Background Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) represent promising source for tissue engineering and cell therapy, due to their multipotency, immunoregulation and self-renewal properties [1,2]. The expansion phase of these cells prior to differentiation and/or injection to the patient remains a critical step. BM-MSCs are classically expanded in small scale culture systems, with low con...

A transgenesis programme has been developed for Impatiens balsamina that will allow elucidation of the roles played by individual genes in the flower reversion phenomenon shown by this model species. The lack of explants exhibiting adventitious shooting in I. balsamina hinders Agrobacterium-based transformation, but the multiple shoots that arise from cotyledonary nodes present a suitable targe...

In his comment on The Indiscipline of Tourism, Neil Leiper steers his argument by way of an indisciplined scenic route, treating the reader to asides about the Royal Family, the tourism industry and even a journey to Austria with the economist Khan. His many asides serve often to obscure, rather than underpin, the conclusion that the discipline of tourism studies will probably continue to devel...

The main goal of modern pharmaceutical technology is to create new drug formulations that are safer and more effective. These should allow targeted delivery, improved stability bioavailability, fewer side effects, reduced toxicity. One successful approach for achieving these objectives using polymer microcarriers delivery. They effective treating various diseases through different administratio...

Non-invasive monitoring of gastrointestinal drug release in vivo is extremely challenging because of the limited spatial resolution and long scanning time of existing bioimaging modalities, such as X-ray radiation and magnetic resonance. Here, we report a novel microcarrier that can retain drugs and withstand the harsh conditions of gastrointestinal tract. Significantly, we can track the microc...

This communication demonstrates that yeast cell wall particles (YCWPs) are a promising class of nature-inspired biocompatible microcarriers for the delivery of amphipathic/lipophilic imaging reporters. When a paramagnetic MRI agent is loaded, the longitudinal relaxivity per particle at 0.5 T is the highest ever reported for Gd-based systems.