Category: New products
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Protein Gels Being Devised to Simulate Human Functions
12 August 2015. New York University’s engineering school is developing a new type of protein-based gel materials that respond to and replicate natural biochemical processes. The three-year project, led by chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Jin Kim Montclare, is funded by a $368,000 grant from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory. Montclare and colleagues, at NYU’s…
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University Faculty Design Mood-Tracking Mobile App
11 August 2015. Faculty at University of Missouri in psychiatry and computer science built a smartphone app that allows people with depression to track their moods and share the data with their psychiatrists. The app, known as MoodTrek, is available free of charge on Android phones. An iPhone version is planned for the future. The…
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Astronauts to Eat Space-Grown Vegetables
10 August 2015. Astronauts in Expedition 44 on the International Space Station plan to eat fresh leafy vegetables today grown in their own lab. The red romaine lettuce on their menus is grown in a plant system, nicknamed Veggie — officially known as Veg-01 — and marks the first crops both grown and consumed in…
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Nicotine Destroying Drug Candidate Discovered
7 August 2015. Biochemists at Scripps Research Institute reported on an enzyme derived from naturally-occurring bacteria that shows in lab tests can remove nicotine in the blood, with potential as a drug to help smokers quit. The team from the lab of chemistry professor Kim Janda at Scripps’s La Jolla, California campus described their findings…
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Computer Model Provides Early Sepsis Alert
6 August 2015. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University wrote a computer model that gives clinicians an early and accurate warning that a patient is developing sepsis, a life-threatening complication of infections. The team of medical researchers, computer scientists, and mathematicians published its findings yesterday in the journal Science Translational Medicine (paid subscription required). Sepsis results…
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Gates Expands Collaboration with RNA Vaccine Maker
4 August 2015. CureVac, a designer of vaccines and therapies based on messenger RNA — genetic signals sent from DNA to a person’s cells — is expanding its partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to include a third viral disease affecting low-resource regions. Financial details of the new collaboration between the Gates Foundation…
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Robotics Harnessed to Produce Adult Stem Cells
4 August 2015. An automated system now uses robotics instead of manual lab handling to convert skin samples from individuals into stem cells that can transform into any other cells in the body, for regenerative medicine, drug development, and research. The system, developed at New York Stem Cell Foundation, or NYSCF, is described in yesterday’s…
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Fibers Like Wool Yarn Devised from Animal Gelatin
30 July 2015. A materials science doctoral student in Switzerland developed a process for converting animal gelatin into a fiber similar to yarn from high-quality wool. Philipp Stössel, in the Functional Materials Lab at ETH Zurich, a science and technology university, led the team that published its findings in a recent issue of the journal…
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Opioid Overdose Nasal Spray Cleared for FDA Review
29 July 2015. Indivior plc, a pharmaceutical company in the U.K. specializing in addiction therapies, received notice that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration accepted the company’s new drug application and is beginning review of Indivior’s opioid overdose treatment formulated as a nasal spray. The FDA also granted Indivior, in Slough, U.K., priority review status…
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Computer Model Predicts Protein Binding to DNA, RNA
28 July 2015. Geneticists and computer scientists wrote a machine-learning model for predicting the way proteins bind to genetic material, and uncovering mutations causing disease. The team led by Brendan Frey with the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research in Toronto published its findings yesterday in the journal Nature Biotechnology (paid subscription required). Frey and other…