A new scalaran class sesterterpenoid with five known ones was isolated from a marine sponge Smenospongia species collected from the Gageo island, Korea. Chemical structure of all of compounds was determined on the basis of a combination of extensive 1D and 2D NMR experiments and MS data. The new compound exhibited a new functional group on a common scalaran sesterterpene skeleton, identified as 12-deacetoxy-23-deacetoxyscalarin. The compound 1 moderately showed the effect of the activation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) in L6 myoblast cell.

The line-width of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) was studied as a function of the temperature at a frequency of 9.49 GHz in the presence of external electromagnetic radiation. The relative frequency dependence of the absorption power is obtained with the projection operator technique (POT) proposed by Kawabata. The line-width increased as the temperature increased in the high-temperature region (T>200 K). The scattering is little affected in the low-temperature region (T<200 K) because there is no correlation between the resonance field and the Fermi-Dirac distribution function. Thus, the present technique is considered to be more convenient to explain the resonant system as in the case of other optical transition problems.

Tid1, belonging to the Hsp40/DnaJ family of proteins, functions as a cochaperone of cytosolic and mitochondrial Hsp70 proteins. In particular, the N-terminal J-domain of Tid1 (Tid1-JD) constitutes the major binding sites for proteinprotein interactions with client proteins, including p53, as well as its partner chaperone, Hsp70. In the present study, soluble, recombinant protein of Tid1-JD could be obtained by using the pCold vector system, and backbone NMR assignments were completed using the isotope $[^{13}C/^{15}N]$-enriched protein. Far-UV CD result implied that Tid1-JD is an ${\alpha}$-helical protein and the secondary structure determined using chemical shift data sets indentified four ${\alpha}$-helices with a loop region containing the HPD (conserved tripeptide of His, Pro and Asp) motif. Additionally, NMR spectra under different conditions implied that the HPD motif, which is a critical region for protein-protein interactions of Tid1-JD, would possess dynamic properties.

Melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) subtype is associated with obese humans. Especially, in a patient with severe early-onset obesity, novel heterozygous mutation in the MC4R gene was detected, resulting in an exchange of aspartic acid to asparagine in $90^{th}$ amino acid residue located in the predicted second trans-membrane domain (TM2). Mutations in the melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) gene are the most frequent monogenic causes of severe obesity which have been described as heterozygous with loss of function. In order to compare structure difference between MC4R wild type (MC4R-TM2-wt) and mutant (MC4R-TM2-D90N), we designed both MC4R-TM2-wt and MC4R-TM2-D90N construct in pET 21b vector. In this study, we optimized high-yield purification procedure for recombinant TM2-D90N. Eluted recombinant protein was resolubilized under urea condition for thrombin cleavage reaction and we conducted the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with reverse phase column under 1% acetonitrile, 0.01% TFA buffer solution. The molecular size of purified target peptide was confirmed by Tricine-SDS page analysis. To characterize MC4R-TM2-D90N, we have performed $^{15}N$-isotope labeling of peptide using M9 media and purified labeled target peptide for hetero-nuclear NMR spectroscopy.

Metabolomic studies using human urine have shown that human metabolism is altered by a variety of environmental, cultural, and physiological factors. Comprehensive information about normal human metabolite profiles is necessary for accurate clinical diagnosis of disease and for disease prevention and treatment. In this study, metabolite correlation analyses, using $^1H$ nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy coupled with multivariate statistics, were performed on human urine to compare metabolic differences based on gender and/or obesity in healthy human subjects. First, we applied partial least squares discriminant analysis to the NMR spectral data set to verify the data's ability to discriminate by gender and obesity. Then, the differences in metabolite-metabolite correlation between male and female, and between normal and high body mass index (obese) subjects were investigated through pairwise correlations. Creatine and several metabolites, including isoleucine, trans-aconitate, and trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), exhibited different quantitative relationships depending on gender. Dimethylamine had a different correlation with glycine and TMAO, based on gender. The correlation of TMAO with amino acids was considerably lower in obese, compared to normal, subjects. We expect that the results will shed light on the metabolic pathways of healthy humans and will assist in the accurate diagnosis of human disease.

The small molecule binding to the c-Jun N-terminal kinase 3 (JNK3) was examined by the measurements of saturation transfer difference (STD) NMR experiments. The STD NMR experiment of ATP added to JNK3 clearly showed the binding of the nucleotide to the kinase. The STD NMR spectrum of dNTPs added to JNK3 discriminated the kinase-bound nucleotide from the unbound ones. After the five-fold addition of ATP to the dNTPs and JNK3 mixture, only signals of the cognate substrate of JNK3, ATP, were observed from the STD NMR experiment. These results signify that by the STD NMR the small molecules bound to JNK3 can be discriminated from the pool of the unbound molecules. Furthermore the binding mode of the small molecule to JNK3 can be determined by the competition experiments with ATP.

To understand the electronic structure of $[NiS_4]^-$ complex ions, two complexes with such $[NiS_4]^-$ core, $FcCH=CHPymCH_3[Ni(dmit)_2]$ (Pym = pyridinium, $dmit^{2-}$ = 2-thioxo-1,3-dithiole-4,5-dithiolate) and $FcCH=CHPymCH_3[Ni(dddt)_2]{\cdot}{\frac{1}{2}}H_2O$ ($dddt^{2-}=5,6-dihydro-1,4-dithiin-2,3-dithiolato$), were synthesized to be characterized by X-ray crystallography, single crystal electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and density functional theory (DFT) calculation. Powder EPR spectra show narrow g-anisotropy but the anisotropy is bigger in $[Ni(dmit)_2]^-$ than in $[Ni(dddt)_2]^-$, indicating bigger spin density in Ni(III) d-orbital of $[Ni(dmit)_2]^-$ than in $[Ni(dddt)_2]^-$, which is consistent to DFT results. EPR studies of the crystals of the complexes surprisingly suggest that the $g_y$-axis of $[Ni(dddt)_2]^-$ is approximately on or perpendicular to the $[NiS_4]^-$ plane while the $g_y$-axis of $[Ni(dmit)_2]^-$ is on the plane, though DFT study of the complexes of this study and previously reported $[NiS_4]^-$ complexes indicate that the $g_y$-axis is on the $[NiS_4]^-$ plane.