Complex human brain tissue has been successfully developed in a three-dimensional culture system established in an Austrian laboratory.

Enigma Diagnostics Ltd, the spin-out company of Ploughshare Innovations, has successfully completed its analytical and diagnostic verification of its FluAB-RSV diagnostic assay on the Enigma® ML system, which looks set to benefit many patients in the future.

The organisation – which specialises in developing next generation rapid molecular diagnostic instrument platforms for decentralised and point-of-care settings – completed the verification at Guy’s and St.Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in London, and is set to finalise validation and CE marking of the test this year. Enigma installed a series of mini laboratory (ML) instruments at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ for use at the Trust’s Centre for Clinical Infection and Diagnostics Research (CIDR)...

NanoSight reports on how Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis, NTA, is being used at St George's, University of London, to explore extracellular vesicles as a potential source of biomarkers, by identifying proteins or peptides differentially expressed between healthy subjects and patients with rare inherited diseases.

St George's, University of London, is the UK's only independent medical and healthcare higher education institution. Dr Bridget Bax is a senior research fellow in the Clinical Sciences Division where the main focus of her group's research is to improve the understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms of rare inherited diseases and to develop novel therapies for translation into the clinical setting. One of their major areas of interest is the identification and validation of biomarkers in patients with the rare and fatal disease mitochondrial neurogastrointestinal encephalomyopathy (MNGIE)...

Porvair Sciences has announced a new version of its Chemical Compatibility Chart that provides an easy-touse reference guide detailing the chemical resistance of membranes and matrices used in microplates to a wide range of common laboratory chemicals.

Employing tests performed at room temperature (25°C) - Porvair has compiled data as to the compatibility of different microplate matrices and membranes to a wide range of acids, alcohols, bases, esters, hydrocarbons /chlorinated hydrocarbons, ketones and other chemicals. In the tabulated chart - chemical compatibility data for each microplate material is listed as ‘suitable’, ‘ok for medium term use’ or ‘unsuitable’ thereby offering lab scientists the information to enable selection of just microplates constructed from materials optimised for their application...

Thermo Fisher Scientific Establishes Pesticide Analysis Center of Excellence. Expertise, technology and knowledge-sharing available to food and environmental analysts.

Government and industry laboratories worldwide have a new resource for improving methods for monitoring and measuring pesticides in food and the environment. The new Thermo Fisher Scientific Pesticide Analysis Center of Excellence (COE) recently opened its doors in Runcorn, UK to help users apply the latest technology and expertise to challenging pesticide analysis in food and environmental laboratories...

Non-Animal Method Identifies Chemicals That Cause Allergic Reactions in Humans 

Work conducted by Michigan-based contract research organisation CeeTox and funding from London-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) UK has resulted in an important step towards replacing animal-based testing methods. CeeTox today reports the positive results of a study that has the potential to save tens of thousands of animals from experiments...

When Was The Last Time Your Test Sieve Had A Health Check?

In order to ensure the validity of your testing you may need to verify that your sieves are still compliant with the standard against which they were originally inspected. A sieve may no longer be compliant to the standard for the following reasons. Deviations from uniformity of mesh such as creases, wrinkles, tears and over-sized apertures will render the sieve no longer compliant to the standard....

Enzymes catalyse reactions in biological processes and their presence in biological samples is of interest to a variety of Clinical, Industrial and Educational analysts.

Several manufacturers offer test kits to enable determination of enzyme activity by Colorimetry.  The kits are designed so speed of reaction is dependent on enzyme concentration at a controlled temperature.  Whilst there are a wide variety of different enzymes, many kits use NADH, a co-enzyme which converts to NAD when reacted, to help determine the enzyme of interest; NADH adsorbs at 340nm and NAD does not.  During the reaction time interval, the rate at which NADH is converted to NAD is proportional to the concentration of the enzyme of interest and the measured decrease in absorption at 340nm is multiplied by a factor (supplied by the kit manufacturer) to determine enzyme concentration....

IDT helps users to safeguard their experiments

Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT), the world leader in oligonucleotide synthesis, provides an overview in the latest issue of its quarterly newsletter, DECODED, of the importance of checking for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) when designing PCR assays. If PCR is performed using primers that overlap a SNP, the SNP can impact the progress of the PCR, and thus the accuracy of resulting data...

Optical Surfaces Ltd. (OSL) has produced its ‘Practical Guide to Surface Quality’ – the  second in a series of practical guides for optics users.

The informative new 12-page guide is written to enable scientists and engineers better understand an optics quoted surface quality as surface imperfections are typically the most misunderstood, misinterpreted, and ambiguous of all optical specifications. Key reasons why surface quality is an important consideration in selecting optics are associated with cosmetic acceptability and often more importantly with the functionality / performance of the component. The presence of defects on the surface of an optical component can scatter light which in some circumstances may affect its performance...

Once a James Bond fantasy, diamond-based lasers are now becoming a reality.

Ground-breaking research is harnessing the unique properties of diamonds to develop a new generation of lasers that could lead to many benefits, from better treatment of skin complaints and diabetes-related eye conditions to improved pollution monitoring and aeronautical engineering. A University of Strathclyde team has developed a new type of high-performance, ultra-versatile Raman laser* that harnesses diamonds to produce light beams with more power and a wider range of colours than current Raman lasers...

NGAL Test - Early Diagnosis of Acute Kidney Injury Dedicated Website From Alpha Laboratories Provides a Valuable Information Resource

NGALTest.co.uk is a website that is dedicated to raising awareness amongst Clinicians and Laboratories about the value of early diagnosis of AKI by analysing the novel biomarker, Neutrophil Gelatinase-associated Lipocalin rather than the traditional, nonspecific Creatinine. Clinical and research products are both detailed on the website.Acute kidney injury is no longer considered to be an innocent bystander merely reflecting co-existent pathologies. It has been demonstrated to be an independent risk factor for mortality. The cause of this is unclear but is possibly associated with an increased risk of “non-renal” complications such as bleeding and sepsis...

Uniqsis has published details of a mild nitration method using its FlowSyn flow chemistry system that enables short reaction times and high conversion to be achieved whilst minimising the amount of corrosive (and potentially explosive) hot nitrating mixture present in the reactor at any one time.

Nitration is an important synthetic procedure that is often difficult to control. Under continuous flow-through conditions, however, exotherms are typically well controlled and nitration can be safely performed on a large scale. Using Uniqsis’s proprietary glass static mixer/reactor chip technology - nitration can be safely performed under accelerated conditions at elevated temperature and pressure without the associated problems typically encountered in batch reactors of controlling latency periods or controlling thermal run away...

Major protein structure discovery achieved using TTP Labtech’s mosquito LCP

For the first time, researchers have been able to successfully report the structure of a Class B G-Protein Coupled Receptor (GPCR) using lipidic cubic phase (LCP) protein crystallisation. The work performed at Heptares, a leading drug discovery and development company, and published this week in Nature, details the structural identification of the stress receptor, corticotropin-releasing factor receptor 1 (CRF1). This pioneering discovery opens up the technique to an entirely new group of molecules with important roles in the development of diseases as diverse as diabetes, osteoporosis, depression and anxiety...

Caltech engineers show how to make cost-effective, ultra-high-performance microscopes

Engineers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have devised a method to convert a relatively inexpensive conventional microscope into a billion-pixel imaging system that significantly outperforms the best available standard microscope. Such a system could greatly improve the efficiency of digital pathology, in which specialists need to review large numbers of tissue samples. By making it possible to produce robust microscopes at low cost, the approach also has the potential to bring high-performance microscopy capabilities to medical clinics in developing countries....

New Anti-Toxoplasma Performance Panel from SeraCare Provides Broad Sample of New, Challenging Material

SeraCare Life Sciences, a provider of high quality biological materials that help optimize diagnostic performance, reliability and repeatability across the IVD lifecycle, announced it has introduced a new AccuSet™ anti-Toxoplasma performance panel. This is the newest addition to the SeraCare line of performance panels designed to help IVD manufacturers effectively challenge new assays during development...

The IDT newsletter DECODED features the latest research to rescue the CFTR functionality

Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT), the world leader in oligonucleotide synthesis, offers insight into recent research that has unearthed an miRNA-regulated network implicated in the pathogenesis of Cystic Fibrosis (CF). Described in the April edition of DECODED, the international IDT customer newsletter, optimized DIG-labeled DsiRNAs (IDT) were used to develop a novel, enhanced approach for oligonucleotide delivery....

NanoSight, world-leading providers of unique nanoparticle characterization technology, announces that more than 800 third party publications citing their Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA) methodology have been published, and reflect on the significance of this powerful third party endorsement.

May 2013 saw publication of the 800th peer-reviewed paper citing NTA. It was written by Mark Davis and his group at Caltech: "Transcytosis and brain uptake of transferrin-containing nanoparticles by tuning avidity to transferrin receptor." It was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America....

Ocean Optics STS spectrometers measure vegetation from the ground and the air

A pair of super-lightweight miniature spectrometers from Ocean Optics is helping researchers investigate plant parameters in a verdant patch of New Zealand grassland. The compact STS model spectrometers, one deployed as a ground unit and the other aboard an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), are making synchronized hyperspectral measurements of barley and sugar beet crops to assess plant characteristics for more effective crop management...

Thermo Fisher Scientific is pleased to announce a new technical note on fast separations in a carbonated beverage using increased flow rates on our high-pressure capillary Ion Chromatography (IC) system, the Thermo Scientific Dionex ICS-5000+ Reagent Free HPIC system.

Technical Note 118: Fast Separations of Anions and Organic Acids in a Carbonated Beverage Using High-Pressure Capillary IC describes the determinations of organic acids in these carbonated beverages. The beverage industry uses these acidulants and flavoring agents to maintain beverage freshness, to minimize microbiological growth and to add a characteristic flavor...

Multi-ion beam platform from ZEISS enables new solutions for the challenges faced in nanofabrication

At the Microscopy & Microanalysis trade show in Indianapolis, ZEISS ORION NanoFab received the 2013 Microscopy Today Innovation Award. Microscopy Today magazine annually presents this award to techniques and instruments that play a major role in progressing the field of microscopy. ORION NanoFab is a nanofabrication tool that integrates helium, neon, and gallium focused ion beams on a single platform. The helium and neon ion beams are based on the gas field ion source (GFIS) technology...

Rapidly identify meaningful results with OGT’s Genefficiency™ NGS Report

Oxford Gene Technology (OGT), provider of innovative genetics research and biomarker solutions to advance molecular medicine, is offering the research community a snapshot of its user-friendly Genefficiency™ NGS Variant Analysis Report software, with the release of a free-to-download demo version. The interactive report efficiently manages the complete data analysis process for NGS workflows and delivers fully annotated data, allowing the identification of meaningful results in just a few simple mouse clicks...