Sphere

Atmosphere may cleanse itself better than previously thought

A research team from Purdue University and the University of California, San Diego has found that the Earth’s atmosphere may be more effective at cleansing itself of smog and other damaging hydrocarbons than was once thought. Scientists, including Joseph S. Francisco, have learned that some naturally occurring atmospheric chemicals react with sunlight more effectively than previously thou...

'Nanospheres' that block pain of sensitive teeth

Nanospheres could help dentists fill the tiny holes in our teeth that make them incredibly sensitive, and that cause severe pain for millions of adults and children worldwide. Preliminary research presented today at the Institute of Physics conference EMAG-NANO 2005 shows that creating tiny spheres of a ceramic material called hydroxyapatite could be a long term solution or cure for sensi...

Fatty spheres loaded with siRNA shrink ovarian cancer tumors in preclinical trial

A molecular "off" switch packaged in a tiny sphere penetrates deeply into ovarian cancer tumor cells, stifling a troublesome protein and drastically reducing the size of tumors, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the Aug. 15 edition of Clinical Cancer Research. The mouse model experiment, featured on the cover of the journal, demonstrates a poten...

Bacterial 'switch gene' regulates how oceans emit sulfur into atmosphere

Scientists have discovered a bacterial "switch gene" in two groups of microscopic plankton common in the oceans. The gene helps determine whether certain marine plankton convert a sulfur compound to one that rises into the atmosphere, where it can affect the earth's temperature, or remain in the sea, where it can be used as a nutrient. "This new gene offers a powerful tool to study the que...

Engineer ramps up protein production, develops versatile viral spheres

Scientists are taking the amazing protein-making parts out of cells and putting them into systems to mass-produce designer proteins for a wide variety of medical uses. At the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) Sept. 13 in San Francisco, Stanford engineering Professor James Swartz will discuss advances in such "cell-free" protein synthesis, including production of versatile, nan...

Penn researchers show how nanocylinders deliver medicine better than nanospheres

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine & School of Engineering and Applied Science have discovered a better way to deliver drugs to tumors. By using a cylindrical-shaped carrier they were able sustain delivery of the anticancer drug paclitaxel to an animal model of lung cancer ten times longer than that delivered on spherical-shaped carriers. These findings have impl...

Biodegradable microspheres deliver time release vaccines, stimulate different immune response

A new vaccine delivery system using microspheres of a biodegradable polymer may not only reduce the need for booster shots in some cases, but also appears to stimulate an immune response that traditional vaccines do not. Researchers from Iowa State University report their findings today at the ASM Biodefense and Emerging Disease Research Meeting. "Current vaccines are good at producing an...