WASHINGTON, D.C., August 27, 2019 -- Scientists are using nanoparticle screening on personal care products and finding previously thought toxic chemicals may not be harmful.
In a paper published in Biomicrofluidics, from AIP Publishing, researchers successfully used microchips to demonstrate titanium dioxide, a chemical found in most sunscreens, not only is nontoxic but also offers protection against ultraviolet damage to skin cells.
SINGAPORE, 27 August 2019 - Researchers led by Duke-NUS Medical School have discovered that tryptase, an enzyme in human cells that acts like scissors to cut up nearby proteins, is responsible for blood vessel leakage in severe dengue haemorrhagic fever. The finding suggests a possible new treatment strategy using the tryptase inhibitor, nafamostat mesylate, for severe dengue disease - a potentially fatal condition for which no targeted treatment is currently available.
Powerful electronic components are indispensable for future communications, for the digital transformation of society and for artificial intelligence applications. On a footprint as small as possible, they should offer low energy consumption and achieve ever higher power densities, thus working more efficiently. This is where conventional devices reach their limits. Scientists all over the world are therefore investigating new materials and components that can meet these requirements.
The research group of Nuno Maulide from the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Vienna has, in cooperation with the Research Center for Molecular Medicine (CeMM) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, achieved the synthesis of a potential immunosuppressive agent by modification of a naturally occurring compound. In this endeavour, the researchers have employed a masking trick to "hide" a reactive species inside the target molecule. The results were recently published in the renowned Journal of the American Chemical Society.
The development of a retina-on-a-chip, which combines living human cells with an artificial tissue-like system, has been described today in the open-access journal eLife.
This cutting-edge tool may provide a useful alternative to existing models for studying eye disease and allow scientists to test the effects of drugs on the retina more efficiently.
Acanthocephala are parasitic worms that reproduce in the intestines of various animals, including fish. However, only certain species of fish are suitable as hosts. A study by the University of Bonn now shows how the parasites succeed in preferably infecting these types. The results will be published in the journal Behaviour, but are already available online.
The next generation of waterproof smart fabrics will be laser printed and made in minutes. That's the future imagined by the researchers behind new e-textile technology.
Scientists from RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, have developed a cost-efficient and scaleable method for rapidly fabricating textiles that are embedded with energy storage devices.
In just three minutes, the method can produce a 10x10cm smart textile patch that's waterproof, stretchable and readily integrated with energy harvesting technologies.
A new study by McGill University astronomers has found that the temperature on the nightsides of different hot Jupiters-- planets that are similar size in to Jupiter, but orbit other stars--- is surprisingly uniform, suggesting the dark sides of these massive gaseous planets have clouds made of minerals and rocks.
Using data from the Spitzer Space and the Hubble Space telescopes, the researchers from the McGill Space Institute found that the nightside temperature of 12 hot Jupiters they studied was about 800°C.
In the context of progressing towards new targets for a post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, the debate remains on whether the emphasis should be on protected area coverage or protected area effectiveness. "It is worrying that we still know so little about how effective protected areas are, especially in relation to management inputs" says Dr. Johanna Eklund from the University of Helsinki.
DURHAM, N.C. -- Biomedical engineers at Duke University have devised a method for increasing the resolution of optical coherence tomography (OCT) down to a single micrometer in all directions, even in a living patient. The new technique, called optical coherence refraction tomography (OCRT), could improve medical images obtained in the multibillion-dollar OCT industry for medical fields ranging from cardiology to oncology.
The results appear in a paper published online on August 19 in the journal Nature Photonics.