Archive for the ‘Biotechnology & Biomedicine’ Category
May 20, 2013 — Future teams of subterranean search and rescue robots may owe their success to the lowly fire ant, a much despised insect whose painful bites and extensive networks of underground tunnels are all-too-familiar to people living in the southern United States.
May 19, 2013 — A new study shows how complex biochemical transformations may have been possible under conditions that existed when life began on the early Earth. The study shows that RNA is capable of catalyzing electron transfer under conditions similar to those of the early Earth.
April 27, 2013 — A new study shows how the strength and timing of competing molecular signals during brain development has generated natural and presumably adaptive differences in a brain region known as the telencephalon — much earlier than scientists had previously believed.
April 9, 2013 — Controlling the shapes of nanometer-sized catalytic and electrocatalytic particles made from noble metals such as platinum and palladium may be more complicated than previously thought. Using systematic experiments, researchers have investigated how surface diffusion – a process in which atoms move from one site to another on nanoscale surfaces – affects the final shape of the particles.
April 7, 2013 — A new separation process that depends on an easily-distinguished physical difference in adhesive forces among cells could help expand production of stem cells generated through cell reprogramming. By facilitating new research, the separation process could also lead to improvements in the reprogramming technique itself and help scientists model certain disease processes.
March 20, 2013 — Researchers have for the first time demonstrated that mechanical forces can control the depolymerization of actin, a critical protein that provides the major force-bearing structure in the cytoskeletons of cells. The research suggests that forces applied both externally and internally may play a much larger role than previously believed in regulating a range of processes inside cells.
March 19, 2013 — A team of researchers at Georgia Tech has developed a new type of interface between cochlear implant devices and the brain that could dramatically improve the sound quality of the next generation of implants. Cochlear implants help deaf individuals perceive sound.
March 18, 2013 — Clearside Biomedical, Inc. an Atlanta-based ophthalmic pharmaceutical company launched from research at Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology, has received $7.9 million in funding to continue drug and technology development for treatment of ocular diseases.
March 12, 2013 — In a perspective article published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, biomedical engineering professor Garrett Stanley detailed research progress toward “reading and writing the neural code.” The neural code details how the brain’s roughly 100 billion neurons turn raw sensory inputs into information we can use to see, hear and feel things in our environment.
February 21, 2013 — A new study provides details of the structure and tissue properties of the unique adhesion system used by remora fish to attach themselves to sharks and other marine animals. The information could lead to a new engineered reversible adhesive that could be used to create pain- and residue-free bandages, attach sensors to objects in aquatic or military reconnaissance environments, replace surgical clamps and help robots climb.