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DUPHAT

Wed, 20 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0200

The conference hosted more than 144 Scientific lectures and were delivered by 140 speakers. The conference was designed to upgrade the knowledge of the pharmacists to new developments in the pharmaceutical industry. The conference also focused on enhancing the development of the pharmacist to meet the expectation of the patients in the evolving role of the pharmacists. The speakers who included deans, university professors, consultants and officials...

FEE 2016 Post Show

Wed, 06 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0200

From crime scene investigation and court room evidence, to lab equipment and digital analysis, Forensics Europe Expo is the only place for leading professionals to see the latest products and services in action.
The 2016 saw over 2,000 visitors head to London for a two-day event showcasing the latest forensic technology.
The exhibition was the largest to date with over 70 UK and International exhibitors across the entire forensic sector with many...

From fat droplets in plant cells to novel foods

Mon, 16 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0100

Occurring naturally in oilseeds, oleosomes are particles with special properties. Depending on the plant variety, their size ranges from microns down into the nanoscale. These particles, with their protein-functionalized surfaces, are structurally very stable indeed. This makes them relevant for fundamental research and pharmacology, and also for innovative applications in food science....

Developing bio-based carrier systems for gene transfer

Mon, 16 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0100

The targeted transport of DNA and RNA using vectors (mostly made from synthetic polymers) in cell cultures has become part of routine practice in biological R&D – a fact highlighted by the multitude of commercial kits now available. To date, however, obstacles relating to use in patients have beset many laboratory studies and – in particular – the transfer to clinical practice. In many cases, such issues are related to safety concerns and limited...

How biopharmaceutical drug substances use the nose as a pathway to the brain

Mon, 16 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0100

According to WHO estimates, over 1 billion people worldwide suffer from disorders of the central nervous system (CNS). Some of the most familiar are Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis. Although they have long been the focus of research, effective pharmacotherapies are still unavailable for many of these diseases. What is it about CNS disorders that makes it especially difficult to develop drug products that target pathophysiological...

Metal-organic frameworks: record-breakers in porosity

Mon, 16 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0100

In recent years, metal-organic frameworks have been setting one record after another in relation to specific surface area, with over 7,000m2/g now being achievable. Their modular construction and the large number of functionalities that can be built into the lattice make them both interesting and highly promising for a wide variety of applications....

Using functional polymers in porous structures for transport control

Mon, 07 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0200

Can molecular transport be controlled by nanoscale pores? In both human technology and Nature, many transport and separation processes are based on pores and porous materials. If transport needs to be time-controlled and separation based not merely on size, it becomes necessary to combine pores of a certain size with switchable chemical functions or polymers....

What can analytics tell us?

Mon, 07 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0200

Over the last few years, legislation specifically governing the handling of nanomaterials (NMs) has been steadily expanded within the EU (Fig. 1). One example is the Food Information Regulation, which requires that food ingredients in the form of “engineered nanomaterials” must be clearly indicated in the list of ingredients. To produce accurate labelling – and to inspect and assess this labelling – clear definitions are required, alongside...

Cell experiments with optical tweezers are revolutionising biomedicine

Mon, 07 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0200

Ultramodern imaging techniques such as the Nobel Prize-winning STED microscopy enable the investigation of organisms, cells, bacteria and even viruses, DNA or individual molecules at very high spatial and temporal resolution. Active intervention in these tiniest of biological structures has been largely limited to indirect methods, however. While new developments such as microtweezers and micromechanical clamps are promising, these devices generally...

Environmental risk factors

Mon, 07 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0200

At every stage of their life – from conception to death – organisms are exposed to a multitude of environmental factors, some of which are associated with severe health risks. Current research is now attempting to clarify the significance of particularly sensitive periods of the development of organisms, known as “developmental windows of disease”. Within these windows, there is an increased chance of specific types of changes to occur which...

Developments in analytical techniques in the academic field

Mon, 07 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0200

In 1897, J.J. Thomson presented the world’s first particle accelerator, along with what would become, years later, the initial mass detector. Following developments in the 1940s, the equipment developed at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge in 1912 was destined to, revolutionise analytical chemistry. For his discovery of ‘negatively charged corpuscles’, which we now call the electron, Thomson was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in...

Environmental microplastics

Mon, 07 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0200

Humans create their own environment and since the 1950s, this has increasingly included products made from synthetic polymers, commonly referred to as "plastics". Plastic waste in the environment is probably here to stay for decades – if not centuries. But can we actually remove plastics – and microplastics in particular – from the environment?...

Organic electronics for sensor applications

Mon, 17 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0200

Intelligent, portable medical equipment is essential for the provision of rapid and straightforward point-of-care patient diagnostics. In an emergency, lab-on-chip applications in portable devices can help to save valuable time and cut the costs of clinical laboratory analysis. Other application areas in non-invasive medical monitoring such as pulse oximetry also stand to benefit [1]....

Tracking down the secrets of photosynthesis

Mon, 17 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0200

During photosynthesis, water is converted into oxygen, transforming sunlight into chemically usable energy. The precise details of the mechanisms behind this solar-powered splitting of water remain unknown and are now being investigated with advanced techniques in structural analysis. This work requires the availability of high-quality crystals of the all-important protein complex, photosystem II, whose growth poses several challenges...

How can we safeguard the quality of our beer?

Mon, 17 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0200

Beer is an integral part of German culture. Not only because of the German "Beer Purity Law" (Reinheitsgebot) it is that we associate the drink with concepts such as “traditional”, “wholesome” and “additive-free”. As a cereal product, however, beer is subject to the same conditions that affect the cultivation, storage and processing of other cereal crops. One of the problems with which almost all cereal products are confronted is...

Combinatorial explosion in the separation sciences

Mon, 17 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0200

In the analytical sciences one of the major goals is to develop and validate methods for the identification and quantification of molecules in complex samples, in order to support investigations in the pharmaceutical sciences, environmental sciences, food sciences, biology and medicine. A typical workflow consists in isolating the analyte from the matrix, separating it from other similar constituents and selectively identifying them. One of the...

New Tribrid Mass Spectrometer with Improved Sensitivity Redefines the Limits of Protein and Small Molecule Quantitation and Characterization

Tue, 21 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0200

ST. LOUIS, MO – ASMS Conference – (June 1, 2015) - Scientists performing advanced research in proteomics, biopharma, and metabolism/metabolomics can now test new limits of detection, characterization and quantitation with the latest tribrid mass spectrometer....

New High Purity Grade of Solvents for UHPLC-MS Instrumentation

Wed, 15 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0200

ST. LOUIS, Mo. – ASMS2015 – (June 1, 2015) – New, exceptionally pure mobile phase solvents for ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS) instruments have been designed to reduce background signal and minimize chromatographic interferences, facilitating accurate, sensitive and rapid trace analysis....

Image-based cytometry – a technology conquers cell culture

Wed, 11 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0100

Cell cultivation has now become an indispensable part of scientific investigation and applications within medicine. From a simple substance test to the autologous cell therapies of the future, cell technologies are based on the controlled propagation of cells. An important step towards this goal is the non-invasive characterisation of the cell population grown. New methods in image-based cytometry offer an ideal platform technology for this purpose.

lab&more in conversation with Dr Stefan Lamotte, Research Scientist, Separation Science & Hyphenated Techniques, Competence Center Analytics, BASF SE

Wed, 11 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0100

Analytical procedures in the laboratory span a variety of chromatographic techniques such as high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), gas chromatography (GC), supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) and capillary electrophoresis (CE). Samples analyzed in the laboratory by HPLC are often non-volatile and without a chromophor, thus common UV detectors are not suitable. Alternatively, more universal detectors, based on aerosol techniques such...

The critical role of fatty acid channeling between membrane and storage lipids

Wed, 11 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0100

Although as thin as the skin of a soap bubble, they are nonetheless vitally important. Biological membranes, 10,000 times thinner than a human hair, form a physiological barrier to all the cells in our body and are thus responsible for mediating exchanges between the cell interior and the external environment. Minor changes to their composition, such as those involved in lipid metabolism disorders, can have fatal consequences for events within...

Food safety as a global challenge

Mon, 09 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0100

Whether a foodstuff is “authentic” – i.e. whether it is genuine or original – is of considerable importance not only for the complex and global procurement chain that drives the food processing/manufacturing industries but also for consumer safety....

Fractionation of functional peptides with ion-exchange membrane adsorption chromatography

Mon, 09 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0100

By deploying specific proteases for the enzymatic hydrolysis of proteins, the release of peptides can be controlled. This process can be used to produce functional peptides, which may exhibit an ability to reduce blood pressure or have a surface-active function. The deployment of biofunctional peptides in food as an “added value” is only possible at sufficiently effective concentrations, however. Accordingly, processes are required that...

The effects of psychotherapy on DNA damage caused by traumatic stress

Mon, 09 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0100

The natural and social environment plays a decisive role in the life of an individual, and has significant repercussions for his or her physical and mental health. Factors in the social environment such as a high population density or noisy cities with traffic congestion and light pollution are considered to be potential stress factors. Social relationships and the working environment also exert a considerable influence on a person’s psyche...

OMI (Organic Molecule Identification) in water using LC-MS(/MS): Steps from “unknown” to “identified”: a contribution to the discussion

Wed, 21 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0100

The analysis of small organic molecules in water is highly demanding,
on account of the presence of variability in the water matrix (rain-, ground- and drinking water, plus surface and waste water) and the spectrum of chemical structures, present in a wide range of concentrations. In the Lab & More International, 2014, 1 (pp. 14–18), we introduced the water analysis methods of target screening, suspects screening and non-target screening,...

Sasai’s Death

Wed, 21 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0100

It was a Tuesday morning in early August. I’d just returned to my office from a trip to the US. I’d been at an eye conference, ISER 2014 in San Francisco, where I’d heard about recent work in growing human retinal tissue from stem cells. Still reeling from all the new data and numbed by jetlag, I’m trying to marshal my thought processes, writing endless mails to colleagues and making a pig’s ear of my travel expense forms. As I am putting...

Does increased LC peak capacity equal increased value for complex sample analysis?

Wed, 21 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0100

Despite the strength of liquid chromatography (LC) to separate compounds through well tunable selective retention, its efficiency lags behind gas chromatography (GC) that can deliver up to several millions of plates per column. Resolution improvement in LC should thus be addressed with selectivity optimization first. If samples get too complex, however, this approach is no longer feasible, as improving selectivity in one part of the chromatogram will...

Isothermal amplification in food analysis – a real alternative to conventional PCR

Wed, 21 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0100

Inherited genetic material – deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA for short – is unique to every living thing and can therefore be utilised like a fingerprint for identification purposes. DNA analysis has thus become an indispensable tool within food safety, and in the real-time testing of both raw materials and finished products. The established method for confirmation of specified target DNA in a sample is the polymerase chain reaction (PCR)....

Ebola outbreak in West Africa

Wed, 21 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0100

In early March this year, deep in the forest region of southeast Guinea, cases started to accumulate for a mysterious fever that claimed many lives among its sufferers. Muscle pain, high fever, vomiting and severe diarrhoea – all symptoms that doctors often observe in Africa's hospitals, but this time, all attempts to treat them proved futile....

Cancer prevention and nutrition

Wed, 21 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0100

Detoxification, anti-inflammatory agents, radical scavengers, antioxi- dants, anti-hormonal effects, cell growth inhibition, programmed cell death – all are terms that have been connected with the prevention of cancer by drugs or nutritional factors over the last thirty years. For the last ten years or so, the focus has been turning to a new field: epigenetics....

Precisely targeted regulation

Wed, 21 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0100

The biomedical community is euphoric about recent results in clinical trials of new treatment modalities for genetic diseases and oncological indications: T cells with modified chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) have been genetically modified with the aid of lentiviral technology and hold out the prospect of a novel form of cancer immunotherapy. Lentiviral technology itself is currently regarded as the most effective way of inserting genetic material...

DUPHAT 2014

Tue, 02 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0100

Dubai International Pharmaceuticals & Technologies Conference & Exhibition once again claimed its rightful place as the premier international conference and exhibition of the Pharmaceutical Industry in the Middle East. The event offered opportunity to discover the latest innovations and ideas from over 420 international manufactures from more than 73 countries. It also provided indepth coverage of key issues facing the industry through interactive...

Brain models in 3D

Mon, 10 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0100

US research scientist Dr Madeline A. Lancaster (Marie Curie Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Juergen Knoblich lab, Institute for Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna) has been presented with the Eppendorf Award for Young European Investigators 2014 in recognition of her outstanding achievements in research....

Viruses in the water

Mon, 10 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0100

Alongside the development of methods for quantifying human viral pathogens in surface and waste waters, a key role is also played by the analysis of the resultant data. While drinking water supplies must be safeguarded on the one hand, the public must also be able to pursue waterrelated recreation activities without fearing health risks....

Tropical pitcher plant and biomimetics

Mon, 10 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0100

Carnivorous plants, among them tropical pitcher plants (Nepenthes spp.), have always fascinated people due to their remarkable ability to feed on animals and have constantly drawn the attention of researches as soon as new species were discovered. During past decades, different aspects of Nepenthes biology, among them the structure and functions of trapping organs (pitchers), particularly with respect to their trapping efficiency, have been the focus...

The analytica China Conference offers solution approaches for contamination of all kinds

Mon, 10 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0100

The People's Republic of China faces a number of challenges such as in the production and packaging of food, the quality control of drugs, air pollution in large cities, and diseases of modern society such as diabetes mellitus. These and other topics will be the focus of this year's analytica China Conference, the title of which is "Analytical chemistry – Science we need". The conference takes place in Shanghai at the same time as analytica China,...

When tuberculosis faces an even stronger opponent

Mon, 10 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0100

Tuberculosis (TB) is second only to HIV/ AIDS for the dubious distinction of being the world’s greatest killer. TB is a bacterial disease caused by a single infectious agent, Mycobacterium tuberculosis,which most commonly affects the lungs. It is transmitted from person to person via droplets from the throat and lungs of people who have the active respiratory disease....

MOSH/MOAH food contamination

Thu, 06 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0100

Mineral oils are almost universally present in our environment. Their constituents can infiltrate foods of both plant and animal origin in many different ways. From the perspective of their chemical structure, the main compounds of interest are mineral oil saturated hydrocarbons (MOSH) and – to a proportionally lesser extent – mineral oil aromatic hydrocarbons (MOAH)....

Complex API delivery

Thu, 06 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0100

A medicine's potency often depends on the concentration of its active ingredient (API) at the target site. Medicines are usually delivered remotely to this target site, however. The API must first dissolve and traverse local barriers such as the intestinal wall before it can enter the bloodstream and then reach its target site. For a long time, work in this area was guided by the dogma that API diffusion was the force driving absorption by the body...

Technische Universitaet (TU) Darmstadt furthers its connections by opening a new liaison office in Shanghai

Thu, 06 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0100

International exchange and cooperation are becoming more and more important in the higher education sector; universities are competing globally for the brightest minds. China, one of Germany’s most important economic and political partners and a country that traditionally values education, has set the development of its vast human resources as a strategic goal. During the 12th Five-Year-Plan, government reached its goal of spending 4% of the annual...

CPhI and P-MEC India

Wed, 15 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0200

India’s pharmaceutical market is forecast to become the sixth largest in the world by 2020 with profits reaching $55 billion, according to the India Brand Equity Foundation. In particular, generics are a large portion of this market. Currently representing 72 percent of India’s pharma revenues, the demand is largely a direct result of countries around the world seeking to reduce healthcare costs. As the newly elected Indian government enacts healthcare...

Biofortification of vegetables with micronutrients