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2. Since the glucose utilization diminishes in adipose tissue and the inhibitory effect of insulin on lipolysis becomes less, fat becomes mobilized as free fatty acids and glycerol. The free fatty acids are oxidized or esterified in the tissues. Glycerol is ac-tivated to glycerol 3-phosphate in the liver and kidney. 3. In fasting state, endogenous glucose pro-duction (from amino acid and glycerol) does not keep pace with its utilization and oxidation. Therefore, the stores of liver glycogen become depleted and blood glu-cose level falls. 4. Fat is mobilized rapidly and in several hours the plasma free fatty acids and blood glucose stabilize at the fasting level. At this point, there is the increased oxida-tion of fatty acids forming ketone bodies. In case of demands of more glucose, car-bohydrate in the form of glycerol in adi-pose tissue performs an important func-tion, for it is only this source of carbohy-drate together with that provided by gluconeogenesis from protein. ...

Photosynthetic electron transport and biological energy transduction are studied by electron spin resonance and time-resolved optical and electroabsorption spectroscopies. Biochemical and biophysical research also focuses on the mechanisms of protein folding and aggregation, protein folding defects related to human diseases, and the molecular structures of proteins, including amino acid sequence determination and identification of protein post-translational modifications. Carbohydrate biochemistry and glycobiology are used to understand disease processes and to develop new therapeutic agents. The biochemical aspects of biotechnology including chemoenzymatic synthesis, biocatalysis, and metabolic engineering are being explored. The methodologies used include kinetic and spectroscopic analysis (NMR, fluorescence, circular dichroism, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and FTIR of protein conformational changes), molecular modeling, computational graphics, and molecular mechanics calculations on ...

Professor Laura Kiessing has been named the recipient of the 2013 Murray Goodman Memorial Prize. This award of $10,000, a commemorative plaque, and dinner in her honor will recognize seminal contributions in the area of molecular glycobiology and carbohydrate biochemistry. This award is presented by the Biophysical Society in partnership with the ACS Division of Biological Chemistry. An award symposium will take place at the fall ACS National Meeting in Indianapolis. Congratulations, Laura! ...

Peptide isosteres are important tools for the understanding of peptide function and for the development of drugs. (E)-Alkene peptide isosteres are particularly useful due to their close geometric match of the amide bond structure. We developed a method for the generation of a small library of (E)-alkene peptide isosteres on solid support via cuprate mediated SN2? ring opening of allylic BUS-aziridines. We also studied the selectivity for the opening of these aziridines in the solution phase. Halenaquinone is a marine natural product that was first isolated in 1983 from the Pacific sponge Xestosongia exigua. We realized the synthesis of a thiophene-containing analog, thio-halenaquinone. The key steps include an alkynyl ketone-benzocylcobutane Diels-Alder reaction to construct the naphthalene subunit, a Heck cyclization to form the quaternary carbon, and a ring closing metathesis to install the final ring. This compound showed an IC90 ~5 µM against Pfnek-1 and an analog that had an IC90 ~3 µM. ...