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Next
Event
Friday, August 22, 2008, 07:00 PM: Simulations of Society with Loren Cobb
Loren Cobb will present his peculiar 15-year journey into sociological model-making for various military entities, including US Southern Command, the Swedish Ministry of Defence, the British Ministry of Defence, the United Nations, and a miscellany of Latin American countries (Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, ...).
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Biotechnology
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DNA chips have revolutionised biological research. With the help of a microarray, researchers can query the whole genome at once, rather than just a few genes at a time. Experiments that used to be impossible are now being performed in days or hours. "By being able to see the big picture, all the genes, all the genetic variation, we can readily pick out answers—we can make discoveries that we could never make before," explains Eric Lander, one of the leaders of the human-genome project.
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Wouldn't it be great if we could get computer chips to grow on trees? Or at least use the specific bonds of DNA molecules to get nanostructures to grow themselves right in the test tube? This technology could be used to build everything from tiny electronics components to machines that sequence DNA.
"The method we have developed for self-assembling blocks of DNA and gold particles can be used, for instance, to produce tiny nano carriers for drugs that can be emptied directly in cells on a given chemical signal."
They have also taken a close look at a method for building nanostructures with the help of DNA that was invented by a a US researcher in the spring of 2006. The method is called 'DNA origami' and involves, in brief, folding or splicing together a long string of DNA with the aid of a large number of short strings (''staple DNA').
"This technology could be used to construct a facility for extremely rapid DNA sequencing, which is a biotechnologist's dream."
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Investigators have developed calcium phosphate nanoparticles to function as stable gene carriers.
While other research teams have explored the use of calcium phosphate-based materials for gene delivery – calcium phosphate is the major mineral component and is biocompatible – these efforts have largely failed because the physical characteristics of these materials did not protect DNA from degradation and did not promote efficient uptake by cells. This group of investigators appears to have overcome these limitations by developing a new chemical method that allows them to carefully adjust the relative amounts of calcium and phosphorous in the nanoparticles.
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A newly designed porous membrane, so thin it’s invisible edge-on, may revolutionize the way doctors and scientists manipulate objects as small as a molecule. The 50-atom-thick filter can withstand surprisingly high pressures and could be a key to better separation of blood proteins for dialysis patients, speeding ion exchange in fuel cells, creating a new environment for growing neurological stem cells, and purifying air and water in hospitals and clean rooms at the nanoscopic level.
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 Microorganisms make up more than a third of the Earth's biomass. They are found in water, on land and even in our bodies, recycling nutrients, influencing the planet's climate or causing diseases. Still, we know surprisingly little about the smallest beings that colonise Earth. A new computational method to analyse environmental DNA samples now sheds light on the microbial composition of different habitats, from soil to water. The study reveals that microbes evolve faster in some environments than in others and that they rather rarely change their habitat preferences over time.
Studying microorganisms has proven very difficult because most naturally occurring types do not grow in the lab. The rapidly growing field of environmental DNA sequencing now helps to overcome this problem. Instead of analysing the genome of a specific organism, scientists sequence all the DNA they find in environmental samples, ranging from seawater to soil. They collect vast amounts of sequence fragments, which contain genetic information of thousands of species forming communities that colonise a certain habitat.
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Microscopic metal wires marked with barcodes like so many boxes of grocery-store spaghetti maight someday help identify biological weapons much more quickly than today's methods. The technology would allow soldiers to use the right kind of anti-pathogen protection at just the right time.
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Scientists develop a tool that sharpens up microscope images.
The laboratory has developed a new computational tool that makes images obtained with cutting-edge microscopes even sharper.
Since the Single Plane Illumination Microscope [SPIM] was developed it turned into one of the most powerful tools in cell biology. SPIM allows scientists to study large, living specimen along many different angles, under real conditions and with minimal harm to the specimen. Snapshots of the specimen obtained in different planes along different directions and at varying time points are assembled into three-dimensional images or movies, which provide insights into the dynamic cellular processes of a living organism.
A deconvolution algorithm now greatly improves the resolution of SPIM. This development provides new opportunities for studying sub-cellular processes in large living specimen.
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The new facility will comprise a complete and automated pipeline for structural investigations of proteins and other biological molecules using high-energy X-rays it will start operations in 2010.
X-rays are an extremely powerful tool in the life sciences. The crucial molecules that determine our life, such as proteins and DNA, are too small to be observed with even the most sophisticated light microscopes. Structural biologists use the high-energy radiation of DESY's synchrotron to generate three-dimensional images and to study the structure of biological molecules. Often the high-resolution images of proteins involved in diseases serve as the starting-point for the development of new drugs.
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Scientists produce the first high resolution 3D image of a complete eukaryotic cell. The electron tomogram of a complete yeast cell reveals the cellular architecture. It shows plasma membrane, microtubules and light vacuoles [green], nucleus, dark vacuoles and dark vesicles [gold], mitochondria and large dark vesicles [blue] and light vesicles [pink]. "Our 3D image of fission yeast can serve as a reference map of the cell for all biologists interested in its architecture. You can extract information about all sorts of cellular structures and processes from it or use it to place findings into the spatial context of the cell."
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