A team of scientists from the UK and Germany have established the 3D structure of the HIV virus. This discovery may help other scientists to develop new therapeutic techniques.
The scientists had a tough time cracking the shape of the virus, as it is highly variable, but they used a technique of combining multiple images to glean HIV’s shape.
The HIV virus causes aids by infecting the body’s T Cells, critical immune system cells which fight off invaders.
A new technology is being tested that may one day allow patients who have suffered heart attack or heart disease to ‘patch’ their broken hearts with new, lab-grown tissue.
The team led by professor Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City are using a bioreactor to grow new tissues to spec. There are problems yet to be worked out, but animal trials are underway, with the hope of starting human trials perhaps in a decade.
Scientists at the Harvard Medical School have managed to protect test rats from heart failure by injecting ‘ self-assembling peptide nanofibers loaded with pro-survival factors’. Research has not yet begun on humans.
The article contains great images from inside the rats’ bodies, as well as a link to the Nanotechnology Art Gallery. Enjoy!
In a move meant to combat the growing trend of ‘biopiracy’ (companies or countries patenting organisms or techniques which originated elsewhere), India will be releasing an encyclopedia of traditional ayurvedic, unani, and siddha medicine next year.
The project, dubbed Traditional Knowledge Digital Library, is meant to showcase and protect India’s cultural heritage.
Judges in North Carolina have ordered Diebold to divulge the source code of their voting machines, or face felony charges.
Shortly before the US election In 2004, Diebold’s owner, Walden O’Dell, said he was committed to delivering the election to the president. Their voting machines were also cracked by a chimpanzee, to the effect that the vote tally was altered.
Really, are we all just dreaming this world into being?