Approximately 150 people took part in the National Nanotechnology Initiative’s (NNI) Public Meeting on Research Needs related to the Environmental, Health, and Safety Aspects of Engineered Nanoscale Materials. The meeting was held January_4, 2007, in Arlington, Virginia.
Combining synthetic chemistry techniques with a knowledge of the properties and actions of enzymes, scientists have been able to produce an exciting class of anti-cancer drugs originally isolated from blue-green algae.
University of Pittsburgh investigators have successfully prevented the onset of type 1 diabetes in mice prone to developing the disease using an antibody against a receptor on the surface of immune T-cells. According to the investigators, these findings, which are being published in the January issue of the journal Diabetes, have significant implications for the prevention of type 1 diabetes.
For the first time ever, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory have developed a material with a negative refractive index for visible light. Ames Laboratory senior physicist Costas Soukoulis, working with colleagues in Karlsruhe, Germany, designed a silver-based, mesh-like material that marks the latest advance in the rapidly evolving field of metamaterials, materials that could lead to a wide range of new applications as varied as ultrahigh-resolution imaging systems and cloaking devices.
Most genome sequencers are looking for genes inside living species to understand their function. But one genome project is deliberately searching for DNA sequences that are absent from species — perhaps because they are too dangerous to life to exist. The US team have developed software that calculates all the possible sequences of nucleotides and then scans sequence databases to identify sequences that aren’t present. They believe their results will have far-reaching applications.
Uric acid is commonly associated with the excruciatingly painful joint disease known as gout, but it can also play a crucial role in the treatment of spinal cord injury and other central nervous system disorders, such as stroke, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease, according to Rutgers’ Bonnie Firestein.
A professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has been helping the Department of Energy analyze the genome of a “paper-eating” bacterium that could have uses in producing ethanol, but also shed light on how “gliding” bacteria move. The two functions could be related.
There are few treatments for a rare cancer called acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). Arsenite is a form of arsenic that’s particularly effective against this cancer. In a new study, researchers identify a novel mechanism by which arsenite acts in APL cells.
The Mainland will implement arrangements on the strengthened control of batch numbers and identification marks for exported poultry eggs and the issuance of health certificates for eggs on January 1. Most of the consignments of poultry eggs issued with health certificates will arrive in Hong Kong a few days later.
A team of Mayo Clinic researchers has uncovered a key step in the molecular pathway of repairing DNA double-strand breaks. The findings are published in the current edition of the journal Cell.