The Romanesque monastery church Maria Laach, their natural building blocks and their geological origin

2019 ◽  
Vol 101 ◽  
pp. 287-312
Author(s):  
Karl-Heinz Schumacher
Keyword(s):  
Building Blocks ◽  
Geological Origin ◽  
Natural Building

scholarly journals Diverse protein assembly driven by metal and chelating amino acids with selectivity and tunability

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Minwoo Yang ◽  
Woon Ju Song
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Self Assembly ◽  
Protein Structures ◽  
Functional Materials ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Unnatural Amino Acid ◽  
Metal Coordination ◽  
Specific Chemical ◽  
Natural Building ◽  
Kinetics Of

AbstractProteins are versatile natural building blocks with highly complex and multifunctional architectures, and self-assembled protein structures have been created by the introduction of covalent, noncovalent, or metal-coordination bonding. Here, we report the robust, selective, and reversible metal coordination properties of unnatural chelating amino acids as the sufficient and dominant driving force for diverse protein self-assembly. Bipyridine-alanine is genetically incorporated into a D3 homohexamer. Depending on the position of the unnatural amino acid, 1-directional, crystalline and noncrystalline 2-directional, combinatory, and hierarchical architectures are effectively created upon the addition of metal ions. The length and shape of the structures is tunable by altering conditions related to thermodynamics and kinetics of metal-coordination and subsequent reactions. The crystalline 1-directional and 2-directional biomaterials retain their native enzymatic activities with increased thermal stability, suggesting that introducing chelating ligands provides a specific chemical basis to synthesize diverse protein-based functional materials while retaining their native structures and functions.

scholarly journals Identification and Analysis of Natural Building Blocks for Evolution-Guided Fragment-Based Protein Design

2020 ◽  
Vol 432 (13) ◽  
pp. 3898-3914 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noelia Ferruz ◽  
Francisco Lobos ◽  
Dominik Lemm ◽  
Saacnicteh Toledo-Patino ◽  
José Arcadio Farías-Rico ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Protein Design ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Natural Building

Amino Acid Functional Polymers: Biomimetic Polymer Design Enabling Catalysis, Chiral Materials, and Drug Delivery

2016 ◽  
Vol 69 (7) ◽  
pp. 705 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma R. L. Brisson ◽  
Zeyun Xiao ◽  
Luke A. Connal
Keyword(s):  
Drug Delivery ◽  
Amino Acids ◽  
Amino Acid ◽  
Self Assembly ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Functional Polymers ◽  
Responsive Materials ◽  
Biomimetic Polymer ◽  
Tunable Optical Properties ◽  
Natural Building

Amino acids are the natural building blocks for the world around us. Highly functional, these small molecules have unique catalytic properties, chirality, and biocompatibility. Imparting these properties to surfaces and other macromolecules is highly sought after and represents a fast-growing field. Polymers functionalized with amino acids in the side chains have tunable optical properties, pH responsiveness, biocompatibility, structure and self-assembly properties. Herein, we review the synthesis of amino acid functional polymers, discuss manipulation of available strategies to achieve the desired responsive materials, and summarize some exciting applications in catalysis, chiral particles, and drug delivery.

scholarly journals The Needlet CMB Trispectrum

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (S306) ◽  
pp. 48-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonino Troja ◽  
Simona Donzelli ◽  
Davide Maino ◽  
Domenico Marinucci
Keyword(s):  
Correction Term ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Statistical Properties ◽  
Efficient Estimation ◽  
Third Order ◽  
Instrumental Noise ◽  
The Third ◽  
Natural Building

AbstractWe propose a computationally feasible estimator for the needlet trispectrum, which develops earlier work on the bispectrum by Donzelli et al. (2012). Our proposal seems to enjoy a number of useful properties, in particular a) the construction exploits the localization properties of the needlet system, and hence it automatically handles masked regions; b) the procedure incorporates a quadratic correction term to correct for the presence of instrumental noise and sky-cuts; c) it is possible to provide analytic results on its statistical properties, which can serve as a guidance for simulations. The needlet trispectrum we present here provides the natural building blocks for the efficient estimation of nonlinearity parameters on CMB data, and in particular for the third order constants gNL and τNL.

scholarly journals Drug Discovery Inspired by Mother Nature: Seeking Natural Biochemotypes and the Natural Assembly Rules of the Biochemome

2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiong Gu ◽  
Xin Yan ◽  
Jun Xu
Keyword(s):  
Drug Discovery ◽  
Periodic Table ◽  
Drug Targets ◽  
Biological Activities ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Genome Project ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Chemical Library ◽  
Chemical Structures ◽  
Natural Building

Purpose. The Human Genome Project is producing a new biological ‘periodic table’, which defines all genes for making macromolecules (proteins, DNA, RNA, etc) and the relations between genes and their biological functions. We now need to consider whether to initiate a biochemome project aimed at discovering biochemistry’s ‘periodic table’, which would define all molecular parts for making small molecules (natural products) and the relations between the parts and their functions to regulate genes. By understanding the Biochemome, we might be able to design biofunctional molecules based upon a set of molecular parts for drug innovation. Methods. A number of algorithms for processing chemical structures are used to systematically derive chemoyls (natural building blocks) from a database of compounds identified in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The rules to combine chemoyls for biological activities are then deduced by mining an annotated TCM structure-activity database (ATCMD). Based upon the rules and the basic chemoyls, a chemical library can be biochemically profiled, virtual synthetic routes can be planned, and lead compounds can be identified for a specific drug target. Conclusions. The Biochemome is the complete set of molecular components (chemoyls) in an organism and Biochemomics studies the rules governing their assembly and their evolution, together with the relations between the Biochemome and drug targets. This approach provides a new paradigm for drug discovery that is based on a comprehensive knowledge of the synthetic origins of biochemical diversity, and helps to direct biomimetic syntheses aimed at assembling quasi-natural product libraries for drug screening.   This article is open to POST-PUBLICATION REVIEW. Registered readers (see “For Readers”) may comment by clicking on ABSTRACT on the issue’s contents page.

scholarly journals Mutational characterization and mapping of the 70S ribosome active site

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (5) ◽  
pp. 2777-2789 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne E d’Aquino ◽  
Tasfia Azim ◽  
Nikolay A Aleksashin ◽  
Adam J Hockenberry ◽  
Antje Krüger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Active Site ◽  
Single Point ◽  
Point Mutations ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Structure Mapping ◽  
Nucleotide Mutation ◽  
70S Ribosome ◽  
Natural Building ◽  
Total Point

Abstract The synthetic capability of the Escherichia coli ribosome has attracted efforts to repurpose it for novel functions, such as the synthesis of polymers containing non-natural building blocks. However, efforts to repurpose ribosomes are limited by the lack of complete peptidyl transferase center (PTC) active site mutational analyses to inform design. To address this limitation, we leverage an in vitro ribosome synthesis platform to build and test every possible single nucleotide mutation within the PTC-ring, A-loop and P-loop, 180 total point mutations. These mutant ribosomes were characterized by assessing bulk protein synthesis kinetics, readthrough, assembly, and structure mapping. Despite the highly-conserved nature of the PTC, we found that >85% of the PTC nucleotides possess mutational flexibility. Our work represents a comprehensive single-point mutant characterization and mapping of the 70S ribosome's active site. We anticipate that it will facilitate structure-function relationships within the ribosome and make possible new synthetic biology applications.

High-Definition Polymeric Membranes: Construction of 3D Lithographed Channel Arrays through Control of Natural Building Blocks Dynamics

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 459-466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Speranza ◽  
Francesco Trotta ◽  
Enrico Drioli ◽  
Annarosa Gugliuzza
Keyword(s):  
Building Blocks ◽  
Polymeric Membranes ◽  
High Definition ◽  
Natural Building

scholarly journals Self-Assembling Drug Formulations with Tunable Permeability and Biodegradability

Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (22) ◽  
pp. 6786
Author(s):  
Gulnara Gaynanova ◽  
Leysan Vasileva ◽  
Ruslan Kashapov ◽  
Darya Kuznetsova ◽  
Rushana Kushnazarova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drug Delivery ◽  
Self Assembly ◽  
Targeted Delivery ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Biological Barriers ◽  
Self Assembling ◽  
Low Toxicity ◽  
Natural Building ◽  
Dynamic Structures ◽  
Supramolecular Aggregates

This review focuses on key topics in the field of drug delivery related to the design of nanocarriers answering the biomedicine criteria, including biocompatibility, biodegradability, low toxicity, and the ability to overcome biological barriers. For these reasons, much attention is paid to the amphiphile-based carriers composed of natural building blocks, lipids, and their structural analogues and synthetic surfactants that are capable of self-assembly with the formation of a variety of supramolecular aggregates. The latter are dynamic structures that can be used as nanocontainers for hydrophobic drugs to increase their solubility and bioavailability. In this section, biodegradable cationic surfactants bearing cleavable fragments are discussed, with ester- and carbamate-containing analogs, as well as amino acid derivatives received special attention. Drug delivery through the biological barriers is a challenging task, which is highlighted by the example of transdermal method of drug administration. In this paper, nonionic surfactants are primarily discussed, including their application for the fabrication of nanocarriers, their surfactant-skin interactions, the mechanisms of modulating their permeability, and the factors controlling drug encapsulation, release, and targeted delivery. Different types of nanocarriers are covered, including niosomes, transfersomes, invasomes and chitosomes, with their morphological specificity, beneficial characteristics and limitations discussed.

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