Category Archives: Biochemistry

American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology honors MD/PhD student Hannah Kondolf – The Daily | Case Western Reserve University

Hannah Kondolf, a student in the MD/PhD program, was named a Journal of Biological Chemistry Herbert Tabor Early Career Award winner. Kondolf conducted the PhD portion of her program in the lab of Derek Abbott, professor of medicine.

Kondolf worked on pore-forming proteins important in autoinflammatory disorders. While in the Abbott lab, she co-authored manuscripts in Cell and Science Immunology. Her major manuscript made use of a novel protein engineering system to show that the pore-forming protein, Gasdermin A, preferentially inserts into the mitochondrial membranes when activated. The result is the release of mitochondrial DNA, a potent inflammatory stimulation agent.

The American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biologya major scientific society with over 11,000 membersgranted Kondolf this award.

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American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology honors MD/PhD student Hannah Kondolf - The Daily | Case Western Reserve University

Biochemistry and transcriptomic analyses of Phthorimaea absoluta (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) response to insecticides … – Nature.com

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Biochemistry and transcriptomic analyses of Phthorimaea absoluta (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) response to insecticides ... - Nature.com

Life’s Origins: How Fissures in Hot Rocks May Have Kickstarted Biochemistry – Singularity Hub

How did the building blocks of life originate?

The question has long vexed scientists. Early Earth was dotted with pools of water rich in chemicalsa primordial soup. Yet biomolecules supporting life emerged from the mixtures, setting the stage for the appearance of the first cells.

Life was kickstarted when two components formed. One was a molecular carrierlike, for example, DNAto pass along and remix genetic blueprints. The other component was made up of proteins, the workhorses and structural elements of the body.

Both biomolecules are highly complex. In humans, DNA has four different chemical letters, called nucleotides, whereas proteins are made of 20 types of amino acids. The components have distinct structures, and their creation requires slightly different chemistries. The final products need to be in large enough amounts to string them together into DNA or proteins.

Scientists can purify the components in the lab using additives. But it begs the question: How did it happen on early Earth?

The answer, suggests Dr. Christof Mast, a researcher at Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, may be cracks in rocks like those occurring in the volcanoes or geothermal systems that were abundant on early Earth. Its possible that temperature differences along the cracks naturally separate and concentrate biomolecule components, providing a passive system to purify biomolecules.

Inspired by geology, the team developed heat flow chambers roughly the size of a bank card, each containing minuscule fractures with a temperature gradient. When given a mixture of amino acids or nucleotidesa prebiotic mixthe components readily separated.

Adding more chambers further concentrated the chemicals, even those that were similar in structure. The network of fractures also enabled amino acids to bond, the first step towards creating a functional protein.

Systems of interconnected thin fractures and cracksare thought to be ubiquitous in volcanic and geothermal environments, wrote the team. By enriching the prebiotic chemicals, such systems could have provided a steady driving force for a natural origins-of-life laboratory.

Around four billion years ago, Earth was a hostile environment, pummeled by meteorites and rife with volcanic eruptions. Yet somehow among the chaos, chemistry generated the first amino acids, nucleotides, fatty lipids, and other building blocks that support life.

Which chemical processes contributed to these molecules is up for debate. When each came along is also a conundrum. Like a chicken or egg problem, DNA and RNA direct the creation of proteins in cellsbut both genetic carriers also require proteins to replicate.

One theory suggest sulfidic anions, which are molecules that were abundant in early Earths lakes and rivers, could be the link. Generated in volcanic eruptions, once dissolved into pools of water they can speed up chemical reactions that convert prebiotic molecules into RNA. Dubbed the RNA world hypothesis, the idea suggests that RNA was the first biomolecule to grace Earth because it can carry genetic information and speed up some chemical reactions.

Another idea is meteor impacts on early Earth generated nucleotides, lipids, and amino acids simultaneously, through a process that includes two abundant chemicalsone from meteors and another from Earthand a dash of UV light.

But theres one problem: Each set of building blocks requires a different chemical reaction. Depending on slight differences in structure or chemistry, its possible one geographic location might have skewed towards one type of prebiotic molecule over another.

How? The new study, published in Nature, offers an answer.

Lab experiments mimicking early Earth usually start with well-defined ingredients that have already been purified. Scientists also clean up intermediate side-products, especially for multiple chemical reaction steps.

The process often results in vanishingly small concentrations of the desired product, or its creation can even be completely inhibited, wrote the team. The reactions also require multiple spatially separated chambers, which hardly resembles Earths natural environment.

The new study took inspiration from geology. Early Earth had complex networks of water-filled cracks found in a variety of rocks in volcanos and geothermal systems. The cracks, generated by overheating rocks, formed natural straws that could potentially filter a complex mix of molecules using a heat gradient.

Each molecule favors a preferred temperature based on its size and electrical charge. When exposed to different temperatures, it naturally moves towards its ideal pick. Called thermophoresis, the process separates a soup of ingredients into multiple distinct layers in one step.

The team mimicked a single thin rock fracture using a heat flow chamber. Roughly the size of a bank card, the chamber had tiny cracks 170 micrometers across, about the width of a human hair. To create a temperature gradient, one side of the chamber was heated to 104 degrees Fahrenheit and the other end chilled to 77 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a first test, the team added a mix of prebiotic compounds that included amino acids and DNA nucleotides into the chamber. After 18 hours, the components separated into layers like tiramisu. For example, glycinethe smallest of amino acidsbecame concentrated towards the top, whereas other amino acids with higher thermophoretic strength stuck to the bottom. Similarly, DNA letters and other life-sustaining chemicals also separated in the cracks, with some enriched by up to 45 percent.

Although promising, the system didnt resemble early Earth, which had highly interconnected cracks varying in size. To better mimic natural conditions, the team next strung up three chambers, with the first branching into two others. This was roughly 23 times more efficient at enriching prebiotic chemicals than a single chamber.

Using a computer simulation, the team then modeled the behavior of a 20-by-20 interlinked chamber system, using a realistic flow rate of prebiotic chemicals. The chambers further enriched the brew, with glycine enriching over 2,000 times more than another amino acids.

Cleaner ingredients are a great start for the formation of complex molecules. But lots of chemical reaction require additional chemicals, which also need to be enriched. Here, the team zeroed in on a reaction stitching two glycine molecules together.

At the heart is trimetaphosphate (TMP), which helps guide the reaction. TMP is especially interesting for prebiotic chemistry, and it was scarce on early Earth, explained the team, which makes its selective enrichment critical. A single chamber increased TMP levels when mixed with other chemicals.

Using a computer simulation, a TMP and glycine mix increased the final producta doubled glycineby five orders of magnitude.

These results show that otherwise challenging prebiotic reactions are massively boosted with heat flows that selectively enrich chemicals in different regions, wrote the team.

In all, they tested over 50 prebiotic molecules and found the fractures readily separated them. Because each crack can have a different mix of molecules, it could explain the rise of multiple life-sustaining building blocks.

Still, how lifes building blocks came together to form organisms remains mysterious. Heat flows and rock fissures are likely just one piece of the puzzle. The ultimate test will be to see if, and how, these purified prebiotics link up to form a cell.

Image Credit: Christof B. Mast

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Life's Origins: How Fissures in Hot Rocks May Have Kickstarted Biochemistry - Singularity Hub

Differential responses of Hollyhock (Alcea rosea L.) varieties to salt stress in relation to physiological and biochemical … – Nature.com

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Differential responses of Hollyhock (Alcea rosea L.) varieties to salt stress in relation to physiological and biochemical ... - Nature.com

Professor Robert Cross awarded Biochemical Society Award for Sustained Excellence – University of Warwick

Professor Robert Cross, Warwick Medical School has been awarded the Biochemical Society Award for Sustained Excellence 2025.

The work and contribution of fifteen eminent bioscientists, outstanding educators and exceptional early career researchers has been acknowledged in the annual Biochemical Society Awards following a record year of nominations.

Each recipient has been recognised for excellence in their field as well as a strong commitment to build, support, and nurture future talent. Winners of the 2025 Awards represent a cross-section of the molecular biosciences ranging from redox biology and plant-microbe interactions to mechanochemistry and virology.

Professor Steve Busby, Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Birmingham, and Chair of the Biochemical Societys Awards Committee, says: "The list of the 2025 Biochemical Society award winners is impressive and, of course, we have a wonderful mix of awardees, since each prize is targeted to a different section of our community. This is due to great foresight by the Societys managers and funders, over many many years. As well as congratulating the winners, I want to say thanks for all the hard work put in by nominators, supporters, Biochemical Society staff and the Awards Panel during the current round, this scheme could not work without you and your efforts made my job easy!

Professor Cross said "The Biochemical Society is a national treasure and I am grateful for this recognition of my work. I like the idea of an award for sustained progress - for me, science is about finding a good problem, splitting it into smaller problems, and working to solve those, as best one can, for as long as it takes."

Professor Cross obtained his PhD in 1983 from the University of Nottingham and then won an EMBO long-term fellowship to work with J. Victor Small and Apolinary Sobieszek in Salzburg on the structure and mechanisms of smooth muscle myosin filaments. In 1986, he moved to MRC-LMB as an MDA fellow and alongside John Kendrick Jones, Clive Bagshaw and Mike Geeves, Rob was ultimately able to propose an explicit mechanism for myosin II self-assembly.

In 1991, he moved to the Marie Curie Research Institute (MCRI) and began work on kinesin, then newly-discovered. In 2005, Rob and Nick Carter found that kinesin can step processively backwards under load. This turned out to be key to its mechanochemical coupling, which, as they recently (2020) showed, combines tight-coupled forwards steps with loose-coupled backslips.

In 2009, the MCRI closed and Rob moved, with his colleagues Professor Andrew McAinsh and Professor Anne Straube, to Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick. At Warwick, Rob continues to interrogate the kinesin mechanism, but with an important paradigm shift, whereby the interlock between the mechanochemical mechanisms of kinesin and tubulin is paramount.

Find out more about the Awards here and find out more about Professor Rob Cross and his research here.

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Professor Robert Cross awarded Biochemical Society Award for Sustained Excellence - University of Warwick

Study suggests that estrogen may drive nicotine addiction in women – EurekAlert

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Researchers discovered that estrogen induces the expression of olfactomedins (OLFM), proteins that are suppressed by nicotine in key areas of the brain involved in reward and addiction. The research could lead to new targeted therapies that help women control nicotine consumption.

Credit: Sally Pauss, University of Kentucky College of Medicine; created with BioRender.com

A newly discovered feedback loop involving estrogen may explain why women might become dependent on nicotine more quickly and with less nicotine exposure than men. The research could lead to new treatments for women who are having trouble quitting nicotine-containing products such as cigarettes.

Sally Pauss is a doctoral student at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine in Lexington. She led the project.

Studies show that women have a higher propensity to develop addiction to nicotine than men and are less successful at quitting, said Pauss, who is working under the supervision of Terry D. Hinds Jr., an associate professor. Our work aims to understand what makes women more susceptible to nicotine use disorder to reduce the gender disparity in treating nicotine addiction.

The researchers found that the sex hormone estrogen induces the expression of olfactomedins, proteins that are suppressed by nicotine in key areas of the brain involved in reward and addiction. The findings suggest that estrogennicotineolfactomedin interactions could be targeted with therapies to help control nicotine consumption.

Pauss will present the research at Discover BMB, the annual meeting of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, which will be held March 2326 in San Antonio.

Our research has the potential to better the lives and health of women struggling with substance use, she said. If we can confirm that estrogen drives nicotine seeking and consumption through olfactomedins, we can design drugs that might block that effect by targeting the altered pathways. These drugs would hopefully make it easier for women to quit nicotine.

For the new study, the researchers used large sequencing datasets of estrogen-induced genes to identify genes that are expressed in the brain and exhibit a hormone function. They found just one class of genes that met these criteria: those coding for olfactomedins. They then performed a series of studies with human uterine cells and rats to better understand the interactions between olfactomedins, estrogen and nicotine. The results suggested that estrogen activation of olfactomedins which is suppressed when nicotine is present might serve as a feedback loop for driving nicotine addiction processes by activating areas of the brains reward circuitry such as the nucleus accumbens.

The researchers are now working to replicate their findings and definitively determine the role of estrogen. This knowledge could be useful for those taking estrogen in the form of oral contraceptives or hormone replacement therapy, which might increase the risk of developing a nicotine use disorder.

The investigators also want to determine the exact olfactomedin-regulated signaling pathways that drive nicotine consumption and plan to conduct behavioral animal studies to find out how manipulation of the feedback loop affects nicotine consumption.

Sally Pauss will present this research during a poster session from 4:306:30 p.m. CDT on Monday, March 25, in the exhibit hall of the Henry B. Gonzlez Convention Center (Poster Board No. 152) (abstract). Contact the media team for more information or to obtain a free press pass to attend the meeting.

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About the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB)

The ASBMB is a nonprofit scientific and educational organization with more than 12,000 members worldwide. Founded in 1906 to advance the science of biochemistry and molecular biology, the society publishes three peer-reviewed journals, advocates for funding of basic research and education, supports science education at all levels, and promotes the diversity of individuals entering the scientific workforce. http://www.asbmb.org

Find more news briefs at: https://discoverbmb.asbmb.org/newsroom.

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Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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Study suggests that estrogen may drive nicotine addiction in women - EurekAlert

Yale men’s basketball confused for university’s Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry on Twitter – Sporting News

Yale men's basketball's recent success has had the masses flocking for a glimpse at the inner workings of the team. Any piece of content relating to the team is susceptible to being devoured by the public. Sometimes, that can even sweep up entities unrelated to the basketball team at hand.

Yale's Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry program was the latest department to get caught in the Bulldogs' riches. The world-renowned institution has been largely overshadowed by its nouveau riche supernovas in recent days. The most glaring example of such a phenomenon? The number of Twitter replies directed toward the molecular biophysics and biochemistry department in the first place.

There's been a massive groundswell of Twitter users interested in contacting the storied research org over the past few days. The reason for such interest is because Yale's Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry has a rather familiar Twitter username: @YaleMBB.

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Many seem to believe that @YaleMBB's Twitter account is the same as Yale men's basketball's Twitter account. That is not actually the case. The Bulldogs are represented by the Twitter account @YaleMBasketball.

Have no fear, though: Yale's Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry made it clear that they are the original @YaleMBB, not the other way around.

MORE: Where is Yale located?

From their Twitter account:

The social media account even took the unprecedented step of adding an addendum to its Twitter bio, stating the following:

'Yale Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry (not @YaleMBasketball)'

Whether that piece of context will appease the masses is anyone's guess. Misinformation is rife in today's age.

Nevertheless, those hoping to get their fix of all things molecular biophysics and biochemistry will surely be pleased with their beloved program's desire to stick up for themselves, even if it's at the expense of one of its host university's most-beloved institutes.

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Yale men's basketball confused for university's Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry on Twitter - Sporting News