The classical approach of differentiating forms of cancer purely by their location in the body is losing popularity in the field of oncology. Rather, the prevailing ideology is that every cancer is different and that you really need to look at the molecular and genetic makeup of a tumor in order to plan the best method of attack. With this in mind, researchers and physicians at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester have developed a 50-gene cancer panel test that allows for finely tuned, individualized cancer treatment.
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Tags: 2014, Midwest, Minnesota, Rochester, Mayo Clinic, BioResearch Product Faire Event, RMN
As the weather warms up, many people are beginning to try to burn their extra fat using every trick and technique in the book. Meanwhile, the brown squirrel burns fat overnight as it sleeps. University of Minnesota researchers stumbled upon this unique strategy while studying squirrel hibernation, and are now delving into the genes that control the process.
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Tags: 2014, Midwest, University of Minnesota, Minnesota, BioResearch Product Faire Event, MN, UMinn, Twin Cities
Biotechnology researchers are beginning to unravel the effects of different breeding grounds on cell cultivation. We saw an example of this last year when OSU bioresearchers developed a titanium “shag carpet” which dramatically increased cell proliferation. In a similar vein, researchers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor have found a particular type of surface that helps stem cells decide what to grow up to be.
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Tags: University of Michigan, 2014, Midwest, Ann Arbor, BioResearch Product Faire Event, MI, UMich
Occasionally the most interesting discoveries are made simply by investigating a chance observation. Take for instance our earlier MSU blog about venom-resistant mice, whose analgesic usefulness was only realized after noticing that they didn’t seem to mind being stung by scorpions. Now at the University of Cincinnati, scientists have discovered a previously unknown property of a junk food ingredient that actually helps remove toxins from the body.
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Tags: 2014, Midwest, University of Cincinnati, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Cincinnati, OH, UCinci
It’s no big surprise that as the world’s population increases, worldwide food production will need a fairly big boost in order to keep up with the growing number of mouths to feed. A study by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations estimates that we will need to produce approximately 70 percent more food by the year 2050, at which point the world will be home to about 2.3 billion more people than today. Working to boost agricultural yield is thus a critical field of study, as the photosynthesis optimization team at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign knows quite well.
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Tags: 2014, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, UIUrbana, BioResearch Product Faire Event, IL, UIUC
Around 20 percent of the United States suffers from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a disorder that causes several uncomfortable symptoms centered on the large intestine. As of yet, there is no treatment for IBS itself, just methods to alleviate the symptoms. However, new and conclusive evidence from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota points to a gene responsible for IBS in some patients.
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Tags: 2014, Midwest, Minnesota, Rochester, Mayo Clinic, BioResearch Product Faire Event, RMN
When it comes to creatively solving problems in biotechnology, time and time again nature takes the cake. In our recent history, we’ve seen the University of Minnesota use the kava root to prevent lung cancer and Michigan State University take cues from a mouse to develop new anesthetics. Now researchers at University of Washington, St. Louis are looking to nature to solve a problem where biotechnology is at its wit’s end: developing an effective antibiotic.
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Tags: 2014, Washington University St. Louis, Midwest, Missouri, WashU, BioResearch Product Faire Event, St Louis
Gene manipulation is a very fine-tuned science that is prevalent in all sorts of biotechnological lab work. We often think of genes as controlling a very precise function or set of functions; for instance, the particular gene responsible for damaging tissue in gum disease, which we looked at in a previous Ohio State blog, or the gene responsible for pollination features in bees, which we saw in an earlier Michigan State blog. Now a research project from University of Illinois, Chicago introduces a way to delve deeper than even the gene level and look at the roles of individual molecules that the genes influence.
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Tags: 2014, Midwest, University of Illinois, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Chicago, IL, UIChgo
Oil spills are unfortunately becoming an increasing reality in our world. Since the infamous Gulf of Mexico oil spill, which has yet to be fully cleaned up, the world has seen 65 more spills, 8 of which occurred in 2013 alone. As supported by the fact that the BP spill cleanup is now in its 10th year, there is a lack of inexpensive yet effective ways to handle such ecological disasters. From the labs of the University of Wisconsin, Madison comes a biotechnologically sound solution that also manages to be environmentally friendly: a “greener” aerogel.
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Tags: 2014, Midwest, 2013, WI, Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin Madison, UWisc, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Madison
The human mouth is filled with all sorts of bacteria, some of which are essential to our survival and some of which can cause some rather nasty diseases. Unfortunately, telling the difference has been a massive challenge for oral biology, since the majority of the bacteria found in the mouth do not grow in laboratory dishes. Now, though, bioresearchers at Ohio State University have sequenced the genome of one such bacterium linked to the gum disease periodontitis.
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Tags: 2014, Midwest, Ohio State University, Ohio, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Columbus, OhStu