Diffuse Reflectance Imaging validated for early non-invasive detection of malignant and pre-malignant tumours

A team of Indian cancer researchers led by Dr Narayanan Subhash has developed a simple, non-invasive spectral imaging system that holds out the possibility of rapid, inexpensive mass screening for oral cancers in dental and clinical settings. Even in the hands of non-clinical staff, it is capable of real-time discrimination of healthy oral tissue from pre-malignant and malignant tissues with accuracy comparable to the gold standard histopathology of a biopsy sample....

Offering attractive procurement strategies will boost adoption of high-end tools

Wyatt Technology San Francisco Bay Area Protein & Biotech Users Meeting

The meeting will host two to three expert speakers, ‘how-to’ sessions presented by Wyatt Application Scientists, updates on our latest products, and small group discussions covering topics such as:Biophysical characterization. Formulation and stability. Orthogonal techniques. Large aggregates and sub-visible particles. Biomolecular interactions...

Integrated DNA Technologies Presents at Antibody Engineering and Therapeutics 

Michel Cannieux, PhD, MBA, Director of Product Commercialization, Synthetic Biology at IDT discussed a novel, rapid and reliable method to build and clone genes of interest at a fraction of the cost of full gene synthesis. The talk, entitled “Rapid and Reliable Gene Construction with gBlocks™ Gene Fragments and Gibson Assembly™ Method” took place at 12.00 on December 11. As double stranded, sequence verified DNA blocks up to 750 base pairs, gBlocks Gene Fragments have high sequence fidelity. As a result, they are ideal for use in a broad range of biological applications....

A new case study, describing the use of the Matrix Tracker software in the mortuary in an NHS Hospital Trust, has been published by Autoscribe Ltd and is available for download.

Matrix Tracker replaced the original paper-based tracking system which was deemed to be unacceptable since it is difficult to audit or back-up. Matrix Tracker was chosen for this application because the tracking software offered by the provider of the Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) used in the main hospital lacked the flexibility to allow the function of the system to be altered beyond a few simple settings, as well as being expensive..

The new Distimatic, available from Radleys has made large volume, solvent evaporation easy for the School of Chemistry at the University of Bristol.

Dr. Luke Elliot and Professor Kevin Booker-Milburn from the School of Chemistry have invested in the Distimatic system to assist with the scale-up of photochemical reactions, a process that requires relatively dilute conditions. They reported “... we found solvent evaporation was becoming a major bottle-neck to further scale-up within the confines of a conventional lab fume-cupboard. Simply attending to the basic processes of evaporation, refilling and emptying flasks, required a surprising amount of time. All this time is saved by the Distimatic, since it fully takes over after pressing a few buttons. This allows more time to be spent focussing on the chemistry...

A COMBINATION of professional knowledge and university research has led to a cutting-edge health facility being installed at a North East hospital.

Christine Williams, Business Performance Manager for the Division of Acute Medicine at South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, looked at processes for decontaminating flexible endoscopes, used to examine patient’s stomachs, as part of her work-based degree in Leadership and Management at Teesside University. Her project has led to the installation of a new £2m centralised decontamination unit at James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough which carries out more than 900 endoscopies each month.....

Trajan Scientific and Medical (Trajan) is pleased to announce that the Australian Research Council (ARC) has selected the University of Tasmania (UTAS) and Trajan’s proposal to create an ARC Training Centre for Portable Analytical Separation Technologies.

The program will see the Australian Government committing more than A$2.1 million funding from 2014 over three years, to establish and provide ongoing support to the Training Centre. The partnership of Trajan and UTAS combines industry knowledge and research to innovate in product design, development and manufacturing techniques. The ARC’s Industrial Transformation Training Centres Scheme aims to foster close partnerships between universitybased researchers....

A breakthrough image management platform for scientists

Curie-Cancer, the body responsible for developing Institut Curie's industry partnership activity, and Strand Scientific Intelligence, Inc. (Strand) announce the launch of the Curie Image Database (CID), a breakthrough image analysis and management platform that they developed jointly over the last two years at the Cell and Tissue Imaging Core Facility of the Institut Curie (PICT-IBiSA)...

A government minister has been told that rising demand for life sciences manufacturing at one of Britain’s fastest-growing hi-tech business parks is set to herald a new building programme. 

Plans are underway at Discovery Park, Sandwich – the complex formerly owned by pharmaceutical company Pfizer - to replace older factory and laboratory buildings with new. Paul Barber, managing director of Discovery Park, outlined the plans to Michael Fallon, Minister of State for Business and Enterprise, and MP for Sevenoaks, during his first official visit to the site. The visit was hosted by Laura Sandys, MP for South Thanet....

The Glasgow based company which was at the forefront of the UK's defences against food contamination during the horsemeat scandal has welcomed the news that Scotland is to strengthen its food safety laws.

R-Biopharm Rhône, the manufacturer and one of Scotland's biggest exporters of diagnostic test kits, endorsed legislation contained in the Food Standards Scotland Bill, which will create a new body to focus on consumer protection.Victoria Jordan, R-Biopharm Rhône's UK product specialist (food and feed), said: "Having been in the front line when the horse meat scandal broke, R-Biopharm Rhône is strongly in favour of the most stringent standards as far as the safety of the public is concerned....

A new customer testimonial video from INTEGRA demonstrates how the VIAFLO VOYAGER motorised adjustable spacing pipette can be used to rapidly set up a 384-well qRT-PCR plate for analysis in a ViiA™ 7 Real-Time PCR system (Life Technologies).

In the video demonstration, the VIAFLO VOYAGER  simplifies and significantly accelerates the loading of samples into a 384-well plate. The researcher shows how it is routinely possible to pipette 64 samples in triplicate for two genes of interest - all in under 10 minutes!...

Porvair Sciences reports strong growing demand for their Chromatrap® chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay technology from academic groups and biopharmaceutical organisations involved with epigenetic research.

Stephen Knight, Sales and Marketing Director commented "An expanding number of proven application solutions and the introduction of the Chromatrap® 96 HT solid-state ChIP high throughput platform has enabled us to more than double the number of research groups using ChromaTrap assay technology during the last 12 months".  He added "We are particularly pleased by the very positive feedback from early adopters of the technology"...

Thermo Fisher Scientific is pleased to announce a new technical note TN 139

Thermo Fisher Scientific is pleased to announce a new technical note TN 139: Determination of Anions in Fracking Flowback Water From the Marcellus Shale Using Automated Dilution and Ion Chromatography which demonstrates the use of in-line conductivity measurement to trigger automated dilution prior to separation and quantification of inorganic ions and organic acids in Marcellus Shale fracking flowback samples using ion chromatography...

A team of world leaders in the growing scientific field of biomolecular interaction, relating to basic biomedical research and the discovery of new pharmaceuticals, has been the recipient of a new Australian Research Council Linkage Grant.

The project combines the knowledge and expertise of the laboratories of Associate Professor Kevin Pfleger of The University of Western Australia/Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research and Professor Stephen Hill of The University of Nottingham (UK) who are both leaders in bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET)/fluorescence technology development. They will be working with the bioluminescent industry leader Promega Corporation and the leading high-throughput instrumentation company BMG Labtech Pty Ltd (Australia).

Malvern Instruments has kicked off another year of its highly popular open-access webinar program and on 21 January the ‘Step into the Light’ webinar offers insight into the use of dynamic light scattering technology to improve the quality of biopharmaceutical data in purity profiles.

This is followed on 23 January by ‘Optimization and characterization of nanomaterials for drug delivery applications. Part 1 – Liposomes’.  ‘Where do I find source material in light scattering?’ is the topic on 28 January, and the first of this year’s laser diffraction masterclass series goes out live on 30 January. Accurately identifying impurities and generating purity profiles presents substantial challenges to biopharmaceutical developers, who require the most sensitive analysis methods available. ‘Step into the Light’ will explore the analytical challenges within biopharmaceutical development

Hantaviruses are RNA viruses that can infect humans via rodent waste including urine and saliva especially when these are aerosolized.

SP Scientific has announced its LyoLearn winter 2013/2014 webinar program.

Due to run on 22nd January 2014, is a new webinar entitled 'Secondary Drying Optimization for Proteinaceous Drug Formula' chaired by Lisa M Hardwick - a highly experienced scientist from Baxter Biopharma Solutions. This free webinar focuses on how and why the secondary drying phase of a lyophilization cycle can be critical for protein-containing products. The webinar will utilize case studies to describe methods to determine acceptable ramp rates and shelf temperatures for the freeze dry cycle, as well as the optimal residual water content for the finished product...

A One Day Symposium Focussing on Advances in Natural Product Analysis - Syngenta Research Labs, 9th April 2014

Chromatographic & mass spectrometric analysis in vegetable matter, natural and food products will be explored by specialists from a variety of industries. An exhibition of analytical instrumentation and presentations by leading manufacturers will form an important element of the symposium.

LPW Technology, a leading supplier of  optimised metal powders for high end additive manufacturing (AM) applications, is using the FT4 Powder Rheometer® from Freeman Technology to research new powders and exert control over product performance.

LPW Technology develops and supplies customised metal powders for high performance, functional component manufacture, supplying, amongst others, the automotive, aerospace and biomedical industries. Comprehensive powder testing using the FT4 Powder Rheometer provides the information needed to engineer powder behaviour for specific AM processes and applications and to ensure a consistent quality product. “Powder testing is a critical part of what we do, both in the development of new powders and as a service for customers looking to optimise existing AM processes,” explains Dr Robert Deffley, Research and Development Manager at LPW Technology...

A new applications report from FLIR Systems details how Integral UK, has used FLIR thermal imaging technology to reduce facility chiller downtime

A new applications report from FLIR Systems details how Integral UK, one of the largest independent providers of property maintenance services in the UK, has used FLIR thermal imaging technology to reduce facility chiller downtime thereby reducing inconvenience and ongoing maintenance costs to their clients. Facility chillers commonly use refrigerant gas to provide cooling and therefore temperature control for large commercial properties....

Metrohm is pleased to announce a practical course focusing on best practices for analyzing nonalcoholic beverages by titration and ion chromatography.

The course will take place from March 18 through 19, 2014 in the laboratories and conference facilities of the Metrohm Academy in Herisau, Switzerland. The main focus of this practical course will be on analytical challenges in the QC lab of the beverage industry and solutions how to meet them. Participants will have plenty of opportunities to discuss any questions with the Metrohm application specialists as well as with peers from the bevarage industry. Topics the preliminary program are...