Press monitoring
3D hydrogel biochips offer better diagnosis of early-stage bowel cancer
3.6.2016 | Press monitoring
Early detection is paramount to survival from bowel cancer, but doing so is difficult because most symptoms don't present until the cancer matures. Worse, existing diagnostic tests tend to be invasive and traumatic. Russian scientists hope to change this with a new biochip technology that can gather better, more precise data for diagnostic...
Weed stems ripe for biofuel
1.6.2016 | Press monitoring
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. In a study published in the journal PLoS ONE, the researchers assessed the stems of 12 varieties...
Expert Committee Finds Genetically Engineered Crops Are As Safe To Eat As Conventionally Bred Plants
30.5.2016 | Press monitoring
An expert committee of scientists has released its conclusion of a comprehensive analysis looking into the safety of genetically engineered (GE) foods. It found that there doesn’t seem to be any difference between them and conventionally bred crops, and that genetically modified organisms pose no greater threat to the environment, either. The...
New cancer treatment targets sick cells only
27.5.2016 | Press monitoring
The scientists at Centro Nacional de Pesquisa em Energia e Materiais (CNPEM) and Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp) have developed a technique that uses silica nanoparticles to carry curcumin, a candidate drug against prostate cancer, the type of cancer the study has looked into. The particles were coated with folate, a vitamin that is...
Cheap, simple test detects a single virus in urine straight from the source
25.5.2016 | Press monitoring
As Zika has reminded the world, viruses are still a major threat to a healthy populace. One of the key components to battling them is detection, but methods to do so can often be costly and complicated, which means they're not always available to the populations that most need them. Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) have...
Scientists discover Antarctic sponge extract can help kill MRSA
23.5.2016 | Press monitoring
A serious and sometimes fatal bacterial infection, known as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), may soon be beatable thanks to the efforts of University of South Florida scientists who have isolated and tested an extract from a sponge found in Antarctica. The sponge extract, known as Dendrilla membranosa, yields a new, natural...
Modified microalgae converts sunlight into valuable medicine
20.5.2016 | Press monitoring
A special type of microalgae will soon produce valuable chemicals such as cancer treatment drugs and much more just by harnessing energy from the sun, suggest researchers. Researchers from Copenhagen Plant Science Centre at University of Copenhagen have succeeded in manipulating a strain of microalgae to form complex molecules to an unprecedented...
Scientists create novel liquid wire material inspired by spiders\' capture silk
18.5.2016 | Press monitoring
Why doesn't a spider's web sag in the wind or catapult flies back out like a trampoline? The answer, according to new research by an international team of scientists, lies in the physics behind a 'hybrid' material produced by spiders for their webs. Pulling on a sticky thread in a garden spider's orb web and letting it snap back reveals that...
Photosynthetic bacteria give biologists a cool new tool
16.5.2016 | Press monitoring
Photosynthetic bacteria that have lived on Earth for 2.7 billion years are the source of a new and valuable biological regulatory tool being developed by Rice University bioengineers. Synechocystis bacteria produce a protein pathway that senses the presence of UV-violet light and activates a motor protein that moves the single-cell organism into...
Bio cosmetics: Bio-on bioplastic designed for cosmetics that defend the environment
16.5.2016 | Press monitoring
Bologna (Italy) 16 May 2016 - Few are aware that cosmetics pollute the rivers and seas due to the presence of microscopic particles of oil-based and non-biodegradable plastic (polyethylene, polypropylene and other types of polymers). To solve this problem and make every beauty product "environmentally friendly", Bio-on S.p.A. has developed and...
