Pretreating transplanted livers with the immune molecule interleukin-6 (IL-6) dramatically increased survival of rats receiving organs with fatty degeneration–a common condition in humans that typically reduces transplant viability. The results suggest a means of making it possible to use a higher percentage of available donor livers for transplantation in humans. With over three times as many Americans needing transplants as there are available donor livers, an effective approach to increasing the
The Royal Academy of Engineering sponsored a UK technology mission to Japan on behalf of the DTI’s International Technology Service, to investigate recent developments in tissue engineering and related advanced technologies. The Mission team, comprising a number of high-level experts visited Japan from 7 to 12 April. On 30 June, team leader Professor David Williams FREng, and the rest of the mission’s team, will outline the results of their visit at the Royal Academy of Engineering in London. Several
A material used to protect submarines from sonar detection is the latest technological breakthrough in ensuring the safe and effective dose of ultrasound in medicine. Practitioners and thousands of patients in physiotherapy departments worldwide will benefit from the latest technology, which will ensure a step forward in the reliability of delivered ultrasound treatment.
The material forms a key component in a novel desk-top ultrasound power meter developed by the UK’s national standards lab
EU satellite research project tackles urban air quality from space
A three-year project led by the Commission with ten partners from Greece, Germany, Hungary and Italy has developed an innovative system for monitoring and managing urban air quality and the related health risks. Results of the “ICAROS NET” technique were presented today in Budapest. ICAROS uses satellite-borne sensors to monitor the concentration of harmful particles in the air, caused by heavy industry, traffic and ho
An updated edition of Sources and Prices of Selected Medicines and Diagnostics for People living with HIV/AIDS will be released today. The report provides market information on 74 reviewed products for the treatment and management of HIV/AIDS from 61 manufacturers.
The report gives purchasers of AIDS medicines and diagnostics a range of choices related to suppliers and affordability. The medicines included were selected on the basis of WHO standard treatment guidelines. The list is n
Through many decades, stories about earthquakes raising or lowering water levels in wells, lakes and streams have become the stuff of folklore.
Just last November, the magnitude 7.9 Denali earthquake in Alaska was credited with sloshing water in Seattle’s Lake Union and Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans, and was blamed the next day when muddy tap water turned up in Pennsylvania, where some water tables dropped as much as 6 inches.
But the relationship between seismic activity and
Scientists have developed a hydrogen-making catalyst that uses cheaper materials and yields fewer contaminants than do current processes, while extracting the element from common renewable plant sources. Further, the new catalyst lies at the heart of a chemical process the authors say is a significant advance in producing alternate fuels from domestic sources.
In the June 27 issue of the journal Science, James Dumesic, John Shabaker and George Huber, of the University of Wisconsin at Madis
A group of scientists from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and several other institutions has solved the structure of an antibody that effectively neutralizes human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).
The antibody binds to sugars on the surface of HIV and effectively neutralizes the virus because of its unique structure, which is described in the latest issue of the journal Science.
“What we found was an unusual conf
Improvements in echocardiographic sequence and mammogram analysis techniques lead to earlier detection of disease and defects.
Imaging various parts of the body is an established and important method for the diagnosis of diseases such as breast cancer, and is also used extensively for the detection of abnormalities in organs such as the heart. Accurate interpretation, and ultimately correct diagnosis, is dependent on the quality of the images. High quality images, however, can often b
Biodiversity in urban/suburban yards correlates with household income
Biodiversity in urban and suburban yards directly correlates with household income, scientists have found.
Researchers at the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site found higher plant diversity in “upscale” neighborhoods. “The line flattens out, however, at about the $50,000 per year salary mark,” said scientist Charles Redman. “When inves
Drinking may compromise treatment success
A team of NIH-supported researchers today report that alcohol increases replication of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in human cells and, by so doing, may contribute to the rapid course of HCV infection. The researchers tested the actions of alcohol in HCV replicon–viral HCV-ribonucleic acid or HCV-RNAs that, when introduced into human liver cell lines, replicate to high levels. In separate laboratory experiments they showed that: alcohol
In two groundbreaking papers published in two prestigious journals over the last two months, University of Southern California researchers have provided evidence of two previously unknown functions for a protein that is central to the transcription of genes. Both papers shed light on the role this protein-called TATA-binding protein, or TBP-may play in promoting the development of cancer.
“What we’ve found is that changes in the cellular concentrations of this critical transcription fa
Biomolecular interaction analysis (BIA) using SPR (surface plasmon resonance) biosensors is now utilised increasingly in nearly all phases of drug development. The BIA system consists out of a light source emitting near infrared light, a sensor microchip, an automated liquid handling system with constant flow and a diode array position-sensitive detector. One of the two interacting partners (referred to as the ligand) is immobilized on the sensor surface. The other binding partner, called the analy
An international team of astronomers have used a unique instrument on the 8-m Gemini South Telescope to determine the ages of stars across the central region of the barred spiral galaxy, M83. Preliminary results provide the first hints of a domino model of star formation where star formation occurs in a time sequence, driven by the movements of gas and stars in the central bar.
The new instrument, called CIRPASS, simultaneously produces 500 spectra, taken from across the whole region of inte
Scientists from Columbia University, IBM and the University of New Orleans today announced a new, three-dimensional designer material assembled from two different types of particles only billionths of a meter across.
In the June 26 issue of the journal Nature, the team describes the precision chemistry methods developed to tune the particles’ sizes in increments of less than one nanometer and to tailor the experimental conditions so the particles would assemble themselves into repeating 3-
The discovery that an ocean ridge under the Arctic ice cap is unexpectedly volcanically active and contains multiple hydrothermal vents may cause scientists to modify a decades-long understanding of how ocean ridges work to produce the Earth’s crust.
The new results, which come from a study of the Gakkel Ridge, one of the slowest spreading ridges on Earth, have broad implications for the understanding of the globe-encircling mid-ocean ridge system where melting of the underlying mantle
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