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.

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

Metabolomics research at the Phenome Centre Birmingham

It's the third of the phenome centres to open around the world following the National Phenome Centre at Imperial College, London and the Singapore Phenome Centre.

From Bruker BioSpin - NMR, EPR and Imaging 28 Nov 2016

Nano-biointeraction and nanopathology

Nanoparticles enter the organism in a number of ways. In most cases through inhalation and ingestion. When inhaled, the majority of them are expelled with the next breath. When ingested, most of them are gotten rid of through feces.

31 Oct 2016

Solid-state NMR in structural biology: an interview with Professor Tatyana Polenova

My research lab studies several classes of systems. We are mostly interested in looking at large protein assemblies to understand their structure, dynamics and how their properties relate to their malfunction in disease.

From Bruker BioSpin - NMR, EPR and Imaging 21 Sep 2016

Could a light-listening photonics device detect skin disease? An interview with Prof. Vasilis Ntziachristos

Detection of malignant skin alterations is currently aided by optical microscopes such as dermoscopes or optical microscopes. While the latter offers high resolution, it comes with a major disadvantage, just like any other purely microscopic method: it only provides a partial view of the skin due to the low penetration depth.

29 Aug 2016

Advances in brain research since patient HM: an interview with Dr Jacopo Annese

Jacopo Annese, President and CEO of the Institute for Brain and Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to democratizing neuroscience and making neuroscience tools and knowledge about the brain more available to the public, discusses his work on the Human Brain Library.

From Huron Digital Pathology 25 Aug 2016

Could nanotechnology turn the cancer cell suicide switch back on? An interview with Professor Dipanjan Pan

Before I explain the discovery, I would take a step back and explain an interesting event that takes place in the cancer cells. Normal cells follow a rapid and irreversible process to efficiently eradicate dysfunctional cells. This is a natural process by which damaged cells commit ‘suicide’. This process is known as apoptosis or programmed cell death.

15 Aug 2016

Using NMR to investigate intrinsically disordered proteins: an interview with Dr Isabella Felli

“IDPs” is now a widely used acronym that stands for “intrinsically disordered proteins.” It is the term generally used by the scientific community to refer to a wide variety of proteins that do not have a stable 3D structure and are instead characterized by a high extent of local mobility, disorder and many conformers that are accessible at room temperature.

From Bruker BioSpin - NMR, EPR and Imaging 30 Jun 2016

Using spectral imaging to study brain tumors in 3D: an interview Dr Cyril Petibois

I’m a biophysicist at the University of Bordeaux and I mainly work on bio-imaging methods in the cancer laboratory research facility, mostly for brain cancers.

From Daylight Solutions Inc 13 Jun 2016

NMR-based metabolomics: an interview with Prof. Claudio Luchinat

We started from theoretical inorganic to bioinorganic chemistry, so looking at metals in proteins, enzymes and so on. About 30% of all the proteins that we have are metalloproteins, so it’s a huge contribution that inorganic chemistry is providing for life.

From Bruker BioSpin - NMR, EPR and Imaging 9 Jun 2016

Could whole-mount scanning of breast tissue lead to better clinical outcomes? An interview with Dr Martin Yaffe

We actually normally refer to this as whole-specimen imaging of breast tissue. What we mean is that when tissue is removed from the breast, which could be in the form of a lumpectomy – a breast-conserving surgery – or a mastectomy, the piece of tissue removed is relatively large.

From Huron Digital Pathology 24 May 2016

Innovations in pre-clinical MRI: an interview with Priv. Doz. Dr. Dominik von Elverfeldt

To me the most exciting aspect of pre-clinical imaging is its broad range, from very basic science up to applied science. You deal with a range of disciplines including biology, chemistry, physics, biochemistry, biophysics, cell biology and of course medicine, as the aim is the translation of research to humans.

From Bruker BioSpin - NMR, EPR and Imaging 27 Apr 2016