Articles by Helen Dell

Everyone knows that the first genome sequencing projects took years of work and represent the combined product of tens of thousands of individual fragments.

The power of a synchrotron facility can now be found in a laboratory X-ray source.

In the largest project of its kind, Swedish scientists are studying normal and cancerous tissues to discover not only the location and abundance of all human proteins, but also how these are affected by disease states.

newly released confocal microscope, the Eclipse C1-Plus, sports a range of new features, including new adjustable lasers, according to Jeff Larson, Nikon's US product manager for confocal microscopes.

Courtesy of PerkinElmerBoston-based PerkinElmer Life and Analytical Sciences has just received clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration for the company's NeoGram tandem mass spectrometry screening kit to be used in metabolic testing of newborn infants http://las.perkinelmer.com.The system measures the concentrations of amino acids and carnitines (molecules associated with the transport of fatty acids across mitochondrial membranes) in the blood of newborns. Abnormal levels of these mol

Courtesy of Sceptor IndustriesIt looks like an inhaler for treating asthma, but it could help biodefense experts sleep easier at night. BioSim, from Kansas City, Mo.-based Sceptor Industries http://www.sceptorindustries.com, replaces the need for live bacteria to test the efficiency of pathogen-detection systems.Designed to test PCR-based systems, the device sprays puffs of tiny polystyrene beads coupled to bacterial DNA. The carrier beads simulate bacterial spores in the air and on surfaces, so

Courtesy of Center for Biomolecular Modeling, Milwaulkee School of EngineeringUntil recently structural biology has been limited by the fact that it relies on two-dimensional computer representations of three-dimensional objects. Now 3D Molecular Designs http://www.moleculardesigns.com of Wauwatosa, Wis., hopes to make the field truly three-dimensional, allowing new insights into known structures and giving hope to those not blessed with the space-manipulation skills needed to make sense of flat

Courtesy of TrimGenIf you are not lucky enough to have a restriction enzyme site in your mutation-of-interest, chances are you have had to fall back on sequencing to detect it. But this time-consuming method of detecting mutations could soon be a thing of the past, thanks to new technology called Mutector from Sparks, Md.-based TrimGen http://www.trimgen.com.According to marketing manager Brad Oswald, Mutector eliminates false positives and negatives and produces results in 2–3 hours, comp

©2004 Elsevier ScienceScientists can now watch the mouse brain in action thanks to a new technique that lights up specific populations of neurons as they fire.1 Because the fluorescent marker responsible is genetically encoded, it now will be possible to follow an animal throughout its life to see how activity changes during development and learning, says neurobiologist and coauthor Matt Wachowiak of Boston University.Wachowiak and colleagues targeted a pH-sensitive fluorescent marker calle

Glia and neurons collaborate to degrade unwanted axons during brain development

Comparatively simple genome reveals why standard antiparasitic drugs have been ineffective