{"id":2020,"date":"2006-09-14T14:56:19","date_gmt":"2006-09-14T14:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/2006\/09\/acs-poly-want-an-enzyme.html"},"modified":"2006-09-14T14:56:19","modified_gmt":"2006-09-14T14:56:19","slug":"acs_poly_want_an_enzyme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/2006\/09\/acs_poly_want_an_enzyme.html","title":{"rendered":"ACS: Poly want an enzyme?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Polymers and biology, together in perfect harmony. This meeting has intrigued me with a number of sessions about bio-related polymers. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.macro.vt.edu\/long.htm\">Timothy Long&#8217;s <\/a>group had two: one about determining which physical properties of polymers make the best vectors for gene therapy, and one about using <span class=\"caps\">DNA<\/span> base pairs to make a polymer with two sets of properties. Heat it to disassociate the base pairs, and you get a flowy substance, cool to clamp them together again, and you&#8217;ve got something strong enough to do something with. Plus, there&#8217;s bio-inspired dental polymers from Temple University, enzymes in polymers for sensors from Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, and polymers derived from soybean oil, feathers, and rice. Finally, there was a presentation on making better cigarette filters from Salmon sperm, from the Ogata Research Laboratory, Ltd.<\/p>\n<p>The general crush on bio-related polymers seems to stem from their ability to acquire reactive, &#8220;smart&#8221; properties from their biological components, as well as from the environmental advantages of making stuff from things that aren\u2019t petroleum. Now, can they produce the self-drying jacket from <em>Back to the Future II<\/em>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Polymers and biology, together in perfect harmony. This meeting has intrigued me with a number of sessions about bio-related polymers. Timothy Long\u2019s group had two: one about determining which physical properties of polymers make the best vectors for gene therapy, and one about using DNA base pairs to make a polymer with two sets of properties. Heat it to disassociate the base pairs, and you get a flowy substance, cool to clamp them together again, and you\u2019ve got something strong enough to do something with. Plus, there\u2019s bio-inspired dental polymers from Temple University, enzymes in polymers for sensors from Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, and polymers derived from soybean oil, feathers, and rice. Finally, there was a presentation on making better cigarette filters from Salmon sperm, from the Ogata Research Laboratory, Ltd.&nbsp; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/2006\/09\/acs_poly_want_an_enzyme.html#wpn-more-2020\" class=\"more-link\">Read more<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/2006\/09\/acs_poly_want_an_enzyme.html\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conference-reports","category-other-authors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2020\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}