Life Science

Atomic-scale structural analyses performed at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source (ALS) are helping scientists understand the inner workings of the enzyme “assembly lines” that microbes use to produce an important class of compounds, many of which have uses as antibiotics, antifungals, and immunosuppressants. These cellular machines, known as nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs), are large, multi-enzyme clusters that synthesize…

Who ever said bioengineers can’t get their groove on? The Rice University team led by Antonios Mikos says otherwise with its development of a groovy method to seed sophisticated, 3D-printed tissue-engineering scaffolds with living cells to help heal injuries. The researchers are literally carving grooves into plastic threads used to build the scaffolds. The grooves…

Predicting the future is hard – predicting the future of technology is even harder. In the last 10 years, everything from entertainment to travel has been upended by the likes of Airbnb, Spotify, and Instagram – none of which even existed a decade ago – while Netflix was still delivering DVDs by mail. Now, as…

Researchers at Purdue University have been working to develop new technologies to help stop the spread of foodborne illnesses, which kill 3,000 people a year, by detecting them more efficiently. They have developed a lanthanide-based assay coupled with a laser that can be used to detect toxins and pathogenic E. coli in food samples, water…

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) and Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute received an $18 million contract from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency to develop a vaccine against tularemia, a potential biothreat caused by the bacterium Francisella tularensis. SwRI’s pharmaceutical testing laboratories will formulate UTSA’s modified…

A completely passive solar-powered desalination system developed by researchers at MIT and in China could provide more than 1.5 gallons of fresh drinking water per hour for every square meter of solar collecting area. Such systems could potentially serve off-grid arid coastal areas to provide an efficient, low-cost water source. The system uses multiple layers…

Elsevier, the information analytics company specializing in science and health, has published the findings of a new report on melanoma R&D, created by its Professional Services group, highlighting the implication of the microbiome in the onset and progression of the disease, as well as in the toxicity of, and response rate, to cancer treatments. The…

Photothermal therapy (PTT)–a proposed treatment for diseases such as antibacterial-resistant infections and cancer–makes use of a chemical agent that absorbs the light of an infrared laser and dissipates that energy as local heat capable of killing cells, including cancer cells. But most of the chemical agents used for PTT are toxic to human cells and…

Scientists working across drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics, bioanalytical, preclinical and clinical trial applications can now access a range of digital reagent dispensers designed to enable assay miniaturization, boost productivity and improve accuracy of results. Offering enhanced dispensing precision, the new systems use ten times less reagent compared to manual pipetting workflows, enabling significant cost and…

Viruses are probably the most peculiar “life forms” known to us, with each species having unique characteristics. One thing common to all viruses is that they attack a “host” cell and hijack its machinery, using it for its own replication. A type of large virus, called “giant virus,” has interesting ways of attacking its host…

“Agricultural fertilizer runoff is contaminating ground and surface water, which causes ecological effects such as algae blooms as well as significant adverse effects for humans, including cancer, hypertension, and developmental issues in babies,” said Wong, professor and chair of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in Rice’s Brown School of Engineering. “I’ve been very…

Eight of the top 10 selling drugs in the United States are biologics, which are produced from living organisms or certain components of living organisms. Subcutaneous injection – where the drug is injected into the tissue layer between the skin and the muscle – is emerging as an effective delivery route alternative to intravenous infusion…

Written by Peter Christey, PhD, co-founder and CEO of General Automation Lab Technologies Inc.   Thanks to exciting new insights into the nature and importance of microbiomes, the field of microbiology is being reinvigorated. Indeed, significant R&D resources are being committed to realizing the promise of microbiome-based diagnostics and therapeutics. Scientific papers consistently report advances…

Eli Lilly and Company and Strateos today unveiled a new robotic laboratory in San Diego designed to accelerate the drug discovery process. The Lilly Life Sciences Studio lab was conceptualized and designed by Lilly as part of a $90 million investment made in 2017 to expand Lilly’s research footprint in San Diego. Strateos will utilize…

For most people, getting an ultrasound is a relatively easy procedure: As a technician gently presses a probe against a patient’s skin, sound waves generated by the probe travel through the skin, bouncing off muscle, fat, and other soft tissues before reflecting back to the probe, which detects and translates the waves into an image…

A wearable monitoring device to make treatments easier and more affordable for the millions of people with swallowing disorders is about to be released into the market. Georgia A. Malandraki, an associate professor of speech, language, and hearing sciences in Purdue University’s College of Health and Human Sciences, and Chi Hwan Lee, an assistant professor…

JUA Technologies International, a Purdue University-affiliated startup developing solar-powered crop-drying devices, is partnering with BrazAgro Ltd., a supplier of Brazilian farm machinery, to distribute its solar-drying tray. Dehytray is a solar-drying solution for small and mid-size growers and food processors and home gardeners. Its convenient size and ease of use are backed by years of…

Mountaineers and winter sports enthusiasts know the dangers of frostbite –– the tissue damage that can occur when extremities, such as the nose, ears, fingers, and toes are exposed to very cold temperatures. However, it can be difficult to get treated quickly in remote, snowbound areas. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering…

What do bones and 3D-printed buildings have in common? They both have columns and beams on the inside that determine how long they last. Now, the discovery of how a “beam” in human bone material handles a lifetime’s worth of wear and tear could translate to the development of 3D-printed lightweight materials that last long…

MIT researchers have devised a method that accelerates the process for creating and customizing templates used in medical-image analysis, to guide disease diagnosis. One use of medical image analysis is to crunch datasets of patients’ medical images and capture structural relationships that may indicate the progression of diseases. In many cases, analysis requires use of…

BioCity, the pioneering life science incubator and business collective recently released its biennial publication, the UK Life Science Start-Up Report, an in-depth analysis of emerging businesses within the life sciences across the UK. The report has collected, analyzed, and interpreted data for nearly a decade and a half and is a key publication for the…

Refeyn Ltd., a spinout from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Oxford, has been recognized by two prestigious science and innovation awards for its revolutionary mass photometry technology. Refeyn’s first instrument, the Refeyn OneMP, enables users to measure the mass of single molecules in solution – quickly, simply and accurately. The company’s proprietary…

Animal model operations to be transferred to Envigo ownership Divestment in line with Horizon’s corporate strategy to focus on its core markets Envigo, a leading global research model supplier, enters the gene-edited research model field with the addition of Horizon’s business Horizon and Envigo to collaborate on providing CRISPR screening services Horizon Discovery Group plc (LSE:…

Our physical and mental state influences our eating habits. But scientists are still trying to understand how one biological process affects how we eat. Warning: Learning more could kill your appetite. “For flavor, spit and nasal mucus are the media in which all of those reactions occur, and that’s disgusting. But at the same time,…

Founder Mike Wenger to Join Staff as Vice President of Patient Engagement TrialScope, the global leader in transparency and disclosure compliance solutions, has acquired Clinical Trial Connect, a platform used by disease foundations and advocacy groups that connects their community members to relevant clinical trials. As part of the acquisition, founder Mike Wenger will share…