Life Sciences Thought Leaders

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News Medical's "Thought Leaders" series is a selection of articles written by national and international experts and trusted advisers in the life sciences industry. All the articles are written by experts who have been invited as recognised leaders in their fields to provide a "state of the art" contribution.

Advances in optogenetics

Optogenetics is a way of introducing information into the brain using light, it targets specific cells or connections across the brain. It is fast, like brain signaling, and helps you communicate with neural circuitry in a language more similar to what is normally used within the brain.

From Pittcon 2 Mar 2017

Using spherical nucleic acids to track and treat disease

Spherical nucleic acids are structures that are made by taking a nanoparticle template and using chemistry to arrange short strands of DNA or RNA on the surface of those particles. The spherical core of the nanoparticle creates a spherical arrangement of DNA or RNA, similar to tiny little balls of nucleic acids.

From Pittcon 1 Mar 2017

Decoding the exposome through breath biomarkers

The human exposome is probably best defined as “everything that is not the genome.” This is a bit tongue in cheek, but basically, the exposome is comprised of all of the chemicals in your body from the environment, food, consumer products, their metabolites, the endogenous “housekeeping” chemicals, the cellular wastes from energy production, as well as all of the messenger compounds and life supporting chemicals.

From Pittcon 24 Feb 2017

Routine small animal MR imaging using the ICON

I’m an Assistant Professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the Complutense University, Madrid. Until five years ago I had been working here at the university, part time with a private clinic, where I worked in MRI and MR spectroscopy for clinical applications.

From Bruker BioSpin - NMR, EPR and Imaging 22 Feb 2017

Targeting RNA repeats

RNA repeats are stretches of code in the body that incrementally repeat. For example, in the most common cause of adult-on-set muscular dystrophy a RNA has a repeat of r(CUG) and this three letter code can repeat thousands of times.

20 Feb 2017

Carving a career in science

I was interested in a whole range of subjects, but the one that really grasped me from a young age was biology and, in particular, human biology. I was really fascinated with how the human body worked and I still am; that's something that has stayed with me.

15 Feb 2017

Exosome isolation using ultracentrifugation

In the outpatient clinic and in the laboratory our current research studies aim at understanding the mechanisms of release and clearance and the biological functions of exosomes and membrane particles in the plasma of individuals who develop emphysema, a form of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease characterized by enlargement of airspaces and loss of alveoli.

From Beckman Coulter Life Sciences - Centrifugation 9 Feb 2017

Single molecule detection of proteins in single cells

We developed this technology almost 10 years ago. It was developed after a key experiment was carried out by David Rissin, who was a PhD candidate in my laboratory at the time.

From Pittcon 3 Feb 2017

Advanced NMR-based methods for studying RNPs and drug design

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a powerful analytical tool widely used in chemical research to investigate the structure and dynamics of molecules.

From Bruker BioSpin - NMR, EPR and Imaging 24 Jan 2017

Characterizing the brain, cell by cell

My group develops approaches to study cell-to-cell signaling in the brain – how the cells of the brain talk to each other. The brain is heterogeneous, probably more so than any other organ in our body, and many of its functions depend on the unique characteristics of these cells.

From Pittcon 23 Jan 2017

Impact of IBS on patients

The report reveals a quite alarming situation about the economic impact of IBS on healthcare system, society and patients themselves. In particular, it disclosed that there are a lot of hidden costs related to the utilization of healthcare resources by means of patients, frequently not recognized as IBS...

16 Jan 2017

Could pathogen infection really lead to Alzheimer’s?

New concepts of infectious disease are evolving with the realization that pathogens are key players in the development of progressive chronic diseases that originally were not thought to be infectious. Infection is well-known to be associated with numerous neurological diseases for which...

12 Jan 2017

Childhood obesity starts in the womb?

There is incontrovertible evidence that some harmful drugs and toxins can affect lifelong health. For example, if women take certain drugs in pregnancy, such as thalidomide, there are well documented effects on lifelong health. These have obvious and dramatic effects on the child...

11 Jan 2017

Developing high field solid-state NMR for the characterization of complex targets

Solid-state NMR spectroscopy is a technique used by scientists to provide valuable information in the analysis of solid materials. It provides unique and specific insights into the structure, dynamics, and reactivity of all kinds of materials.

From Bruker BioSpin - NMR, EPR and Imaging 10 Jan 2017

Giving polycystic kidney disease the bump

We launched this campaign at the beginning of October 2016. It's the first time that we've ever had a campaign of this size and scope. It's a European campaign in multiple languages that's coordinated by six of the organizations that represent PKD patients in Europe.

5 Jan 2017

How does the brain control appetite?

Energy balance between energy intake and expenditure in our bodies is important for maintaining energy homeostasis to keep our bodies functioning properly. The appetite determines how much we eat, the energy intake, by communication between the brain and body.

4 Jan 2017

How can we tackle antimicrobial resistance?

Antimicrobial resistance happens when bugs, like bacteria, fungi or viruses, change, or evolve, when they’re exposed to drugs, like antibiotics, antifungals, or antivirals. Bugs that develop antimicrobial resistance are sometimes referred to as ‘superbugs’.

20 Dec 2016