Spectroscopy News and Research

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Spectroscopy is the study of the interaction between radiation (electromagnetic radiation, or light, as well as particle radiation) and matter.

Femtogram-level chemical measurements now possible

Finding a simple and convenient technique that combines nanoscale structural measurements and chemical identification has been an elusive goal.

31 Mar 2008

Anticancer siRNA therapy advances, thanks to nanoparticles

Small pieces of nucleic acid, known as siRNAs (short interfering RNAs), can turn off the production of specific proteins, a property that makes them one of the more promising new classes of anticancer drugs in development. Indeed, at least two siRNA-based anticancer therapies, both delivered to tumors in nanoparticles, have begun human clinical trials. Now, three new reports highlight the progress that researchers are making in developing broadly applicable, nanoparticle-enabled siRNA anticancer therapeutics.

28 Mar 2008

Discovery alters long standing concept of fixed protein structure

The thousands of proteins found in nature are simply strings of amino acids, assembled by genes, and scientists have long believed that they automatically fold themselves into uniquely fixed, 3-dimensional shapes to fire the engine of life.

19 Mar 2008

New discovery alters longstanding concept of fixed protein structure

18 Mar 2008

Different use of brain areas may explain memory problems in schizophrenics

The enduring memory problems that people with schizophrenia experience may be related to differences in how their brains process information, new research has found.

13 Mar 2008

Pain in fibromyalgia is linked to changes in brain molecule

Researchers at the University of Michigan Health System have found a key linkage between pain and a specific brain molecule, a discovery that lends new insight into fibromyalgia, an often-baffling chronic pain condition.

10 Mar 2008

Clearer understanding on how allergy symptoms are triggered

A team of Penn State University researchers is the first to demonstrate that lipid molecules in cell membranes participate in mammals' reactions to allergens in a living cell.

10 Mar 2008

Curing cancer with natural products - a case for shamans and herb women?

Not at all, for many chemotherapies to fight cancer applied in modern medicine are natural products or were developed on the basis of natural substances. Thus, taxanes used in prostate and breast cancer treatment are made from yew trees. The popular periwinkle plant, which grows along the ground of many front yards, is the source of vinca alkaloids that are effective, for example, against malignant lymphomas. The modern anti-cancer drugs topotecan and irinotecan are derived from a constituent of the Chinese Happy Tree.

6 Mar 2008

New nanotube findings give boost to potential biomedical applications

Carbon nanotubes have shown real promise as highly accurate vehicles for delivering antitumor agents into malignant cells, but a dearth of data about what happens to the tubes after they discharge their medical payloads has been a major stumbling block to progress.

3 Mar 2008

Zero-field remote detection of NMR with a microfabricated atomic magnetometer

A super-sensitive mini-sensor developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) can detect nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in tiny samples of fluids flowing through a novel microchip.

21 Feb 2008

People with manic depression have a distinct chemical signature in their brains

People with manic depression have a distinct chemical signature in their brains, according to a new study. The research, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, may also indicate how the mood stabilisers used to treat the disorder counteract the changes in the brain that it appears to cause.

5 Feb 2008

Chemists track how amantadine drug changes, blocks flu virus

An anti-virus drug attacks influenza A by changing the motion and structure of a proton channel necessary for the virus to infect healthy cells, according to a recently published research paper by two Iowa State University chemists.

5 Feb 2008

Direct sequencing of single RNA strands with tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

The genetic alphabet contains four letters. Although our cells can readily decipher our genetic molecules, it isn't so easy for us to read a DNA sequence in the laboratory. Scientists require complex, highly sophisticated analytical techniques to crack individual DNA codes.

28 Jan 2008

New diagnostic technique using bioimpedance spectroscopy to diagnose cervical and skin cancers

A non-invasive diagnostic tool to detect surface cancers quickly and painlessly using technology currently employed by gyms to calculate body composition has been developed by a QUT PhD medical physics researcher.

21 Jan 2008

Table-top device prevents potential errors in children's medications

A device designed to eliminate mistakes made while mixing compounds at a hospital pharmacy was 100 percent accurate in identifying the proper formulations of seven intravenous drugs.

9 Jan 2008

MRI techniques evolving towards better assessment of liver fibrosis

MRI imagery is emerging as a non-invasive way to determine the existence and extent of hepatic fibrosis.

3 Jan 2008

Researchers report protein interactions of MAP kinase signaling pathway

The Stowers Institute's Rong Li Lab, in collaboration with the Institute's Imaging Center, has achieved a quantitative in vivo measurement of the dynamic protein-protein interactions in the mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase cascade signaling pathway, which is critical to growth and differentiation decisions in all eukaryotic cells.

14 Dec 2007

New prototype colour 3D X-ray system

Scientists at The University of Manchester have developed a new x-ray technique that could be used to detect hidden explosives, drugs and human cancers more effectively.

From The University of Manchester 3 Dec 2007

New technique enables the detection of biomolecules' dynamic reactions in a single living cell

By taking advantage of the signature frequency by which organic and inorganic molecules absorb light, the team of researchers, led by Luke Lee, professor of bioengineering and director of UC Berkeley's Biomolecular Nanotechnology Center, can determine in real time whether specific enzymes are activated or particular genes are expressed, all with unprecedented resolution within a single living cell.

19 Nov 2007

Researchers image a biomarker of neurogenesis

Mirjana Maletic-Savatic, M.D., Ph.D, and co-investigators from Stony Brook University Medical Center, Brookhaven National Laboratory and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have discovered a way to image a biomarker of neural stem and progenitor cells (NPCs) in the living human brain.

13 Nov 2007