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DNA ‘lock and key’ allows for precision drug delivery to target cancer and other cells

DNA-based lock-and-key pore design allows for precision delivery of drugs to cancer and other cells (credit: Stefan Howorka and Jonathan Burns/UCL)

Scientists at University College London (UCL) and Nanion Technologies in Munich have developed synthetic DNA-based pores that control which molecules can pass through a cell’s wall, achieving more precise drug delivery.

Therapeutics, including anti-cancer drugs, are ferried around the body in nanoscale carriers called vesicles, targeted to different tissues using biological markers. The new DNA-based pore design is intended to improve that process.

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Could this common painkiller become a future cancer-killer?

Cancer cells (credit: iStock)

Diclofenac, a common painkiller, has significant anti-cancer properties, researchers from the Repurposing Drugs in Oncology (ReDO) project have found.

ReDO, an international collaboration between the Belgium-based Anticancer Fund and the U.S.- based GlobalCures, has published their investigation into diclofenac in the open-access journal ecancermedicalscience.

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There’s Something Enormous Buried Beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet

Every week, we’re bombarded with images of dazzling terrains on Mars and Pluto, but there are still geologic wonders to be discovered right here on Earth. Case in point: a new study suggests there could be a canyon system more than twice as long as the Grand Canyon buried beneath an ice sheet in Antarctica. If confirmed, the frozen chasm would be the world’s longest by a wide margin.

Faint traces of a ravine system stretching across the remote Princess Elizabeth Land in East Antarctica were first spotted by satellite images. A team of geologists then used radio-echo sounding, wherein radio waves are sent through the ice to map the shape of the rock beneath it. The results of this analysis, published recently in the journal Geology, reveal a chain of winding features over 600 miles long and half a mile deep buried beneath miles of ice.

According to the researchers, the scarred landscape was probably carved out by liquid water long before the ice sheet grew. Satellite images also suggest that the canyon might be connected to a previously undiscovered subglacial lake, one that could cover up to 480 square miles.

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Lessons from CES: How VR Can Avoid the Fate of 3D TV — By Stephen Cass | IEEE Spectrum

““Your quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little and it will fail, to the ruin of all.” So says Galadrial to the fellowship sent to destroy the One Ring in The Lord of the Rings. But that advice might as well be directed to the burgeoning virtual reality industry. Early optimism that the second coming of VR, after a false start in the 1990s, will blossom into a new mainstream medium could collapse into despair, with the technology joining 3D television as another misfire.”

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Medgadget @ CES 2016: Samsung Shows Off S-Patch Wearable Featuring Its Bio-Processor Chip (VIDEO)

S-PatchA couple weeks ago Samsung affirmed its ongoing commitment to the digital health space with the release of the Bio-Processor. The Bio-Processor is a single, compact chip that is capable of measuring PPG, ECG, skin temperature, GSR, and body fat. While it’s already in mass production and anticipated to be found in devices soon, Samsung took some time during its CES press event to demonstrate the Bio-Processor’s power in a prototype device called the S-Patch.

Not a lot was said about the S-Patch, but it’s a reference platform and won’t enter production. Because the Bio-Processor is built into the S-Patch, both data collection, storage, and processing takes place on the device itself. The brief demo also showed the S-Patch wirelessly transmitting real-time data (we assume via Bluetooth) to a mobile device.

Take a look below at an excerpt from Samsung’s CES press event showing the S-Patch in action:

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Architecture’s Biggest Prize Was Just Awarded to Someone You’ve Probably Never Heard Of — By Paul Goldberger | Vanity Fair

“While Aravena, who is from Chile, is relatively unknown in the United States (although he taught for five years at Harvard and served for a period on the Pritzker jury), for at least the last decade he has been establishing himself on the international architecture scene as a serious and unusual practitioner who straddles, subtly but brilliantly, the worlds of formal high design and social responsibility. He has plenty of credibility as a serious designer—he was recently named curator of the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale—but his own mode of architectural practice is what sets him apart. Aravena runs Elemental, which bills itself as a “do tank”—not a think tank—and which creates “projects of public interest and social impact, including housing, public space, infrastructure and transportation.””

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Swallowing this smart nano pill could stop us from making diet mistakes

It’s not always talked about in polite company, but your body produces a lot of gases scientists know little about.

A new smart pill, designed at Melbourne’s RMIT University, could help us learn more and may eventually assist in customising what we eat to suit our bodies.

Researchers from the Centre for Advanced Electronics and Sensors have developed the pill, which can measure intestinal gases, and they have now undertaken the first animal tests using the technology to examine the impact of fibre on the gut.

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