How a bath sponge becomes a bio-based industrial filter

New material can be reused many times over

18-Jun-2021 - Researchers at TU Bergakademie Freiberg developed an innovative material from a cultured marine sponge. When the fibers of the sponge react with a copper-containing ammonia solution, such as that found in the electronics industry, the mineral atacamite is formed. This mineral, which occurs only ...

Material could give dialysis patients the freedom to move

MXene material can be used to filter urea

07-Nov-2018 - For more than 3 million people around the world, kidney failure is a life-altering diagnosis, if not a life-threatening one. While about 17 percent of people in the U.S. with end-stage kidney disease are now getting transplants, the average time spent waiting is 3-5 years. And much of that time ...

This tiny particle might change millions of lives

Nanoparticle targets kidney disease for drug delivery

22-Aug-2018 - Remember the scene in the movie Mission: Impossible when Tom Cruise has to sneak into the vault? He had to do all sorts of moves to avoid detection. That's what it's like to sneak a targeted drug into a kidney and keep it from getting eliminated from the body. Since kidneys are the filtering ...

Channeling graphene to understand filtration and ion transport into cells

12-Dec-2017 - Tiny pores at a cell's entryway act as miniature bouncers, letting in some electrically charged atoms--ions--but blocking others. Operating as exquisitely sensitive filters, these "ion channels" play a critical role in biological functions such as muscle contraction and the firing of brain cells. ...

Turning jellyfish from a nuisance to useful product

13-Nov-2017 - Global climate change and the human impact on marine ecosystems have led to dramatic decreases in the number of fish in the ocean. It has also had an unforseen side effect: because overfishing decreases the numbers of jellyfish competitors, their blooms are on the rise. The GoJelly project, ...

Incorporating biofunctionality into nanomaterials for medical, health devices

25-Mar-2010 - A team led by researchers from North Carolina State University has published a paper that describes the use of a technique called atomic layer deposition to incorporate "biological functionality" into complex nanomaterials, which could lead to a new generation of medical and environmental health ...

Discovery of novel genes could unlock mystery of what makes us uniquely human

02-Sep-2009 - Humans and chimpanzees are genetically very similar, yet it is not difficult to identify the many ways in which we are clearly distinct from chimps. In a study published in Genome Research, scientists have made a crucial discovery of genes that have evolved in humans after branching off from ...

World scientific leaders gather in Espoo to accelerate development of bioactive paper

25-Jun-2008 - New methods are being developed in Finland, under VTT's direction, for the economical mass production of bioactive paper products, among others based on printing technology. The development is accelerated by organizing a joint conference with Canada's SENTINEL Bioactive Paper Network. The ...

Deep-frozen HIV specimens

04-Oct-2007 - The development of an HIV vaccine is hindered by the rapidity with which the virus mutates. A new resource available to vaccine developers is a cryobank of frozen virus specimens collected from all over the world. A mobile laboratory will soon be collecting specimens in Africa. Researchers the ...

Enzyme Crystal Structure Reveals "Unexpected" Genome Repair Functions

New Discovery Could Help Improve Some Forms of Chemotherapy

10-Apr-2006 - Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have determined the crystal structure of an enzyme called xeroderma pigmentosum group B (XPB) helicase, identifying several unexpected functions and helping to address important questions about the enzyme's ...