Duke University Research

Developing Brain

klb25 — Tue, 05 May 2015 20:06:04 +0000

A section of embryonic mouse brain has been stained to show different subtypes of developing neurons.

Jamming Cancer

klb25 — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 19:15:28 +0000

The combination of an old malaria drug, chloroquine, and an experimental drug, D4476, has been found to interrupt the normal functions of cancer cells, stained blue. David Virshup and Jit Kong Cheong, from Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore, wanted to interfere with the cancer cell's known reliance on autophagy, a form of self-destruction. The cells ended up with their surfaces clogged with digestive vacuoles (red), that effectively prevent them from obtaining nutrition.

A Plug for Science

klb25 — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 18:58:54 +0000

A biopsy dart fired from a crossbow hits home on the flank of a surfacing humpback whale in the Palmer Deep off the Antarctic Peninsula in January. Duke Marine Lab scientists based on the research ship Lawrence M. Gould were harmlessly obtaining these small samples of skin and blubber during a National Science Foundation expedition to identify the sex and relatedness of whales and to assess their diet and reproductive status.

Molecular Tornado

klb25 — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 20:57:44 +0000

The colored dots and swirls of "dust" in this tornado-shaped diagram represent thousands of chemical compounds grouped by their physical and chemical similarities in a new technique called "materials cartography," by Stefano Curtarolo, a professor of material sciences and physics and PhD student Corey Oses.

Creeping Fat

klb25 — Mon, 17 Nov 2014 21:43:43 +0000

With obesity and age, fat cells invade the pancreas, where they become factors in the insulin secretion process relevant to diabetes and in the inflammation that leads to pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer. James Minchin, a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology made this image of lipid droplets (magenta) surrounded by fibrous collagen (green) in the pancreatic tissue of zebrafish as part of his work on genetic and environmental sources of obesity.

Anatomy of an Avalanche

ras10@duke.edu — Tue, 30 Sep 2014 17:36:18 +0000

Duke physicists Jonathan Barés and Robert Behringer and colleagues are using this computerized 3D rendering of beads in a box to serve as a model for soil, sand or snow. Colored lines show the network of forces as the virtual particles are pushed together. Thick red lines connect the particles that are experiencing the brunt of the force.

Tie-Dye Fly

ras10@duke.edu — Fri, 29 Aug 2014 13:55:07 +0000

It may look like a poster for the Grateful Dead, but these Day-Glo rainbow stripes belong to a fruit fly. Duke biologist Amy Bejsovec is studying the patterns that emerge during a fruit fly's development from egg to adult -- information that may help treat diseases that arise when normal development goes awry. The red stripes stain a protein called Wingless, which helps cells grow and multiply and develop into different cell types. Blue marks cell nuclei.

Nano Mosh Pit

klb25 — Mon, 02 Jun 2014 20:52:25 +0000

A biomaterials lab led by Gabriel Lopez has devised a way to grow uniformly sized particles of silicon gel that can be sorted by soundwaves. In a liquid chamber with a standing acoustic wave, most particles will gather at the nodes where the wave is standing still. But the new particles are actually attracted to the antinodes where the highest point of the wave is constantly shifting up and down.

Precision Wrinkles

klb25 — Tue, 06 May 2014 16:08:23 +0000

Taking a lesson from the way human skin can wrinkle, assistant professor Xuanhe Zhao of mechanical engineering and materials science has developed a nanofilm that is spread on a pre-stretched surface and then allowed to relax, creating a microscopic landscape with a precise pattern of high peaks and low valleys. The method produces large-area surface patterns faster, cheaper and with more precision than existing approaches.

The Heart of Hope

klb25 — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 13:31:47 +0000

Cells of human heart muscle grown by the Duke-NUS Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disorders Programme in Singapore mark a milestone in the possible use of human embryonic stem cells for regenerative medicine. Pluripotent human embryonic stem cells were grown on a matrix of human proteins called laminin that surround the cells in the embryo.