Scientists can now differentiate between healthy cells and cancer cells

piggy submitted, created time 2 days 19 hours (www.eurekalert.org)

One of the current handicaps of cancer treatments is the difficulty of aiming these treatments at destroying malignant cells without killing healthy cells in the process. But a new study by McMaster University researchers has provided insight into how scientists might develop therapies and drugs that more carefully target cancer, while sparing normal healthy cells
Mick Bhatia, scientific director of the McMaster Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute in the Michael G

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Viruses, start your engines!

piggy submitted, created time 1 week 2 days (www.eurekalert.org)

Peering at structures only atoms across, researchers have identified the clockwork that drives a powerful viral nanomotor.

Because of the motor's strength--to scale, twice that of an automobile--the new findings could inspire engineers designing sophisticated nanomachines. In addition, because a number of virus types may possess a similar motor, including the virus that causes herpes, the results may also assist pharmaceutical companies developing methods to sabotage viral machinery.

Researchers from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind

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Surgeon uses human fat to run his cars

sea-maid submitted, created time 2 weeks 6 hours (www.independent.co.uk)

A leading Beverly Hills plastic surgeon claims to have found an environmentally friendly way to combine two of America's great obsessions – after converting his 4x4 to run on fat removed from clients during liposuction operations.

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Nanotubes Sniff Out Cancer Agents in Living Cells

piggy submitted, created time 3 weeks 2 days (www.sciencedaily.com)

MIT engineers have developed carbon nanotubes into sensors for cancer drugs and other DNA-damaging agents inside living cells.

The sensors, made of carbon nanotubes wrapped in DNA, can detect chemotherapy drugs such as cisplatin as well as environmental toxins and free radicals that damage DNA.

"We've made a sensor that can be placed in living cells, healthy or malignant, and actually detect several different classes of molecules that damage DNA," said Michael Strano, associate professor of chemical engineering and senior author of a paper on the work appearing in the Dec

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Lethal Lint Brush Captures and Kills Cancer Cells in the Bloodstream

piggy submitted, created time 3 weeks 6 days (www.sciencedaily.com)

In a new tactic in the fight against cancer, Cornell researcher Michael King has developed what he calls a lethal "lint brush" for the blood--a tiny, implantable device that captures and kills cancer cells in the bloodstream before they spread through the body.

The strategy, which takes advantage of the body's natural mechanism for fighting infection, could lead to new treatments for a variety of cancers, said King, who is an associate professor of biomedical engineering

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Smart drug implant has batteries included

sea-maid submitted, created time 1 month 1 week (www.newscientist.com)

Implants that deliver a drug to just the right place in the body could become "biobatteries" that release the drug at exactly the right rate.

At present, it is difficult to control how quickly implants release their payload. The biobattery produces a current of a known strength, and it is this that controls the drug's release.

The smart implant is based on magnesium alloy stents that are being developed for surgeons to use as temporary splints to keep damaged blood vessels in shape while they heal

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Brain implant allows mute man to speak

sea-maid submitted, created time 1 month 2 weeks (www.nature.com)

An electrode implanted into the brain of a man with locked-in syndrome has enabled him to use a speech synthesizer to produce vowel sounds as he thinks them. The same team is now working on a chip that can also produce consonants.

Locked-in syndrome is a type of paralysis in which patients are unable to voluntarily move anything but their eyelids. However, they are fully conscious

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Brain–machine interfaces: Back in control

sea-maid submitted, created time 1 month 2 weeks (www.nature.com)

Spinal cord injury disrupts the pathway between brain and muscle, causing paralysis. One potential strategy for treatment is to use a brain–machine interface to route control signals from the brain directly to the muscles, bypassing the site of injury. For the first time, Moritz and colleagues have shown that an artificial device can compensate for paralysis in monkeys

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Frozen mice cloned - are woolly mammoths next?

piggy submitted, created time 2 months 3 days (www.reuters.com)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Japanese scientists have cloned mice whose bodies were frozen for as long sixteen years and said on Monday it may be possible to use the technique to resurrect mammoths and other extinct species.

Mouse cloning expert Teruhiko Wakayama and colleagues at the Center for Developmental Biology, at Japan's RIKEN research institute in Yokohama, managed to clone the mice even though their cells had burst.

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French Try Plane Technology in Artificial Heart

sea-maid submitted, created time 2 months 1 week (www.time.com)

In the race to build a better artificial heart, French scientists have turned to technology from satellites and airplanes to create a heart that they say responds better to the human body. So far, the new device, shown at a news conference in Paris on Monday, has only been tested in animals. Its makers hope it might one day help people survive without needing a human heart transplant.

The maker of this artificial heart is a subsidiary of the European Aeronautic and Space Defense Company (EADS), but this isn't a matter of fluid dynamics

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Protein Kinase CK2: new perspectives of an old kinase

yarmoluk submitted, created time 3 months 2 weeks (www.discover8.com)

Protein Kinase CK2: new perspectives of an old kinase

Design of specific small molecules that are able to block (inhibit) function of macromolecular targets responsible for the development of certain disorder is the “classic” and most widely used approach in modern drug therapeutics, e.g., in cancer treatment

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Turning Bacteria into Plastic Factories

jerry submitted, created time 3 months 2 weeks (www.sciam.com)

Plastics are one of the most versatile and useful things that can be made from expensive fossil fuels. ...except as of now, it's "that can be made from expensive fossil fuels and genetically engineered E. coli." A new company has found a way to produce polymers from genetically engineered microbes that feed on sugars, replacing fossil-fuel based processes.

The plastic in question is called butanediol, and the process has been in the works for some time. The trick was getting the bacteria to tolderate high levels of butanediol in the water. It's usually toxic.

E

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Gene chips unmask cryptic diseases

sea-maid submitted, created time 3 months 3 weeks (www.nature.com)

People with diverse symptoms including mental retardation, small head size, heart problems and cataracts have genomic rearrangements on the same region of chromosome 1, researchers reported last week.

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OTAVA Ltd. offers MORE THAN 200 NEW FOCUSED COMPOUND LIBRARIES FOR SCREENING.

yarmoluk submitted, created time 3 months 3 weeks (www.otavachemicals.com)

OTAVA Ltd. offers MORE THAN 200 NEW FOCUSED COMPOUND LIBRARIES FOR SCREENING.

They include target-specific compound libraries, e.g, P38 kinase inhibitors, cathepsin B inhibitors, HCV serine protease inhibitors and many others as well as libraries with general pharmacological activities, e.g, antiallergic, antiviral, analgesic and other activities. The focused libraries were designed especially for research and development of new lead compounds.

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Biotechnology: Can hydrogels solve our water problem?

Darkfrog submitted, created time 3 months 3 weeks (www.nature.com)

I remember reading BIll Bryson's description of a pre-blight American chestnut tree. When he came to the transpiration of water, he said, "imagine how much metal and noise humans would have to use to move that many gallons water."

Well artificial water transport just got a bit quieter, even if it can't match the chestnut just yet. A tiny microtree made from the same type of gel used to make contact lenses has mimicked water transport in plants. Scientists say that it could be used to extract water in dry places or make more efficient cooling systems

1 comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: water trees biotechnology hydrogels plants transpiration chips ground water water economy water supply water quality water use