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Mitotic Cells Revealed through Raman and Infrared Microspectroscopic Imaging |
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Pharmaceutical Nanocarriers Made Capable of Responding to Local Stimuli |
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Characterization of Glycoproteins, Candidate Markers for Breast Cancer |
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Novel Antimicrobials Identified Using a Live-Animal Infection Model |
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Of Note |
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Upcoming Campus Lectures | |
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Mitotic Cells Revealed through Raman and Infrared Microspectroscopic Imaging
Research performed by Max Diem, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology has resulted in the first ever Raman and infrared microspectroscopic images of human cells at different stages of mitosis.
The ability to recognize living cell division without using stains may assist in an automatic, spectroscopic determination of the proliferation rates of cells and tissues.
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Pharmaceutical Nanocarriers Made Capable of Responding to Local Stimuli Vladimir Torchilin, Distinguished Professor and Chair of Pharmaceutical Sciences, achieved a first step in the development of multifunctional stimuli-sensitive pharmaceutical nanocarriers.
Nanocarriers lost their protective PEG shell upon brief incubation at lower pH values and acquired the ability to become strongly retained on an avidin column or effectively internalized by cells via TATp moieties. This achievement contributes to the development of ?SMART? drug delivery systems.
> Read an article. |
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Characterization of Glycoproteins, Candidate Markers for Breast Cancer William Hancock, Bradstreet Chair in Analytical Chemistry, and his associates have used combinations of lectins (sugar binding proteins) in an affinity column format (M-LAC) to isolate the serum glycoproteome from breast cancer patients.
The analysis of these proteins by LC-MS/MS analysis of tryptic digests has characterized a large panel of potential candidate markers. This work has suggested that it may be possible to use systemic changes in the blood of an individual patient for the early detection of breast cancer.
>> Read an article.
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Novel Antimicrobials Identified Using a Live-Animal Infection Model
Kim Lewis, Director of the Antimicrobial Discovery Center, and his collaborators from MGH have identified a novel approach to antibiotic discovery based on curing an infected live animal (the worm C. elegans) with test compounds. This for the first time allows high-throughput screening of large compound libraries in an animal model and solves the discovery bottleneck of toxicity and efficacy.
The research was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and featured in Nature Biotechnology and Nature Reviews Microbiology.
>> Read an article. |
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Of Note
Mary Jo Ondrechen, Professor Chemistry and Chemical Biology, has been appointed by the National Science Foundation Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences to serve on the 2007 Committee of Visitors (COB) for the Division of Chemistry.
Vladimir Torchilin, Distinguished Professor and Chair of Pharmaceutical Sciences has been selected to receive a Research Achievement Award at the 2007 Pharmaceutical Sciences World Congress in Amsterdam on April 22.
A team of NU researchers has received a $1.2m grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation to develop an innovative multifunctional nanochip with the long-term goal of it being used as a powerful nanobiosensor and drug delivery system. Read the full story. |
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Upcoming Campus Events
Samir Hanash, Program Head for Molecular Diagnostics at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle will present "Meeting the Challenge of Disease Proteomics" at the 25th Barnett Lectureship in Bioanalytical Chemistry on
March 1.
The Center for Drug Discovery's Current Trends in Drug Abuse Research Symposium will take place on March 27.
Judah Folkman, Director of the Vascular Biology Program at Children's Hospital Boston will present "Angiogenesis in Biology and Medicine" at the annual Barry A. Berkowitz Symposium on Biotechnology on April 2.
For more information, see Upcoming Events. |
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The Biotechnology Initiative promotes state-of-the-art interdisciplinary research and innovative education at Northeastern with emphasis on close collaboration with industry and medical communities. Biotechnology Initiative
Northeastern University | |
e-mail: c.bainton@neu.edu
phone: 617-373-2627
web: www.biotech.neu.edu | |
