Press monitoring
Bioinspired coating for medical devices repels blood and bacteria
17.10.2014 | Press monitoring
From joint replacements to cardiac implants and dialysis machines, medical devices enhance or save lives on a daily basis. However, any device implanted in the body or in contact with flowing blood faces two critical challenges that can threaten the life of the patient the device is meant to help: blood clotting and bacterial infection. A team...
Illumina backs three genomics startups
16.10.2014 | Press monitoring
Gene-sequencing giant Illumina has founded a biotech incubator to develop applications for its technology. As the cost of high-throughput genetic sequencing plummets, one of the industry's leading firms is supporting entrepreneurs who it hopes will showcase what the technology can do. Genetic-analysis company Illumina today announced the first...
Genetic history of tomatoes revealed by new sequencing
15.10.2014 | Press monitoring
This week, an international team of researchers, led by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing, is publishing in the journal Nature Genetics a brief genomic history of tomato breeding, based on sequencing of 360 varieties of the tomato plant. The C.M. Rick Tomato Genetics Resource Center here at UC Davis played an important role...
Bio-inspired nano-cocoons offer targeted drug delivery against cancer cells
14.10.2014 | Press monitoring
Biomedical engineering researchers have developed a drug delivery system consisting of nanoscale “cocoons” made of DNA that target cancer cells and trick the cells into absorbing the cocoon before unleashing anticancer drugs. “This drug delivery system is DNA-based, which means it is biocompatible and less toxic to patients than systems that use...
DNA nano-foundries cast custom-shaped 3-D metal nanoparticles
13.10.2014 | Press monitoring
Researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have unveiled a new method to form tiny 3D metal nanoparticles in prescribed shapes and dimensions using DNA, Nature's building block, as a construction mold. The ability to mold inorganic nanoparticles out of materials such as gold and silver in...
New lab-on-a-chip could revolutionize early diagnosis of cancer
10.10.2014 | Press monitoring
Scientists have been laboring to detect cancer and a host of other diseases in people using promising new biomarkers called "exosomes." Indeed, Popular Science magazine named exosome-based cancer diagnostics one of the 20 breakthroughs that will shape the world this year. Exosomes could lead to less invasive, earlier detection of cancer, and...
Optimized technique allows B cells to be transfected with extraneous DNA
9.10.2014 | Press monitoring
The introduction of foreign DNA into human cells through a process known as 'transfection' allows scientists to study gene expression in the laboratory and enables clinicians to treat genetic diseases. The methods commonly used for this procedure work for most cell types, except when it comes to B cells—a group of infection-fighting white blood...
Worlds first child born after uterus transplantation
8.10.2014 | Press monitoring
In a ground-breaking research project at the University of Gothenburg, seven Swedish women have had embryos reintroduced after receiving wombs from living donors. Now the first transplanted woman has delivered a baby -- a healthy and normally developed boy. The world-unique birth was acknowledged in The Lancet on 5 October. The uterus...
Natural gene selection can produce orange corn rich in provitamin A
7.10.2014 | Press monitoring
Purdue researchers have identified a set of genes that can be used to naturally boost the provitamin A content of corn kernels, a finding that could help combat vitamin A deficiency in developing countries and macular degeneration in the elderly. Professor of agronomy Torbert Rocheford and fellow researchers found gene variations that can be...
Embryonic stem cells to tackle major killer diseases
6.10.2014 | Press monitoring
Stem cells are getting serious. Two decades after they were discovered, human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are being tested as a treatment for two major diseases: heart failure and type 1 diabetes. Treatments based on hESCs have been slow coming because of controversy over their source and fears that they could turn into tumours once implanted....
