Results of collaborative research from the Institute for Protein Design, Stayton Lab and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center published in CELL magazine.
It's been said that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but recent research at the University of Washington Molecular Engineering and Sciences Institute may prove that close proximity is the recipe for success.
A recent cancer-fighting discovery was made possible by the group effort that combined the protein design and engineering skills of researchers working with Dr. David Baker, UW professor of biochemistry and head of the Institute for Protein Design (IPD) and the drug therapy and delivery research spearheaded by researchers working with Dr. Read More
Michelle Ma
Vaccines combat diseases and protect populations from outbreaks, but the life-saving technology leaves room for improvement. Vaccines usually are made en masse in centralized locations far removed from where they will be used. They are expensive to ship and keep refrigerated and they tend to have short shelf lives.
University of Washington engineers hope a new type of vaccine they have shown to work in mice will one day make it cheaper and easy to manufacture on-demand vaccines for humans. Read More
From UW Today: UW engineers invent programming language to build synthetic DNA
Similar to using Python or Java to write code for a computer, chemists soon could be able to use a structured set of instructions to "program" how DNA molecules interact in a test tube or cell.
A team led by the University of Washington has developed a programming language for chemistry that it hopes will streamline efforts to design a network that can guide the behavior of chemical-reaction mixtures in the same way that embedded electronic controllers guide cars, robots and other devices. Read More
University of Washington engineers have created a synthetic substance that fully resists the body's natural attack response to foreign objects. Medical devices such as artificial heart valves, prostheses and breast implants could be coated with this polymer to prevent the body from rejecting an implanted object.
High sugar levels in the body come at a cost to health. New research suggests that more sugar in the body could damage the elastic proteins that help us breathe and pump blood. The findings could have health implications for diabetics, who have high blood-glucose levels.
Researchers at the University of Washington and Boston University have discovered that a certain type of protein found in organs that repeatedly stretch and retract such as the heart and lungs is the source for a favorable electrical property that could help build and support healthy connective tissues. Read More
New device could cut costs on household products, pharmaceuticals By Michelle Ma Sometimes cost saving comes in nanoscale packages. A new procedure that thickens and thins fluid at the micron level could save consumers and manufacturers money, particularly for soap products that depend on certain molecules to effectively deal with grease and dirt. Researchers at the University of Washington published their findings online April 9 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Read the back of most shampoos and dishwashing detergents and you'll find the word "surfactant" in the list of active ingredients. Read More
By Michelle Ma
March 19, 2013
Better diagnosis and treatment of cancer could hinge on the ability to better understand a single cell at its molecular level. New research offers a more comprehensive way of analyzing one cell's unique behavior, using an array of colors to show patterns that could indicate why a cell will or won't become cancerous.
A University of Washington team has developed a new method for color-coding cells that allows them to illuminate 100 biomarkers, a ten-time increase from the current research standard, to help analyze individual cells from cultures or tissue biopsies. Read More
A paper in Science describes an organic crystal that shows promise as a cheap, flexible, nontoxic material for the working parts of memory chips, sensors and energy-harvesting devices.
By Leila Gray, UW Health Sciences/UW Medicine
November 29, 2012
By following certain rules, scientists can prepare architectural plans for building ideal protein molecules not found in the real world. Based on these computer renditions, previously non-existent proteins can be produced from scratch in the lab. The principles to make this happen appear this month in Nature magazine.
The lead authors are Nobuyasu Koga and Rie Tatsumi-Koga, a husband-and-wife scientific team in David Baker's lab at the UW Protein Design Institute. Read More
Electrically spun cloth with nanometer-sized fibers show promise as a cheap, versatile platform to simultaneously offer contraception and prevent HIV. New funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will help MolES faculty member Kim Woodrow further test the system's versatility and feasibility.