Publications by authors named "K D Ebel"
Chloroplasts play a pivotal role in the metabolism of leaf mesophyll cells, functioning as a cellular hub that orchestrates molecular reactions in response to environmental stimuli. These organelles contain complex protein machinery for energy conversion and are indispensable for essential metabolic pathways. Proteins located within the chloroplast envelope membranes facilitate bidirectional communication with the cell and connect essential pathways, thereby influencing acclimation processes to challenging environmental conditions such as temperature fluctuations and light intensity changes.
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- Photodynamic therapy (PDT) treats cancer by using light to activate a photosensitizer, leading to the generation of reactive oxygen species that damage DNA.
- Recent research has shifted focus from precious metals to non-noble metal complexes as potential photosensitizers for PDT.
- A study using DNA origami technology found that the luminescent metal complex [Cr(ddpd)] efficiently causes DNA strand breaks upon UV/Vis illumination, achieving a quantum yield of 1-4%.
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- Localized surface plasmon resonances on noble metal nanoparticles (NPs), particularly gold (AuNPs), can enhance chemical reactions of adsorbed ligands through elevated temperatures and strong electric fields.
- The study investigates the dehalogenation of halogenated thiophenols using surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) to analyze reaction kinetics and products, revealing similar reaction rates despite varying bond energies.
- Analysis of AuNP electronic properties using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy shows that ligand adsorption alters these properties, indicating that plasmonic features of AuNPs predominantly influence reaction rates and offering insights into the design of catalytic systems.
Cyanobacteria oxygenated Earth's atmosphere ~2.4 billion years ago, during the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE), through oxygenic photosynthesis. Their high iron requirement was presumably met by high levels of Fe(II) in the anoxic Archean environment.
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- Ionizing radiation in cancer therapy damages tumor DNA by creating reactive secondary species like low-energy electrons (LEEs), which can induce DNA strand breaks.
- The DNA origami method allows for the measurement of LEE-induced DNA damage, but it has only been successfully used for single-stranded DNA so far.
- This research compares double strand breaks in specific DNA sequences to single strand breaks when exposed to LEEs, finding that strand breaks occur most effectively at energies of 7 and 10 eV, suggesting a common mechanism of dissociative electron attachment.