Painless administration of a vaccine by tiny microneedles on a skin patch. Interestingly, this mechanism of antigen exposure promotes a better immune response compared to the traditional bolus injections that make our arm’s go limp for an afternoon.
Designer Babies
Preimplantation genetic testing. Useful for pre-selecting embryos that will:
Create babies that do not carry debilitating genetic mutations that have been in you family history.
Create babies to be a matching bone marrow donor for someone in your family who needs a bone marrow transplant; such as in multiple myelome or leukemia.
Fascinating…
Imagine having an entire pharmacy’s worth of drugs implanted in your body primed for release upon demand. It’s like a medical “OnStar”. This idea of an implantable microchip for programmable multi-dose drug delivery finally shows proof of concept with the osteoporosis drug teriparatide.
Molecular visualizations of DNA. Stunning. Especially replication, which begins at 1:42.
Wonder what a comparison of helmet impact forces between high school, college, and NFL football players by position would look like?
Alumina nano-straws help facilitate delivery of small molecule drugs at the cellular level, without inhibiting cell growth.
Researchers from Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine have developed a method to grow blood vessels in a laboratory. The investigators used biomimetic polyethylene glycol hydrogels embedded with a growth factor called BB (PDGF-BB) to spur angiogenesis, and are now working on a way to guide the formation of vasculature for specific applications
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtMifCkTHTo&feature=player_embedded
Common techniques for identifying and measuring DNA or RNA require purification, labeling, or other cumbersome preparations. But a new method pumps samples through a tiny capillary tube and needs no such pretreatment
Fluorescent Nanoparticles Fresh From The Microwave
To make the particles, Mao, with Shukun Xu and colleagues in China, mixed acetates of the rare earth elements yttrium, ytterbium, and erbium; NH4F; and NaCl in the microwave at 160 °C for one hour. The resulting nanoparticles, he says, are comparable in quality to those made under more stringent conditions. The researchers then attached the nanoparticles to antibodies and used the resulting complexes to label cells in a petri dish. How they will fare in vivo remains to be seen, Mao says.
Peer Review Process
Send Your Secret Message Hidden in Bacteria
LeGoo, an Innovative Gel That Stops Blood Flow During Vascular Surgery, Gains FDA Approval
Nobel Prize winner Bruce Beutler is coming back to work at UT Southwestern where I attend graduate school… I’m impressed!
A small group of diverse individuals living on at least three continents have solved the structure of a protein that has stumped scientists for more than 10 years. And they did so playing an online protein folding game called Foldit.
