Ethanol News and Research

RSS

Yeast gene can increase ethanol production yield by up to 34%

iDiverse announced that it has discovered a yeast gene that when inserted into yeast and properly modulated can increase ethanol production yield by up to 34%.

23 Jul 2012

Toxins and cell death: Interview with Professor Denise Montell

There are multiple kinds of cell death. Cells can undergo programmed cell death, which is a series of events that undergoes a predictable order at certain times during development.

6 Jul 2012

Cells close to death from toxin exposure can survive when toxins are removed

The vast majority of cells that appear to be on a one-way track to death after exposure to toxins can bounce back completely after those toxins are removed, Johns Hopkins scientists report in a new study. The finding, published in the June 15 issue of Molecular Biology of the Cell, is not only a testament to the indomitable cellular spirit, but could also offer some practical insight on how to save dying tissues after heart attacks or strokes as well as prevent cancer in cells transiently exposed to toxins.

3 Jul 2012

Research into alcohol's effect on juvenile rats

Research into alcohol's effect on juvenile rats shows they have an ability to build up a physical, but not cognitive, tolerance over the short term - a finding that could have implications for adolescent humans, according to Baylor University psychologists.

14 Jun 2012

High doses of ginseng more effectively reduce cancer-related fatigue in patients

High doses of the herb American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) over two months reduced cancer-related fatigue in patients more effectively than a placebo, a Mayo Clinic-led study found. Sixty percent of patients studied had breast cancer. The findings are being presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting.

5 Jun 2012

Dehydration: how much should we drink per day?

As the northern hemisphere approaches the summer months, many of us begin to think about drinking more to prevent dehydration. But exactly how much should we be drinking a day? Does the amount vary depending on what we are drinking? And what happens if we don’t drink enough fluid?

30 May 2012

Excessive alcohol intake may increase of cognitive dysfunction, dementia in the elderly

Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other types of dementia are most common in the very elderly, and are associated with huge health costs. With a rapidly ageing population throughout the world, factors that affect the risk of cognitive decline and dementia are of great importance. A review paper by Kim JW et al published in Psychiatry Investig 2012;9:8-16 on the association between alcohol consumption and cognition in the elderly provides an excellent summary of the potential ways in which alcohol may affect cognitive function and the risk of dementia, both adversely and favourably as alcohol may have both a neuro toxic and neuro protective effect, depending on the dose and drinking pattern.

23 May 2012

Researchers uncover new way to stimulate activity of immune cell opiate receptors

Researchers at Rutgers University have uncovered a new way to stimulate activity of immune cell opiate receptors, leading to efficient tumor cell clearance.

14 May 2012

BioFuel Energy first quarter net loss increases to $11.1 million

BIOFUEL ENERGY CORP., an ethanol production company, today announced its first quarter 2012 results.

11 May 2012

Grade 12 researcher wins top honors at 2012 Sanofi BioGENEius Challenge Canada

An Ontario girl, 16, who invented a disease-fighting, anti-aging compound using nano-particles from trees, won top national honours today in the 2012 Sanofi BioGENEius Challenge Canada.

9 May 2012

Study explains association between alcohol consumption and breast cancer

A research team this week will present findings that they say may finally explain the link between alcohol consumption and breast cancer.

24 Apr 2012

Neuropeptide F in the fly's brain governs behavior linked with addiction

Sexually deprived male fruit flies exhibit a pattern of behavior that seems ripped from the pages of a sad-sack Raymond Carver story: when female fruit flies reject their sexual advances, the males are driven to excessive alcohol consumption, drinking far more than comparable, sexually satisfied male flies.

16 Mar 2012

New experiments may provide insights into possible modes of heart damage from alcohol

Beyond the personal tragedy of chronic alcoholism there is heartbreak in the biological sense, too. Scientists know severe alcoholism stresses the heart and that mitochondria, the cellular energy factories, are especially vulnerable to dysfunction. But they don't know the precise mechanism.

24 Feb 2012

BPS Annual Meeting to be held Feb. 25 - 29 in San Diego

The latest news and discoveries in medicine, physics, environmental science, and interdisciplinary fields will be featured at the 56th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society (BPS), held Feb. 25 - Feb. 29, 2012, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, Calif. With more than 4,000 poster presentations, 200 exhibits, 20 symposia, and 6,000 research scientists in attendance each year, the BPS Annual Meeting is the largest meeting of biophysicists in the world.

7 Feb 2012

Merck receives FDA approval for JANUMET XR to treat type 2 diabetes

Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved JANUMET XR (sitagliptin and metformin hydrochloride extended-release) tablets, a new treatment for type 2 diabetes that combines sitagliptin, which is the active component of JANUVIA (sitagliptin), with extended-release metformin.

3 Feb 2012

Minuscule amounts of ethanol can double C. elegans' life span

Minuscule amounts of ethanol, the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, can more than double the life span of a tiny worm known as Caenorhabditis elegans, which is used frequently as a model in aging studies, UCLA biochemists report. The scientists said they find their discovery difficult to explain.

21 Jan 2012

Ethanol, nonalcoholic compounds in red wine may reduce risk of vascular disease

Observational epidemiologic studies relating wine and alcohol to health all suffer from the fact that they, of necessity, compare people who prefer certain beverages, but not the beverages themselves. While there have been many intervention trials in animals, randomized trials in humans are less common. Randomized crossover trials, in which each subject receives all interventions in sequence, can be especially important as they tend to avoid baseline differences among subjects and can detect effects of different interventions with smaller numbers of subjects.

18 Jan 2012

Neogen develops new Reveal Q+ test for deoxynivalenol

Neogen Corporation has developed a new test for deoxynivalenol (DON) that combines the speed and simplicity of a lateral flow test with the fully quantitative precision of a more demanding testing method.

4 Jan 2012

LANL's top 10 science stories of 2011

Los Alamos National Laboratory's top 10 science stories of 2011 illustrate the broad variety of scientific excellence that's the hallmark of the Laboratory. This year's stories include alternative energy research, world record magnetic fields, disease tracking, the study of Mars, climate change, fuel cells, solar wind, and magnetic reconnection.

26 Dec 2011

Scientists evaluate toxicity of Peruvian plant species in traditional medicine

Many developing countries rely on traditional medicine as an accessible and affordable treatment option for human maladies. However, until now, scientific data has not existed to evaluate the potential toxicity of medicinal plant species in Peru. Scientists from the William L. Brown Center of the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis led a study using brine shrimp to determine the toxicity of 341 Northern Peruvian plant species commonly ingested in traditional medicine.

15 Dec 2011