Life Sciences and Chemistry

Ames Laboratory researcher’s microscale channels steer neurons to rewire damaged nerves

Using microscale channels cut in an ultrathin biodegradable polymer, a researcher at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory is working to regrow nerve cells. The technique, which may one day allow the paralyzed to walk and the blind to see, has been proven to work for peripheral nerve regeneration in laboratory rats.

Nerve cells are unlike most other biological tissue. When a

The number of circulating endothelial progenitor cells in an individual’s blood –– the precursor cells to those that line the insides of blood vessels –– may be an indicator of overall cardiovascular health, according to research by scientists at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and Emory University School of Medicine. The research was published in the Feb. 13 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The endothelial cells lining the blood vessels provide essen

Answer one of natural history’s most intractable questions

All of Madagascar’s living Carnivora (an order of mammals that includes dogs, cats, bears, hyenas and their relatives) descended from a single species that dispersed from Africa to Madagascar, apparently floating across the ocean barrier aboard wayward vegetation about 24 million to 18 million years ago. Previously, scientists believed that Madagascar’s seven living species of native Carnivora represented two to four

A gene discovered by Temple University researchers a decade ago has proved to be multi-functional, with the discovery of its important roles in cell differentiation, HIV transcription, and tumorigenesis.

Cdk9 (cyclin-dependent kinases) and cdk10 were originally isolated by Antonio Giordano, M.D., Ph.D., then a researcher in Temple’s Fels Cancer Institute, and his team in 1992. They are members of a family of kinases originally referred to as a PITALRE, which is the name of the amino aci

Researchers in Oxford University’s Department of Inorganic Chemistry have devised a novel method for separating polar organic compounds, providing a useful alternative to the usual methods of chromatography or crystallisation.

The separation of mixtures of organic and inorganic compounds is of considerable importance in most areas of industrial and academic chemistry. In particular, isomeric mixtures are often difficult to separate and can require highly specialised techniques.

Con

Researchers in Oxford University’s Department of Inorganic Chemistry have devised a method for the selective separation and recovery of nucleoside phosphates from complex reaction mixtures using Layered Double Hydroxide (LDH) materials.

Nucleoside phosphates are used extensively in industry as intermediates or additives in nutraceutical and pharmaceutical preparation, as well as in medical and separation science. In particular many new antiviral agents are based on nucleosides. Supplying the