Medical
Accelerating genome analysis
An international team of scientists, led by researchers from A*STAR's Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) and the Bioinformatics Institute (BII), have developed SIFT 4G (SIFT for Genomes) - a software that can lead to faster genome analysis. This development was published in the scientific journal Nature Protocols.
Artificial skin sensors made from sticky notes
Everyday materials from the kitchen drawer, such as aluminum foil, sticky note paper, sponges and tape, have been used by a team of electrical engineers from KAUST to develop a low-cost sensor that can detect external stimuli, including touch, pressure, temperature, acidity and humidity.
A portable device for rapid and highly sensitive diagnostics
When remote regions with limited health facilities experience an epidemic, they need portable diagnostic equipment that functions outside the hospital. As demand for such equipment grows, EPFL researchers have developed a low-cost and portable microfluidic diagnostic device. It has been tested on Ebola and can be used to detect many other diseases. Over the past several years, microfluidic devices have shown extraordinary potential in the ar...
Engineered nanoparticles deliver cancer drugs to tumours
Chemotherapy isn't supposed to make your hair fall out—it's supposed to kill cancer cells. A new molecular delivery system created at U of T could help ensure that chemotherapy drugs get to their target while minimising collateral damage. Many cancer drugs target fast-growing cells. Injected into a patient, they swirl around in the bloodstream acting on fast-growing cells wherever they find them. That includes tumours, but unfortunately als...
Microfluidic device could speed up DNA insertion in bacteria
Genetically engineering any organism requires first getting its cells to take in foreign DNA. To do this, scientists often perform a process called electroporation, in which they expose cells to an electric field. If that field is at just the right magnitude, it will open up pores within the cell membrane, through which DNA can flow. But it can take scientists months or even years to figure out the exact electric field conditions to reversibly un...
Nanoparticle has the potential to treat ocular cancer
Researchers at the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center have developed a new nanoparticle that uses a tumor cell's protective mechanism against itself - short-circuiting tumor cell metabolism and killing tumor cells. "Our work uses a semiconducting nanoparticle with an attached platinum electrode to drive the synthesis of an anti-cancer compound when illuminated by light," says Howard R. Petty, Ph.D., professor of ophthalmology and visual sc...
Mind-controlled prosthetic arm moves individual ‘fingers’
Physicians and biomedical engineers from Johns Hopkins report what they believe is the first successful effort to wiggle fingers individually and independently of each other using a mind-controlled artificial 'arm' to control the movement. The proof-of-concept feat, described online this week in the Journal of Neural Engineering, represents a potential advance in technologies to restore refined hand function to those who have lost arms to injury ...
Fluorescent biosensors light up metabolic engineering
Synthetic biologists are learning to turn microbes and unicellular organisms into highly productive factories by re-engineering their metabolism to produce valued commodities such as fine chemicals, therapeutics and biofuels.
New hydrogel nanoplatform shrinks tumors in mice
Functionalised nanoparticles are one avenue of drug delivery for chemotherapeutics. However, getting nanoparticles to target the tumor site has proven difficult to do. One method researchers have used to target cancer cells is to create hydrogels made of filamentous bacteriophage (phage) and gold nanoparticles. Peptide binding ligands can be incorporated into the phage portion of the hydrogel that will then target known carcinoma cells.
‘Mini-Brains’ created in lab to study neurological diseases
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health say they have developed tiny 'mini-brains' made up of many of the neurons and cells of the human brain – and even some of its functionality – and which can be replicated on a large scale.