Chemical Science Blog

If you thought squid only belonged in the depths of the ocean, think again. SQUID, or superconducting quantum interference device, has been used to study single-molecule magnets (SMMs) in solution, which could help us store more information on hard drives in future.

As the demand for increased information storage continues to rise, scientists have turned to the development of new nanostructured materials, incorporating SMMs. These tiny magnets can store information depending on the charge and spin properties of their electrons. But until now, there have been few studies to examine how much of these molecules’ magnetic properties come from their molecular properties and how much comes from the way they are packed together in the solid-state. 

Using SQUID, which is a very sensitive device for detecting weak magnetic fields, Euan Brechin and colleagues have studied the spin properties of frozen solutions of two different hexanuclear manganese (Mn₆) complexes. The two compounds display different spin-relaxation properties in the solid-state, but similar spin-dynamics once in solution. Brechin believes the study demonstrates that the SMM behaviour is intrinsically a molecular effect that can be modulated in the solid-state by crystal packing strain effects.

Read the full story in the Chemical Science Edge article, which, like all Chemical Science articles, is free to download until the end of 2011.

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40 years after it was first isolated, UK scientists have identified the biosynthetic genes of an important antibiotic, offering insights into its poorly understood biosynthetic pathway.

Tunicamycin antibiotics have attracted much attention (over 8000 citations) due to their unusual structure and potent inhibition of bacterial cell wall biosynthesis. Although they have been chemically synthesised, the lack of a sequence for the tunicamycin gene cluster (or any part of it) has left scientists puzzled over its biosynthetic pathway.

Now Benjamin Davis, at the University of Oxford, and colleagues have identified the tunicamycin biosynthesis genes in Streptomyces chartreusis, a soil bacterium, using genome sequencing and mining. Using this genetic insight, they have proposed the detailed biosynthetic pathway to this family of antibiotics.

The studies unlock a comprehensive and unusual toolbox of biosynthetic machinery with which to create variants of this natural product, says Davis. He anticipates this will lead to future therapeutic antibiotics with improved antibacterial activity and reduced cytotoxicity.

Find out more in Davis’ Chemical Science Edge article, downloadable for free. Access our free content any time, any place by registering for an RSC Publishing personal account today.