Narrow Results

Research Facility at Macquarie University Joins International Proteomic Alliance.

Public Databases have Errors and no Quick Fix.

Genetic Viability of Australian Grasslands and Heathlands.

China Drafts Biotechnology Accord with Brazil.

China Calls for Closer Cooperation with US in Biomedical Research.

Opportunities in China's Biomedicine Industry.

China Aims to Be Leading Pharmacy Processing Center.

Geneticist Tsui Lap Chee Appointed as Vice Chancellor of University of Hong Kong.

India to Start Growing Pest-resistant Cotton.

Health Ministry Confirms Fourth Mad Cow Case.

Importance of Japanese Funding to Rice Genomics.

Bio Expo Korea 2002 Scheduled for September.

Korea Establishes an Arctic Science Base.

The Sciences not Popular among Korean Students.

Soya Bean the Only GM Food in the Malaysian Market.

Fear Prevents AIDS Patients from Getting Cheaper Treatment.

Biotech Industry Receives Big Funding.

Genome Institute of Singapore Moves to New Facility.

Scientist Lays out his Vision for the Life Sciences in Singapore.

Industry Conference on Lab Design and Management.

Singapore and University of Washington form Bioengineering Alliance.

Taiwan Hsinchu Science Park's March Trade Highest in One Year.

New Drug for ED Going on Sale Soon.

Traders Urged to Market Higher Quality Rice.

Hybrid Rice Meeting in Vietnam.

Warning Label on Baby Low-fat Milk.

ChinaBio Conference to Kick off in Beijing.

Yangling to Become China’s Agricultural Silicon Valley.

Survey Shows Secondhand Smoke Affects 62 Percent of Pregnancies.

Japan Recalls Chinese Diet Products.

Japanese Suicide Rate Up for 4th Year.

Cervical Cancer Vaccine to be Tested in NZ.

NZ Grant for Research on Fetal Growth and its Consequences.

Singapore Conducts Large-scale Cancer-soya Study.

Funding to Commercialize Life Sciences Research.

Varsity Launches Bioengineering Corridor.

BioMedical and BioTechnica Asia Conference in Singapore.

This interview with the executive director of Institute of Bioengineering and Nanobiotechnology summarises Professor Yings views on the bioengineering field and the institutes’ goals.

INDIA – Lack of access to technology ‘hampers detection of substandard drugs’.

JAPAN – Daiichi Sankyo announces development of nucleic acid treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy utilizing proprietary technology.

SINGAPORE – IBN creates unlimited source of human kidney cells.

SINGAPORE – Dyesol and Singapore's NTU sign agreement.

THE PHILIPPINES – Global biotech/GM crop plantings increase 100-fold from 1996.

AUSTRALIA – Phosphagenics further expands pain portfolio.

AUSTRALIA – Primary Health Care signs Australia distribution agreement for iGeneScreen™ prenatal test.

AUSTRALIA – Folic acid in pregnancy linked with reduced autism risk.

AUSTRALIA – Phylogica and Bio-Link collaborate to commercialize anti-inflammatory Phylomers.

AUSTRALIA – ABRAXANE^® plus gemcitabine improves survival in Phase III study of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer.

CANADA – Verisante Technology, Inc. announces first sales of aura, a revolutionary medical device for the detection of skin cancer.

EUROPE – Project eyes robust medical technology for poor countries.

UNITED KINGDOM – Asthma sufferers have more lung fungi.

UNITED KINGDOM – Pioneering drug discovery gets major funding to move to next stage.

UNITED STATES – Gilead's sofosbuvir for hepatitis C meets primary endpoint in fourth pivotal Phase III study.

UNITED STATES – Eleven Biotherapeutics publishes data on EBI-005, a novel IL-1 inhibitor protein for topical treatment of dry eye disease.

UNITED STATES – Phase I/II trial of ADXS-HPV in anal cancer conducted by Brown University Oncology Group.

UNITED STATES – Scopolamine: An old drug with new psychiatric applications.

UNITED STATES – New bioengineered ears look and act like the real thing.

UNITED STATES – To trap a rainbow, slow down light.

UNITED STATES – AB SCIEX responds to milk contamination concerns with new method to detect dicyandiamide.

SINGAPORE – Human Heart Tissue Grown from Stem Cells Improves Drug Testing.

UNITED STATES – Bioengineered Human Livers Mimic Natural Development.

UNITED STATES – New Cellular Target May Put the Brakes on Cancer’s Ability to Spread.

UNITED STATES – Does Consuming Low-Fat Dairy Increase the Risk of Parkinson’s Disease?

UNITED STATES – Memory Loss and Other Cognitive Decline Linked to Blood Vessel Disease in the Brain.

AUSTRALIA – Fabricating High Performance Nanohybrid Catalysts.

TAIWAN – US FDA Approves Zhaohe Cao-based Botanical Drug as an Investigational New Drug for Cancer Therapy.

KOREA – Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee Elected to the NAS.

Bioengineering (BE) technology has significant influence on the healthcare environment. This has grown steadily particularly since the medical practice has become more technology based. We have tried to assess the impact of bioengineering in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. The use of bioengineering principles in healthcare has been evaluated. The practical implications of these technologies in fighting the current global health pandemic have been presented. There has been a shared drive worldwide to harness the advancements of bioengineering to combat COVID-19. These efforts have ranged from small groups of volunteers to large scale research and mass production. Together the engineering and medical fields have worked to address areas of critical need including the production and delivery of personal protective equipment, ventilators as well as the creation of a viable vaccine. The fight against COVID-19 has helped highlight the work and contributions of so many professionals in the bioengineering fields who are working tirelessly to help our health services cope. Their innovation and ingenuity are paving the way to successfully beat this virus. We must continue to support these fields as we evolve our health systems to deal with the challenges of healthcare in the future.

Molecular biologists today make use of a number of technologies based on natural products or systems, essentially using the wonders of life to further discover wonderous things about life. This cycle is powered by the immense amount of natural diversity. Here I highlight how one natural system, CRISPR, has been engineered for a range of applications aimed at improving human health and discuss possible ways natural diversity may be leveraged in the future.

Kinesins, motor proteins moving along microtubules (MTs) in cells, can potentially be utilized as nano-scale transport systems with an inverted gliding assay, in which the MTs glide on a kinesin-coated surface. Although the key requirements include controls of the gliding direction of MTs, the details of motility properties of gliding MTs have not been elucidated. Here, the angular velocity of gliding MTs was quantitatively measured, particularly focusing on the effects of MT length and kinesin density. The gliding assay of MTs was performed on a substrate coated with kinesin densities of 7.5, 38, and 75 µg/ml that resulted in kinesin spacing of 7.8, 4.2, and 3.1 µm, respectively. The angular velocity for MTs shorter than kinesin spacing significantly decreased with increasing length, and that for MTs longer than kinesin spacing was not affected by their length. Moreover, the angular velocity for MTs longer than kinesin spacing was substantially higher at lower kinesin density. These results suggest that both the number of kinesins associated with MTs and the kinesin spacings may determine the gliding direction.