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Harnessing Unique Properties of Boron to Develop New Drugs and Diagnostics

Researchers are on the verge of unleashing the power of the element boron in a new generation of drugs and therapies, as decades of research begins to bear fruit. Boron has to date far been one of biology's best kept...

21 Oct 2008

Giving Researchers Access to State-of-the-Art Fabrication Facilities

A $100 million Australian National Fabrication Facility launched this month in Canberra includes a Queensland node, based at The University of Queensland.

21 Oct 2008

New Technique for Rapidly Detecting Individual Unlabelled Target Molecules

Even very small numbers of deadly infectious agents or allergenic pollen molecules can cause big problems for humans. But detecting such trace amounts is difficult to do fast enough to do any good. Current techniques -- for example, air sampling on filters or slides until enough molecules for a detectible signal or preparing specially tagged molecules for lab experiments -- are more suitable for general research than alerting people to an imminent threat.

21 Oct 2008

Helping Lost Neurons Find Their Way

Spinal cord injuries are often a worst-case diagnosis for people who suffer accidents because they may mean permanent disability. Unlike a broken leg or pulled muscle, spinal cord injuries do not heal themselves over time.

21 Oct 2008

The Future Rise of Proton Therapy

Despite the fact that proton therapy has been around for years, it is still a relatively uncommon way to treat cancer. Currently there are only five operating proton therapy clinics in the United States -- one each in Bo...

21 Oct 2008

New Way to Tweeze Apart Interacting Cells and Molecules Using Magnetic Forces

Life, on the microscopic level, is crowded and bustling. Tissues are made of cells glommed together that are covered with molecules. The molecules are constantly interacting with other molecules, and how they interact ca...

21 Oct 2008

Microfibres Scaffolds for Peripheral Nerve Repair

Injuries to the peripheral nerves-those linking the central nervous system to the arms and legs of the body-lead to a loss of sensation and function in 1 in 1000 people. Unlike the nerves of the central nervous system, peripheral nerves can be repaired and regenerated, but this process is often incomplete and ineffective.

21 Oct 2008

MEMS for Implantable Medical Devices

Over the last 10 years, researchers and clinicians have begun to use microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), which combine electronics technology with tiny mechanical devices like sensors and valves embedded in semiconduc...

21 Oct 2008

Cell Printing Paving Way to Artificial Organs

Despite the success of organ transplantation surgery, many people in need of transplants die while on the waiting list because of the scarcity of donated organs. Artificial, lab-grown organs offer one potential solution ...

21 Oct 2008

Challenges for Thin Film Flexible Displays and Electronics

Imagine a miniature television or computer screen that scrolls out of a pen-sized carrying case. Flexible displays like this are almost on the edge of commercial reality, but several challenges still must be overcome in ...

21 Oct 2008

Trapping Single Molecules Under a Microscope

Just as the perfect picture of a horse cannot convey the fluidity of it gallop, so does a frozen picture of DNA fail in describing its intricate dance. "These are wet, warm, squishy things," says Adam Cohen of Harvard University. They jiggle, they flap, they twist, they turn, and they randomly "walk" about.

21 Oct 2008

Providing Higher Level in Cell Culture Performance and Cost-Effectiveness

Millipore Corporation, a Life Science leader providing technologies, tools, and services for bioscience research and biopharmaceutical manufacturing, today announced the release of a unique cell culture medium for generating three-dimensional, in vivo-like, epidermal keratinocyte models.

21 Oct 2008

Soft Lithography Produces Hard-to-Make Nanostructures

Fifty years of Moore's Law-driven reductions in electronic-circuit features sizes are pushing manufacturers toward molecular and atomic dimensions of less than a few nanometers. Unfortunately, it may be impossible or...

21 Oct 2008

Researchers Pioneered the Use of Beams of Buckyballs

Once computer chip manufacturers have made their multi-layered structures, it is also necessary for them to verify precisely that the layers are composed in the proper way. One way of doing this is to shoot beams of ions which, like meteorites striking the Moon, eject material that can be characterized using mass spectrometry, providing information about subsurface layering.

21 Oct 2008

Secret Lives of Carbon Nanotubes

The recent advent of transmission electron microscopes with integrated scanning probe microscope sample stages is permitting unprecedented nanoscale observation and analysis of materials. Jianyu Huang of Sandia National ...

21 Oct 2008