Genevac report on a paper by UK researchers describing use of its miVac DNA concentrator to provide reliable and efficient sample preparation in the development of a novel forensic method to detect diclofenac residues in vultures and livestock animals.

Diclofenac is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug that is extensively used to treat pain and reduce inflammation in humans and animals.  Traditionally, livestock carcasses on the Indian subcontinent and in Africa have been left out by the millions for scavengers, particularly vultures, to consume....

TTP Labtech Ltd and the University of California San Diego, have announced that their collaboration has resulted in a new workflow for single cell sequencing, which reduces the cost of sample preparation by 90%.

The workflow, which has been published in the Journal of Laboratory Automation, was developed through the combination of UC San Diego’s expertise in genomics and the use of TTP Labtech’s mosquito liquid handlers, which can pipette nanolitre to microlitre volumes with high accuracy and reproducibility, to miniaturise and automate the process....

Twenty years after the technique was developed, a collaboration between scientists at KU Leuven (University of Leuven), Belgium, and Stanford University has revealed the mechanism behind the direct conversion process of natural gas into methanol at room temperature.

This discovery will have major consequences for the future use of methanol in various everyday applications. The findings were published in Nature. Methanol is among the twenty most commonly used substances in the chemical industry. It’s used to produce antifreeze, fuels, and solvents, but also in various kinds of plastic that we use every day....

Today Lonza announced a new resource available in the QC Insider™ Toolbox that addresses a key topic of debate in the endotoxin detection community – Low Endotoxin Recovery (LER).

Building on Lonza’s comprehensive suite of support tools, a “Low Endotoxin Recovery (LER) - Frequently Asked Questions” Technical Tip sheet has been added to the QC Insider™ Toolbox. This new tool, in addition to an archived webinar available for viewing, “Low Endotoxin Recovery (LER) – Context and Resolution from a Broad Biologics Test Perspective,” delivers...

Bone regrowth to be improved and side effects reduced thanks to revolutionary new delivery mechanism for growth factors.

Anachem is pleased to introduce an exciting new approach to automated 96-well pipetting - the Rainin BenchSmart 96.

Accuracy and repeatability is something that most researchers long for, automation enables this but what if you hate the idea of adding unnecessary complexity to your workflows? The solution to this problem is the BenchSmart 96. It automates repetitious tasks like aspiration/dispensing, multi-dispensing and serial dilutions, but still provides enough manual control to ensure you won't lose touch with your experiments....

The Autoclave Knowledge Bank Check Book is an impartial guide, giving an insight into some of the key factors that could help in making the best possible choice of style and design before placing that all important laboratory autoclave order.

When specifying or purchasing any expensive and complicated piece of equipment it is essential to be able to ask the right questions in order to get the right answers and make an informed decision - a few minutes at the Autoclave Knowledge Bank could save your company time and money....

The North of England has recieved £55m in funding to grow its research capabilities in a five year funding package through the National Institute for Health Research.

This sees the North with four National Institute of Health Research Biomedical Research Centres (NIHR BRC) awarded. The existing BRC centre in Newcastle has received funding of £16,208,633 and a further three cities have been granted BRC status in Manchester, £28,500,000, Leeds, £6,736,575 and Sheffield, £4,049,681....

UK charity Pancreatic Cancer Action are once again inviting scientists to apply for one of their Early Diagnosis Challenge Award grants. 

The purpose of these grants is to encourage more research into improving early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer so that more patients are diagnosed in time for surgery, which is currently the only potential for a cure. Pancreatic Cancer is the UK’s fifth biggest cancer killer and 26 people die a day from the disease. The 5 year survival rate is just 4%, a figure which has barely changed in over 40 years. Most pancreatic cancer...

Horizon Discovery Group plc (LSE: HZD), the world leader in the application of gene editing technologies,today announces the establishment of new partnerships with both the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) and the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT) to support biologic therapeutic manufacturing in the UK, Ireland and beyond.

Glencoe Software, the world-leading supplier of image data management solutions for the academic, biotech, pharma and publication industries, is delighted to announce a new partnership with the Carl Zeiss Microscopy GmbH, Jena, Germany.

Glencoe Software and ZEISS will collaborate to extend the open source Bio-Formats^® image file conversion library to support whole slide images compressed with the JPEG XR compression scheme, like those recorded by the ZEISS Axio Scan.Z1 virtual slide scanner. ZEISS Axio Scan.Z1 is a fast and reliable whole slide scanner for brightfield and fluorescence samples....

Anachem's Good Pipetting Practice programme covers a range of topics designed to ensure your team has the pipetting skills needed to produce consistent, reliable results.

Drawing on Anachem’s and Rainin’s expertise in liquid handling and pipette service, the Good Pipetting Practice seminar focuses on five key areas. These include Pipetting Ergonomics, the Evaluation & Selection of the Right Tools for Your Liquid Handling Work, Pipetting Techniques and The Importance of Calibration & Routine Maintenance....

Three leading scientists in the field of hyperspectral imaging will be speaking at HSI 2016, each talking on subjects that highlight growth areas of interest and applications for hyperspectral technology.

The conference is opened by Martin Whitworth from Campden BRI (UK), an organisation deeply involved in research and support to the food industry. His talk is entitled “Mapping composition in food samples by NIR hyperspectral imaging” and follows, amongst others, more papers on food applications including; early detection of fungal infection in strawberry fruits, rapid detection and visualization of organic spelt flour...

Rainin TerraRack™ pipette tip racks, available in the UK from Anachem, are proving advantageous for the University of Glasgow’s Centre for Cell Engineering, where scientists are investigating cell differentiation and behaviour on a variety of materials.

Dr Monica Tsimbouri, a research fellow at the university, explained: "Our research involves growing bone marrow cells onto different materials – for example, plastics, titanium, nanopillars or nanoPEGs – and investigating how the cells differentiate. We use a wide range of techniques – such as GPCRs, In-Cell Westerns™, metabolomics and next generation sequencing – to study biomarkers related to the tissue lineage...

Research provides new insights into the therapeutic potential of bacteriophages to treat and prevent global health threat

University of Leicester scientists have previously identified the potential of using a bacteriophage cocktail to eradicate Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) and in this research, using an insect model, they show that their prophylactic use can prevent infection forming in the first place....

Horizon Discovery Group plc, the world leader in the application of gene editing technologies, announce a new collaboration with Fulcrum Therapeutics Inc.

The collaboration will utilize Horizon’s world-leading CRISPR-based screening platform to identify novel targets for regulating gene expression.  The programme will initially focus on genetic diseases where no effective treatment options currently exist....

Scientists have been able to use genetics to predict future outbreaks of vampire bat rabies virus (VBRV) on the Pacific coast of South America within four years – a scenario potentially affecting wildlife conservation, agriculture and human health.

In Latin America, VBRV affects livestock production, killing great numbers of animals throughout the region, and causes lethal human rabies outbreaks, particularly in the Amazon rainforest. Currently, population movement patterns of infected bats remain unknown and difficult to measure – both factors which impede efforts to understand how the virus will spread and to prevent infections in humans and domestic animals...

Cellectricon AB, a leading provider of advanced cell-based discovery screening services, today announced a commercial collaboration with UK-based stem cell technology company Censo Biotechnologies Ltd.

Under the agreement, the parties will provide a suite of high-quality Human iPSC based discovery services to support both preclinical neuroscience and chronic pain research. “Through our collaboration with Censo, we are able to significantly enhance our discovery services offering for CNS and pain research”, said Cellectricon’s CEO David Burns...

Medilink East Midlands, the Life Science Support Organisation for the region, alongside partners, has launched a new project which will provide regional medical technology, pharmaceutical and bioscience organisations with funding and support to help develop their new innovative projects and products.

The project - entitled INSTILS: Inspiring Networking to Stimulate Technology Innovation in Life Sciences – is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and follows on from Medilink’s highly successful Healthcare and Bioscience iNet project. This ran from 2008-2015, supported over 1000 companies to develop innovative new products and services, and was also part funded by ERDF....

BioTek Instruments is pleased to congratulate Christopher Ziegler as the recipient of the 2016 Norman R. Alpert Research Prize.

Mr. Ziegler is a graduate student in the Cellular, Molecular and Biosciences (CMB) program at the University of Vermont (UVM), and was responsible for characterizing a new aspect of virology that helps to explain the basis for production of defective interfering viruses. This is detailed in his March 2016 PLoS Pathogens publication...

Postnova Analytics have published an application study detailing how the technique of Field-Flow Fractionation-ICP-MS can be used to study the size and chemical composition of tattoo ink nanoparticles. 

According to a recent report from the European Commission Joint Research Centre, whilst some 12% of Europeans have tattoos, little is known about the long term effects of the chemicals in the inks. Commonly tattoo inks contain metallic impurities that can result in adverse skin reactions, including infections and allergies, right after tattooing or even years later....

Horizon Discovery Group plc, the world-leader in the application of gene editing technologies, announces it has entered into a co-development and commercialisation agreement (the “Agreement”) with Ventana Medical Systems, Inc. (“Ventana”), a member of the Roche Group. 

The Agreement covers the development, manufacture and commercialisation of cell line derivative materials for use as IHC Reference Standards in cancer tissue diagnostics to support the development and validation of IHC assays....