"Researchers at Johns Hopkins have found a better way to create induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells — adult cells reprogrammed with the properties of embryonic stem cells — from a small blood sample. This new method, described last week in Cell Research, avoids creating DNA changes that could lead to tumor formation.
Johns Hopkins researchers created the safer iPS cells by transferring a circular piece of DNA into blood cells from anonymous donors to deliver the needed genetic components. The traditional way is to use viruses to carry DNA into a cell’s genome. Unlike the viral methods, the circular DNA the Hopkins team used is designed to stay separate from the host cell’s genome. After the iPS cells formed, the circular DNA delivered into the blood cells was gradually lost.
Linzhao Cheng, Ph.D says the new method is also more efficient than the traditional use of skin cells to make iPS cells. “After a skin biopsy, it takes a full month to grow the skin cells before they are ready to be reprogrammed into iPS cells, unlike the blood cells that only need to grow for eight or nine days,” says Cheng. “The time it takes to reprogram the iPS cells from blood cells is also shortened to two weeks, compared to the month it takes when using skin cells.”
Safer way to make induced pluripotent stem cells | KurzweilAI
2.07.2011
Popeye proved right...eating spinach is good for your muscles
(PhysOrg.com) -- After taking a small dose of inorganic nitrate for three days, healthy people consume less oxygen while riding an exercise bike. A new study in the February issue of Cell Metabolism traces that improved performance to increased efficiency of the mitochondria that power our cells.
...up until recently nitrate wasn't thought to have any nutritional value at all. It has even been suggested that this component of vegetables might be toxic. But Eddie Weitzberg [of the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden] and his colleague Jon Lundberg earlier showed that dietary nitrate feeds into a pathway that produces nitric oxide with the help of friendly bacteria found in our mouths. Nitric oxide has been known for two decades as a physiologically important molecule.
Key ingredient for the origin of life on earth...clay?
Physicists at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), Princeton, and Brandeis have demonstrated the formation of semipermeable vesicles from inorganic clay.
The research, published online this week in the journal Soft Matter,shows that clay vesicles provide an ideal container for the compartmentalization of complex organic molecules.
The authors say the discovery opens the possibility that primitive cells might have formed inside inorganic clay microcompartments.
Under The Radar: The Internet Just Ran Out of Numbers
On February 3, it finally happened: the clock ran out on the Internet as we know it. That was the day that the stash of Internet protocol addresses that are used to identify and locate computers connected to the Internet—the telephone numbers of the online world—was exhausted.
1.31.2011
Conjunction junction, now we know your function
LA JOLLA, CA—Among stem cell biologists there are few better-known proteins than nestin, whose very presence in an immature cell identifies it as a "stem cell," such as a neural stem cell. As helpful as this is to researchers, until now no one knew which purpose nestin serves in a cell.
In a study published in the Jan. 30, 2011, advance online edition of Nature Neuroscience, Salk Institute of Biological Studies investigators led by Kuo-Fen Lee, PhD., show that nestin has reason for being in a completely different cell type—muscle tissue. There, it regulates formation of the so-called neuromuscular junction, the contact point between muscle cells and "their" motor neurons.
Knowing this not only deepens our understanding of signaling mechanisms connecting brain to muscle, but could aid future attempts to strengthen those connections in cases of neuromuscular disease or spinal cord injury.
Shining a light on skin cancer
Detecting melanoma—the most lethal form of skin cancer—still relies on dermatologists eyeballing moles and deciding which ones warrant a biopsy. A new handheld device developed by scientists at the British Columbia Cancer Agency (BCCA) and licensed to Verisante Technology could provide instant information about the molecular makeup of moles.
1.27.2011
Being fat could save your life...that is after it causes your heart attack
Too much fat around the waist may be bad for your health, but the stem cells it contains might one day save your life. Starting this month, a new European trial aims to determine whether stem cells harvested from a person's own fat, delivered shortly after a heart attack, could prevent some of the cardiac muscle damage that results from blocked arteries.
Bomb-sniffing plants, that's right I said plants!
Picture this at an airport, perhaps in as soon as four years: A terrorist rolls through the sliding doors of a terminal with a bomb packed into his luggage (or his underwear). All of a sudden, the leafy, verdant gardenscape ringing the gates goes white as a sheet. That’s the proteins inside the plants telling authorities that they’ve picked up the chemical trace of the guy’s arsenal.
It only took a small engineering nudge to deputize a plant’s natural, evolutionary self-defense mechanisms for threat detection. “Plants can’t run and hide,” says June Medford, the biologist who’s spent the last seven years figuring out how to deputize plants for counterterrorism. “If a bug comes by, it has to respond to it. And it already has the infrastructure to respond.”
The world can be powered by alternative energy, using today’s technology, in 20-40 years (If there's still a world)
Now all we need is for politicians to stop accepting enormously large quantities of moula from oil companies and we're home free!
1.24.2011
Another reason to enjoy that morning cup of joe...no Type 2 diabetes
ScienceDaily (Jan. 15, 2011) — Coffee, that morning elixir, may give us an early jump-start to the day, but numerous studies have shown that it also may be protective against type 2 diabetes. Yet no one has really understood why.
Now, researchers at UCLA have discovered a possible molecular mechanism behind coffee's protective effect. A protein called sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) regulates the biological activity of the body's sex hormones, testosterone and estrogen, which have long been thought to play a role in the development of type 2 diabetes. And coffee consumption, it turns out, increases plasma levels of SHBG.
1.21.2011
Is 100% renewable energy realistic? Apparently so...
(PhysOrg.com) -- New research has shown that it is possible and affordable for the world to achieve 100 percent renewable energy by 2030, if there is the political will to strive for this goal.
Natural Defense: Blood vessels battling cancer cells
MIT scientists have discovered that endothelial cells, which line the blood vessels, secrete molecules that suppress tumor growth and keep cancer cells from invading other tissues, a finding that could lead to a new way to treat cancer.
One word of advice...PLASTICS
Later this year, Hewlett-Packard researchers say, they expect to deliver to the U.S. Army a working prototype of what they're calling a "Dick Tracy wristwatch" - a lightweight, wearable device that soldiers in the field can use to view digital maps and other data on a flexible plastic screen that won't shatter or crack like glass.
FLEXIBLE DISPLAYS:
-Advantages: Flexible plastic displays can be thinner, lighter and more durable than glass, which can lower manufacturing costs, increase product life and make new designs possible.
-Applications: First will likely be smart phones, tablets and notebook computers. It could eventually be used in clothing, wall displays and other products that can be curved or rolled.
-Challenges: Requires new manufacturing processes and transistor materials. Hewlett-Packard is working on a method for imprinting and etching spools of plastic film; others are working with sheets of plastic temporarily bonded to glass.
What's the 'carbon footprint' of a pair of jeans?
Companies are developing a standard measure for products' carbon emissions in hopes of simplifying decisions for consumers.
1.20.2011
Duct tapes replacement as a fix-all...UV light
A new polymer material that can repeatedly heal itself at room temperature when exposed to ultraviolet light presents the tantalizing possibility of products that can repair themselves when damaged. Possibilities include self-healing medical implants, cars, or even airplane parts.
Getting fat by going to the gym
TIME article discussing the adverse effects of exercise. Why it can lead to weight-gain instead of weight-loss.
1.12.2011
Don't swat that pesky hornet... study it!
As every middle-school child knows, in the process of photosynthesis, plants take the sun's energy and convert it to electrical energy. Now a Tel Aviv University team has demonstrated how a member of the animal kingdom, the Oriental hornet, takes the sun's energy and converts it into electric power -- in the brown and yellow parts of its body -- as well.
In the course of their research, the Tel Aviv University team also found that the yellow and brown stripes on the hornet abdomen enable a photo-voltaic effect: the brown and yellow stripes on the hornet abdomen can absorb solar radiation, and the yellow pigment transforms that into electric power.In the Sahara desert, sand + sun = solar power
The Sahara Solar Breeder Project (a joint project by universities in Algeria and Japan) aims to begin by building a silicon manufacturing plant in the desert to transform silica in the sand into silicon of sufficiently high quality for use in solar panels. Solar power plants will be constructed using the solar panels, and some of the electricity generated will supply the energy needed to build more silicon plants to produce more solar panels, to produce more electricity...
Image credit: Diginfo TV
Image credit: Diginfo TV
Sahara desert project aims to power half the world by 2050
Shh... Listen...Can you hear that? It's the sound of pain-free disease diagnosis
A new breakthrough in imaging technology using a combination of light and sound will allow health care providers to see microscopic details inside the body. Access to this level of detail potentially eliminates the need for some invasive biopsies, but it also has the potential to help health care providers make diagnoses earlier than ever before -- even before symptoms arise.
Unlike common ultrasound techniques that send in a sound wave and "listen" for the echo, PAT (photoacoustic tomography) sends in a light beam that excites and warms certain proteins, such as the hemoglobin in red blood cells. The minutely heated proteins emit a sound wave that is then detected by the ultrasound transducer.
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