{"id":280979,"date":"2018-10-22T12:25:01","date_gmt":"2018-10-22T10:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=280979"},"modified":"2018-10-22T12:27:14","modified_gmt":"2018-10-22T10:27:14","slug":"new-ct-scan-technique-can-detect-small-molecules-shapes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/science\/280979-new-ct-scan-technique-can-detect-small-molecules-shapes.html","title":{"rendered":"New CT scan technique can detect small molecules&#8217; shapes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A group of researchers has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencemag.org\/news\/2018\/10\/new-day-chemistry-molecular-ct-scan-could-dramatically-speed-drug-discovery\"><strong>developed<\/strong><\/a> a new CT scan-like technique that is capable of detecting the shapes of very small organic molecules.<\/p>\n<p>Previously, x-rays were used to do this, but it was a slow process as the molecules needed to be in a large crystal formation for the x-rays to detect them.<\/p>\n<p>This new technique, however, does not require the molecules to be in a crystal form, cutting down the time to determine a molecule&#8217;s shape significantly.<\/p>\n<p>The technique relies on electron diffraction, which is an approach previously used to study the shapes of larger molecules like proteins.<\/p>\n<p>A beam is sent through a crystal, which can then determine its structure from diffraction patterns &#8211; much like an x-ray approach.<\/p>\n<p>This approach can speed up the process of determining chemical structures of potential new drugs, allowing compounds with crystals too small for x-ray to be detected.<\/p>\n<p>Drug discoveries can significantly accelerate &#8211; bringing out more effective medicines &#8211; and this technique may even have prospective applications in crime labs to more easily identify narcotic strains.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Now read:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/motoring\/280905-servicing-your-car-to-become-much-cheaper-in-south-africa.html\">Servicing your car to become much cheaper in South Africa<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A group of researchers has developed a new CT scan-like technique that is capable of detecting the shapes of very small organic molecules.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":281013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31750],"tags":[54763,12029,54765],"class_list":["post-280979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","tag-ct-scan","tag-medicine","tag-x-ray"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280979"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280979"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":281089,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280979\/revisions\/281089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}