Almost $US80 million earmarked for human embryonic stem cell research in the US is on its way to the intended recipients after a federal appeals court suspended an earlier injunction placed on US federal funding for the controversial work until Monday next week. [ + ]

A new photoacoustic infrared spectroscopy technique may help restorers identify decades-old pigments.

The largest ever Australian study looking into the genetic causes of asthma is about to get under way. [ + ]

Research Australia will next month to unveil a major new policy framework which it hopes will lead to more investment and greater collaboration around medical research in Australia. [ + ]

Aged health specialist Broadvector has issued a prospectus as it seeks to raise around $8.5 million to fund the development of a novel prostate cancer therapy in addition to a treatment addressing the problem of ascpetic loosening of hip replacements. [ + ]

Transfection methods are widely used to study miscellaneous aspects of cell biology.

Bone is a rigid, yet dynamic organ that is continuously molded, shaped, and repaired. Old bone is degraded by osteoclasts and replaced with new bone by osteoblasts, a process called remodeling or bone turnover.

In this paper, we present three application examples demonstrating the utility of the StellARray Gene Expression System to reveal gene expression level changes in diverse biological contexts such as toxicology, cancer, and stem cell differentiation.

Reprogramming of somatic cells to pluripotent iPS (induced pluripotent stem) cells promises to revolutionize regenerative medicine.

A new report from the European Science Foundation examines the key scientific questions for human stem cell research in the context of the rapidly emerging field of regenerative medicine. It explores the current ethical concerns, particularly with clinical application, and analyses how the legislative landscape has altered in Europe within the previous six years.

This premier international scientific meeting brings together the 12th IUBMB Conference, the 21st FAOBMB Conference and the ComBio2010 meeting. A unique blend of participating societies will be of major interest to biochemists, molecular biologists, cell and developmental biologists, and plant scientists.

A cooperative online game that puts volunteer ‘gamers’ to work folding proteins has attracted 50,000 players whose ‘distributed thinking’ has, in some cases, proven more powerful than computers in predicting the three-dimensional structure of proteins.

A doctoral student at the research centre Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (FZD) suggests interpreting the images generated by Kelvin probe force microscopy in a new way. She recently published her insights in the journal ‘Physical Review B’.

Monitoring and controlling the amount of organic matter in our streams and waterways is critical for environmental protection. Total organic carbon (TOC) is the amount of carbon present in an organic compound and measuring it provides a fast and convenient way to determine water quality. This article looks at the different methods now available for analysing TOC.

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is an emerging technique in the bio and life-science markets. It offers a new generation of label-free biomolecular analyses, providing information on kinetic processes (association and dissociation), binding affinity, analyte concentration and real-time molecule detection. It has become a powerful tool for the analysis of biomolecular events involved in drug development, cancer research, antibody screening and more.