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The article is about Biopolis Shared Facilities. It is an overview of the purpose-built resource that provides research support to the Biopolis community. It mentions the facilities, equipment and technologies that it offers to the Biopolis community.

A Crisis in the Development of Antibiotics.

Bacterial Culture and Anti-microbial Susceptibility Testing – their Use in Guiding Therapy.

Epidemiology and Impact of Multi-Drug Resistant Gram Negative Infections in Critically Ill Patients in Asia.

Antibiotics and Resistance in Ocular Infections – Indian Perspective.

China Unveils World-Class Biotech Ambitions.

Chinese Scientists Awarded Cancer Research Prize.

BGI Researchers Uncover Extensive RNA Editing in Human Transcriptome.

Johns Hopkins Commences New China STEM Program.

Father of Hybrid Rice Conferred 2011 Mahathir Science Award.

Personalized Medicine Receives Boost in China.

GeneNews & Shanghai Biochip to Establish First Sentinel Centre for Personalized Medicine.

SINANO Invents New Microfluidic Chip for Bacterial Culture.

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.

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.

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a form of anxiety disorder that is often under-diagnosed. Commonly masked as shyness or introversion, many who are suffering from symptoms of SAD do not receive treatment. The onset of SAD is in childhood and/or early adolescence, and often accompanied by a wide range of comorbidities, including anxiety and depression. As a result, those who suffer from SAD are functionally impaired, likely under-achieve in work and school, and may possibly have unfulfilling relationships. The paper, firstly, reviews various available literature on SAD, its clinical symptoms, prevalence, onset, comorbidities and possible etiologies. Secondly, a case study, constructed based on the authors’ counselling experiences and observations, highlights the common behavioural patterns, cognitive distortions and emotional distress of clients undergoing SAD. Possible perpetuating factors and circumstances further provide a relevant and realistic perspective of the disorder within the Singapore context. Finally, through a review of the unique cultures of three countries, namely Singapore, India and Indonesia, the paper highlights the effects of social competitiveness, social appearance, social hierarchy, shame, technology and social media on the development and perpetuation of SAD amongst children, adolescents and females.

We studied the effect of time windows of a few seconds on the aesthetic appreciation of poems. Both Chinese and German subjects rated traditional Chinese poetic verses more beautiful in a time window of approximately 3 s, irrespective of understanding the poetic content. This observation suggests a common temporal preference for poetry appreciation across a different language background.

Successful culture of the obligatorily anaerobic symbionts residing in the hindgut of the wood-eating cockroach Cryptocercus punctulatus now permits continuous observation of mitosis in individual Barbulanympha cells. In Part I of this two-part paper, we report methods for culture of the protozoa, preparation of microscope slide cultures in which Barbulanympha survived and divided for up to 3 days, and an optical arrangement which permits observation and through-focus photographic recording of dividing cells, sequentially in differential interference contrast and rectified polarized light microscopy. We describe the following prophase events and structures: development of the astral rays and large extranuclear central spindle from the tips of the elongate-centrioles; the fine structure of spindle fibers and astral rays which were deduced in vivo from polarized light microscopy and seen as a particular array of microtubules in thin-section electron micrographs; formation of chromosomal spindle fibers by dynamic engagement of astral rays to the kinetochores embedded in the persistent nuclear envelope; and repetitive shortening of chromosomal spindle fibers which appear to hoist the nucleus to the spindle surface, cyclically jostle the kinetochores within the nuclear envelope, and churn the prophase chromosomes. The observations described here and in Part II have implications both for the evolution of mitosis and for understanding the mitotic process generally.

Chondrocytes in the growth plate undergo a relatively linear differentiation process. The progression of a chondrocyte from the proliferative stage to the hypertrophic stage is governed by complex interactions with the extracellular matrix within which it resides. A network of peptides, ion channels, and second messengers affects the transcription of certain genes that are ultimately translated into peptides which control cellular activity. Much effort has been invested into replicating this environment under in vitro conditions. It has been found that the three-dimensional (3D) cell culture is a more accurate representation of the in vivo environment in comparison to the traditional monolayer culture. It has also been found that a variety of stimuli may be used to induce the proliferation and differentiation of chondrocytes; one such stimulus is the mechanical stimulation of chondrocytes embedded in a 3D Gelfoam sponge. Chondrocytes are obtained from the chicken sternum. After the cells are cultured and cyclically loaded, mRNA levels of various mechanosensitive genes are quantified by real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Mechanical stimulation has been shown to upregulate the expression of type X collagen mRNA in early hypertrophic chondrocytes. The entire process, beginning with the obtainment of chondrocytes and ending with the quantification and interpretation of gene expression, is detailed in the following chapter.

Arcobacters are considered emerging foodborne pathogens frequently isolated from animal food products and various types of water. However, there is no data on the presence of Arcobacter spp. in fresh vegetables and given that the consumption of salads has increased, it could be interesting to monitoring its microbiological contamination. Therefore the objective of this research was to study the presence of Arcobacter spp. in fresh lettuces. Fifty fresh lettuces purchased from different local shops in Valencia (Spain) between January and July of 2009 were analyzed. The assay was performed simultaneously by PCR and cultural methods. Arcobacter sp. was detected in 10 of the 50 samples by PCR, but just in one of them the detection was possible without enrichment. A. butzleri was the only detected species by multiplex PCR. Seven samples were found to be positive also by culture. Nineteen isolates were obtained, being all of them identified as A. butzleri. To our knowledge, this is the first report of Arcobacter spp. detection in fresh vegetables such as lettuces. Although these foods are generally considered safe, given the large quantities consumed and the fact that further cooking is absent, they could be a potential public health risk.