David Bradley Science Writer writes the monthly news column for three sections of the SpectroscopyNOW.com site - Spectral Lines, Resonants and X-factors.

Spectral Lines - spectroscopy news by David Bradley<p>

The latest issue is now online:

Let it flow 

The ability to follow the flow of a fluid through a porous material would be of great utility for oil exploration, in monitoring natural and synthetic structures, and in tracking industrial flow processes. Now, thanks to US researchers who had the clever idea of using two NMR radio coils instead of one, it is possible to study fluid flow using remote magnetic resonance imaging with time-of-flight detection.

 

Polymorphic resonance 

Elucidating the structure of drug polymorphs, variations on the crystal theme for a particular compound, is important to drug development. Different polymorphs have different physical properties and so may be absorbed at different rates by the body, have alternative formulation needs, and, perhaps most importantly, offer different patent opportunities for the manufacturers. The bottleneck in structural elucidation lies in the dearth of single-crystal data available.


Protein on protein action 

NMR has allowed German researchers to investigate the cooperative binding of DNA to an important protein involved in suppressing tumour growth in our bodies. The binding of p53 to DNA is regulated by protein-protein interactions through a double salt bridge, they have found. The finding suggests that this salt bridge might be crucial to protecting us from certain types of cancer and fixing it when it malfunctions could provide a new avenue for anticancer drug research.

Issue 23
Quick as you like 

Thomas Szyperski of the University of Buffalo, New York, went out on a limb in 2003 when he suggested that high-throughput NMR could be used to reveal protein structures much faster and at lower cost, than conventional NMR approaches. Now, he and colleagues in the field of genomic science have determined eight protein structures in just one to three weeks, bearing out his earlier claim. The same structures might have taken routine NMR spectroscopists several months to solve. Szyperski's patented protein protocol could ultimately improve medical diagnostics and treatments.

 When metals walk the walk 

NMR can track the movement of a platinum complex during its reaction with an organic compound as the metal atoms casually stroll around the reactant's carbon rings, according to Milko van der Boom of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel and colleagues. The direct observation of this "ring-walking" could have implications for understanding the catalysis of organic transformations by platinum and other metals.

 

Earthquakes resonate with magnetic theory 

The physics of magnetism could one day help seismologists predict the probable timing of earthquakes, thanks to research by Spanish scientists.