Category Biology/Biotechnology

New ‘Liquid Biopsy’ Blood Test improves Breast Cancer Diagnostics

ctDNA analysis in patients with early and locally advanced breast cancer before treatment and after completion of NAT.

Test could help avoid unnecessary surgeries; enable physicians to continuously monitor cancer. A new type of blood test for breast cancer could help avoid thousands of unnecessary surgeries and otherwise precisely monitor disease progression, according to a study led by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and Mayo Clinic in Arizona.

TGen is an affiliate of City of Hope, which along with The Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute at Cambridge University and the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University (ASU) also contributed to this study.

Published today in the premier journal Science Translational Medicine, the study suggests that the te...

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This Designer Clothing Lets Users turn on Electronics while Turning Away Bacteria

fabric innovation
Purdue waterproof, breathable and antibacterial self-powered clothing is based on omniphobic triboelectric nanogenerators. 

New rainproof, stainproof technology turns clothing into self-powered remotes. Purdue University researchers have developed a new fabric innovation that allows wearers to control electronic devices through clothing.

“It is the first time there is a technique capable to transform any existing cloth item or textile into a self-powered e-textile containing sensors, music players or simple illumination displays using simple embroidery without the need for expensive fabrication processes requiring complex steps or expensive equipment,” said Ramses Martinez, an assistant professor in the School of Industrial Engineering and in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engine...

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Why Intense Light can Protect Cardiovascular Health

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Highlights
•Intense light-mediated cardioprotection requires endothelial-specific PER2
•Intense light-elicited PER2 transcriptionally reprograms the endothelium
•Endothelial PER2 regulates respiration and barrier function during hypoxia
•Studies of humans reveal intense light activates PER2-dependent metabolism

The light boosts a critical gene that strengthens blood vessels. Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have found that intense light amplifies a specific gene that bolsters blood vessels and offers protection against heart attacks.

“We already knew that intense light can protect against heart attacks, but now we have found the mechanism behind it,” said the study’s senior author Tobias Eckle, MD, PhD, professor of anesthesiology at the University...

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Nanosecond Pulsed Electric fields activate Immune cells

figure3
Analysis of extracellular DNA by agarose gel electrophoresis. (A) Schematic representation of MNase treatment for liberation of extruded DNA from cells. MNase digests extracellular chromosomal DNA at its linker regions among nucleosomes, leading to the liberation of extracellular chromosomal DNA from their originating cells. Liberated DNA was separated from cells by brief centrifugation and in turn subjected to either DNA purification followed by agarose gel electrophoresis (B) or direct fluorometric measurement with a SYTOX Green dye (Fig. 4). (B) Analysis of MNase-treated extracellular DNA by agarose gel electrophoresis. Differentiated (D) and undifferentiated cells (U) were exposed to the indicated shot numbers of 20 kV/cm nsPEFs...
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