—Lipids affect the function of membrane proteins “Researchers use multiple methods to show that lipids are more than just the backdrop for membrane proteins” Membrane proteins spend their time surrounded by lipids. For a long time, researchers thought those lipids didn’t really matter, that they were just a backdrop for the real players, an annoyance to be purified away before studying the proteins.
by Celia Henry Arnaud | February 27, 2017
—CordenPharma boosts lipids in Colorado “” CordenPharma is adding lipid purification capacity at its facility in Boulder, Colorado, in response to mounting demand for lipid nanoparticles needed to make messenger RNA–based COVID-19 vaccines. The German drug services firm manufactures cationic lipids, pegylated lipids, distearoylphosphatidylcholine phospholipids, and plant-based cholesterol stabilizers—all used in vaccines. The firm expects the expansion to accelerate lipids delivery by July. The expansion is the latest in a series of investments by CordenPharma, which supplies lipid excipients to Moderna. /business/outsourcing/CordenPharma-boosts-lipids-Colorado/99/i15 20210424 Concentrates 99 15 /magazine/99/09915.html CordenPharma boosts lipids in Colorado liipids, vaccines con bus Rick Mullin business outsourcing CordenPharma purifies lipids at this facility in Colorado.
by Rick Mullin | April 24, 2021
—Protein's Lipid Coat Revealed “High-resolution structure of membrane protein captures its lipid environment” STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY Relatively little is known about how membrane proteins interact with the lipids that surround them because structural studies typically fail to capture these proteins' lipid environment.
by Amanda Yarnell | December 05, 2005
But lipids are much more chemically diverse than either genomic DNA or proteins. By some estimates distinct lipid species number in the tens of thousands—or even more. As a category of biomolecules, “lipids” is a bit of a catchall: Lipids are loosely defined as biological molecules that are generally hydrophobic in nature and in many cases soluble in organic solvents.
by Celia Henry Arnaud | October 10, 2011
—Protein-Lipid Alliances “Computer simulations provide a better picture of the poorly understood dynamics of biological membranes” A better picture of the poorly understood dynamics of biological membranes is now available, thanks to a team of Scandinavian researchers. Ilpo Vattulainen of Finland’s Tampere University of Technology and coworkers report using computer simulations to investigate individual proteins in lipid bilayers and found that proteins in cell membranes diffuse as complexes with 50 to 100 lipid molecules (J.
by Celia Henry Arnaud | May 31, 2010
Lipids are an unsung component in the two mRNA-based shots, the only vaccines to be authorized so far in the US. Naked mRNA quickly degrades in the body and can trigger an unwanted immune reaction. To get the genetic material to its target cells, vaccine developers combine it with a mixture of several sophisticated lipids to form lipid nanoparticles, or LNPs.
by Michael McCoy | February 22, 2021
The lipid droplets can trap attacking pathogens, luring them with free food and then killing them with antimicrobial proteins. Lipid droplets consist of triacylglycerols and cholesteryl esters wrapped inside membrane sacs. When the cell needs a boost, these lipids can be metabolized by the mitochondria, the cell’s energy-generating organelles.
by Alla Katsnelson, special to C&EN | October 24, 2020
—Pinpointing double bonds in lipids “Mass spec and photochemistry combine to pinpoint location of carbon double bonds in complex lipid mixtures” Many lipids contain carbon-carbon double bonds. Sometimes the only difference between two lipids is the location of those double bonds. But mass spectrometry—the go-to tool for analysis of lipid mixtures—on its own can’t distinguish between isomers with double bonds in different locations on otherwise identical molecules. A team led by Yu Xia and Zheng Ouyang of Purdue University now reports that they can use the Paternò-Büchi photochemical reaction with complex lipid mixtures to modify lipid C=C bonds in a way that pinpoints their locations (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2016, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1523356113). In the reaction, acetone is activated with 250-nm ultraviolet light and undergoes a [2+2] cycloaddition across lipid double bonds.
by Celia Henry Arnaud | February 29, 2016