Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung GmbH - UFZ

在 T 恤、长袜、衬衫、绳索、降落伞和汽车轮胎等物件的材料成分表中，聚酰胺（即尼龙）几乎随处可见。Nylon-6 和 Nylon-6.6 是两种聚酰胺，占据全球尼龙市场约 95% 的份额。到目前为止， 在 T 恤、长袜、衬衫、绳索、降落伞和汽车轮胎等物件的材料成分表中，聚酰胺（即尼龙）几乎随处可见。Nylon-6 和 Nylon-6.6 是两种聚酰胺，占据全球尼龙市场约 95% 的份额。到目前为止，它们主要由化石原料生产而来。 随着当今世界对可持续发展和供应链安全越来越重视，人们对尼龙生产中大量使用不可再生的化石能源以及排放破坏气候的一氧化二氮等问题的关注变得尖锐起来。根据资料，这种石化过程排放的一氧化二氮占全球的 10% 左右。 为了打造环境友好型尼龙生产链，来自亥姆霍兹环境研究中心 (UFZ) 和莱比锡大学的研究人员成立了研究小组，现已开发出一种工艺，可以使用微生物通过电化学合成从苯酚生产己二酸（生产尼龙的中间体原料）。研究小组还表明，苯酚可以被木材工业废料所取代。这一方式可以用来生产生物基尼龙。相关论文以题“Integrated electrosynthesis and biosynthesis for the production of adipic acid from lignin-derived phenols”发表在 Green Chemistry 上。该研究的第一作者是 UFZ 化学家 Mijel Chávez Morejón 博士。 （来源：Green Chemistry） 己二酸（AA）是聚酰胺的一个重要组成部分，约占 50%。迄今为止，工业上己二酸生产的原料，如环己醇和环己酮，均为化石来源。化学转化步骤概括为：第一步，苯酚转化为环己醇；第二步，环己醇转化为己二酸。这是一个能源密集型的过程，需要高温、高气压和大量的有机溶剂。它还会释放出大量的一氧化二氮和二氧化碳。 这项研究开发出一种工艺，通过结合电化学氢化和生物转化，可以从木质素衍生的原料中合成己二酸。 据研究人员解析，其背后的化学转化与既有工艺相同。然而，电化学合成用电能代替了氢气，它在水溶液中进行，只需要控制环境压力和温度条件。在这一过程中，电子和微生物是其中的决定性因素。 ▲图丨对苯酚进行电化学氢化（来源：Green Chemistry） 为了最大限度地提高反应所需的电子产量和苯酚转化为环己醇的效率，需要一种合适的催化剂使这一反应尽可能快速有效地运行。 在实验室中的研究结果显示，以碳基铑为催化剂，研究获得了最好的产量（库伦效率 69%，环己醇收率 70%）。 这种“相对较短的反应时间、高效的产量、对能源的有效利用以及与生物系统的协同作用”，让研究人员看到了生产己二酸的潜力。 从环己醇到己二酸，是利用台湾假单胞菌（Pseudomonas taiwanensis）进行转化的。 ▲图丨台湾假单胞菌培养（来源：Green Chemistry） 在更早期的研究中，另外两个 UFZ 研究小组发现了台湾假单胞菌（Pseudomonas taiwanensis）将环己醇转化为己二酸的方式。 研究人员指出，“直到现在，还不可能通过微生物将苯酚转化为环己醇，我们已经用电化学反应填补了这一空白。”目前，这项研究工作还在继续向下推进。 研究人员还表明，苯酚可以由木质素（一种木材工业的废品）的降解产物替代，他们使用了诸如丁香酚（syringol）、儿茶酚（catechol）和愈创木酚（guaiacol）等单体，并证明可由这些单体一路合成己二酸。 考虑到全球己二酸产量约为 450 万吨，若能够以木材工业废料完成生产原料替换，或将对全球市场产生相当大的影响。然而，在木质素基尼龙准备好进入市场之前，还有很长的路要走。 该研究中，利用微生物通过电化学反应步骤从木质素解聚单体一路到己二酸，在耗时 22 小时的整体反应过程中，联合路线的总体效率为 57%。 就这一数据来说，产量非常可观，但仍限于实验室内的毫升级规模。研究人员表示，在未来两年内，将为扩大该工艺的规模创造先决条件。 总而言之，木质素基尼龙的工艺体现了电化学-微生物工艺的巨大潜力，因为可以通过智能方式将各种成分结合起来，建立一个最佳工艺链。

$10M in research funding will support cutting-edge projects in protein lifespan and nutrient sensing SEATTLE, Dec. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- What causes proteins to age, and do old proteins affect our health? If we could measure each ingredient of overall nutrition inside individual cells, how much more could we understand about metabolism and its link to disease? Eight new projects are now underway developing technologies and designing approaches to answer these broad questions in biology, carried out by 16 new Allen Distinguished Investigators: Alexander Aulehla, M.D., Ph.D., European Molecular Biology Laboratory Abhishek Chatterjee, Ph.D., Boston College Tim Clausen, Ph.D., Research Institute of Molecular Pathology Alf Honigmann, Ph.D., Technische Universität Dresden Meritxell Huch, Ph.D., Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics Janine Kirstein, Ph.D., University of Bremen Lydia Kisley, Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University Yi Lu, Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin Gary CH Mo, Ph.D., University of Illinois Chicago Niculina Musat, Ph.D., Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ Leipzig André Nadler, Ph.D., Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics Laura Sanchez, Ph.D., University of California, Santa Cruz Mikhail Savitski, Ph.D., European Molecular Biology Laboratory Bilal Sheikh, Ph.D., Helmholtz Munich Hryhoriy Stryhanyuk, Ph.D., Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ Leipzig Eranthie Weerapana, Ph.D., Boston College The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, a division of the Allen Institute, today announced eight awards of up to $1.25 million each to fund research projects led by these 16 investigators. Together, these awards represent a total of approximately $10 million in funding from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, as recommended by the Frontiers Group, to support cutting-edge, early-stage research projects that promise to advance the fields of biology and medicine. The eight awarded projects were selected from open calls for proposals in two fields: nutrient sensing and protein lifespan, areas that were selected from an open call for topics through a 2021 campaign called "Ask Anything, Change Everything." To choose research areas that they recommend for funding, the Frontiers Group looks for emerging fields where an investment could be catalytic to advance scientific progress — not just for awardees, but for all in that particular field. "When we launched our campaign "Ask Anything, Change Everything" to identify key — but currently unmeasurable — biological metrics, the feedback from the research community was overwhelming, and their ideas catalyzed this pioneering initiative. These newest awardees bring bold technological approaches to capture essential but unknown aspects of our biological machinery. Their work could not only change how we view fundamental biology, but also upend how we think about health and disease," said Kathy Richmond, Ph.D., M.B.A., Executive Vice President and Director of the Frontiers Group and the Office of Science and Technology at the Allen Institute. The Allen Distinguished Investigator program was launched in 2010 by the late philanthropist Paul G. Allen to back creative, early-stage research projects in biology and medical research that would not otherwise be supported by traditional research funding programs. Including the new awards, a total of 130 Allen Distinguished Investigators have been appointed during the past 12 years. Each award spans three years of research funding. Meet the new Allen Distinguished Investigators Nutrient sensing Researchers in this cohort are developing new technologies to measure or visualize nutrient levels within cells. Their work addresses a key need in the field, namely the ability to capture detailed information about metabolites, chemical compounds and other nutrients in live individual cells. These new techniques could propel understanding of the basic biology of cells as well as how metabolism or nutrition processing goes wrong in diseases like diabetes or malnutrition. Lydia Kisley, Ph.D. Case Western Reserve University Laura Sanchez, Ph.D. University of California, Santa Cruz Right now, there's no good way to measure the distribution of nutrients inside individual cells. Lydia Kisley and Laura Sanchez are leading the development of a technique to address this problem by physically expanding cells — picture a cell stretched on silly putty — and capture details of nutrient location and amount in those cells. Their new method is called Expansion Mass Spectrometry and the scientists plan to use it to study nutrients in and around ovarian cancer cells to better understand metabolism in these cancer cells and how cells' local environments influence nutrient location and amounts. Yi Lu, Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin Yi Lu is leading a project to engineer DNA molecules in a variety of ways to detect and visualize nutrients in single cells. Because nutrients are often very small molecules — think individual sodium ions or sugar — it's very difficult to capture them under a microscope using standard methods, and even methods that can detect small nutrient molecules have difficulty separating out nutrients of similar sizes. Lu's technique aims to light up individual nutrients with DNA fluorescent sensors; the team will also develop methods to send these sensors to different parts of the cell simultaneously to visualize multiple metabolic reactions in the same cell. André Nadler, Ph.D. Meritxell Huch, Ph.D. Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics Alf Honigmann, Ph.D. Technische Universität Dresden Our bodies rely on fats and their molecular cousins, collectively known as lipids. These slippery molecules construct our cell walls and store 90% of our energy, and their dysregulation is associated with diseases like diabetes and fatty liver disease. André Nadler, Meritxell Huch and Alf Honigmann are leading a project to apply a technology they developed to visualize lipids in cells using fluorescence microscopes. They're now using this technique to study the turnover and transport of lipids in laboratory models of the two main organs for nutrient uptake and processing, the intestine and the liver. Bilal Sheikh, Ph.D. Helmholtz Munich Niculina Musat, Ph.D. Hryhoriy Stryhanyuk, Ph.D. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ Leipzig Our cells are incredibly diverse. Visualizing the metabolism of individual cells is critical to understanding how our organs and body work. However, metabolic reactions happen in milliseconds in areas 50 times thinner than a human hair. Bilal Sheikh, Niculina Musat and Hryhoriy Stryhanyuk are developing a new technology dubbed Meta-SCOPE to visualize metabolism in single cells, shedding light on important but to-date invisible cellular processes. Protein lifespan Proteins are the building blocks of life — nearly all cellular structures and processes are built and carried out by proteins. Do our proteins age like our bodies age? While scientists have discovered how cells turn over old proteins to create new forms, it's not clear how lifespan varies among different kinds of proteins, what it means to have "old" proteins, or how the cellular environment could affect protein aging. Researchers in this cohort are building new technologies and designing experiments to address important questions around protein lifespan and aging. Abhishek Chatterjee, Ph.D. Eranthie Weerapana, Ph.D. Boston College While techniques exist to capture the entire suite of proteins in an individual cell — also known as a proteome — it's still difficult to capture the dynamics of protein synthesis and degradation on a large scale. To understand the variation of protein lifespan in the context of the entire proteome, Abhishek Chatterjee and Eranthie Weerapana are developing new technologies to tag and measure newly created proteins at specific timepoints. They'll use this technique to study protein lifespan in a type of immune cell known as a T cell. Janine Kirstein, Ph.D. University of Bremen Tim Clausen, Ph.D. Research Institute of Molecular Pathology Janine Kirstein and Tim Clausen are building a "protein lifespan" kit to carefully track the complete life cycle of a single protein. They'll use a specially designed fluorescent tag to monitor the creation, maturation, aging and degradation of a single muscle protein, myosin, in the microscopic worm C. elegans. They are also tracking mutated versions of myosin known to cause neuromuscular disease in humans, to understand how protein aging, misfolding and other aspects of protein lifespan might play a role in these diseases. Gary CH Mo, Ph.D. University of Illinois Chicago Current techniques to access and understand large numbers of proteins from individual cells involve mechanically or chemically breaking cells open. These disruptive methods kill cells and can significantly muddle the very biological processes researchers aim to study. Gary Mo is developing "nano-scalpels" to precisely extract proteins from cells. This relies on a newly discovered method to reverse pore formation on the cellular plasma membrane. Mo and his team will make these pores open and close on demand, allowing them to take tiny biopsies from inside cells. By keeping cells functioning throughout such operations, they aim to follow and reveal the key features of proteomic balance within living cells. Mikhail Savitski, Ph.D. Alexander Aulehla, M.D., Ph.D. European Molecular Biology Laboratory Some proteins, like those in the lenses of our eyes, are as old as we are, while some proteins are created and degraded much more rapidly. How do cells know how old their proteins are, and how do they decide when to replace them? To understand these vast differences in protein aging and lifespan, Mikhail Savitski and Alexander Aulehla are leading a project to ask whether certain modifications on proteins mark their age or target them for turnover. About The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, a division of the Allen Institute, is dedicated to exploring the landscape of bioscience to identify and foster ideas that will change the world. The Frontiers Group recommends funding to the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, which then invests through award mechanisms to accelerate our understanding of biology, including: Allen Discovery Centers at partner institutions for leadership-driven, compass-guided research; and Allen Distinguished Investigators for frontier explorations with exceptional creativity and potential impact. The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group was founded in 2016 by the late philanthropist and visionary Paul G. Allen. For more information, visit allenfrontiersgroup.org. About the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation For more than four decades the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation has focused on changing the trajectory of some of the world's toughest problems. Founded by philanthropists Jody Allen and the late Paul G. Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, the Foundation initially invested in community needs across the Pacific Northwest with a focus on regional arts, under-served populations, and the environment. Today, the Foundation supports a global portfolio of frontline partners working to preserve ocean health, protect wildlife, combat climate change, and strengthen communities. The Foundation invests in grantees to leverage technology, fill data and science gaps, and drive positive public policy to advance knowledge and enable lasting change. Media Contact: Peter Kim, Sr. Manager, Media Relations 206.605.9884 | [email protected] SOURCE The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group

Insecticides containing flupyradifurone and sulfoxaflor can have devastating effects on honey bee health. The substances damage the insects' intestinal flora, especially when used in conjunction with a common fungicide, making them more susceptible to disease and shortening their life span. The two insecticides were considered harmless to bees and bumblebees when approved, but their use has since been severely restricted. Insecticides containing flupyradifurone and sulfoxaflor can have devastating effects on honey bee health. The substances damage the insects' intestinal flora, especially when used in conjunction with a common fungicide, making them more susceptible to disease and shortening their life span. This was recently demonstrated in a study conducted at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), as published in Science of the Total Environment. The two insecticides were considered harmless to bees and bumblebees when approved, but their use has since been severely restricted. For the study, honey bees that were free from environmental influences were first bred in the laboratory. "We wanted to control every aspect of the bees' lives -- from their diet to their exposure to pathogens or pesticides," says Dr Yahya Al Naggar, the biologist who led the project at MLU and who now works at Tanta University in Egypt. In the first few days, all bees were given the same food: sugar syrup. They were then divided into several groups and various pesticides were added to their food. One group was given flupyradifurone, while another was given sulfoxaflor. Both substances are approved insecticides in Germany, but their use is now limited to greenhouses. As pesticides are often used as a mixture, the scientists also took this into account in their laboratory experiment by enriching the food administered to two other groups not only with the insecticides mentioned, but also with azoxystrobin, which has been used to protect plants from harmful fungi for many decades. The concentration of the substances was well below the legal requirements in each case. "Our approach was based on the realistic concentrations that might be found in pollen and nectar from plants that have been treated with the pesticides," says Al Naggar. A control group continued to receive the normal sugar syrup without additives. Over a period of ten days, the team observed whether the substances had any effects on the bees and, if so, what. They found that the pesticides are anything but harmless: Around half of all bees whose diet had been supplemented with flupyradifurone died during the study -- and even more when combined with azoxystrobin. While sulfoxaflor produced similar effects, more insects survived the diet. The scientists also analysed the bees' intestinal flora, i.e. the bacteria and fungi living in their digestive tract. "The fungicide azoxystrobin led to a significant reduction in naturally occurring fungi. That was to be expected, as fungicides are used to control fungi," says Dr Tesfaye Wubet from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), who is also a member of the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig. Over the course of the ten-day study, however, the team was able to show that the mixture of fungi and bacteria detected in the insects differed greatly from the control group depending on the substances used. According to the researchers, the bacterium Serratia marcescens was able to spread alarmingly well in the digestive tract of the treated insects. "These bacteria are pathogenic and harmful to bees' health. They can make it harder for the insects to fight off infection, leading to premature death," explains Al Naggar. As the study was conducted in a laboratory in Halle to exclude the number of external influences, it is unclear whether the same results can be found in nature. "The effects of the pesticides could well be even more dramatic -- or the bees might be able to fully or at least partially compensate for the negative effects," concludes Wubet. With this in mind, the team calls for the potential effects of new pesticides on beneficial insects to be researched more rigorously before they are approved and for their effects on aspects such as intestinal flora to be included as standard in the risk assessment. The study was funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation with additional support via the EU-funded project "Poshbee."