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Public lecture to highlight what causes cell division to go wrong and lead to cancer

University of Leicester research which substantially increases our understanding of what causes cell division to go wrong and lead to cancer will be highlighted in a public lecture at the University on Wednesday 14th October at 5.30-6.30pm.

1 Oct 2009

Latest optical and laser technology in medicine displayed at FiO meeting

From scopes that help premature babies breathe to techniques for imaging live neurons and beating hearts as they develop, the latest optical and laser technology being deployed in medicine and the biosciences will be on display at the Optical Society's (OSA) Annual Meeting, Frontiers in Optics (FiO), which takes place Oct. 11-15 at the Fairmont San Jose Hotel and the Sainte Claire Hotel in San Jose, Calif.

1 Oct 2009

Hologic's ThinPrep integrated imager receives CE marking approval

Hologic, Inc., a leading developer, manufacturer and supplier of premium diagnostics, medical imaging systems and surgical products dedicated to serving the healthcare needs of women, today announced it has received CE marking approval for its ThinPrep® integrated imager.

From Hologic, Inc. 30 Sep 2009

Hitachi High-Technologies reaches milestone: More than 1000 units of TM-1000 shipped

Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation (TOKYO:8036) today announced that cumulative shipments of the tabletop microscope TM-1000, launched in April 2005, have now surpassed 1,000 units.

30 Sep 2009

$1.3 million fund awarded to WPI for ongoing life sciences research

Researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute's (WPI) Life Sciences and Bioengineering Center at Gateway Park have received a total of $1.3 million in new awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to fund ongoing research in several areas of the life sciences, including a study of the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, work aimed at using adult stem cells to repair damaged hearts, and a project that seeks to create engineered blood vessels.

28 Sep 2009

Researchers develop a process to tag cancer cells

Scientists label cells with coloured or glowing chemicals to observe how basic cellular activities differ between healthy and cancerous cells. Existing techniques for labelling cells are either too slow or too toxic to perform on live cells. Now, a study reviewed by Philip Dawson, a member of Faculty of 1000 Biology and leading authority in chemistry and cell biology, describes a novel labelling technique that uses a chemical reaction to make live cancer cells light up quickly and safely.

25 Sep 2009

HPV screening and vaccination programmes could eradicate cervical cancer

Cervical cancer could be eradicated within the next 50 years if countries implement national screening programmes based on detection of the human papilloma virus (HPV), which causes the disease, together with vaccination programmes against the virus, according to a cervical cancer screening expert.

24 Sep 2009

Twinkling nanostars improve optical imaging of tumors

Researchers at Purdue University have created magnetically responsive gold nanostars that may offer a new approach to biomedical imaging. The nanostars gyrate when exposed to a rotating magnetic field and can scatter light to produce a pulsating or "twinkling" effect. This twinkling allows them to stand out more clearly from noisy backgrounds such as those found in biological tissue. Alexander Wei, Ph.D., and Kenneth Ritchie, Ph.D., M.Sc., led the team that created the new gyromagnetic imaging method. The work appears in a paper published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

23 Sep 2009

New intraoperative nerve integrity monitors from Medtronic

Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) recently announced the launch of the NIM-Response® 3.0 and NIM-Neuro® 3.0 intraoperative nerve integrity monitors designed for a variety of surgeons, including ear, nose, and throat (ENT); endocrine; general; and peripheral surgeons.

17 Sep 2009

Targeted Molecular Diagnostics to offer digital pathology services in Beijing

Targeted Molecular Diagnostics (TMD), a Quintiles Central Laboratory, announced today the availability of digital pathology services in Beijing, China. The services add to Quintiles offerings used in the development of therapies to treat the world’s most pressing health issues, including cancer.

15 Sep 2009

RI-MUHC recommends WHO to revise tuberculosis treatment guidelines

Tuberculosis is a global threat that affects more than 10 million people each year. Working with colleagues in the United States and France, Dr. Dick Menzies of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) has placed current tuberculosis treatment guidelines under the microscope in a new study.

15 Sep 2009

MicroDynamics launches new computer controlled Micro-QC surface inspection microscope

MicroDynamics announces the release of the new MD-MicroQC, a lightweight, durable surface inspection Microscope. This advanced system design, states John Bearden, President and designer, "provides for enhanced performance, reliable results and the versatility to adapt to different production environments." MicroDynamics will be demonstrating the MD-MicroQC at the Quality Expo on September 22 - 24 at booth 4670.

15 Sep 2009

Study reveals that daily bathroom showers may deliver pathogenic bacteria

While daily bathroom showers provide invigorating relief and a good cleansing for millions of Americans, they also can deliver a face full of potentially pathogenic bacteria, according to a surprising new University of Colorado at Boulder study.

15 Sep 2009

New method for detecting oxidative stress in tumor cells

The growth of cancerous tumors is fueled, at least in part, by the buildup of free radicals---highly reactive oxygen-containing molecules.

14 Sep 2009

Brain's SCN is the master clock that synchronizes other biological clocks in the body

Alexis Webb enters a small room at Washington University in St. Louis with walls, floor and ceiling painted dark green, shuts the door, turns off the lights and bends over a microscope in a black box draped with black cloth. Through the microscope, she can see a single nerve cell on a glass cover slip glowing dimly.

10 Sep 2009

BEST bags orders for state-of-the-art synchrotron instrumentation

Bruker Energy & Supercon Technologies, Inc. (BEST) today announced that its subsidiary Bruker ASC GmbH in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany, has been awarded several significant contracts for state-of-the-art synchrotron instrumentation from leading research institutions worldwide.

8 Sep 2009

Iterative in situ click chemistry creates antibody-like protein-capture agents

Chemists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and The Scripps Research Institute (SRI) have developed an innovative technique to create cheap but highly stable chemicals that have the potential to take the place of the antibodies used in many standard medical diagnostic tests. James R. Heath, Ph.D., principal investigator of the Nanosystems Biology Cancer Center at Caltech, one of eight Centers of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence, and K. Barry Sharpless, Ph.D., SRI, and their colleagues describe the new technique in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

7 Sep 2009

Nanotags pinpoint multiple cancer markers in live animals

Using nanoparticles designed specifically to produce a bright Raman spectroscopic signal, a team of investigators at the Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence Focused on Therapy Response (Stanford University Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence [CCNE]) has shown that it can simultaneously track as many as 10 different optical tags in a living animal.

7 Sep 2009

Brain protein srGAP2 capable of forming filopodia

When the process goes awry, neurodevelopmental disorders such as mental retardation, dyslexia or autism may result. Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have now discovered that establishing the neural wiring necessary to function normally depends on the ability of neurons to make finger-like projections of their membrane called filopodia.

5 Sep 2009

New molecular sensor could identify zinc-related diseases

Scientists have developed a new molecular sensor that can reveal the amount of zinc in cells, which could tell us more about a number of diseases, including type 2 diabetes. The research, published today in Nature Methods, opens the door to the hidden world of zinc biology by giving scientists an accurate way of measuring the concentration of zinc and its location in cells for the first time.

30 Aug 2009