Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2012

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2012 was awarded jointly to Robert J. Lefkowitz and Brian K. Kobilka "for studies of G-protein-coupled receptors"

The cells in our bodies need to work together, they need sensors to be able to sense what is going on around them. The sensors on the surface of cells are call receptors.

The G-protein-coupled receptors are a family of receptors for adrenalin (epinephrine), dopamine, serotonin, light flavour and odour. A lot of medications that we take act on these receptors.
While these G-protein-coupled receptors are clearly very important, scientists haven't really known very much about how they work until recently.

In 1970 Lefkowitz  announced the discovery of an active receptor. Using radioactive tracers his research group examined how adrenergic receptors, receptors for adrenalin and noradrenalin, work.
In the 1980's his research team started work on trying to find the gene code for the beta receptor in the hope that this would give them clues about how the receptor works.
Kobilka joins the team and has an idea that it makes it possible to isolate the gene.
The receptor is found to consist of 7 long fatty spiral strings (helices).
A different receptor, the light receptor rhodopsin in the retina of the eye, has also been found to be made up of  7 stringed helices.

The groundbreaking discovery was that these two receptors are related even though they have different functions, that is, there is a family of receptors that look alike and function in a similar, yet different, manner.

In 2011 Kobilka and his research team finally got an image of the receptor at the very moment when it transfers the signal from the hormone on the outside of the cell to the G-protein on the inside of the cell.

Reference:
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2012/popular-chemistryprize2012.pdf

Nobel Prize countdown

As students head back to the class room for a new term of exciting learning, the scientific community is gearing up for a major annual event, the announcement of the Noble Prizes.
With just days to go before the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is to be announced, there is much discussion (and possibly even a bit of betting) about who is likely to be this year's laureate.

Among the contenders this year are:

• Louis E. Brus (Columbia University) for the discovery of colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals (quantum dots)
• Akira Fujishima (University of Tokyo) for the discovery of photocatalytic properties of titanium dioxide (the Honda-Fujishima Effect)
• Masatake Haruta (Tokyo Metropolitan University) and Graham J. Hutchings (Cardiff University) for their discoveries of catalysis by gold

Quantum dots are semiconductors, but their electronic properties are related to the size and shape of the individual crystals. In general, the smaller a crystal is, the more energy is needed to excite the dot, which means that more energy is released when the crystal returns to its ground state. It is hoped that quantum dots will lead to practical quantum computing and increase the efficiency of photovoltaic cells. Quantum dots are being used in preference to some dyes in biological analyses because quantum dots are brighter and more stable.

While working on his Ph.D in 1967, Akira Fujishima exposed a titanium dioxide electrode to strong light and discovered that this catalyzed the decomposition of water into hydrogen and oxygen. This became known as the Honda-Fujishima Effect (Professor Kenichi Honda was Akira Fujishima's supervisor). Finding cheap, effective methods for providing hydrogen would enable the development of hydrogen as fuel.

In the 1980's Masatake Haruta showed that colloidal gold, gold clusters with diameters of 5 nanometers or less, could catalyze reactions involving oxygen gas.
Graham J Hutchings has extended the number of reactions  we now know of that can be catalyzed by gold. Hutchings has shown that primary alcohols can be oxidized to aldehydes using a gold-palladium/titanium dioxide combination without the need for a solvent. He has also developed the rapid synthesis of hydrogen peroxide, H₂O₂, from hydrogen and oxygen  without the formation of water as a by-product.