Prospects in computational molecular medicine: a millennial mega-project on peptide folding

During the second half of the 20th century, Molecular Computations have reached to a level that can revolutionize chemistry. The next target will be structural biology, which will be followed soon by Molecular Medicine. The present paper outlines where we are at, in this field, at the end of the 20th century, and in what direction the development may take in the new millennium. In view of the gigantic nature of the problem, it is suggested that a suitably designed cooperative Millennial Mega-project might accelerate our schedule.     

Effects of Adsorbed Polyaniline on Redox Processes on As(2)O(3) Surfaces

Polyaniline deposited on As(2)O(3) surface resulted in a new material, which was characterized by infrared spectoscopy, thermogravimetry, differential scanning calorimetry, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and cyclic voltammetry. The mass percentage of polymer deposited on oxide surface is approximately 13%. The scanning electron microscopy images as well as the X-ray diffraction patterns provided conclusive evidence that the oxide surface is coated by the polymer. The cyclic voltammograms of the polyaniline adsorbed on As(2)O(3) surface showed that the adsorbate exerts remarkable effects on redox processes on this oxide. The pure oxide exhibited two oxidation/reduction peaks at 0.25/-0.06 and 0.47/-0.25 V attributed tentatively to the processes As(2)O(3)(s)+6H(+)+6e(-)=2As(s)+3H(2)O and As(s)+3H(+)+3e(-)=AsH(3)(g), respectively. The polyaniline-coated sample exhibited a better-defined voltammogram in which the first oxidation peak of the oxide had its intensity increased about four times. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.     

Exploiting the difference in lattice structures for formation of self-assembled PbS dots on InP(110)

Via the example of PbS self-assembled nanodots on InP(110) we show that spontaneous self-organization at semiconductor interfaces can be achieved due to different lattice structure of the constituents with close lattice constants. Regularly shaped triangular pyramidal PbS dots almost perfectly oriented on the substrate and distributed reasonably uniform in size can be grown in this way by molecular beam epitaxy. The average lateral dot size can be varied between 15 and 35 nm by appropriate choice of growth temperature and total PbS coverage.