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How Silver Turns People Blue

By Guest PostOctober 27, 2012Scienceabsorb, acidic environment, agnes kane, antimicrobial, argyria, base membrane, bioavailable salt, bloodstream, brown researcher, brown university, charged ions, disorder, electron, environmental impact, exposure scenario, frances liu, germs, gi tract, grayish blue, health tonics, jingyu liu, medical treatment, nanoparticle, particle, photochemical reaction, protein, robert hurt, salt ion, silver, silver atom, silver salt, skin, toxic, toxicity, zhongying wang

Ingesting silver — in antimicrobial health tonics or for extensive medical treatments involving silver — can cause argyria, condition in which the skin turns grayish-blue. Brown researchers have discovered how that happens. The process is similar to developing black-and-white photographs, and it’s not just the silver.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Researchers from Brown University have shown for the first time how ingesting too much silver can cause argyria, a rare condition in which patients’ skin turns a striking shade of grayish blue.

“It’s the first conceptual model giving the whole picture of how one develops this condition,” said Robert Hurt, professor of engineering at Brown and part of the research team. “What’s interesting here is that the particles someone ingests aren’t the particles that ultimately cause the disorder.” (more…)

UF Biologist Discovers Mammal with Salamander-like Regenerative Abilities

By Guest PostSeptember 29, 2012Natureafrican, african mammal, amphibian biology, ashley seifert, biopsy, blastema like, cartilage, damaged tissue, florida, hair follicles, human biology, ken muneoka, Kenya, lost limbs, model, mpala, nairobi, regenerative medicine, regrow, research, research centre, salamander, skin, skin autotomy, spiny mouse, structure, tissue regeneration, university, wound healing

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A small African mammal with an unusual ability to regrow damaged tissues could inspire new research in regenerative medicine, a University of Florida study finds.

For years biologists have studied salamanders for their ability to regrow lost limbs. But amphibian biology is very different than human biology, so lessons learned in laboratories from salamanders are difficult to translate into medical therapies for humans. New research in the Sept. 27 issue of the journal Nature describes a mammal that can regrow new body tissues following an injury. The African spiny mouse could become a new model for research in regenerative medicine. (more…)

Scientists Identify Novel Pathway for T Cell Activation in Leprosy

By Guest PostApril 2, 2012Sciencecell signaling molecule, delphine j lee, dendritic cells, immune cells, infection, interleukin 32, lepromatous leprosy, leprosy, leprosy pathogen, mirjam schenk, monocytes, mycobacteria, mycobacterium leprae, nod2, peter a sieling, protein, robert modlin, skin, stephan r krutzik, t cells, tlr2, tuberloid leprosy, white blood cell

*Findings may help lead to new treatments for infectious diseases, cancer*

UCLA researchers have pinpointed a new mechanism that potently activates T cells, the group of white blood cells that plays a major role in fighting infections.

The team specifically studied how dendritic cells, immune cells located at the site of an infection, become more specialized to fight the leprosy pathogen known as Mycobacterium leprae. Dendritic cells, like scouts in the field of a military operation, deliver key information about an invading pathogen that helps activate the T cells in launching a more effective attack. (more…)

Yale Scientists Identify Gene That Controls The Spread of Melanoma

By Guest PostDecember 16, 2011Health, Sciencebeta catenin, braf gene, disease, drug treatments, gene, genetically altered mice, human melanoma, intestine, lungs, lymph nodes, malignant melanoma, manjula santhanakrishnan, marcus w bosenberg, melanoma, metastasis, skin, skin cancer, spleen, tumor growth, william damsky, yale cancer center

Yale Cancer Center researchers have identified a gene in melanoma that can dramatically affect the spread of the disease. The study, published in the journal Cancer Cell, provides new insight into how melanoma metastasizes in patients with advanced disease, and which organs are most likely to be affected. These findings could potentially lead to new drug treatments.

Malignant melanoma is the most deadly form of skin cancer, accounting for 80 percent of all skin cancer deaths. Nearly all melanoma deaths are a result of metastasis, which can occur early in the course of tumor growth in the skin. (more…)

Manufacturing Goes Viral

By Guest PostOctober 22, 2011Sciencealzheimer, amyloid aggregation in our brain tissues, bacteria hunting virus, berkeley laboratory, bioengineering laboratories, biological helical nanofiber structures, biological tissues in nature, biomimetic, chiral materials, chiral strands, coax viruses, collagens for animals and celluloses for plants, corneas, e coli, Environment, environmental variables, escherichia coli, filamentous viruses, helical ribbons, hierarchical level of complexity, induce polarization, joseph akkara, m13, m13 phages, macroscale structures, national science foundation, Nature, periodic changes in cell activity, physical environment, ramen noodle like, range of the spectrum, seung wuk lee, skin, skin tissue, structural building blocks for materials, substrate, supramolecular structures, synthetics with microstructures, teeth, tissue regeneration and repair, university of california at berkeley, wavelengths, wavy, woo jae chung, zina deretsky

*Researchers coax viruses to assemble into synthetics with microstructures and properties akin to those of corneas, teeth and skin*

Using a simple, single-step process, engineers and scientists at the University of California at Berkeley recently developed a technique to direct benign, filamentous viruses called M13 phages to serve as structural building blocks for materials with a wide range of properties.

By controlling the physical environment alone, the researchers caused the viruses to self-assemble into hierarchically organized thin-film structures, with complexity that ranged from simple ridges, to wavy, chiral strands, to truly sophisticated patterns of overlapping strings of material–results that may also shed light on the self-assembly of biological tissues in nature. (more…)

How Tattoos ‘Move’ With Age

By Guest PostJune 6, 2011Culture, Sciencecadmium, dyes, fibroblast cells, fluid mechanics, ian eames, initial immune response, ink particles, iron, lead, lymphatic system, mathematical framework, mathematical model, mathematics today, mercury, nickel, skin, surface of the skin, suspension of particles, tattoos, white blood cells, zinc

The dyes which are injected into the skin to create tattoos move with time – permanently altering the look of a given design. In this month’s Mathematics Today Dr Ian Eames, a Reader in Fluid Mechanics at UCL, publishes a mathematical model enabling us to estimate the movement of these ink particles and predict how specific tattoo designs will look several years in the future.

“Tattoos are incredibly popular worldwide with more than a third of 18-25 year olds in the USA sporting at least one design,” says Dr Eames. “A great deal of work has already been done on the short term fate of ink particles in the skin, tracking them over periods of just a few months – but much less is known about how these particles move over longer periods of time. (more…)

‘Chemical Compounds in Trees Can Fight Deadly Staph Infections in Humans’

By Guest PostFebruary 23, 2011Health, Scienceacne treatment, anti bacterial, antibiotic, bacteria, brian thompson, cash crop, cedar needles, chung ho lin, evolving bacterium, farmers, george stewart, immune systems, key to fighting a deadly bacterium, little economic value, methicillin-resistant, missouri, mrsa, pneumonia, red cedar tree, resistant to most medications, skin, skin cancer, staph infections, staphylococcus aureus, superbug, toxic shock syndrome, trash tree, tree species

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Most people would never suspect that a “trash tree,” one with little economic value and often removed by farmers due to its ability to destroy farmland, could be the key to fighting a deadly bacterium. Now, a University of Missouri researcher has found an antibiotic in the Eastern Red Cedar tree that is effective against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a “superbug” that is resistant to most medications.

“I wanted to find a use for a tree species that is considered a nuisance,” said Chung-Ho Lin, research assistant professor in the MU Center for Agroforestry at the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. “This discovery could help people fight the bacteria as well as give farmers another cash crop.” (more…)

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