NIV

University of Manchester makes made-to-measure skin and bones a reality using inkjet printers

Made-to-measure skin and bones, which couldbe used to treat burn victims or patients who have suffered severedisfigurements, may soon be a reality using inkjets which can printhuman cells.Scientists at The University of Manchester have developed thebreakthrough technology which will allow tailor-made tissues and bonesto be grown, simply by inputting their dimensions into a computer....

New protein discovered by Hebrew University researchers

Researchers at the Hebrew University ofJerusalem have succeeded in discovering and isolating a new proteinfrom the poplar tree with special structural and qualitativecharacteristics that could have consequences for development of futurenanocapsules for drug delivery to cancer cells.In addition to being obtained from plant tissue, the protein can nowalso be produced in large quantities as a...

Next Generation Body Scanner Launched By The University Of Manchester

The first `next generation' MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) body scanner in the world will be officially launched at Hope Hospital later this week (Friday 18 th February). The state-of-the-art technology involved...

Roundup®highly lethal to amphibians, finds University of Pittsburgh researcher

The herbicide Roundup® is widely used to eradicate weeds. But a study published today by a University of Pittsburgh researcher finds that the chemical may be eradicating much more than that. Pitt assistant professor of biology Rick Relyea found that Roundup®, the second most commonly applied herbicide in the United States, is "extremely lethal" to amphibians. This field experiment is one o...

Green catalyst destroys pesticides and munitions toxins, finds Carnegie Mellon University

Results reported at American Chemical Society meetingA chemical catalyst developed at Carnegie Mellon University completely destroys dangerous nitrophenols in laboratory tests, according to Arani Chanda, a doctoral student who is presenting his findings on Sunday, Aug. 28, at the 230th meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in Washington, D.C. (Division of Industrial and Engineering Chemi...

University of Nevada, Reno research team discovers hormone that causes malaria mosquito to urinate

Discovery has implications for control of mosquitoes, malaria and West Nile Virus Methoprene, which has the same effect as an insect hormone called juvenile hormone, also sto...

Carnegie Mellon University research reveals how cells process large genes

Important messages require accurate transmission. Big genes are especially challenging because they combine many coding segments (exons) that lie between long stretches of non-coding elements (introns). During processing, introns are snipped out and exons pasted together to form a template for proteins called messenger RNA (mRNA). Mistakes in RNA processing can reduce the expression of a function...

University of Delaware researchers develop cancer 'nanobomb'

University of Delaware researchers are opening a new front in the war on cancer, bringing to bear new nanotechnologies for cancer detection and treatment and introducing a unique nanobomb that can literally blow up breast cancer tumors. Balaji Panchapakesan, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at UD, has recently reported on the discoveries in the journals NanoBiote...

University of Arizona plant scientists to unravel maize genome

Researchers at The University of Arizona's plant sciences department and UA's BIO5 Institute have received a $29 million federal grant as part of a consortium to unlock the genetic code of the corn plant. The knowledge gained from the Maize Genome Sequencing Project will enable plant scientists and breeders to improve agronomically important traits in cereal crops more rapidly. The Nationa...

Team led by Carnegie Mellon University scientist finds first evidence of a living memory trace

An international team of scientists for the first time has detected a memory trace in a living animal after it has encountered a single, new stimulus. The research, done with honeybees sensing new odors, allows neuroscientists to peer within the living brain and explore short-term memory as never before, according to scientist Roberto Fernández Galán, a leading author on the report who is current...

University of Utah to help build bionic arm

University of Utah researchers will receive up to $10.3 million to help develop a new prosthetic arm that would work, feel and look like a real arm. The Utah work is a key part of a U.S. Department of Defense contract worth up to $55 million to develop the new device for soldiers and potentially others whose arms were amputated. "Imagine an artificial arm that moves naturally in response t...

New University of Toronto research a 'pore' excuse for engineering

A new study by chemists and engineers at the University of Toronto describes a nanoscale material they've created that could help satisfy society's never-ending hunger for smaller digital devices and cellphones, and could even lead to new methods for delivering medications via skin patches. The material, known as periodic mesoporous organosilica (PMO), is a thin film interspersed with pore...

Team discovers possible 'universal strategy' to combat addiction

An international research team led by the University of Saskatchewan has discovered a signaling pathway in the brain involved in drug addiction, together with a method for blocking its action, that may point to a single treatment strategy for most addictions. The team, led by Xia Zhang, associate p...

Rice University researchers create 'nanorice'

Researchers at Children's Hospital & Research Center at Oakland (CHRCO) have published a new study that is the first to explain how brain cells die in patients with Alzheimer's Disease. This discovery is an important first step to helping researchers devise ways to slow, prevent and eventually cure a disease that affects an estimated 4.5 million Americans. In a study published in the...

Report lists top 20 most-vulnerable African carnivores

Scientists have determined the detailed structure of an essential piece of the telomerase enzyme, an important contributor to the vast majority of human cancers. Understanding the physical shape of the protein has led to a better understanding of how it acts to immortalize cells ?and should help scientists design broadly effective cancer drugs. Until now, the lack of detailed structural in...

Are dancers genetically different than the rest of us? Yes, says Hebrew University researcher

What makes dancers different than the rest of us? Genetic variants, says a researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In a study published in the American journal, Public Library of Science Genetics, Psychology Prof. Richard P. Ebstein and his research associates have shown, through DNA examination, that dancers show consistent differences in two key genes from the general popula...

Biodiversity key to sustainable biofuel according to University of Minn. researcher's findings

Ecosystems containing many different plant species are not only more productive, they are also better able to withstand and recover from climate extremes, pests and disease over long periods of time. These findings, published in the June 1 issue of Nature, are the culmination of 12 years of experiments conducted by David Tilman, Regents Professor of Ecology at the University of Minnesota,...

Cigarette smoke blocks cell repair mechanism, University of Florida study shows

Cigarette smoke can turn normal breast cells cancerous by blocking their ability to repair themselves, eventually triggering tumor development, University of Florida scientists report. While some cells nonetheless rally and are able to fix their damaged DNA, many others become unable to access their own cellular first aid kit, according to findings from a UF study published today (Aug. 21...

Case Western Reserve University researchers find protein associated with brain cell death

Neuroscientists at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have found evidence of which protein in the brain's immune cells triggers a cascade of reactions that produces unregulated free radical production that eventually leads to the neural cell death found in Alzheimer's disease. They report their findings in the Journal of Biological Chemistry article, "Fibrillar Beta-...

Hopkins scientists show hallucinogen in mushrooms creates universal 'mystical' experience

Using unusually rigorous scientific conditions and measures, Johns Hopkins researchers have shown that the active agent in "sacred mushrooms" can induce mystical/spiritual experiences descriptively identical to spontaneous ones people have reported for centuries. The resulting experiences apparently prompt positive changes in behavior and attitude that last several months, at least. </p...

University of Minnesota researchers take new look at cellular suicide

Like a bodyguard turned traitor, a protein whose regular job is to help repair severed DNA molecules will, in some cases, join forces with another protein to do the opposite and chop the DNA to bits, according to new research at the University of Minnesota. The chopping up of a cell's DNA occurs in response to damage, for example, from ultraviolet light, and appears to be a means of killing the c...

'LEGO-Like' building blocks to halt cell growth wins Hebrew University prize

A method for delivery of drugs to targeted cells through the design of specific molecular structures called SIB (Small Integrated Building Blocks) has won a prestigious scientific prize for a Ph.D. student in organic chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Jerusalemite Nir Qvit, 34, will be one of those receiving the Kaye Innovation Award on June 13, during the 69th meeting of the...

Ohio University researchers discover evolutionary oddity in flamingos

With their spindly legs, long necks and bright plumage, flamingos are a curiosity of nature. Now a new discovery by a team of Ohio University researchers reveals an anatomical oddity that helps flamingos eat: erectile tissue. Flamingos are known for their peculiar feeding behavior. While standing in shallow water, they bend their necks, tilt their bills upside down in the water and swish t...

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

Two Boston University biomedical engineers have won a major National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to continue groundbreaking research aimed at reducing the cost of sequencing individual human genomes to about $1,000. Boston University Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Physics Amit Meller was among nine researchers chosen for the NIH's National Human Genome Research Inst...

Columbia University licenses next-generation DNA sequencing technology

Columbia University announces today that it recently executed an exclusive license agreement for a next generation DNA sequencing technology to Intelligent Bio-Systems (IBS), Inc. This innovative DNA-sequencing technology was invented by Dr. Jingyue Ju, professor of Chemical Engineering and head of DNA Sequencing and Chemical Biology at the Judith P. Sulzberger, M.D. Columbia Genome Center at Col...

University of Iowa scientists explore function of 'junk DNA'

University of Iowa scientists have made a discovery that broadens understanding of a rapidly developing area of biology known as functional genomics and sheds more light on the mysterious, so-called "junk DNA" that makes up the majority of the human genome. The team, led by Beverly Davidson, Ph.D., a Roy J. Carver Biomedical Research Chair in Internal Medicine and UI professor of internal...

Archerfish tune their shots to universal properties of prey adhesion

Archerfish exhibit the remarkable ability to hunt for insects and other small terrestrial animals by firing precisely aimed streams of water that knock prey onto the water's surface. These water shots were once thought to be all-or-none in quality, but researchers have now discovered new levels of sophistication in the archerfish's hunting strategy that shed light on how this impressive predatory...

Temple University Hospital investigates treatment for cervical dysplasia

Temple University Hospital's Center For Women's Health is participating in a national study to determine the safety and effectiveness of an investigational treatment for cervical dysplasia. According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 500,000 women are diagnosed with high-grade cervical dysplasia each year, with roughly 10,000 cases progressing to cervical cancer. For numerous w...

Carnegie Mellon University research shows how sensory-deprived brain compensates

Whiskers provide a mouse with essential information to negotiate a burrow or detect movement that could signal a predator's presence. These stiff hairs relay sensory input to the brain, which shapes neuronal activity. In a first, studies of this system by Carnegie Mellon scientists show just how well a mouse brain can compensate when limited to sensing the world through one whisker. Published Apr...

University of Alberta researchers unravel intricate animal patterns

There is a scene in the animated blockbuster "Finding Nemo" when a school of fish makes a rapid string of complicated patterns—an arrow, a portrait of young Nemo and other intricate designs. While the detailed shapes might be a bit outlandish for fish to form, the premise isn’t far off. But how does a school of fish or a flock of birds know how to move from one configuration to another and then r...

Iowa State University botanists identify new species of North American bamboo

Two Iowa State University botanists and their colleague at the University of North Carolina have discovered a new species of North American bamboo in the hills of Appalachia. It is the third known native species of the hardy grass. The other two were discovered more than 200 years ago. Lynn Clark, Iowa State professor of ecology, evolution and organismal biology, and Ph.D. student Jimmy...

Loss of a universal tRNA feature reported

Scientists at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) report in the Journal of Bacteriology that two alphaproteobacteria lack the universal extra guanylate nucleotide typically found in the transfer RNA molecule tRNAHis. tRNAs are the molecules responsible for decoding sequence information specified by messenger RNA molecules, information which is ultimately encoded by the DNA template....

Researchers from the University of Navarra analyze new kinds of cancer-fighting antibodies

Two researchers from the University Hospital and the Center for Applied Medical Research (CIMA) from the University of Navarra have published an article in , one of the leading scientific journals in the area of cancer studies. The article, written by Ignacio Melero and Sandra Hervas-Stubbs, together with other scientists from the United States and Great Britain, addre...

A first -- Hebrew University scientist observes brain cell development in 'real time'

Dr. Adi Mizrahi of the Department of Neurobiology at the Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences at the Hebrew University, used mouse models to study how neurons, or nerve cells, develop from an undifferentiated ce...

Ice Age extinction claimed highly carnivorous Alaskan wolves

Wolves were generally thought to have survived...

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers develop 'off-the-shelf' vascular grafts

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine investigators have engineered artificial blood vessels from muscle-derived stem cells (MDSCs) and a biodegradable polymer that exhibit extensive remodeling and remain free of blockages when grafted into rats. The results of their study, which is being presented at the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS) North A...