Zebra Analytix Receives NIH Grant for Rapid Breath Detection of Hazardous Substance Exposure
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Enables screening of individuals working or living in close proximity to refineries, chemical plants, polluted cities and other environments.
The funding from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) corroborates the unmet need and significant opportunity in this space. FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (PRWEB) March 16, 2021 Zebra Analytix, Inc. a VIC Technology Venture Development portfolio company announced today that it has been awarded a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to apply its revolutionary miniaturized analytical technology to monitoring breath for indicators of exposure to hazardous substances. Ingestion of toxic chemicals, primarily through inhalation, is a significant concern for individuals working or living in close proximity to ref
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In the past few years, several medications have been found to be contaminated with NDMA, a probable carcinogen. This chemical, which has also been found at Superfund sites and in some cases has spread to drinking water supplies, causes DNA damage that can lead to cancer.
MIT researchers have now discovered a mechanism that helps explain whether this damage will lead to cancer in mice: The key is the way cellular DNA repair systems respond. The team found that too little activity of one enzyme necessary for DNA repair leads to much higher cancer rates, while too much activity can produce tissue damage, especially in the liver, which can be fatal.
Publisher s Note: This post appears here courtesy of ECU News Services. The author of this post is Kelly Rogers Dilda.
Dr. Jamie DeWitt (right) and Samuel Vance (left), a second-year biomedical science master’s program student, conduct research into the health effects of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in DeWitt’s lab at ECU’s Brody School of Medicine. | Photo: Cliff Hollis | Video: Redd Wolfley
A professor at East Carolina University was recently selected to join the National Academies Standing Committee on Use of Emerging Science for Environmental Health Decisions (ESEHD).
Dr. Jamie DeWitt of the Brody School of Medicine s Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology joins the committee of 16 environmental science and policy experts charged with convening several workshops each year to explore how new scientific advances, technologies and research methodologies could deepen our understanding of the effects of environment on human health.
Mosquito protein study could lead to therapeutics against deadly viruses
The mosquito protein AEG12 strongly inhibits the family of viruses that cause yellow fever, dengue, West Nile, and Zika and weakly inhibits coronaviruses, according to scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and their collaborators. The researchers found that AEG12 works by destabilizing the viral envelope, breaking its protective covering. Although the protein does not affect viruses that do not have an envelope, such as those that cause pink eye and bladder infections, the findings could lead to therapeutics against viruses that affect millions of people around the world. The research was published online in
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New research by the National Institutes of Health found that unbalanced progesterone signals may cause some pregnant women to experience preterm labor or prolonged labor. The study in mice published online in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides novel insights for developing treatments.
During pregnancy, the hormone progesterone helps to prevent the uterus from contracting and going into labor prematurely. This occurs through molecular signaling involving progesterone receptor types A and B, referred to as PGR-A and PGR-B. In this first-of-its-kind study, the scientists showed how unbalanced PGR-A and PGR-B signaling can affect pregnancy duration.