Oligophosphonic and -phosphinic acids roused significant interest as complexing agents and gained importance in many fields of practical chemistry. Particular attention was drawn towards molecules having two or more phosphonic or phosphinic acid substituents in vicinal and/or preferably geminal positions attached to the ethane fragment. Novel synthetic procedures [1 -4 ] led to structures relat...

An iron-complexing antibiotic with a narrow spectrum of biological activity was produced by several strains of Aspergillus nidulans when grown in a low-iron, chemically defined medium. Its chemical and biological properties closely resembled those of desferritriacetylfusigen, a metabolite of several other Aspergilli and Penicillia.

Metal isotope coded profiling (MICP) introduces a universal discovery platform for metal chelating natural products that act as metallophores, ion buffers or sequestering agents. The detection of cation and oxoanion complexing ligands is facilitated by the identification of unique isotopic signatures created by the application of isotopically pure metals.

Bone morphogenic proteins (BMPs) and blood flow regulate vascular remodeling and homeostasis. In this issue, Baeyens et al. (2016. J. Cell Biol http://dx.doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201603106) show that blood flow sensitizes endothelial cells to BMP9 signaling by triggering Alk1/ENG complexing to suppress cell proliferation and to recruit mural cells, thereby establishing endothelial quiescence.

Eutectic AuSn20 solder is an important material for electronic packaging technology due to its superior mechanical and thermal conductive properties. In this work, AuSn20 alloy films are prepared via the electrodeposition method for the first time. The electrodeposition is cost-effective with improved control over the alloy content when compared to traditional powdered metallurgy methods. Pyrop...

Dystonia is a movement disorder of uncertain pathogenesis that is characterized by involuntary and inappropriate muscle contractions which cause sustained abnormal postures and movements of multiple or single (focal) body regions. The most common focal dystonias are cervical dystonia (CD) and blepharospasm (BSP). The first-line recommended treatment for CD and BSP is injection with botulinum to...

As water scarcity intensifies, point-of-use and point-of-entry treatment may provide a means of exploiting locally available water resources that are currently considered to be unsafe for human consumption. Among the different classes of drinking water contaminants, toxic trace elements (e.g., arsenic and lead) pose substantial operational challenges for distributed drinking water treatment sys...

The ability of organic matter as well as carbonate ions to extract rare earth elements (REEs) from sandy sediments of a Coastal Plain aquifer was investigated for unpurified organic matter from different sources (i.e., Mississippi River natural organic matter, Aldrich humic acid, Nordic aquatic fulvic acid, Suwannee River fulvic acid, and Suwannee River natural organic matter) and for extractio...

Presently, we have a large number of botulinum neuro-toxins (BoNTs) at our disposal, but in the western hemisphere these are limited almost exclusively to the botulinum toxin A preparations: Abo-(ABO), inco-(INCO), and onabotulinumtoxinA (ONA). Because these are biological preparations, they are never identical to each other, but they are, at most, similar to each other. Their efficacy has been...

A semiautomated procedure is described for the estimation of plasma free fatty acids. The method requires the preliminary preparation of a phospholipid-free plasma lipid extract which is then analyzed automatically by a colorimetric procedure based on the solubility of copper soaps in chloroform, with subsequent complexing of the copper with diethyldithiocarbamate and measurement of the extinct...