* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Sunday, September 7, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Victor Garber on his viral “And Just Like That” toilet scene: ‘I was delighted to be doing something ridiculous’ (exclusive) – yahoo.com

    Victor Garber on his viral “And Just Like That” toilet scene: ‘I was delighted to be doing something ridiculous’ (exclusive) – yahoo.com

    Pendulum Announce Homecoming 2026 Australian Tour – yahoo.com

    Pendulum Announces Thrilling Homecoming Tour Across Australia in 2026

    ITV Studios Launches New Entertainment Label – Global Bulletin – IMDb

    ITV Studios Unveils Exciting New Entertainment Label

    TS Entertainment bringing Malibu Jack’s to former Owensboro mall – Lane Report

    TS Entertainment Launches Malibu Jack’s at Former Owensboro Mall Location

    Jenny Han Dropped a Major ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ Easter Egg Revealing [SPOILER] – yahoo.com

    Jenny Han Just Unveiled a Huge ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ Easter Egg That Changes Everything [SPOILER]

    Liam Payne’s Cousin Ross Harris Honors Late Singer With Emotional Song ‘Bones’ – yahoo.com

    Liam Payne’s Cousin Ross Harris Honors Late Singer with Emotional New Song ‘Bones

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Coherent Joins LLNL’s STARFIRE Diode Technology Working Group to Advance Inertial Fusion Energy – GlobeNewswire

    Coherent Partners with LLNL’s STARFIRE Team to Drive Breakthroughs in Inertial Fusion Energy

    Gene Associated With Deadly Heart Disease in Golden Retrievers Identified – Technology Networks

    Breakthrough Discovery Uncovers Gene Behind Deadly Heart Disease in Golden Retrievers

    Monkey Island LNG Picks ConocoPhillips’ Liquefaction Technology – Hart Energy

    Monkey Island LNG Selects ConocoPhillips’ Advanced Liquefaction Technology for Next-Gen Energy Solutions

    Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd. (CRDO) Surpasses Q1 Earnings and Revenue Estimates – Yahoo Finance

    Credo Technology Group Surpasses Q1 Earnings and Revenue Expectations

    The Economist is hiring a science and technology correspondent – The Economist

    Exciting Opportunity: Become Our Next Science and Technology Correspondent!

    Blockchain lender Figure Technology seeks to raise up to $526M in IPO (FIGR:Pending) – Seeking Alpha

    Blockchain Lender Figure Technology Sets Sights on $526M in Thrilling IPO Launch

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Victor Garber on his viral “And Just Like That” toilet scene: ‘I was delighted to be doing something ridiculous’ (exclusive) – yahoo.com

    Victor Garber on his viral “And Just Like That” toilet scene: ‘I was delighted to be doing something ridiculous’ (exclusive) – yahoo.com

    Pendulum Announce Homecoming 2026 Australian Tour – yahoo.com

    Pendulum Announces Thrilling Homecoming Tour Across Australia in 2026

    ITV Studios Launches New Entertainment Label – Global Bulletin – IMDb

    ITV Studios Unveils Exciting New Entertainment Label

    TS Entertainment bringing Malibu Jack’s to former Owensboro mall – Lane Report

    TS Entertainment Launches Malibu Jack’s at Former Owensboro Mall Location

    Jenny Han Dropped a Major ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ Easter Egg Revealing [SPOILER] – yahoo.com

    Jenny Han Just Unveiled a Huge ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ Easter Egg That Changes Everything [SPOILER]

    Liam Payne’s Cousin Ross Harris Honors Late Singer With Emotional Song ‘Bones’ – yahoo.com

    Liam Payne’s Cousin Ross Harris Honors Late Singer with Emotional New Song ‘Bones

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Coherent Joins LLNL’s STARFIRE Diode Technology Working Group to Advance Inertial Fusion Energy – GlobeNewswire

    Coherent Partners with LLNL’s STARFIRE Team to Drive Breakthroughs in Inertial Fusion Energy

    Gene Associated With Deadly Heart Disease in Golden Retrievers Identified – Technology Networks

    Breakthrough Discovery Uncovers Gene Behind Deadly Heart Disease in Golden Retrievers

    Monkey Island LNG Picks ConocoPhillips’ Liquefaction Technology – Hart Energy

    Monkey Island LNG Selects ConocoPhillips’ Advanced Liquefaction Technology for Next-Gen Energy Solutions

    Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd. (CRDO) Surpasses Q1 Earnings and Revenue Estimates – Yahoo Finance

    Credo Technology Group Surpasses Q1 Earnings and Revenue Expectations

    The Economist is hiring a science and technology correspondent – The Economist

    Exciting Opportunity: Become Our Next Science and Technology Correspondent!

    Blockchain lender Figure Technology seeks to raise up to $526M in IPO (FIGR:Pending) – Seeking Alpha

    Blockchain Lender Figure Technology Sets Sights on $526M in Thrilling IPO Launch

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home Science

125 Years After Its Discovery, Actinium’s Chemistry Still Baffles Scientists

July 30, 2024
in Science
125 Years After Its Discovery, Actinium’s Chemistry Still Baffles Scientists
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Actinium Compound

Researchers grew crystals of a pure actinium compound, seen here through a microscope, to understand how actinium binds to other molecules in a solid. Credit: Jen Wacker/Berkeley Lab

A study at Berkeley Lab has revealed new insights into actinium, an element critical for emerging cancer treatments. By examining its crystal structure, researchers have noted unique properties that could enhance targeted alpha therapy, a promising method in cancer treatment.

Although the element actinium was first discovered at the turn of the 20th century, researchers still don’t have a good grasp on the metal’s chemistry. That’s because actinium is only available in extremely small amounts and working with the radioactive material requires special facilities. However, to improve emerging cancer treatments using actinium, researchers will need to better understand how the element binds with other molecules.

Jen Wacker

Jen Wacker processes a sample of actinium at Berkeley Lab. Credit: Marilyn Sargent/Berkeley Lab

Advances in Actinium Research

In a new study led by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), researchers grew crystals containing actinium and studied the compound’s atomic structure. While elements often behave similarly to their lighter cousins on the periodic table, the researchers were surprised to find that the actinium behaved differently than predicted by looking at its counterpart, lanthanum.

“There’s a breadth of applications for these elements, from nuclear energy to medicine to national security, but if we don’t know how they behave, that inhibits the progress we can make,” said Jen Wacker, first author of the paper recently published in Nature Communications and a chemist at Berkeley Lab. “We’re seeing that this work is necessary to really understand the complexity of these radioactive elements, because in a lot of cases, using their surrogates is not sufficient to understand their chemistry.”

Joshua Woods and Appie Peterson

Joshua Woods and Appie Peterson measure a small sample of actinium. Credit: Marilyn Sargent/Berkeley Lab

Actinium’s Potential in Cancer Therapy

One area of interest is in using an isotope of actinium (actinium-225) in a cancer treatment method called targeted alpha therapy (TAT), which has shown promise in clinical trials. The TAT method uses biological delivery systems such as peptides or antibodies to move the radioactive element to the cancer site. When the actinium decays, it releases energetic particles that travel a short distance, destroying the nearby cancer cells but sparing healthy tissue further away.

“There’s a movement to design better delivery systems to get the actinium to particular cells and keep it there,” said Rebecca Abergel, a UC Berkeley associate professor of nuclear engineering and of chemistry who leads the Heavy Element Chemistry Group at Berkeley Lab. “If we can engineer proteins to bind the actinium with a really high affinity, and either be fused with an antibody or serve as the targeting protein, that would really enable new ways to develop radiopharmaceuticals.”

Rendering of Actinium Binding With Molecules

This rendering shows the structure of how actinium (magenta) binds with other molecules. Red triangles point out how the arrangement differs from actinium’s lighter counterpart, lanthanum (grey). The stick structure of the binding molecule (the ligand) is surrounded by pockets in the protein. Credit: Jen Wacker/Berkeley Lab

Innovative Techniques for Studying Actinium

Researchers used a novel approach to grow the crystals using only 5 micrograms of pure actinium – roughly one tenth the weight of a grain of salt, and invisible to the naked eye. They first purified the actinium through a complex filtration process that removed other elements and chemical impurities. They then bound the actinium to a metal-trapping molecule called a ligand and enveloped the bundle inside of a protein isolated and purified by Roland Strong’s team at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, building a “macromolecular scaffold.”

The crystals, grown over a week inside of the Heavy Element Research Laboratory, were then cryocooled in liquid nitrogen and illuminated with X-rays at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source (ALS). The X-rays revealed the compound’s 3D structure and showed how actinium interacted with surrounding atoms. It is the first single-crystal X-ray structure reported for actinium

“I’ve been working in crystallography for 40 years and seen a lot of things, and the method the team is using is unique and provides details we couldn’t get in the past,” said Marc Allaire, a scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division and head of the Berkeley Center for Structural Biology team at the ALS. “To the best of my knowledge, Berkeley Lab is the only place in the world where we do this kind of study and measure radioactive protein crystals.”

Anthony Rozales, Joshua Woods, Jen Wacker, and Marc Allaire

(Left to right) Anthony Rozales, Joshua Woods, Jen Wacker, and Marc Allaire at beamline 5.0.2 in the Advanced Light Source. Credit: Marilyn Sargent/Berkeley Lab

Future Directions in Actinium Research

In this work, scientists used actinium-227, the longest-lived isotope of the element. Future studies will explore actinium-225 (the preferred isotope for targeted alpha therapy) to look for other changes in how the metal binds. Researchers are also interested in pairing actinium with different proteins to learn more about the structures it forms.

“This is very fundamental science that is part of our core program in understanding the chemistry of heavy elements,” Abergel said. “We’ve achieved a really technically difficult experimental method that pushes the boundaries of isotope chemistry and lets us gain a better understanding of this element. It hopefully will enable us and others to develop better systems that are useful for targeted alpha therapy.”

Reference: “Actinium chelation and crystallization in a macromolecular scaffold” by Jennifer N. Wacker, Joshua J. Woods, Peter B. Rupert, Appie Peterson, Marc Allaire, Wayne W. Lukens, Alyssa N. Gaiser, Stefan G. Minasian, Roland K. Strong and Rebecca J. Abergel, 15 July 2024, Nature Communications.
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-50017-5

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : SciTechDaily – https://scitechdaily.com/125-years-after-its-discovery-actiniums-chemistry-still-baffles-scientists/

Tags: AfterscienceYears
Previous Post

Breakthrough in Anti-Aging: IL-11 Deactivation Boosts Lifespan by 25%

Next Post

New Research Reveals Why You Should Eat More Mackerel and Less Salmon

Reformulation of general relativity brings it closer to Newtonian physics – Physics World

Reformulation of general relativity brings it closer to Newtonian physics – Physics World

September 7, 2025
Trump’s Economy Fails Arkansans as Unemployment Reaches Four-Year High – SWARK Today

Trump’s Economy Fails Arkansans as Unemployment Reaches Four-Year High – SWARK Today

September 7, 2025
Victor Garber on his viral “And Just Like That” toilet scene: ‘I was delighted to be doing something ridiculous’ (exclusive) – yahoo.com

Victor Garber on his viral “And Just Like That” toilet scene: ‘I was delighted to be doing something ridiculous’ (exclusive) – yahoo.com

September 7, 2025
Heroes on the Hill event addresses mental health for vets, first responders – CBS News

Heroes on the Hill: Tackling Mental Health Challenges for Vets and First Responders

September 7, 2025

Trump signs executive order creating ‘state sponsor of wrongful detention’ designation – CNN

September 7, 2025
Ecology issues $738K penalty against downtown Walla Walla Chevron owner – Union-Bulletin

Ecology issues $738K penalty against downtown Walla Walla Chevron owner – Union-Bulletin

September 6, 2025
What the science says about acetaminophen, pregnant mothers and autism – NBC News

What the science says about acetaminophen, pregnant mothers and autism – NBC News

September 6, 2025
RFK Jr accused of ‘reckless disregard for science and the truth’ in Senate hearing – The Guardian

RFK Jr. Faces Fierce Backlash for ‘Reckless Disregard for Science and Truth’ in Heated Senate Hearing

September 6, 2025
Start The Go-Go Years Today: Ignite Your Early Retirement Lifestyle – Forbes

Start The Go-Go Years Today: Ignite Your Early Retirement Lifestyle – Forbes

September 6, 2025
When Sports Teach More Than Skills – American Enterprise Institute

When Sports Teach More Than Skills – American Enterprise Institute

September 6, 2025

Categories

Archives

September 2025
MTWTFSS
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930 
« Aug    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (810)
  • Economy (829)
  • Entertainment (21,706)
  • General (16,893)
  • Health (9,870)
  • Lifestyle (841)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (830)
  • Politics (835)
  • Science (16,039)
  • Sports (21,327)
  • Technology (15,808)
  • World (810)

Recent News

Reformulation of general relativity brings it closer to Newtonian physics – Physics World

Reformulation of general relativity brings it closer to Newtonian physics – Physics World

September 7, 2025
Trump’s Economy Fails Arkansans as Unemployment Reaches Four-Year High – SWARK Today

Trump’s Economy Fails Arkansans as Unemployment Reaches Four-Year High – SWARK Today

September 7, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version