Feature Channels: Biotech

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Released: 22-Jul-2016 10:05 AM EDT
Pipette Tips and Pipettes – an Infallible System?
2016 AACC Annual Meeting Press Program

Many times experimental data was not reproducible even though all variables within the experimental procedure stood up to scrutiny. But was this really the case?

Released: 22-Jul-2016 9:05 AM EDT
The New Eppendorf Tubes® 5.0 mL with Screw Cap
2016 AACC Annual Meeting Press Program

The introduction of this new screw cap container represents the latest significant innovation within the Eppendorf Tubes® 5.0 mL system.

Released: 22-Jul-2016 9:00 AM EDT
Eppendorf Centrifuge 5920 R: The New Benchmark in Capacity and Performance
2016 AACC Annual Meeting Press Program

Eppendorf’s new refrigerated Centrifuge 5920 R combines extraordinary high capacity with enhanced temperature management in a very compact and ergonomic product design.

Released: 22-Jul-2016 8:05 AM EDT
At AACC 2016, Festo Showcases the Latest Automation Solutions for Clinical Diagnostic Equipment
2016 AACC Annual Meeting Press Program

Festo features at AACC 2016, July 31- Aug. 4 in Philadelphia, the company’s automation solutions for clinical diagnostic equipment. Festo automation lowers manufacturer engineering costs and boosts diagnostic speed and overall performance. (Festo AACC Booth #3939)

Released: 21-Jul-2016 3:05 PM EDT
New Semen Analysis Products From Medical Electronic Systems
2016 AACC Annual Meeting Press Program

Medical Electronic Systems (www.mes-global.com) is a Los Angeles based technology company specializing in rapid, automated semen analysis for the human and the veterinary markets. The MES line of CE and FDA cleared Sperm Quality Analyzers, complementary testing kits and disposable testing supplies are sold through an extensive network of international distributors. MES is ISO certified as a medical manufacturer and has wholly owned distribution offices in America, Europe, China and Israel.

Released: 21-Jul-2016 3:05 PM EDT
New Fully Automated Sample Pretreatment System Enables Faster, Safer, and Simpler Biological LC-MS/MS Analysis
2016 AACC Annual Meeting Press Program

The Clinical Laboratory Automation Module (CLAM-2000) is a fully integrated sample pretreatment module for LC-MS. The system automatically performs all of the processes necessary for analyzing blood and other biological samples, from scanning in information from the blood collection tubes to sample pretreatment and LCMS analysis.

Released: 21-Jul-2016 5:00 AM EDT
Scientists Harness CO2 to Consolidate Biofuel Production Process
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

JBEI scientists have shown that adding carbon dioxide gas during the deconstruction phase of biofuel production successfully neutralized the toxicity of ionic liquids. The technique, which is reversible, allows the liquid to be recycled, representing a major step forward in streamlining the biofuel production process.

Released: 20-Jul-2016 3:05 PM EDT
Building Lab Instruments One Block at a Time
University of California, Riverside

Building lab instruments for chemistry and biology experiments used to be an expensive, time consuming process only done by scientists with specialized training. A 3D printed, Lego-like system of blocks designed by a UC Riverside team is changing that. As well as real research applications, the system can be used for STEM education, where students gain both an engineering experience by building the instruments and a science experience as they use them.

Released: 20-Jul-2016 1:05 PM EDT
Scientists Call for Replacement of Animals in Antibody Production
University of Nottingham

Routine scientific procedures using millions of animals are still being authorised when there is a tried and tested alternative, according to a group of scientists investigating the production of antibodies.

Released: 19-Jul-2016 2:05 PM EDT
The Zebrafish’s Growing Impact on Medical Research
University of Alabama at Birmingham

Zebrafish are becoming more and more popular as a research model for human disease. Along with mice and humans, they are one of the most commonly studied animals in biomedical research.

Released: 13-Jul-2016 10:05 AM EDT
Modeling Predicts Which Counties Could Store More Carbon in Soil by Growing Bioenergy Crops
Argonne National Laboratory

To help stakeholders in government and business make smart decisions about the best types of land and local climates for planting bioenergy crops, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Argonne National Laboratory are using computational modeling to predict which counties could see increases in soil organic carbon from cultivation of crops for biofuels. The results are contributing to DOE’s third Billion-Ton report expected later this year.

Released: 12-Jul-2016 3:05 PM EDT
US Holds Potential to Produce Billion Tons of Biomass, Support Bioeconomy
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

The 2016 Billion-Ton Report, jointly released by the U.S. Department of Energy and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, concludes that the United States has the potential to sustainably produce at least 1 billion dry tons of nonfood biomass resources annually by 2040.

Released: 11-Jul-2016 3:05 PM EDT
Silk-Based Tissue Chip Provides Promise for Drug Testing and Implantable Devices
National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering

Researchers funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) have created a new type of tissue chip that can be more widely used for drug testing. Engineering the chips as a silk gel circumvents many of the problems with existing devices and could potentially be an implantable treatment itself.

Released: 7-Jul-2016 4:05 PM EDT
Graphene Flexes its Muscles in Boise State University Study
Boise State University

A new study shows that the unique properties of graphene and graphene foam could one day be used to regenerate 3-dimensional tissues and organs for implantation into the human body.

Released: 7-Jul-2016 11:05 AM EDT
A Watery Roadblock in the Pathway to Biofuels
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Removing oxygen atoms is vital to turning biomass into biofuels. Scientists discovered how water interferes with two oxygen-removal paths by creating a highly stable intermediate that costs energy to move along the reaction path

Released: 7-Jul-2016 10:20 AM EDT
Engineering E. Coli for Biofuel, Bioproduct Production
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Researchers developed an alternative fatty acid synthase (FAS) system in which enzymes from other organisms work with the native FAS in E. coli to improve the microbe’s capacity for chemical production.

Released: 7-Jul-2016 9:55 AM EDT
Closing the Loop: Ionic Liquids From Biomass Waste Could Pretreat Plants Destined for Biofuels
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Ionic liquids (ILs) prepare plant matter to be broken into its component sugars, which can be used in creating biofuels. However, the availability and high cost of petroleum-derived ILs pose challenges. Synthesizing new ILs directly from biomass “wastes” could help.

5-Jul-2016 3:05 PM EDT
Lessons of Lager: Yeast Origin Becomes a Complex Tale
University of Wisconsin–Madison

The University of Wisconsin-Madison's Chris Todd Hittinger and colleagues conclude in the July 6, 2016 edition of the journal Public Library of Science Genetics that the story of hybridization that produced the lager yeast is far more complex and potentially richer than first imagined.

Released: 6-Jul-2016 12:05 PM EDT
Agroforestry Helps Farmers Branch Out
American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), Soil Science Society of America (SSSA)

Researchers look into the practice of alley cropping, planting long-term tree crops alongside short-term cash crops, for sustainability.

Released: 1-Jul-2016 2:05 PM EDT
E. Coli: The Ideal Transport Vehicle for Next-Gen Vaccines?
University at Buffalo

Researchers have developed an E. coli-based transport capsule designed to help next-generation vaccines do a more efficient and effective job than today’s immunizations. The research, described in a study published July 1 in the journal Science Advances, highlights the capsule’s success fighting pneumococcal disease, an infection that can result in pneumonia, sepsis, ear infections and meningitis.

Released: 1-Jul-2016 1:05 PM EDT
New Biomaterial Developed for Injectable Neuronal Control
University of Chicago

Ideally, injectable or implantable medical devices should not only be small and electrically functional, they should be soft, like the body tissues with which they interact. Scientists from two UChicago labs set out to see if they could design a material with all three of those properties.

   
Released: 30-Jun-2016 9:55 AM EDT
Stimulate Bacteria to Stop Chromium in Groundwater
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Scientists at Miami University and DOE’s Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory found that adding a specific nutrient stimulates the bacteria to transform nearby iron that, in turn, reduces the chromium to a much less mobile material.

Released: 30-Jun-2016 9:55 AM EDT
Heat-Loving Microbe Engineered to Produce Bioalcohols for Fuel
Department of Energy, Office of Science

The U.S. bioethanol industry depends largely on turning a certain sugar into the simple two-carbon alcohol, the biofuel ethanol. Researchers engineered a heat-loving microbe to produce not only ethanol, but also a range of other alcohols.

29-Jun-2016 1:00 PM EDT
A Protein Coat Helps Chromosomes Keep Their Distance
Institute of Molecular Biotechnology

Researchers at IMBA – Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences have identified a protein that disperses chromosomes during cell division, as Nature reports.

Released: 23-Jun-2016 9:05 AM EDT
Novel Controller Allows Video Gamer Who Lacks Hands to Compete with His Feet
 Johns Hopkins University

Engineering graduate students, one of whom lost his hands to meningitis, design and build a foot-activated video game controller.

Released: 22-Jun-2016 11:05 AM EDT
Johns Hopkins Students Design Ebola Protection Suit Improvements
 Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins University engineering students working to develop a better suit to protect health care workers in Ebola outbreaks have developed prototypes for a more comfortable hood and face mask that make breathing easier, and for a battery-powered system that curbs humidity in the suit.

Released: 22-Jun-2016 10:05 AM EDT
Unfolding Story
Harvard Medical School

The mitochondria within a cell are small structures that play an outsized role. They convert oxygen and simple sugars into ATP, the cell’s source of energy, actions essential to metabolic pathways and a cell’s very survival. “Given the importance of mitochondria in human health, it is important to understand the mechanisms underlying their ability to cope with protein-folding stress.

Released: 22-Jun-2016 9:05 AM EDT
Get a clue: Biochemist studies fruit fly to understand Parkinson's disease, muscle wasting
Kansas State University

By studying the fruit fly, Kansas State University researchers have found a connection between a gene called clueless and genes that cause Parkinson's disease.

   
Released: 20-Jun-2016 3:00 PM EDT
Scientists Glimpse Why Life Can’t Happen Without Water
Ohio State University

Scientists are getting closer to directly observing how and why water is essential to life as we know it.

Released: 17-Jun-2016 10:05 AM EDT
Nanoparticle Niche
Harvard Medical School

Artist’s representation of how the silver nanoparticles are made. Animation: Rick Groleau Synthetic biologists at Harvard Medical School and Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have devised a new, more environmentally sustainable way to produce antimicrobial silver nanoparticles at the mesoscale using biological rather than inorganic chemical methods.

Released: 16-Jun-2016 11:45 AM EDT
Bacteria Hairs Make Excellent Electrical Wires
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Scientists found that the electronic arrangement and the small molecular separation distances give bacterial pili an electrical conductivity comparable to that of copper, valuable insights for those interested in eventually constructing non-toxic, nanoscale sources of electricity.

Released: 14-Jun-2016 8:05 AM EDT
Research Examines Obstacles to Making Biofuel From Perennial Plants
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

A University of Arkansas chemistry professor has received a $400,000 award from the National Science Foundation to investigate a roadblock in the harvesting of biomass from perennial plants for the purpose of creating a source of renewable energy.

Released: 13-Jun-2016 1:05 PM EDT
Predicting Disease Outbreaks Using Environmental Changes
University College London

A model that predicts outbreaks of zoonotic diseases -- those originating in livestock or wildlife such as Ebola and Zika -- based on changes in climate, population growth and land use has been developed by a UCL-led team of researchers.

Released: 9-Jun-2016 11:15 AM EDT
Tufts Microbiologist Cecilia A. Silva-Valenzuela, Ph.D., Named Pew Latin American Fellow
Tufts University

Tufts University microbiologist Cecilia A. Silva-Valenzuela, Ph.D., has been named one of ten Latin American Fellows in the Biomedical Sciences by The Pew Charitable Trusts. Working in Andy Camilli’s lab, she is studying the use of phages to help stop the spread of cholera.

Released: 9-Jun-2016 8:05 AM EDT
Increased Bioenergy Demand to Put Pressure on Forests
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)

A new study shows that increased demand for biomass for energy in Europe, through intensified use of existing forests, could lead to loss of biodiversity and high competition for wood between sectors, and proposes policies to help preserve biodiversity while also limiting greenhouse gas emissions.

Released: 8-Jun-2016 3:05 PM EDT
Switched-on Salmonella: Fluid Forces Guide Disease Traits of Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria
Arizona State University (ASU)

Once inside the human body, infectious microbes like Salmonella face a fluid situation. They live in a watery world, surrounded by liquid continually flowing over and abrading their cell surfaces--a property known as fluid shear.

   
Released: 8-Jun-2016 1:05 PM EDT
Chemistry Lessons From Bacteria May Improve Biofuel Production
University of Wisconsin–Madison

A new UW-Madison analysis of a group of bacteria called Streptomyces reveals the way some strains of the microbe developed advanced abilities to tear up cellulose, and points out more efficient ways we might mimic those abilities to make fuel from otherwise unusable plant material.

Released: 7-Jun-2016 2:05 PM EDT
New Cheap Method of Surveying Landscapes Can Capture Environmental Change
University of Exeter

Cheap cameras on drones can be used to measure environmental change which affects billions of people around the world, new research from the University of Exeter shows.

Released: 7-Jun-2016 2:05 PM EDT
Laboratory Breakthrough May Lead to Improved X-Ray Spectrometers
American Institute of Physics (AIP)

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute’s Swiss Light Source in Villigen, Switzerland, have developed a new design for X-ray spectrometers that eschews a commonly utilized component to lowers overall production costs and increase the efficiency of x-ray flux, which may lead to faster acquisition times for sample imaging and increased efficiency for the system. This is essential for biological samples which may be damaged by continued x-ray exposure.

Released: 7-Jun-2016 9:30 AM EDT
Scientists Receive $3.5 Million From NIH to Study Drug Resistance in a Global Parasitic Disease
Texas Biomedical Research Institute

Dr. Tim Anderson at Texas Biomedical Research Institute and Dr. Phil LoVerde at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio have been awarded a $3.5 million grant over the next five years by the National Institutes of Health to understand the genetic changes in the schistosome parasite that lead to drug resistance.

Released: 7-Jun-2016 8:05 AM EDT
Origami Ninja Star Inspires New Battery Design
Binghamton University, State University of New York

A new disposable battery that folds like an origami ninja star could power biosensors and other small devices for use in challenging field conditions, says an engineer at Binghamton University, State University of New York. Seokheun “Sean” Choi, assistant professor of computer and electrical engineering at Binghamton University, along with two of his students, developed the device, a microbial fuel cell that runs on the bacteria available in a few drops of dirty water. They report on their invention in a new paper published online in the journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics.

Released: 6-Jun-2016 3:05 PM EDT
Distinguishing Deadly Staph Bacteria From Harmless Strains
UC San Diego Health

To better understand the pathogenic bacteria Staphylococcus aureus and develop more effective treatments, University of California San Diego researchers examined the Staph “pan-genome” — the genomes of 64 different strains that differ in where they live, the types of hosts they infect and their antibiotic resistance profiles. This effort, published June 6 by PNAS, places all Staph genes into one of two categories: the core genome or the dispensable genome.

Released: 6-Jun-2016 3:05 PM EDT
This Desert Moss Has Developed the Ultimate Water Collection Toolkit
Utah State University

Finding water in the desert is a relatively easy task for a species of moss that seems to flourish in even the most arid regions. That's according to a new study by a team of scientists and engineers who wanted to understand how Syntrichia caninervis succeeds despite its limited and inconsistent water supplies.

Released: 3-Jun-2016 9:05 AM EDT
Study Reveals Insights Into Protein Linked to Cancer and Alzheimer’s Disease
University of Notre Dame

Cancer and Alzheimer's disease drugs target specific proteins, blocking or inhibiting their natural interactions, which may be in overdrive. The traditional drug design process typically assumes the protein shapes are static. But tradition turns out to be too limiting, according to new research from the University of Notre Dame.

Released: 2-Jun-2016 1:05 PM EDT
American Gut Project Expands to Asia
UC San Diego Health

University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers are expanding the American Gut Project into Asia. The goal of American Gut, the world’s largest crowdfunded citizen science project, is to sequence as many human microbiomes — the unique collection of bacteria and other microbes that live in and on us — as possible.

Released: 30-May-2016 12:05 AM EDT
Weed Stems Ripe for Biofuel
University of Adelaide

A weedy plant found on the roadside in northern Australia has stems ripe for biofuel production. Scientists from the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Cell Walls at the University of Adelaide have discovered that a variety of sorghum growing wild in Australia, Arun, has the potential to yield over 10,000 litres of bioethanol per hectare per year.

Released: 27-May-2016 9:00 AM EDT
UF/IFAS Researchers to Present Forest Biotechnology Promise at National Conference
University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences

Jiri Hulcr, an assistant professor of forest resources and conservation at UF/IFAS, sees this conference as an opportunity for the UF/IFAS forest entomology team to disseminate innovative solutions to maintain tree health. “Exploring the use of biotechnology in tree health protection is important to us, because we are increasingly running out of other options,” he said.

Released: 25-May-2016 11:05 AM EDT
Juan De Pablo to Receive 2016 DuPont Medal for Excellence in Nutrition and Health Science
University of Chicago

The Danisco Foundation (Daniscos Fond) has selected the University of Chicago’s Juan de Pablo as the recipient of the DuPont Nutrition and Health Science and Excellence Medal 2016.



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