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    Category Health/Medical

    Helping the Retina Regenerate

    March 31, 2017, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Rods, cones and nerve layers in the retina. The front (anterior) of the eye is on the left. Light (from the left) passes through several transparent nerve layers to reach the rods and cones (far right). A chemical change in the rods and cones send a signal back to the nerves. The signal goes first to the bipolar and horizontal cells (yellow layer), then to the amacrine cells and ganglion cells (purple layer), then to the optic nerve fibres. The signals are processed in these layers. First, the signals start as raw outputs of points in the rod and cone cells. Then the nerve layers identify simple shapes, such as bright points surrounded by dark points, edges, and movement. (Based on a drawing by Ramón y Cajal.)

    Rods, cones and nerve layers in the retina. The front (anterior) of the eye is on the left. Light (from the left) passes through several transparent nerve layers to reach the rods and cones (far right). A chemical change in the rods and cones send a signal back to the nerves. The signal goes first to the bipolar and horizontal cells (yellow layer), then to the amacrine cells and ganglion cells (purple layer), then to the optic nerve fibres. The signals are processed in these layers. First, the signals start as raw outputs of points in the rod and cone cells. Then the nerve layers identify simple shapes, such as bright points surrounded by dark points, edges, and movement. (Based on a drawing by Ramón y Cajal.)

    A new report gives recommendations for regenerating retinal ganglion cells RGCs...

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    Triple-Threat Cancer-fighting Polymer Capsules for guided Drug delivery

    March 31, 2017, Categories  Biology/Biotechnology, Health/Medical

    This guided drug delivery system targets solid tumors. Credit: UAB

    This guided drug delivery system targets solid tumors. Credit: UAB

    These microcarriers may offer an entirely different approach to treating solid human tumors of numerous pathologic subtypes by delivering their encapsulated drug cargo to a tumor and protecting against collateral tissue damage. These multilayer capsules show three traits that have been difficult to achieve in a single entity. They have good imaging contrast that allows detection with low-power ultrasound, they can stably and efficiently encapsulate the cancer drug doxorubicin, and both a low- and higher-power dose of ultrasound can trigger the release of that cargo.

    These 3 features create a guided drug delivery system to target solid tumors...

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    Beating Deadly Pneumonia with Hormones

    March 30, 2017, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Borna Mehrad, MBBS (left), and Kathryn Michels, both of the University of Virginia School of Medicine, have identified a hormone that helps the body fight off the spread of bacterial pneumonia. The discovery may offer a simple way to help vulnerable patients.

    Borna Mehrad, MBBS (left), and Kathryn Michels, both of the University of Virginia School of Medicine, have identified a hormone that helps the body fight off the spread of bacterial pneumonia. The discovery may offer a simple way to help vulnerable patients.

    A hormone responsible for controlling iron metabolism helps fight off a severe form of bacterial pneumonia, and that discovery may offer a simple way to help vulnerable patients. Hepcidin, is produced in the liver and limits the spread of the bacteria by hiding the iron in the blood that the bacteria need to survive and grow. Stimulating hepcidin production in patients who do not produce it well, such as people with iron overload or liver disease, may help their bodies effectively starve the bacteria to death...

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    Modern Alchemy creates Luminescent Iron Molecules

    March 30, 2017, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    iron complex [Fe(btz)3]3+

    iron complex [Fe(btz)3]3+

    A group of researchers have made the first iron-based molecule capable of emitting light. This could contribute to the development of affordable and environmentally friendly materials for e.g. solar cells, light sources and displays. For over 50 years, chemists have developed metal-based dye molecules for a wide range of different applications, such as displays and solar cells. This would ideally involve common and environmentally friendly metals like iron, but despite a number of attempts no one has been able to develop an iron-based dye molecule that can emit light until now. Researchers around the world have therefore instead largely had to resort to various rare and precious metals, such as ruthenium, which have more easily provided the desired properties.

    Thro...

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