Cambridge, UK, -- The Cambridge Multi Pass Rheometer (MPR) is a novel dual piston capillary rheometer that can be used to investigate the rheological behaviour of melts, liquids and soft solids.

It consists of two servo hydraulically controlled pistons enclosed within temperature controlled barrels and a central test section. The pistons can be moved back and forth to drive the material contained within the MPR through the test section (see the schematic diagram to the right).

The speed of the pistons can be varied from 0.05 mm.s-1 to 200 mm.s-1, allowing very high shear rates to be generated.


Read full article: 'The Cambridge Multi Pass Rheometer'

{The NIST force sensor is a crystal of ions (charged atoms) trapped inside the upper region of the copper cylinder. A laser beam directed upward through the trap cools the ions. A force is applied in the form of an oscillating electric field, and a detector (not shown) measures the light reflected off the ions. Credit: Bollinger/NIST View hi-resolution image
Gaithersburg MD, USA -- Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have used a small crystal of ions (electrically charged atoms) to detect forces at the scale of yoctonewtons.

Measurements of slight forces—one yoctonewton is equivalent to the weight of a single copper atom on Earth—can be useful in force microscopy, nanoscale science, and tests of fundamental physics theories.

A newton is already a small unit: roughly the force of Earth's gravity on a small apple. A yoctonewton is one septillionth of a newton (yocto means 23 zeros after the decimal place, or 10^-23, or 1/10²³or 0.000000000000000000000001.)


Read full article: 'NIST Sensor Measures Yoctonewton Forces'

Enable real-time monitoring of protein expression

Abingdon, UK -- AMSBIO has announced a new range of expression ready lentiviral particles that allow easy gene delivery into hard to transfect cells including primary cells, non-dividing cells and cells in suspension.

AMSBIO lentiviral particles are supplied ready-to-use eliminating the need for any lipids or transfection reagents.

The range of pre-made lentiviral particles are proven to deliver genes in a highly reproducible and controllable manner for the expression of greater than 250 human proteins, mouse proteins, enzymes and fluorescent markers.

Using proprietary protocols based upon co-expressed red fluorescent protein by a 2A peptide processing (SureTiter™) or RSV promoter (Inducible system) - AMSBIO lentiviral particles enable real-time monitoring of protein expression.

Applications that will benefit from lentiviral particles include gene delivery for expression or knock-down in hard-to-transfect cell types such as primary cells, stem cells, drug-arrested cells and cells in suspension.


Read full article: 'Ready-to-Use Gene Delivery Tools…'

{STORRM retro-reflector installed during space shuttle mission STS-131 in May 2010. Credit: NASA/JSC}

Boulder CO, USA -- It was a perfect STORRM. NASA and its industry partners successfully demonstrated a new sensor technology that will make it easier and safer for spacecraft to rendezvous and dock to the International Space Station.

On Tuesday, July 20, NASA and its industry partners Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., successfully demonstrated a new sensor technology that will make it easier and safer for spacecraft to rendezvous and dock to the International Space Station.

STS-134 crew members were briefed on the Sensor Test for Orion Relative Navigation Risk Mitigation (STORRM) Development Test Objective by the lead project engineers at the Ball Aerospace Facility in Boulder, Colorado.


Read full article: 'A Perfect STORRM!'

Villebon sur Yvette, France & South San Francisco CA, USA -- Fluidigm Corporation has announced that the Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées Genomic Platform - Genotoul INRA core facility is now providing a wide range of services on a BioMark™ System for Genetic Analysis to a diverse range of French researchers.

These services include SNP genotyping, gene expression analysis and digital PCR quantification of DNA libraries for next-generation sequencing. The INRA has been validating the performance of the system on several projects over the past year.

"We have used the BioMark system for many different applications and have found the results to be very robust and comparable to those obtained using classical techniques. However, this platform allows us to provide researchers with a lot more high-quality data, in a fraction of the time, at a very affordable cost. In addition, we were the first facility to offer Fluidigm technology in France and are delighted that we are seeing the demand for this technology increasing nicely," said Denis Milan, group leader of the Department of Animal Genetics at INRA.


Read full article: 'Leading Agricultural Institute Reports On Robust Genetic Analysis Results...'

Tring, UK -- Specialised Imaging Ltd. has published a new white paper 'Ultra high-speed imaging: taking the hype out of hypervelocity' that describes how ultra-high speed framing cameras have evolved into simple plug-and-play systems that are enabling the previously challenging study of hypervelocity micro-particle impact events.

Traditionally, ultra high-speed framing cameras have been deployed in the science of very fast phenomena, such as high voltage discharge, crack propagation, detonics, and hypervelocity particle-impact studies.

These traditional sciences have now been joined by biomedical and botanical studies, nanotechnology, and space research, where the speed of image capture is not always the most important factor-and in some cases, speeds of 500,000 frames per second (fps) or less are acceptable
.

Read full article: 'Developments in Ultra High-Speed Imaging Camera Technology…'

AMSBIO releases 4 new homogeneous 384-well format AlphaScreen assay kits - JMJD2A, JMJD2B, JMJD2C, PRMT5 and G9a (a histone methyltransferase)

Abingdon, UK -- In the desire to make the search for new drugs more economically viable, pharmaceutical companies are seeking rapid, sensitive assays where all the reaction reagents are added in a single automated step.

Homogeneous assays are popular with researchers involved in high-throughput drug screening because they save time, save reagents, and are easy to automate.

Homogeneous assays allow a simple "mix and read" process, without requiring lengthy, time consuming wash steps to remove unbound constituents.

AlphaScreen kits are bead-based ALPHA** technology assays, using microparticles coated with either DNA or protein in a format suitable for use with automated reagent handling systems.


Read full article: 'Homogeneous Assay Kits Minimize Assay Complexity…'

CHICAGO IL, USA -- /PRNewswire/ -- ICAP Ocean Tomo has been engaged to sell a patent portfolio of near-infrared spectroscopy technology owned by NIResults Inc.

The portfolio includes over 90 issued US and foreign patents and patent applications. The assets have been cited by over 20 companies including Abbott Laboratories, Baxter International, Bayer Healthcare, Beckman Coulter Inc., Xerox, and Hewlett Packard.

The patents of this portfolio cover the use of near-infrared spectroscopy in clinical chemistry analysis systems, pulse oximeters and CO-oximeters, non-invasive glucose monitors, and hemoglobin monitors. The patents describe a method for the monitoring of key blood analytes without the need for costly, environmentally challenging, chemical reagents.


Read full article: 'ICAP Ocean Tomo Offers IP Portfolio of Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Technology'

Abingdon, UK -- AMSBIO has announced a new second generation PARP in vivo Pharmacodynamic Assay that accurately measures net poly (ADP-ribose) (PAR) levels in cellular extracts and has been used to document differences in PAR levels in human tumour lysates from a variety of tissues, organs and xenografts.

Poly-ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) is a protein involved in a number of cellular processes including catalysing the NAD-dependent addition of PAR onto itself and other adjacent nuclear proteins. PARP-1 is widely regarded as a promising target for the development of drugs useful in various regimes of cancer therapy, inflammation, ischemia and neurodegeneration.

More recently the discovery that breast cancers deficient in homologous recombination are sensitive to non-toxic PARP inhibitors has resulted in efforts by numerous pharmaceutical companies to develop PARP-1 specific drugs.


Read full article: 'Tools to Study Genomic Instability '

Ipswich, UK -- A new web page from Genevac brings together the latest technological innovations, applications advances and links to references that details how new fast, safe evaporative sample preparation techniques are benefiting metabolism and toxicology studies.

Metabolic and Toxicology studies look at the passage of a drug or chemical into and through the body.

Information is also provided detailing how modern evaporation technology is increasing metabolite recovery in ADMET Studies, improving productivity in toxicology screening and delivering advances in metabolite profiling through better sample preparation.


Read full article: 'ADME-Tox Studies Benefit from Advances in Evaporative Sample Preparation'