Category Biology/Biotechnology

Drug therapy may effectively treat a potentially life-threatening condition associated with cirrhosis and other chronic liver diseases, according to a new study by Mayo Clinic researchers. The study was posted in March on Gastroenterology, the online journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. Print publication is scheduled for July.

While therapies have been available to treat some forms of liver disease, including hepatitis C and autoimmune hepatitis, options have been more limited for treating portal hypertension, a condition where th...

Does sugar directly feed cancers, boosting their growth? The answer seems to be ‘Yes’ at least in mice according to a study led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and Weill Cornell Medicine. Their study, published in Science, showed that consuming a daily modest amount of high-fructose corn syrup – the equivalent of people drinking about 12 ounces of a sugar-sweetened beverage daily – accelerates the growth of intestinal tumors in mouse models of the disease, independently of obesity. The team also discovered the mechanism by which the consumption of sugary drinks can directly feed cancer growth, suggesting potential novel therapeutic strategies.

“An increasing number of observational studies have raised awareness ...

Using a new type of dual polymer material capable of responding dynamically to its environment, Brown University researchers have developed a set of modular hydrogel components that could be useful in a variety of “soft robotic” and biomedical applications.

The components, which are patterned by a 3D printer, are capable of bending, twisting or sticking together in response to treatment with certain chemicals. For a paper published in the journal Polymer Chemistry, the researchers demonstrated a soft gripper capable of actuating on demand to pick up small objects...

Computer design meets potions class: A little of vial 1 and a little of vial 2 yield six-bit computations encoded in DNA. Computer scientists at Caltech have designed DNA molecules that can carry out reprogrammable computations, for the first time creating so-called algorithmic self-assembly in which the same “hardware” can be configured to run different “software.”

In a paper published in Nature on Feb XX, a team headed by Caltech’s Erik Winfree (PhD ’98), professor of computer science, computation and neural systems, and bioengineering, showed how the DNA computations could execute six-bit algorithms that perform simple tasks...