and more efficient alternative to conventional batteries that rely on metal-based active materials, which can be toxic or have limited availability. The novel technology, developed by researchers at UC Berkeley, features a single active compound in the electrolyte that functions as both the anolyte and catholyte, eliminating the need for a costly and failure-prone membrane. This design simplifies the battery's architecture, improves its resilience to air exposure, and enhances its overall efficiency and longevity.

Revolutionizing the upcycling of carboxylic acid-based chemical waste products to aldehyde derivatives using engineered biological systems.

A revolutionary drug modality for the selective modification and degradation of intracellular proteins in lysosomes.

Site-selective covalent modification of proteins is key to the development of new biomaterials, therapeutics, and other biological tools. As examples in the biomedical field, these techniques have been applied to the construction of antibody-drug conjugates, bispecific cell engagers, and targeted protein therapies, among other applications. While many bioconjugation strategies, such as azide-alkyne cycloaddition or thiol-maleimide coupling, have become widely adopted, the improvement of existing techniques is a highly active area of chemical biology research, as is the development of new synthetic applications of these methods. Key focuses of such efforts include increasing reaction efficiency and ease, balancing selectivity with tag size, and expanding the modification options beyond traditional cysteine and lysine residues. UC Berkeley researchers have developed compounds and methods using tyrosinase to couple small-molecule dithiols to tyrosine-tagged proteins, which effectively introduces a free thiol handle and provides a convenient method to bypass genetic incorporation of cysteine residues for bioconjugation. These newly thiolated proteins were then coupled to maleimide probes as well as other tyrosine-tagged proteins. The researchers were also able to conjugate targeting proteins to drugs, fluorescent probes, and therapeutic enzymes. This easy method to convert accessible tyrosine residues on proteins to thiol tags extends the use of tyrosinase-mediated oxidative coupling to a broader range of protein substrates. 

A novel method for selectively targeting and modulating brain border-associated myeloid cells for the treatment of neurological disorders.

Introducing a groundbreaking orthogonal redox cofactor, NMN+, to revolutionize redox reaction control in biomanufacturing.