All posts by cschneider

Metabolism without enzymes.

Researchers from the University of Strasbourg have shown that a large part of an anabolic pathway central to biochemistry can be promoted by simple metals without the need for enzymes.   The pathway known as the reverse Krebs cycle is thought to have been one of the earliest metabolic pathways in early life. This new research … Continue Reading ››

Supramolecular cruise control

Researchers from the University of Strasbourg have shown that artificial supramolecular fibers can be kept in sustained non-equilibrium steady states, similar to a car driving on cruise control. In living systems, chemical fuel is used continuously and waste is removed at the same time. A similar feat was now achieved in an artificial system using … Continue Reading ››

Organic–inorganic heterostructures with programmable electronic properties

Researchers from the University of Strasbourg & CNRS (France), in collaboration with the University of Mons (Belgium), the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (Germany) and the Technische Universität Dresden (Germany), have devised a novel supramolecular strategy to introduce tunable 1D periodic potentials upon self-assembly of ad hoc organic building blocks on graphene, opening the … Continue Reading ››