News and applications for life science research professionals
The Lead
Crowd-Sourcing the Clones: A New Kind of Peer Review?
May 24, 2013 | by Cynthia Fox | Articles | Comments
In recent weeks, editors of PubPeer were getting only about 400 unique visits a day to their post-publication peer-review website. “Now we are getting that kind of traffic every 15 minutes,” says a PubPeer editor. This astronomical leap began on May 22, when scientists posting anonymously on the site tweeted their identification of errors—figure replications—in a recent globally hailed Cell paper.
Smartphones Become Handheld Biosensors
May 24, 2013 9:43 am | News | Comments
Researchers and physicians in the field could soon run on-the-spot tests for environmental...
Cancer May be Prevented Before it Develops
May 24, 2013 9:34 am | News | Comments
Scientists have uncovered a survival mechanism that occurs in breast cells that have just turned...
Scientists Announce Top 10 New Species
May 24, 2013 9:11 am | News | Comments
An amazing glow-in-the-dark cockroach, a harp-shaped carnivorous sponge and the smallest...
Huntington's Symptoms Prevented in Mice
May 24, 2013 10:57 am | News | CommentsResearchers have succeeded in preventing very early symptoms of Huntington’s disease, depression and anxiety, by deactivating the mutated huntingtin protein in the brains of mice. Huntington’s is a debilitating disease for which there is still neither cure nor sufficient treatment.
Determining the Fate of Living Cells
May 24, 2013 10:44 am | News | CommentsA newly developed tension gauge tether (TGT) laboratory method has broad applications for research into stem cells, cancer, infectious disease and immunology. Cells in the human body do not function in isolation. Living cells rely on communication with their environment—neighboring cells and the surrounding matrix—to activate a wide range of cellular functions.
Informatics Roundup
May 24, 2013 10:10 am | Product Releases | CommentsEvery experiment generates data. What happens with that data can become a huge consideration and dominate any research project. As the following tools show, Informatics software can help researchers capture, mine, and share this data.
Secret Neuron Rewiring Exposed
May 24, 2013 10:08 am | News | CommentsAs the human body fine-tunes its neurological wiring, nerve cells often must fix a faulty connection by amputating an axon— the “business end” of the neuron that sends electrical impulses to tissues or other neurons. It is a dance with death, however, because the molecular poison the neuron deploys to sever an axon could, if uncontained, kill the entire cell.
Study: No higher cancer rate at Conn. Pratt plants
May 23, 2013 11:12 pm | by STEPHEN SINGER - AP Business Writer - Associated Press | News | CommentsAn 11-year study of the incidence of brain cancer at jet engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney in the state ended Thursday with university researchers saying they found no statistically significant elevations in the rate of cancer among workers. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and...
Study: No higher cancer rate at Conn. Pratt plant
May 23, 2013 7:39 pm | by STEPHEN SINGER - AP Business Writer - Associated Press | News | CommentsAn 11-year study of the incidence of brain cancer at jet engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney in the state ended Thursday with university researchers saying they found no statistically significant elevations in the rate of cancer among workers. The researchers at the University of Pittsburgh...
Alabama mystery illness solved: it's common flu
May 23, 2013 5:34 pm | by KATHY WINGARD - Associated Press - Associated Press | News | CommentsHealth officials investigating a cluster of mysterious illnesses in Alabama closed their investigation Thursday after determining the illnesses were unrelated and no new bacteria or viruses were involved. The investigation involved 10 people who became sick and were admitted to hospitals in...
Merck ends development of Parkinson's disease drug
May 23, 2013 5:31 pm | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsWHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J. (AP) — Merck & Co. says it is ending development of an experimental Parkinson's disease drug because the drug wasn't working. Merck says it reviewed initial data from three late-stage clinical trials and did not find evidence preladenant was more effective than a...
Omeros prepares for two studies of OMS824
May 23, 2013 2:21 pm | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsOmeros Corp. said Thursday it will start two midstage clinical trials of its drug OMS824 later this year, giving its stock a boost. The company said it will begin testing the drug as a treatment for the neurologic disorder Huntington's disease during the third quarter and will start a trial...
Miniaturized Piezo-Motor Driven Nanopositioning Stage
May 23, 2013 2:06 pm | Product Releases | CommentsPhysik Instrumente (PI) recently introduced LPS-24 series of miniaturized, piezo-motor-driven linear positioners are less than one inch wide and provide 15 mm travel range with closed-loop sensor resolution up to 2 nanometers. The small dimensions make these new positioners anideal choice for high precision motion in confined spaces.
WHO: 22 deaths worldwide from coronavirus
May 23, 2013 1:37 pm | by JOHN HEILPRIN - Associated Press - Associated Press | News | CommentsWorld Health Organization officials said Thursday that their probe into the deadly new coronavirus that has now claimed 22 lives is being delayed because of a dispute over the ownership rights to a sample — a claim disputed by the researcher at the center of the issue. Dr. Keiji Fukuda, WHO's...
Microplate Catalog
May 23, 2013 1:26 pm | Product Releases | CommentsPorvair Sciences announced the first North American edition* of its ‘Catalog of Microplates and Microplate Equipment’. This new 2013 edition brings together information on Porvair Sciences microplate and microplate equipment product range that is available and supported by local agents through the USA and Canada.
Shuttered NM plant resumes making peanut butter
May 23, 2013 1:07 pm | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsThe eastern New Mexico peanut butter plant shuttered eight months ago after a salmonella outbreak is making nut butter again. Sunland Inc. Vice President Katalin Coburn tells the Portales News-Tribune (http://bit.ly/10OJvDX ) the company's products could be back on store shelves within a month. ...
Lymphoid Cells Control T-cell Response to Bacteria
May 23, 2013 11:47 am | News | CommentsThe human gut is loaded with commensal bacteria– “good” microbes that, among other functions, help the body digest food. The gastrointestinal tract contains literally trillions of such cells, and yet the immune system seemingly turns a blind eye.
Protein Fusion May Yield Universal Influenza Vaccination
May 23, 2013 11:47 am | News | CommentsA new approach for immunizing against influenza elicited a more potent immune response and broader protection than the currently licensed seasonal influenza vaccines when tested in mice and ferrets. The vaccine concept represents an important step forward in the quest to develop a universal influenza vaccine.
