Tag: chemistry
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Stem Cell Method Developed to Increase Bone Strength
Medical researchers from University of California at Davis and engineering faculty at University of California at Berkeley have developed a technique to increase bone growth by stimulating stem cell activity in bones. The team’s findings appear online in the journal Nature Medicine (paid subscription required). The research team led by Wei Yao of UC Davis’s…
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Challenge Seeks Sustainable Material Substitute for Wood
A new challenge on Innocentive seeks materials or processes that can be used create materials with the physical properties of softwoods, but are more sustainable than natural wood. The competition has a prize of $20,000 and a deadline of 31 March 2012 for submissions. InnoCentive in Waltham, Massachusetts is a company the conducts open-innovation crowd-sourcing…
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Patent Granted for Nanotech Medical Diagnostic Technology
Medical diagnostics developer T2 Biosystems in Lexington, Massachusetts has received a U.S. patent for its sensor technology based on magnetic nanoparticles. Patent 8,102,176 was issued on 24 January by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to W. David Lee, a program officer at MIT’s Koch Institute for Cancer Research and a founder of T2 Biosystems.…
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Nanotech Enhanced Oils Boost Insulation Properties
Materials scientists at Rice University in Houston have developed a process for enhancing the efficiency of lubricants to help remove excess heat in electric-power devices from micro-scale components to industrial transformers. The findings of graduate student Jaime Taha-Tijerina, postdoctoral researcher Tharangattu Narayanan, and colleagues appear in the journal ACS Nano (paid subscription required). The team…
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Nanotech Paint Devised to Monitor for Structural Damage
Researcher engineers at University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, U.K. have developed a type of paint that can help detect early signs of structural damage in bridges or buildings. Because this “smart paint” can be applied like any other paint and requires little maintenance, it costs a small fraction of traditional instrument-based sensors. Strathclyde civil engineering…
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Lab Discovers Material to Help Process Spent Nuclear Fuel
Research chemists at Sandia National Lab in Albuquerque have developed a new material that can capture and remove volatile radioactive gas from spent nuclear fuel. The team led by Tina Nenoff (pictured right) published their findings recently in the Journal of the American Chemical Society; paid subscription required. The Sandia researchers, with colleagues from Argonne…
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Soap Developed with Magnetic Properties
Researchers at University of Bristol in the U.K. and Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, France have developed a soap with iron salts that can be controlled by magnets. The discovery is expected to lead to products useful in cleaning up oil spills at sea, which can be better captured and removed after use than currently available…
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Consortium Develops Virtual Mouse for Lab Testing
Simcyp Ltd. in Sheffield, U.K., a consortium of pharmaceutical and biotech companies and research universities, has created a virtual lab mouse for use in cancer and toxicological research. Simcyp is a spin-off enterprise from Sheffield University that develops modeling and simulation tools for lab testing. Lab mice are used frequently in the development of new drugs…
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Compound That Repairs RNA Defects Identified
Researchers at Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Florida have identified a compound that can help repair defects in ribonucleic acid (RNA), a genetic material similar to DNA used in protein synthesis. The team’s findings appear online in the journal ACS Chemical Biology (paid subscription required). The researchers, led by Scripps chemistry professor Matthew Disney (pictured…
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NIH Funds Study of Chemical Effects on Adult Stem Cells
Bioengineers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York and University of California at Berkeley, have been awarded a grant from National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study how chemicals in drugs and the environment affect human stem cells. The four-year grant of more than $2 million will fund teams led by Rensselaer’s chemical and…