Compound Interest: Chemunicate

Improving stability of cone snail toxins for therapeutic use

From toxin to tonic: improving cone snail toxin stability for medical use

January 8, 2019 0Comments 0Likes 128Views

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Cone snail toxins can be deadly to humans – but they also have potential uses in anaesthesia and to treat other medical conditions. This latest Chemunicate graphic takes a look at one way scientists are trying to optimise them for this use.

The mighty mitochondrion and respiration

November 27, 2018 0Comments 0Likes 128Views

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We spend a lot of time on this site looking at the chemistry that goes on all around us. However, there are also chemical reactions taking place in every one of your cells. This Chemunicate graphic takes a brief look at mitochondria and the reactions that take place inside them that power our bodies.

Diagnosing Diseases with Novel Nanoparticles

May 25, 2017 1Comment 0Likes 206Views

Testing for pregnancy and testing for diseases might sound like two very different things. However, they can both be accomplished with the use of nanoparticles. In the latest Chemunicate graphic, we take a look at how nanoparticles can be used to detect diseases, and how scientists are working to improve them even further.

The Secrets of the Coke and Mentos Fountain

May 2, 2017 2Comments 0Likes 295Views

It’s one of the most popular science demonstrations: Pop a handful of Mentos candies into a bottle of Coke, and a fountain of bubbles rapidly spurts from the open bottle, often over a metre into the air. Originally the explanation for the effect was thought to be quite simple. However, scientists are finding that there’s more to this spectacular demonstration than meets the eye.

Combating Chemoresistance by Targeting DNA Repair

Combating Chemoresistance: Blocking DNA Repair to Fight Cancer

March 27, 2017 0Comments 0Likes 190Views

In 2012, the most recent year for which the information is available, there were 8.2 million cancer-related deaths worldwide. Chemotherapy is a common treatment resort, but it’s by no means a magic bullet, and this is often due to chemoresistance. This latest Chemunicate graphic, made on behalf of Thomas Fleming at the University of Oxford, looks at how understanding this process can help chemists develop new drugs to tackle the problem.

Finding More Stable Drugs Using Full Interaction Maps

Finding More Stable Forms of Drugs Using Full Interaction Maps

February 27, 2017 0Comments 1Like 169Views

When pharmaceutical companies manufacture a drug, finding the drug’s most stable form is important. Not only do drugs become less effective as they degrade, limiting their useful shelf life, but if a more stable version of a drug is discovered after it has reached the market, products may end up being withdrawn, costing money. As a result, chemists are developing methods to evaluate drug stability, and using a “Full Interaction Maps” tool is one such computational method.