Key to making reversible, non-hormonal male contraceptives!

At last!

Scientists are getting closer to developing a new kind of reversible male contraceptive that doesn't produce any hormonal side effects.

While a commercial drug could still be some way off, the researchers have managed to isolate a key enzyme found only in sperm. Now that they've identified it and can manufacture this enzyme, the team hopes to target it with a range of drug candidates. With the right drug, it should be possible to decrease sperm motility – their ability to swim – which could prevent sperm from egg fertilisation.

"The milestone reached is the production and isolation of a full-length, active kinase enzyme in sufficient quantities to conduct drug screens," said researcher John Herr from the University of Virginia School of Medicine. "Isolation of an active, full-length form of this enzyme allows us to test drugs that bind to the entire surface of the enzyme so that we can identify inhibitors that may exert a selective action on sperm."

The enzyme in question – called testis-specific serine/threonine kinase 2 (TSSK2) – is unique to the testes, and also appears to only be involved in the final stage of sperm production. That's important, the researchers say, because it makes it more likely that any drug candidate that successfully targets the enzyme won't produce any side effects elsewhere in the body.

Read more: Key to making reversible, non-hormonal male contraceptives!

Source: cloudfront

Antibiotics not promote resistance through gene conjugation.

The exponential rise of antibiotic drug resistance is a considerable threat to global public health. Researchers are continually searching for the underlying mechanisms that promote this resistant phenotype. Some evidence exists to suggest that antibiotic use encourages the spread of bacterial resistance through genetic swapping. However, new research suggests that these examples are outliers and not indicative of the majority of bacterial populations.

Researchers at Duke University suggest that differential birth and death rates of microbes and not DNA donation are to blame. The results have implications for designing antibiotic protocols to avoid the spread of antibacterial resistance. 

"The entire field knows there's a huge problem of overusing antibiotics," noted senior study author Lingchong You, Ph.D., associate professor of engineering at Duke University. "It is incredibly tempting to assume that antibiotics are promoting the spread of resistance by increasing the rate at which bacteria share resistant genes with each other, but our research shows they often aren't."

Investigators have known for decades that bacteria can swap genetic elements through a process called conjugation, which allows helpful genes to spread quickly between individuals and even between species. Because the number of resistant bacteria rises when antibiotics fail to kill them, many researchers have assumed that the drugs increased the amount of genetic swapping taking place. The Duke researchers, however, hypothesized that the antibiotics were killing off the two "parent" lineages and allowing a newly resistant strain to thrive instead.

Read more: Antibiotics not promote resistance through gene conjugation.

Source: biologyexams4u

Six Signs to be a Biomedical Lab Tech

You’ve always been the type of person who takes a painstaking amount of time to make sure the details are correct and meticulously recorded. You’re a multitasking whiz who enjoys order and routine in your life. Wouldn’t it be great if you could find a career that capitalized on all of these characteristics?

It’s important to make sure that your personality and natural gifts align with the profession you pursue. You’ll be happy to hear that a medical lab tech career might be right up your alley! This will allow you to join the fast-growing healthcare field while still getting to work a technical, behind-the-scenes job.

If this seems like an ideal option for you, keep reading to see if you have what it takes to launch a successful medical lab tech (MLT) career!

6 Signs you’re cut out for a medical lab tech career

We spoke with Tammy Renner, Rasmussen College’s national MLT program director and 33-year MLT veteran, to identify some common characteristics that the best MLT’s share. See how many describe you!

1. You’ve always loved science

MLTs usually have a strong background in chemistry, biology and physiology. Specifically, knowledge of tissues and cells is required, as is an expert understanding of chemical compositions and interactions.

Read more: Six Signs to be a Biomedical Lab Tech

Source: rasmussen

Building a career in the biomedical laboratory sciences.

Passion is the key to success, says Jim Smith in his keynote speech at the London NatureJobs Career Expo.

Jim Smith is a successful scientist by anyone’s measure. The UK scientist helped discover key growth factors required for the early development of embryos, and has received numerous awards for his scientific contributions. Smith now juggles three high-level roles at the UK Medical Research Council (MRC), National Institute of Medical Research and the soon-to-be-opened Francis Crick Institute in London with the running of his own lab at the MRC.

Like many people who have excelled in their field, Smith’s career has the illusion of being planned from the start. However he says this was not the case. He didn’t study biology until he was persuaded to take a cell biology class at the University of Cambridge while studying for a degree in natural sciences.

He fell so in love with the subject that he progressed to a PhD studentship with the famous development biologist Lewis Wolport. “You should allow yourself to fall in love with your subject, become engrossed by it,” Smith says. This passion is a key to success he stresses, because it drives you to put the necessary effort in. “There are times in your career when you know that working twice as hard will produce double the results, at these times you should work 3 or 4 times as hard,” Smith says.

Finding the ‘niche’ in science that you are most passionate about can be challenging.

Read more: Building a career in the biomedical laboratory sciences.

Source: naturejobs

Harvard scientists are stunned by superhuman abilities of Himalayan monks.

Most of us have a fairly good idea that brains of Buddhist monks function far beyond most humans’ capabilities and that the monks can actually rewire their brains. While there is no question that Buddhist monks possess superhuman powers, how they do some really incredible out-of-this-world kind of stuff continues to fascinate and show scientists what we – ‘normal human beings’ – can all do.

Professor Herbert Benson and his team of researchers from the Harvard School Of Medicine went to remote monasteries in the Himalayan mountains in the 1980′s to discover, decode, and document the subtle ways through which the monks manipulate their bodies – like raising the temperatures of their fingers and toes by as much as 17 degrees, and lowering their body’s metabolic rate by up to 64% – using a stress reduction yoga technique called ‘g Tum-mo’.

The Harvard research team also recorded monks drying cold, wet sheets with body heat. They also documented monks spending a winter night – when temperatures reached zero degrees F – on a rocky ledge 15,000 feet high in the Himalayas — wearing only woolen or cotton shawls. These remarkable feats, the Harvard research team observed, were achieved by intense daily meditations, guided exercises and spiritual conditioning.

Read more: Harvard scientists are stunned by superhuman abilities of Himalayan monks.

Source: anonhq

Smart contact lenses with a builtin camera!

Welcome to the future.

Samsung just took another step into science fiction. South Korea has just granted the tech giant a patent for contact lenses with a display that can project images straight into the user's eye. The news comes from a Samsung-centric blog SamMobile.

The lenses are equipped with a built-in camera and sensors that can be controlled simply by blinking. Content is sent to your smartphone through embedded antennas. This is where the data is processed.

It seems that Samsung is developing the smart contact lenses as an alternative to creating improved augmented reality experiences over the current crop of wearables, reports SamMobile.

With contact lenses instead of glasses, users will be able to enjoy augmented reality content more discreetly.

A glimpse at the future.

Read more: Smart contact lenses with a builtin camera!

Source: Brobible

Hemoglobin Review

Much of our understanding of human physiology, and of many aspects of pathology, has its antecedents in laboratory and clinical studies of hemoglobin. Over the last century, knowledge of the genetics, functions, and diseases of the hemoglobin proteins has been refined to the molecular level by analyses of their crystallographic structures and by cloning and sequencing of their genes and surrounding DNA. In the last few decades, research has opened up new paradigms for hemoglobin related to processes such as its role in the transport of nitric oxide and the complex developmental control of the α-like and β-like globin gene clusters. It is noteworthy that this recent work has had implications for understanding and treating the prevalent diseases of hemoglobin, especially the use of hydroxyurea to elevate fetal hemoglobin in sickle cell disease. It is likely that current research will also have significant clinical implications, as well as lessons for other aspects of molecular medicine, the origin of which can be largely traced to this research tradition.

Introduction

During the past 60 years, the study of human hemoglobin, probably more than any other molecule, has allowed the birth and maturation of molecular medicine. Laboratory research, using physical, chemical, physiological, and genetic methods, has greatly contributed to, but also built upon, clinical research devoted to studying patients with a large variety of hemoglobin disorders.

Read more: Hemoglobin Review

Source: bloodjournal

Scientists develop supersensitive biosensor for cancer

A team of physicists and engineers at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH, has created an optical biosensor for cancer detection using nanostructured metamaterials that are 1 million times more sensitive than previous versions, pointing the way toward an effective early detection system for cancer and other illnesses.

The device, which is small enough to fit in the palm of a hand, has been developed to provide oncologists with a way to detect a single molecule of an enzyme produced by circulatingcancer cells.

Such detection could allow doctors to diagnose patients with certain cancers far earlier than possible today, monitor treatment and resistance, and more.

The research, published online in the journalNature Materials, describes how the nanosensor acts like a biological sieve, isolating a small protein molecule weighing less than 800 quadrillionths of a nanogram from an extremely dilute solution.

The researchers believe the sensing technology will also be useful in diagnosing and monitoring other diseases.

"The prognosis of many cancers depends on the stage of the cancer at diagnosis," says Giuseppe "Pino" Strangi, professor of physics at Case Western Reserve and leader of the research.

Read more: Scientists develop supersensitive biosensor for cancer

The researchers used nanostructured metamaterials 1 million times more sensitive
than previous versions, enabling an early detection system for cancer.

Source: medicalnewstoday

A Mom’s Guide to Deadly Allergies

Know Your Child’s Allergies and Risks

Kids love peanut butter and milk, but for some they can cause food allergy symptoms such as hives and swollen lips, or a life-threatening anaphylactic reaction. How can parents prevent that scary scenario? Read on for the Health Detective’s findings...Minutes after downing a Butterfinger candy bar, a sixth-grade boy from Kent, Wash., experienced severe nausea, stomach pain and belly cramping – classic food allergy symptoms. The boy had a peanut allergy, and the candy contains roasted peanuts. 

“I gave him Benadryl [an antihistamine], but it didn’t help,” says his school’s nurse, Sheri Siedentopf, R.N. 

Fearing a life-threatening anaphylactic reaction, she injected him with epinephrine and then called 911 and his parents. “Thankfully, he improved in a few minutes,” she says.

Read more: A Mom’s Guide to Deadly Allergies

Source: lifescript.

Still too high in fat and sodium in kids' meals.

What will it take to get children to choose fruit instead of ice cream when eating out? Despite a move by many restaurants toward healthier kids' meals, research published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior shows that while calorie ratings have improved, there is still a way to go in reducing fat, sodium and sugar.

For many American children, eating out is routine.

Studies show that, while home-prepared food has more nutritional value than restaurant meals, the diets of most children in the US already lack fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy items.

The options available in restaurants, meanwhile, often contain excess calories, solid fats, sodium and added sugar.

Many restaurants have already begun offering healthier choices for children, in anticipation of legislation that will require calorie counts to be included on menus from December 2016.

For the past 6 years, healthier children's dishes have been among the top 10 food trends in the National Restaurant Association's annual survey of chefs.

Read more: Still too high in fat and sodium in kids' meals.

Fat and sodium still feature excessively in kids' meals.

Source: medicalnewstoday