Subject:
All Disciplines Arts & Humanities Biology & Life Sciences Business & Economics Chemistry & Materials Science Computer Science & Mathematics Engineering Environmental & Earth Sciences Medicine & Pharmacology Physical Sciences Public Health & Healthcare Social Sciences
Sort:
Hottest Latest Alphabetical (A-Z) Alphabetical (Z-A)
Type:
All Topic Review Biography
Topic Review
Dendrimer–Protein Interactions
Proteins perform vital functions in the cell and in the whole organism. They participate in the transport of substances across the cell membrane, acting as receptors and structural units. The existence of enzymes ensures the passage of biochemical reactions. The drug administration, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic processes are aligned with protein–drug interactions since the plasma contains more than 2400 proteins. Given the potential biomedical applications of dendrimers, the knowledge of their protein-binding properties, the driving force and mechanism of interactions, composition and characteristics of the formed complexes, dependence of structural and morphological changes in proteins on the dendrimer molecular characteristics is of particular importance.
  • 575
  • 26 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Electronic Structure of TiNCl
Layered metal nitride halides MNX (M = Ti, Zr, Hf; X = Cl, Br, I) have two polymorphs, including α- and β-forms, which have the FeOCl and SmSI structures, respectively. These compounds are band insulators and become metals and show superconductivity after electron doping by intercalating alkali metals between the layers. The superconductivity of β-form had been extensively characterized from decades ago, but it is not easy to consistently interpret all experimental results using conventional phonon-mediated Bardeen–Cooper–Schriefer mechanisms. The titanium compound TiNCl crystallizes only in the α-form structure. TiNCl also exhibits superconductivity as high as ~16 K after electron doping by intercalating metals and/or organic basis. It is important to compare the superconductivity of different M–N networks. However, α-form compounds are vulnerable to moisture, unlike β-form ones. The intercalation compounds are even more sensitive to humid air. 
  • 468
  • 26 Apr 2022
Topic Review
New Horizons in Structural Biology of Membrane Proteins
A third of both pro- and eukaryotic proteomes consist of membrane proteins. Housed in a milieu of hydrophobic molecules, they serve as crucial contacts of communication between the cytoplasm and non-cytosolic environments, making them essential pharmaceutical targets. While membrane proteins are notoriously difficult to investigate at any level, high-resolution structures of these targets only became feasible at the very end of the twentieth century. It was not until robust technological developments in the fields of X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy and cryo-EM, that the scientific community at large, finally gained access to an ever-increasing number of atomic resolution structures, and began to rationalize how membrane proteins accommodate their function. As if the lack of structural information wasn’t enough to hamper progress, a higher level of complexity arose from the modern understanding of “one structure—one function” paradigm, a primitive simplification useful at the dawn of the scientific era, that has promptly lost credence to the complex maneuvers of membrane proteins.
  • 539
  • 26 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Applications of Conductive Electrospun Nanofiber Mats
Conductive nanofiber mats can be used in a broad variety of applications, such as electromagnetic shielding, sensors, multifunctional textile surfaces, organic photovoltaics, or biomedicine. While nanofibers or nanofiber from pure or blended polymers can in many cases unambiguously be prepared by electrospinning, creating conductive nanofibers is often more challenging. 
  • 549
  • 25 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Enhanced Performance of Lithium-Ion Batteries
Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have been used in portable electric devices and electric vehicles (EVs) for years due to their high energy and power densities, satisfactory cycle life and the affordable materials and manufacturing costs. To meet the growing market demand for cheaper and more efficient energy storage technologies for EVs and power grids, higher energy storage density and efficiency, and a longer cycle life should be achieved in the next generation of LIBs. Silicon (Si) is considered as one of the most promising candidates for next generation negative electrode (negatrode) materials in LIBs due to its much higher theoretical specific charge capacity than the current commercial negatrode (carbon-based).
  • 583
  • 25 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Magnetic Gold Hybrids and Nanocomposites
The magnetic gold nanoparticles (mGNP) are hybrid metallic nanocomposites prepared from magnetic and plasmonic moieties that have attracted much attention over the last few years. Magnetic-plasmonic nanoparticles are basically core–shell structures with a bimetallic composition of iron (Fe), cobalt (Co), or nickel ferrite as the magnetic, core and gold (Au), platinum, or silver (Ag) as the plasmonic shell. However, magnetic-plasmonic core–shell structures based on magnetite (Fe3O4) or maghemite (ɤ-Fe2O3) core and Au shell offer renowned advantages, where the Au shell is coated over the Fe core in a controlled manner.
  • 362
  • 25 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Spirocyclic Motifs in Natural Products
Natural products play the central role in drug discovery due to their inherent biological activity and because have a wide span of structural diversity. Spirocyclic compounds have also occupied a special place in medicinal chemistry. Spirocycles are thought to possess a good balance of conformational rigidity and flexibility to be, on one hand, free from absorption and permeability issues characteristic of conformationally more flexible, linear scaffolds. On the other hand, spirocycles are more conformationally flexible compared to, for example, flat aromatic heterocycles and can adapt to many proteins as biological targets; thus, increasing the chances of finding bioactive hits. Spirocycles are distinctly three-dimensional and initial hits can be further optimized via manipulation of the molecular periphery whose three-dimensional positioning is well defined. 
  • 561
  • 25 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Smart Bioinks for Printing Human Tissue Models
A bioink is a mixture of materials and biological molecules or cells to be used for bioprinting. Most bioinks are hydrogels, highly hydrated polymeric networks used to homogenously encapsulate cells by mimicking the natural extracellular matrix found in vivo. Hydrogels must meet certain characteristics to ensure they can support cell survival and function.
  • 983
  • 25 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Magnetite Nanoparticles
Magnetite nanoparticles with different surface coverages are of great interest for many applications due to their intrinsic magnetic properties, nanometer size, and definite surface morphology. Magnetite nanoparticles are widely used for different medical-biological applications while their usage in optics is not as widespread. In recent years, nanomagnetite suspensions, so-called magnetic ferrofluids, are applied in optics due to their magneto-optical properties.
  • 1.1K
  • 24 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Nutraceutical Concepts and Dextrin-Based Delivery Systems
Nutraceuticals are natural bioactive or chemical compounds acclaimed for their valuable biological activities and health-promoting effects. The global community is faced with many health concerns such as cancers, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, etc. The effect of nutraceuticals is similar to pharmaceuticals, even though the term nutraceutical has no regulatory definition. The usage of nutraceuticals, to prevent and treat the aforementioned diseases, is limited by several features such as poor water solubility, low bioavailability, low stability, low permeability, low efficacy, etc. These downsides can be overcome by the application of the field of nanotechnology manipulating the properties and structures of materials at the nanometer scale.
  • 788
  • 24 Apr 2022
  • Page
  • of
  • 467
Featured Entry Collections
>>

Featured Books

>>
Encyclopedia of Social Sciences
Encyclopedia of COVID-19
Encyclopedia of Fungi
Encyclopedia of Digital Society, Industry 5.0 and Smart City
ScholarVision Creations
Feedback