Standardized methods for rearing a moth larva, , in a laboratory setting.

The larval tobacco hornworm, , has been used in a laboratory setting for physiological studies and for pathogen virulence studies. This moth offers a much larger size than the commonly used wax moth ( ), and it can thus be used for a greater variety of assays, such as repeated sampling of the same individual, growth measurements, and tissue sampling. Yet their occasional use in research has led to a minimally documented set of rearing methods.

Mathematical comparison of protocols for adapting a bacteriophage to a new host.

Interest in phage therapy-the use of bacterial viruses to treat infections-has increased recently because of the rise of infections with antibiotic-resistant bacteria and the failure to develop new antibiotics to treat those infections. Phages have shown therapeutic promise in recent work, and successful treatment minimally requires giving the patient a phage that will grow on their infecting bacterium. Although nature offers a bountiful and diverse supply of phages, there have been a surprising number of patient infections that could not be treated with phages because no suitable phage was found to kill the patient's bacterium.

Harnessing Oxetane and Azetidine Sulfonyl Fluorides for Opportunities in Drug Discovery.

Four-membered heterocycles such as oxetanes and azetidines represent attractive and emergent design options in medicinal chemistry due to their small and polar nature and potential to significantly impact the physiochemical properties of drug molecules. The challenging preparation of these derivatives, especially in a divergent manner, has severely limited their combination with other medicinally and biologically important groups. Consequently, there is a substantial demand for mild and effective synthetic strategies to access new oxetane and azetidine derivatives and molecular scaffolds.

Substituent effects on the photophysics of the kaede chromophore.

Kaede is the prototype of the optical highlighter proteins, which are an important subclass of the fluorescent proteins that can be permanently switched from green to red emitting forms by UV irradiation. This transformation has important applications in bioimaging. Optimising brightness, enhancing fluorescence characteristics, in these proteins is an important objective.

Synthesis and Functionalization of Sulfoximine-Bicyclo[1.1.0]butanes: Functionalizable, Tuneable and Cysteine-Selective Chiral Warheads.

Electrophilic covalent warheads with appropriate reactivity and selectivity are crucial to the investigation of protein function and the discovery of therapeutics. Here we report the synthesis of sulfoximine bicyclo[1.1.