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Category: biotech/medical – Page 1679

Are you fascinated with microbiology? Have you ever thought about how to integrate your passion for research and entrepreneurship? The field of microbiology is expanding and being significantly impacted by advancements in technology. Recently, we interviewed Zack Abbott, Ph.D., who is the co-founder of ZBiotics. Zack explained his journey from studying infectious diseases to starting his own business focused on engineering bacteria for positive results. If you’ve ever wondered how you can be on the cutting edge of life sciences research, while working for yourself, read on about Zack’s experience.

1. Can you tell us a little bit about your background before entering the microbiology field?

I did my undergrad at UC Berkeley, where I double-majored in Molecular and Cell Biology and Classical History. I did not leave college thinking I would be a microbiologist. I wasn’t actually sure what I wanted to do, and so I tried out a few different jobs. Eventually, while gaining experience as a research assistant in an HIV lab at UC Davis, I realized that I would be happy with a career in infectious disease.

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With the coronavirus raging across the world and the United States, I would to talk about one particular issue that is currently and will wreck havoc on the US: evictions due to the coronavirus and coronavirus-related unemployment.

Update: Turns out the federal government did have an eviction moratorium in the past. However, it ended a few days ago. Luckily, however, many in the government are thinking about extending the moratorium.

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Spectroscopy is the use of light to analyze physical objects and biological samples. Different kinds of light can provide different kinds of information. Vacuum ultraviolet light is useful as it can aid people in a broad range of research fields, but generation of that light has been difficult and expensive. Researchers created a new device to efficiently generate this special kind of light using an ultrathin film with nanoscale perforations.

The wavelengths of light you see with your eyes constitute a mere fraction of the possible wavelengths of light that exist. There’s infrared light which you can feel in the form of heat, or see if you happen to be a snake, that has a longer wavelength than visible light. At the opposite end is ultraviolet (UV) light which you can use to produce vitamin D in your skin, or see if you happen to be a bee. These and other forms of light have many uses in science.

Within the UV range is a subset of wavelengths known as vacuum ultraviolet light (VUV), so called because they are easily absorbed by air but can pass through a vacuum. Some VUV wavelengths in the region of around 120–200 nanometers (nm) are of particular use to scientists and medical researchers as they can be used for chemical and physical analyses of different materials and even biological samples.

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Summary: Tufts researchers have developed neurotransmitter-lipid hybrids that help transport therapeutic drugs and gene editing proteins across the blood-brain barrier in mice.

Source: Tufts University

Biomedical engineers at the Tufts University School of Engineering have developed tiny lipid-based nanoparticles that incorporate neurotranmitters to help carry drugs, large molecules, and even gene editing proteins across the blood-brain barrier and into the brain in mice. The innovation, published today in Science Advances, could overcome many of the current limitations encountered in delivering therapeutics into the central nervous system, and opens up the possibility of using a wide range of therapeutics that would otherwise not have access to the brain.

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Ready for the latest recommended weekly reads in the world of stem cells and the regenerative medicine space including a bunch of important new FDA posts & changes?

This post has quite a lot on the FDA since it had a very big week with several new items of major importance to the cellular and regenerative medicine arena. I’ve linked to each announcement below with the agency’s title of the announcements. Underneath I provide some analysis and ask questions.

I’ve also included some other stem cell news and exciting papers too as usual, which I’ll start with here.

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People often talk about sugar intake and health 🤔

Researchers have successfully increased cancer cells’ sensitivity to chemotherapy to prevent glucose from entering the cancer cell.

Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have successfully increased cancer cells’ sensitivity to chemotherapy by preventing sugar uptake. Their study, “Targeting Glut1 In Acute Myeloid Leukemia To Overcome Cytarabine Resistance,” is published in Haematologica.

It is true that sugar feeds every cell in our body, even cancer cells. Researchers have long wondered if it would be possible to prevent glucose from entering the cancer cell and in that way increase the effect of chemotherapy.

Continue reading “Reducing Sugar Uptake Increased Cancer Cells’ Sensitivity to Chemotherapy” | >

Low levels of vitamin D may put people at risk for developing COVID-19, a new study by לאומית שירותי בריאות and the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine of Bar-Ilan University.

Vitamin D has long been understood to impact immune response. According to Dr. Milana Frenkel-Morgenstern, leader of the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine research group, as much as 70% of the adult population worldwide is vitamin D insufficient or deficient.

The Leumit and Bar-Ilan scientists analyzed if the risk of developing COVID-19 or becoming hospitalized because of it increases for people who have a low level of vitamin D.

They studied 782 Israeli COVID-19-positive patients and 7,825 negative patients and determined that a low plasma vitamin D level appears to be an independent risk factor for COVID-19 infection and hospitalization.

Continue reading “Insufficient vitamin D increases risk of severe COVID-19, says new study” | >

North Korea declared a state of emergency on Sunday after one person in the country was suspected of being positive for COVID-19.

On Sunday, local time, state news agency KCNA reported North Korean leader Kim Jong Un Kim Jong UnNorth Korea declares state of emergency due to a suspected COVID-19 case Pompeo downplays chance of summit with North Korea this year Juan Williams: Trump’s silence on Russian bounties betrays America MORE convened an emergency politburo meeting after a person who defected to South Korea three years ago was “suspected to have been infected with the vicious virus.” The person is reported have returned to the North Korean border city of Kaesong, Reuters reported.

Kim declared a state of emergency and imposed a lockdown in Kaesong, reportedly calling it a “critical situation in which the vicious virus could be said to have entered the country.”

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