Feature Channels: Biotech

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Two faculty members at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have been invited to join the World Economic Forum’s Network of Global Future Councils. Cynthia Collins, associate professor of chemical and biological engineering, has been selected for the Global Future Council on Biotechnologies, and Heng Ji, the Edward P. Hamilton Development Chair and associate professor of computer science, has been selected for the Global Future Council on the Future of Computing.

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Southern Research honored the innovative work being conducted in its laboratories and facilities with the organization’s Intellectual Property Awards, announced at a special ceremony on Oct. 25.

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Understanding the molecular mechanisms that exist for cells to safeguard their genome against cancer-causing defects is crucial not only to understand how cancer arises but also because these mechanisms can be targeted therapeutically. Researchers have identified a new net of molecular interactions occurring within cells upon exposure to DNA damaging UV radiation. The team lead by Antonio Giordano, MD, PhD, Director and Founder of the Sbarro Health Research Organization at Philadelphia, PA , published their findings in Oncotarget.

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An international collaboration between scientists from the Mechanobiology Institute at the National University of Singapore and the Institut Jacques Monod and Université Paris Diderot, France, has revealed how epithelial cell extrusion is regulated by cell density.

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A new kind of bioluminescent sensor causes individual brain cells to imitate fireflies and glow in the dark. The probe, which was developed by a team of Vanderbilt scientists, is a genetically modified form of luciferase, the enzyme that a number of other species including fireflies use to produce light. It is described in a paper published in the journal Nature Communications on Oct.

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A blood test that has shown promise in predicting how cancer will progress and what treatments will be most effective for a given patient may not be reliable for either, according to a new Penn Medicine study published today in Cancer.

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The Latest in Cell Biology News

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The National Science Foundation has awarded $900,000 in grant funding to researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York to continue investigations into the next-generation of brain biometric technology. The project, “Brain Hacking: Assessing Psychological and Computational Vulnerabilities in Brain-based Biometrics,” will investigate security vulnerabilities of brainprint biometrics and particularly evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of brain biometrics.

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A faculty member at Washington University in St. Louis’ School of Engineering & Applied Science has been awarded two separate grants worth a combined $2.5 million to develop better biomedical imaging tools.Mark Anastasio, professor of biomedical engineering, will use a four-year, $2.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to create a new X-ray technique that will assist engineers as they develop new bioengineered tissues.

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A study appearing online today in Clinical Chemistry, the premier journal in the field and a publication of AACC, has for the first time established precise newborn reference intervals for several steroid hormones and amino acids that play key roles in child development. This research could lead to earlier diagnosis and more effective treatment of numerous developmental disorders, from pediatric cancer and diabetes to congenital adrenal hyperplasia, and could aid detection of neonatal exposure to harmful endocrine-disrupting chemicals.

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For scientists listening in on the faint whispers of brain neurons, a first-ever robotic technique for cleaning the tiny devices that record the signals could facilitate a new level of automation in neuroscience research. That could accelerate the gathering of information used to map the functions of brain cells and ultimately provide a better understanding what’s going on between our ears.

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Texas Biomedical Research Institute Staff Scientist recently awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health to study and identify molecular mechanisms underlying early atherosclerosis.

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Wearable “robot-assisted training” is quickly emerging as a method that helps improve gait rehabilitation. In a major advance, researchers from Beihang University in China and Aalborg University in Denmark have designed a lower-limb robot exoskeleton -- a wearable robot -- that features natural knee movement to greatly improve patients’ comfort and willingness to wear it for gait rehab. They describe their work in this week’s Review of Scientific Instruments.

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Researchers have been trying for decades to develop a vaccine against the globally endemic hepatitis C virus (HCV). Now scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have discovered one reason why success has so far been elusive.

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A new and more informative process to test the safety and efficacy of drugs—employing a “tissue chip” technique—is underway at Texas A&M University.

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David R. Walt, Ph.D., has been elected to the prestigious and exclusive National Academy of Medicine, one in a series of accolades from the national and international scientific communities in recognition of his stellar career as a chemist, engineer, innovator and entrepreneur.

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Biology, at the nitty-gritty level of motor proteins, DNA, and microtubules, takes its cue from physics. But while much is known about the biological components that form such cellular structures, researchers like Scott Forth are only beginning to explore the physical forces between those components.

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Groundbreaking research to help resolve medication plan challenge for treating Parkinson's.

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Investigators at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s Brain Injury Outcomes program and the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research have been awarded a seven-year, $25 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.

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Michigan State University biometrics researchers created a life-size 3-D model hand complete with fingerprints using a 3-D high resolution printer. While intended to help calibrate fingerprint scanners, they realized this technology could be used to spoof someone’s hand and steal their identity. Now they want manufacturers to design a spoof-resistant scanner.

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The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and the California Institute for Biomedical Research (Calibr) – two leading non-profit research organizations – today announced the signing of a strategic affiliation that combines the two organizations into a new biomedical research entity with the tools and know-how to rapidly translate its scientific discoveries into life-saving medicines for the public benefit.

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The Department of Energy is partnering with the National Cancer Institute in an “all-government” approach to fighting cancer. Part of this partnership is a three-year pilot project called the Joint Design of Advanced Computing Solutions for Cancer (JDACSC), which will use Department of Energy supercomputing to build sophisticated computational models to facilitate breakthroughs in the fight against cancer on the molecular, patient and population levels.

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A novel invention by Kansas State University researchers may benefit biomedical professionals and the patients they serve during electrode and organ transplant procedures.

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Algae with altered intracellular signaling have increased oil yields

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Using the Titan supercomputer, an ORNL research team created models up to 330,000 atoms and ran simulations on Titan earlier this year that led to the discovery of a THF-water cosolvent phase separation on the faces of crystalline cellulose fiber.

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Researchers at Wichita State University have been awarded with a $1.125 million NASA grant to continue development of a smart skin biomedical sensor.

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A team of scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory will be developing new instrumentation aimed at determining the chemical and structural makeup of plant cell walls. The group is receiving $1 million a year for three years from the DOE’s Office of Science to develop a subdiffraction Raman imaging platform that will provide an unprecedented look at the specific chemical structures of plant cell walls and then determine how best to deconstruct plant material as a source of biofuels.

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Of the many elusive grails of agricultural biotechnology, the ability to confer nitrogen fixation into non-leguminous plants such as cereals ranks near the very top.

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Scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) have found a way to nearly double the efficiency with which a commonly used industrial yeast strain converts plant sugars to biofuel. The newly engineered “super yeast” could boost the economics of making ethanol, specialty biofuels and bioproducts.

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A group of researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have completed a comprehensive molecular analysis of a toddler who developed as a female despite having a male genetic background, termed XY sex reversal. The study identifies for the first time how the machinery for destruction of proteins can render a person poised at the borderline between male and female patterns of development.

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Around the corner from University of Iowa biology professor David Soll’s office is an exclusive reservoir of biological agents used by researchers worldwide seeking to cure cancer. Its mission is deeply personal for Soll. He lost his wife to cancer, and he wants to put an end to the disease.

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ECS is celebrating Open Access Week this year by giving the world a preview of what complete open access will look like. From October 24th through October 30th, we are taking down the paywall to the ECS Digital Library, making over 132,000 scientific articles free and accessible to anyone.

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Laboratories throughout the country are highly automated operations but logging instruments checks and calibrations to meet regulatory requirements is still mostly a manual paper task. A new medical application virtually eliminates the need for paper logs and allows laboratory engineers and technicians to perform routine quality inspections and equipment maintenance using a tablet. It’s called the Assured Compliance SolutionTM, which was developed by Kapios Health, a joint venture between Toledo-based ProMedica and Palo Alto, Calif.-based Kaonsoft.

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When scientists reported in 2014 that they had successfully engineered a poplar plant “designed for deconstruction,” the finding made international news. The highly degradable poplar, the first of its kind, could substantially reduce the energy use and cost of converting biomass to a number of products, including biofuels, pulp and paper. Now, some of those same researchers are reporting a surprising new revelation.

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New research by scientists from the University of Chicago demonstrates that the enzyme ALKBH1 can remove molecular modifications from transfer RNA, causing a measurable effect on protein translation in the cell. The study, published Oct. 13 in Cell, sheds new light on how cells control gene expression, and suggests the possibility that transfer RNA (tRNA) influences cellular processes beyond protein translation.

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Researchers in the laboratory of George Church, Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, are working to produce the most modified bacterial genome to date. The researchers believe the method they developed will help others who are trying to make many edits at once to any organism’s genome. Below is a Q&A with the scientists, Nili Ostrov and Matthieu Landon.

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Researchers at the University of Arkansas and their collaborators will use a $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to study the origin of Leigh’s disease, a rare and incurable disease that affects the central nervous system.

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The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has named the California Precision Medicine Consortium as a regional medical center group in the national network of health care provider organizations that will implement the Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI) Cohort Program.

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The 2016 AAPS Annual Meeting and Exposition will bring together more than 6,500 scientists, business leaders, government officials and students from around the world to share and learn the latest scientific advances and industry developments.

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/PRNewswire/ -- The Plasma Protein Therapeutics Association (PPTA) and its member companies are sponsoring the fourth annual International Plasma Awareness Week, October 9-15.

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Neidhardt served on the Foundation’s Board of Trustees for nearly two decades and was the first non-Waksman family member to be entrusted with the leadership of the Foundation.

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The Case for Quality, a collaboration between FDA, the medical device industry, healthcare providers and quality experts, released today its first report on the feasibility and effectiveness of using standardized medical device performance data and analytic techniques to help hospitals better compare and evaluate product quality.

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About 100 million years ago, a lowly amoeba pulled off a stunning heist, grabbing genes from an unsuspecting bacterium to replace those it had lost.

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Supported by a $9 million grant from the National Cancer Institute, a diverse team led by Johns Hopkins researchers has begun looking for new ways to attack one of the scariest traits of this disease: its frequent refusal to stay in one place.

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A little goo will do to get RNA and DNA to progress toward self-replication. Could some abundant ingredient have helped the precursors of genes become life molecules? Another indicator that little drama may have been necessary in chemical evolution.

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Patients who have received a solid organ transplant require lifelong immunosuppressive therapy. The threat of transplant rejection due to insufficient drug therapy must be balanced against increased risks of infections and cancer from excessive immunosuppression. A significant unmet need exists for non-invasive diagnostic tools to monitor transplant recipients, especially for early detection of active injury and rejection. A report in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics describes a new non-invasive test that measures donor-derived cell-free DNA (dd-cfDNA) in plasma that has the potential to reduce complications and rejection, improving outcomes in transplant recipients.

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These latest findings represent the first detailed biochemical characterization of a flavoenzyme involved in antibiotic resistance.

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The bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa can thrive in environments as different as the moist, warm tissue in our lungs, and the dry, nutrient-deprived surface of an office wall. Such adaptability makes it problematic in healthcare – where it causes infections in cases of cystic fibrosis, cancer, HIV, and other immune-compromised conditions – but also makes it a fascinating subject for study.