by Janie — The color blue is an oddity. Of all pigments in nature – chemicals that selectively absorb and reflect certain wavelengths of visible light – blue ones are among the rarest. Producing blue dyes was once such a costly business that medieval Europeans considered it to be as precious as gold...
by Lizah van der Aart — Last year, Gilles van Wezel and Changsheng Wu announced the discovery of a compound with a completely novel chemical backbone, Lugdunomycin. This is an exceptional feat as we hardly find compounds with completely novel chemical structures. This is even more incredible if you consider how it was found. Bacteria don't always...
by Andy Bodnar, Michelle Prieto, and Carleen Villarreal — The war between bacteria and phages has been waging for eons longer than humans have existed. Consequently, many bacteria have developed novel and unique ways for defending themselves against these foreign invaders. Some change their surface proteins to prevent detection, like changing a lock on a door. Others give their own lives, initiating...
by S. Marvin Friedman — Fungi are notorious for their ability to produce a wide variety of secondary metabolites, including antibiotics, statins, immunosuppressants, mycotoxins, and others. A veritable pharmacopeia. Interestingly, many of the gene clusters involved in the biosynthesis of these compounds are silent under normal laboratory conditions. In some cases, the synthesis of these…
