The Natural Products Atlas: An Open Access Knowledge Base for Microbial Natural Products Discovery.

Despite rapid evolution in the area of microbial natural products chemistry, there is currently no open access database containing all microbially produced natural product structures. Lack of availability of these data is preventing the implementation of new technologies in natural products science. Specifically, development of new computational strategies for compound characterization and identification are being hampered by the lack of a comprehensive database of known compounds against which to compare experimental data.

Chemically transformed monolayers on acene thin films for improved metal/organic interfaces.

Anhydride terminated acene thin films were chemically transformed to thiol or carboxylic acid functionalities, groups heretofore incompatible with monolayer reactions. The molecular surface imparts large rate acceleration when imides are formed, while disfavored disulfides can be formed from the thiols. The modified surface imparts improved adhesion to top metal contacts in flexible/bendable applications.

A Complex Zeolite Containing Multiple Ring Sizes in a Single Channel: One-Dimensional Zeolite UZM-55.

Zeolites are porous aluminosilicate materials utilized in a variety of sorption, separation, and catalytic applications. The oil refining industry in particular has seen a number of significant advances due to the introduction of new technologies enabled by new zeolites. Of particular importance are zeolites with 10- or 12-membered ring pores, resulting in pore shapes and sizes appropriate for the interaction with small hydrocarbon molecules.

Spatial Analyses of Specialized Metabolites: The Key to Studying Function in Hosts.

Microbial communities contribute to a wide variety of biological functions in hosts and have the ability to specifically influence the health of those organisms through production of specialized metabolites. However, the structures or molecular mechanisms related to health or disease in host-microbe interactions represent a knowledge gap. In order to close this gap, we propose that a combinatory approach, pulling from microbiology and analytical chemistry, be considered to investigate these interactions so as to gain a better understanding of the chemistry being produced.