Scientists can depend on a formidable tool — light — when it comes to recording and stimulating brain activity. An international team of researchers, directed by Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italian Institute of Technology/IIT), has created nanometric light modulators that, built on a micrometric optical fiber, make the fiber capable of analyzing neuronal tissue in deep regions [...]
One of the most promising avenues in treating cancer is to restore our immune system’s ability to recognize and attack cancerous cells. A team of University of Chicago chemists and biologists developed a tiny device that can locate tumor cells and force them to reveal themselves to patrolling immune cells. In tests with mice, [...]
Serological tests play an important role in the surveillance and management of epidemics or pandemics, as well as in acquired immunity studies. Currently, COVID-19 serology is performed by well-established immunoassay techniques, which provide high sensitivities, but require specialized laboratories with trained personnel and processing times of 3 to 48 hours. A much faster and [...]
An international team of researchers has developed nanorobots capable of removing heavy metals from polluted water. In their paper published in the journal Nature Communications, the group describes their nanorobots and how well they worked when tested. Prior research has shown that heavy metals make their way into the water table through landfill leakage, mining operations [...]
Computers are an indispensable part of our daily lives, and the need for ones that can work faster, solve complex problems more efficiently, and leave smaller environmental footprints by minimizing the required energy for computation is increasingly urgent. Recent progress in photonics has shown that it’s possible to achieve more efficient computing through optical [...]
The delta variant within the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus continued to cause devastation with high infection rates and transmissibility and this illustrated the lack of efficacy by the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. However, novel research published in the journal, ACS Omega has reported the use of human host defense peptide-conjugated graphene quantum dots for the prevention of virus entry [...]
University of Wisconsin–Madison engineers have created a nanofiber material that outperforms its widely used counterparts — including steel plates and Kevlar fabric — in protecting against high-speed projectile impacts. Basically, it’s better than bulletproof. “Our nanofiber mats exhibit protective properties that far surpass other material systems at much lighter weight,” says Ramathasan Thevamaran, a [...]
A team of researchers recently published a paper in the journal ACS Applied Nano Materials that demonstrated the effectiveness of specific chemically-modified nanohole edges in reduced graphene oxide (rGO) in binding proteins. Graphene-Based Biosensors Biosensors are gaining considerable prominence owing to the rising significance of quantitative or qualitative detection of biological markers and early prognosis of [...]
New research led by the Doherty Institute has found the SARS-CoV-2 virus has the ability to momentarily accelerate its evolutionary pace, enabling variants to emerge more rapidly than other viruses. Recently published in Molecular Biology and Evolution, the team, led by University of Melbourne Dr. Sebastian Duchene, an Australian Research Council DECRA Research Fellow at [...]
Canadian biopharma company Medicago, a subsidiary of Japan's Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma (TYO: 4508), and UK pharma major GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK) have announced that Health Canada has granted approval for Covifenz, COVID-19 vaccine, (plant-based virus-like particles [VLP], recombinant, adjuvanted). This vaccine, formerly dubbed MT-2766, is indicated for active immunization to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19) [...]
