Search Results (6)

This article shows the life and work of Gerty Cori, a woman born in Czechoslovakia and who later became a naturalized American, who spent her whole life researching, together with her husband, in the laboratory to find the cause of some diseases, particularly those of a metabolic type, and to be able to find substances that alleviate their effects. The result of this joint work was the obtaining by both, together with the physiologist Bernardo Houssay, of the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology in 1947. The objective of this article is to complete the scarce existing biographies about this woman with new data that highlight the most outstanding events of her life, quite a few of which are still largely ignored. A relatively complete information on the presence of female chemists in the awarded Nobel Prizes is also shown. Full article

Ovarian cancer represents a major health concern for the female population: there is no obvious cause, it is frequently misdiagnosed, and it is characterized by a poor prognosis. Additionally, patients are inclined to recurrences because of metastasis and poor treatment tolerance. Combining innovative therapeutic techniques with established approaches can aid in improving treatment outcomes. Because of their multi-target actions, long application history, and widespread availability, natural compounds have particular advantages in this connection. Thus, effective therapeutic alternatives with improved patient tolerance hopefully can be identified within the world of natural and nature-derived products. Moreover, natural compounds are generally perceived to have more limited adverse effects on healthy cells or tissues, suggesting their potential role as valid treatment alternatives. In general, the anticancer mechanisms of such molecules are connected to the reduction of cell proliferation and metastasis, autophagy stimulation and improved response to chemotherapeutics. This review aims at discussing the mechanistic insights and possible targets of natural compounds against ovarian cancer, from the perspective of medicinal chemists. In addition, an overview of the pharmacology of natural products studied to date for their potential application towards ovarian cancer models is presented. The chemical aspects as well as available bioactivity data are discussed and commented on, with particular attention to the underlying molecular mechanism(s). Full article

At present, several countries on the Asian continent are still very closed off to the idea of allowing not only the work of women, but also even the fact that they can study university degrees and, after finishing them, go on to practice their professions. In addition, if we go back to the beginning of the 20th century, this situation was even more serious. However, this was not an impediment for some women from these countries to achieve their goals of pursuing higher education and then serving society with their work. This article is dedicated to showing the biographies of three of them, the Indian chemist Asima Chatterjee and Philippine pharmacists Matilde S. Arquiza and Filomena Francisco. The most relevant features of their personal and professional lives are presented and previous biographies about them are completed. The main objective of this work is to show these figures to society and hold them up as references to other people, and the methodology followed has been the search for data about their lives and work that would allow us to complete the previous existing biographies about them. A brief biography on Janaki Ammal, the first Indian woman to obtain a doctorate, is also included. Full article

Gertrude Belle Elion was a woman who had to overcome many difficulties to achieve her dream of studying to be able to cure illnesses, especially those of the heart. These difficulties were imposed both by the limited economic resources of herself and her family, which did not allow her to pay the academic fees of the university in which she wanted to enroll, as well as gender, since she also had to fight against inequalities of that type prevalent in the society of her time. However, and despite these obstacles, she managed to graduate in Chemistry, based on interest, effort and tenacity, and later began a research career full of successes, which led her to discover relevant active substances which allow her to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1988. This article presents the most relevant features of her personal and professional life and completes previous biographies about her life. Its main objective is to reintroduce her to society and put her as a reference to other people. The methodology followed has been the search for those data about her life and work that would allow completing the previous existing biographies about her. Full article

The present work opens with an acknowledgement to the research activity performed by Luciana Naldini while affiliated at the Università degli Studi di Sassari (Italy), in particular towards gold complexes and clusters, as a tribute to her outstanding figure in a time and a society where being a woman in science was rather difficult, hoping her achievements could be of inspiration to young female chemists in pursuing their careers against the many hurdles they may encounter. Naldini’s findings will be a key to introduce the most recent results in this field, showing how the chemistry of gold compounds has changed throughout the years, to reach levels of complexity and elegance that were once unimagined. The study of gold complexes and clusters with various phosphine ligands was Naldini’s main field of research because of the potential application of these species in diverse research areas including electronics, catalysis, and medicine. As the conclusion of a vital period of study, here we report Naldini’s last results on a hexanuclear cationic gold cluster, [(PPh₃)₆Au₆(OH)₂]²⁺, having a chair conformation, and on the assumption, supported by experimental data, that it comprises two hydroxyl groups. This contribution, within the fascinating field of inorganic chemistry, provides the intuition of how a simple electron counting may lead to predictable species of yet unknown molecular architectures and formulation, nowadays suggesting interesting opportunities to tune the electronic structures of similar and higher nuclearity species thanks to new spectroscopic and analytical approaches and software facilities. After several decades since Naldini’s exceptional work, the chemistry of the gold cluster has reached a considerable degree of complexity, dealing with new, single-atom precise, materials possessing interesting physico-chemical properties, such as luminescence, chirality, or paramagnetic behavior. Here we will describe some of the most significant contributions. Full article

Singlet fission, a multiple exciton generation process, can revolutionize existing solar cell technologies. Offering the possibility to double photocurrent, the process has become a focal point for physicists, chemists, software developers, and engineers. The following review is dedicated to the female investigators, predominantly theorists, who have contributed to the field of singlet fission. We highlight their most significant advances in the subject, from deciphering the mechanism of the process to designing coveted singlet fission materials. Full article