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A quick test for the Black Death: Diagnosing the presence of Yersinia pestis
New NIST Nanoscale Indenter Takes Novel Approach to Measuring Surface Properties
Ohio Supercomputer Center OnDemand gives computational researchers innovative web interface to powerful HPC systems
LITE illuminates new way to study the brain
High levels of a specific enzyme in fetuses linked to anxiety
Understanding the strength of the shellfish’s underwater attachments could enable better glues and biomedical interfaces
Transcription factor EBF1 differntiates B cells from T cells

A quick test for the Black Death: Diagnosing the presence of Yersinia pestis

Posted: 24 Jul 2013 07:28 AM PDT

Diagnosing the presence of Yersinia pestis, the cause of plague, may soon be easier than ever before. Scientists working with Peter Seeberger, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (MPIKG) in Potsdam and Professor at the Freie Universität Berlin, have come up with a simple, inexpensive and reliable method of detecting the bacterium. The research team, specialising in glycochemistry glycobiology, first identified and synthesised an oligosaccharide structure on bacterial surface before combining it with a protein to heighten the immunological effect.

New NIST Nanoscale Indenter Takes Novel Approach to Measuring Surface Properties

Posted: 24 Jul 2013 07:19 AM PDT

Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of North Carolina have demonstrated a new design for an instrument, a "instrumented nanoscale indenter," that makes sensitive measurements of the mechanical properties of thin films—ranging from auto body coatings to microelectronic devices—and biomaterials. The NIST instrument uses a unique technique for precisely measuring the depth of the indentation in a test surface with no contact of the surface other than the probe tip itself.

Ohio Supercomputer Center OnDemand gives computational researchers innovative web interface to powerful HPC systems

Posted: 23 Jul 2013 07:22 PM PDT

Engineers from the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) have developed an innovative access mechanism that is helping researchers to bridge the chasm between the convenience of a web interface and the complexity of high performance computing systems.

LITE illuminates new way to study the brain

Posted: 23 Jul 2013 07:10 PM PDT

For core faculty member Feng Zhang’s lab, nature offers up the raw ingredients needed to control brain cells and understand the brain’s wiring. Since joining the Broad Institute and McGovern Institute for Brain Research in 2011, Zhang has recruited neuroscientists, engineers, computer scientists, and others from diverse backgrounds who are interested in developing and optimizing the tools needed to understand the brain.

High levels of a specific enzyme in fetuses linked to anxiety

Posted: 23 Jul 2013 10:13 AM PDT

Mouse embryos with the human enzyme CYP2C19 in the brain develop a smaller hippocampus and anxiety-like behaviour as adults. The results of this new study, which is published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, agree in principle with earlier genetic findings in humans, and can improve science's understanding of the genetic factors behind depression and anxiety disorders and contribute to the development of new anti-anxiety drugs.

Understanding the strength of the shellfish’s underwater attachments could enable better glues and biomedical interfaces

Posted: 23 Jul 2013 10:06 AM PDT

Unlike barnacles, which cement themselves tightly to the surfaces of rocks, piers or ships, the clamlike bivalves called mussels dangle more loosely from these surfaces, attached by a collection of fine filaments known as byssus threads. This approach lets the creatures drift further out into the water, where they can absorb nutrients — although in the process, it exposes them to the risk of being torn away by the force of crashing waves.

But that almost never happens.

Transcription factor EBF1 differntiates B cells from T cells

Posted: 23 Jul 2013 09:52 AM PDT

Mature cells develop through a number of immature stages. During this process, they must remember the specialisation they are committed to. For immune system B cells, Rudolf Grosschedl of the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics and his team have discovered that the transcription factor EBF1 is crucial for B cells to remember who they are. When the researchers switched off the transcription factor, the cells lost their previous identity and developed into T cells.