Science Daily December 19, 2019 Researchers in Canada examined two decades of data from studies that examine the relationships between common gene mutations and different diseases and conditions. According to their analysis the vast majority of diseases, including many cancers, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease, have a genetic contribution of 5 to 10 per cent at best, some notable exceptions, include Crohn’s disease, celiac disease, and macular degeneration, which have a genetic contribution of approximately 40 to 50 per cent. Despite these rare exceptions, it is becoming increasingly clear that the risks for getting most diseases arise from an individual’s metabolism, […]
Tag Archives: S&T Canada
Researchers create blueprint for ‘quantum battery’ that doesn’t lose charge
Phys.org October 25, 2019 Researchers in Canada have provided a theoretical demonstration that creating a loss-free quantum battery is possible—offering an advantage over previously proposed quantum batteries. To realize their idea, the team considered an open quantum network model with high structural symmetry as a platform for storing excitonic energy. Using this model, they showed it is possible to store energy without any loss, despite being open to an environment. The key is to prepare this quantum network in a dark state when the network cannot exchange energy with its environment, the system becomes immune to all environmental influences. The […]
Bacteria-killing gel heals itself while healing you
Phys.org July 25, 2019 Researchers in Canada report hierarchically structured hydrogels of self-organized M13 bacteriophage bundles, composed of hundreds of M13 nanofilaments, which exhibit both long-range and micron-scale order, are visible in electron micrographs of the cross-linked state. They adsorb up to 16× their weight in water, exhibit advanced properties at room temperature, namely, self-healing under biological conditions, autofluorescence in three channels, which decays through biodegradation, potentiating non-destructive imaging capability, and bioactivity toward the host bacteria. The latter is a powerful property, allowing the development of hydrogels with tunable bioactivity when combined with the phage display and/or recombinant DNA technology. […]
We Finally Have Found a Way to Convert Donor Blood Into a Universal Type
Science Alert June 12, 2019 Researchers have known that certain enzymes could remove the sugars from A, B, and AB blood cells, converting them into the more useful Type O. Among the genes encoded in their library of 19,500 expressed fosmids bearing gut bacterial DNA, researchers in Canada identified an enzyme pair that work in concert to efficiently convert the A antigen to the H antigen of O type blood 30 times more efficiently than any previously discovered enzyme. The next step would then be to test the enzyme in a clinical setting, which will help determine if the conversion […]
Scientists Have Found a Way to Preserve Vaccines Without Refrigeration For Months
Science Alert May 26, 2019 While other tactics have focused on reengineering the vaccines or modifying their vectors, new method invented by researchers in Canada is based on the simple addition of sugar. The viruses are mixed and then dried into a sugary film, created from a combination of two FDA-approved food preservatives, called pullulan and trehalose. Suspended in this solution, the vaccines can be transported without the need for constant cooling. To reactive them, local clinicians need only add water before administering them to patients, as fresh as if they came from a fridge. So far, the effectiveness has […]
Researchers create washable sensor that can be woven into materials
Science Daily May 16, 2019 Researchers in Canada have developed a low‐cost, tunable, and stretchable sensor fabric based on spandex yarns coated with graphene nanoplatelets through a dip‐coating process. It is wrapped into a stretchable silicone rubber sheath to protect the conductive layer against harsh conditions, which allows for fabricating washable wearable sensors. The covering sheath is tailored to achieve high stretchability beyond the sensing limit of 104%. Adjustable sensitivity is attained by manipulating spandex yarn immersion times. The testing indicates that further improvements in its accuracy could be achieved by fine-tuning the sensor’s material blend and improving its electrical […]
Intel buys into an AI chip that can transfer data 1,000 times faster
MIT Technology Review April 2, 2019 Untether, based in Toronto, Canada, has developed a prototype inference chip which is akin to a chip that runs on a device like a smartphone or a camera. It can transfer data between different parts of the chip 1,000 times more quickly than a conventional AI chip. It uses “near-memory computing” to reduce the physical distance between memory and the processing tasks, which speeds up data transfer and lowers power consumption…read more.
Researchers design ‘smart’ surfaces to repel everything but targeted beneficial exceptions
Science Daily October 24, 2018 Researchers in Canada have developed a new class of lubricant-infused surfaces that offer tunable bioactivity together with omniphobic properties by integrating biofunctional domains into the lubricant-infused layer. They created surfaces highly tunable that bind to particular antibodies while repelling nonspecific adhesion of undesirable proteins and cells not only in buffer but also in human plasma or human whole blood to demonstrate how it is beneficial in biomedical implants. The method creates biofunctional, nonstick surfaces that can be used to optimize the performance of devices such as biomedical implants, extracorporeal circuits, and biosensors… read more. TECHNICAL […]
D-Wave demonstrates first large-scale quantum simulation of topological state of matter
Eurekalert August 22, 2018 Researchers in Canada demonstrated a large-scale quantum simulation of this phenomenon in a network of 1,800 in situ programmable superconducting niobium flux qubits whose pairwise couplings are arranged in a fully frustrated square-octagonal lattice. They observed the emergence of a complex order parameter with continuous rotational symmetry, and the onset of quasi-long-range order as the system approaches a critical temperature. According to the researchers the approach of using a quantum processor as a programmable magnetic lattice will find widespread use in the simulation and development of exotic materials…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Enzyme can convert any blood into universally donated type O
Next Big Future August 22, 2018 Researchers in Canada have identified a new, more powerful group of enzymes found in the human gut that can turn any type of blood into the universally usable type O—expanding the pool of potential blood donors and making blood matching safer and easier. Removing antigens from blood effectively transforms it into type O. Scientists hope that one day we can eventually render any type of donated blood, tissues or organs, safe for use by anyone regardless of their native blood type…read more.