University of York spinout Paraytec Ltd unveiled its patented analytical detection technology to an audience of investors at the White Rose Bioscience Forum today (03 November).
The company’s UV absorbance detection products use of novel, miniaturised detectors that employ capillaries as sample vessels. The products offer greatly improved sensitivity and dynamic range and have a range of applications in industry and research, including UV absorbance measurements on nanolitre volumes
Virginia Tech researchers from geosciences and biology are looking at where arsenic occurs in water, how it is getting there, and how to prevent it. They will present their findings at the 116th national meeting of the Geological Society of America in Denver Nov. 7-10.
Since health data have demonstrated that arsenic is a carcinogen, the U.S. standard for arsenic in drinking water has been lowered from 50 to 10 parts per billion, which is the same as the European Union stand
There were 20 million metric tons of lead bullets fired in the United States in the 20th century. Is that lead having an environmental impact? Not at or near the U.S. Forest Service firing range near Blacksburg, Va., according to research by Virginia Tech geological scientists. Donald Rimstidt, a professor in the Department of Geosciences, College of Science at Virginia Tech will report the conclusions of a five-year study at the 116th national meeting of the Geological Sciences of America
Copper mining in Butte and Anaconda, Montana, starting in 1860’s, poisoned the air, the land, and the water; well over 100 years later, contaminants are still found as far as 300 miles down the Clark Fork River, whose headwaters are in that area.
The presence of the contaminants has been known for many decades. But the interaction of the heavy metals and other compounds in the soil, streams, and rivers were unknown until Virginia Tech professor of geosciences Michael Hochella
A Virginia Tech graduate student put a car battery and Hurricane Ivan to good use in his studies of sinkholes.
Benjamin Schwartz, a Ph.D. student in geosciences in the College of Science, who is from Doe Hill, Va., in Highland County, is using an innovative technique to characterize ground water movement in sinkholes. His goal is to recommend management strategies to reduce contamination of aquifers in regions that are rife with sinkholes. Hurricane Ivan’s downpour in South
Dinosaurs ruled the earth for hundreds of millions of years, then disappeared so completely that to find even a partially complete skeleton of a single multi-ton animal is rare. Meanwhile, the Virginia Museum of Natural History has scores of fossils of Tanytrachelos ahynis, a 12 to 18-inch reptile that also lived millions of years ago, at the same time as the earliest dinosaurs.
Tanytrachelos is a long-necked reptile that was related to the perhaps better-known nine-foot (up to t
CT with multiplanar reconstruction provides a clear multi-dimensional view of tibial triplane fractures of the ankle–a view that alters what is found in many medical textbooks and changes the way physicians understand these complex fractures, a new study shows.
The study included 51 young people, ranging in age from 10 to 17 years old. Triplane fractures, (fracture lines occur in three planes of the ankle) account for about 6%-10% of ankle fractures in young people, says Stephe
Data from two ongoing studies testing new approaches for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C will be presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) this afternoon.
Presented by principal investigator Nezam Afdhal, M.D., Chief of Hepatology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, the new findings provide researchers with sufficient evidence to demonstrate promising re
In the first study to directly compare the emergence of antibiotic resistance following topical treatment between two antibiotics routinely prescribed for a common vaginal infection, researchers from the Magee-Womens Research Institute have found antibiotic-resistant bacteria more likely to develop with the drug clindamycin than metronidazole. The study is being published in the October issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Researchers followed 99 women be
Efforts to protect coral reefs should be refocused on terminating self-reinforcing processes that accelerate degradation of these biological marvels, according to a Forum article published in the November 2004 issue of BioScience. The article, by Charles Birkeland of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, blames a series of “ratchets” — destructive forces that are hard to reverse — for the failure of most current efforts to halt continuing losses.
Birkeland identifies seven ecological
Discovery means angiogenesis may one day be stopped, started for therapeutic use
A protein important to nerve development serves the dual purpose of stimulating the growth of blood vessels, researchers from the University of Utah School of Medicine and Stanford University have discovered. The discovery opens the possibility that blood vessel growth (angiogenesis) one day may be induced, or stymied, for therapeutic use against heart disease, cancer, and other illnesses, according to
Scientists at Bristol University have found that a protein present in normal body tissues can prevent tumour growth.
A team led by Dr Dave Bates, British Heart Foundation Lecturer, and Dr Steve Harper, Senior Research Fellow in the Microvascular Research Laboratories, in the Department of Physiology at Bristol University, have discovered that a type of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) found in normal tissue, including blood, can prevent cancers from growing. The re
Genetic variation in ABC transporter A1 contributes to HDL cholesterol in the general population
High cholesterol levels are a major contributor to heart disease in particular atherosclerosis. High density lipoprotein (HDL) has an essential role in reducing cholesterol levels, and therefore has a cardioprotective effect. There is therefore a great deal of research into the genetic underpinnings that control HDL blood levels. Individuals with Tangier disease have essentially no H
Implications for better understanding of diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and obesity
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered that components of the internal molecular clock of mammals have an important role in governing the metabolism of sugars and fats within the body. They found in mice that two of the well-studied proteins in the clock control the ability of animals to recover from the fall in blood sugar that occurs in response to insulin
Potential antimicrobial resistance in the bacteria that cause gonorrhea can be detected without culturing the organism, thanks to a rapid test developed by researchers at Johns Hopkins.
Key to the usefulness of the new test is that it does not require collection, culture or testing of the bacteria themselves – called Neisseria gonorrhea. Instead, the genes linked to resistance can be identified in urine samples or in leftover products from other commonly used diagnostic techniqu
Smokers can add pre-cancerous growths in the colon to the host of increased health risks they face, according to two studies presented at the 69th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology. Researchers at Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center examined the relationship between polyps and dietary and recreational habits as well as medications in a prospective study of 157 patients with a mean age of 55 years and found smokers faced a significant risk of developing colon poly
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