Bioengineering News (45 articles)

New technique can analyze larvae in seconds.CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — One of the most commonly studied laboratory animals is the zebrafish — a tiny fish with transparent embryos, or larvae, whose internal organs can be easily seen as they develop.Because they are genetically similar to humans and...

Published on 18 July 2010, 15:00

Categories: Zebrafish Zebrafish larvae Larvae Electrical engineering Screening Bioengineering

BOSTON, Mass.—By emulating nature’s design principles, a team at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has created nanodevices made of DNA that self-assemble and can be programmed to move and change shape...

Published on 22 June 2010, 14:41

Categories: Nanodevices DNA BIoengineering Nanotechnology Tensegrity

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Our DNA is under constant siege from a variety of damaging agents. Damage to DNA and the ability of cells to repair that damage has broad health implications, from aging and heritable diseases to cancer. Unfortunately, the tools used to study DNA damage are quite limited, but...

Published on 3 May 2010, 15:16

Categories: DNA Damage DNA Comet assay Bioengineering Biotechnology

PHILADELPHIA – A team of cardiologists, materials scientists, and bioengineers have created and tested a new type of implantable device for measuring the heart’s electrical output that they say is a vast improvement over current devices. The new device represents the first use of flexible...

Published on 25 March 2010, 09:18

Categories: Bioengineering Implantable devices Heart Electrical Activity Medical application Silicon Heart rhythms

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — MIT neuroscientists have designed a new MRI sensor that responds to the neurotransmitter dopamine, an achievement that may significantly improve the specificity and resolution of future brain imaging procedures. Although functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has...

Published on 28 February 2010, 17:03

Categories: Bioengineering Neuroscience MRI Sensors Sensors Dopamine MRI

Preliminary Study Raises the Possibility of a Drug That Would Protect Patients Against Many Side Effects of Chemotherapy.The researchers who proposed limited fasting as a protective strategy against chemotherapy now say that drugs currently in development may be able to do the job without the...

Published on 10 February 2010, 08:09

Categories: Chemotherapy Drugs Bioengineering IGF-I Insulin-like growth factor-I Pharmacology

BERKELEY — Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have created smart nanoprobes that may one day be used in the battle against cancer to selectively seek out and destroy tumor cells, as well as report back on the mission's status.A small number of research teams around the...

Published on 30 January 2010, 06:25

Categories: Bioengineering Biosensors Cancer-Targeting Nanoprobe Sensors Nanoscience

In a newly published clinical trial, patients with metastatic prostate cancer who received a vaccine of harmless poxviruses engineered to spur an immune system attack on prostate tumor cells lived substantially longer than patients who received a placebo vaccine, report researchers at Dana-Farber...

Published on 25 January 2010, 15:48

Categories: Bioengineering Immune System Poxviruses Prostate Cancer PROSTVAC-VF vaccine PSA Vaccines

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Researchers at MIT and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals report this week that they have successfully used RNA interference to turn off multiple genes in the livers of mice, an advance that could lead to new treatments for diseases of the liver and other organs.Since the 1998 discovery...

Published on 29 December 2009, 08:16

Categories: Bioengineering C12-200 Gene Silencing Lipidoids Liver RNA RNA interference siRNA

Novel approach to modify cell walls could make plants easier to digest, convert to fuel.UPTON, NY — Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have created a new enzyme and demonstrated its potential ability to interfere with the production of lignin, a...

Published on 21 December 2009, 08:51

Categories: Bioengineering Biofuel Production Enzyme Engineering Enzymes Lignin Plant Biology Plants

Shell of single-protein capsule degrades or remains intact based on environment.Protein therapy — the delivery of healthy proteins directly into human cells to replace malfunctioning proteins — is considered one of the most direct and safe approaches for treating diseases. But its...

Published on 18 December 2009, 06:31

Categories: Protein therapy Proteins Nanotechnology Bioengineering Nanocapsules pH

UCSF scientists have shown for the first time that the rigidity of a tissue can induce cancer. The research team identified an enzyme that is crucial for regulating tissue stiffness and demonstrated that the enzyme can turn abnormal but non-malignant breast tissue into tumors, according to a...

Published on 21 November 2009, 04:37

Categories: Tissue Enzymes Tumors LOX Lysyl Oxidase Bioengineering Cancer Collagen

Researchers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have for the first time successfully reconstituted in the laboratory the enzyme responsible for producing the blockbuster cholesterol-lowering drug lovastatin. The research, published Oct. 23 in the journal...

Published on 3 November 2009, 15:30

Categories: Bioengineering Cholesterol Enzymes Lovastatin Polyketide Synthases Polyketides

BOSTON -- Scientists who study RNA have faced a formidable roadblock: trying to examine RNA’s movements in a living cell when they can’t see the RNA. Now, a new technology has given scientists the first look ever at RNA in a live bacteria cell—a sight that could offer new information about...

Published on 22 October 2009, 11:37

Categories: Bacteria Bacterial cells Bioengineering Proteins RNA

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Applying a small mechanical force to embryonic stem cells could be a new way of coaxing them into a specific direction of differentiation, researchers at the University of Illinois report. Applications for force-directed cell differentiation include therapeutic cloning and...

Published on 19 October 2009, 13:53

Categories: Bioengineering Cellular differentiation Embryonic Stem Cells Mechanical forces

A combination of bioengineering and medical research at the University of California, San Diego has led to a new discovery that could pave the way for more effective treatments for liver disease.In this work, the researchers have utilized an array system that can identify the biological...

Published on 12 October 2009, 17:16

Categories: Bioengineering Liver diseases Liver Hepatic stellate cells HSCs

New gene therapy technique could fight late-stage tumors.Tiny particles carrying a killer gene can effectively suppress ovarian tumor growth in mice, according to a team of researchers from MIT and the Lankenau Institute.The findings could lead to a new treatment for ovarian cancer, which now...

Published on 30 July 2009, 10:06

Categories: Bioengineering Corynebacterium diphtheriae Diphtheria toxin Nanoparticles Ovarian Cancer Polymers

Research Team at WPI and CellThera Discovers a Way toTurn on Stem Cell Genes in Human Skin Cells Without Using Viruses or Inserting New Genes. WORCESTER, Mass. – A research team comprised of faculty at Worcester Polytechnic Institute's (WPI) Life Sciences and Bioengineering Center...

Published on 29 July 2009, 11:56

Categories: Bioengineering Human fibroblasts Skin Cells Stem cell genes Stem Cells Viruses

New iPS therapy pioneered for heart attacks.ROCHESTER, Minn. — In a proof-of-concept study, Mayo Clinic investigators have demonstrated that induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells can be used to treat heart disease. iPS cells are stem cells converted from adult cells. In this study, the...

Published on 21 July 2009, 13:20

Categories: Bioengineering Fibroblasts Heart diseases Induced pluripotent stem iPS cells Stem Cells

IBN’s Minute Antibacterial Particles Destroy Drug-Resistant Germs. Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN), Singapore - Doctors may get a new arsenal for meningitis treatment and the war on drug-resistant bacteria and fungal infections with IBN’s novel peptide...

Published on 29 June 2009, 03:06

Categories: Antimicrobial agent Bioengineering Brain Infections Nanotechnology Peptide nanoparticles Superbugs