Closer

Chemicals in tattoo inks need closer scrutiny

As tattoos have grown in popularity, so have complaints of adverse side effects associated with both their application and removal. A new study, done by chemistry students at Northern Arizona University, looked at the chemical composition of a variety of tattoo inks to better understand their potential health risks. The findings, presented today at the 229th national meeting of the Americ...

Doctors closer to using gene analysis to help trauma patients

A genetic tool with the potential to identify which trauma and burn patients are most likely to become seriously ill has worked consistently in a wide range of experimental clinical settings ?an important hurdle to overcome before the method is routinely used in emergency rooms and intensive care units. In a report published today (March 7) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sc...

Researchers Closer To Helping Hearing-Impaired Using Stem Cells

Researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine are several steps closer to the day when a profoundly deaf patient’s own bone marrow cells could be used to let him or her hear the world. The IU group, led by Eri Hashino, Ph.D., was able to transform, in the laboratory, stem cells taken from adult bone marrow into cells with many of the characteristics of sensory nerve cells -- neurons...

Proteomics brings researchers closer to understanding microbes that produce acid mine drainage

A pink, bacterial scum on the floor of an abandoned mine seems an unlikely place to study community development, but a biological breakthrough is allowing University of California, Berkeley, researchers to probe the give and take in this microbial mat. Last year, the UC Berkeley team joined with the Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute to pluck out the genomes of the five dominan...

UC Davis researchers move biotechnology closer to replacing electronic pacemakers

UC Davis researchers have successfully used a custom designed protein and gene delivery system to restore normal heart rhythms in pigs with electronic pacemakers, reducing their dependence on implanted devices. This work suggests that scientists are one step closer to making bioengineering a reality in treating the more than 2.2 million Americans affected by irregular heartbeats. The UC...

Scientists closer to new cancer detection method

University of Florida researchers say they are a step closer to a technique to easily detect a wide variety of cancers before symptoms become apparent. The findings, currently online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, involve introducing molecularly engineered strands of DNA into cell cultures and observing whether they unleash a fluorescent burst after they adhere to...

Stroke treatment a step closer after trial

A potential new treatment for stroke has taken a major step forward following promising results from the first clinical trial. The team, led by Professor Nancy Rothwell and Dr Pippa Tyrrell, have now reported the r...

Sperm stem cells closer to being like embryonic stem cells

New experiments that prevented rat sperm stem cells from changing permanently into sperm have brought researchers one step closer to coaxing such cells to behave like embryonic stem cells, capable of growing into many other types of cells in the body. Researchers at the Cecil H. and Ida Green Center for Reproductive Biology Sciences at UT Southwestern Medical Center devised methods to keep...

Scientists a step closer to protecting world's most important crop

Fighting the fungus that wipes out rice - scientists a step closer to protecting world's most important crop Rice is the globe's most important crop but its production is constantly threatened by disease.Now scientists at the University of Exeter have shown for the first time, in a paper in the prestigious journal Nature, how the world's most destructive rice-killer hijacks its plant prey....

Scientists one step closer to cancer vaccine

Scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have helped to identify a molecule that can be used as a vaccination agent against growing cancer tumours. Although the results are so far based on animal experiments, they point to new methods of treating metastases. The results are presented in the online edition of the prestigious scientific journal Nature Medicine, and represent the collabo...

Producing bio-ethanol from agricultural waste a step closer

Research conducted by Delft University of Technology has brought the efficient production of the environmentally-friendly fuel bio-ethanol a great deal closer to fruition. The work of Delft researcher Marko Kuyper was an important factor in this. His research in recent years has greatly improved the conversion of certain sugars from agricultural waste to ethanol. On Tuesday 6 June, Kuyper receive...

Chlamydia vaccine a step closer to reality

Scientists at Queensland University of Technology are one step closer to developing a world-first vaccine to protect women against contracting the most common sexually-transmitted disease, Chlamydia. International vaccine company Sanofi-Pasteur has awarded QUT a funding boost of more than $300,000 to continue its research into Chlamydia and work towards developing a vaccine specifically ta...

Cure for cancer one step closer

The cure for cancer is one step closer this week with the first collections of cancer tissue taking place at the new Wesley Research Institute Tissue Bank. The Tissue Bank is the first of its kind in Queensland to provide a widely available and diversified collection of ethically consented and clinically annotated tissue, helping to unravel the cause, progression and potential treatment fo...