human serum albumin tagged posts

Affordable Housing in Outer Space: Scientists Develop Cosmic Concrete from Space Dust and Astronaut Blood

Transporting a single brick to Mars can cost more than a million British pounds – making the future construction of a Martian colony seem prohibitively expensive. Scientists at The University of Manchester have now developed a way to potentially overcome this problem, by creating a concrete-like material made of extra-terrestrial dust along with the blood, sweat and tears of astronauts.

In their study, published today in Materials Today Bio, a protein from human blood, combined with a compound from urine, sweat or tears, could glue together simulated moon or Mars soil to produce a material stronger than ordinary concrete, perfectly suited for construction work in extra-terrestrial environments.

The cost of transporting a single brick to Mars has been estimated at about US$2 mill...

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Glioblastoma Nanomedicine crosses into Brain in mice, Eradicates recurring brain Cancer

Macroscopic pathology of glioblastoma multiforme. Image credit: CC BY-SA 4.0 – Sbrandner

A new synthetic protein nanoparticle capable of slipping past the nearly impermeable blood-brain barrier in mice could deliver cancer-killing drugs directly to malignant brain tumors, new research from the University of Michigan shows. ‘I’ve worked in this field for more than 10 years and have not seen anything like this.’

The study is the first to demonstrate an intravenous medication that can cross the blood-brain barrier.

The discovery could one day enable new clinical therapies for treating glioblastoma, the most common and aggressive form of brain cancer in adults, and one whose incidence is rising in many countries...

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