MARCH 2012

NEW Building in progress

Check out the USB Capital's Facebook page for more pictures of the construction of the new United States Biological facility.

USB Capital's Facebook page

SPECIAL West Nile Virus 10% OFF 

FEATURED Magnetic Beads

Magnetophoresis is the motion of dispersed magnetic particles relative to a fluid under the influence of a magnetic field. The movement of magnetic particles can be used to detect or isolate specific components in the fluid, using specific binding and or capture.

Magnetic bead separation is one of the simplest, affordable and best technologies for detection and purification of DNA, proteins and antibodies. Magnetic beads speed up and simplify the process. In addition they can be re-activated and used again for some applications. A large advantage is that after initial manual handling, the same purification or detection can be automated easily and conversion to a high-throughput system (e.g. robot is feasible).

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ARTICLE Detecting Early-Stage Pancreatic Cancer

According to the National Cancer Institute, pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the United States. For patients with advanced cancers, the overall 5-year survival rate of all stages is less than 1%. For those patients with small and localized disease that can be completely resected surgically, 5-year survival rates improve to 18% to 24%. Although early detection and diagnosis is key for survival, it is rare to detect this lethal cancer early because pancreatic cancer symptoms are vague and the disease tends to develop and grow silently. By the time it is detected, it has often spread to other parts of the body, making it nearly impossible to cure. Currently, the standard therapy for pancreatic cancer is gemcitabine, alone or in combination with other chemotherapeutics.

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