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IMAGE: Silk fibers are wound around an acrylic chassis to produce a three-dimensional cell culture device. Skeletal muscle cells grown on silkworm silk proved to more closely mimic human skeletal muscle. view more
Credit: Matt Jensen
News Release LOGAN, UT Mar. 9, 2021 Researchers at Utah State University are using silkworm silk to grow skeletal muscle cells, improving on traditional methods of cell culture and hopefully leading to better treatments for muscle atrophy.
When scientists are trying to understand disease and test treatments, they generally grow model cells on a flat plastic surface (think petri dish). But growing cells on a two-dimensional surface has its limitations, primarily because muscle tissue is three-dimensional. Thus, USU researchers developed a three-dimensional cell culture surface by growing cells on silk fibers that are wrapped around an acrylic chassis. The team used both native and transgenic silkworm silk, the latter produ
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A unique curved barrier has been designed by researchers at Imperial College London, who publish new findings in the peer-reviewed journal
Cities & Health on how the structure can protect people from the damaging effects of air pollution.
With air pollution becoming an increasingly dangerous global health challenge, researchers are constantly working on innovating novel solutions to tackle these 21st century problems. At Imperial College London, researchers are using airflow modelling techniques to study the effects of unique roadside structures to deflect particulates away from pedestrians.
The health concerns arising from lower air quality are more significant amongst lower income communities which are more likely to be situated near heavily traffic-laden thoroughfares. Similarly, children are both more vulnerable to and more readily exposed to air pollution simply due to their proximity to the ground, where heavier pollutants settle over time. Real-time
According to the American Cancer Society s estimate, over 280,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in women in 2021, explains Xiaoting Zhang, PhD, professor and Thomas Boat Endowed Chair in UC s Department of Cancer Biology, director of the Breast Cancer Research Program and member of the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center, who led this research. Like many other cancers, breast cancer cells are fueled by mutations and overproduction of driver genes, which lead the process of cancer development.
He says one of these genes, called HER2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2), accounts for about 20% of all human breast cancer cases, and while there are some therapies to target it, unwanted side effects and treatment resistance often occur in patients, causing relapse.
Variants of the coronavirus are appearing in different parts of the world, many of them spreading with alarming speed. One contagious variant is the South African, or SA, variant, identified by an international team of researchers, including biomedical scientists from the University of California, Riverside.
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A research team at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) in Germany has developed a completely new, environmentally-friendly electrochemical procedure for producing sulfonamides rapidly and inexpensively. Sulfonamides are used in many drugs including antibiotics and Viagra as well as in agrochemicals and dyes, which makes them an important class of molecules for the pharmaceutical and chemical industries. While to date it has been necessary to use corrosive chemicals, high temperatures, and expensive metal catalysts to produce sulfonamides, the new method requires only cheaper starting materials, electrical current, and largely safe solvents. The researchers recently reported their findings in the journal