Promises in Biological News

Breakthrough in radiotherapy promises targeted cancer treatment

Current radiation therapy treatment damages a patient's healthy tissue as well as eradicating the tumour it is intended to destroy, making the treatment especially invasive and often causing nasty side effects. A new development in radiotherapy will enable a far more precise and accurate treatm...

Two-day symposium in Baltimore to tackle the promises and perils of proton radiotherapy

College Park, Maryland -- April 3, 2009 -- Proton therapy has been hailed as a revolutionary cancer treatment, with higher cure rates and fewer side effects than traditional X-ray photon radiotherapy. Proton therapy is the modality of choice for treating certain small tumors of the eye, head, head...

New test promises quicker, more accurate evaluation for cystic fibrosis patients

Researchers at National Jewish Health have identified a simple gene-based blood test that more accurately and quickly measures cystic fibrosis patients' response to therapy than current tests. The test, a measure of inflammatory gene expression, could improve patient care and help clear a backlog ...

Genetic data promises new future for kiwi fruit

Auckland, New Zealand - Kiwifruit lovers can look forward to new, novel forms of their favourite fruit thanks to the release this week of crucial genetic data which fruit breeders say will help them naturally breed new varieties with increased health properties and exciting colours and flavours. ...

Telescope embedded in glasses lens promises to make driving easier for visually impaired

Glasses embedded with a telescope promise to make it easier for people with impaired vision to drive and do other activities requiring sharper distance vision. Schepens Eye Research Institute scientists describe the advantages of these innovative glasses over earlier devices in an article publishe...

Prototype terahertz imager promises biochem advances

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a new imaging system that detects naturally occurring terahertz radiation with unprecedented sensitivity and resolution. The technology may become a new tool chemical and biochemical analyses ranging from ea...

New CPR promises better results by compressing abdomen, not Chest

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A biomedical engineer at Purdue University has developed a new method to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation that promises to be more effective than standard CPR because it increases nourishing blood flow through the heart by 25 percent over the current method. A new te...

Innovative civil engineering application promises cleaner waters

Blacksburg, Va. -- Streams, lakes, and bays may soon be cleaner thanks to an innovative approach to managing stormwater runoff being developed at Virginia Tech and funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). A novel software application will help engineers and planners select the...

New biofuels process promises to meet all US transportation needs

Purdue University chemical engineers have proposed a new environmentally friendly process for producing liquid fuels from plant matter - or biomass - potentially available from agricultural and forest waste, providing all of the fuel needed for "the entire U.S. transportation sector." The new app...

Solution to bacterial mystery promises new drugs

A 25-year quest to identify the first biochemical step that many disease-causing bacteria use to build their membranes has led to a discovery that holds promise for effective, new antibiotics against these bacteria, according to investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The finding is...

BC catalyst discovery promises faster, cheaper drug production

Boston College chemists have discovered a substance that will make it possible for scientists to produce scores of pharmaceuticals and other chemicals in a faster, less expensive way. In a letter published in the Sept. 7 issue of the journal Nature, a team led by professors Amir Hoveyda and Marc ...

New bird flu drug promises to beat the problem of resistance

A new kind of drug to fight bird flu that will not suffer from the same kind of resistance problems as current treatments should begin clinical trials within the next three years, thanks to a new research grant. Dr Andrew Watts from the University of Bath (UK) and Dr Jennifer McKimm-Breschkin fr...

Delft water-purification method promises radical improvement

Delft University of Technology research has discovered a method that could drastically change the way we purify water within a few years. Delft, in partnership with DHV engineering bureau, has developed a compact and environmentally-friendly purification method, in which aerobic bacteria form granu...

Confocal imaging promises early detection of skin cancer

Skin cancer is on the increase. Recent statistics for Germany show that some 10 to 12 people in every 100,000 get the disease every year. Alarmingly, this figure is growing at the rate of five to ten per cent annually. From the same group, some 140 will also get non-melanoma or less serious skin ca...

Discovery Promises Simpler Therapy for Sickle Cell Disease

Durham, N.C. ?A new understanding of the causes for symptoms of sickle cell disease, a condition affecting one in every 600 African-Americans, has resulted from a study by researchers at Duke University Medical Center and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Their findings may lead to a new, mor...

Jet-propelled imaging for an ultrafast light source

...enses. As new light sources evolve to produce brighter x-rays in faster pulses, lensless imaging becomes ever more critical for science. Among the promises of superbright, ultrafast x-ray pulses is the ability to solve the structure of the complicated molecules from which our bodies are made. All living t...

Stem cell research: From molecular physiology to therapeutic applications

... Stem cell research promises remedies to many devastating diseases that are currently incurable, ranging from diabetes and Parkinson's disease to paralysis. Totipotent embryonic s...

Researchers team up to provide new hope for childhood hunger

...h. He has pioneered several approaches to enhancing the nutrition of the world's most severely malnourished children. The new Global Harvest Alliance promises to accelerate the advances which Dr. Manary champions via the combined commitments of Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis Children's H...

DOE-funded research projects win 46 R&D 100 Awards for 2009

...idespread use in the energy market. (Jointly with Solexant) NEXUS DLC-X Coating System with Pulsed Filtered Cathodic Arc Technology a system that promises more computer memory at less cost by depositing thin films of diamond-like carbon required by next-generation computer hard-disk heads. (Jointly with ...

International research team seeks to unravel flatworm regeneration

...many genes specifically linked to planarian stem cell biology and regeneration are conserved in humans. Understanding planarian regeneration therefore promises to yield important insights into human regeneration and stem cell biology, the researchers are convinced. The researchers looked for small RNAs in...

CSHL scientists harness logic of 'Sudoku' math puzzle to vastly enhance genome-sequencing capability

...s CSHL Professor Gregory Hannon, Ph.D., a genomics expert and leader of the team that invented the "Sudoku" approach. At that level of efficiency, it promises to reduce costs dramatically. A sequencing project that costs upwards of $10 million using conventional methods may be accomplished for $50,000 to $8...

NIH expands Human Microbiome Project; funds sequencing centers and disease projects

... Raynard S. Kington, M.D., Ph.D. "Examining the differences between the microbiomes of healthy patients and those of patients suffering from a disease promises to change how we diagnose, treat and, ultimately, prevent many health conditions." In the new round of funding, the Human Microbiome Project will...

Scholar unconvinced new lie-detection methods better than old ones

...have been taken for granted in both fMRI deception studies and social neuroscience. In the meantime, Littlefield advises caution when sizing up the promises of those promoting the latest crop of brain-based truth-seeking technologies. "This 9/11 kind of hype has allowed and fueled this desire both in sc...

Wings that waggle could cut aircraft emissions by 20 percent

...by 20% according to research funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Airbus in the UK. The new approach, which promises to dramatically reduce mid-flight drag, uses tiny air powered jets which redirect the air, making it flow sideways back and forth over the wing. T...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- May 13, 2009

...assive amounts of data being generated by efforts to understand proteins. Termed proteomics, the large-scale study of all the proteins in an organism, promises new ways of diagnosing and treating hundreds of diseases. In a report scheduled for the June 5 issue of ACS' monthly Journal of Proteome Research , s...

Stowers researchers develop whole genome sequencing approach for mutation discovery

...wley Lab and Molecular Biology Facility have developed a "whole-genome sequencing approach" to mapping mutations in fruit flies. The novel methodology promises to reduce the time and effort required to identify mutations of biological interest. The work was published in the May issue of the journal GENETICS ...

American Chemical Society's weekly PressPac -- April 29, 2009

...sh. 99352 Phone: (509) 371-6136 Fax: (509) 371-6139 Email: Julia.Laskin@pnl.gov . ARTICLE #2 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE New computer program promises to be "Rosetta Stone" for chemical names Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling In an advance that will help speed global development o...

6 young ASU faculty earn NSF Career awards

...seeks to solve this problem with her simple keyword search engine. Her work promises to be "tremendously useful to everyone because search engines could potenti...t the research. Harnessing carbon nanotubes Hanqing Jiang's research promises to deepen fundamental understanding of how nano-scale structures can be mad...

Genetic switch potential key to new class of antibiotics

...r spatial organization, which entails binding to a small signaling partner, promises to inform the design of a new class of antibiotics. The current study clari...me. In the future, we hope to unravel the biology of these molecules, which promises to be of enormous benefit in our understanding of gene regulation, as well ...

Minimizing the spread of deadly Hendra virus

... Groundbreaking CSIRO research into how the deadly Hendra virus spreads promises to save the lives of both horses and humans in the future. CSIRO Livestock Industries' scientists working at the Australian Animal Health Laborator...

CFI awards $854,098 to University of Montreal and partners

...However, these nutrients can produce complimentary tasks as they interact with our genes," says Dr. Levy. "Nutrigenomics is a new research avenue that promises to reduce the impact of cardiovascular diseases and other disorders by charting healthier eating habits that reduce the vulnerability of people who ar...

Cheap and efficient white light LEDs new design described in AIP's Journal of Applied Physics

...y is achieved. The authors report that their LED was able to achieve a CRI rating of nearly 70 -- almost good enough to read by. Progress in this area promises further reduction in the price of organic LEDs. ...

West Nile virus studies show how star-shaped brain cells cope with infection

... A new study published as the cover article for the April 2009 issue of The FASEB Journal ( http://www.fasebj.org ) promises to give physicians new ways to reduce deadly responses to viral infections of the brain and spinal cord. In the report, scientists from Columbia Univ...

Teeth of Columbus' crew flesh out tale of new world discovery

...en tell no tales has long been disproved by archaeology. Now, however, science is taking interrogation of the dead to new heights. In a study that promises fresh and perhaps personal insight into the earliest European visitors to the New World, a team or researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madiso...

Portable kit may 1 day detect plant disease before disastrous outbreak

...n the southeast to the ornamental crops in the northeast and the field crops in the west. Shim acknowledges that the project is high risk. The team promises USDA a prototype in three years. But he said the proposal made for the grant was already so detailed in its design that the two are confident enough t...

At WPI, some students are learning it's OK to peek

...ly do students in the undergraduate biology lab sections at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) have clickers, they are using them in a new way that promises to improve student-achievement and enhance teaching during science labs. It's all part of a novel academic technology suite, dubbed "The Connected Lab...

New open-source software permits faster desktop computer simulations of molecular motion

...cross platform tools that allow researchers to focus on solving problems with their GPU of choice." NVIDIA is similarly committed to OpenMM. "OpenMM promises to further increase the adoption of GPU technology among the molecular dynamics community," said Andy Keane, general manager, GPU Computing at NVIDIA....

World Congress on Osteoporosis 2010 -- IOFWCO-ECCEO10 to be held in Florence

...agnosis, prevention and treatment of osteoporosis and osteoarthritis, as well as policy related issues such as health economics. The Congress also promises to be a singular forum for stimulating interaction, not just for research specialists, but also for practitioners and other health professionals who c...

VCU survey: US public supports genetic research, testing and government spending on research

...iences by the VCU Center for Public Policy. Other survey findings: Support for government spending on scientific research, especially when it promises immediate benefits. Despite the economic downturn, there is considerable public support for spending on scientific research. Nearly a quarter of respo...

Call Stephen Michnick a gene grammarian

...s developed novel technologies that have enabled him to examine how proteins interact within cells. Dr. Michnick's new ways of seeing living cells promises to reduce big chunks of analysis to understand how our genomic blueprint translates into complex life. The raison d'tre of his work is to understand t...