Physorg March 9, 2018 Researchers at Harvard University have developed a hydrogel which is a hybrid of two different polymers: a seaweed extract called alginate and polyacrylamide. When these become entangled with each other, they create a molecular network that demonstrates unprecedented toughness and resilience for a hydrogel material—on par with the body’s natural cartilage. When combined with an adhesive layer containing positively charged polymer molecules, the resulting hybrid material can bind to tissues, stretch up to 20 times its initial length, and attach to wet tissue surfaces undergoing dynamic movement… read more.
Category Archives: Biotechnology
How a yeast cell helps crack open the ‘black box’ behind artificial intelligence
Physorg March 5, 2018 An international team of researchers (USA – UC San Diego, Israel) developed what they call a “visible” neural network and used it to build DCell, a model of a functioning brewer’s yeast cell, commonly used as a model in basic research. To do this, they amassed all knowledge of cell biology in one place and created a hierarchy of these cellular components. Then they mapped standard machine learning algorithms to this knowledge base. “Learning” is guided only by real-world cellular behaviors and constraints coded from approximately 2,500 known cellular components. The team inputs information about genes […]
Magnetic nanoparticles will help stop internal bleeding 15 times more effectively
Nanowerk February 28, 2018 Researchers in Russia used magnet-driven nanoparticles consisting of two key components – thrombin, an enzyme responsible for blood clotting and magnetite. Thrombin interacts with the protein called fibrinogen and triggers clot formation to block the damaged vessel. The thrombin is wrapped into a special porous matrix made of magnetite that allows for precise control of the movement of particles inside the body using an external magnetic field. A drug based on these nanoparticles is nontoxic and can be injected intravenously and delivered straight to the site of a vascular injury. It can accelerate local clot formation […]
Chemists harness artificial intelligence to predict the future (of chemical reactions)
Eurekalert February 15, 2018 To manufacture medicines, chemists must find the right combinations of chemicals to make the necessary chemical structures. A team of researchers in the US (Princeton University, industry partner) has developed a software to accurately predict reaction yields while varying up to four reaction components. Reaction yields can be accurately predicted using the results of ‘only’ hundreds of reactions (instead of thousands). The code extracts descriptors for each chemical used in the model calculating quantitative descriptors for each chemical, to use as inputs for the model. The software can work for any reaction, any substrate. The idea […]
Worm ‘uploaded’ to computer and taught amazing tricks
Science Daily February 6, 2018 C. elegans must get by with only 300 neurons. It can be drawn as a circuit diagram or reproduced by computer software, so that the neural activity of the worm is simulated by a computer program. Researchers in Austria trained and optimized the artificial reflex network on the computer with the help of reinforcement learning. They succeeded in teaching the virtual nerve system to balance a pole on its tip – solving a standard technology problem. They have demonstrated that their neural policy performs as good as existing traditional control theory and machine learning approaches… […]
A ski jacket that actively gets rid of sweat
Science Daily January 29, 2018 Researchers in Switzerland have developed a technology called Hydro-bot based on osmosis. To ensure that liquid is actively transported from the inside to the outside by means of electro-osmosis, a polymer membrane with a thickness of 20 micrometers is used, which is coated on both sides with a noble metal by means of plasma coating. A voltage of around 1.5 volts is applied to accelerate the process. When the voltage is applied, salt ions and the liquid surrounding them migrate through tiny pores in the membrane to the outside. The membrane is equipped with a […]
Teaching life a new trick: Bacteria make boron-carbon bonds
Source: Eurekalert, November 29, 2017 Researchers at Caltech used directed evolution method, where enzymes are evolved in a lab to perform desired functions, to coax the bacteria into making boron-containing compounds. They mutated the DNA that encodes the protein and then put the mutated DNA sequences into thousands of bacterial cells. The DNA of successful mutant proteins was then mutated again, and the cycle was repeated until the bacteria making the proteins were highly proficient at assembling the boron-carbon compounds. Their final bacterial creations were up to 400 times more productive than synthetic chemical processes used for the same reaction. […]