analytica Anacon India and India Lab Expo returns to Hyderabad from Oct 20 to 22

analytica Anacon India and India Lab Expo 2016, the annual trade fairs for analysis, laboratory and biotechnology will be returning to Hyderabad from October 20 to 22, 2016. The event will be held at the Hitex Exhibition Center.

Accompanying the trade fair, the analytica Anacon India and India Lab Expo conference will be held from October 20 to 21. This year's conference focuses on analytical instrumentation, emerging trends in application, techniques and regulatory compliance.

'Regulatory aspects of Pharmaceutical Laboratories', 'Biopharmaceuticals and Bioanalysis', 'Food Safety' or 'Clinical Diagnosis' are the main topics of the 2016 edition of the analytica Anacon India and India Lab Expo conference. The speakers, eminent scientists and industry representatives, come from both – India and overseas. The programme is rounded out by tutorials in all four sessions where practical application tips are passed on the audience.

Among this year's speakers are Dr Laxmikant Gandikota (Biological Evans), Dr. Ashes Ganguly (Indian Analytical Instruments Association),  Prof. Dr. Myeong Hee Moon (Yonsei University),Prof. Dr. Michael Hilderbrand (University of Jena), Prof. Dr. Dietmar Knopp (Technical University of Munich), Prof. Dr. Rainer Lehmann (University of Tuebingen), Dr. Eike Reich (CAMAG), Dr. Pia Rosendahl (ISAS), Prof. Dr. Michael Rychlik (Technical University of Munich), Prof. Oliver Schmitz (University of Duisburg-Essen), Arjan Timmerman (Waters Corporation)and Dr. S. P. Vasireddi (Vimta Labs).

Natural compound from a deep-water marine sponge found to reduce pancreatic tumor size

Scientists at Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute found that a deep-water marine sponge collected off of Fort Lauderdale's coast contains leiodermatolide, a natural product that has the ability to inhibit the growth of cancer cells as well as block cancer cells from dividing using extremely low concentrations of the compound. This work resulted in the award of a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office protecting the use of the compound against various forms of cancer. Sea sponges are an ancient group of animals that appeared more than 600 million years ago that have many of the same genes as humans. These scientists are taking advantage of this similarity in human and sponge genomes to isolate marine natural compounds from these organisms to develop medicines useful in the treatment of human diseases such as cancer. The researchers are expanding on their original findings, recently showing that leiodermatolide can reduce pancreatic tumor size in vivo, publishing the results of this study in the International Journal of Cancer (IJC).

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the United States. Pancreatic cancer patients have less than a seven percent survival rate within five years of diagnosis, and 74 percent of patients die within the first year of diagnosis. In recent years, pancreatic cancer has received considerable attention because many well-known individuals have died from the disease. September marks seven years since the passing of actor Patrick Swayze, and October will be five years since the death of Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs. The great tenor Luciano Pavarotti also died from this disease almost a decade ago.

Six leading scientists to receive prestigious Novartis Prizes for Immunology at 16th International Congress of Immunology

Today Novartis announced that six scientists will receive the 2016 Novartis Prizes for Immunology at the upcoming 16th International Congress of Immunology (ICI) in Melbourne, Australia on Aug 22, 2016. The Novartis Prizes for Immunology are awarded every three years for breakthrough contributions to the fields of basic and clinical immunology. Each of the two Prize categories is endowed for CHF 100,000 and can be shared by up to three scientists.

"This year's prize recipients are scientific pioneers who have delivered novel concepts and opened the door to uncharted fields at the forefront of immunological research," said Dhavalkumar D. Patel, M.D., Ph.D, Head of Research Europe and Global Head, Autoimmunity, Transplantation and Inflammation research at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research. "We are proud to sponsor these prizes as part of our continued commitment to supporting innovative research in immunology."

The winners were selected by an independent jury of seven world-class immunologists for their groundbreaking research into the biology of the immune system. Each recipient has had a tremendous impact on the understanding of T-cell mediated mechanisms such as tolerance (basic immunology) and how these principles can be exploited to design therapeutic approaches (clinical immunology).

The Novartis Prize for Basic Immunology 2016 is shared by John Kappler (National Jewish Health, USA), Philippa Marrack (National Jewish Health, USA) and Harald von Boehmer (Emeritus, Harvard Medical School, USA) for their work in demonstrating how the immune system is able to discriminate "self" from "non-self" through a process in the thymus based on positive and negative selection via T-cell receptor mediated recognition of peptide-MHC complexes.

Why is breast cancer common but heart cancer rare?

Malignant cancers strike certain organs, such as the colon or breast, more often than others. In an Opinion publishing August 9 in Trends in Cancer, researchers propose that this vulnerability in some organs may be due to natural selection. Humans can tolerate tumors in large or paired organs more easily than in small, critical organs, such as the heart, and so the larger organs may have evolved fewer mechanisms to defend against cancerous cells.

"The organs that are the most important to keeping you alive and capable of reproduction, such as the heart, brain, or uterus, may enjoy a better protection against cancer, all other things being equal," says Frédéric Thomas, an evolutionary biologist at the Center for Ecological and Evolutionary Cancer Research in France. "We are not saying that this is the main factor to explain the different susceptibility of organs to cancer, but it is a factor that contributes with others."

Many oncologists have explained the difference in rates of organ cancer by looking at either external risk factors, such as smoking or UV light exposure, or internal factors, such as how often cells must divide in an organ. Thomas and his coauthors, including senior author Beata Ujvari, an evolutionary ecologist at Deakin University in Australia, now propose this evolutionary theory to supplement the current understanding.

The team suggests that natural selection has favored strong anti-cancer protection for small organs that are critical to human survival and reproduction. "Organs that are large or in pairs could potentially accumulate larger numbers of oncogenic manifestations without being impaired, whereas small and important organs like the pancreas could be easily compromised with only a few tumors inside," says Thomas. Therefore, so the theory goes, the pancreas should be better at defending against cancer compared to an organ like the kidney, if all other factors are equal. Anti-cancer protection mechanisms vary from organ to organ, but in general, they make an organ resistant to tumor formation.

Ethylene prices, markets & analysis

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Gaumard introduces OMNI 2 touch-screen wireless interface

Gaumard Scientific Company announced the launch of OMNI 2, a touch-screen wireless interface that transforms training with value-priced simulators and skills trainers into an easy, intuitive tap-and-go experience.

OMNI 2 can be used on the fly for active mobile scenarios and provides full control over simulator physiology and response.

OMNI 2 will drive value-priced simulators and skills trainers to deliver additional functionality with features long associated with the company's high-fidelity simulators. Simulations and clinical scenarios will be included in one complete package.

For those with a limited budget and resources, OMNI 2 is an affordable, easy-to-use solution.

OMNI 2 controls obstetric and neonatal simulations and facilitates CPR training and monitoring for over 35 vitals, including HR, ECG, RR, BP, O2SAT and ETCO2.

Play, Pause and Reset features bring greater flexibility and control to obstetric simulations such as shoulder dystocia. And OMNI 2 features real-time monitoring of ventilation performance to improve neonatal resuscitation technique.

Berry wine, minus the alcohol, may offer help for those with diabetes

Blueberries, and berries in general, are among foods labeled as "diabetes superfoods" by the American Association of Diabetes. Food science researchers at the University of Illinois have found that fermenting berries may improve their antidiabetic potential even more.

Recent research at the U of I includes the development of an alcohol-free blueberry-blackberry "wine" that those suffering from diabetes - who typically must avoid alcohol - can enjoy, while potentially reducing the effects of Type 2 diabetes.

"Unfortunately the number of people with diabetes is increasing astronomically around the world," says Elvira de Mejia, a food chemist in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at U of I. "There are 100 million people around the world who have diabetes and that is increasing, without counting the ones who may be pre-diabetic and not know it."

Previous research has shown that dietary blueberries may play a role in reducing hyperglycemia in obese mice, therefore de Mejia and colleagues wanted to determine if a fermented, dealcoholized blueberry-blackberry beverage would enhance the potential of the phenolic compounds in the berries that are responsible for reducing diabetic markers.

A new study shows that the fermented berry beverage did reduce the development of obesity and blood glucose levels in mice on a high-fat diet.

The researchers had already determined that the berries, when fermented at low temperatures, resulted in an improved and higher concentration of anthocyanins. Anthocyanins, found in the pigments of fruits such as blueberries, grapes, and apples, have been shown to promote insulin sensitivity, decrease blood glucose levels in the blood, and enhance insulin secretion.

"We know that fruits, vegetables, cereals, legumes, and berries are good, but here we explain that after fermentation we improve and increase the concentration of these pigments [anthocyanins] and they are very high antioxidant components that benefit the body," de Mejia says.

A previous cell culture study with the alcohol-free blueberry-blackberry wine, showed good results toward inhibiting enzymes related to glucose absorption.

"In this in vivo study, as we increased the concentration of these anthocyanin-enriched extractions from blueberries and blackberries we saw an improvement in the uptake of glucose, meaning that the animals with the increased concentration were not as much in a state of hyperglycemia as the other animals."

The beverage included a ratio of 70 percent fermented blackberries to 30 percent fermented blueberries. The berries were collected from varieties grown at U of I's Dixon Springs Agricultural Research Station in southern Illinois. Alcohol was removed from the beverage by rotoevaporation and was replaced with water. Some of the sugars left over after fermentation were also removed in the process.

"We optimized the best ratio between blueberries and blackberries. Blackberries are very unique and I think that's one of the reasons why we selected a high concentration of them in this study. Blackberries have a very specific profile of anthocyanins, and that was amazing at lowering the absorption of glucose in this case," de Mejia says.

During the study, groups of mice with diet-induced obesity and hyperglycemia were given the fermented berry beverage or the beverage with higher or lower enriched concentrations of the anthocyanins (0.1x, 1x, or 2x). Another group was given sitagliptin, a commonly used medication for diabetes, and another group was given water only. All groups ate the same diet, calories, and amount of sugars otherwise.

While benefits were seen in all groups drinking the fermented beverage, de Mejia says the group on the highest concentration of anthocyanins (2x) showed the greatest results, comparable to what was observed in the group on sitagliptin. This included no increase in body weight, which de Mejia says was a surprise.