Medical Science News

RSS

Biomagnets could be used to destroy cancer

Researchers in the UK have developed a method to strengthen bacteria-produced magnets or biomagnets that can be guided to tumours and destroy cancer cells.

5 Mar 2008

New nanotube findings give boost to potential biomedical applications

Carbon nanotubes have shown real promise as highly accurate vehicles for delivering antitumor agents into malignant cells, but a dearth of data about what happens to the tubes after they discharge their medical payloads has been a major stumbling block to progress.

3 Mar 2008

Nanotechnology advances brain cancer detection and therapy

Brain cancer is one of the most aggressive and lethal of malignancies, made even more difficult to treat by the fact that most anticancer drugs have a hard time even getting to the tumors.

3 Mar 2008

Preclinical antitumor efficacy evaluation of dendrimer-based methotrexate conjugates

Although a variety of nanoparticles continue to show promise for improving cancer imaging and therapy, regulators and drug developers are concerned that these delivery systems may prove difficult to manufacture on a consistent basis, which is key for any agent designed for use in humans.

3 Mar 2008

Fluorescent nanoparticles image tumor marker in animals

Since 2004 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved three new-generation anticancer therapies that target epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), a protein that is greatly overexpressed on certain types of tumors, including some forms of colorectal and lung cancer.

3 Mar 2008

Gold nanoparticle-based colorimetric assay for the direct detection of cancerous cells

Early detection of tumors is one of the Holy Grails of cancer research, an achievement that would greatly improve cancer therapy and prognosis. Two new reports describe different but promising approaches to solving this problem.

3 Mar 2008

New advances in miRNA

miRNA research is now one of the most interesting areas in the life science world, reports Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News (GEN).

From Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. 3 Mar 2008

Zebrafish help understand hearing loss

A small striped fish is helping scientists understand what makes people susceptible to a common form of hearing loss, although, in this case, it's not the fish's ears that are of interest.

1 Mar 2008

Using microorganisms to remove trichloroethene from water

In 2002, Bruce Rittmann, PhD, director of the Biodesign Institute's Center for Environmental Biotechnology, received a patent for an innovative way to use nature to lend society a hand.

28 Feb 2008

Rain-making bacteria

Brent Christner, LSU professor of biological sciences, in partnership with colleagues in Montana and France, recently found evidence that rain-making bacteria are widely distributed in the atmosphere.

28 Feb 2008

Electronic structure of single DNA molecules revealed

Utilizing a technique that combines low temperature measurements and theoretical calculations, Hebrew University of Jerusalem scientists and others have revealed for the first time the electronic structure of single DNA molecules.

28 Feb 2008

Artificial 'cells' that boost the immune response to cancer

Using artificial cell-like particles, Yale biomedical engineers have devised a rapid and efficient way to produce a 45-fold enhancement of T cell activation and expansion, an immune response important for a patient's ability to fight cancer and infectious diseases, according to an advance on line report in Molecular Therapy.

27 Feb 2008

2 oxygenation events in ancient oceans sparked spread of complex life

The rise of oxygen and the oxidation of deep oceans between 635 and 551 million years ago may have had an impact on the increase and spread of the earliest complex life, including animals, according to a study reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences online Early Edition during the week of February 25 – 29.

26 Feb 2008

Clean water with bioremediation and nanofiltration

Bacteria often get bad press, with those found in water often linked to illness and disease.

26 Feb 2008

Worm defecation holds clues to widespread cell-to-cell communication process

The focus of two recent Nobel prizes, a species of roundworm has made possible another advance in the understanding of how cells talk to one another, according to a study published online Feb. 21 in the journal Current Biology.

22 Feb 2008

Color-coded atoms promise advancements in materials analysis

A new electron microscope recently installed in Cornell's Duffield Hall is enabling scientists for the first time to form images that uniquely identify individual atoms in a crystal and see how those atoms bond to one another.

21 Feb 2008

Biochemists reveal details of mysterious bacterial microcompartments

UCLA biochemists and colleagues have answered an important question about the structure of microcompartments - the mysterious molecular machines that seem to be present in a wide variety of pathogens and other bacteria.

21 Feb 2008

Directed self-ordering of organic molecules for electronics

A simple surface treatment technique demonstrated by a collaboration between researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Penn State and the University of Kentucky potentially offers a low-cost way to mass produce large arrays of organic electronic transistors on polymer sheets for a wide range of applications including flexible displays, "intelligent paper" and flexible sheets of biosensor arrays for field diagnostics.

21 Feb 2008

Heat shock protein 90 helps explain the speed of evolution

Heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) has a greater impact on the appearance of new traits than previously expected, according to two articles published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) by researchers in Whitehead Member Susan Lindquist's lab and their colleagues in Christine Queitsch's lab at Harvard University's FAS Center for Systems Biology.

20 Feb 2008

Research aims to improve method of synthesizing carbon rings

A Valparaiso University chemistry professor and his students are working to develop an improved method of synthesizing carbon rings that are essential components of thousands of organic molecules used by humans.

20 Feb 2008