Novel Antidote to Liver Cancer
A US-based research team has designed a protocell that can ferry a drug cocktail to kill tenacious drug-resistant liver cancer cells. The protocell has been tagged with peptide to specifically target liver cancer cells.
The protocell showed 10,000-fold greater affinity for cancer cells than normal liver cells and immune cells. The researchers say that protocells can be loaded with combinations of therapeutic (drugs, small interfering RNA and toxins) and diagnostic (quantum dots) agents.
The protocell is actually porous nanoparticle-supported lipid bilayers exhibiting combined properties of liposomes and nanoporous particles. This new avenue to treat liver cancer will shun the need of conventional chemotherapy that usually unleashes side effects. The study has been published in the 17 April 2011 online issue of Nature Materials.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
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| First Computer Mouse (Photo credit: www.geekologie.com) |
It helps you while typing words on a word processor. It aids in drawing and painting a nice digital picture. With a simple click, it connects you to Internet. Yes, I am talking about computer mouse that almost permeates every sphere of our gadget-savvy life. But, have you ever wondered how the first computer mouse looked like? Who invented it?
The earliest computer mouse was very different from what we see now. The first mouse was actually a wooden shell with two metal wheels. A wire tail came out of this system. At that time, this device was named as ‘X-Y position indicator for a display system’.
Douglas Engelbart, a researcher at the Stanford Research Institute invented this earliest precursor to modern day mouse. Without realizing its value, the institute licensed the device to Apple for “something like $40,000”.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Oldest Computer Mouse
It helps you while typing words on a word processor. It aids in drawing and painting a nice digital picture. With a simple click, it connects you to Internet. Yes, I am talking about computer mouse that almost permeates every sphere of our gadget-savvy life. But, have you ever wondered how the first computer mouse looked like? Who invented it?
The earliest computer mouse was very different from what we see now. The first mouse was actually a wooden shell with two metal wheels. A wire tail came out of this system. At that time, this device was named as ‘X-Y position indicator for a display system’.
Douglas Engelbart, a researcher at the Stanford Research Institute invented this earliest precursor to modern day mouse. Without realizing its value, the institute licensed the device to Apple for “something like $40,000”.
It helps you while typing words on a word processor. It aids in drawing and painting a nice digital picture. With a simple click, it connects you to Internet. Yes, I am talking about computer mouse that almost permeates every sphere of our gadget-savvy life. But, have you ever wondered how the first computer mouse looked like? Who invented it?
The earliest computer mouse was very different from what we see now. The first mouse was actually a wooden shell with two metal wheels. A wire tail came out of this system. At that time, this device was named as ‘X-Y position indicator for a display system’.
Douglas Engelbart, a researcher at the Stanford Research Institute invented this earliest precursor to modern day mouse. Without realizing its value, the institute licensed the device to Apple for “something like $40,000”.
Sunday, October 03, 2010
Quantum Dots to Detect Drug Levels
A research team from Kolkata has designed quantum dots (QDs) using an amino acid-capped cadmium sulphide (CdS) semiconducting crystals to detect levels of mannitol, an important diuretic. The researchers observed luminescence enhancement of QDs on interaction with mannitol.
They also observed that possible interfering agents, such as, urea, uric acid, creatinine, some metal ions, glucose, sorbitol or sucrose had no significant effect on luminescence of CdS QDs. The proposed strategy can be a very fast, simple and potential tool for the monitoring of diuretics and assaying intestinal permeability, the researchers say in the 21st July 2010 issue of Analytica Chimica Acta.
A research team from Kolkata has designed quantum dots (QDs) using an amino acid-capped cadmium sulphide (CdS) semiconducting crystals to detect levels of mannitol, an important diuretic. The researchers observed luminescence enhancement of QDs on interaction with mannitol.
They also observed that possible interfering agents, such as, urea, uric acid, creatinine, some metal ions, glucose, sorbitol or sucrose had no significant effect on luminescence of CdS QDs. The proposed strategy can be a very fast, simple and potential tool for the monitoring of diuretics and assaying intestinal permeability, the researchers say in the 21st July 2010 issue of Analytica Chimica Acta.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Arsenic Removal without Chemical
An international research team comprising researchers from India, Netherlands, Germany and UK has designed a chemical free method to purify water laced with arsenic. Six such plants are now in operation a village of West Bengal. The study was conducted in Kasimpore, a village in North 24 Parganas District, approximately 25 km from Kolkata. In all cases, total As in treated water was less than the WHO guideline value of 10 microgram per litre.
The chemical free plant produces no sludge and the operation cost is 1.0 US dollar per day for producing 2000 L of potable water. The findings of the study have been published in the December 2009 issue of Environmental Pollution.
An international research team comprising researchers from India, Netherlands, Germany and UK has designed a chemical free method to purify water laced with arsenic. Six such plants are now in operation a village of West Bengal. The study was conducted in Kasimpore, a village in North 24 Parganas District, approximately 25 km from Kolkata. In all cases, total As in treated water was less than the WHO guideline value of 10 microgram per litre.
The chemical free plant produces no sludge and the operation cost is 1.0 US dollar per day for producing 2000 L of potable water. The findings of the study have been published in the December 2009 issue of Environmental Pollution.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Novel Diagnostic Kit for Rural Areas
A research team from Kolkata has designed a low cost, low power and high speed novel diagnostic system that can detect diseases even in absence of the physician the approaching critical condition of a patient at an early stage. It is suitable for diagnosis of patients in the rural areas of developing countries where availability of physicians and availability of power is really scarce.
Known as field programmable gate array (FPGA), the diagnostic system could be installed in health care centres of rural areas where patients can register themselves for periodic diagnoses detecting potential health hazards at an early stage. The FPGA based smart system has been applied for early detection of renal criticality of patients. For renal diagnosis, body mass index, glucose, urea, creatinine, systolic and diastolic blood pressures have been considered as pathophysiological parameters.
The system has successfully worked on the population of 80 patients under study and an accuracy of up to 97.5% in renal diagnosis has been obtained. The findings of the study have been published in the December 2009 issue of Journal of Medical System.
A research team from Kolkata has designed a low cost, low power and high speed novel diagnostic system that can detect diseases even in absence of the physician the approaching critical condition of a patient at an early stage. It is suitable for diagnosis of patients in the rural areas of developing countries where availability of physicians and availability of power is really scarce.
Known as field programmable gate array (FPGA), the diagnostic system could be installed in health care centres of rural areas where patients can register themselves for periodic diagnoses detecting potential health hazards at an early stage. The FPGA based smart system has been applied for early detection of renal criticality of patients. For renal diagnosis, body mass index, glucose, urea, creatinine, systolic and diastolic blood pressures have been considered as pathophysiological parameters.
The system has successfully worked on the population of 80 patients under study and an accuracy of up to 97.5% in renal diagnosis has been obtained. The findings of the study have been published in the December 2009 issue of Journal of Medical System.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Green Belt Recipe for Reduced Pollution
Plantation or green belt (GB) grown around the factories and industrial premises improves the condition of land, mitigates air pollution (as the plants serve as a sink for pollutants and check the flow of dust, etc.), and reduces the level of noise pollution, claims a joint research team from Kolkata and Nagpur. The researchers have done the assessment of green belts of 500-m width in and around a petroleum refinery in the west coast of India.
For the study, they developed software and ran computer-based models using species of deciduous trees existing in the region. The researchers have found that the green belt has been good at reducing pollution and its overall efficiency was more than 60 per cent. The findings of the study have been published in a recent issue of Environment Monitoring Assessment.
Plantation or green belt (GB) grown around the factories and industrial premises improves the condition of land, mitigates air pollution (as the plants serve as a sink for pollutants and check the flow of dust, etc.), and reduces the level of noise pollution, claims a joint research team from Kolkata and Nagpur. The researchers have done the assessment of green belts of 500-m width in and around a petroleum refinery in the west coast of India.
For the study, they developed software and ran computer-based models using species of deciduous trees existing in the region. The researchers have found that the green belt has been good at reducing pollution and its overall efficiency was more than 60 per cent. The findings of the study have been published in a recent issue of Environment Monitoring Assessment.
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