Technology News and Research

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Why your fertility cells must have 'radio silence'

Researchers in Kobe, Japan, and Montreal, Canada, have uncovered a previously unknown mechanism which causes embryonic germ cells which later develop into sperm or ova to go through a period of "transcriptional silence," during which information from the cell's DNA cannot be copied.

31 Jan 2008

MUSC spin-off to test wound-healing peptide gel

First-String Research, Inc. (FSR), a spin-off biotechnology company from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), has begun the human clinical trial process for its unique, wound-healing peptide gel.

30 Jan 2008

Lungs' mast cells could provide new treatment target for asthma, other respiratory disease

An enzyme released by mast cells in the lungs appears to play a key role in the tightening of airways that is a hallmark of asthma pointing to a potential new target for treatment against the illness.

30 Jan 2008

E.coli tweaked to produce hydrogen

For most people, the name "E. coli" is synonymous with food poisoning and product recalls, but a professor in Texas A&M University's chemical engineering department envisions the bacteria as a future source of energy, helping to power our cars, homes and more.

30 Jan 2008

Improved methods for decontamination of bioterrorism hazards

In October 2001, letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to several news media offices and two U.S. senators, killing five people and infecting 17 others.

30 Jan 2008

Printed intelligence technology for mass production of analytical devices

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and the University of California in Berkeley have begun a three-year project to address technology barriers in the field of low cost diagnostics.

29 Jan 2008

New nanomedicine research for prostate cancer

The Prostate Cancer Foundation, largely through the generosity of David H. Koch, has given $5 million to four institutions, including Weill Cornell Medical College, to support novel research in prostate cancer. The gift is one of the largest-ever individual donations for prostate cancer research.

29 Jan 2008

New target found for asthma

An enzyme released by mast cells in the lungs appears to play a key role in the tightening of airways that is a hallmark of asthma -- pointing to a potential new target for treatment against the illness.

29 Jan 2008

Smaller pancreatic tumors greatly increase survival odds

The odds of surviving cancer of the pancreas increase dramatically for patients whose tumors are smallest, according to a new study by researchers at Saint Louis University and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston - the first study to specifically evaluate the link between tumor size and survival rates for one of the most common and deadly cancers.

28 Jan 2008

Medical Research Council and GSK to identify new therapeutic targets from genetic association studies

The Medical Research Council (MRC) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) have announced the creation of a jointly funded programme seeking to identify and validate genes associated with common human diseases. A key aim of the programme will be to translate these observations into new drug targets and biomarkers of disease.

28 Jan 2008

Novel method for assigning probabilities to human protein interactions

The Stowers Institute's Proteomics Center has published a novel method of using normalized spectral counts derived from a series of affinity purifications analyzed by mass spectrometry (APMS) to generate a probabilistic measure of the preference of proteins to associate with one another.

25 Jan 2008

Search for the 'on' switches may reveal genetic role in development and disease

A new resource that identifies regions of the human genome that regulate gene expression may help scientists learn about and develop treatments for a number of human diseases, according to researchers at Duke's Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy (IGSP).

25 Jan 2008

New approach to detect autism earlier

A new way of understanding autistic disorders, incorporating both psychological and biological factors, could lead to the conditions being picked up earlier, research from UNSW has found.

25 Jan 2008

New method enables design, production of extremely novel drugs

A new chemical synthesis method based on a catalyst worth many times the price of gold and providing a far more efficient and economical method than traditional ones for designing and manufacturing extremely novel pharmaceutical compounds is described by its University at Buffalo developers in a review article in the current issue of Nature.

24 Jan 2008

Skull survey could improve vehicle safety

Women's skulls are thicker than men's, but they both shrink slowly after we reach adulthood.

23 Jan 2008

Scientists use nanoscale polymer films to control drug delivery

Using nanotechnology, scientists from UCLA and Northwestern University have developed a localized and controlled drug delivery method that is invisible to the immune system, a discovery that could provide newer and more effective treatments for cancer and other diseases.

23 Jan 2008

Heart and stroke death rates steadily decline; risks still too high

In an appropriate prelude to American Heart Month, which is just ahead in February, new mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that, since 1999, coronary heart disease and stroke age-adjusted death rates are down by 25.8 percent and 24.4 percent, respectively.

23 Jan 2008