Tag: "beams" at biology news

Catching cancer's spread by watching hemoglobin

...emoglobin distribution, the researchers scan laser beams across the sample, a process that then reveals the outlines and contours of blood vessels. By taking images at different depths and stacking these images layer by layer, the researchers can reconstruct 3-D images of blood vessels. A major advant...

Decoding protein structures helps illuminate cause of diabetes

...ut their organization, Zanni says. Infrared laser beams can detect the minute vibrations and identify char...e first device capable of designing infrared laser beams with a computer. The team has now simplified and speeded up the process with an automated version o...

Radiation therapy combo cures prostate cancer long-term

...oncologist precisely directs high energy radiation beams to kill cancer cells. "This study is exciting because it shows that the combination of brachytherapy and external beam therapy are successful long-term at curing men of their prostate cancer," said John E. Sylvester, M.D., lead author of the stud...

Chemical switch triggers critical cell activities

...roteins with X-rays and use the patterns formed by beams bouncing off the crystals to create computer-generated 3-D images of the molecules. The goal was to create a freeze-frame image that captured the fleeting moment when E2 is next to NEDD8, just before it falls off and carries NEDD8 with it. To do ...

Nanoparticle assembly enters the fast lane

...anosystems with multiple imaging techniques, using beams of light and electrons as well as high-intensity x-rays at Brookhaven's National Synchrotron Light Source. The scientists look to further improve the controllability of the system, focusing next on the size of the nanoparticle clusters. ...

Researchers image molecular motor structural changes

...imes their original size. Electron microscopes use beams of electrons instead of light to produce images. The images recorded on electron microscope films are two-dimensional, but three-dimensional structures of the proteins can be calculated by computer image processing. Keiko Hirose, Ph.D., a researcher...

Boston University biomedical engineers win major grant for pursuit of the '$1,000 Genome'

...ases on a DNA strand at the molecular level. Using beams of electrons, Meller punches tiny holes in thin silicon films, then pulls strands of DNA through these "nanopores" using an electric current. Each base is identified by a florescent marker attached to it, which allows the researchers to record the se...

Robots manipulating animal behaviour

...s followed their artificial cousins towards bright beams of light and congregated there. This process took up to two hours, but it showed how humans might soon be able to manipulate the behaviour of a whole colony of insects. A trick that would delight pest-controllers the world over! Two side-projects un...

Prevention is the best option: fighting autoimmune diseases

...t the Centenary Institute. The machines use laser beams and advanced optics and electronics toanalyse and purify many kinds of cells at a rate of over 25,000 cells every second. This technology is able to produce results that cannot be obtained by any other method as it allows every cell to be identified ...

Scientists take 'snapshots' of enzyme action

...echanism, the scientists used high-intensity x-ray beams at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) to identify the positions of individual atoms and produce crystal structures of the enzyme, the enzyme plus its cofactor, and the enzyme plus the cofactor plus the compound to be oxidized (the substrate...

Snakes' virtual glasses, leopard spots and all-optical transistors

...d in a layer of polymer. The researchers shine two beams of light on the structure: a signal beam and a control beam. When the beams strike the patterned film they produce plasmons, which are essentially blobs of electron gas near th...

When it comes to gene transcription, random pauses aren’t quite so random, study finds

...ing individual molecules of DNA and RNAP in minute beams of infrared light. "Our measurements are accurate to one-tenth of a nanometer--the width of a single hydrogen atom," Block explained. "When you study an RNAP enzyme at that scale, you discover that it moves along the DNA for a while, and then for no...

Sandia work launched on space shuttle shows live cells influence growth of nanostructures

...d to insects and their emanations read remotely by beams from unmanned aircraft. The method also makes it easier to prepare individual cells for laboratory investigation under microscopes. "Normally, to visually examine a cell, researchers use time-consuming fixation or solvent extraction techniques," sa...

Radiation-armed robot rapidly destroys human lung tumors

...e, precise robotic arm to aim highly focused x-ray beams at the site of a tumor. Currently there are 76 active CyberKnife sites worldwide (with 45 in the US), and an additional 62 scheduled to be installed globally. Recently, the Pittsburgh researchers upgraded their CyberKnife by adding a system called...

APS lecturer shows rare video of 'teacher-student' immune cell interactions in live animal

...d powerful multi-photon microscopes using infrared beams to image fluorescent cells in living tissues became commercially available in the late 1990s. That prompted von Andrian to embark on a project to use the technology to study the immune system. He set up his lab at the CBR Institute and developed a s...

One fish, two fish: New MIT sensor improves fish counts

...echnique, survey vessels send high-frequency sonar beams into the ocean, where they dissipate much like the light from a flashlight shining into a darkened room. In contrast, the new system uses low-frequency sonar that can travel much greater distances and still return useful information with signals fa...

High-resolution light microscope reveals the fundamental mechanisms of nerve communication

...ctron microscope. Despite that fact that electron beams can be more tightly focused, it is often difficult...le with an electron microscope. Moreover, electron beams are only able to penetrate the first several micrometers of a biological sample. For these reasons, ...

Advanced genomics and proteomics improve the diagnosis and treatment of a deadly lung disease

...ecules like Dicer are exposed to x-rays, the x-ray beams are scattered in a way that helps researchers defi...the Advanced Light Source is capable of generating beams of x-rays to very specific wavelengths, which was critical in determining the structure of Dicer. ...

Molecule does more than slice and dice RNA

...ecules like Dicer are exposed to x-rays, the x-ray beams are scattered in a way that helps researchers defi...the Advanced Light Source is capable of generating beams of x-rays to very specific wavelengths, which was critical in determining the structure of Dicer. ...

USC, Rice to develop bacteria-powered fuel cells

...e in the 1990s, combines information from multiple beams of light to resolve sample features as small as one-billionth of a meter. In previous studies with Nealson, Lüttge used the technique to examine how the cigar-shaped Shewanella attach themselves to crystalline surfaces. The researchers found that She...

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