Analytical Instruments
Scientists capture first full image of vitamin B12 in action
March 27, 2012 8:11 am | News | CommentsResearchers from the University of Michigan Health System and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology report they have created the first full 3-D images of B12 and its partner molecules twisting and contorting as part of a crucial reaction called methyltransfer. The reaction is crucial to biological systems and has implications for fuel development.
A faster way to probe proteins
March 26, 2012 4:21 am | by Anne Trafton, MIT News Office | News | CommentsMassachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have developed a new way to analyze proteins that doesn't require any pretreatment. The technique is extremely fast, allowing scientists to see, for the first time, how a protein changes its shape over picoseconds.
Electron beams make DNA sequencers from graphene
March 23, 2012 8:49 am | by Ann Manser | News | CommentsResearchers at the University of Delaware have recently conducted high-performance computer modeling to investigate a new approach for ultrafast DNA sequencing based on tiny holes, called nanopores, drilled into a sheet of graphene. Only recently have scientists figured out a way to build the sheets so that electronics could keep up with the extremely fast DNA base detection rate.
Researchers show that memories reside in specific brain cells
March 22, 2012 1:28 pm | by Cathryn Delude, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory | News | CommentsOur memories leave traces that we may conjure up in remembrance, accompanied by time, place, and sensations. These memory “engrams” are more than just conceptual. Recent optogenetics studies have shown that memories really do reside in very specific brain cells, and simply activating a tiny number of neurons can conjure an entire memory.
Why the world in our head stays still when we move our eyes
March 22, 2012 1:12 pm | News | CommentsWith the help of functional magnetic resonance imaging scientists in Germany have identified two areas of the brain that compare the movements of the eye with the visual movements cast onto the retina so as to correctly perceive objects in motion. Without this ability the brain would not be able to distinguish what is in motion: the world or us.
Doctors find clue in quest to predict heart attack
March 22, 2012 7:07 am | by Lauran Neergaard, AP Medical Writer | News | CommentsMost heart attacks happen when fatty deposits in an artery burst open, a blood clot forms to seal the break, and the blood clot blocks blood flow. Unfortunately, today's best tests can't predict when that's about to happen. Now scientists have found a clue that one day may help doctors determine if a heart attack is imminent, in hopes of preventing it.
Biosensor breaks through the barrier of multimodal analysis
March 22, 2012 6:51 am | News | CommentsResearchers in Japan have built a multimodal bio-image sensor that can render images of the 2D distribution of proton concentration (pH) and fluorescence intensity for multimodal analyses of biochemical objects.
Nanoslinky is not a toy
March 21, 2012 4:08 am | News | CommentsRemember Slinky, the coiled metal spring that “walks” down stairs with just a push, momentum and gravity? Researchers at NIST have developed their own version of this classic—albeit 10 million times smaller—as a new technology for manipulating and measuring DNA molecules and other nanoscale materials.
New tool to reveal structure of proteins
March 19, 2012 9:47 am | News | CommentsA new method to reveal the structure of proteins could help researchers understand biological molecules—both those involved in causing disease and those performing critical functions in healthy cells. The new solid-state NMR method uses paramagnetic tags to help visualize the shape of protein molecules.
QB3, Pfizer expand support for translational research
March 18, 2012 7:14 pm | News | CommentsThe California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) has renewed and expanded a three-year agreement with Pfizer Inc. to collaborate on research projects at the University of California (UC) with the potential to transform world-class science into better medicine. Renewal spans 4 UC campuses.
Researchers increase speed of single-molecule measurements
March 18, 2012 3:33 pm | News | CommentsA team of researchers has figured out a way to measure nanopores—tiny holes in a thin membrane that can detect single biological molecules such as DNA and proteins—with less error than can be achieved with commercial instruments. The new integrated circuit design could lead to cheaper, faster DNA sequencing.
Brain imaging study finds evidence of basis for caregiving impulse
March 16, 2012 5:12 am | News | CommentsDistinct patterns of activity—which may indicate a predisposition to care for infants—appear in the brains of adults who view an image of an infant face—even when the child is not theirs, according to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and in Germany, Italy, and Japan.
Discovery could reduce chemo's side effects
March 12, 2012 3:17 am | News | CommentsIn a prize-winning finding, a team of researchers at Duke University has determined the structure of a key molecule that can carry chemotherapy and anti-viral drugs into cells, which could help to create more effective drugs with fewer effects to healthy tissue.
Meteorites reveal another way to make life’s components
March 9, 2012 10:29 am | News | CommentsA recent study at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center analyzed samples from 14 carbon-rich meteorites with minerals that had experienced temperatures more than 2,000 F. Although the researchers have found amino acids in carbon-rich meteorites before, they weren’t expecting to find them in minerals that had experience enough heat to destroy them.
Genome study finds some gorilla DNA aping our own
March 7, 2012 10:34 am | by Alicia Chang, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsOur DNA is most similar to chimpanzees, our closest relatives. Recent research that finally deciphered the entire genome of the gorilla, however, held a surprise. A sizable portion of our genome is closer to a gorilla's than to a chimp's, and this revelation could affect the way we look at our evolutionary tree.
Study reveals how proteins begin DNA replication
March 7, 2012 3:19 am | News | CommentsScientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborators, using sophisticated cryo-electron microscopy and imaging techniques, have deciphered the molecular-level details of the complex choreography by which intricate cellular proteins recognize and bind to DNA to start the replication process.
An easier way to image proteins
March 6, 2012 8:32 am | News | CommentsThere are two major challenges when it comes to imaging proteins: the first is to create the right sized protein crystals, and the second is to irradiate them in such a way that they do not disintegrate. Researchers in Sweden have found a way to image small protein samples using free-electron lasers. The short-pulse light works with small, easy to make crystals.
Study reveals how ion channels tell us what’s hot, what’s cold
March 2, 2012 9:50 am | News | CommentsResearchers in the past have assumed that because there are only four genes governing the body’s detection of temperatures, only four heat-sensitive channels exist. Recent work now shows that proteins can have dozens of the heat-sensitive ion channels, which are pores in the cell membranes.
Investigators predict, confirm how E. coli hijack cells’ sense of direction
March 1, 2012 8:34 am | News | CommentsUsing a new model to explain how mammalian cells establish the sense of direction necessary to move, researchers at the University of Texas have predicted how bacteria like Escherichia coli that cause food poisoning can hijack a cell’s sense of direction. They then confirmed those predictions in living cells.
End of the “Lily of the Valley” phenomenon?
February 29, 2012 7:34 am | News | CommentsAccording to a 2003 study by German and American scientists, a component of the Lily of the Valley scent known as Bourgeonal alters the calcium balance of human sperm, which acts to attract the sperm to the source of the scent. The finding the sperm can smell inspired new studies and even a book title, but it is now at risk of being debunked after recent research in Germany.
Bruker White Papers
February 28, 2012 11:27 am | White PapersBruker Optics presents recent white papers on analytical application methods using its line of Fourier transform infrared spectrometers and optical microscopes. Industrial applications include materials analysis, pharmaceutical process control, and environmental health.
Bird flu, pig flu, now bat flu? Human risk unclear
February 27, 2012 5:34 pm | by Mike Stobbe, AP Medical Writer | News | CommentsFlu bugs are common in humans, birds and pigs and have even been seen in dogs, horses, seals and whales, among others. But for the first time, scientists have found evidence of flu in bats, reporting a never-before-seen virus whose risk to humans is unclear.
Key controller of protein misfolding identified
February 27, 2012 3:37 am | by Lynn Yarris | News | CommentsResearchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Advanced Light Source have discovered the crystal structure of a critical control element within chaperonin, the protein complex responsible for the correct folding of other proteins. Incorrect and misfolding proteins have been linked to many diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Cells on film
February 27, 2012 3:19 am | News | CommentsScientists at RIKEN Advanced Science Institute in Japan, with help from colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles, have invented a polymer film loaded with antibodies that can capture tumor cells. This could be an important diagnostic tool because during metastasis cancerous tumor cells float around the bloodstream, nearly impossible to detect.
TANDEM improves pharmaceutical process knowledge
February 24, 2012 10:23 am | White PapersTraditionally, content uniformity analysis for tablets has been performed off-line by liquid chromatography. Performed in batches, this approach is time-consuming. A new spectroscopy-based system called TANDEM, as detailed by Bruker Optics in a white paper, combines Bruker’s Matrix Fourier transform near-infrared spectrometer with a Dr. Schleuniger Pharmatron 10X conventional tablet tester to enable rapid, on-line, non-destructive tablet content uniformity characterization along with moisture and excipient analysis.
