Penn State chemical engineers have demonstrated proof of concept for a new protein purification process that combines ultrafiltration’s high throughput with high specificity achievable through electrically-charged dyes that bind to the protein.
Ultrafiltration is widely used now in the pharmaceutical industry, by milk and whey producers and in water purification. The new process promises to broaden the scope of ultrafiltration to more fine separations.
In the proof of c
The world’s oldest volcano observatory has added satellites to its repertoire of instruments to monitor volcanic features flanking Naples. The result has been the most detailed view ever of ground motion in this vicinity.
When it was founded back in 1841, the Vesuvius Observatory of Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology was the world’s first scientific institution devoted to volcanoes. Now its remit is more than simply scientific: the Observator
Over-the-phone transmission of diagnostic-quality ultrasound images is possible, potentially paving the way for ultrasound examinations to be performed in poorer areas of the world, inexpensively transmitted via the Internet, and read by experienced radiologists elsewhere, a new Dartmouth Medical School study shows.
The study was prompted in part by Veljko Popov, an MD/PhD student at Dartmouth Medical School (DMS) who wanted to help the people in his homeland of Yugoslavia. Using
St Mary’s NHS Trust and Imperial College London are piloting a scheme where medical robots will cover ward rounds.
Remote Presence (RP6) Robots allow a medical expert to visually examine and communicate with a patient from anywhere in the world, via the machine, using wireless technology. The robots (nicknamed by staff Sister Mary and Dr Robbie) can also be used for surgical teaching and even videoconferencing.
The robots are controlled with a joystick from a remote
Researchers have found a gene they suspect plays an important role in triggering the blight that wiped out Ireland’s potato crops a century-and-a-half ago.
And the pathogen that contains this gene still causes massive amounts of agricultural damage throughout the modern world– on the order of billions of dollars each year. The scientists describe the gene, called Avr3a, in a study that appears online in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Scienc
The U.S. ranks highest in utilization of high-tech imaging compared to other countries worldwide, while Germany and Singapore ranks high in utilization of both high and low tech imaging, a new study shows.
The study compared utilization of radiography (low-tech imaging) to CT and MR (high tech imaging) in 15 countries (U.S., Canada, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, South Korea, China, India, Singapore, Indonesia, Brazil and Mexico) to determine how the wo
Chest X-rays may miss 40% of clinically significant thoracic injuries in multiple trauma patients that can be caught by chest CT, say researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
For the study, the researchers analyzed the findings of 563 multiple trauma patients who had both chest CT and plain film X-rays performed. They found that the X-rays missed 40% of clinically significant thoracic injuries, including lung contusions, lung lacerations, rib and spine fractures a
Data suggest that it may pack an improved punch against gastric cancer
A new combination chemotherapy appears to battle advanced stomach cancer harder than other platinum-based therapies, while offering patients more convenience and potentially less discomfort, according to results announced at the 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Researchers studied the combination of a new drug, called S-1, and the platinum-based chemotherapy called cisplatin in p
The only sugar beets growing in Texas are in the laboratory. But those few plants are getting to the root of problems throughout the sugar beet industry.
The sugar beet industry moved out of Texas in 1997 after the close of the processing plant at Hereford. But the growing research program within Texas Agricultural Experiment Station’s plant pathology lab here didn’t die.
Just the opposite, said Dr. Charlie Rush, professor and director of the plant pathology labs in Bus
In mammals, sperm from the male determines the sex of the offspring. In birds, however, it is the female’s sex chromosome that determines offspring sex. Now, Cornell University researchers think they understand the mechanism that several bird species use to bias the sex ratios of their offspring toward female.
By experimenting with domestic chickens, they have determined that the presence of higher-than-normal levels of the hormone progesterone during the first meiosis — t
Finding may have ramifications for vaccines, autoimmunity and atherosclerosis
Scientists have uncovered a new method the immune system uses to label foreign invaders as targets to be attacked. Researchers showed that the immune system can brand foreign proteins by chemically modifying their structure, and that these modifications increased the chances that cells known as lymphocytes would recognize the trespassers and attack them. “Now that we know that some T cells need to see
New brain monitoring method would pinpoint babies at risk for seizures
Confusion and speech problems are frequent signs of seizures, but babies offer few such clues as to what ails them. Now scientists at the Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida report they have found a mathematical way to translate complicated brain wave readings into simple terms to help doctors and nurses more easily identify babies at risk for epilepsy. Epilepsy des
A study published in the latest issue of Psychology of Women Quarterly reports that mind-body exercise, such as yoga, is associated with greater body satisfaction and fewer symptoms of eating disorders than traditional aerobic exercise like jogging or using cardio machines. Yoga practitioners reported less self-objectification, greater satisfaction with physical appearance, and fewer disordered eating attitudes compared to non-yoga practitioners. In yoga class, a woman develops sensitivity to bodi
When primitive nerve cells begin forming an eye in the mouse embryo, they are programmed to build a retina. But the ability to see depends upon connecting the retina to the brain via the optic nerve. Unless these embryonic cells are given the right cue at the right time, they mistakenly form a huge eye that consists entirely of retina and lacks the optic nerve.
The discovery that the retina is the ’default’ setting for development in the embryonic eye comes from research
A gene that signals a yeast cell to make bread rise and mice to eat a better diet also helps selectively silence the immune system, researchers have found.
The finding may help explain how a mother avoids rejecting a genetically foreign fetus and provides a new target for treatments to help the immune system ignore other desirables like a transplanted organ. “Think of this like a radio transmitter and a receiver,” says Dr. David H. Munn, pediatric hematologist-oncologist at the
Smaller, faster computers, bullet proof t-shirts and itty-bitty robots, such are the promises of nanotechnology and the cylinder-shaped collection of carbon molecules known as nanotubes. But in order for these exciting technologies to hit the marketplace (who wouldn’t want an itty-bitty robot), scientists must understand how these miracle-molecules perform under all sorts of conditions. For, without nanoscience, there would be no nanotechnology.
In a recent study, researchers
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