Sandia National Laboratories researchers John Shelnutt and Yujiang Song have discovered a better way to see where a drug attaches to a cell through a new process that produces novel hollow platinum nanostructures.
Sugar-cane bagasse is a fibrous waste-product of the sugar refining industry, which can be recycled as a raw material for paper manufacture. IRD researchers have elaborated a new bioprocess that transforms the bagasse into paper pulp and also produces an industrially useful enzyme, laccase. The process is based on the metabolism of a filamentous fungus. Preliminary laboratory trials show that this integrated bioprocess can be adapted to other potential fibre-yielding materials, opening up promising applications for the paper industry.
Agent 007 is a mighty versatile fellow, but he would have to take backseat to agents being trained at Washington University in St. Louis. Researchers here are using wireless sensor networks that employ software agents that have been able to navigate a robot through a simulated fire and spot said fire by seeking out heat. Once the agent locates the fire, it clones itself ? try that, James Bond — creating a ring of software around the fire.
Hospitals that provide the most rapid emergency angioplasty have specific strategies to expedite the care of patients with heart attacks, researchers at Yale School of Medicine report in the November 13 New England Journal of Medicine.
A peptide known to play a role in anxiety is overly plentiful in a mouse model of the inherited neurological disorder Rett syndrome and appears to underlie the anxiety-like behavior in these mice, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The finding could provide a clue to treatment for this symptom.
Proteins called H2AX act as “first aid” to DNA, among other roles. For the first time, scientists using the world’s most powerful light microscope (the only one of its kind in the Americas) have seen how H2AX is distributed in the cell nucleus: in clusters, directing the first aid/repair after DNA injuries to the region where it is really needed.
The science of cancer prevention has advanced to the point where researchers now say they can detect ?cancer genes? in the breath of smokers, and can test the presence of two proteins in men they say will predict development of prostate cancer a decade in advance. All of these novel findings need much more examination, of course, but scientists at the American Association for Cancer Research?s Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research meeting, say these examples illustrate how it is becoming increasingly possible to use genes and their protein products to help predict and diagnose cancer, as well as choose therapy that offers the most potential for a good result. These researchers will also discuss a test that can pick out patients who have pancreatic cancer – an advance that offers hope the disease can be treated at earlier stages than it is now – and how several unique genes can predict which prostate cancer or lung cancer patients will develop aggressive tumors that need additional treatment. Cancer is a disease of genes, they say, so genes can be employed as a crystal ball to thwart the disease.
Using material similar to bathtub caulk, University of Utah engineers invented a tiny, inexpensive ?micropump? that could be used to move chemicals, blood or other samples through a card-sized medical laboratory known as a lab-on-a-chip.
Two drugs that a Wake Forest University School of Medicine research team has been investigating for lupus for several years may stabilize atherosclerotic plaque in the walls of arteries and help avert heart attacks and strokes.
Abbott and Kos Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced a definitive agreement for Abbott to acquire Kos for $78 per share in cash, for a total transaction value of $3.7 billion, net of cash currently held by Kos. Based in Cranbury, N.J., Kos is a specialty pharmaceutical company that develops and markets proprietary medications for the treatment of chronic cardiovascular, metabolic and respiratory diseases. The company has a growing presence in the $20 billion lipid management market.