10 research outputs found
Potassium Tethered Carbons with Unparalleled Adsorption Capacity and Selectivity for Low-Cost Carbon Dioxide Capture from Flue Gas
Carbons
are considered less favorable for postcombustion CO<sub>2</sub> capture
because of their low affinity toward CO<sub>2</sub>, and nitrogen
doping was widely studied to enhance CO<sub>2</sub> adsorption, but
the results are still unsatisfactory. Herein, we report a simple,
scalable, and controllable
strategy of tethering potassium to a carbon matrix, which can enhance
carbon–CO<sub>2</sub> interaction effectively, and a remarkable
working capacity of ca. 4.5 wt % under flue gas conditions was achieved,
which is among the highest for carbon-based materials. More interestingly,
a high CO<sub>2</sub>/N<sub>2</sub> selectivity of 404 was obtained.
Density functional theory calculations evidenced that the introduced
potassium carboxylate moieties are responsible for such excellent
performances. We also show the effectiveness of this strategy to be
universal, and thus, cheaper precursors can be used, holding great
promise for low-cost carbon capture from flue gas
Quantum Chemistry Calculation-Aided Structural Optimization of Combretastatin A‑4-like Tubulin Polymerization Inhibitors: Improved Stability and Biological Activity
A potent
combretastatin A-4 (CA-4) like tubulin polymerization
inhibitor <b>22b</b> was found with strong antitumor activity
previously. However, it easily undergoes <i>cis–trans</i> isomerization under natural light, and the resulting decrease in
activity limits its further applications. In this study, we used quantum
chemistry calculations to explore the molecular basis of its instability.
Aided by the calculations, two rounds of structural optimization of <b>22b</b> were conducted. Accelerated quantitative light stability
testing confirmed that the stability of these designed compounds was
significantly improved as predicted. Among them, compounds <b>1</b> and <b>3b</b> displayed more potent inhibitory activity on
tumor cell growth than <b>22b</b>. In addition, the potent <i>in vivo</i> antitumor activity of compound <b>1</b> was
confirmed. Quantum chemistry calculations were used in the optimization
of stilbene-like molecules, providing new insight into stilbenoid
optimization and important implications for the future development
of novel CA-4-like tubulin polymerization inhibitors
Highly Active Isolated Single-Atom Pd Catalyst Supported on Layered MgO for Semihydrogenation of Acetylene
Selective
hydrogenation of acetylene to ethylene is an important
industrial reaction. In this work, we report a highly efficient Pd/MgO
catalyst loaded with ultralow (0.05 wt %) levels of palladium for
the selective hydrogenation of acetylene to ethylene. Palladium single-atom
catalysts exhibited an excellent catalytic performance for semihydrogenation
of acetylene with the highest ethylene selectivity of about 82% at
200 °C due to facile desorption of ethylene against the overhydrogenation
to unwanted ethane. This work provides a very simple route to prepare
a highly active, selective, and low-cost Pd catalyst for the semihydrogenation
of acetylene
Worm Generator: A System for High-Throughput <i>in Vivo</i> Screening
Large-scale screening of molecules in organisms requires
high-throughput
and cost-effective evaluating tools during preclinical development.
Here, a novel in vivo screening strategy combining
hierarchically structured biohybrid triboelectric nanogenerators (HB-TENGs)
arrays with computational bioinformatics analysis for high-throughput
pharmacological evaluation using Caenorhabditis elegans is described. Unlike the traditional methods for behavioral monitoring
of the animals, which are laborious and costly, HB-TENGs with micropillars
are designed to efficiently convert animals’ behaviors into
friction deformation and result in a contact–separation motion
between two triboelectric layers to generate electrical outputs. The
triboelectric signals are recorded and extracted to various bioinformation
for each screened compound. Moreover, the information-rich electrical
readouts are successfully demonstrated to be sufficient to predict
a drug’s identity by multiple-Gaussian-kernels-based machine
learning methods. This proposed strategy can be readily applied to
various fields and is especially useful in in vivo explorations to accelerate the identification of novel therapeutics
Worm Generator: A System for High-Throughput <i>in Vivo</i> Screening
Large-scale screening of molecules in organisms requires
high-throughput
and cost-effective evaluating tools during preclinical development.
Here, a novel in vivo screening strategy combining
hierarchically structured biohybrid triboelectric nanogenerators (HB-TENGs)
arrays with computational bioinformatics analysis for high-throughput
pharmacological evaluation using Caenorhabditis elegans is described. Unlike the traditional methods for behavioral monitoring
of the animals, which are laborious and costly, HB-TENGs with micropillars
are designed to efficiently convert animals’ behaviors into
friction deformation and result in a contact–separation motion
between two triboelectric layers to generate electrical outputs. The
triboelectric signals are recorded and extracted to various bioinformation
for each screened compound. Moreover, the information-rich electrical
readouts are successfully demonstrated to be sufficient to predict
a drug’s identity by multiple-Gaussian-kernels-based machine
learning methods. This proposed strategy can be readily applied to
various fields and is especially useful in in vivo explorations to accelerate the identification of novel therapeutics
MolProphet: A One-Stop, General Purpose, and AI-Based Platform for the Early Stages of Drug Discovery
Artificial intelligence
(AI) is an effective tool to
accelerate
drug discovery and cut costs in discovery processes. Many successful
AI applications are reported in the early stages of small molecule
drug discovery. However, most of those applications require a deep
understanding of software and hardware, and focus on a single field
that implies data normalization and transfer between those applications
is still a challenge for normal users. It usually limits the application
of AI in drug discovery. Here, based on a series of robust models,
we formed a one-stop, general purpose, and AI-based drug discovery
platform, MolProphet, to provide complete functionalities in the early
stages of small molecule drug discovery, including AI-based target
pocket prediction, hit discovery and lead optimization, and compound
targeting, as well as abundant analyzing tools to check the results.
MolProphet is an accessible and user-friendly web-based platform that
is fully designed according to the practices in the drug discovery
industry. The molecule screened, generated, or optimized by the MolProphet
is purchasable and synthesizable at low cost but with good drug-likeness.
More than 400 users from industry and academia have used MolProphet
in their work. We hope this platform can provide a powerful solution
to assist each normal researcher in drug design and related research
areas. It is available for everyone at https://www.molprophet.com/
Worm Generator: A System for High-Throughput <i>in Vivo</i> Screening
Large-scale screening of molecules in organisms requires
high-throughput
and cost-effective evaluating tools during preclinical development.
Here, a novel in vivo screening strategy combining
hierarchically structured biohybrid triboelectric nanogenerators (HB-TENGs)
arrays with computational bioinformatics analysis for high-throughput
pharmacological evaluation using Caenorhabditis elegans is described. Unlike the traditional methods for behavioral monitoring
of the animals, which are laborious and costly, HB-TENGs with micropillars
are designed to efficiently convert animals’ behaviors into
friction deformation and result in a contact–separation motion
between two triboelectric layers to generate electrical outputs. The
triboelectric signals are recorded and extracted to various bioinformation
for each screened compound. Moreover, the information-rich electrical
readouts are successfully demonstrated to be sufficient to predict
a drug’s identity by multiple-Gaussian-kernels-based machine
learning methods. This proposed strategy can be readily applied to
various fields and is especially useful in in vivo explorations to accelerate the identification of novel therapeutics
Worm Generator: A System for High-Throughput <i>in Vivo</i> Screening
Large-scale screening of molecules in organisms requires
high-throughput
and cost-effective evaluating tools during preclinical development.
Here, a novel in vivo screening strategy combining
hierarchically structured biohybrid triboelectric nanogenerators (HB-TENGs)
arrays with computational bioinformatics analysis for high-throughput
pharmacological evaluation using Caenorhabditis elegans is described. Unlike the traditional methods for behavioral monitoring
of the animals, which are laborious and costly, HB-TENGs with micropillars
are designed to efficiently convert animals’ behaviors into
friction deformation and result in a contact–separation motion
between two triboelectric layers to generate electrical outputs. The
triboelectric signals are recorded and extracted to various bioinformation
for each screened compound. Moreover, the information-rich electrical
readouts are successfully demonstrated to be sufficient to predict
a drug’s identity by multiple-Gaussian-kernels-based machine
learning methods. This proposed strategy can be readily applied to
various fields and is especially useful in in vivo explorations to accelerate the identification of novel therapeutics
Worm Generator: A System for High-Throughput <i>in Vivo</i> Screening
Large-scale screening of molecules in organisms requires
high-throughput
and cost-effective evaluating tools during preclinical development.
Here, a novel in vivo screening strategy combining
hierarchically structured biohybrid triboelectric nanogenerators (HB-TENGs)
arrays with computational bioinformatics analysis for high-throughput
pharmacological evaluation using Caenorhabditis elegans is described. Unlike the traditional methods for behavioral monitoring
of the animals, which are laborious and costly, HB-TENGs with micropillars
are designed to efficiently convert animals’ behaviors into
friction deformation and result in a contact–separation motion
between two triboelectric layers to generate electrical outputs. The
triboelectric signals are recorded and extracted to various bioinformation
for each screened compound. Moreover, the information-rich electrical
readouts are successfully demonstrated to be sufficient to predict
a drug’s identity by multiple-Gaussian-kernels-based machine
learning methods. This proposed strategy can be readily applied to
various fields and is especially useful in in vivo explorations to accelerate the identification of novel therapeutics