A new way to discover structures of membrane proteins

08-Feb-2017 - University of Toronto scientists have discovered a better way to extract proteins from the membranes that encase them, making it easier to study how cells communicate with each other to create human health and disease. Scientists are very interested in understanding how membrane proteins work and ...

Screening the most useful nanoparticles for medicine

07-Feb-2017 - The use of nanoparticles -- small, virus-sized elements developed under laboratory conditions -- is increasingly widespread in the world of biomedicine. This rapidly-evolving technology offers hope for many medical applications, whether for diagnosis or therapies. In oncology, for example, the ...

Faster way of detecting bacteria could save your life

07-Feb-2017 - A Michigan State University researcher has developed a faster way to detect the bacteria causing patients to become sick, giving physicians a better chance at saving their lives. Brett Etchebarne, an assistant professor of emergency medicine in the College of Osteopathic Medicine, has created a ...

Atomic-scale view of bacterial proteins offers path to new tuberculosis drugs

06-Feb-2017 - With the first detailed analysis of a cellular component from a close relative of the pathogen that causes tuberculosis, Rockefeller scientists are suggesting strategies for new drugs to curb this growing health problem. Each year, nearly half a million people around the world are infected with ...

Certainty in complex scientific research an unachievable goal

03-Feb-2017 - A University of Toronto study on uncertainty in scientific research could shed light on anomalies that arose in early attempts to discover the Higgs boson and even how polls failed to predict the outcome of Donald Trump winning the U.S. presidential election. The study suggests that research in ...

Highly sensitive gas sensors for volatile organic compound detection

03-Feb-2017 - Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a group of carbon-based chemicals with low evaporation or vaporization points. Some VOCs are harmful to animal or environmental health so sensing these gasses is important for maintaining health and safety. VOCs also occur in nature and can be useful in ...

High-resolution imaging reveals new understanding of battery cathode particles

02-Feb-2017 - Using advanced imaging techniques, scientists at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have been able to observe what exactly happens inside a cathode particle as lithium-ion batteries are charged and discharged. In a research project led by Berkeley Lab ...

How X-rays in matter create genetoxic low-energy electrons

02-Feb-2017 - Researchers led by Kiyoshi Ueda of Tohoku University have investigated what x-rays in matter really do and identified a new mechanism of producing low-energy free electrons. Since the low-energy electrons cause damage to the matter, the identified process might be important in understanding and ...

Background suppression for super-resolution light microscopy

01-Feb-2017 - Optical microscopy is applied widely in the life sciences sector. Among others, it is used to minimally invasively examine living cells. Resolution of conventional light microscopy, however, is limited to half the wavelength of light, i.e. about 200 nm, such that finest cellular structures are ...

Milestone for the analysis of human proteomes

Synthetic peptides and spectra for proteomics

01-Feb-2017 - Researchers led by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) report on the synthesis of a library of more than 330,000 reference peptides representing essentially all canonical proteins of the human proteome. It is a major milestone in the ProteomeTools project which aims at translating human ...