New protein-based system streamlines enzyme reuse for plastic recycling

Jul, Wed, 2025
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Enzymatic recycling has gained traction in recent years as a greener alternative to traditional plastic recycling techniques, which often rely on energy-intensive mechanical or chemical processes. Enzymes can selectively break down polymers like PET—commonly found in bottles and food packaging—into their basic building blocks.

Scientists design 'tunable' biomolecules to probe how sugars behave
Sugars are not just a source of energy—they also play a crucial role in how cells communicate, how proteins interact and how materials behave in medicine and industry. But studying these processes is challenging because sugar molecules are structurally complex and difficult to control.
Drug peptides defy shape rules, activating receptors without full spiral form
When many of us think about how drugs work in the body, we may first think about how a drug gets into the body, such as a pill versus an injection. In the Gellman Group at the UW–Madison Department of Chemistry, researchers are instead thinking about how a drug behaves after it reaches its target, which is critical for effective drug performance. The cells in our bodies must receive and respond to information from their environment for healthy function, and when information flow is disrupted, illness can result. Most of the information is contained in molecules that engage with receptor proteins on cell surfaces. Many medicines work by modifying information transfer at specific receptor proteins.
Feeding data to AI to speed up drug discovery
Developing new medicines can require thousands of chemistry experiments to identify the right recipe for a safe, effective and ideally affordable drug.
How oxygen sneaks into a corked wine bottle long before the first pour
The main reason for sealing wine bottles with a cork is to protect the liquid from oxygen. However, it is not an impermeable barrier, and a small amount of air leaks in, which is not always entirely bad news. The gas helps the wine mature and develop a more complex flavor.
Faster aptamer screening finds synthetic alternatives to antibodies in days instead of months
Aptamers are short DNA or RNA strands that can recognize and bind to a specific target molecule with high precision. Similar to antibodies, they can be used to detect these molecules or modulate their activity. Unlike antibodies, they are much more stable, can be produced synthetically and can be chemically modified to achieve the desired properties. As a result, they can offer capabilities that cannot be achieved with antibodies.