SuperStructures and the looking glass

Modern Chemistry Podcast

You will hear the following terms used during the interview. I've included some descriptions here.

• Chirality – Chirality is a feature where an object can be distinguished from a mirror-image version of itself (for instance left and right gloves, or shoes). In chemistry, chirality is often due to the presence of an asymmetrical carbon atom. Chiral isomers are identified as either L-type or D-type, based on how polarized light is rotated when passing through a molecule.
• Superstructure – In the context of this discussion “When the structures become way, way bigger than the building blocks, you can call the superstructures.” They represent massive polymers of the base construction molecules
• Nanomaterials / Nanoparticles – A term used to describe substances where the base unit is small – between 1 nm - 100 nm along one or more dimensions
• Amyloid beta-peptide (also known as Abeta, or Aβ) – Peptides between 36-43 amino acids long that form insoluble amyloid plaques in the brains of people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Although the specific role of Amyloid plaques in Alzheimer’s disease is not fully understood, it is widely accepted that they are responsible for the pathology of the disease.
• Peptide – A short chain of 2-50 amino acids, linked by a peptide bond. A dipeptide has two amino acids in the chain, a tripeptide has three amino acids, and so on.
• Hydrophobic pockets – When folded into a functional configuration, the amino acids of a protein can be brought into physical proximity. When the majority of amino acids surrounding an ‘opening’ in the surface of the protein are hydrophobic, it creates a region that is unattractive to hydrophilic molecules. As the majority of biological systems are water-based, this hydrophobic region stimulates other hydrophobic regions of suitable molecules to bind. This then typically leads to downstream activation or effect
• Catalytic triads - a set of three coordinated amino acids that can be found in the active site of some enzymes. Catalytic triads are most commonly found in hydrolase and transferase enzymes.
• Antimicrobial resistance – This is an evolutionary process where bacteria become immune to the effects of antimicrobial agents (such as antibiotics). Typically this is caused by exposure are designed to kill bacteria. To do this, the bacteria need to be exposed to the agents at sub-lethal levels. As antimicrobial agents accumulate in the environment, it is believed that this provides an opportunity for bacteria to be exposed at sub-lethal levels, which accelerates the rate at which the bacteria develops resistance to the antimicrobial.

We discussed the drawing of Alice going through the looking glass during our discussion, you can see it at https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/995913/view/through-the-looking-glass-alice-pushes-through-the-mirror.
Silvia also mentions an article in the journal ACS Nano, you can find that at: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.0c09386#

Silvia is contactable on social media, you can find her on
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/silvia-marchesan-2590712/
On Twitter, search @MarchesanLab
The group website is www.marchesanlab.com

Our theme music is "Wholesome" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Music from https://filmmusic.io
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Connect with me (Paul) at https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulorange/

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