Many of us are familiar with the undesirable physical and mental effects of a disrupted sleep/wake cycle caused by traveling across multiple time zones or working irregular hours. A collaborative project designed to address these issues is working to develop a “living pharmacy” – a personalized, wireless and fully implantable device that can control the body’s circadian clock.

In this article, we look at some of the innovations being used to give food waste new life around the world.

The full impact that microplastics have on health and the environment is still not well understood, however, mounting evidence regarding their negative effects has made microplastics a topic of interest for scientists, governments and regulatory bodies. We spoke to Kathleen A. Young about microplastics detection techniques and technologies, the importance of standards and how regulations may come to fruition in the years to come.

To detect, quantify and ultimately instigate remedial action in relation to dioxin contamination, scientists require suitable analytical tools and techniques. The USEPA recently approved a new dioxin testing method which could assist these efforts. We spoke to Frank L. Dorman, PhD, FRSC, about the hazards posed by dioxins, challenges in their identification and the future detection landscape.

Microplastics are now ubiquitous in our lives and environment. To compound the problem, the advent of COVID-19 has seen uptake of single-use plastics in the form of personal protective equipment (PPE) skyrocket. We spoke to Kathleen A. Young about how the microplastics issue has evolved in light of COVID-19, particularly around PPE waste and what gains are being made in the areas of testing and analysis standards.

Western blotting has been a core technique in molecular biology for many years, however, optimization and reproducibility can be problematic. We spoke to Dr Alexandre Lucas about the automation of western blotting and the difference this advance is making to research.

180 Life Sciences is exploring the use of synthetic cannabidiol (CBD) analogs as a treatment strategy for inflammation and pain, and conducting clinical research focused on repurposing anti-tumor necrosis factor across different fibrotic conditions. Technology Networks recently spoke with Dr James Woody, chief executive officer at 180 Life Sciences, to find out more about the company's research and development pipeline.

Liquid chromatography has proven to be an invaluable tool in analytical labs. However, despite being a “mature” technique, there are still some areas that prove problematic, leading to suboptimal results. One such area is the loss of analytes during the chromatographic process, but design innovations are aiming to overcome this problem.

In this interview, Jim Mellon discusses some of the challenges that companies in the cultured meat sector face, how they are responding and what could be in store for the field over the next few years.

To find out more about cannabis testing in California and how CannaSafe is working hard to ensure consumers and patients receive contaminant-free and rigorously-tested cannabis, we spoke to their President, Aaron Riley.