Plants transformed into detectors of dangerous chemicals

Scientists engineer plants to speak in color

26-Oct-2023 - What if your house plant could tell you your water isn’t safe? Scientists are closer to realizing this vision, having successfully engineered a plant to turn beet red in the presence of a banned, toxic pesticide. To achieve this, UC Riverside researchers had to solve an engineering puzzle: how ...

Plant stress transformed into rapid tests for dangerous chemicals

Inexpensive method detects synthetic cannabinoids, banned pesticides

23-Jun-2022 - Scientists have modified proteins involved in plants’ natural response to stress, making them the basis of innovative tests for multiple chemicals, including banned pesticides and deadly, synthetic cannabinoids. During drought, plants produce ABA, a hormone that helps them hold on to water. ...

Chemical 'nose' sniffs critical differences in DNA structures

Detection innovation could enhance drug development and cancer research

05-May-2021 - Small changes in the structure of DNA have been implicated in breast cancer and other diseases, but they've been extremely difficult to detect -- until now. Using what they describe as a "chemical nose," UC Riverside chemists are able to "smell" when bits of DNA are folded in unusual ways. Their ...

Scientists crack structure of a novel enzyme linked to cell growth and cancer

08-Nov-2019 - RNA, or ribonucleic acid, is present in the cells of all living beings and required to synthesize proteins. A research team at the University of California, Riverside, has discovered the structure of a novel RNA-modifying enzyme, ZCCHC4, and identified the mechanism that controls how this enzyme ...

Fiber-optic probe can see molecular bonds

Pointing the new nanoscopy tool like a Harry Potter wand reveals a high-resolution image of molecules

12-Jun-2019 - In "Avengers: Endgame," Tony Stark warned Scott Lang that sending him into the quantum realm and bringing him back would be a "billion-to-one cosmic fluke." In reality, shrinking a light beam to a nanometer-sized point to spy on quantum-scale light-matter interactions and retrieving the ...

Musical sensor shows bad medicine plays false note

Inspired by a musical instrument, the simple sensor can be constructed from common materials and used to detect adulterated or counterfeit drugs

17-Sep-2018 - What if a single musical note could mean the difference between life and death? A new sensor based on a 3,000 year old African musical instrument can be used to identify substances, including a poisonous chemical sometimes mistakenly added to medicines. The mbira sensor, which can be constructed ...

A better way to control crystal vibrations

23-May-2018 - The vibrational motion of an atom in a crystal propagates to neighboring atoms, which leads to wavelike propagation of the vibrations throughout the crystal. The way in which these natural vibrations travel through the crystalline structure determine fundamental properties of the material. For ...

Researchers build atomically thin gas and chemical sensors

03-Mar-2015 - The relatively recent discovery of graphene, a two-dimensional layered material with unusual and attractive electronic, optical and thermal properties, led scientists to search for other atomically thin materials with unique properties.Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has proved to be one of the most ...

Automating Laboratory-On-A-Chip To Cut Healthcare Costs

Computer programming language automates “laboratory-on-a-chip” technologies and has potential to improve and reduce cost of healthcare

17-Jun-2014 - A research team at the University of California, Riverside has created a computer programming language that will automate “laboratory-on-a-chip” technologies used in DNA sequencing, drug discovery, virus detection and other biomedical applications.“If you think of the beginning of computers they ...

New research by UCR physicists could help develop gamma ray lasers and produce fusion power

Researchers isolate collection of “pure” or spin polarized positronium atoms for the first time

04-May-2010 - Positronium is a short-lived system in which an electron and its anti-particle are bound together. In 2007, physicists at the University of California, Riverside created molecular positronium , a brand-new substance, in the laboratory. Now they have succeeded in isolating for the first time a ...