Asynt reports that medicinal chemistry specialists Charnwood Molecular (Loughborough UK) have been using the DrySyn MAXI heating system to successfully and reproducibly scale up syntheses within their contract research laboratories. Dr Michael McKenzie, Head of Operations, said: “Here at Charnwood Molecular our experienced preclinical R&D team routinely investigate the development of small scale medicinal chemistry routes in order to facilitate the timely supply of...

You may read the title of this article and wonder how these two are connected as they seem about as far apart as you could possibly imagine. But there are more similarities than you think. And, I believe that liquid chromatography users could learn a great deal from the aviation industry. What made me come to this connection? My experience living near the London Heathrow airport for the past 20 years–which has allowed...

A lot of thought should go into specifying an ultra-low temperature freezer and this post is designed to help you sort through the considerations that apply. These units are not inexpensive; their function is to protect contents of high value and sometimes for long periods of time.  Fortunately, there are a number of ultra-low temperature freezers on the market to ease the selection of a model that best suits your needs...

Lab-quality CRP combined with Full Blood Count results rapidly available in Frailty Assessment Hubs. HORIBA UK Ltd, Medical announces that Thame and Marlow Community Hubs, within Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, have each recently installed HORIBA Medical’s latest point-of-care testing analyser, the Microsemi CRP. These new analysers are now streamlining existing diagnostic pathways in the community and helping to reduce local A&E admissions for frail patients...

INTEGRA Biosciences is helping researchers to improve pipetting efficiency and ensure reliable results with a recently published guide to choosing the right micropipette. Split into three main topics – reliable results, efficiency and ergonomics – it looks at the main considerations when selecting a pipette to best meet the needs of your application. As a leading provider of high quality laboratory tools, INTEGRA understands the varied demands and requirements of life sciences and medical laboratories....

Researchers from the University of Glasgow have been awarded £875K from the MRC (Medical Research Council) to lead a multi-centre, international research project to better understand the cause of brain bleeding (haemorrhaging) in patients who have had a stroke. Currently, strokes due to haemorrhaging have a poor prognosis, with no available treatment options. They account for 20% of strokes in adults and half of all strokes in children.

During the Society of Toxicology Meeting from 11-15 March 2018 at the Henry B. González Convention Center in San Antonio, TX (USA), Lonza will present two posters highlighting its latest research into developing more physiologically relevant in vitro cell-culture models for ADME-Tox testing. Lonza is also sponsoring two symposia at the meeting featuring the use of cell-culture models that better mimic the in vivo environment for enhanced research into...

Quorum Technologies, market and technology leaders in electron microscopy coating and cryogenic preparation products, report on how the University of Bristol prepared samples of fossilised skin for SEM imaging as part of the characterisation of a sea dragon skeleton aged more than 200 million years. David Attenborough has been fascinated by fossils since he was a boy. It was not therefore surprising to find him down on the Dorset coast of England to film...

Laboratory safety cabinet and enclosure manufacturer Bigneat Ltd has installed a custom designed and manufactured controlled environment system to answer the specific needs of a leading transfusion diagnostics company. The company has developed an innovative diagnostic system that will allow automated blood type testing and disease screening, providing significant clinical benefits - significant savings in testing costs and rapid results...

In a world first, a new experiment to study the effects of space weather on global communications is being launched by the UK and US governments. Using specially designed shoebox-sized satellites known as CubeSats, scientists will be able to study the Earth’s upper atmosphere and find out how it impacts on radio frequencies through space. Dr Mike O’Callaghan, Space Programme Manager at Dstl, said: “We’re trying to...

Scientists at the University of Glasgow have found a bacterial strain which blocks dengue and Zika virus transmission from mosquitoes. In the new study, published today in PLOS Pathogens, scientists show that a novel strain of the inherited bacteria Wolbachia strongly blocks transmission of dengue and Zika virus among infected mosquitoes, offering a potential alternative to strains already being tested as virus control tools....

Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT), the developer of Affimer® biotherapeutics and reagents, and OncoSec Medical Incorporated (NASDAQ: ONCS), a company developing intratumoral cancer immunotherapies, are pleased to announce they have entered into a research collaboration to combine Avacta’s Affimer protein platform with OncoSec’s gene delivery technology ImmunoPulse®. The research programme will evaluate the benefits of delivering Affimer protein genes directly into tumors using the OncoSec technology....

Postnova Analytics has announced its second annual 1-day seminar exploring how advanced separation techniques are extending the frontiers of characterisation of nanoparticles, polymers and proteins. Following the popularity of the first Postnova first seminar, held at the company’s UK headquarters in Malvern, an informative program of talks from eminent guest speakers, plus presentations from Postnova scientists has been assembled.....

The 2017 harvest of wine grapes in Europe and California was full of variability. A very low yield compared to 2016 was expected in Europe ranging from 16% less in Spain to 21% less in France and Italy due to extreme weather conditions that included hailstorms, frosts, and drought. Quality, however, is expected to be good because of the hot summer weather.  In contrast, California had yields that resembled normal averages  as drought conditions subsided....

Metrohm USA is pleased to announce the winner of its 2018 Young Chemist Award, Chi-En Lin. Chi-En is a Ph.D. candidate at Arizona State University where he works under the mentorship of Dr. Jeffrey T. La Belle, Assistant Professor at the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering. Chi’s research focuses on the development of a panel of electrochemical biosensors for the diagnosis and management of complex diseases and comorbidity.

ASIT biotech, a Belgian clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company specialized in immunotherapy products for the treatment of allergies, is publishing a new article in the prestigious science journal ALLERGY. ALLERGY is the official journal of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI). Its task is to promote links between fundamental research and clinical research in the fields of allergies and immunology.....

Optical Surfaces Ltd. has received an order from Strathclyde Intense Laser Interaction Studies (SILIS) Group, from University of Strathclyde (UK) for three ultra-high performance off-axis parabolic mirrors in special custom vacuum motorised mounts. The mounted mirrors to be developed by Optical Surfaces Ltd. will be used on several beamlines of the facilities 350TW laser which is designed to support an extensive research portfolio in laser-plasma physics and multidisciplinary applications....

Ingenza has joined forces with leading universities and industrial partners to participate in the ConBioChem collaboration, a translational project focused on the development of novel platform technologies for the continuous bio-production of commodity chemicals. The consortium, led by Professor Gill Stephens of the University of Nottingham, recently achieved success in the Industrial Biotechnology Catalyst – a multi-million pound competition funded by Innovate UK, BBSRC and EPSRC – resulting in the award of £3.46 million over a five-year period....

Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences, Technische Universität Wien and the Medical University of Vienna present the findings of the largest water hygiene study of its kind. Despite wastewater management and treatment plants, human waste remains the main source of microbial faecal pollution in the river Danube. This is the most notable finding of a comprehensive analysis of faecal pollution in the Danube. The study used a new molecular genetics method that enables the clear differentiation of human microbial....

When working in laboratories and hospitals, it’s crucial that any contaminants found in water are removed immediately, before they cause any damage. Each impurity carries its own risks to chemical and biological research, not to mention the detrimental effect they cause to the quality of pure water. Here, Triple Red discuss the 8 main types of water contaminants, and how they can be prevented....

JPK Instruments reports on the ground-breaking research into the understanding of the reproduction of retroviruses such as HIV at Ben-Gurion University in Beer-Sheba, Israel. Professor Itay Rousso leads a research group in the Department of Physiology and Cell Biology at Ben-Gurion University in Beer Sheba. Their focus is to uncover the physical mechanism underlying the replication machinery of enveloped retroviruses (primarily HIV)....

Linkam Scientific Instruments, report on the work of Dr Henning Gieseler from the Friedrich-Alexander University (FAU) Erlangen-Nuremberg on his research and development activities in the field of freeze drying for the pharmaceutical industry. Dr Henning Gieseler leads the Freeze Drying Focus Group (FDFG) in the Division of Pharmaceutics at the Friedrich-Alexander University (FAU) Erlangen-Nuremberg. He started his research in this area in 2006 after first coming across freeze drying microscopy....