In 2009, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to three scientists for the discover of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase. Today, telomeres, stretches of DNA at the ends of chromosomes, are used as part of a new, commercially available genetic test that helps individuals better understand how w (Read more...)
Tag: Genetics
Your Age in TeloYears, Interview with Telomere Diagnostics CEO Jason Shelton
In 2009, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to three scientists for the discover of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase. Today, telomeres, stretches of DNA at the ends of chromosomes, are used as part of a new, commercially available genetic test that helps individuals better understand how w (Read more...)
New Material With Live Cells for Organ, Tissue Printing
At the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada researchers have developed and tested a new bio-ink that may serve as a critical building block for manufacturing replacement tissues and organs. The technology will hopefully speed up the quest to heal a great deal of conditions and diseases by implanting perfectly healthy body parts in [&helli (Read more...)
Risk-On-a-Chip Device Mimics Environment That Causes Breast Cancer
For a long time scientists have been hoping to figure out exactly how and why cancer begins. Spotting the exact moment and location of cells turning cancerous within the body may well be impossible, so we end up studying mostly the progression and development of cancers. Breast cancer in particular has many risk factors, and […]
Microfluidic Device Suspends Live Cancer Tissue for Weeks to Study How it Spreads Through Body
At the University of Michigan researchers have developed a special microfluidic device that can help to study how cancer spreads to different parts of the body. While microfluidic systems have been in existence for years now, they typically don’t allow cells to live inside them and be monitored for longer than a few days. The […]
Quantum Dots Light Up Tumors Brighter Than Ever Before
Scientists at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) in San Diego, California have devised a way to optically image tumors with unprecedented clarity using quantum dots. These nano structures are tiny particles, only a few nanometers wide, that generate light of a specific wavelength when they’re themselves stimulated by (Read more...)
Nanocages Made of DNA Strands Release Small Molecules to Improve Challenging Studies Inside Body
Many of the activities happening within our bodies are incredibly difficult to study, as some happen in hard to reach places and their timespan is very short. The action of neurosteroids, chemicals that perform an important role in the lives of neurons, is one such topic. Neurosteroids take less than a second to act, and getting anywhere (Read more...)
Nanoparticles to Deliver mRNA: Just Add Water
Scientists at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington have developed a nanoparticle messenger RNA (mRNA) delivery system to temporarily change gene expression in treated cells. Growing specific cell types in a lab and then administering them to patients is the goal of cell therapies, and these types of treatments are comin (Read more...)
Technique to Produce Multi-Target Antibody Therapies
Researchers in The Netherlands and Switzerland have devised a new technique to reliably produce antibodies that can bind to two different target molecules at the same time, which could be very useful for cancer immunotherapy. Antibodies are Y-shaped protein structures that can recognize and bind to highly specific target molecules at the tip of eac (Read more...)
Integrated Heart/Cancer on a Chip Helps Discover Side Effects of Drugs
At Kyoto University in Japan researchers have created what they call an Integrated Heart/Cancer on a Chip (iHCC) that was designed to help discover side effects of anti-cancer and other medications. The microfluidic system, which is smaller than a common glass slide used with microscopes, consists of healthy myocardial cells populating some&nb (Read more...)
Cheap Electrochemical Diagnostic System Featuring a Triboelectric Generator
Scientists at Purdue University have developed cheap, portable, and self-powered devices for performing electrochemical analysis for diagnostic purposes. Made mostly of paper, these devices can be produced in large quantities and used by just about anyone with minor training. The current prototype of the device is able to detect glucose, (Read more...)
Scientists Use Light to Erase Unwanted Memories
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have developed a technique to selectively erase fear memories by weakening connections between the nerve cells involved in forming such memories. Memories can be triggered by stimuli such as sights, sounds, and smells. Some memories are formed during traumatic events, and in this case stimuli a (Read more...)
Growing and Testing Drugs on Dozens of Tiny Guts at Once
In a demonstration of where the field of organ-on-a-chip technology is inevitably going, MIMETAS, a company developing organ-on-chip technology out of Leiden, The Netherlands, and Roche, the giant pharmaceutical company, teamed up to grow and test 350 perfused gut tubes within a matter of days. The gut tubes replicate the basic structure of an (Read more...)
Miniature Bioengineered Vessels to Study Progeria Therapies
Progeria is a rare but deadly disorder that is commonly known as an early aging disease, bringing forth conditions in children that are normally only reserved for older adults. To better study how to fight progeria, a disease that significantly affects the cardiovascular system, researchers at Duke University have developed a way to grow tiny [&hel (Read more...)
New 3D Printing Method to Create Complex, Multi-Cellular Tissues
Researchers from University of Oxford have been working to overcome some of the major challenges of 3D printing living tissues and have just published a report of how they were able to create complex, multi-cellular structures that stay viable and are able to structurally support themselves. This high density bioprinting process is also cheap, (Read more...)
Injectable Tissue Patch to Fix Broken Hearts
Scientists at the University of Toronto have developed a bandage-like patch that can be delivered into the heart through a needle, in combination with stem cells allowing for minimally invasive cardiac tissue repair, currently an impossible task. After a massive heart attack, myocardial tissue damage can significantly reduce the cardiac output. One (Read more...)
New Probe to Safely Measure pH Inside Living Cells
An unusually acidic environment around living cells may be an indicator that processes associated with disease are taking place in the vicinity. Of course there’s a myriad of other biological variables related to the cellular pH. To measure the cellular pH levels, fluorescent dyes exist that glow when illuminated by a specific wavelength of l (Read more...)
Smartphone-Powered Diagnostic Spectrum Analyzer Shrinks a Hospital Lab Into Portable Device
Bioengineers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have turned a smartphone into a portable diagnostic laboratory capable of performing a range of spectrum analyses that is currently done using large and expensive stationary machines. The investigators built a smartphone attachment that utilizes the smartphone’s camera to analyze (Read more...)
Microscopic Magnetic Blocks Group Together to Control Individual Cells
Collaborators from North Carolina State University and Duke University have developed a method to remotely manipulate cells and other tiny objects in a liquid medium using magnets and what looks like articulating microscopic Lego blocks. The technology, relying on magnetic fields to control and power combinations of blocks to move together, doesn&r (Read more...)
Microscopy Technique Produces High Res 3D Scans of Live Embryos
When imaging histology samples using a microscope at high resolution, 3D scans are often acquired by shining a flat beam of light through the target volume. While this has allowed for a multitude of discoveries, the technique still suffers greatly from the light scattering through the sample and washing out the sharpness of the image. This [&h (Read more...)