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.

Validating the Diagnosis of Depression

It’s very difficult to diagnose depression. With depression, you can't open the brain to find answers, and the chemistry of the brain is separate from the chemistry of the body.

From Pittcon 10 Apr 2018

Free Radical Formation in Electronic Cigarette Aerosols

An interview with Prof. John Richie, describing his presentation at Pittcon 2018 on free radical formation in electronic cigarette aerosols.

From Pittcon 5 Apr 2018

The Human Microbiome – A New Potential Fingerprint in Forensic Evidence?

Professor Jack Gilbert gives an overview of the Burglary Microbiome Project, which he discussed at Pittcon 2018.

From Pittcon 29 Mar 2018

Modifying Oncolytic Adenoviruses to Target Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer is one of the less common but deadliest cancers. Modified oncolytic adenoviruses represent an alternative to chemotherapy and targeted therapies, which have a high mortality rate.

9 Mar 2018

Resolving Interfacial Protein Dynamics by STReM

STReM stands for Super Time-Resolved Microscopy, and as STORM, PALM, and other methods are designed to improve spatial resolution of optical microscopy, we desire to improve the time resolution. STReM makes use of point spread function engineering to encode fast events into each camera frame.

From Pittcon 16 Feb 2018

Producing Super-Swelled Lyotropic Monocrystals for Drug Development

An interview with Dr. Cecília Leal, about a new method for producing bicontinuous cubic phases that are super-swollen and exist as monocrystals in solution.

15 Feb 2018

Using CRISPR To Produce Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

An interview with Dr. Sheng Ding about using a modified version of the CRISPR-Cas9 system to produce induced pluripotent stem cells.

9 Feb 2018

Why Should We Weigh Every Protein in the Human Body?

Our mission is to advance the measurement of human proteins with greater precision, to bring to the world the benefits of absolute molecular specificity when it comes to interrogating proteins at the molecular level.

From Pittcon 5 Jan 2018

Epigenetics: A New Tool for Forensic Detectives

Developing analytical methods can help the triers of fact, judges and juries, better understand the events surrounding the circumstances of a crime. In forensic analysis, we are talking about determining the identity of unknown individuals through DNA and using DNA and other chemical signatures to determine and clarify the circumstances of the crime.

From Pittcon 20 Dec 2017

Spatial deconvolution of marker expression in whole heart subjected to ischemia-reperfusion

When a coronary artery is obstructed by atheroma, blood flow is depressed or even arrested. This causes hypoxia of cardiac cells associated with the deprivation of nutrients. In clinic, the first objective is to restore blood flow. However, this is associated with a burst in oxidation of cellular proteins and lipids. This oxidation enhances cell death and participates to the so-called reperfusion injury.

From Logos Biosystems 18 Dec 2017

Using AFM to characterize cancer cells

My name is James Gimzewski and I am a distinguished professor at UCLA. I'm in the Chemistry and Biochemistry department, but I am also heavily involved in the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA. We were probably the first to pioneer the idea of what is now known as mechanobiology – the study of the mechanical properties of cancer cells as a potential diagnostic tool.

From Bruker Nano Surfaces 28 Nov 2017

Probing living cells with AFM

We study mammalian cells and try to understand how these cells interact with their environment. We mainly focus on the interactions that can occur with individual ligands.

From Bruker Nano Surfaces 21 Nov 2017

Applying AFM to study the viscoelastic properties of cells

Cell mechanics was already of interest very early on to people who were using the AFM. The AFM was invented in 1986 and the first biological samples, both proteins and lipid molecules, were investigated around 1989 and the first time cells were investigated was around 1990.

From Bruker Nano Surfaces 16 Nov 2017

Using AFM to study cancer cells

I run a core facility for AFM techniques, biological medical applications. My research is focussed on in the interaction of platelets and cancer cells.

From Bruker Nano Surfaces 14 Nov 2017

Studying the nanomechanical properties of aging and cancerous cells using AFM

Force microscopy is a technique which would probably be best described with the help of a small finger with an apex just a few atoms in size that can touch objects. This is a learning finger.

From Bruker Nano Surfaces 31 Oct 2017

Measuring biological samples using SNAP

My group is interested in host pathogen interaction and we mainly focus on how bacteria enter cells. In essence, the idea is that if you can prevent bacteria from entering cells, then you will prevent illness.

From Bruker Nano Surfaces 24 Oct 2017

Using AFM to study cell mechanics and function

My lab, broadly speaking, is interested in trying to understand interactions between cells and materials. Those could be materials that are present within living tissue or materials that we use for engineering purposes to try to do something of technological or therapeutic interest.

From Bruker Nano Surfaces 17 Oct 2017

Transitioning to automated liquid handling

We are working in the field of biomedical engineering and our specific focus is on the development of biohybrid medical systems or biohybrid implants. That means we combine a technical structure with a biological function to make medical systems and implants performing better.

From Beckman Coulter Life Sciences - Automation and Genomics 6 Oct 2017

Benefits of Biomarkers in Colorectal Cancer Treatment

Biomarkers fall into different categories: diagnostic biomarkers, are used to identify a disease; prognostic biomarkers, help clinicians to determine, for example, whether you're more likely to die or have problems with a disease; and there are some that can be used to inform treatment, to determine whether one therapy would be more successful than another.

2 Oct 2017

Analytical Science in Precision Medicine

Pittcon is an analytical conference, so naturally my talk will be about analytical chemistry and how analytical chemistry will become increasingly important in delivering healthcare solutions, not only for rich people, but also, hopefully, for poor people across the world.

From Pittcon 19 Sep 2017