04 Sep, 2014 | by Labroots
Street Drug 15 Times More Powerful Than HeroinAn emerging street drug that is up to 15 times more potent than heroinâsold to users as heroinâis looming on the horizon, according to an article in the journal in Annals of Emergency Medicine. The quasi-legal drug, called acetyl fentanyl, is an opiate that is brewed into street drugs. Users generally inject it intravenously. The drug has no accepted medical use, and it is not regulated. It is...... Read More
03 Sep, 2014 | by Labroots
Too Many Tomatoes? Make Car Parts!If youâre a gardener, this is the time of year where you might be drowning in an abundance of ripe, juicy tomatoes. Donât worry; if youâre getting tired of caprese salad and tomato sauce you can turn them into car parts. In June, the Ford Motor Company announced a partnership with Heinz to develop a plastic derived from leftover tomato skins. The plan is to use the tomato-based plastic to produce...... Read More
02 Sep, 2014 | by Labroots
Flipping a Switch to Drop the PoundsResearchers at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in La Jolla, California have found a way to âswitch onâ a calorie-burning process in brown fat cells. The study, which was reported on in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences looks at a process known as âbrown fat thermogenesis.â Most of our fat cells are âwhite fatâ cells used for storing fat in reserve for when energy...... Read More
21 Aug, 2014 | by Labroots
Penn Medicine Neuropathologist Receives Doris Duke Grant to Study Brain DisordersEdward B. Lee, M.D., Ph.D, an assistant professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, has received a three-year Clinical Scientist Development Award (CSDA) for $486,000 from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to support his research in frontotemporal lobar degeneration and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Lee...... Read More
19 Aug, 2014 | by Labroots
New Computer Chip Mimics Brain FunctionIBM has developed a radically different computer chip whose architecture seeks to mimic that of the brain. A prototype was first built in 2011 based on designs from a monkey brain. It simulates the functions of neurons and synapses. The chip took 10 years to develop and relied on $53.5 million in funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Unlike conventional chips, this new...... Read More
13 Aug, 2014 | by Labroots
ElMindA Announces FDA Clearance of BNA™ Analysis SystemElMindA Ltd. of Herzliya, Israel, announced that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared the company's BNA⢠Analysis System for the assessment of brain function.  Brain Network Activity (BNAâ¢) combines non-invasive, multi-channel EEG technology with sophisticated signal processing and analysis algorithms to measure patterns of brain networks activated during specific...... Read More
11 Aug, 2014 | by Labroots
How Do You Face Up to Negotiations?Many research studies have shown that what we look like affects what other people think of us and can influence our material well-being. Some of these findings are not very surprising. Tall people make more money than shorter people. Blonde women can have an advantage over other women even if they have less education. The most attractive people make about$246,000 more over the course of their lifetimes...... Read More
04 Aug, 2014 | by Labroots
Take a Chip and Call Me in 16 YearsBack in 1993 John Santini, an undergraduate at the University of Michigan inspired by a presentation given by MIT professor Michael Cima, started to develop the idea of storing tiny doses of medicine in a chip like those found in electronic devices and then using an electronic signal to release the medicine over months or years. This idea became the basis for the Lexington, MA-based company, MicroCHIPS....... Read More
24 Jul, 2014 | by Labroots
A Missile Detector that can stop Malaria?What can we do with a retired anti-tank Javelin missile-detector? Apparently we can use it to identify malaria parasites in blood. The detector is meant for sensing Javelin heat-seeking missiles and contains a focal plane array that gives specific information on a target area in minutes. Research published in the journal Analyst shows that this same technology works well in identifying malaria parasites...... Read More
22 Jul, 2014 | by Labroots
Some Day a Simple Blood Draw Could Help Personalize Cancer TreatmentA paper by Massachusetts General Hospital researchers that was recently published in Science, revealed a method that with a simple blood draw, could allow personalized treatment of a patientâs cancer. In this method a blood sample is taken and the cancer cells are isolated, placed in a laboratory dish, and experimented with to find which drugs work best to inhibit the growth of tumor cells in the...... Read More