use in Biological News

Leicester research paves way for first use in Europe of an insect to fight invasive plant

Researchers at the University of Leicester have paved the way for the first ever use in Europe of an insect (biocontrol) to combat an invasive plant species in Britain. University of Leicester biologists established that the Japanese Knotweed in Britain was one the biggest females in the world-...

Airway cells use 'tasting' mechanism to detect and clear harmful substances

The same mechanism that helps you detect bad-tasting and potentially poisonous foods may also play a role in protecting your airway from harmful substances, according to a study by scientists at the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine. The findings could help explai...

Medical use for waste television screens

Waste material from discarded televisions could be recycled and used in medicine, according to new research by scientists at the University of York. The chemical compound polyvinyl-alcohol (PVA) is widely used in industry and is a key element of television sets with liquid crystal display (LCD)...

Methane-eating microbes can use iron and manganese oxides to 'breathe'

Iron and manganese compounds, in addition to sulfate, may play an important role in converting methane to carbon dioxide and eventually carbonates in the Earth's oceans, according to a team of researchers looking at anaerobic sediments. These same compounds may have been key to methane reduction i...

Data published in the New England Journal of Medicine support use of raxibacumab (ABthrax) for the treatment of inhalation anthrax

ROCKVILLE, Maryland July 9, 2009 Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: HGSI) today announced publication by the New England Journal of Medicine of the results of two pivotal animal efficacy studies, which showed the life-saving potential of the Company's human monoclonal antibody drug raxibacum...

Cells use import machinery to export their goods as well

In the bustling economy of the cell, little bubbles called vesicles serve as container ships, ferrying cargo to and from the port - the cell membrane. Some of these vesicles, called post-Golgi vesicles, export cargo made by the cell's protein factory. Scientists have long believed that other, sim...

Targeting children effective use of limited supplies of flu vaccine and could help control flu spread

Targeting children may be an effective use of limited supplies of flu vaccine, according to research at the University of Warwick funded by the Wellcome Trust and the EU. The study suggests that, used to support other control measures, this could help control the spread of pandemics such as the cu...

Siberian jays use complex communication to mob predators

When mobbing predators, Siberian jays use over a dozen different calls to communicate the level of danger and predator category to other members of their own group. A Swedish study from Uppsala University, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society Biological Sciences , shows birds have ev...

University awarded £1.7M to develop nanotechnology for use in health care

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have been awarded 1.7 million to investigate how nanotechnology could be used to improve the effectiveness of pharmaceutical drugs. Nanotechnology involves the manipulation of matter at sizes close to molecular level to produce particles that are small ...

Better water use could reduce future food crises

If the overall water resources in river basins were acknowledged and managed better, future food crises could be significantly reduced, say researchers from Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University, Stockholm Environment Institute and Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Th...

Countries unite to reduce animal use in product toxicity testing worldwide

Representatives from four international agencies, including the director of the U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP), today signed a memorandum of cooperation that could reduce the number of animals required for consumer product safety testing worldwide. The agreement between the United States, ...

Children's Hospital Oakland is first pediatric hospital to use 'laboratory-on-a-card' technology

April 20, 2009-Oakland, Calif.- Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland is the first children's hospital in the country to use groundbreaking technology that could revolutionize the way blood is analyzed at pediatric hospitals. This new method uses smart-card technology, similar to that used...

Researchers use brain interface to post to Twitter

MADISON In early April, Adam Wilson posted a status update on the social networking Web site Twitter just by thinking about it. Just 23 characters long, his message, "using EEG to send tweet," demonstrates a natural, manageable way in which "locked-in" patients can couple brain-computer inter...

UIC biologists use DNA to study migration of threatened whale sharks

Whale sharks -- giants of the fish world that strike terror only among tiny creatures like the plankton and krill they eat -- are imperiled by over-fishing of the species in parts of its ocean range. That threat is underscored in a new study from geneticists led by Jennifer Schmidt, University ...

GEN highlights increasing use of digital gene expression profiling

New Rochelle, NY, April 3, 2009A novel technique for carrying out gene-expression profiling is set to challenge the market dominance of the current, widely used methodology, reports Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News ( GEN ). Some scientists believe that digital gene-expression profiling, ...

Breakthrough made in energy efficiency, use of waste heat

CORVALLIS, Ore. Engineers at Oregon State University have made a major new advance in taking waste heat and using it to run a cooling system a technology that can improve the energy efficiency of diesel engines, and perhaps some day will appear in automobiles, homes and industry. This heat-ac...

Companies use MDDexec event to launch products

London, UK, March 26, 2009 / b3c newswire / -Companies are using MDDexec’s Medical Devices & Diagnostics Sales & Marketing USA as a platform to launch new products. Under the motto “The crunch - a huge opportunity” industry professionals discuss important topics such as KA...

Codeine use and accident risk

The risk of being involved in a traffic accident with personal injury is significantly higher among codeine users than non-users. However, sporadic or moderate use of codeine alone does not carry an increased risk, according to a newly published study from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health....

New orthopaedic society launched to promote research, use of biologic treatments

LAS VEGAS February 25, 2009 The first international society dedicated to the evaluation and use of new biologic treatments for orthopaedic conditions has been formed. The Biologic Orthopaedic Society (BOS; www.BiologicOrtho.com ) held its inaugural meeting Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at the V...

AZTI-Tecnalia coordinates a platform promoting the use of zebrafish in scientific research

This release is available in Spanish . AZTI-Tecnalia is coordinating the First Spanish Technological Platform on the promotion of zebrafish as an animal model in all fields of scientific research. The platform, known as DareNET, has the support of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innov...

Decline of shorebird linked to bait use of horseshoe crabs

Declining numbers of a shorebird called the red knot have been linked to bait use of horseshoe crabs. Long-term surveys of red knots showed that the average weight of red knots when they leave Delaware Bay has declined significantly since their primary food source, eggs of horseshoe crabs, has ...

A research work on molluscs nacre opens new doors for its possible use in biomedicine

This release is available in French and Spanish . Researchers from the University of Granada , the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the University of Aveiro (Portugal) have studied for the first time nacre's growing mechanism of gastropods, a previous step for the artificia...

Small male chimps use politics, rather than aggression, to lead the pack, U of Minnesota study says

With most mammals, the biggest and most aggressive male claims the alpha male role and gets his choice of food and females. But a new study from the University of Minnesota suggests that at least among chimpanzees, smaller, more mild-mannered males can also use political behavior to secure the top...

U of T technique put to use to test clean up of contaminated groundwater

Cleaning up the dangerous contaminants dry-cleaning fluids, solvents and petroleum hydrocarbons found in underground water presents one of the most urgent challenges facing environmental science. A report issued today by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sheds light on a new way to ...

Scientists use lasers to measure changes to tropical forests

HILO, Hawaii January 23, 2009New technology deployed on airplanes is helping scientists quantify landscape-scale changes occurring to Big Island tropical forests from non-native plants and other environmental factors that affect carbon sequestration. U.S. Forest Service and Carnegie Institution ...

Biologist enhances use of bioinformatic tools and achieves precision in genetic annotation

Jos Luis Lavn Trueba, a graduate in biology and biochemistry from the University of Salamanca (Spain) and currently collaborator in the Genetic and Microbiology Research Group at the Public University of Navarre, has enhanced the use of bioinformatic tools for the identification and annotation of ...

Researchers to use K-State's BSL-3 Lab for $1 million study of fungus threatening wheat crops

MANHATTAN -- Kansas is lucky that a devastating wheat fungus isn't threatening the state's crops yet. Researchers at Kansas State University are getting $1 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to keep it that way. Barbara Valent, university distinguished professor of plant pathology,...

Study: Excessive use of antiviral drugs could aid deadly flu

COLUMBUS, Ohio Influenza's ability to resist the effects of cheap and popular antiviral agents in Asia and Russia should serve as a cautionary tale about U.S. plans to use the antiviral Tamiflu in the event of widespread avian flu infection in humans, scientists say. Researchers analyzed almos...

Low level herbicide use can damage potato reproduction

MADISON, WI, JANUARY 5, 2009 Currently, plant testing in the United States to determine potential ecological risks from chemical pesticides to nontarget plants requires two tests, both of which use immature plants. Protection of the plant development and reproduction are not considered, unlike te...

The gold standard: Biodesign Institute researchers use nanoparticles to make 3-D DNA nanotubes

Arizona State University researchers Hao Yan and Yan Liu imagine and assemble intricate structures on a scale almost unfathomably small. Their medium is the double-helical DNA molecule, a versatile building material offering near limitless construction potential. In the January 2, 2009 issue o...

New use for human hair

VERONA, MSAgricultural crop production relies on composted waste materials and byproducts, such as animal manure, municipal solid waste composts, and sewage sludge, as a necessary nutrient source. Studies have shown that human hair, a readily available waste generated from barbershops and hair sal...

Snails and humans use same genes to tell right from left

Berkeley -- Biologists have tracked down genes that control the handedness of snail shells, and they turn out to be similar to the genes used by humans to set up the left and right sides of the body. The finding, reported online in advance of publication in Nature by University of California,...

UC San Diego researchers use metagene 'portraits' to reveal distinct stages of kidney formation

In the art world, the most successful portraits are often those that reveal the true essence of the subject a subject that on canvas, at least, will never age. In the science world, researchers are relying on portraits of gene expression patterns but, in this case, the images are helping to reve...

Long-term use of diabetes drugs by women significantly increases risk of fractures

A group of drugs commonly used to treat diabetes can double the risk of bone fractures in women, according to a new study by the University of East Anglia (UEA) and Wake Forest University. Published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) , the findings show that use of thiazo...

Pitt researchers use fluorescence to develop method for detecting mercury in fish

PITTSBURGHResearchers at the University of Pittsburgh have developed a simple and quick method for detecting mercury in fish and dental samples, two substances at the center of public concern about mercury contamination. The technique involves a fluorescent substance that glows bright green when i...

UNC, Yale partner to study effects of cocaine use on mother-infant relationships

CHAPEL HILL Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Yale University have been awarded almost $10 million to study the many ways cocaine use during pregnancy can negatively affect interactions between mothers and their infants. The project's researchers hope their f...

Researchers use chemical from medicinal plants to fight HIV

Like other kinds of cells, immune cells lose the ability to divide as they age because a part of their chromosomes known as a telomere becomes progressively shorter with cell division. As a result, the cell changes in many ways, and its disease fighting ability is compromised. But a new UCLA...

Ecologists use oceanographic data to predict future climate change

Ecologists and oceanographers are attempting to predict the future impacts of climate change by reconstructing the past behavior of Arctic climate and ocean circulation. In a November special issue of the journal Ecology , a group of scientists report that if current patterns of change in the ...

Unusual use of toys in infancy a clue to later autism

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) Researchers at the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute have found that infants later diagnosed with autism exhibited unusual exploration of objects long before being diagnosed. Studying a group of children at high risk for developing autism, the researchers found that those eventuall...

Moderate use averts failure of type 2 diabetes drugs in animal model

Drugs widely used to treat type 2 diabetes may be more likely to keep working if they are used in moderation, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found in a study using an animal model. The drugs, sulfonylureas, help type 2 diabetics make more insulin, impr...