U-M develops new earthquake-proof building, cancer patent

Two great discoveries in one.Researchers at the University of Michigan have come up with some creative breakthroughs in both the building and health-care industries. On the one hand, recent discoveries could mean the creation of earthquake-proof buildings. On the other, university scientists are advancing the hunt for the cure to cancer.A new technique for bracing high-rise concrete buildings proved quite successful at U-M’s laboratories after an off-the-charts earthquake simulation. The engineers used steel fiber-reinforced concrete to develop a better kind of coupling beam that requires less reinforcement and is easier to construct.Such beams are normally difficult to install and require intricate reinforcing bar skeletons. The U-M’s version is simpler because it uses a highly flowable, steel fiber-reinforced concrete.At the same time U-M biological chemist Ray Trievel and two scientists filed a patent application for a new technology that could help in the fight against cancer. It detects enzymes that can alter DNA molecules, sometimes leading to the onset and progression of a number of cancers. Demethylase enzymes remove methyl groups attached to DNA, proteins and toxin, which produce formaldehyde. Trievel and his colleagues found a new way to detect the formaldehyde. This allows tests from around the world to be standardized.Source: University of MichiganWriter: Jon Zemke