The lower shadow of the last candlestick pierced through the symmetrical triangle support but price closed exactly on the triangle support. If support fails the next support is at 20.5 cents followed by 17 cents. Monitor direction of breakout from symmetrical triangle.
BB trying to hold Fort 1.25
Programming Advanced Materials
In 1996, scientists at IBM and Northwestern University used single-stranded DNA as if it were molecular Velcro to program the self-assembly of nanoparticles into simple structures. The work helped launch the then-nascent nanotechnology field by suggesting the possibility of building novel materials from the bottom up. Twelve years later, researchers from Northwestern and Brookhaven National Laboratory report separately in the journal Nature that they have finally delivered on that promise, using DNA linkers to transform nanoparticles into perfect crystals containing up to one million particles.
"The crystal structures are deliberately designed," says Northwestern's Chad Mirkin, one of the materials scientists who pioneered DNA linking in the 1990s and a coauthor of one of today's reports. "This is a new way of making things."
Ohio State University physicist David Stroud calls the work "quite valuable." He predicts that the breakthrough will enable the assembly of new materials with novel optical, electronic, or magnetic properties that have, until now, existed only in the minds and models of materials scientists. "Even now I'm surprised they could do it," says Stroud.
http://www.technologyreview.com/Nanotech/20137/
For most people, the name "E. coli" is synonymous with food poisoning and product recalls, but a professor in Texas A&M University's chemical engineering department envisions the bacteria as a future source of energy, helping to power our cars, homes and more. By genetically modifying the bacteria, Thomas Wood, a professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, has "tweaked" a strain of E. coli so that it produces substantial amounts of hydrogen. Specifically, Wood's strain produces 140 times more hydrogen than is created in a naturally occurring process, according to an article in "Microbial Biotechnology," detailing his research.
Though Wood acknowledges that there is still much work to be done before his research translates into any kind of commercial application, his initial success could prove to be a significant stepping stone on the path to the hydrogen-based economy that many believe is in this country's future.
By selectively deleting six specific genes in E. coli's DNA, Wood has basically transformed the bacterium into a mini hydrogen-producing factory that's powered by sugar. Scientifically speaking, Wood has enhanced the bacteria's naturally occurring glucose-conversion process on a massive scale.
"These bacteria have 5,000 genes that enable them to survive environmental changes," Wood explained. "When we knock things out, the bacteria become less competitive. We haven't given them an ability to do something. They don't gain anything here; they lose. The bacteria that we're making are less competitive and less harmful because of what's been removed."
With sugar as its main power source, this strain of E. coli can now take advantage of existing and ever-expanding scientific processes aimed at producing sugar from certain crops, such as corn, Wood said.
http://www.bionity.com/news/e/77229/
Bears moved price down into 57 to 54 cents support zone. Price is now very close to the 200 days EMA support line and the 54 cents immediate support line. Retest of major long term uptrend support line will occur if the bears manage to break 54 cents support.
Big Bears selling during late morning and early afternoon trading.
Small bulls buying before closing.
If no Big Bull appears tomorrow 54 cents support will be broken.
What is it? What does it do?
The International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology conducts innovative research in life sciences for the benefit of developing countries. It strengthens the research capability of its Members through training and funding programmes and advisory services and represents a comprehensive approach to promoting biotechnology internationally. The Centre is dedicated to advanced research and training in molecular biology and biotechnology and holds out the prospect of advancing knowledge and applying the latest techniques in the fields of:biomedicine; crop improvement; environmental protection/remediation; biopharmaceuticals and biopestidice production.
ICGEB provides a scientific and educational environment of the highest standard. It brings biotechnology to developing countries by strengthening their research capabilities, developing state-of-the-art research and training scientists to the benefit of its Member States.
Located in Trieste, Italy, New Delhi, India and Cape Town, South Africa, the Centre forms an interactive network with Affiliated Centres in ICGEB Member States.
http://www.icgeb.trieste.it/GENERAL/centrint.htm
Although they are tiny, microRNAs can have large-scale effects because they regulate a variety of genes. These minuscule molecules are now definitively linked to the development of cancer.
During the past few years, molecular biologists have been stunned by the discovery of hundreds of genes that encode small RNA molecules1. These microRNAs (miRNAs) — 21 to 25 nucleotides in length — are negative regulators of gene expression. The mechanisms by which they work are similar in plants and animals, implying that they are involved in fundamental cellular processes2. As cancer is essentially a consequence of disordered genome function, one might expect these regulatory molecules to be involved in the development of this disease. Indeed, there are hints that the levels of some miRNAs are altered in cancer3, 4; there is also evidence that an miRNA regulates the cancer-promoting ras gene5. Three studies in this issue6, 7, 8 change the landscape of cancer genetics by establishing the specific miRNAs expressed in most common cancers, and investigating the effects of miRNAs on cancer development and cancer genes.
The initial product of an miRNA gene (Fig. 1) goes through several processing steps before it is exported from the nucleus to the cytoplasm. One strand of the resulting double-stranded RNA is then incorporated into the 'RNA-induced silencing complex' (RISC). RISC can target protein-coding messenger RNAs (mRNAs) either for inhibition, by blocking their translation into protein, or destruction (as in RNA interference). Base pairing between the miRNA and its complementary target mRNA gives the process its specificity.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v435/n7043/full/435745a.html
The intestinal epithelium is the most rapidly self-renewing tissue in adult mammals. It is currently believed that four to six crypt stem cells reside at the +4 position immediately above the Paneth cells in the small intestine; colon stem cells remain undefined. Lgr5 (leucine-rich-repeat-containing G-protein-coupled receptor 5, also known as Gpr49) was selected from a panel of intestinal Wnt target genes for its restricted crypt expression. Here, using two knock-in alleles, we reveal exclusive expression of Lgr5 in cycling columnar cells at the crypt base. In addition, Lgr5 was expressed in rare cells in several other tissues. Using an inducible Cre knock-in allele and the Rosa26-lacZ reporter strain, lineage-tracing experiments were performed in adult mice. The Lgr5-positive crypt base columnar cell generated all epithelial lineages over a 60-day period, suggesting that it represents the stem cell of the small intestine and colon. The expression pattern of Lgr5 suggests that it marks stem cells in multiple adult tissues and cancers.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v449/n7165/abs/nature06196.html
Expected to be available by the end of the year, laser TV promises twice the color of HDTV.
Last night, at a Consumer Electronics Show event at the Palms Hotel, in Las Vegas, Mitsubishi gave a first look at its forthcoming line of flat-panel, high-definition displays. The company claims that the display "delivers a range of color never seen before in home entertainment." The display, called laser TV, uses laser as the light source, unlike liquid-crystal displays, which use a white backlight, and plasma displays, which use cells of charged gas to illuminate the screen. Mitsubishi representatives didn't supply a lot of details; they said only that the TV will ship to retailers later this year.
At the event, Mitsubishi showed off three 65-inch laser displays, which are currently being manufactured. (Gadget blog Engadget posted nice pictures here.) In addition, the company demonstrated how its laser TV could be used as a 3-D home theater. The company played clips from Beowulf, a football game, and U2's 3-D concert on its laser display. Viewers wore shutter glasses from RealD, a supplier of 3-D technology. Shutters on the lenses switched on and off--imperceptibly--60 times a second, synchronizing to a signal emitted from the display. (See "Hollywood's New 3-D Age.")
The basic premise behind laser TV is not entirely new. (See "Ultra-Colorful TV.") It's essentially a variant of digital light projection (DLP) technology developed at Texas Instruments. DLP chips are in most of the projectors used in business presentations, and they're found in home
projection displays. A laser display is built a little differently, however. Instead of projecting light onto a screen from the front, lasers and the DLP chip are in the rear of the display, which allows it to be manufactured thinner than traditional front-projection systems.
The main difference with a laser display, however, is that it uses lasers as the light source. Usually, projection displays shine white light through a color wheel, and then it's projected onto the screen. This approach is inefficient, filtering out much of the original brightness. Laser displays use red, blue, and green lasers to directly deliver the color to the screen. Lasers not only have a brightness and color advantage over filtered white light, but they also have an advantage over light-emitting diode (LED) technology, another up-and-coming display backlight. The color produced by a laser is much more pure than that produced by an LED because the former allows for more-precise color combinations. The net result is an extremely crisp, lifelike image in which white is many times brighter than standard high-definition displays, and black is many times darker.
The laser displays at the Palms looked impressive to me, although Mitsubishi didn't show a side-by-side comparison with other displays. One of the more exciting aspects of these new displays, however, is that they use much less energy than other flat panels do, and they should quickly become less expensive than plasmas since the lasers can be mass-produced in semiconductor facilities.
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/21996/
Torch Hi-tech Industrial Park is developed and managed by a public-listed company---"Jonjee Hi-tech". It covers the total area of 5.3 square km with complete infrastructure. Jonjee Hi-tech Company helps the enterprises with the formalities of project application, staff recruitment, and export & import business and so on. "Guangdong Model Industrial Park with Excellent Practice" was awarded to Torch Hi-tech Industrial Park in 2002 and "Model Park of Zhongshan city" to it in 2003. Nowadays, a batch of multinational conglomerate companies has invested here, including Kao, Canon, Formatest, Meiko, Volex and Shipley. The total industrial output value reached 19.1 billion yuan (current price) in 2006.
With superior location, excellent facilities, preferential policies and pragmatic & efficient services, many renowned enterprises have settled down in the Zone, such as ThyssenKrupp, Canon, Casio, Sumetomo, Toshiba, Wistron, and Merck Apotec. There were over 1000 enterprises (registered over the years) from nearly 20 countries and regions in the Zone in 2006.
At the same time, in order to meet the needs of the fast emergence of scale economy and comply with the large-scale industrial system in future, the Torch Zone has adopted a high standard to restructure and expand five high quality industrial parks sine 2001, including the Electronics & IT Park, Torch Hi-tech Industrial Park, Packaging & Printing Industrial Park, Health Technology Park and China Technological Model Base (Zhongshan) of Industry. In 2002, a 20-sq-km Linhai Industrial Park was planned to support the implementation of the development strategy for the eastern coastal area of Zhongshan. In 2006, Torch Development Zone newly set up the following five industrial parks: Yangxi Industrial Park, Southeastern Green Industrial Park. China Green Healthful Food Industrial Base, LiYu Industrial Park and Technology Industrial Belt.
http://www.zstorch.gov.cn/en_new/torch_detail.asp?pid=3&tid=30
TIANJIN is North China's biggest industrial and commercial city, and is economic center of the Bohai Bay area. It is also a comprehensive trade port, encompassing the largest container wharf in North China. An old industrial base, the city has convenient transportation, the latest technology and ample human resources.
The arrival of hi-tech in the late 1980s made Tianjin's municipal leaders aware that industrialization of high technologies was vital to sustained development of the local economy. Consequently, in 1988 they authorized establishment of the Tianjin Hi-tech Industrial Park (Tianjin Hi-tech). The park was among the first group of national-level hi-tech industrial development zones approved by the State Council in 1991. It was not until 1997 when Pang Jinhua became its chief administrator, however, that Tianjin Hi-tech began to flourish at the rate of at least one enterprise per day entering the park. Over the past five years, 3,000 enterprises have joined Tianjin Hitech.
http://www.chinatoday.com.cn/English/e20034/tianjin.htm
Dynamic TA Charts
Full details at http://www.shareinvestor.com/?action=page&id=page_featurescomparison
Symmetrical Triangles
Symmetrical triangles can be characterized as areas of indecision. A market pauses and future direction is questioned. Typically, the forces of supply and demand at that moment are considered nearly equal. Attempts to push higher are quickly met by selling, while dips are seen as bargains. Each new lower top and higher bottom becomes more shallow than the last, taking on the shape of a sideways triangle. (It's interesting to note that there is a tendency for volume to diminish during this period.) Eventually, this indecision is met with resolve and usually explodes out of this formation (often on heavy volume.) Research has shown that symmetrical triangles overwhelmingly resolve themselves in the direction of the trend. With this in mind, symmetrical triangles in my opinion, are great patterns to use and should be traded as continuation patterns. (Chart examples of symmetrical triangle patterns using commodity charts.) (Stock charts.)
http://www.chartpatterns.com/symmetricaltriangles.htm
Bottom Triangle Wedge Chart Pattern
A Bottom Triangle/Wedge is considered a bullish signal, marking a possible reversal of the current downtrend.
Description
A Bottom Triangle/Wedge consists of a group of patterns which have the same general shape as Symmetrical Triangles, Wedges, Ascending Triangles and Descending Triangles. The difference is that the formations grouped together as this type are reversal and not continuation patterns. These patterns have two converging trendlines. The pattern will display two highs touching the upper trendline and two lows touching the lower trendline.
This pattern is confirmed when the price breaks upward out of the Triangle/Wedge formation to close above the upper trendline.
Volume is an important factor to consider. Typically, volume follows a reliable pattern: volume should diminish as the price swings back and forth between an increasingly narrow range of highs and lows. However, when the breakout occurs, there should be a noticeable increase in volume. If this volume picture is not clear, investors should be cautious about decisions based on this Triangle/Wedge.
http://www.trending123.com/patterns/Bottom-Triangle-Wedge-Chart-Pattern.html
Conclusion
Monitor the breakout direction.
Breakdown will be symmetrical triangle continuation pattern.
Breakout upwards will become Bottom Triangle Wedge Pattern.
Graphene Transistors
A researcher at Stanford University has provided strong experimental evidence that ribbons of carbon atoms can be used for future generations of ultrafast processors.
Hongjie Dai, a professor of chemistry at Stanford, and his colleagues have demonstrated a new chemical process that produces extremely thin ribbons of a carbon-based material called graphene. He has demonstrated that these ribbons, once incorporated into transistors, show excellent electronic properties. Such properties have been predicted theoretically, Dai says, but not demonstrated in practice. These properties make graphene ribbons attractive for use in logic transistors in processors.
The discovery could lead to even greater interest in the experimental material, which has already attracted the attention of researchers at IBM, HP, and Intel. Graphene, which consists of carbon atoms arranged in a one-atom-thick sheet, is a component of graphite. Its structure is related to carbon nanotubes, another carbon-based material that's being studied for use in future generations of electronics. Both graphene and carbon nanotubes can transport electrons extremely quickly, which could allow very fast switching speeds in electronics. Graphene-based transistors, for example, could run at speeds a hundred to a thousand times faster than today's silicon transistors.
But graphene sheets have one significant disadvantage compared with the silicon used in today's chips. Although graphene can be switched between different states of electrical conductivity--the basic characteristic of semiconductor transistors--the difference between these states, called the on/off ratio, isn't very high. That means that unlike silicon, which can be switched off, graphene continues to conduct a lot of electrons even in its "off" state. A chip made of billions of such transistors would waste an enormous amount of energy and therefore be impractical.
Researchers had theorized, however, that it might be possible to dramatically improve these on/off ratios by carving graphene sheets into very narrow ribbons just a few nanometers wide. There had been early evidence supporting these theories from researchers at IBM and Columbia University, but the ratios produced were still much lower than those in silicon.
Dai decided to take a different approach to making thin graphene ribbons. Whereas others had used lithographic techniques to carve away carbon atoms, Dai turned to a solution-based approach. He starts with graphite flakes, which are made of stacked sheets of graphene. Then he chemically inserts sulfuric acid and nitric acid molecules between these flakes and rapidly heats them up, vaporizing the acids and forcing the graphene sheets apart. "It's like an explosion," Dai says. "The sheets go separate ways, and the graphite expands by 200 times."
Next, he suspends the now-separated sheets of graphene in a solution and exposes them to ultrasonic waves. These waves break the sheets into smaller pieces. Surprisingly, Dai says, the sheets fracture not into tiny flakes but into thin and very long ribbons. These ribbons vary in size and shape, but their edges are smooth--which is key to having consistent electronic properties. The thinnest of the ribbons are less than 10 nanometers wide and several micrometers long. "I had no idea that these things could be made with such dimensions and smoothness," Dai says.
http://www.technologyreview.com/Nanotech/20119/
BB selling to retail buyers.
Trade with caution.
Last 2 candlesticks formation doji followed by spinning top shows market indecision. Price hesitating after reaching 23.6% Fibonacci retracement at 48 cents and trading volume on Friday declined. Monitor support at 38 cents and 20 day EMA resistance.
Selling by BB in late afternoon resulted in price movement being capped. Need more BB buying support on Monday to move price above 48.5 cents immediate resistance.
Baltic Dry isn't a Latvian deodorant or an Estonian cocktail. Rather, it's a number issued daily by the London-based Baltic Exchange, which traces its roots to the Virginia and Baltick coffeehouse in London's financial district in 1744.
Every working day, the Baltic canvasses brokers around the world and asks how much it would cost to book various cargoes of raw materials on various routes—150,000 tons of iron ore going from Australia to China or 150,000 tons of coal from South Africa to Taiwan. Brokers are also asked to consider variables such as the type and speed of the ship and the length of the voyage.
The answers are melded into the BDI, which appears in shipping publications such as Lloyd's List and on the screens of information vendors such as Reuters and Bloomberg. Because it provides "an assessment of the price of moving the major raw materials by sea," as the Baltic puts it, it provides both a rare window into the highly opaque and diffuse shipping market and an accurate barometer of the volume of global trade.
The BDI is a good leading indicator for economic growth and production. After all, it doesn't deal with container ships carrying finished goods. It deals with the precursors to production: bulk carriers carrying building materials, cement, grain, coal, and iron. Unlike stock and bond markets, the BDI "is totally devoid of speculative content," says Howard Simons, an economist and columnist at TheStreet.com. People don't book freighters unless they have cargo to move.
Because the supply of cargo ships is generally both tight and inelastic—it takes two years to build a new ship, and ships are too expensive to take out of circulation the way airlines park unneeded jets in the Arizona desert—marginal increases in demand can push the index higher quickly. And significant increases in demand can push the index sharply higher. That's precisely what happened earlier this fall. As this chart shows, the Baltic Index doubled in September and October—an unprecedented jump.
Does this chart represent a Nasdaq-style bubble or a demand-led structural change? The summer did see a pick-up in coal and grain shipments to Europe, due to the heat wave, and China's humming steel factories are consuming massive quantities of iron ore. Those could be blips. "But it's not just iron ore and coal," says Michael McClure, vice president of Navios, a ship broker. "The strength can be seen among all the major commodities that ocean freight is carrying."
The real force behind the BDI's rise may be China. "To put it in extremely simplistic terms, China is importing huge amounts of raw materials and exporting manufactured goods, and that's drawing ships into the Pacific," says Jim Buckley, chief executive of the Baltic Exchange. The Wall Street Journal led today's "Money and Investing" section with an article on China's insatiable demand for raw materials. The Baltic index divined this trend several weeks ago.
As they say on CNBC, what does this mean for you? In this article from late last year, Howard Simons charted the index against the Dow Jones World Equity Stock Market Index and U.S. Treasury 10-year notes. His conclusion: "It's a very good leading indicator." Movements in the Baltic Index tend to precede movements in global stock markets. But the index also tends to presage higher interest rates. When more stuff is being shipped around the world, it needs to be financed. And that creates a greater demand for credit.
So the shipping news—at least as measured by the BDI—is largely good. Even better, it may be a sign that China's trade deficit may be declining. The downside: China isn't sucking up raw materials in vast quantities from the United States. (We export grains and soybeans to China, but not coal or iron ore.)
http://www.slate.com/id/2090303/
Price has been rallying since its rebound from $1.16 the 261.8% Fibonacci extended projection. Next immediate resistance zone is $1.50 the 161.8% Fibonacci extended projection to $1.55 the previous price peak. Monitor 20 day EMA resistance line. Monitor gap support at $1.30.
A new way to move fluids around on a "lab on a chip" could make sophisticated portable blood tests more practical.
The potential of "lab on a chip" technology is immense: it could yield fast, cheap, and portable devices to test soldiers for biological or chemical poisoning within minutes, or a handheld device that takes a drop of blood and scans it for diseases such as HIV. But one problem in developing these microfluidic devices is how to precisely pump fluids through a chip without using a significant amount of power. As a result, existing labs on a chip are weighed down by large, bench-top power sources.
Now Martin Bazant, a professor of applied mathematics at MIT, and his colleagues at MIT's Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies have designed a tiny, battery-powered pumping system for existing microchips that the researchers hope to build into a handheld diagnostic device. "In terms of the platform for labs on chips," says Bazant, "we can integrate the power source right into the chip and miniaturize it, and I think that's a major advantage."
An average lab on a chip can theoretically perform hundreds of different tests on a single drop of blood. A pumping system directs fluids, such as blood, through a complex system of microchannels, each no wider than a hair, pumping blood to this chamber or that. Once in the chamber, the fluid can be analyzed by different sensors, depending on the kind of test that needs to be done. But fluids at such a microscale act very differently from those on an everyday macroscale. For example, it takes a much stronger force to push a drop of blood through a tiny channel than it does to move, say, a liter of blood through a column. So, Bazant and others are exploring electro-osmosis--that is, creating an electric field along a chip via electrodes to move a fluid from one end to the other.
Most labs on a chip are made of glass or silicon, and micro- or nanosize channels can now easily be etched in, and then plated with a second layer of the material to create a complex system of canals. Still, to electrically pump fluids through this canal system requires a tremendous amount of power. Many researchers have explored the phenomenon of capillary electro-osmosis, using large DC electric fields of up to 1000 volts to power electrodes on either end of a chip. In this way, labs on a chip are able to, for example, analyze DNA from blood samples, but are often tethered to a large power source. "The system requires all this extra stuff," says Bazant. "And you're manipulating things on a small scale by using a large-scale device."
http://www.technologyreview.com/Nanotech/17662/
New technologies wirelessly transmit high-definition video.
A trip across the showroom floor at last week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas pointed to a home entertainment trend: bulky cabinets that hold boxy televisions, stereos, and media players are out, and flat-panel displays on walls are in. But as good as those skinny displays look, they still pose the aesthetic and logistical challenge of what to do with the wires connected to them. Now, a handful of companies are racing to outfit televisions, media players, video cameras, and gaming systems with wireless chips that can cut some of those cords.
At CES, SiBeam demonstrated its wireless chipset, which could stream high-definition video and audio from a media player to a television. With SiBeam's technology, it would be possible to hang a television on a wall and place the media player in the same room, but far away and out of sight, without wiring the two together. In the demonstration, the company sent data from the media player to the television at a rate of two gigabits per second, fast enough for standard high-definition video, which is known as 1080i. But the company's first commercial chips--available in Panasonic displays in early 2009--will be better. They will transmit data at four gigabits per second, fast enough to stream the highest-quality high-definition video, 1080p.
http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/20086/
Helium isotopes reveal hidden stores of geothermal energy.
Most geothermal power plants exploit the relatively rare but easy to spot hot water associated with volcanoes, limiting geothermal energy to a niche role in meeting global energy demand. It works well in Iceland and a few other places, but geothermal energy is a largely untapped resource in much of the world, in part because, in the absence of a volcano or hot springs, it's hard to find the right spot to tap into the resource. Last week, a pair of geochemists published a report in Science showing that the ultrasensitive detection of traces of helium at the surface using mass spectrometers may hold the key to sniffing out the best sites of this hidden heat.
Mack Kennedy, a senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in Berkeley, CA, and coauthor Matthijs van Soest, an associate research professional at Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration, in Tempe, measured the levels of helium isotopes to predict areas where the rock is permeable deep underground. Water is more likely to circulate rapidly through such regions, providing the circulation of heat emanating from the earth's mantle or generated in its crust by radioactive decay. "You have a huge resource, and now I can tell you where there's good permeability," says Kennedy. "Those are places to go look for a natural geothermal system right off the bat."
The findings could be an important step in efforts to unlock the vast potential of geothermal energy, in which heated water produces steam to drive power-generating turbines. According to a recent expert panel analysis for the Department of Energy (DOE), led by researchers at MIT and Southern Methodist University, in Texas, geothermal systems engineered to exploit hot rocks could be meeting 10 percent of U.S. electricity demand within 50 years. Currently, geothermal systems supply less than 1 percent of that demand. One challenge to further exploiting geothermal energy has been pinpointing exactly where to look for rocks with the right combination of permeability and heat. And that's where the new study could help.
http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/19891/
Researchers have fashioned a high-temperature-superconductor crystal into a structure that generates t-rays, electromagnetic waves with a frequency near one terahertz. Although the superconductor-based technique is not yet ready for commercial use, it offers a new option for exploiting this region of the spectrum for a variety of applications, including airport security and medical monitoring.
Because terahertz radiation penetrates many millimeters into tissue, it could enable new medical-imaging techniques. T-rays have also been used in prototype security systems, where they pass readily through fabrics and packaging to reveal concealed weapons and the spectral fingerprints of toxins and explosives.
In spite of its potential, however, the terahertz region hasn't been widely exploited, partly due to limitations of current sources. "All the different sources that are available have nuances that make them not quite exactly what people want," says John Federici, a professor of physics at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, who works on generation schemes based on large pulsed lasers.
Superconductors could provide a solution, says Ulrich Welp, of Argonne National Laboratory, who led the new research. In particular, Josephson junctions--two superconducting slabs separated by a thin insulator--emit high frequencies and occur naturally in the atomic structure of high-temperature superconductors.
The problem is that a single junction emits only a tiny amount of terahertz radiation. "People have worked for a long time to get high-frequency radiation from these intrinsic Josephson junctions," says Welp, but "the power was limited to the picowatt range". He says that his team's new devices, described in the November 23 issue of Science, emit much more power: about half a microwatt.
Researchers have long recognized that combining the output from many junctions could boost the power. "The problem was always to synchronize this large number of junctions," says Welp. To solve this problem, the group started with single crystals of bismuth strontium calcium copper oxide, better known as BSCCO, grown by team members in Japan. The group then used standard processing techniques to etch away parts of the crystal, leaving a flat-topped plateau about a micron high and tens of microns wide.
The etched edges of this mesa reflect radiation traveling along the surface, turning the raised structure into a "cavity" that traps the radiation, Welp says. "We synchronize these junctions through a cavity resonance, just like in a [semiconductor] laser--a standing electromagnetic wave inside a sample, which forces all these junctions to oscillate in phase, coherently." As a signature of coherence, the team found that the power output rose not in proportion to the number of active junctions, but as the square of that number, suggesting that their electric fields are summing together, not just their emission.
http://www.technologyreview.com/Nanotech/19910/
Could nanotechnology help squeeze more oil and gas out of the ground? That's the hope of a consortium of energy companies that is putting millions of dollars into the development of new micro- and nanosensor technologies.
The seven companies that make up the Advanced Energy Consortium (AEC), which includes Halliburton Energy Services, BP America, and ConocoPhilips, will put up $21 million in total to fund the research. The aim is to develop subsurface sensors that can be used to improve both the discovery and the recovery of hydrocarbons.
It's been a long time coming," says Wade Adams, director of the Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology at Rice University, in Houston, a technical partner to the consortium. "It's the first time the energy companies have got together to fund this kind of research, so it really is a big deal," he says.
Currently, even with the most advanced recovery techniques, only about 40 percent of the oil and gas in reservoirs can be recovered. The hope is that by injecting novel sensors into these reservoirs, it will be possible to more accurately map them in 3-D, increase the amount of fuel extracted, and minimize the environmental impact.
The financial investment--equivalent to $1 million per year from each company for three years--is "a very good sign," says Kris Pister, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, who has spent several years developing distributed sensors known as smart dust. It means that the energy companies now understand the potential of small-scale distributed-sensors technologies, he says.
"There is good reason to suspect that this technology could help," says Pister. Distributed wireless sensor technologies are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and now even have their own wireless standard: the highway addressable remote transducer, or HART.
Right now, the only way to find these reservoirs and gauge their precise size and capacity is through seismic means, or by simply drilling down. "But you don't get much information," says Adams. Surface and down-hole seismic techniques have limited resolution, while drilling can only take readings for the two-foot region surrounding the drill bore, he says.
Moreover, oil and gas reservoirs tend not to be formed in huge underground chasms, or wells, as many people think. Instead, the reservoirs are formed in porous rock formations, which act like high-pressure geological sponges, says Scott Tinker, director of the AEC, state geologist of Texas and a professor at the University of Texas, in Austin. "The pores are very small," he says. They can be anywhere from 10 microns to one micron in diameter. Because of their size, once the initial high pressure of the reservoir has been reduced by releasing some of the oil, this porosity can impede the flow of oil or gas through the rock formation. "It can take a lot of work to get the oil out of the rock," says Tinker.
What is needed is a means of mapping the pore structure and the voids between formations, he says, and to do this, researchers need sensors that are smaller than the pores. So the aim is to create micro- or nanosensors that can not only pass through the pores, but also form mesh networks to create detailed, 3-D maps of the structure of rock formations.
Another possibility with smaller-sized pores is to use magnetic nanoparticles to enhance aboveground sensing techniques, says Adams. By pumping the sensors into a rock formation, it could be possible to map the formation by detecting slight changes that the nanoparticles create in the earth's magnetic field.
The researchers believe that, in addition to locating and mapping oil and gas, nanoparticles might also be able to help recover the fuels. "The trouble is that the oil in the pores sticks to the walls," says Adams, even when high-pressure steam is blasted into the rock. The hope is that with the right nanoparticles, the researchers might be able to free the hydrocarbons from the rock.
Despite this potential, the energy industry hasn't shown much interest in nanoparticles until now. It was the high price of oil that caused its change of heart, Adams says. "All the big formations have been tapped, and most fields are in depletion. So cheap and easy oil is getting scarcer," he says.
Pister agrees. "A huge amount of money has been put into traditional extraction techniques," he says. But these have reached their limits in existing reservoirs. "They are about as tapped out as they can get."
However, there are lots of challenges ahead. Little is known about how nanoparticles will flow through porous rock. "And we have not generally designed nanoparticles for use at high temperatures and high pressures, nor for extreme chemical environments," says Adams. If these problems can be overcome, the payoff is likely to be great.
http://www.technologyreview.com/Nanotech/20114/
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will invest more than $190 million over the next five years to accelerate an emerging field of biomedical research known as epigenomics.
"Disease is about more than genetics. It's about how genes are regulated - how and when they work in both health and disease," said NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D. "Epigenomics will build upon our new knowledge of the human genome and help us better understand the role of the environment in regulating genes that protect our health or make us more susceptible to disease."
The NIH is making this a priority in its research portfolio, taking it on as an NIH Roadmap initiative. Grant applications are now being accepted for research on epigenome mapping centers, epigenomics data analysis and coordination, technology development in epigenetics, and discovery of novel epigenetic marks in mammalian cells.
Epigenetics focuses on processes that regulate how and when certain genes are turned on and turned off, while epigenomics pertains to analysis of epigenetic changes across many genes in a cell or entire organism.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/94786.php
Can a patient who agrees to participate in a safety study of a gene therapy protocol give truly informed consent and understand the risks involved when the consent forms are highly technical and the physician or institution seeking their consent has a stake in the study and its outcome? The continuing debate over informed consent and the acknowledgement of risk and responsibility in gene therapy trials are the focus of a series of probing and provocative commentaries published in the January 2008 issue (Volume 19, Number 1) of Human Gene Therapy, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The commentaries are available free online.
In the Editorial, James M. Wilson, MD, PhD, Editor-in-Chief and Head of the Gene Therapy Program, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, in Philadelphia, calls on the gene therapy, regulatory, and research communities to re-explore the issue of informed consent as it relates to the safety of viral vector-based gene transfer therapies and the appropriateness of having physicians and others with an interest in the trials and their outcomes recruit patients and obtain the necessary informed consent.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/94858.php
Comcast began offering a digital video recorder with TiVo's programming services in the Boston area. The partnership reflects a new strategy for TiVo, which is facing competition from satellite and cable-TV providers in the digital video recorder, or DVR, market. San Jose-based TiVo is trying to "divorce" itself from hardware by developing software for other set-top boxes, Chief Executive Officer Thomas Rogers said earlier this month at a Citigroup investor conference in Phoenix. The software for Comcast includes a new function to search cable-TV and On Demand listings, said Jeff Klugman, head of TiVo's service provider division. The new software won't have broadband features that exist in TiVo's retail products, Klugman said. Those features allow users to stream Rhapsody music and download movies directly from Amazon.com.
http://origin.siliconvalley.com/ci_8052264?nclick_check=1
Shipments rose in Q4
Shipments of microprocessors for personal computers rose 8.5 percent in the fourth quarter from the third quarter to a record level for a second quarter in row, according to the market research firm IDC. During the period, Intel gained 0.4 percent market share while rival Advanced Micro Devices lost the same amount of share, IDC said. Intel finished the quarter with 76.7 percent of the market compared with AMD's 23.1 percent. IDC analyst Shane Rau said economic softness could mean a greater decline in first-quarter shipments than the typical 6 to 7 percent drop.
http://www.siliconvalley.com//ci_8052265?IADID=Search-www.siliconvalley.com-www.siliconvalley.com
Major Sequencing Effort Will Produce Most Detailed Map
Of Human Genetic Variation to Support Disease Studies
An international research consortium today announced the 1000 Genomes Project, an
ambitious effort that will involve sequencing the genomes of at least a thousand
people from around the world to create the most detailed and medically useful picture
to date of human genetic variation. The project will receive major support from the
Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, England, the Beijing Genomics Institute,
Shenzhen (BGI Shenzhen) in China and the National Human Genome Research
Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Drawing on the expertise of multidisciplinary research teams, the 1000 Genomes
Project will develop a new map of the human genome that will provide a view of
biomedically relevant DNA variations at a resolution unmatched by current resources.
As with other major human genome reference projects, data from the 1000 Genomes
Project will be made swiftly available to the worldwide scientific community through
freely accessible public databases.
“The 1000 Genomes Project will examine the human genome at a level of detail that
no one has done before,” said Richard Durbin, Ph.D., of the Wellcome Trust Sanger
Institute, who is co-chair of the consortium. “Such a project would have been
unthinkable only two years ago. Today, thanks to amazing strides in sequencing
technology, bioinformatics and population genomics, it is now within our grasp. So
we are moving forward to build a tool that will greatly expand and further accelerate
efforts to find more of the genetic factors involved in human health and disease.”
Any two humans are more than 99 percent the same at the genetic level. However, it
is important to understand the small fraction of genetic material that varies among
people because it can help explain individual differences in susceptibility to disease,
response to drugs or reaction to environmental factors. Variation in the human
genome is organized into local neighborhoods called haplotypes, which are stretches
of DNA usually inherited as intact blocks of information.
Recently developed catalogs of human genetic variation, such as the HapMap, have
proved valuable in human genetic research. Using the HapMap and related resources,
researchers already have discovered more than 100 regions of the genome containing
genetic variants that are associated with risk of common human diseases such as
diabetes, coronary artery disease, prostate and breast cancer, rheumatoid arthritis,
inflammatory bowel disease and age-related macular degeneration.
However, because existing maps are not extremely detailed, researchers often must
follow those studies with costly and time-consuming DNA sequencing to help
pinpoint the precise causative variants. The new map would enable researchers to
more quickly zero in on disease-related genetic variants, speeding efforts to use
genetic information to develop new strategies for diagnosing, treating and preventing
common diseases.
The scientific goals of the 1000 Genomes Project are to produce a catalog of variants
that are present at 1 percent or greater frequency in the human population across most
of the genome, and down to 0.5 percent or lower within genes. This will likely entail
sequencing the genomes of at least 1,000 people. These people will be anonymous
and will not have any medical information collected on them, because the project is
developing a basic resource to provide information on genetic variation. The catalog
that is developed will be used by researchers in many future studies of people with
particular diseases.
“This new project will increase the sensitivity of disease discovery efforts across the
genome five-fold and within gene regions at least 10-fold,” said NHGRI Director
Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. “Our existing databases do a reasonably good job of
cataloging variations found in at least 10 percent of a population. By harnessing the
power of new sequencing technologies and novel computational methods, we hope to
give biomedical researchers a genome-wide map of variation down to the 1 percent
level. This will change the way we carry out studies of genetic disease.”
With current approaches, researchers can search for two types of genetic variants
related to disease. The first type is very rare genetic variants that have a severe effect,
such as the variants responsible for causing cystic fibrosis and Huntington’s disease.
To find these rare variants, which typically affect fewer than one in 1,000 people,
researchers often must spend years on studies involving affected families. However,
most common diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease, are influenced by more
common genetic variants. Most of these common variants have weak effects, perhaps
increasing risk of a common condition by 25 percent or less. Recently, using a new
approach known as a genome-wide association study, researchers have been able to
search for these common variants.
“Between these two types of genetic variants — very rare and fairly common — we
have a significant gap in our knowledge. The 1000 Genomes Project is designed to fill
that gap, which we anticipate will contain many important variants that are relevant to
human health and disease,” said David Altshuler, M.D., Ph.D., of Massachusetts
General Hospital in Boston and the Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) and Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., who is the
consortium’s co-chair and was a leader of the HapMap Consortium.
One use of the new catalog will be to follow up genome-wide association studies.
Investigators who find that a part of the genome is associated with a disease will be
able to look it up in the catalog, and find almost all variants in that region. They will
then be able to conduct functional studies to see whether any of the catalogued
variants directly contribute to the disease.
The 1000 Genomes Project builds on the human haplotype map developed by the
International HapMap Project. The new map will provide genomic context
surrounding the HapMap’s genetic variants, giving researchers important clues to
which variants might be causal, including more precise information on where to
search for causal variants.
Going a major step beyond the HapMap, the 1000 Genomes Project will map not only
the single-letter differences in people’s DNA, called single nucleotide polymorphisms
(SNPs), but also will produce a high-resolution map of larger differences in genome
structure called structural variants. Structural variants are rearrangements, deletions or
duplications of segments of the human genome. The importance of these variants has
become increasingly clear with surveys completed in the past 18 months that show
these differences in genome structure may play a role in susceptibility to certain
conditions, such as mental retardation and autism.
In addition to accelerating the search for genetic variants involved in susceptibility to
common diseases, the map produced by the 1000 Genomes Project will provide a
deeper understanding of human genetic variation and open the door to many other
new findings of significance to both medicine and basic human biology.
The sequencing work will be carried out at the Sanger Institute, BGI Shenzhen and
NHGRI’s Large-Scale Sequencing Network, which includes the Broad Institute of
MIT and Harvard; the Washington University Genome Sequencing Center at the
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis; and the Human Genome
Sequencing Center at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. The consortium
may add other participants over time.
The project depends on large-scale implementation of several new sequencing
platforms. Using standard DNA sequencing technologies, the effort would likely cost
more than $500 million. However, leaders of the 1000 Genomes Project expect the
costs to be far lower – in the range of $30 million to $50 million – because of the
project’s pioneering efforts to use new sequencing technologies in the most efficient
and cost-effective manner.
In the first phase of the 1000 Genomes Project, lasting about a year, researchers will
conduct three pilots. The results of the pilots will be used to decide how to most
efficiently and cost effectively produce the project’s detailed map of human genetic
variation.
The first pilot will involve sequencing the genomes of two nuclear families (both
parents and an adult child) at deep coverage that averages 20 passes of each genome.
This will provide a comprehensive dataset from six people that will help the project
figure out how to identify variants using the new sequencing platforms, and serve as a
basis for comparison for other parts of the effort.
The second pilot will involve sequencing the genomes of 180 people at low coverage
that averages two passes of each genome. This will test the ability to use lowcoverage
data from new sequencing platforms to identify sequence variants and to put
them in their genomic context.
http://www.1000genomes.org/files/1000Genomes-NewsRelease.pdf
Growth in biopharmaceuticals is creating an unprecedented increase in demand for cell culture products. Cell culture techniques have been used in biological sciences for more than 50 years; however, cell culture applied to production systems has been around for only half that time. The cell culture industry, which began in the late 1980s from the utilization of recombinant DNA technology and cell hybridization, is, today, a major underpinning of the biopharmaceutical market.
Media, sera, and reagents are the fuel that powers these cell culture manufacturing engines, and suppliers are beginning to see sales ramping up accordingly. According to Kalorama’s Cell Culture: The World Market for Media, Sera, and Reagents, the market for these products is growing at an annual rate in excess of 12% and headed for more than $2.6 billion in 2011.
Changing Market Drivers
At the same time that demand for these products is increasing, the demand is also changing. Traditional sera products are stagnant, and, increasingly, researchers and process engineers are demanding products with more rigid controls over ingredients. The emergence of serum-free media and chemically defined media shows the increasing trend toward stringent component control, which has characterized the past few years of product development.
However, more change is on the horizon. Biomedical research at the basic levels will become a major driver of innovation for the cell culture market. Biomedical research and bioprocessing have a wide range of supply needs, including high-quality media and reagents for fermentation and cell culture. In cell biology research, cell screening technology has proved to be important in finding high-producing cell lines, and research is now focused on how to predict growth characteristics of cells at an earlier stage. Progress in the future will come from processes, such as metabolic engineering, that will aid in improving cell lines, which will continue to be a main focal point of research.
http://www.genengnews.com/articles/chitem.aspx?aid=2086
New Products
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc
The new range of Verso™ cDNA synthesis kits and one-step reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) kits combine a new RT enzyme, improved priming options, and buffers to generate full-length cDNA. The kits were designed to minimize the steps involved in the RT-PCR protocol. The RT enzyme utilized in the kits has an improved dynamic range, which is designed to allows users to detect a wider range of starting template concentrations. The enzyme mix also includes an RNase inhibitor that is designed to reduce RNase contamination while simplifying pre-RT setup steps. The kits allows researchers to use anchored oligo dT or random hexamers in a reaction.
http://www.genengnews.com/newproducts/item.aspx?id=2280
Foundation of the Industry
Gene patents, more specifically patent claims to nucleotide sequences, such as genes, plasmids, and probes, are fundamental and critical to the biotech industry. They are the foundation of the industry. Such claims protect therapeutic proteins, like human insulin; Mabs, like Herceptin®; transgenic plants, like insect-resistant corn; and diagnostic probes for genetic diseases, which are the foundation for personalized medicine. Banning such patents risks shutting down a large part of the industry and creating a major roadblock to progress in patient care and food production.
Inventions do not move from the laboratory to the marketplace without a huge investment of money, time, and effort. A Tufts University study has found that it takes over $800 million to bring a new drug to market. The author is not aware of similar studies for transgenic plants or gene-based diagnostics, but the cost must be substantial, even if less than for drugs.
For diagnostics in particular, critics have argued that it is a relatively quick and straightforward process for a laboratory to develop a molecular diagnostic once a particular disease-associated gene has been identified in the scientific literature. However, an examination of financial disclosure documents of some molecular diagnostic companies indicate that this is not the case.
For example, the prospectus for Genomic Health’s IPO, dated September 8, 2005, states that the company would use $20 million of the proceeds to fund R&D. Third Wave’s 10-K for 2005, the latest available, states that it spent $8.4 million for R&D for that year. These amounts would cover several products, but clearly a substantial amount of money is involved. Quite simply, this investment will not happen if, after it is done, a competitor can get a free ride on the pioneer’s efforts and knock-off the product.
http://www.genengnews.com/articles/chitem.aspx?aid=2052
Base formation or support zone breakdown?
Researchers from academia and industry will present the latest developments in the application of interference RNA (RNAi) as a tool for gene silencing at “RNAi2008 Functions and Applications of Non-coding RNAs” to be held in March in Oxford, U.K. The meeting will focus on advances in the field and current opportunities and challenges in developing RNAi-based strategies for use in understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying disease processes, identifying new drug targets, and developing therapeutic agents capable of silencing disease-related genes.
siRNA Therapeutics
“Refined Animal Models for Optimizing Delivery of Functional siRNAs to Skin,” is the title of the presentation to be given by Roger Kaspar, Ph.D., on behalf of TransDerm (www.transderm.org). The skin disorder on which the company is focusing its initial product development effort is pachyonychia congenital (PC), a rare autosomal dominant disease in which a mutation in the gene for keratin 6a (K6a) causes painful skin lesions to form. The K6a N171 mutation is a single-nucleotide replacement mutation in which an adenine is present in the mutant gene form in place of a cytosine, resulting in an amino acid change.
Dr. Kaspar, CEO of TransDerm, will describe how the company’s TD101 therapeutic small interfering RNA (siRNA) specifically targets the N171K mutant form of the gene without affecting the wild-type gene.
To assess the activity of TD101 and optimize a controlled-dose delivery system, TranDerm is developing transgenic mouse models. In collaboration with Christopher Contag, Ph.D., and colleagues in the molecular imaging program at Stanford University, the company is using molecular imaging in transgenic mice to demonstrate the effectiveness of siRNA knockdown of reporter genes.
Two in vivo imaging-based approaches for validating RNAi activity have yielded quantitative and qualitative evidence of gene expression inhibition. In one method, the researchers intradermally coinjected a plasmid expressing the firefly reporter gene luciferase with siRNA molecules targeting the reporter gene mRNA into mouse paws. The results demonstrated potent inhibition of luciferase expression. Northern blot analysis supported luciferase mRNA inhibition as the mechanism of action.
The second method involved the construction of a mutant K6a/luciferase bicistronic reporter construct that was codelivered into mouse skin with K6a mutant-specific siRNAs. In vivo bioluminescence-based imaging showed weak luciferase activity in the coinjected mouse skin compared to control animals.
The company plans to use human skin explants derived from PC patient biopsies grafted onto immunocompromised, nude mice as a test stage to determine whether the RNAi activity seen in mouse skin will translate to similar efficacy in human skin samples. This work, being carried out with collaborators at the Ciemat Institute in Madrid, Spain, is still in the early stages.
TransDerm’s TD101 product is an unmodified siRNA intended to be administered directly to the PC lesions. Although intradermal injection offers a reliable delivery method, it is not a particularly patient-friendly option, especially given the need for repeated administration of the drug to treat new lesions. TransDerm is experimenting with two alternative siRNA delivery methods.
One is a topical, lipid-based formulation called GeneCreme. Its main limitation at present is how to ensure reliable uptake and dosing. The other approach is called the Soluble Tip Microneedle Array. Each array is composed of a grid of dissolvable, hollow protrusions into which siRNAs can be loaded. The microneedles penetrate the outer layer of the skin, the stratum corneum, where the tips are dislodged and remain. Time-release dispersion of the siRNA occurs as the tips dissolve.
“An ideal application would be to embed the array in a type of Band-aid device that the patient would apply and push down on to deliver the drug,” says Dr. Kaspar.
siRNA drugs intended for systemic administration require chemical modification or some sort of protective packaging to prevent rapid enzymatic degradation in the bloodstream, which would compromise their ability to reach the intended target and to exert a therapeutic effect.
Jørgen Kjems, Ph.D., a professor in the department of molecular biology at Aarhus University in Denmark, part of the Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO; www.inano.dk), is experimenting with three-stranded siRNAs as a means of optimizing the ability to introduce chemical modifications without changing the molecules’ activity.
Dr. Kjems begins with a small, double-stranded RNA, keeps one strand whole, and cleaves the second nonfunctional strand into two pieces. The result is a short internally segmented interfering RNA (sisiRNA). His group has demonstrated that these three-stranded constructs are amenable to a greater number of chemical modifications. With a double-stranded RNAi molecule about 20% of the nucleotides can be modified without losing activity, 100% of the nucleotides in an sisiRNA molecule can undergo chemical modification, allowing for more options to improve their pharmacodynamic properties.
This finding created an opportunity for evaluating a large variety of chemical modifications. Dr. Kjems has shown that the difference between an unmodified siRNA and a fully modified sisiRNA may be as great as a 100-fold increase in stability in serum.
This triple-stranded approach offers an additional benefit related to RNAi uptake and activity. When an siRNA is taken up by a cell, an intracellular complex selects one of the two RNA strands to retain. With the sisiRNA, the uncleaved strand—the active strand—is preferentially retained.
http://www.genengnews.com/articles/chitem.aspx?aid=2343
Cornell University received two one-year institutional development grants for stem cell research from the state of New York as part of $14.5 million in similar awards granted statewide Jan. 7. A grant to Cornell's Ithaca campus totaled $1 million, while a second award for $997,382 was given to the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. These are the first grant awards from New York's new $600 million, multiyear stem cell research program that came out of a stem cell research initiative in the 2007-08 state budget.
"This is a major boost for our stem cell programs and will support individual projects, core facilities and collaborative stem cell research on campus," said Michael Kotlikoff, the Austin O. Hooey Dean of Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine. "The program brings investigators together from several colleges and includes work on stem cell biology and cancer, as well as translational projects using human embryonic stem cell lines in animal models of human disease."
Cornell currently has investigators who conduct research on embryonic and adult stem cells, basic stem cell biology and the use of stem cells to treat cancer, cardiovascular and degenerative disorders. Also, compared to other institutions, Cornell researchers engage in "unparalleled interdisciplinary interactions," and the veterinary college gives Cornell the unique advantage of comparing stem cells across species, as researchers here study mouse, dog, horse and human stem cells, said Alexander Nikitin, the principal investigator of the grant and associate professor of pathology in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the veterinary college.
He said investigators on the Ithaca campus from the Departments of Molecular Biology and Genetics and of Biomedical Engineering will receive the funding. The money will be divided approximately 50 percent for research, 20 percent for training new investigators in stem cell science and 30 percent for acquiring new instruments for conducting research. Some funds also will go toward establishing a Cornell stem cell program that will offer workshops and will invite national and international experts to Cornell to give seminars and training, Alexander Nikitin, the principal investigator of the grant and associate professor of pathology in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the veterinary college, Nikitin said.
At the Weill Cornell Medical College's Ansary Stem Cell Center for Regenerative Medicine, the state grant will provide scientists and students the funds to examine the prospective uses of both adult stem cells and embryonic stem cells.
http://www.bionity.com/news/e/76725/
