Researchers of the Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, have been working for more than 20 years on designing biological microchips for efficient and quick diagnostics of tuberculosis and other diseases.

The BIOCHIP-IMB company was set up at the Institute for production of domestic microchips. During the press-tour on November 15, 2007, the researchers told journalists about progress and achievements. The project of the laboratory of biological microchips at the Institute of Molecular Biology (Russian Academy of Sciences ) is one of the winners at the contest of projects on the “Living Systems” priority direction of the Federal Target Program guided by the Federal Agency for Science and Innovations (Rosnauka).

Today, people from all over the world are insufficiently aware about their daily food consumption. Most like to eat organic food and reduce GM (Genetically Modified) crops. So farmers of both modern and developing countries are trying to produce organic crops. But at this time there are lots of pests and insects which decrease the yield of crops and losses total yields. For this reason farmers are interested in cultivating their crops under Integrated Pest Management and other control management systems. If they want to produce crops without the help of synthetic insecticides, they can use organic pesticides such as neem (Azadirachta indica) plant extract.

Time-lapse videos and computer simulations provide the first concrete molecular explanation of how a cell flexes tiny muscle-like structures to pinch itself into two daughter cells at the end of each cell division, according to a report in Science Express.

Cell biologists at Yale and physicists at Columbia teamed up to model and then observe the way a cell assembles the “contractile ring,” the short-lived force-producing structure that physically divides cells and is always located precisely between the two daughter cell nuclei.

“This contractile ring is thought to operate like an old-fashioned purse string,” said senior author Thomas D. Pollard, Sterling Professor and Chair of the Department of Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology at Yale.

If you do a search here on the LHC, you find all kinds of news articles.

The LHC was completed in April, except it wasn't, and parts broke, or were still being designed and testing will be delayed, except it's unimportant and it will still be the greatest thing ever. Maybe it will be. Or it will be another Hubble.

After yesterday's statements by CERN Director General Robert Aymar it's still unclear when it will be done or how it will work but, he says, 'good progress has been made on all fronts.'

So here's the latest:

The LHC is now fully installed in its 27 km tunnel.

Levels of cholesterol in the membranes of hair cells in the inner ear can affect your hearing, said a consortium of researchers from Baylor College of Medicine, Rice University and Purdue University in a report in today’s print edition of The Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Dr. William Brownell, professor of otolaryngology at BCM and his colleagues, said that the amount of cholesterol in the outer hair cell membrane found in the inner ear can affect hearing.

“We’ve known for a long time that cholesterol is lower in the outer hair cell membranes than in the other cells of the body,” said Brownell, senior author of the report “What we didn’t know was the relationship it had to hearing.”

The press release had a curious title: “Omega-3 fatty acids protect against Parkinson’s.” The certainty suggested an experiment, but Parkinson’s is too rare to study prevention experimentally. The press release turned out to be about a rat study that used a drug called MDPT to cause brain damage that resembles Parkinson’s. Rats given a high-omega-3 diet suffered much less damage — apparently none — from the drug.

This is one of my undergraduate assignment under department of Agronomy, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka-1207, Bangladesh.

Abstract

LONDON, December 14 /PRNewswire/ --

- The Benefits of Anastrozole (Arimidex(R)) Over Tamoxifen at Preventing Breast Cancer Recurrence Improve Over Time - Up to Four Years After Treatment Ends

New data from ATAC(x), one of the world's largest and longest-running studies in postmenopausal women with hormone receptor positive (HR+), early breast cancer, reinforce that anastrozole can help many more women live cancer-free, for longer. The new data show that post-menopausal HR+ women continue to benefit from anastrozole, even up to four years after treatment ends.(1), (2) If breast cancer returns, women are much more likely to die - therefore, preventing breast cancer recurrence is fundamental to saving lives.

Natural selection can occur at the cellular level, where it is detrimental to health. Fortunately it is normally controlled by a well-known pattern of ongoing cell differentiation in the mature tissues of animals, according to a new study published December 14 in PLoS Computational Biology.

The failure of normal cell differentiation patterns may explain cancer and senescent decline with aging, say researchers at the University of Arizona, the Santa Fe Institute, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Wistar Institute.

Darwinian natural selection and evolution is usually studied in populations of organisms, but it also applies to cellular populations; this is called “somatic” evolution.

SLOUGH, England, December 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Reckitt Benckiser, the manufacturer of Nurofen Plus, has been made aware of the death of a woman earlier this year from acute renal failure who, prior to her death, was taking large quantities of Nurofen Plus (in excess of 48 tablets) daily. This far exceeds the recommended and approved doses (a maximum of six tablets daily).

A Reckitt Benckiser spokesperson comments, "We offer our sincere sympathy to the Docherty family for their tragic loss. However, Reckitt Benckiser would like to reassure consumers that Nurofen Plus, and all other products in the Nurofen range, are safe and effective when taken in accordance with the pack instructions, and used to effectively relieve pain by millions of people every day."