Components of Nutrition
Christopher Cumo in Ancestral Diets and Nutrition, 2020
This understanding came from the emerging science of chemistry, a discipline that sought to identify and describe the behavior of matter’s constituents: atoms and molecules. Before the twentieth century, however, the molecules and elements of nutrition (nutrients) included only proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, and minerals.8 Yet rats languished when fed a diet adequate in these components but absent anything else. The discovery of the first vitamin, a word coined in 1912 and discussed later, opened a new avenue for research, and in 1928, Hungarian biochemist Albert Szent-Gyorgyi (1893–1986) isolated vitamin C, ascorbic acid.9 Subsequent researchers elucidated its role in helping the body metabolize proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Its function in collagen synthesis was important in eliminating scurvy’s symptoms. Vitamin C’s presence in many vegetables and fruits—though coconut is not rich in it—explained their effectiveness against scurvy, providing a microlevel understanding of how these disparate foods combatted the malady.
Nanomedicine: Scientific Basis and Societal Implications
Harry F. Tibbals in Medical Nanotechnology and Nanomedicine, 2017
By the middle of the twentieth century, the science of matter on the atomic and subatomic scale—chemistry and physics—had advanced by brilliant and intricate experiments and deductions based on observations of interactions at the macroscale (large numbers of atoms and molecules undergoing chemical reactions, and interactions between matter and energy—heat, light, and radiation). Micro- and cell biology and genetics were giving life scientists tantalizing glimpses and suggestions of the intricate precision of macro-molecular mechanisms that must be the basis for life. But the tools were not available to observe and manipulate particles and features on the nanoscale until relatively recently, and the range and power of such nanotools are still being rapidly developed and improved.
L
Anton Sebastian in A Dictionary of the History of Medicine, 2018
Lavoisier, Antoine Laurent (1743–1794) Founder of modern chemistry, born in Paris to a wealthy lawyer’s family. He first qualified as a lawyer in 1764, but gave up to study science. In 1789, he defined an element as ‘a substance that cannot be split into a simpler form by any means’. He investigated’dephologisticated air’in 1774, previously described byjoseph Priestley (1733–1804). He named it the‘acidifying principle’ [Greek: oxygine] from which the present name ‘oxygen’ is derived. Lavoisier and Pierre Simon Laplace (1749–1827) proved that respiration is a process of combustion. His important work, Traite Elémentaire de chimie, was published in 1789. He was an advisory member of ‘Ferme-General’ which collected taxes before the French revolution. He was guillotined during the revolution for his involvement with the Ferme and other government affairs.
Ligand efficiency indices for effective drug discovery: a unifying vector formulation
Published in Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery, 2021
Three sobering thoughts immediately crossed my mind when I read this quotation. First, computational chemists are sharing and pursuing the dream of no less than Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry, who sadly was guillotined in the furor of the French Revolution. Second, our advances in understanding the ‘Newtonian’ aspects of the corpuscular matter of target and ligand, and of their atomic three-dimensional structures, are certainly well beyond what any chemist of the time could have ever imagined or even conceived. Third, I am certain that the two brilliant scientists could have never even fantasized how far our computational tools are from the ‘geometrician’s cabinet’ mentioned above. And yet, we have still not achieved Lavoisier’s (and Laplace’s) goal, and our results are still far from being good enough to direct drug discovery with confidence based on calculated ‘affinities’, except possibly for very close congeneric series. This is the most critical issue that we face to accelerate and optimize SBDD.
From Food for Survival to Food for Personalized Optimal Health: A Historical Perspective of How Food and Nutrition Gave Rise to Nutrigenomics
Published in Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 2019
The conceptualization of metabolism, deciphering of the fundamental metabolic principles and discovery of vitamins later on, constituted pivotal points in the development of nutritional sciences and the commercialization of nutrition, leading to the generation of nutritional products and services including modern-era nutrigenomics. The so-called “chemical revolution” laid the initial scientific foundations upon which the science of nutrition was built (5, 6). More specifically, the concepts of metabolism and energetics were discovered and discussed in 1770 by a bright Frenchman, Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier: “father of chemistry” and to many “father of modern nutrition” as well. Lavoisier was a pioneer when he insightfully stated that: “respiratory gas exchange is a combustion like that of a candle burning” (2). He had understood that food functioned as a fuel to the body, and he had essentially laid the foundation for nutritional biochemistry, which he would have probably developed further had he not been claimed, in 1794, as one of the victims of the Reign of Terror that followed the French Revolution. In 1830, another French chemist, Jean-Baptiste Boussingault, conducted balance trials for nitrogen by comparing the nitrogen content of hay, oats, and potatoes fed to cows and horses with the animals' excrement and, in the case of cows, milk as well (2, 5). He proved that nitrogen from food was sufficient for survival and no additional nitrogen from the atmosphere was needed, as many scientists believed until that time (2).
Re-envisioning the design of nanomedicines: harnessing automation and artificial intelligence
Published in Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery, 2023
Jonathan Zaslavsky, Pauric Bannigan, Christine Allen
From a research standpoint, automation represents a path towards achieving more practical and robust methodologies. Christensen et al. describe three principal areas for the successful implementation of automated systems: equipment considerations, experimental considerations, as well as data and software [50]. In many ways, these categories extend beyond the proposed application in synthetic chemistry and are relevant for a wide range of applications in the pharmaceutical sciences. Liquid handling robots are an example of a common piece of equipment that facilitate automated aspirating and dispensing of liquids. These robots maintain high precision and accuracy, and the modular nature of their design enables a range of possible functionalities, such as the incorporation of robotic arms or other equipment that can be used to process samples [51]. With respect to formulation development and optimization, liquid handling systems can be applied anywhere from formulation screening (i.e. pipetting drug and/or excipient solutions) and in vitro cytotoxicity evaluation to the preparation of analytical samples [52,53]. While not necessarily new, as robotic arms and certain automated capabilities have been a part of analytical laboratories for years, such systems continue to increase the range of tasks that can be performed and pave the way for the integration of different technologies (e.g. computer vision to recognize material properties) [54,55].
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