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Flow cytometry can now be used for quantification of microbial cells in drinking water

Flow cytometry (FCM) can now be officially used for the quantification of microbial cells in drinking water. The new analytical method - developed at Eawag and extensively tested both in Switzerland and abroad - has been incorporated into the Swiss Food Compendium (SLMB) by the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH).

25 Jan 2013

Obesity and oxidative stress: an interview with Dr Elizabeth New

Even though oxygen is essential for us to live, it can react with other compounds in the body to produce molecules called free radicals, which are highly reactive and damaging.

22 Nov 2012

Some gut microbes increase absorption of dietary fats

You may think you have dinner all to yourself, but you're actually sharing it with a vast community of microbes waiting within your digestive tract. A new study from a team including Carnegie's Steve Farber and Juliana Carten reveals that some gut microbes increase the absorption of dietary fats, allowing the host organism to extract more calories from the same amount of food.

13 Sep 2012

Super-resolution microscopy highlights bacterial biofilms

A multi-fluorescent labeling strategy combined with super-resolution light microscopy has allowed researchers to observe the development of a bacterial biofilm in realtime.

18 Jul 2012

Caltech researchers develop technique to focus light inside biological tissue

Imagine if doctors could perform surgery without ever having to cut through your skin. Or if they could diagnose cancer by seeing tumors inside the body with a procedure that is as simple as an ultrasound.

27 Jun 2012

New optical microscope sees individual blood cells as they flow inside the body

Blood tests convey vital medical information, but the sight of a needle often causes anxiety and results take time. A new device developed by a team of researchers in Israel, however, can reveal much the same information as traditional blood test in real-time, simply by shining a light through the skin.

21 May 2012

Competition to celebrate art in medicine

It turns out beauty really is skin deep. A hair follicle or skin specimen that doesn't look like much of anything to the naked eye can become a complex, colorful work of art under a microscope. Mayo Clinic dermatologists struck by the beauty they see in the cellular have started a competition to celebrate art in medicine. The winning entries appear in the May issue of the Journal of Cutaneous Pathology.

3 May 2012

Novel nanosensors can lead to fewer experiments on animals

Countless mice, rats and rabbits die every year in the name of science - and the situation is getting worse. While German laboratories used some 2.41 million animals for scientific research in 2005, by 2009 this number had grown to 2.79 million. One third were destined for fundamental biology research, and the majority were used for researching diseases and developing medical compounds and devices.

11 Jan 2012

World Cell Race pulls 70 entries for title of world's fastest cell

A "team" of fast-moving, bone marrow stem cells from a research laboratory in Singapore has run away with the first World Cell Race, finishing first with a cellular speed record of 5.2 microns per minute (or 0.000204 inches per minute) in results announced today at the 51st Annual Meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB).

3 Dec 2011

Synthetic human tissue aids in testing photoacoustic and ultrasonic imaging technologies

The precise blending of tiny particles and multicolor dyes transforms gelatin into a realistic surrogate for human tissue. These tissue mimics, known as "phantoms," provide an accurate proving ground for new photoacoustic and ultrasonic imaging technologies.

1 Dec 2011

HMS, EPFL to collaborate on 6 pioneering neuroengineering projects

Two of the world's leading universities are joining forces to combine neuroscience and engineering in order to alleviate human suffering caused by such neurological disabilities as paralysis and deafness. Scientists, engineers, and clinicians at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Ecole Polytechnique F-d-rale de Lausanne (EPFL) will collaborate on six pioneering neuroengineering projects made possible thanks to a $3.6 million grant from the Bertarelli Foundation.

24 Oct 2011

Two defective genes may cause telomere elongations in cancer cells: Study

Scientists at Johns Hopkins have provided more clues to one of the least understood phenomena in some cancers: why the "ends caps" of cellular DNA, called telomeres, lengthen instead of shorten.

1 Jul 2011

New imaging method using fluorescent nanotubes can peer clearly into living mouse's innards

Developing drugs to combat or cure human disease often involves a phase of testing with mice, so being able to peer clearly into a living mouse's innards has real value.

30 May 2011

Research sheds light on molecular movements of neural transporters

A team of scientists from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and Weill Cornell Medical College has shed light on the molecular workings of transporter proteins, molecular machines embedded in the cell membranes of neurons that modulate the transfer of signals between cells and recycle neurotransmitters.

25 Apr 2011

Contrast agent for tumor diagnostics

X-rays are not the only way: visible and especially infrared light can also be used to image human tissue. The effectiveness of optical imaging processes can be significantly improved with suitable dyes used as contrast agents. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, a team led by Wenbin Lin at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, USA) has now introduced a novel contrast agent that marks tumor cells in vitro. The dye is a phosphorescent ruthenium complex incorporated into nanoparticles of a metal–organic coordination polymer, which allows an extraordinarily high level of dye loading.

23 Mar 2011

Laser light can kill cancer cells by pumping drugs into them

Shining a laser light on cells and then clicking off the light makes the cells "breathe in" surrounding water, providing a potentially powerful delivery system for chemotherapy drugs, as well as a non-invasive way to target anti-Alzheimer's medicines to the brain. That's the conclusion of a report in ACS's The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.

17 Mar 2011

BD announces addition of new flow cytometry system for rapid microbial enumeration, detection

Industrial microbiologists now have a new tool that was designed specifically to help quality control laboratories rapidly screen raw materials, as well as in-process and finished goods, for the presence of microorganisms that can threaten product quality.

17 Feb 2011

Study unveils surprising mechanism that controls brain formation

A study from The Scripps Research Institute has unveiled a surprising mechanism that controls brain formation. The findings have implications for understanding a host of diseases, including some forms of mental retardation, epilepsy, schizophrenia, and autism.

10 Feb 2011

Single molecule FRET techniques combined with wavelet transforms give new view of AMPA receptor

A digital signal processing technique long used by statisticians to analyze data is helping Houston scientists understand the roots of memory and learning, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases and stroke.

8 Feb 2011

TREK1 activity offers a key target for fluoxetine and other antidepressant drugs

Using a unique and relatively simple cell-based fluorescent assay they developed, scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley have identified a means by which fluoxetine, the active ingredient in Prozac, suppresses the activity of the TREK1 potassium channel.

8 Feb 2011