Window to Japan
The consortium, centered at Tohoku University in Sendai after the Great Northeast Earthquake and aiming to connect doctors, hospitals and research centers in the disaster-struck area, has announced that 6 months after registration of a cohort of regional residents, genomic sequencing and analysis of 1.000 healthy individuals were completed. This is but a first step […]
Supported by NEDO, the company has set up a prototype production facility („Prototyping Studio“) for fibroin materials which can be processed into fibers, films, gels, sponges, powders and nanofibers. For 2015, an annual production of 10 to is targeted. NEDO press release, November 28, 2013
The consortium led by RIKEN’s Life Science Technology Center and involving researchers from several universities found that a HCV-coded protein is cut by NS3 protease to induce a Smad activation signal which leads to the expression of TGF-ß and collagen, leading to progressing liver fibrosis. RIKEN news release, November 27, 2013
A team led by the Chiba Prefectural Agriculture and Forestry Research Center sequenced the genome of the „Lettice“ variety containing about 700 million bp. The wild strawberry genome contains 200 million bp. Wild strawberries are diploid or tetraploid, whereas the „Lettice“ variety is octoploid. Research is being done on the influence of genes on sweetness, […]
Among infants born vaginally, several Bifidobacterium strains transmit from the mother and colonize the infant’s intestine shortly after birth. The mother’s intestine is an important source for the vaginal delivered infant’s intestinal microbiota. Hiroshi MAKINO et al., PLOS One DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0078331
Partners are 41 national hospitals including the University of Tokyo Hospital and a 13 member company consortium comprising Eisai and Astellas. Methods comprise MRI, PET, genetic testing, biomarker studies in blood and cerebrospinal fluid and other. 200 patients 60 – 84 years old with mild cognitive impairment will be compared to 300 controls with no […]
Based on copepod luciferase, the active site of the enzyme was engineered for higher thermodynamic stability of the luminescense event, which showed 100fold stronger and 7 times longer sustained bioluminescence compared to firefly luciferase. The enzyme was tested in a variety of assay formats with excellent results. AIST news release, November 26, 2013
A team of Hokkaido University and several Indonesian institutes has developed technologies to monitor CO2 emissions from deforestation areas and their influence on the local ecosystems, providing a scientific basis for technical cooperation. T HIRANO et al, Global Change Biology, doi:10.1111/gcb.12296, 2013
In cooperation with several companies such as Kanto Chemicals, Abe Machinery Works and others, an AIST team has set out to contaminate radionuclide containing ashes from burning plant residues fast and in large volume. Using Pb nanoparticles, it was possible to concentrate nuclides and reduce volumes from 10 tons of raw materials to 80 kg, […]
By screning 10.000 varieties of tomatoes, the team was able to identify parthenocarpy variants which do not require pollination nor hormone treatment. Some of the new varieties also have excellent properties such as skin stability. RIKEN press release, November 11, 2013