Blog Feb. 5th

List and explain the stages of interphase and mitosis.

Read the story »

Chemists Discover How Antiviral Drugs Bind to and Block Flu Virus

Antiviral drugs block influenza A viruses from reproducing and spreading by attaching to a site within a proton channel necessary for the virus to infect healthy cells, according to a research project led by Iowa State University’s Mei Hong and published in the Feb. 4 issue of the journal Nature.

Hong, Iowa State’s John D. Corbett Professor of Chemistry and an associate scientist for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory, said the findings clarify previous, conflicting studies and should pave the way to development of new antiviral drugs against influenza viruses, including pandemic H1N1.

Two papers published by Nature in 2008 came to different conclusions about where the antiviral drug amantadine binds to a flu virus and stops it from infecting a healthy cell. A paper based on X-ray studies concluded the drug attached to the lumen of the proton channel, the area inside the channel, and stopped the virus by blocking the channel. Another paper based on solution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technology concluded the drug attached to the surface of the virus protein near the proton channel and stopped the virus by indirectly changing the channel structure.

Hong’s research concluded that when amantadine is present at the pharmacologically relevant amount of one molecule per channel, it attaches to the lumen inside the proton channel. But the paper also reports that when there are high concentrations of

Read the story »

Is Iron from Soil a Factor in Algal Blooms?

Australia’s own distinctive red soils could play a part in the formation of the stinking swathes of blue-green algae often shovelled off east coast beaches in summer.

A QUT team of scientists is taking an in-depth look at how iron, which gives our iron-rich soil its red colour, reaches water to potentially contribute to the algal blooms, which not only have a foul smell, but also make our eyes sting, cause fish kills and smother seagrass.

Their research is centred on the catchment of Poona Creek on the Fraser Coast which drains into Great Sandy Strait — a dugong sanctuary and an internationally recognised wetlands for migratory birds.

Iron is known to be a component causative factor for algal blooms but the mechanism by which solid iron in soils becomes soluble and contributes to coastal algae blooms is largely unknown.

That is why the team from QUT’ s Institute for Sustainable Resources is taking the three-pronged approach of microbiology (biogeochemistry),

Read the story »