Narrow Results

The knowledge of the intracellular distribution of biological relevant metals is important to understand their mechanisms of action in cells, either for physiological, toxicological or pathological processes. However, the direct detection of trace metals in single cells is a challenging task that requires sophisticated analytical developments. The combination of micro-PIXE with RBS and STIM (Scanning Transmission Ion Microscopy) allows the quantitative determination of trace metal content within sub-cellular compartments. The application of STIM analysis provides high spatial resolution imaging (< 200 nm) and excellent mass sensitivity (< 0.1 ng). Application of the STIM-PIXE-RBS methodology is absolutely needed when organic mass loss appears during PIXE-RBS irradiation. This combination of STIM-PIXE-RBS provides fully quantitative determination of trace element content, expressed in μg/g, which is a quite unique capability for micro-PIXE compared to other micro-analytical methods such as the electron and synchrotron x-ray fluorescence. Examples of micro-PIXE studies for sub-cellular imaging of trace elements in various fields of interest will be presented: in patho-physiology of trace elements involved in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease, and in toxicology of metals such as cobalt.

AUSTRALIA — Malaria Breakthrough in Australia.

AUSTRALIA — Advances in Early Alzheimer's Diagnosis.

AUSTRALIA — Genetic Test for Epilepsy Sufferers Developed By Victoria, Australia Scientists.

AUSTRALIA — New R & D Facility Leads Way for Australian Biotech Sector.

AUSTRALIA — Australia Launches New Center to Focus on HIV Prevention, Treatment Research.

CHINA — Genomics Center Researchers Identify Key Mechanism in DNA Damage Response.

CHINA — Hemophiliacs in Guangdong Suffer From Lack of Treatment.

CHINA — Microbix to Build Flu Vaccine Plant in China.

CHINA — Applied Biosystems, 454 Life Sciences and Illumina Join 1000 Genomes Project.

INDIA — Indian Scientists Develop GM Mice Through Transgenic Sperm.

JAPAN — Experts Identify Genes for Bird Flu Replication.

JAPAN — Boosting Survival of Insulin-cell Transplants For Type 1 Diabetes.

JAPAN — Medtronic Launches First Insertable Cardiac Monitor in Japan.

JAPAN — Sewing DNA Thread with Lasers, Hooks and Microbobbins.

KOREA — CSD Korea launches its Patient Longitudinal Database.

NEW ZEALAND — NZ Signs Science Agreement with EU.

SINGAPORE — Singapore Researchers Identify Viral Factor That Induces Deadly Fungal Infection.

SINGAPORE — Singapore, Indonesia Enhance Collaboration to Fight Bird Flu.

SINGAPORE — Singapore Scientists Beat More Than 140 Teams to Claim Top Award at 46th American Society of Neuroradiology 2008 Meeting.

TAIWAN — Government Plans Development of Five Bio-Agricultural Parks.

TAIWAN — Local Researchers Cast New Light on Genetic Mutations.

TAIWAN — Enterovirus Cases Hit Record High.

VIETNAM — New Cholera Outbreaks in Vietnam.

VIETNAM — Vietnam, WB Join Hands to Improve Health Services in Remote Areas.

Growing Cord Blood Cells for Cancer Patients.

Umbilical Cord Blood Transplantation in Adults - The Debate between One vs. Two Units.

Stem Cells in Umbilical Cord.

Cord Blood Banking - To Go Public or Stay Private.

German biotech innovator Altona Diagnostics launches BioNexus-certified regional hub in Malaysia: ADT Biotech Sdn Bhd.

FEI launches "Explore the Unseen" image contest in partnership with National Geographic.

BIO applauds Representative Kaptur's Energy Investment Act of 2012.

Cytori to utilize Sistemic's SistemQC™ to strengthen understanding of mechanisms & support design of Next-Generation Cell Therapies.

Bosch packaging technology and Sartorius Stedim Biotech introduce PreVAS.

CellCentric and ZoBio enter into partnership to develop lead compounds against epigenetic drug targets.

INDONESIA – Biomed Analysis: Indonesia needs a central science fund.

KOREA – Agilent Technologies helps City of Daegu and Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology search for biomarkers for neurological diseases.

SINGAPORE – New S$6.5m facility at NTU by SCELSE and Carl Zeiss to boost used water treatment and environmental life sciences engineering research in Singapore.

SINGAPORE – Chugai expands in Singapore with opening of second satellite research institute.

SINGAPORE – Rising Above the Present into the Next-Generation.

SINGAPORE – Austrianova Singapore announces new pancreatic cancer models.

SINGAPORE – IBN and Fortis Colorectal Hospital establish tissue bank for colorectal cancer research.

SINGAPORE – Electronic medical records progress from an enterprise-centric solution to a customer-specific application, finds Frost & Sullivan.

SINGAPORE – Global perspectives on Health IT from Harvard Medical School thought leader, Dr Blackford Middleton.

AUSTRALIA – World's first fluorescent flowers.

UNITED KINGDOM – AbD Serotec introduces bovine and ovine Dendritic Cell Growth Kits and antibodies.

USA – Medicago Successfully Completes the Production of More Than Ten Million Doses of H1N1 VLP Influenza Vaccine in One Month.

USA – Research validates BioNano genomics' mapping platform for complex human genome analysis.

USA – Nine population strategies to stop short of 9 billion.

USA – Virtual science libraries to be launched in Central Asia.

USA – Vaginal ring may help reduce HIV infections.

Exploring the Role of Glutathione in the Regulation of Immune Cell Function.

Does Oxidative Damage Cause Poor Healing?

Pathogenesis of Atopic Dermatitis in Singapore.

Proteomics and Colorectal Cancer Metastasis: Bird's-Eye View on Current Scenario and Our Contribution.

Zebrafish: A Small Fish Model for a Big Human Disease.

The Reign of a New Dictator: Circulating MicroRNA in Diabetes.

Engineering Artificial Vascularized Bone Grafts for the Repair of Large Bone Defects.

A 'Nano' Era for Blood Glucose Sensing.

Ancient Medicine with Newer Roles: Potential Role of Celastrol in the Treatment of Multiple Myeloma.

Proteins, Proteome and Proteomics.

A Novel Promising Biomarker and Therapy Target of Liver Cancer.

MALAYSIA — Veolia expands presence in East Malaysia.

SINGAPORE — Syneron Dental Lasers signs distribution agreement with Healthcare Solutions & Services Pte Ltd.

SINGAPORE — Fujitsu advances healthcare innovation in collaboration with National University of Singapore.

SINGAPORE — Clearbridge BioMedics makes a big impact at the 2012 Asian Innovation Awards.

SINGAPORE — TauRx Pharmaceuticals receives $111.8m commitment from Genting to prepare for Market Leadership in Alzheimer's.

THAILAND — Key Phase II HIV/HCV trial has commenced in Bangkok.

AUSTRALIA — Hatchtech mechanism of action data and safety study published.

AUSTRALIA — Power to you: carbon nanotube muscles are going strong.

EUROPE — GE Healthcare Life Sciences opens new £3 million laboratories for cell science.

EUROPE — AstraZeneca announces Phase III results from naloxegol pivotal trials.

EUROPE — ACADIA's pimavanserin sees Phase III success.

EUROPE — Big Pharma is doing more for access to medicine in developing countries.

EUROPE — CAVATAK™ bladder cancer – positive preliminary data.

EUROPE — Avita Medical initiates European trial in the management of chronic lower limb ulcers.

NORTH AMERICA — FEI unveils broad correlative microscopy solution set for cell biologists.

NORTH AMERICA — A single dose of Medicago's H5N1 VLP vaccine protects against additional pandemic flu strains in a preclinical study.

NORTH AMERICA — Biologics and stem cell research boost the cell culture market.

AUSTRALIA – Well-known antibiotic amoxycillin found to be ineffective cough treatment.

AUSTRALIA – Bring the noise: has technology made us scared of silence?

INDIA – Biocon receives marketing authorization for novel biologic itolizumab for psoriasis.

ISRAEL – Aspireo reports Somatoprim Phase Ib interim data.

JAPAN – Daiichi Sankyo and Amplimmune announce strategic alliance to develop AMP-110 therapy for autoimmune disease.

JAPAN – Eisai signs agreement with Epizyme and Roche Molecular Systems to develop companion diagnostic.

THE PHILIPPINES – Asia-Pacific Analysis: The growth of stem-cell therapy.

THE PHILIPPINES – Is the world ready for scientific diplomacy?

UNITED KINGDOM – ARIAD and the U.K. National Cancer Research Institute to collaborate on SPIRIT 3 clinical study.

UNITED KINGDOM – Vision research collaboration on novel treatment for wet age-related macular degeneration.

UNITED STATES – Reducing medical mistakes: Two recently published studies support the use of DNA testing on biopsy samples to prevent misdiagnoses.

UNITED STATES – CoDa Therapeutics reports positive results from Phase IIb Study of NEXAGON® in chronic venous leg ulcers.

UNITED STATES – Inovio Pharmaceuticals to initiate clinical trial for its hepatitis C therapeutic vaccine later this year.

UNITED STATES – Jolt to brain eases pain without drugs.

UNITED STATES – Can a new vaccine prevent colon cancer?

UNITED STATES – Immunovaccine's DPX-Survivac produces sustained, dose related immune responses in Phase I ovarian cancer study.

Cognoptix licenses AD detection technology.

3D cell culture firm Reinnervate and specialist Oncology CRO Oncotest GmbH enter collaboration agreement.

Medicago awarded contract from the U.S. Department of Defence.

Clinical Network Services acquires New Zealand partner BELTAS' business assets.

VABIOTECH licenses cell-based Japanese encephalitis technology from Inviragen.

University of Illinois licenses novel anti-cancer therapies to StemPar Sciences.

Adimab announces new discovery collaboration with Kyowa Hakko Kirin.

Priaxon enters collaboration with GSK on protein-protein-interactions.

Lantheus Medical Imaging and FUJIFILM RI Pharma renew long-term license and distribution agreement.

Malaysian Bio-XCell Sdn Bhd seals a deal exceeding US$35 (~RM107m) with Agila Biotech Sdn Bhd during BioPharma Asia 2013.

Nagasaki University and Astellas launch collaborative research for screening new anti-dengue virus drugs for neglected tropical diseases.

Eurofins collaborates with AB SCIEX and Phenomenex to improve analysis of animal feed.

Biolife Science $5m ASX listing to progress stomach & breast cancer vaccine.

Naz Haji appointed Chief Information Officer, Quintiles Asia markets.

Roche and BioLamina start collaboration to develop novel cell culture systems.

AUSTRALIA — Childhood CT scans slightly raise cancer risk.

AUSTRALIA — There's a very simple solution to your lack of vitamin D.

INDIA — India develops cheap rotavirus vaccine.

JAPAN — 'Tug of war' method to measure the copy number limits of all genes in budding yeast.

SINGAPORE — SG Austria co-edits just released book on living cell bioencapsulation.

SINGAPORE — Nano Today's 2013 impact factor increases from 15.355 to 17.689.

SINGAPORE — Cholesterol beats coronaviruses, Avian flu and Swine flu.

THE PHILIPPINES — Philippines maps out plan to switch to 100% renewables in 10 years.

EUROPE — Roche launches first sugar-transferase for new glyco-engineering portfolio.

EUROPE — Older liver cancer patients respond to radioembolization equally as well as younger patients.

NORTH AMERICA — Protein helps colon cancer move and invade.

NORTH AMERICA — FDA approval of VIBATIV(R) (telavancin) for the treatment of bacterial pneumonia.

NORTH AMERICA — “On Demand Medical Research” is up and running.

UNITED KINGDOM — Diabetes rises sharply among UK's young adults.

UNITED KINGDOM — 'Mental illness' isn't all about brain chemistry: it's about life.

UNITED KINGDOM — Public to see impact of medical research funding.

Scientists decode the genomic sequence of 700,000-year-old horse.

Researchers reveal subepicardial endothelial cells working as major source for coronary arteries in embryonic ventricle wall.

Chinese 'container hospitals' ready to deploy in Africa.

Asian Cancer Research Group and BGI report new evidence for the genetic bases of liver cancer.

Taiwan technology lifts biomedical collaboration.

SIIC to provide funding to biotech projects.

In this paper, the compression of an isolated cell by two rigid indenters is analyzed. The neo-Hookean model is employed to characterize the hyperelastic behavior of biological cells. Owing to the greatly increased ratio between surface energy density and elastic modulus, surface energy plays important roles in the mechanical performance of biological cells. Using the dimensional analysis method and a finite element approach incorporating surface energy, we study the elastic compression of hyperelastic cells at finite deformation and give the explicit relations of contact radius and indent depth depending on compressive load. Our results reveal that surface energy obviously influences both the local deformation and the overall responses of hyperelastic cells at finite deformation. The obtained results are useful to determine the elastic properties of biological cells from indent-depth curves accurately.

The relationship between the organism's growth and its geometrical form was suggested by many ancient and modern thinkers. Many other factors influence growth and replication. All these numerous factors, such as biochemical, physical, work in cooperation. In this paper, we consider the impact of geometrical and physical characteristics of organisms, such as surface, volume and geometrical form, on organisms' growth and replication. The mathematical basis of our study is the growth equation, which describes growth from the physical perspective. First, we model the growth of cells by different shapes, and compare theoretical results to experimental data. We discover that the growth dependencies produced by the growth equation fit experimental data very accurately if we take into account two considerations. First, the cell, or a multicellular growing object, can switch into a replication phase before its physical growth potential is exhausted. Second, the inflow of substance through a unit of the membrane's surface increases during growth, because the cell's growing volume allows it to process more nutrients. Then, we consider overgrowth from the physical perspective, introduce the notion of a growth ratio as an important geometrical characteristic of the growth and overgrowth processes, and generalize our findings.

We present significantly advanced studies of the previously introduced physical growth mechanism and unite it with biochemical growth factors. Obtained results allowed formulation of the general growth law which governs growth and evolutional development of all living organisms, their organs and systems. It was discovered that the growth cycle is predefined by the distribution of nutritional resources between maintenance needs and biomass production. This distribution is quantitatively defined by the growth ratio parameter, which depends on the geometry of an organism, phase of growth and, indirectly, the organism's biochemical machinery. The amount of produced biomass, in turn, defines the composition of biochemical reactions. Changing amount of nutrients diverted to biomass production is what forces organisms to proceed through the whole growth and replication cycle. The growth law can be formulated as follows: the rate of growth is proportional to influx of nutrients and growth ratio. Considering specific biochemical components of different organisms, we find influxes of required nutrients and substitute them into the growth equation; then, we compute growth curves for amoeba, wild type fission yeast, and fission yeast's mutant. In all cases, predicted growth curves correspond very well to experimental data. Obtained results prove validity and fundamental scientific value of the discovery.

The article introduces a mathematical model of the physical growth mechanism which is based on the relationships of the physical and geometrical parameters of the growing object, in particular its surface and volume. This growth mechanism works in cooperation with the biochemical and other growth factors. We use the growth equation, which mathematically describes this mechanism, and study its adequacy to real growth phenomena. The growth model very accurately fits experimental data on growth of Amoeba, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, E.coli. Study discovered a new growth suppression mechanism created by certain geometry of the growing object. This result was proved by experimental data. The existence of the growth suppression phenomenon confirms the real workings and universality of the growth mechanism and the adequacy of its mathematical description. The introduced equation is also applicable to the growth of multicellular organisms and tumors. Another important result is that the growth equation introduces mathematical characterization of geometrical forms that can biologically grow. The material is supported by software application, which is released to public domain.

Mathematical simulation for cell and division, a complex process resulting from a series of major morphological evolution and biological mechanisms, is shown by using variational principle. Groups of differential equation systems with boundary conditions for the cell walls satisfying come out from analysis on minimally total length. Double bubble model for cell geometric formation is found and a mechanism for tri-bubble model is also investigated here. An interesting fact is that every angle between any two tangent lines at the same intersections of cell edges for both double bubble and tri-bubble is equal to $2\pi /3$. In addition to the derivation of these differential equation models, these theories are also applied to the specific experimental data analysis, and it is found that the model is very consistent with the experimental results.

Polarimetry is a powerful optical tool in the biomedical field, providing more comprehensive information on the sub-wavelength micro-physical structure of a sample than traditional light intensity measurement techniques. This review summarizes the concepts and techniques of polarization and its biomedical applications. Specifically, we first briefly describe the basic principles of polarized light and the Mueller matrix (MM) decomposition method, followed by some research progress of polarimetric measurement techniques in recent years. Finally, we introduce some studies on biological tissues and cells, and then illustrate the application value of polarization optical method.

Hardware accelerators (such as the Cell Broadband Engine) have recently received a significant amount of attention from the computational science community because they can provide significant gains in the overall performance of many numerical simulations at a low cost. However, such accelerators usually employ a rather unfamiliar and specialized programming model that often requires advanced knowledge of their hardware design. In this article, we demonstrate an alternate and simpler approach toward managing the main complexities in the programming of the cell processor, called software caching. We apply this technique to a numerical relativity (NR) application: a time-domain, finite-difference Kerr black hole perturbation evolver, and present the performance results. We obtain gains in the overall performance of generic simulations that are close to the theoretical maximum that can be obtained through our parallelization approach.

This paper reviews the recent development of 3D printing of biosamples, in terms of the 3D structure design, suitable printing technology, and available materials. Successfully printed 3D biosamples should possess the properties of high cell viability, vascularization and good biocompatibility. These goals are attained by printing the materials of hydrogels, polymers and cells, with a carefully selected 3D printer from the categories of inkjet printing, extrusion printing and laser printing, based on the uniqueness, advantages and disadvantages of these technologies. For recent developments, we introduce the 3D applications of creating scaffolds, printing cells for self-assembly and testing platforms. We foresee more bio-applications of 3D printing will be developed, with the advancements on materials and 3D printing machines.