Microscopy News and Research

RSS

3D images of synapsis between neurons through electron cryotomography

A team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, in Germany, led by the Spanish physicist Rub-n Fern-ndez-Busnadiego, has managed to obtain 3D images of the vesicles and filaments involved in communication between neurons. The method is based on a novel technique in electron microscopy, which cools cells so quickly that their biological structures can be frozen while fully active.

23 Jan 2010

New study indicates viruses employ a novel mechanism to spread more quickly than thought possible

New video footage of a virus infecting cells is challenging what researchers have long believed about how viruses spread, suggesting that scientists may be able to create new drugs to tackle some viruses.

22 Jan 2010

Postdoctoral scientists receive prestigious award; grants totaling $1.54 million will help in funding innovative projects

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on supporting exceptional early career researchers and innovative cancer research, named 11 new Damon Runyon Fellows at its November 2009 Fellowship Award Committee review.

22 Jan 2010

ChromoCure's aneuploidy theory of cancer further validated

ChromoCure, Inc. -- The Company announces that its long-held theory of cancer, aneuploidy, has been further validated by a study published in the January 15, 2010 issue of Cancer Research (Volume 70, Issue 2).

21 Jan 2010

VisEn Medical announces the commercial launch of new Cat B 680 FAST imaging agent

VisEn Medical Inc., a leader in fluorescence in vivo imaging from research through medicine, announced today the commercial launch of its new Cat B 680 FAST™ imaging agent for measuring and monitoring cathepsin B activity associated with disease progression and therapeutic response in vivo.

21 Jan 2010

TUM biophysicists map changes in energy landscape of zipper-like protein molecule

Biophysicists at TUM, the Technische Universitaet Muenchen, have published the results of single-molecule experiments that bring a higher-resolution tool to the study of protein folding. How proteins arrive at the three-dimensional shapes that determine their essential functions - or cause grave diseases when folding goes wrong - is considered one of the most important and least understood questions in the biological and medical sciences.

20 Jan 2010

Ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme promotes chromosome missegregation and tumor formation

A ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme that regulates the cell cycle promotes chromosome missegregation and tumor formation, according to van Ree et al. in the January 11 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology (www.jcb.org).

12 Jan 2010

CDS Investigator Group identifies a new predictor for successful corneal transplant

A new predictor of cornea transplant success has been identified by the Cornea Donor Study (CDS) Investigator Group. New analysis of data from the 2008 Specular Microscopy Ancillary Study (SMAS), a subset of the CDS, found that the preoperative donor cell count of endothelial cells, previously considered to be an important predictor of a successful transplant, did not correlate with graft success.

12 Jan 2010

ORNL story tips for January 2010

World-class computing at Oak Ridge National Laboratory could be unleashed to save as much as $50 billion per year in fraud, waste and abuse in the nation's health care system.

6 Jan 2010

Findings may lead to new methods for diagnosing osteoporosis

Using a technique that provides detailed images of nanoscale structures, researchers at the University of Michigan and Detroit's Henry Ford Hospital have discovered changes in the collagen component of bone that directly relate to bone health.

23 Dec 2009

Investigation of IDH1 gene mutations in brain cancer receives new funds

Agios Pharmaceuticals, the leading biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing novel drugs in the emerging field of cancer metabolism, announced today that it has received funding from Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure (ABC2), a non-profit organization that supports brain cancer research. ABC2’s funding will enable new research investigating IDH1 gene mutations in brain cancer, with the goal of supplementing Agios’s ongoing research into the development of new IDH1 therapeutics and diagnostics.

21 Dec 2009

Researchers follow steps that lead some tumor cells to establish metastases

Up to 25% of cancer patients develop metastases in the brain - often long after successful treatment of the primary tumor. In almost all such cases, the prognosis is poor. The mechanisms responsible for the appearance of brain metastases have long been mysterious.

21 Dec 2009

Researchers explore cellular movement

Our cells are more like us than we may think. They're sensitive to their environment, poking and prodding deliberately at their surroundings with hand-like feelers and chemical signals as they decide whether and where to move. Such caution serves us well but has vexed engineers who seek to create synthetic tissue, heart valves, implants and other devices that the human body will accept.

17 Dec 2009

Zecotek Photonics' proprietary TGFL selected for research in flow cytometry

Zecotek Photonics Inc., a developer of leading-edge photonics technologies for medical, industrial and scientific markets, today announced that the National Cancer Institute, a division of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), has selected its proprietary Tunable Green Fiber Laser (TGFL) for research in flow cytometry.

16 Dec 2009

Mutant ATPase blocks autophagy partway and causes multi-tissue degenerative disease

It's important to finish what you start, say Jeong-Sun Ju and researchers from Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis. In the December 14, 2009 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology (www.jcb.org), Ju et al. reveal how a mutant ATPase blocks autophagy partway through to cause a multi-tissue degenerative disease.

15 Dec 2009

Nanoprobes deliver drugs directly to the right tumor cellular compartments

Tiny nanoprobes have shown to be effective in delivering cancer drugs more directly to tumor cells - mitigating the damage to nearby healthy cells - and Purdue University research has shown that the nanoprobes are getting the drugs to right cellular compartments.

15 Dec 2009

University of California now has an innovative stem cell core facility

Kornberg Associates | Architects has converted part of an existing building (Keen Hall), including a previously unused covered open area, into an innovative stem cell core facility for the University of California, Riverside. Ken Kornberg, president and founder, made the announcement.

11 Dec 2009

Rice, TMC team wins stimulus funds for nanoparticle standardization

One of the promises of nanomedicine is the design of tiny particles that can home in on diseased cells and get inside them. Nanoparticles can carry drugs into cells and tag cells for MRI and other diagnostic tests; and they may eventually even enter a cell's nucleus to repair damaged genes. Unfortunately, designing them involves as much luck as engineering.

11 Dec 2009

Enzo Biochem and Ikonisys sign agreement to market molecular-based cervical cancer test

Enzo Biochem, Inc. announced today that its Enzo Clinical Lab division has entered into an exclusive marketing partnership covering the States of New York and New Jersey with privately-owned Ikonisys, Inc., of New Haven, CT, relating to Ikonisys’ proprietary oncoFISH® cervical test, a laboratory developed test for cervical cancer prevention.

10 Dec 2009

Biomoda, Christiana Care Health System partner in study of CyPath lung cancer diagnostic test

Cancer diagnostics company Biomoda, Inc. today announced that The Helen F. Graham Cancer Center associated with Christiana Care Health System, a screening site for the International Early Lung Cancer Program (I-ELCAP), will recruit a cohort of patients diagnosed with lung cancer to participate in the final stage of the Phase II pilot study of the investigational CyPath® assay, an early-stage diagnostic test for lung cancer.