The Duke Digest - May 14, 2010

In Today's Issue:

  • Duke to Award Degrees to More than 3,500 on Sunday
  • Duke Researchers: Novel Pouch Could Reduce Mother-to-Infant HIV Infection
  • DNA Could be Backbone of Next Generation of Logic Circuits

DUKE TO AWARD DEGREES TO MORE THAN 3,500 ON SUNDAY
Duke University will award more than 3,500 undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees during its annual commencement ceremony Sunday, May 16, in Wallace Wade Stadium. Duke President Richard H. Brodhead will preside over the 10 a.m. ceremony and 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi banker/economist, will deliver the commencement address.

The event also will be webcast live on Duke’s Ustream channel -- http://www.ustream.tv/DukeUniversity

Read More:
Duke to Award Degrees to More than 3,500 on Sunday (DukeNews)


DUKE RESEARCHERS: NOVEL POUCH COULD REDUCE MOTHER-TO-INFANT HIV INFECTION
By using medications packaged just like fast-food ketchup, HIV-positive mothers in developing countries can more easily provide protection to newborn babies born at home.

Biomedical engineers at Duke University have developed an inexpensive and easy-to-use system that allows mothers to give their newborns a potentially life-saving dose of an anti-HIV medication shortly after birth. This is especially important since such drugs can only be found in clinics or hospitals, which can be days away from an expectant mother.

Read More:
Novel Pouch Could Reduce Mother-to-Infant HIV Infection (DukeNews)


DNA COULD BE BACKBONE OF NEXT GENERATION LOGIC CIRCUITS
According to the research of a Duke professor of electrical and computer engineering, a solitary grad student at a lab bench can produce more simple logic circuits in a single day than the entire world's monthly output of silicon chips.  Dr. Chris Dwyer believes that the next generation of these logic circuits that sit at the heart of computers will be produced inexpensively in almost limitless quantities. The secret is that instead of silicon chips serving as the platform for electric circuits, computer engineers will take advantage of the unique properties of DNA, that double-helix carrier of all life’s information. In addition to their use in computing, Dwyer said that since these nanostructures are basically sensors, many biomedical applications are possible.

Dwyer's research is supported by the National Science Foundation, the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Army Research Office.

Read More:
DNA Could be Backbone of Next Generation Logic Circuits (DukeNews)