To extend its COVID-19 testing capabilities, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has partnered with St. Peter’s Health Partners to establish a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment (CLIA) overflow lab at Rensselaer under the St. Peter’s license.

Armed with evidence that a specific site on heparan sulfate — known as the 3-O-sulfate group — is critical to the transfer of harmful tau proteins in the brain, a research program funded by the NIH’s National Institute of Aging is scrutinizing the interactions between heparan sulfate and tau, determining how misfolded tau spreads in the brain, and developing strategies to block it.

In a test of antiviral effectiveness against the virus that causes COVID-19, an extract from edible seaweeds substantially outperformed remdesivir, the current standard antiviral used to combat the disease.

A common drug, already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), may also be a powerful tool in fighting COVID-19, according to research published this week in Antiviral Research.

An instrument currently aboard the International Space Station could grow E.coli bacteria in space, opening a new path to bio-manufacturing drugs during long term space flights, according to research published today in Nature Microgravity

A newly identified compound is a promising candidate for inhibiting the production of amyloids, the abnormal proteins that form toxic clumps, called fibrils, inside the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. As published in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Chemical Communications, the compound — known as “C1” — uses a novel mechanism to efficiently prevent the enzyme gamma-secretase from producing amyloids.

A new degree program in biological neuroscience at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute explores the structure and function of the brain and nervous system. The major, which was recently approved by the New York State Education Department, will be offered beginning in the spring 2020 semester through the Rensselaer Department of Biological Sciences.

By folding snippets of DNA into the shape of a five-pointed star using structural DNA nanotechnology, researchers have created a trap that captures Dengue virus as it floats in the bloodstream. 

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have been working on two fronts to perfect continuous blood glucose monitor and insulin pump technologies: they are developing algorithms to create a closed-loop system that can effectively operate similar to a healthy pancreas, and they are working to make that system more accessible and understandable for users with diabetes.

People with diabetes face a significantly higher risk of osteoporotic fractures than those without the disease, but the reason for this is not well understood and can’t be adequately predicted.