Tag: physical sciences
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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…
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Global Threat Identification Methods Sought in Challenge
24 July 2015. A new challenge on InnoCentive is seeking techniques for identifying climatic events in one region that have direct or indirect impacts elsewhere in the world. The competition has a total purse of $30,000 and deadline for submissions of 17 September 2015. InnoCentive in Waltham, Massachusetts conducts open-innovation, crowdsourcing competitions for corporate and…
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Dental Implants Found Prone to Fractures
22 July 2015. A review of manufactured dental implants discarded because of bone loss in the jaw of their wearers, indicates more than 6 in 10 of the devices had cracks or similar mechanical defects. The findings from the study by Keren Shemtov-Yona, a dentist and engineering doctoral student at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in…
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Cough Diagnostics Mobile App in Clinical Trial
22 July 2015. A smartphone app designed to diagnose the nature of a cough by the sound it makes is now being tested in a clinical trial in Australia. The app, developed in the lab of engineering professor Udantha Abeyratne at University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia was licensed to a spin-off company from the…
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Navy Seeks Graphene Nanoribbons for Electricity Distribution
20 July 2015. The U.S. Navy wants a more efficient way to distribute electric power on its ships, and believes ultrathin ribbons made of graphene may help them do it. The Office of Naval Research awarded an $800,000 grant to the lab led by engineering professor Cemal Basaran at University at Buffalo to find out more…
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Wireless System Developed to Deliver Drugs to Brain
17 July 2015. Engineers and medical researchers designed and tested in animals a system that implants drugs for the brain in ultra-thin optical cables, then triggers their release through wireless signals. The proof-of-concept system, developed at Washington University in St. Louis and University of Illinois in Urbana, is described in yesterday’s issue of the journal…
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Magnetic Nanoparticles Found to Boost Immunotherapy
15 July 2015. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University designed a process for making immunotherapy more practical as a cancer treatment by collecting cancer-fighting T-cells faster and easier with magnetic synthetic antigen nanoparticles. The team from the lab of Jonathan Schneck, professor of pathology at Johns Hopkins University medical center in Baltimore, published results of lab…
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Univ. Research Execs See Science Economic Benefits
15 July 2015. Senior research executives at 10 U.S. universities described the benefits of scientific research to their campuses, communities, and nation at a roundtable discussion today in Washington, D.C. The forum, organized by the Science Coalition and Association of American Universities, also described perils of uneven federal research funding as well as related dangers…
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Process Adds Antimicrobial Silver Particles to Plants
14 July 2015. Engineers at North Carolina State University developed a process that adds biodegradable nanoparticles infused with silver to plant fibers that can kill a broad range of bacteria. A team from the lab of chemical engineering professor Orlin Velev, with colleagues from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and institutions in the U.K. and…
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University Campus Serving as Internet-of-Things Lab
10 July 2015. Carnegie-Mellon University is turning its campus into a real-time lab to develop a Google-funded platform supporting networks known as the Internet-of-things. Google is providing Carnegie-Mellon, in Pittsburgh, a grant of $500,000 for the project that also involves Cornell, Stanford, and University of Illinois. Internet of things, or IoT, is the term given…