Gas tunnel engineering of prolyl hydroxylase reprograms hypoxia signaling in cells.

Cells have evolved intricate mechanisms for recognizing and responding to changes in oxygen (O) concentrations. Here, we have reprogrammed cellular hypoxia (low O) signaling via gas tunnel engineering of prolyl hydroxylase 2 (PHD2), a non-heme iron dependent O sensor. Using computational modeling and protein engineering techniques, we identify a gas tunnel and critical residues therein that limit the flow of O to PHD2's catalytic core.

β-Methyl-δ-valerolactone-containing Thermoplastic Poly(ester-amide)s: Synthesis, Mechanical Properties, and Degradation Behavior.

Poly(ester-amide)s (PEAs) have been prepared from (glucose-derived) β-methyl-δ-valerolactone (MVL) by reaction of MVL-derived diamidodiols with diacid chlorides in solution to form poly(ester-amide)s having alternating diester-diamide subunits. The PEAs formed by this method exhibit plastic properties and are of sufficiently high molecular weight to be tough, ductile materials (stress at break: 41-53 MPa, strain at break: 530-640%). The length of the methylene linker unit (n = 1,2,3) between amide groups of the diamidodiols affects the Young's modulus; longer linkers reduce the stiffness of the materials.

Preparation of Scalable Silica-Coated Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for Nanowarming.

Cryopreservation technology allows long-term banking of biological systems. However, a major challenge to cryopreserving organs remains in the rewarming of large volumes (>3 mL), where mechanical stress and ice formation during convective warming cause severe damage. Nanowarming technology presents a promising solution to rewarm organs rapidly and uniformly via inductive heating of magnetic nanoparticles (IONPs) preloaded by perfusion into the organ vasculature.

Orphan spin polarization: A catalyst for high-throughput solid-state NMR spectroscopy of proteins.

Magic angle spinning solid-state NMR (MAS ssNMR) spectroscopy is a powerful method for structure determination of biomacromolecules that are recalcitrant to crystallization (membrane proteins and fibrils). Conventional multidimensional ssNMR methods acquire one experiment at a time. This approach is time consuming and discards orphan (unused) spin operators.

Structure and speciation in hydrous silica melts. 2. Pressure effects.

The effect of pressure on structure and water speciation in hydrated liquid silica is examined over a range of temperatures and compositions. The Feuston-Garofalini (FG) potential is used in isobaric-isothermal Monte Carlo simulations carried out at four pressures (0.25, 1.

Ti.

Tridentate binding of BH(4)(-) to a zero-valent metal center was found for the first time in [Ti(CO)(4)(eta(3)-BH(4))](-) (shown in the picture), which was obtained from the reaction of the carbonyl metalate anion [Ti(CO)(6)](2-) with BH(3) small middle dotTHF. Displacement of the unusually labile BH(4)(-) anion by a pyrrolyl anion provided the first metal(0) pyrrolyl complex [Ti(CO)(4)(eta(5)-C(4)H(4)N)](-).