Industry News
No Australian indicator for West Nile virus
Scientists at CSIRO’s Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL) in Geelong, Victoria, have found that birds are unlikely to be used as part of an ‘early warning’ system for the deadly West Nile virus in Australia.
[ + ]Invitrogen acquires CellzDirect
Invitrogen, a provider of life science technologies for research, production and diagnostics, has announced a definitive agreement to purchase privately held American company CellzDirect for around $57 million.
[ + ]Evolution of the sexes, fungus-style
Fungi don't exactly come in boy and girl varieties, but they do have sex differences. [ + ]
A new direction for gas spectroscopy
Physicists at NIST-Boulder have carried out a powerful new spectroscopic study of a gas sample using optical frequency combs.
[ + ]Database for drug addiction
Chinese scientists have developed an online molecular database of 1500 human genes linked to drug addiction. [ + ]
Protons power the unmentionable
US scientists say protons act like neurotransmitters in nematode toilet behaviour. [ + ]
Respiratory test identifies 12 viruses at once
The US Food and Drug Administration has authorised the marketing of a test that simultaneously detects and identifies 12 specific respiratory viruses from a single throat swab.
[ + ]Raman spectrometric data cleansing
Thermo Fisher Scientific has been awarded a US Patent on Spectrometric Data Cleansing. This patent describes a method for filtering artefacts from Raman spectra and is of particular use in removing the distorted data points generated by cosmic ray interference. Elimination of spectral artefacts facilitates automated analysis by such methods as reference library searches and correlation with standard spectra.
[ + ]Computational quantum chemical methods for drug development
Natural-products chemists may be able to decrease the amount of time it takes for the development of certain types of medicinal drugs.
[ + ]Detecting sudden death in soybeans
A simple, cheap laboratory test developed at Southern Illinois University Carbondale can unerringly detect Sudden Death Syndrome, a costly fungal disease, in soybean seedlings. Once commercialised, its use will help breeders produce SDS-resistant soybean varieties much faster than they can now.
[ + ]Functional proteins from potatoes
Developer of customised industrial-scale separation services Upfront Chromatography has announced that commercial production of highly functional proteins from the side stream of potato processing has been enabled using its Rhobust processing platform. The Rhobust adsorbent is a key component of Solanic’s industrial processing plant, which was officially opened in December 2007 in Gasselternijveen, Netherlands. Solanic is the protein business unit of the potato starch giant AVEBE.
[ + ]Researchers create metal memory foam
In the world of commercial materials, lighter and cheaper is usually better — especially when those attributes are coupled with superior strength and special properties, such as a recently developed material's ability to remember its original shape after it has been deformed by a physical or magnetic force.
[ + ]The key to impeding drug resistance in bacteria
Researchers have solved the structure of a DNA-protein complex that is crucial in the spread of antibiotic resistance among bacteria, providing insights into how cells successfully divide into two new cells with intact DNA.
[ + ]Gillespie joins Prince Henry's
Matt Gillespie is the new director of Melbourne's Prince Henry's Institute. [ + ]
First look at an enzyme target for cancer treatment
US scientists have modelled an enzyme critical to the process of DNA transcription and replication which could be a prime target for antibacterial and anticancer drugs.
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