Highlights from the American Chemical Society journal, ACS Chemical Biology, are now available. Below is a link to the January 2007 edition.

In the current issue we review new techniques, tools, and resources available to chemical biologists.

• Physically seeing biomolecules in action gives scientists better understanding of how a cell works. This review focuses on advances in flurorescence that allow biologists to better probe the internal workings of cells.

• Precise copying of DNA into RNA in the process of transcription is critical for a cell to live, and poor copying of DNA into RNA can lead to many disease states. The authors here review the latest designer tools that are allowing scientists to glean the molecular details of the transcription process.

• Molecules that can selectively enter cells are great tools for probing the workings of the cell and for treating disease. However, finding molecules that work effectively often requires screening many thousands of candidates. The authors discuss advances in the techniques for finding the needle in the haystack.

• Studying single molecules is an exciting new area in chemical biology. Here, the authors discuss the many new techniques available for observing and probing individual molecules.

• If scientists could precisely understand the response of a cell to a particular perturbation or in a certain disease state, they could develop new and exciting probes and therapies. Mass spectrometry is a sensitive technique that can do this and the authors review the approaches scientists are using to gain insight into cell responses

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Contact: Michael Woods
newsroom@acs.org
202-872-4400
American Chemical Society
29-Jan-2007