Laboratory Corporation of America® Holdings today announced that it is offering the COBAS AmpliPrep/COBAS TaqMan HCV Test v2.0. With enhanced sensitivity this quantitative viral load assay for Hepatitis C virus (HCV) enables more accurate assessments of response to antiviral therapy.

Thermo Fisher Scientific has introduced two new solvent delivery systems-Accela 600 HPLC and Accela 1000 U-HPLC. These enable rapid method development, reduce solvent consumption and consequently, enhance laboratory efficiency.

These Accela systems' Force Feedback Control (FFC) features render accurate and precise gradients under all operating conditions and flexibility to quaternary solvent delivery.

Used with Thermo Scientific Hypersil columns packed with 5, 3 and the new 2.4 micron particle diameter, the Accela 600 provides flow rates up to 5 mL / min and a maximum operating pressure of 600 bar with 90 µL of delay volume. The Accela 1000 has a maximum operating pressure of 1000 bar with 65 µL of delay volume.

The Accela PDA improves sample identification with increased sensitivity and has an acquisition rate up to 80 Hz. The PDA's LightPipe technology enables fast separations by employing a 1 cm path length in a 2 µL flow cell. The low level of dispersion in the LightPipe technology allows the flowcell to retain peak shape and chromatographic resolution. The Accela U-HPLC system optimises the performance of sub-2 µm particle columns.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have created the first fully synthetic nanoparticles that can penetrate a cell membrane without rupturing the protective membrane and thereby killing it.

AvidBiotics has received new Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institute of Allergic and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health to further develop targetable bactericidal proteins to kill Clostridium difficile bacteria.

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is the term used to describe a condition in which a blood clot (a thrombus) forms in a vein and then dislodges to travel in the blood (an embolus). A venous thrombus most commonly occurs in the deep veins of the legs or pelvis; this is called deep vein thrombosis (DVT).

Researchers at the University of Leeds have come up with a technology that could help the pharmaceutical industry in controlling crystal formation during the process of drug development.

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., the University of California, Berkeley, and Solidus Biosciences, Inc. have come up with a biochip technology that would accelerate the drug development safety studies with a simultaneous reduction in the need for animal testing during early experiments.

Scientists from the University of Syracuse chemistry department recently created a new drug delivery system which uses gold nanoparticles with attached DNA designed to bind to Doxorubin, an anticancer drug. The system allows for a large number of drug molecules to potentially be released within or in the close proximity of cancer cells.

Medicago, a biotechnology company, has completed initial studies towards the development of a new VLP vaccine candidate for rabies.

People with high cholesterol are at risk of heart attack and stroke because atherosclerotic plaques within their arteries can rupture triggering the formation of a blood clot called an occlusive thrombus that cuts off the blood supply to their heart or brain.