Press monitoring
Scientists successfully generate human platelets using next-generation bioreactor
22.7.2014 | Press monitoring
Scientists at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have developed a scalable, next-generation platelet bioreactor to generate fully functional human platelets in vitro. The work is a major biomedical advancement that will help address blood transfusion needs worldwide. "The ability to generate an alternative source of functional human platelets...
Transplanting gene into injured hearts creates biological pacemakers
21.7.2014 | Press monitoring
Cardiologists have developed a minimally invasive gene transplant procedure that changes unspecialized heart cells into "biological pacemaker" cells that keep the heart steadily beating. The laboratory animal research, published online and in today's print edition of the peer-reviewed journal Science Translational Medicine, is the result of a...
Transplantation of new brain cells reverses memory loss in Alzheimers disease model
18.7.2014 | Press monitoring
A new study from the Gladstone Institutes has revealed a way to alleviate the learning and memory deficits caused by apoE4, the most important genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, improving cognition to normal levels in aged mice. In the study, which was conducted in collaboration with researchers at UC San Francisco and published today...
Molecular -eat now- signal makes cells devour dying neighbors
17.7.2014 | Press monitoring
A team of researchers has devised a Pac-Man-style power pellet that gets normally mild-mannered cells to gobble up their undesirable neighbors. The development may point the way to therapies that enlist patients' own cells to better fend off infection and even cancer, the researchers say. "Our goal is to build artificial cells programmed to...
Ötzis non-human DNA: Opportunistic pathogen discovered in Iceman tissue biopsy
16.7.2014 | Press monitoring
Ötzi's human genome was decoded from a hip bone sample taken from the 5,300 year old mummy. However the tiny sample weighing no more than 0.1 g provides so much more information. A team of scientists from EURAC in Bolzano/Bozen together with colleagues from the University of Vienna successfully analysed the non-human DNA in the sample. They...
234 cattle genomes sequenced in Phase I of 1000 bull genomes project
15.7.2014 | Press monitoring
A large team of researchers with members from Australia, France, Denmark, the U.S., Germany, Canada and the Netherlands, is reporting that 234 cattle have had their genomes sequenced as part of Phase I of the 1000 bull genomes project. In their paper published in the journal Nature Genetics, the researchers highlight the goals of the project, how...
US bioterror fears are driving Ebola drug development
14.7.2014 | Press monitoring
If one good thing comes out of the unfolding crisis in West Africa, where hundreds have fallen victim to the Ebola virus, it's the hope that it will redouble efforts around the world to develop new treatments. The outbreak is the deadliest to date. In Guinea nearly 300 people have died. Confirmed cases and deaths have also hit neighbouring...
DARPA taps Lawrence Livermore to develop world\'s first neural device to restore memory
11.7.2014 | Press monitoring
The Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awarded Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) up to $2.5 million to develop an implantable neural device with the ability to record and stimulate neurons within the brain to help restore memory. The research builds on the understanding that memory is a process...
Tiny DNA pyramids enter bacteria easily, and deliver a deadly payload
10.7.2014 | Press monitoring
Bacterial infections usually announce themselves with pain and fever but often can be defeated with antibiotics -- and then there are those that are sneaky and hard to beat. Now, scientists have built a new weapon against such pathogens in the form of tiny DNA pyramids. Published in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, their study...
Gene discovered that activates stem cells for organ regeneration in Planarians
9.7.2014 | Press monitoring
Researchers announced the discovery of a gene zic-1 that enables stem cells to regrow a head after decapitation in flatworm planarians. Professor Christian Petersen and Ph.D. student Constanza Vásquez-Doorman of Northwestern University discovered zic-1 by investigating planarians, an animal that uses pluripotent stem cells to regrow any missing...
