A new technique for developing more targeted drugs with reduced side effects by using “molecular automata” — a mixture of antibodies and short strands of DNA — has been demonstrated by Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) and Columbia University researchers.
These short DNA strands, aka oligonucleotides, can be manufactured by researchers in a laboratory for any user-specified sequence.
How it works
All cells… read more
Researchers have developed a new method that can look at a specific segment of DNA and pinpoint a single mutation, which could help diagnose and treat diseases such as cancer and tuberculosis.
Modern genomics has shown that just one mutation can be the difference between successfully treating a disease and having it spread rampantly throughout the body.
These small mutations can be the root of a… read more
MIT researchers, in collaboration with physicist Yves Couder at the Université Paris Diderot and his colleagues, report that they have produced the fluidic analogue of a classic quantum experiment, in which electrons are confined to a circular “corral” by a ring of ions.
In the new experiments, reported in the latest issue of the journal Physical Review E (PRE), bouncing drops of fluid mimicked the… read more
A team of researchers at MIT is developing an alternative protection for nuclear fuel, while reducing the risk of hydrogen production by roughly a thousandfold.
Tests of the new cladding material, a ceramic compound called silicon carbide (SiC), are described in a series of papers appearing in the journal Nuclear Technology.
A substitute for traditional zircaloy could greatly reduce the danger of hydrogen explosions.… read more
A NIH-funded study suggests a role for adenosine in molecular processes involved in epilepsy.
Silk has walked straight off the runway and into the lab. According to a new study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, silk implants placed in the brain of laboratory animals and designed to release a specific chemical, adenosine, may help stop the progression of epilepsy.
The research was… read more
“See-saw” molecule may offer clues to potential therapies in the long-term.
More than 11,000 Americans suffer spinal cord injuries each year, and since over a quarter of those injuries are due to falls, the number is likely to rise as the population ages.
The reason so many of those injuries are permanently disabling is that the human body lacks the capacity to regenerate nerve fibers. The best our… read more
Study may advance fundamental understanding of how brain cells communicate.
Brain cells talk to each other in a variety of tones. Sometimes they speak loudly but other times struggle to be heard.
For many years scientists have asked why and how brain cells change tones so frequently. National Institutes of Health researchers showed that brief bursts of chemical energy coming from rapidly moving power… read more
Motivational analysis conducted by Columbia Business School and University of Pittsburgh professors forecasts the Twitter medium becoming comparable to television.
New research from scholars at Columbia Business School and the University of Pittsburgh questions the sustainability of Twitter, the social network that has more than 500 million registered users. The research was recently published in the journal Marketing Science.
Columbia Business School Professor… read more
Impressive examples of new non-invasive optical techniques using lasers, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and spectroscopic methods to probe and render images from beneath the surface of the skin are featured in a newly completed open-access special section in the Journal of Biomedical Optics published by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics.
The techniques may be used in a wide variety of medical and cosmetic… read more
Princeton University researchers have created “souped up” versions of the calcium-sensitive proteins that for the past decade or so have given scientists an unparalleled view and understanding of brain-cell communication.
Reported July 18 in the journal Nature Communications, the enhanced proteins developed at Princeton respond more quickly to changes in neuron activity, and can be customized to react to different, faster rates of neuron activity.… read more
University of Akron researchers have developed nanoscale “giant surfactants” (using nanopatterning to combine functioning molecular nanoparticles with polymer surface films and liquid solutions) that could lead to smaller chips, lighter laptops, slimmer televisions, and crisper smartphone visual displays.
Surfactants are compounds that lower the surface tension (or interfacial tension) between two liquids or between a liquid and a solid.
The giant surfactants developed at… read more
A prominent hacker who discovered a way to have ATMs spit out cash and was set to deliver a talk about hacking pacemakers and other wireless implantable medical devices has died in San Francisco, authorities and his employer said, San Jose Mercury News reports.
Barnaby Jack died at his home in San Francisco Thursday, although the cause of death is still under investigation, San Francisco Deputy Coroner… read more
The phenomenon of false memory has been well-documented: In many court cases, defendants have been found guilty based on testimony from witnesses and victims who were sure of their recollections, but DNA evidence later overturned the conviction.
In a step toward understanding how these faulty memories arise, MIT neuroscientists have shown that they can plant false memories in the brains of mice.
They also… read more
Scientists have know that something in space accelerated particles in the Van Allen radiation belts to more than 99 percent the speed of light, but they didn’t know what that something was.
New results from NASA‘s Van Allen Probes now show that the acceleration energy comes from within the belts themselves.
Particles inside the belts are sped up by local kicks of… read more
Quantum entanglement works for photons, and even molecuiles, but what about larger objects?
University of Geneva (UNIGE) researchers managed to entangle crystals in 2011, but now they have entangled two optic fibers, populated by 500 photons.
To do this, the team first created an entanglement between two fiber optics on a microscopic level before moving it to the macroscopic level. The entangled state survived… read more