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Common Therapeutic Applications for Oligonucleotides
Oligonucleotides continue to enhance medical research. Oligonucleotides play a large role in both therapeutics and research. Their capabilities have led to researchers developing enhanced forms of these oligos to aid in the systemic enrichment of life’s challenges. Here are some common applications of oligos that are used today. Allele-Specific Oligonucleotides These probes are generally utilized in testing for diseases such as cystic fibrosis and sickle-cell anemia. Common point mutations are what this type of oligonucleotide specializes and thrives in. How they go about determining whether or not the samples mutate is by comparing two different types of oligonucleotides, one with a standard sequence and the other with the proposed disease.…
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How Deposition Plays a Role in the Food Industry
Written by: Denton Vacuum, LLC Summary: Learn how the food industry utilizes the process of deposition. In the food packaging industry, plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) and Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) are both important applications that are widely used throughout the industry. Two of the most important types of application in food packaging in regards to coating are silicone oxide and amorphous carbon solely based on their properties. PECVD is a process where a thin film is produced on top of a particle. It utilizes plasma to allow for deposition at lower temperatures. The process consists of a substrate, the target, being layered with a film that starts out as…
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This Medical Breakthrough Will Change Debilitating Injuries
Meet the world’s first recipient of a mechanical hand. Imagine a world where someone who loses a hand or a foot is able to carry on exactly the way that they used to. We already saw some of this amazing work on display at the Olympics, where we’ve seen runners with missing limbs, but a new breakthrough is promising to unlock the potential of robotics in medical science. Staff Sergeant James Sides was on his second tour in Afghanistan when he uncovered an improvised explosive device buried in the road. He attempted to utilize his training in ordinance diffusing, but the bomb went off close to his body. The blast…
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What Oligos Mean for Medical Research
Medical research is an expensive endeavor, and results can sometimes produce more questions than answers. Costs are also spread out over several months or years, the time it takes to conduct the test. It can be difficult to use live test subjects for a number of reasons, like the costs of having them come to the facility for testing. A synthetic nucleotide/polynucleotide can solve many of these challenges effectively. Precise Testing When a researcher wants to study how a disease reacts with certain chemicals, he or she needs a specific strand of DNA in bulk. This is far more efficient than waiting for live patients, especially in times of crisis…
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The Uses for a Near Space Balloon
The French balloonist Jean-Pierre Blanchard set off on a record breaking journey from Paris in 1785. He brought his assistant John Jeffries onto a balloon that carried the pair high into the sky. Unfortunately, the balloon soon lost its lift and was in danger of crashing into the English Channel. They managed to lighten the load and save themselves, but today’s scientists use a much safer way to monitor the skies. A high altitude balloon lets meteorologists and other experts document their observations from the safety of the ground. On any given year, more than 60,000 weather balloons will be launched in the name of science. Hobbyists launch them with…
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How to Metallize Plastic
Written by: Denton Vacuum Plastic does not innately conduct electricity. It’s also not usually reflective and glossy, unless you metalize it. The process leaves plastic pieces coated in a metallic shell, allowing usage in the same components that metal pieces would be used. Another advantage to metalizing plastic is that you can make a metallic component for cheaper than it would cost to make manufacture the metal piece. The final piece also has some protection against abrasion, and its lighter weight than a metal component would be. Here is how the vacuum metallization process works. Coating To begin, the piece is washed and coated with a base layer. This base…
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Thin Film Solar Uses Are Heating Up
According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, thin film photovoltaic (PV) cells produced roughly 3,700 megawatts of power worldwide in 2010. But recent research by Wintergreen Research shows that this might just be scratching the surface of what thin film evaporation can mean for the solar energy industry. Wintergreen Research estimates that thin film PV cells will be a $44 billion market by 2017, a 15-fold increase from 2010 levels. So why is this market expected to grow so much within the next decade? The growth can be partially attributed to the potential for new markets. According to Wintergreen Research, the auto industry is continuing to make inroads toward the…
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Why Do Some People Always Focus on the Negative?
By Phineas Upham Everyone has that one friend, the “negative Nancy” of the group who never seems to know how to look at the bright side of things. A new study suggests that it’s not entirely their point of view: they might be genetically predisposed to focus on the negative. Science Daily reports that a recent study published in Psychological Science reveals than a gene variant can cause people to process emotional events more strongly than others. According to the article, the study consisted of showing participants a series of positive, negative, and neutral words. People with the gene variant in question were more likely to see negative words than…
