US Department of Energy researchers from the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) reported in a recent paper that they have engineered the first bacterial strain that can digest the biomass of non-food crops and synthesize the sugars into all three forms of transportation fuel - gasoline, diesel and jet biofuels.

Mining processes, runoff from farms, and industrial wastes can all put heavy metals such as lead and copper into waterways. Heavy metals can have adverse health and environmental effects. Current methods of removing heavy metals from water are expensive and some substances used in the process are toxic themselves. Previous work has shown that some plant wastes, such as coconut fibers and peanut shells, can remove these potential toxins from water. Gustavo Castro, and colleagues at São Paulo State University in Brazil, wanted to find out whether minced banana peels could also act as water purifiers.

Dr. Pin Wang, a USC chemical engineering professor, has developed a virus designed to hunt down HIV-infected cells.

In what may represent an important step toward curing HIV, Dr. Wang’s lentiviral vector latches onto HIV-infected cells, flagging them with what is called “suicide gene therapy” - allowing drugs to later target and destroy them.

Imperial College London researchers have discovered a new benefit for a compound that has been prescribed by practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine for more than 1000 years. Before modern production techniques from pharmaceutical companies allowed the compound to be produced and purified in the lab, Ursodeoxycholic acid ( or UDCA), was found in bear bile.

We are fans of Alan Marnett and the team at BenchFly.com and have been following their work for a few years now. It was high time that we spotlighted their community, instructional videos and shared their mission with you all. OK, lets hear about BenchFly from Alan himself.

LabGrab - When was Benchfly.com started, and who is its target audience?

In the latest issue of the American Chemistry Society's journal Langmuir, Bar-Ilan University researcher, Aharon Gedanken and colleagues report successful lab tests of a material intended for use as a new food packaging material.

Researchers from Harvard University have made advances in microscopy that for the first time allows the capture of motion of proteins, lipids and water within cells - without the need of attaching them to fluorescent probes.

In the May Issue of the Journal of Physical Chemistry letters, a research group at Caltech's W.M Keck Laboratories reported new findings on the make up of the outer most layer of water molecules.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) announced new grants totaling $79 million that was given through the HHMI undergraduate program, and the HHMI Professors program.

Fifty research universities in 30 states and the District of Columbia will be awarded a total of $70 million through the undergraduate program. The schools will use the grants, which range from $800,000 to $2 million over four years, to develop creative, research-based courses and curricula; to give more students vital experience working in the lab; and to improve science teaching from elementary school through college.

BOSTON, May 4, 2010 — What better venue than Boston — with its famed medical institutions — for a major scientific conference with the theme "Chemistry for Preventing & Combating Disease"?