HIV vaccine protects non-human primates from infection
Reading Time: 2 minutesFOR more than 20 years, scientists at Scripps Research have chipped away at the challenges of designing an HIV vaccine. Now new research, published in Immunity, shows that their experimental vaccine strategy works in non-human primates. The new study shows that rhesus macaque monkeys can be prompted to produce neutralising antibodies against one strain of […]
New mathematical model can help save endangered species
Reading Time: < 1 minuteWHAT does the blue whale have in common with the Bengal tiger and the green turtle? They share the risk of extinction and are classified as endangered species. There are multiple reasons for species to die out, and climate changes is among the main reasons. The risk of extinction varies from species to species depending […]
New material to promote natural wound healing
Reading Time: < 1 minuteMATERIALS are widely used to help heal wounds: Collagen sponges help treat burns and pressure sores, and scaffold-like implants are used to repair bones. However, the process of tissue repair changes over time, so scientists are developing biomaterials that interact with tissues as healing takes place. Now, Dr Ben Almquist and his team at Imperial […]
Blood test for early cancer
Reading Time: 2 minutesCANCER scientists led by principal investigator Dr Daniel De Carvalho at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre have combined “liquid biopsy,” epigenetic alterations and machine learning to develop a blood test to detect and classify cancer at its earliest stages. The findings, published online in Nature, describe not only a way to detect cancer, but hold promise […]
Chicken feed using black soldier fly larvae
Reading Time: < 1 minuteSERDANG: Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) will conduct a research on the formulation of feed for free-range chicken (Ayam Kampung) using the larvae of Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens). The research team from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, UPM will be headed by Dr Hasliza Abu Hassim. Other researchers involved are Dr Azhar Kasim, Dr Mohd Hezmee Mohd Noor, Dr Lokman Hakim Idris and Dr Hafandi Ahmad. The study […]
Scientists grow perfect human blood vessels in a Petri dish
Reading Time: 2 minutesBreakthrough technology advances research of vascular diseases like diabetes SCIENTISTS have managed to grow perfect human blood vessels as organoids in a Petri dish for the first time. The breakthrough engineering technology, outlined in a new study published recently in Nature, dramatically advances research of vascular diseases like diabetes, identifying a key pathway to potentially […]
“DO NOT TOUCH ME…”
Reading Time: < 1 minuteIf plants could talk, they would definitely say, “Touch me not!” Researchers from La Trobe University found that plants are highly sensitive to touch, and repeated touching could significantly affect their growth. The results are published in The Plant Journal. La Trobe researchers, Drs Jim Whelan and Yan Wang, revealed the results of their study, […]
Weirdly shaped mouse sperm can be used to tell species apart
Reading Time: 3 minutesTHINK back to health class and picture a sperm. It’s got a smooth rounded head, with a long skinny tail at the end, right? As it turns out, the sperm from different species of animals have different shapes and, as a new study in the Journal of Mammalogy shows, those shapes can be used to tell apart closely related species. “In this paper, […]
A robust fuel cell that runs on methane at practical temperatures
Reading Time: 2 minutesFUEL CELLS have not been particularly known for their practicality and affordability, but that may have just changed. There’s a new cell that runs on cheap fuel at temperatures comparable to automobile engines and which slashes materials costs. Though the cell is in the lab, it has high potential to someday electrically power homes and perhaps cars, say the researchers at […]
Plants as antifungal factories
Reading Time: 2 minutesRESEARCHERS from theSpanish Research Council (CSIC) at the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG) and the Institute for Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology (IBMCP), in collaboration with the IATA, have developed a biotechnological tool to produce, in a very efficient manner, antifungal proteins in plants. The results of this research, that could impact the agri-food and pharmaceutical sectors, have been published this in the Plant […]