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Johns Hopkins team creates synthetic protein that can help locate tumors

Johns Hopkins researchers have created a synthetic protein that, when activated by ultraviolet light, can guide doctors to places within the body where cancer, arthritis and other serious medical disorders can be detected.

30 Aug 2012

SPR microscopy examines binding kinetics of membrane proteins

Proteins adorning the surfaces of human cells perform an array of essential functions, including cell signaling, communication and the transport of vital substances into and out of cells. They are critical targets for drug delivery and many proteins are now being identified as disease biomarkers - early warning beacons announcing the pre-symptomatic presence of cancers and other diseases.

29 Aug 2012

Confocal light sheet microscopy yields high-resolution views of brain’s neural pathways

Shortly after the Hubble Space Telescope went into orbit in 1990 it was discovered that the craft had blurred vision. Fortunately, Space Shuttle astronauts were able to remedy the problem a few years later with supplemental optics. Now, a team of Italian researchers has performed a similar sight-correcting feat for a microscope imaging technique designed to explore a universe seemingly as vast as Hubble's but at the opposite end of the size spectrum—the neural pathways of the brain.

24 Aug 2012

New imaging technique reveals the brain's continuous renovation

Using bioluminescent proteins from a jellyfish, a team of scientists has lit up the inside of a neuron, capturing spectacular video footage that shows the movement of proteins throughout the cell.

23 Aug 2012

New silicon chips help identify patients with lupus

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Intel Corp. have collaborated to synthesize and study a grid-like array of short pieces of a disease-associated protein on silicon chips normally used in computer microprocessors.

21 Aug 2012

Scientists demonstrate automated worm sorter for biological research

Research into the genetic factors behind certain disease mechanisms, illness progression and response to new drugs is frequently carried out using tiny multi-cellular animals such as nematodes, fruit flies or zebra fish.

20 Aug 2012

Scientists devise new fluorescent probes to diagnose neurodegenerative diseases

Sticky plaques of proteins called amyloids mark several different, though related degenerative brain diseases including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Creutzfeld-Jacobs. The symptoms of these disorders overlap and methods to diagnose and monitor them are not very advanced.

16 Aug 2012

Antisense therapy shows promise in treating toxoplasmosis

A targeted approach to treating toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disease, shows early promise in test-tube and animal studies, where it prevented the parasites from making selected proteins. When tested in newly infected mice, it reduced the number of viable parasites by more than 90 percent, researchers from the University of Chicago Medicine report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

14 Aug 2012

Fluorescent molecules 'tag' DNA and monitor looping process

In a new study, UT Dallas researchers outline how they used fluorescent molecules to "tag" DNA and monitor a process called DNA looping, a natural biological mechanism involved in rearranging genetic material in some types of cells.

13 Aug 2012

New life for forgotten technique in detecting resistant tuberculosis

Scientists of the Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine have breathed new life into a forgotten technique and so succeeded in detecting resistant tuberculosis in circumstances where so far this was hardly feasible. Tuberculosis bacilli that have become resistant against our major antibiotics are a serious threat to world health.

10 Aug 2012

Theranostic imaging targets and tracks potent drug therapies to prostate cancer cells

Experimenting with human prostate cancer cells and mice, cancer imaging experts at Johns Hopkins say they have developed a method for finding and killing malignant cells while sparing healthy ones.

9 Aug 2012

Lung cancer patients can be screened for ALK-inhibitor suitability

Anaplastic lymphoma kinase gene status in patients with lung adenocarcinoma can be determined non-invasively using circulating tumor cells, research shows.

8 Aug 2012

Neutrophils help kick off insulin resistance in obesity

Experts have found that neutrophils play an important role in initiating the chronic inflammation that characterizes obesity-induced insulin resistance.

8 Aug 2012

Prostate cancer cells can be killed by theranostic imaging without harming healthy cells

Experimenting with human prostate cancer cells and mice, cancer imaging experts at Johns Hopkins say they have developed a method for finding and killing malignant cells while sparing healthy ones.

8 Aug 2012

Mammalian cells divide when their growth rate hits a specific threshold

It's a longstanding question in biology: How do cells know when to progress through the cell cycle? In simple organisms such as yeast, cells divide once they reach a specific size. However, determining if this holds true for mammalian cells has been difficult, in part because there has been no good way to measure mammalian cell growth over time.

6 Aug 2012

Similar molecular pathways involved in intellectual disability due to Fragile X and Down syndromes

Intellectual disability due to Fragile X and Down syndromes involves similar molecular pathways report researchers in The EMBO Journal. The two disorders share disturbances in the molecular events that regulate the way nerve cells develop dendritic spines, the small extensions found on the surface of nerve cells that are crucial for communication in the brain.

3 Aug 2012

Simpler and more accurate way to test for prostate cancer

An undergraduate student's technique for detecting certain metabolites in urine samples could lead to a simpler and more accurate way to test for prostate cancer.

3 Aug 2012

New tool uses fluorescence to distinguish cancerous tissue from normal one in low-grade tumors

A new probe developed collaboratively at Norris Cotton Cancer Center and Dartmouth College's Thayer School of Engineering uses an innovative fluorescence-reading technology to help brain surgeons distinguish cancerous tissue from normal tissue. The probe tool, now already in use at the Cancer Center for brain surgery, may one day be used for surgeries for a variety of cancers.

25 Jul 2012

Queen's University, Cirdan Imaging partner to develop novel techniques for cancer detection

The development of novel medical imaging techniques to revolutionise cancer detection and treatment will be the result of a new partnership announced today between Queen's University Belfast and Cirdan Imaging Ltd.

24 Jul 2012

Single-step method can rapidly detect pathogens and chemical contaminants

Using nanoscale materials, researchers at the University of Georgia have developed a single-step method to rapidly and accurately detect viruses, bacteria and chemical contaminants.

20 Jul 2012