Technology quickly traces source of tainted food
January 7, 2015
Foodborne illnesses kill roughly 3,000 Americans each year and about 1 in 6 are sickened, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Yet most contaminated foods are never traced back to their source. That's because existing methods to track tainted food following its supply chain from table to farm are highly inefficient, jeopardizing the health of millions and costing the food industry billions. A typical process to trace food includes interviewing consumers and suppliers and examining every detail of the supply chain, a tedious method that takes weeks at best to complete.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers, in collaboration with the startup DNATrek, have developed a cost-effective and highly efficient method to accurately trace contaminated food back to its source.
Supercomputers link proteins to drug side effects
October 20, 2014
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers have discovered a high-tech method of using supercomputers to identify proteins that cause medications to have certain adverse drug reactions (ADR) or side effects. They are using high-performance computers (HPC) to process proteins and drug compounds in an algorithm that produces reliable data outside of a laboratory setting for drug discovery.
Biological sample prep time cut dramatically – from days to minutes
October 15, 2014
Physicists and biomedical researchers needed high degrees of skill to convert biological samples into graphite targets that could then be run through the accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) system. This past summer, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists have made dramatic advances that have been sought for years by the biomedical research and pharmaceutical communities.
PLS Bio researchers receive patent to fight superbugs
October 7, 2014
Superbugs, or antibiotic-resistant bacteria, have been on the rise since antibiotics were first introduced 80 years ago. That's because these germ-fighting agents have lost their punch from being overprescribed and misused, allowing bacteria pathogens to develop immunities against them. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists have figured out a way to reverse this trend by developing novel antibiotics that effectively kill superbugs.
LLNL technology detects bacterial pathogens in soldiers' combat wounds
June 17, 2014
A biological detection technology developed by LLNL scientists can detect bacterial pathogens in the wounds of U.S. soldiers that have previously been missed by other technologies.
Lawrence Livermore scientists make new discoveries in the transmission of viruses between animals and humans
August 12, 2013
Outbreaks such as the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS) have afflicted people around the world. Efforts to combat this epidemic are being spearheaded by a team of scientists, led by Monica Borucki of LLNL's Biosciences and Biotechnology Division.
