Daily Archives: November 13, 2015

A promising biointerface for endothelial cells assembled from mixed poly(dopamine) film

When implants are put into a patient’s body, there will be contact between this material and the surrounding tissue. Successful implantation requires that the body integrates the foreign materials. The surface of implants plays an important role

Can mathematics help defeating acquired blindness?

Sight threatening pathologies of the eye retina, the light sensitive tissue lining the back of the eye, are an increasing health concern in the ageing population. A number of risk factors, including high intraocular pressure, high blood

Image processing as a facile method to determine pore size distribution in porous scaffold

Scaffold for tissue engineering are porous devices which allows the regeneration of living tissues such as bone, cartilage or other tissues. Some studies demonstrated that the regenerative properties of the scaffold are strongly dependent both on the

Operationally simple reactions with unprotected carbohydrates – an application of organocatalysis

Carbohydrates are ubiquitous in nature. They play an important role as an energy reservoir as well as they are the resource of countless biomaterials, such as cellulose or chitin. This importance has challenged chemists at all times

How does bladder chemotherapy given before surgery change bladder cancer cells?

It is estimated that there will be 74,000 new cases of bladder cancer diagnosed in the United States and approximately 16,000 deaths due to bladder cancer in 2015 alone, according to statistics from the American Cancer Society.

Hong Kong as a hotspot of microplastic pollution

Small plastic debris, known as microplastics, is an emerging global environmental issue affecting different water environments, in particular, the oceans. Most scientists classify microplastics as plastic debris with a particle diameter of less than 5 mm. They

Transplanted cells reveal potential for functional neural regeneration

Patients suffering from spinal cord injury and from neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and multiple sclerosis have high hopes for cell transplantation therapy. Successful transplantation depends on the donor cells

Conditional mutations in drosophila

In 1865, Gregor Mendel discovered the laws of inheritance for the traits of living organisms. Reproduction, the major property of living matter and mode of its existence in the Universe, found itself in the spotlight of biology.

New role of microbes in the construction industry

Such well-established areas of Biotechnology as Medical, Agricultural, and Environmental  Biotechnology have thousands of valuable applications but  Construction Biotechnology, which is science and engineering of using of microorganisms in construction industry, is just arising. Before that, microbes

Using Darwin to discover new advanced materials

The process of evolution, first described in detail by Charles Darwin, has resulted in the amazing diversity of plants and animals in our world, each subgroup shaped by the effects of the different environments in which they

The challenge of creating specialist surgical centres in Australia

The past decade has seen an increasing number of publications linking improved surgical outcomes with increased surgical volume. But most of our hospitals are not set up as specialised centres concentrating on a small number of highly