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Cell size and cell-cycle states play key decision-making roles in HIV

December 29, 2018

Thanks to the development of antiretroviral drugs, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is considered a manageable chronic disease today. However, if left undiagnosed or untreated, HIV can develop into AIDS (acquired immune deficiency [more...]

Single Cell Sequencing Sheds Light on Why Cancers Form in Specific Cell Types

November 30, 2018

While many cells in our bodies can accumulate oncogenic mutations, the majority of these events do not lead to tumor formation as these abnormal cells are eliminated by defense mechanisms. Instead, tumors arise when a mutation happens in a [more...]

A New Sensor to Identify Proteins Responsible for Neuro-degenerative Diseases

July 13, 2018

In a new study, researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, have designed a biosensor using gold nano-particles that can identify the presence of a protein called alpha-synuclein. The newly developed biosensor uses optical [more...]

Next-Generation Sequencing Sheds Light on Rotavirus in Indonesia

June 10, 2018

Figure Rotaviruses in the faeces of an infected child. By Dr Graham Beards Rotavirus A causes acute diarrhea in young children, and infects both animals and humans worldwide. A Japanese research group has found that the acute [more...]

Low-cost Spectroscopy Technique Measures Brain Blood Flow

May 6, 2018

UC Davis biomedical engineers have developed a new technique that could be used for measuring blood flow in the brains of patients with stroke or traumatic brain injury; light shined into the head is returned to a detector, and the signal [more...]

Nanofluidics – Recent Progress

January 22, 2018

Nanofluidics is the study and application of fluids in and around geometries with nanoscale characteristic dimensions. The field of nanofluidics is not brand-new. Some issues associated with nanoscale fluidics have been occasionally dealt [more...]

‘Liquid Biopsy’ Promises Early Detection for Cancer

January 21, 2018

Figure 1. A new blood test looks for DNA shed by tumor cells, such as these pancreatic cancer cells. A team of researchers has taken a major step toward one of the hottest goals in cancer research: a blood test that can detect tumors [more...]

Team Develops Innovative, Ideal Liquid-Repellent Surfaces

December 1, 2017

On liquid-repellent surfaces, liquid droplets bounce away instead of being stuck. These surfaces are important in many fields, such as water-repellent clothes and anti-fouling kitchenware. Used as drag-reduction coatings for water [more...]

Smoke On the Water, Data in the DNA

November 23, 2017

Scientists can now tweak DNA molecules to store data. (Credit: PASIEKA / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY) In the summer of 1971 Frank Zappa was playing to a packed audience inside Switzerland’s Montreux Casino when a fan threw a flare and set the [more...]

Stanford Researchers use optical light to separate molecules from their doppelgangers

October 29, 2017

A handshake between light and molecules may soon lead to purer chemicals, thanks to the work of Jennifer Dionne, PhD, associate professor of materials science and engineering, and her lab. As described in a paper published this week [more...]

One Vaccine Injection Could Carry Many Doses

September 17, 2017

Microparticles created by new 3-D fabrication method could release drugs or vaccines long after injection (Image Credit : MIT) MIT engineers have invented a new 3-D fabrication method that can generate a novel type of drug-carrying [more...]

Engineers Turn a Laser Beam into a Stream of Liquid

September 4, 2017

Lasers are one of the iconic breakthroughs of 20th century science. They produce coherent photons in tight beams of specific energy. They can transmit data, detect molecules, and burn through metal. The photons they produce also have [more...]

Carbon-Nanotube Yarn Twists and Stretches To Produce High Yields of Electricity

September 4, 2017

The new material, called ‘twistron,’ is already under patent (Image Image: University of Texas at Dallas) An international team of researchers based at the University of Texas at Dallas and Hanyang University in South Korea has [more...]

Smart Surface Enables Advanced Manipulation of Droplets

August 16, 2017

UBC-developed smart surface offers fast and reversible surface wetting properties-from superhydrophobic (water-repellant) to superhydrophilic (water-attractive) using a small voltage that could be supplied by conventional batteries. For [more...]

Stem Cell Treatment Kills Cancer Cells That Have Spread in Mice

August 1, 2017

A new stem cell-based cancer treatment can target and kill breast cancer cells that have spread in mice, according to a new study. The researchers behind the work hope that, if it is shown to work in humans, the treatment could also help [more...]

Flow Cytometry Pushes the Envelope of Applications Possibilities

June 25, 2017

This technical review article was adopted from Laser Focus World and written by Giacomo Vacca is president and founder of Kinetic River, Mountain View, CA. The author covered application history of flow cytometry, hardware evolution, [more...]

Adding Depth to Cell Culture

June 18, 2017

As a postdoc studying human brain development and what goes wrong in conditions such as microencephaly, Madeline Lancaster faced the same familiar problems as her fellow lab researchers. For example, mice brains don’t behave or develop [more...]

New Ultrasound ‘Drill’ Targets Deep Vein Blood Clots

June 14, 2017

Researchers at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have developed a new surgical tool that uses low-frequency intravascular ultrasound to break down blood clots that cause deep vein [more...]

UW Engineers Borrow from Electronics to Build Largest Circuits to Date in Living Eukaryotic Cells

May 31, 2017

An artist’s impression of connected CRISPR-dCas9 NOR gates. (Image Credit: Justin Vrana, University of Washington) Living cells must constantly process information to keep track of the changing world around them and arrive at an [more...]

Researchers of the University of Twente Using Microfluidic Chip to Separate DNA

May 29, 2017

Researchers of the University of Twente in The Netherlands developed a glass microchip for ultrafast separation and purification of DNA fragments. The chip, moreover, is easy to produce and cheap. The UT scientists published their results [more...]