Everyone knows what DNA looks like, right? A double-stranded helix, which coils and supercoils on itself to form dense chromosomes. A square-shaped type of DNA can be created in the laboratory by the folding of synthetic DNA strands rich in guanine, one of the building blocks of DNA.
It’s long been believed by scientists ...
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Everyone knows what DNA looks like, right? A double-stranded helix, which coils and supercoils on itself to form dense chromosomes. A square-shaped type of DNA can be created in the laboratory by the folding of synthetic DNA strands rich in guanine, one of the building blocks of DNA.
It’s long been believed by scientists ...
Continue Reading on Walyou
Using a new online approach that allows reaseachers to perform virtual expirements in order to rapidly priorotise which are the best targets for drug discovery.
The new approach combines the use of a unique online database called canSAR with a new tool that allows researchers to compare up to 500 potential drug ...
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If you think the picture above looks like droplets of blood being snared in a sticky tentacle, then you have a scarily active -- but in this case accurate -- imagination. It's actually a microfluidic chip that's been coated with long strands of DNA, which dangle down into the bloodstream and bind to any cancerous proteins floating past -- directly imitating the way a jellyfish scoops up grub in the ocean. If required, the chip can release these cells unharmed for later inspection. According to the chip's designers at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, the catch-and-release mechanism can be put to both diagnostic and therapeutic use in the fight against Big C, and can also be used to isolate good things, like fetal cells. The next step will be to test the device on humans -- at which point we may owe an even greater debt of gratitude to our gelatinous friends.
[Image credit: Rohit Karnik and Suman Bose]
Continue reading Jellyfish-mimicking device could snatch cancer cells right out of the bloodstream
Jellyfish-mimicking device could snatch cancer cells right out of the bloodstream originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Nov 2012 07:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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