Tag: physical sciences
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Autism App Adapts Facial Analysis Software
31 December 2015. A research team at Duke University is using facial analysis software routines developed for the U.S. Navy in building a smartphone app to screen for autism. The Duke team, led by engineering professor Guillermo Sapiro, adapted algorithms designed for the Office of Naval Research to analyze emotions displayed through facial expressions. Sapiro…
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Trial Underway Testing Preterm Respiratory Treatment
30 December 2015. A clinical trial testing new treatment methods for a common respiratory disorder faced by preterm babies began enrolling patients. The trial is testing an aerosol-delivered surfactant, a wetting agent applied to the lungs of babies born prematurely without natural surfactants to keep open air sacs in lungs, made by Discovery Laboratories a biotechnology…
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Cancer Genome Data Visualization Tool Developed
29 December 2015. A bioinformatics team at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital created a Web-based system that illustrates genetic mutations behind pediatric cancers. The software and database in ProteinPaint, as the system is called, are described in a letter in today’s issue of the journal Nature Genetics (paid subscription required). The team led by Jinghui…
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€50,000 Challenge Seeks New Gas Technologies
28 December 2015. A challenge competition from industrial gas developer Air Liquide asks researchers to devise new solutions for three sustainable applications of gas molecules. Each of the three challenges awards a cash prize of €50,000 ($US 55,000), and an opportunity to earn another €500,000 in funding to develop the proposed solution. The competitions begin receiving entries on 6 January 2016,…
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Bioactive Glass Reduces Decay in Tooth Cavity Fillings
23 December 2015. An engineering group at Oregon State University adapted a type of glass material that in lab models slows the decay in teeth with composite cavity fillings. The team led by materials engineering professor Jamie Kruzic published its findings in the January 2016 issue of the journal Dental Materials. Kruzic, with colleagues from…
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Start-Up Licenses Founder’s Research for Resistant Bacteria
22 December 2015. A biotechnology company spun-off from University of California in San Diego is licensing technology from the university to develop treatments for bacterial infections now becoming resistant to conventional antibiotics. Financial terms of the licensing agreement between UC-San Diego and Forge Therapeutics were not disclosed. Forge Therapeutics, also in San Diego, is licensing…
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Airway-on-Chip Model Simulates Asthma, COPD
22 December 2015. A biomedical engineering lab at Harvard University developed a small chip device that acts as a model of human airways to study biological processes and test drugs for diseases such as COPD and asthma. A team from Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering describe the device in yesterday’s issue of the…
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Detailed Brain Activity Imaging Being Developed
17 December 2015. An engineering group at University of Arizona is developing a new technology that promises to provide better images of electrical activity in the brain. The project, led by Arizona biomedical engineering professor Russell Witte, is funded by a three-year, $1.15 million grant from National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of…
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Nanofibers, Stem Cells Studied for Rotator Cuff Repair
16 December 2015. An engineering lab at Columbia University is researching a new regenerative process that better integrates human tendon and bone tissue to repair rotator cuff injuries. The team led by biomedical engineering professor Helen Lu is funded by $1.1 million grant from Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs in the U.S. Department of Defense.…
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Computer Vision Devised as Drug Discovery Technique
15 December 2015. Pharmaceutical chemists at University of California in San Francisco developed techniques for adapting computer vision, like those used in robotics, to early-stage drug discovery. The team led by UC-San Francisco’s Steven Altschuler and Lani Wu describe its discovery in yesterday’s issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology (paid subscription required). Altschuler and Wu,…