The genus Geobacillus is comprised of a diverse group of spore-forming Gram-positive thermophilic bacterial species and is well known for both its ecological diversity and as a source of novel thermostable enzymes. Although the mechanisms underlying the thermophilicity of the organism and the thermostability of its macromolecules are reasonably well understood, relatively little is known of the...

The comparative genomics of prokaryotes has shown the presence of conserved regions containing highly similar genes (the 'core genome') and other regions that vary in gene content (the 'flexible' regions). A significant part of the latter is involved in surface structures that are phage recognition targets. Another sizeable part provides for differences in niche exploitation. Metagenomic data i...

The goals of precision medicine are to link diagnostic and therapeutic agents, improve clinical outcomes, and minimize side effects. We present a simple, small, flexible three-armed core structure that can be conjugated to targeting, imaging, and therapeutic moieties. The targeting molecule can be a peptide, protein, or chemical compound. The diagnostic reporter can be optical and/or nuclear in...

In this work twelve benzo[k,l]xanthene lignans were synthesized by biomimetic, Mn-mediated oxidative coupling of caffeic esters and amides. These compounds, bearing different flexible pendants at position C1/C2 of the aromatic core, interact with DNA in a dual mode, as confirmed by DF-STD NMR analysis and molecular docking: the planar core acts as a base pair intercalant, whereas the flexible p...

Patterns of histone post-translational modifications correlate with distinct chromosomal states that regulate access to DNA, leading to the histone-code hypothesis. However, it is not clear how modification of flexible histone tails leads to changes in nucleosome dynamics and, thus, chromatin structure. The recent discovery that, like the flexible histone tails, the structured globular domain o...

Terahertz technology is a growing and multidisciplinary research field, particularly in applications relating to sensing telecommunications. A number of terahertz waveguides have emerged over the past few years, which are set complement capabilities existing bulky free-space setups. In most waveguide designs, however, guiding region physically separated from surroundings, making any interaction...