When it comes to identifying the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, every minute counts. Often it’s not even possible to determine whether a person is afflicted with it until it’s too late: that is, once symptoms start to show. A promising study at the University of Wisconsin, Madison suggests that there exists a way to diagnose Alzheimer’s before the onset of symptoms, not after.
Tags: 2014, Midwest, 2013, WI, Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin Madison, UWiscRP, UWisc, University of Wisconsin Research Park, UW Madison, Alzheimers, BioResearch Product Faire Event, laboratory, Front Line event, lab, Madison, Front Line, lab supplier, researcher
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is a richly-funded science research environment, which is especially evident given recent NSF and NIH research funding statistics. In total, the University of Wisconsin-Madison received $335.9 million in research funding from the NSF and NIH in 2012. The NSF awarded the university $106 million. Of that money, $13.8 million went to bio research projects alone. For our readers’ convenience, we have spotlighted the top five NSF-funded bio research projects broken down by funding program, project title and research funding below.
Tags: 2014, Midwest, 2013, UW, WI, Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin Madison, UWiscRP, UWisc, University of Wisconsin Research Park, UW Madison, bio research, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Research Funding, Front Line event, Madison, Front Line, NIH funding, NSF funding
With the North American drought ended last year according to the USDA, it still affects parts of the United States and dries out plant life in its wake. The drought reached 80 percent of the country’s agricultural land, and many of the impacts of the stunted food production will be felt this year at supermarkets and restaurants. It’s no surprise, then, that a large question in agricultural biotechnology is how to more effectively combat drought for the present and future. This is where Michigan State University shines, presenting a way for plants to make even better use of the water they receive.
Tags: Michigan State University, 2014, Midwest, 2013, agriculture, water, membranes, Michigan, BioResearch Product Faire Event, MI, Front Line event, East Lansing, MSU
The Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland has just announced an important partnership with San Diego-based bioprinting technology company Organovo. Research into the biology of cancer, especially how it metastasizes, has been complicated in the past by the limitations of animal models and cell cultures, which really don't tell us enough about the workings of cancer within a human being. Organovo creates living, 3-D human tissue using their bioprinting device, the NovoGen MMX (below). The partnership between OHSU and Organovo will allow cancer research at Knight Institute labs to much more closely model the complex architecture of malignancy within the human body, using in vitro tissue. Ultimately this will lead to the development of more accurate therapeutics and pre-clinical trials.
Tags: 2014, 2013, Oregon Health Sciences University, Oregon Health and Science University, Northwest, cancer research, Oregon, Cancer Treatment, bioprinting, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Funding, Front Line event, OR, OHSU, Portland, Northwest Region
Dr. Gary Michelson is a retired Los Angeles surgeon who made a lot of money ($1.35B) from a spinal surgical invention in 2005. Since then he's devoted himself and his considerable resources to philanthropy. One of his most passionate causes is reducing the rate of euthanasia for unwanted pets by promoting spaying and neutering, along with shelter adoption, training, and good vet care through the Los Angeles group Found Animals. Not content with the usual invasive practice of sterilizing pets, he also created the Michelson Prize and Grants to challenge research scientists to come up with a cheap, safe, and effective one-dose pill for cats and dogs to induce permanent infertility. The winner of the Michelson Prize in Reproductive Biology will take home $25M and the satisfaction of knowing that fewer pets will be put down because of overpopulation.
Tags: 2014, CA, 2013, University of Arizona, Northeast, University of Pennsylvania, UPenn, University of Southern California, vet care, veterinary research challenge, Northwest, crowdsourcing, Southwest, USC, Los Angeles, National Jewish Health, animal science, AZ, LAVS, Philadelphia, UAZ, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Denver, Front Line event, PA, CO, Biotechnology Vendor Showcase, Tucson, Irvine, UCI, UC Irvine, Dr. Gary Michelso, pets, spaying and neutering, NJH, UC Los Angeles
The southernmost tip of the great state of Texas is known as the Rio Grande Valley (see map below), and University of Texas Chancellor Francisco G. Cigarroa is campaigning hard for the establishment of a South Texas School of Medicine, to be part of a new regional University of Texas research campus. UT already has two smaller campuses in the Rio Grande Valley, in Edinburg and Brownsville; mid-way between those two border cities is Harlingen, which is currently home to a Regional Academic Health Center that, under the Cigarroa plan, would become a full-fledged medical school. The new UT university campus would incorporate both the Brownsville and Edinburg college campuses, but with greater resources available to strengthen its research capacity. UT System Board of Regents voted to approve both plans last month. The next step is to convince the state legislature to give its support.
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Tags: Bioresearch, Utah, university of utah, Medical Research, migraine research, 2012, scientific research, Front Line event, Salt Lake City
Tags: biomedical research, 2012 Research Funding, University of Nevada Reno, UNR, Nevada, 2012, Neuroscience, Front Line event, NV, Reno, Biomedical Research Funding
Yesterday we looked at two biologically inspired engineering experiments out of the Wyss Institute in Boston. Today we're on the West Coast at the University of California Santa Barbara's Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies (ICB) marvelling over another technology that takes its cue from the biological world. It's a microfluidics device designed to function much like the super-sensitive nose of a dog, and it's already being commercialized for use in bomb detection, though other applications could include bio/chemical detection in industrial and healthcare settings as well. Results of the research gauging bomb detection accuracy specifically were published recently in an article in the journal Analytical Chemistry.
Tags: CA, Lab-on-a-chip Technology, Southwest, California, 2012, University of California Santa Barbara, Biotechnology, Front Line event, UCSB, Santa Barbara
Tags: biomedical research, Utah, university of utah, UТ, 2012, Life Science Market Update., Front Line event, Salt Lake City, Life Science Technology, bio medical research