BiotechMashup

(National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)) Finding bodies buried by someone who wanted them to stay undiscovered can be difficult. However a new technique developed by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, can reliably detect biochemical changes in a decomposing cadaver.

Scientists are reporting development of a fast, reliable new test that could help people avoid a terrible type of food poisoning that comes from eating fish tainted with a difficult-to-detect toxin from marine algae growing in warm waters.

(American Chemical Society) Scientists are reporting development of a fast, reliable new test that could help people avoid a terrible type of food poisoning that comes from eating fish tainted with a difficult-to-detect toxin from marine algae growing in warm waters. The report appears in ACS' journal Analytical Chemistry.

(National Science Foundation) Early detection is critical for improving cancer survival rates. Yet, one of the deadliest cancers in the United States, lung cancer, is notoriously difficult to detect in its early stages. Now, researchers have developed a method to detect lung cancer by merely shining diffuse light on cells swabbed from patients' cheeks.

(Penn State) In an advance toward the first portable device for detecting human bodies buried in disasters and at crime scenes, two Penn State forensic scientists report early results from a project to establish the chemical fingerprint of death. Acertaining a profile of the chemicals released from decomposing bodies could lead to an electronic device that could determine the time elapsed since death quickly, accurately, and onsite.

(University of Miami) University of Miami assistant professor in the College of Engineering, Na Li, and her collaborators have developed a fast, economical and easy method to detect melamine in milk. The new method is described in the study titled "Rapid Detection of Melamine in Whole Milk Mediated by Unmodified Gold Nanoparticles," published online this week by the journal Applied Physics Letters.

Researchers have pioneered a computer-based method to detect epileptic seizures as they occur -- a new technique that may open a window on the brain's electrical activity.

Using nanotechnology and a patented signal enhancing technique, researchers have discovered a rapid, sensitive and cost-effective method to detect and identify a number of rotavirus strains and genotypes in less than one minute with greater than 96 percent accuracy.

A simple, automated method of tracking E. coli uses a laser to detect and monitor the microbe in potentially contaminated bodies of water or waterways. The technique could reduce the incidence of waterborne disease outbreaks.