Plasso Technology Ltd has been awarded a Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) grant by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) to develop a sugar array.
Plasso provides novel solutions for the immobilisation and presentation of biomolecules for use in a range of biological assays. One class of biological molecule that has proven particularly difficult to immobilise in this regard is glycosaminoglycans, (GAGs). GAGs are found on the surface of all c
Accidental capture in fishing nets pushes several species to the brink
Leading marine scientists for the first time have assessed dolphin and porpoise populations around the world which are severely threatened by entanglement in fishing gear and recommended nine urgent priorities for action in a report commissioned by the World Wildlife Fund. These nine projects highlight species threatened by bycatch that will most likely benefit from immediate action and will continue to langui
To ignite a life-threatening infection in the body, a virus such as HIV invades body cells by first merging, or fusing, with the cell’s outer membrane. Once inside the cell, the invading microbe’s genetic material takes over, turning the ’host’ cell into a factory to produce more copies of the virus, which then spill out to invade other cells in the body.
Scientists had assumed that once a virus begins fusing with a cell’s membrane, infection of the host
Western corn rootworm can chew through as much as $1 billion yearly due to lost production and treatment costs across the corn belt.
But two Texas Agricultural Experiment Station entomologists think they can reduce these losses with a new model to predict and better target the pests.
The model developed by Dr. Jerry Michels, Experiment Station entomologist in Bushland, and Dr. Marvin Harris, Experiment Station entomologist in College Station, is based on temperature an
An international team of chemists and molecular biologists has discovered a fundamental molecular mechanism that seems to play an important role in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, mad cow disease and two-dozen other degenerative and fatal diseases. The discovery is reported June 9 in the journal Nature, where it is featured on the cover.
Amyloid fibrils, rope-like structures formed by linked protein molecules, are the common feature of these diseases and ma
Scientists are continually exploring different aspects of hurricanes to increase the understanding of how they behave. Recently, two NASA-funded scientists from Florida State University analyzed ozone levels surrounding hurricanes. Their work could lead to better methods of forecasting the paths of the deadly storms.
In their study, FSU meteorologists Xiaolei Zou and Yonghui Wu found that variations of ozone levels from the surface of the ocean to the upper atmosphere are close
Village elders, destitute widows and students in Afghanistan, Kosovo and Sierra Leone weigh in
A new study by researchers at the Feinstein International Famine Center at Tufts University found that local people in war-torn societies view peace and security in vastly different ways than international military and aid personnel serving there.
The report, entitled “Mapping the security environment: Understanding the perception of local communities, peace support operations,
Despite — or perhaps because of — the barrage of information about food that they consume while watching television, kids are getting the wrong message about healthy eating.
A study has found that the more television kids watch, the more confused they are about which foods are — and which aren’t — going to help them grow up strong and healthy.
Increased television viewing had, in fact, a double-negative effect on the children in the study. Regardless of their i
A senior scientist at Mount Sinai Hospital has developed Canada’s first two human embryonic stem cell lines, giving researchers across the country new potential and hope for eventually discovering treatments and cures for many chronic and fatal diseases.
“My hope – and the hope of my world-class laboratory team – is that our step of developing the first Canadian embryonic stem cell lines will ultimately bring Canada and the world closer to treating or curing diseases such as Multiple
Strategic mix to include gibbon, bats, sloth and mosquitoes
The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announced today that the Large-Scale Sequencing Research Network will target 13 more organisms as part of its ongoing effort to produce genomic data that will expand biological knowledge and improve human health.
The National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research (NACHGR), which is a federally chartered
A prototype drug created by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago shows promise in slowing replication of the virus responsible for severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. Currently, there are no effective antiviral agents or vaccines for SARS, which killed almost 800 people in an epidemic in 2002-2003.
On the basis of their success, the researchers have received an $8 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to develop prot
New study shows tiny RNAs intimately associated with cancer
In discoveries that may open a new chapter in understanding and diagnosing cancer, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators and their colleagues have established that tiny microRNAs provide a novel genetic route to the initiation of some forms of cancer. The researchers published their discoveries in independent papers in the June 9, 2005, issue of the journal Nature. Their findings show that distinctive patterns of a
Ribonucleic acid, or RNA, has long been thought to be important only to translate a gene’s DNA into the proteins that are cells’ workhorses. But new evidence shows that tiny bits of RNA not used to make proteins actually play central roles in normal biology and in the development of cancers.
“Scientists have known for a few years that production of these tiny RNAs, known as microRNAs, is only supposed to happen at certain times and in certain tissues, but no one had been able to
Amyloid fibers are best known as the plaque that gunks up neurons in people with neurodegenerative illnesses such as Alzheimer’s and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease–the human analog of mad cow disease. But even though amyloids are common and implicated in a host of conditions, researchers haven’t been able to identify their precise molecular structures. Conventional techniques used to image proteins, such as X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, don’t work wit
Vast genetic treasure on sea beds
Vast genetic resources – “blue gold” on the international deep sea floor – need protection from unfettered commercial exploitation, warns a new report from the Japan-based United Nations University Institute for Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS). Increasingly recognized as important to humankind for their potential medical and other uses, deep sea resources are now more accessible and vulnerable than ever because of rapid advances in exploration technolo
Carolinas Medical Center is one of only 10 facilities nationwide offering this specialized procedure, which is still experimental but offers hope of dramatic lifestyle improvements for a huge number of Type 1 diabetics.
A Davidson woman has been successfully treated for her Type 1 diabetes through a procedure performed at Carolinas Medical Center. Paul F. Gores, M.D., has led a multi-disciplinary team through a series of three pancreatic islet cell transplants since the summer of 2
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