Sustainable Soil Additives for Water and Micronutrient Supply: Swelling and Chelating Properties of Polyaspartic Acid Hydrogels Utilizing Newly Developed Crosslinkers.

Drought and water shortage are serious problems in many arid and semi-arid regions. This problem is getting worse and even continues in temperate climatic regions due to climate change. To address this problem, the use of biodegradable hydrogels is increasingly important for the application as water-retaining additives in soil.

Synthesis and evaluation of acyl protein thioesterase 1 (APT1) inhibitors.

Lipid-modified proteins play decisive roles in important biological processes such as signal transduction, organisation of the cytoskeleton and vesicular transport. Lipidation of these proteins is essential for correct biological function. Among the modifications with lipids, prenylation and myristoylation are well understood.

Epigenetics--an epicenter of gene regulation: histones and histone-modifying enzymes.

The treatment of cancer through the development of new therapies is one of the most important challenges of our time. The decoding of the human genome has yielded important insights into the molecular basis of physical disorders, and in most cases a connection between failures in specific genes and the resulting clinical symptoms can be made. The modulation of epigenetic mechanisms enables, by definition, the alteration of cellular phenotype without altering the genotype.