Category Health/Medical

In the periplasm — the space between the inner and outer membranes of a bacteria’s cell wall — defensive proteins that detect a poison assemble like barrel staves to form a tunnel between pumps in the cell’s inner and outer membranes to eject the intruders. Artist’s conception by Ace George Santiago. Credit: Ace George Santiago, Cornell University

By tagging a cell’s proteins with fluorescent beacons, Cornell researchers have found out how E. coli bacteria defend themselves against antibiotics and other poisons. When undesirable molecules show up, the bacterial cell opens a tunnel though its cell wall and “effluxes,” or pumps out, the intruders. “Dynamic assembly of these tunnels has long been hypothesized,” said Peng Chen, professor of chemistry and chemical biology. “Now we see them.”

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Photo: An artists’ rendition of microparticles flowing through a channel and passing through electric fields, where they are detected electronically and barcode-scanned. Ella Marushchenko and Alexander Tokarev/Ella Maru Studios

Rutgers researchers invent technology that could lead to wearable biosensors. Imagine wearing a device that continuously analyzes your sweat or blood for different types of biomarkers, such as proteins that show you may have breast cancer or lung cancer, exposure to dangerous bacteria, viruses and pollutants.

“This is really important in the context of personalized medicine or personalized health monitoring,” said Mehdi Javanmard, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rutgers University-New Brunswick...

Vitamin C and Doxycycline combination therapy for fighting Cancer

Cancer stem cells, which fuel the growth of fatal tumours, can be knocked out by a one-two combination of antibiotics and Vitamin C in a new experimental strategy, published by researchers at the University of Salford, UK. The antibiotic, Doxycycline, followed by doses of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C), were surprisingly effective in killing the cancer stem cells under laboratory conditions, according to the research published in the journal Oncotarget.

The researchers say their method offers a new explanation for how to prevent cancer cells from becoming treatment-resistant and how combinations therapies can be developed to overcome drug resistance. Prof...

Direct 3D cell-printing of human skin with functional transwell system. Biofabrication, 2017; 9 (2): 025034 DOI: 10.1088/1758-5090/aa71c8

Scientists in South Korea have come up with a new method for 3D printing human skin, which both shortens the process and reduces the cost. Reporting their results today in the journal Biofabrication, the team from Pohang University of Science and Technology demonstrate a new 3D cell printing strategy, for engineering a 3D human skin model in a single step process...