Category Archives: Life Science

Discoveries by Accident

‘Failed’ experiment produces a bacterial Trojan horse by Katie Weber. Interestingly the usefulness of Penicillin, the most popular bacteria fighting agent, was discovered by accident (and then a smart scientist learning from the accident and applying that knowledge to creating an incredibly useful medication).

As he was puzzling out why what should have been a routine procedure wouldn’t work, he made a discovery that led to the creation of a new biological tool for destroying bacterial pathogens – one that doesn’t appear to trigger antibiotic resistance.

The discovery also led to the startup of a promising new biotechnology firm that has already brought Wisconsin a dozen new, high-paying, highly skilled jobs.

This is yet another example of the power of scientists and engineers to boost the economy and society at large.

2006 Nikon Small World Photos

photo of Transgenic Nicotiana benthamiana plant

Photos (left, Transgenic Nicotiana benthamiana plant. right, Diatom – unicellular algae) from the from the 2006 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition. The deadline for next year is April 30, 2007.

50 New Species Found in Indonesia Reefs

Photo of walking shark

“Walking” Sharks Among 50 New Species Found in Indonesia Reefs

The sharks are about 3 to 4 feet (1 to 1.2 meters) long and walk along the shallow reef flats on their fins, preying on shrimp, crabs, snails, and small fish.

“If they get spooked they can swim away, but the thing that stands out is their walking over the bottom,” Troeng said.

The photo is of one of two species of walking sharks found. See video of the sharks and of more of the species found in Indonesia.

Artificial Corneas

Closer to fooling the eye

Transplanting human corneas from cadavers can restore someone’s vision. But because of a tissue shortage, only 100,000 corneal transplants are performed worldwide annually — serving just 1% of the 10 million people who are stricken with corneal blindness.
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Bioengineers are making significant progress. They predict that within a few years we could have cornea substitutes that slip over the surface of the eye as easily as contact lenses and mesh neatly with surrounding tissue to form a protective barrier against the outside elements.

Nanoparticles to Aid Brain Imaging

Nanoparticles to aid brain imaging, team reports by Cathryn M. Delude

If you want to see precisely what the 10 billion neurons in a person’s brain are doing, a good way to start is to track calcium as it flows into neurons when they fire.
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So Jasanoff designed the new sensor to incorporate so-called “superparamagnetic nanoparticles”–extra-strength molecular-sized magnets previously designed for ultrasensitive tumor imaging. They produce large MRI contrast changes capable of producing very high-resolution images.

Hypoallergenic Cats

Kittens

Some people are kept from owning wonderful cats due to allergies. Now, ‘Hypoallergenic cats’ go on sale. Some cats naturally do not have the normal allergen. By testing large numbers of cats and then breeding those that are free from the allergen cats that do not lead to allergic reactions are now available. Still not cheap, though.

Blog posts from September 2005

Protein Knots

graphic of human ubiquitin hydrolase

Knotty problem puzzles protein researchers by Anne Trafton:

Knots are rare in proteins–less than 1 percent of all proteins have any knots, and most are fairly simple. The researchers analyzed 32,853 proteins, using a computational technique never before applied to proteins at this scale.

Of those that had knots, all were enzymes. Most had a simple three-crossing, or trefoil knot, a few had four crossings, and the most complicated, a five-crossing knot, was initially found in only one protein–ubiquitin hydrolase.

That complex knot may hold some protective value for ubiquitin hydrolase, whose function is to rescue other proteins from being destroyed–a dangerous job.

Photo: MIT researchers recently found that human ubiquitin hydrolase, shown here, has the most complicated knot ever observed in a protein. The simplified diagram, inset, shows the knot in the protein, which crosses itself five times. Larger image.

Vitamin D Reduces Cancer Risk?

Vitamin D ‘slashes cancer risk’, BBC News:

US scientists found taking the tablets cut the risk of a disease, which has a poor prognosis in almost half of cases.
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pancreas tissue – both normal and cancerous – has been found to contain high levels of an enzyme that converts vitamin D into its active form.
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Taking the US Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of vitamin D (400 IU/day) was found to reduce the risk of pancreatic cancer by 43%.

They said further work was necessary to determine if consuming vitamin D in the diet, or through sun exposure might have even more of an effect than taking supplements.

Do you ever wonder that we don’t seem to get rid of cancer yet we have lots of stories about cures (or methods to reduce risk…). Read: Another Paper Questions Scientific Paper Accuracy which includes links to: “Why Medical Studies Are Often Wrong” and “Contradicted and Initially Stronger Effects in Highly Cited Clinical Research.” Just a reminder that you can’t rely on headlines (the truth is usually much less clear). Plus, of course, the difficulty of turning research findings into practical solutions means there are often long delays before widespread results can be enjoyed by society.

Engineering Delivery Systems to the Brain

Engineering a ‘Trojan horse’ to sneak drugs into the brain by Terry Devitt:

Using engineered yeast as microscopic factories to produce human antibodies customized to recognize the surface features of cells that compose the blood-brain barrier, Shusta has developed a set of unique antibodies that may one day be used to ferry drugs to specified regions of the brain.
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With roughly 400 miles of blood vessels, the human brain is equipped with its own expansive delivery network for therapy – provided scientists are able to figure out a way to get past the blood-brain barrier. With different cell surface features in different parts of the circulatory system and also in different regions of the brain, it might be possible to customize antibodies to carry drugs to only those parts of the brain that would benefit from treatment.

MIT’s molecular sieve advances protein research

Separating proteins from complex biological fluids such as blood is becoming increasingly important for understanding diseases and developing new treatments. The molecular sieve developed by MIT engineers is more precise than conventional methods and has the potential to be much faster.
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The key to the molecular sieve, which is made using microfabrication technology, is the uniform size of the nanopores through which proteins are separated from biological fluids. Millions of pores can be spread across a microchip the size of a thumbnail.
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Juhwan Yoo, a Caltech undergraduate, also participated in the research as a summer visiting student. Funding came from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the Singapore-MIT Alliance.