#Laser probe knows if you ate your veggies Yale university rightoriginal Studyposted by Michael Greenwood-Yale on November 6 2014a diet full of fruits
and painlessly scan the skin of a subject s palm accurately measures changes in a biomarker known as skin carotenoids in response to an intervention involving a diet enriched in fruits and vegetables.
and other medical professionals measure and improve the diets of children and adults alike.####There is great interest in the development of objective biomarkers of dietary intake especially biomarkers that can be measured noninvasively##says coauthor Susan T. Mayne professor of epidemiology at Yale university and a developer of the device.##
##Our earlier studies demonstrated a correlation between skin carotenoids and fruit and vegetable intakeâ##this new paper demonstrates that the biomarker was sensitive to changes in fruit and vegetable intake in the intervention setting.##
##Many diet interventions lack objective verification that subjects actually changed intakeâ##this research demonstrates that skin carotenoids can serve that purpose.##
##The RRS device works by measuring changes in energy levels of electrons in molecules after the laser has excited them.
Then software on an attached laptop processes the results which takes another 30 seconds. Diets rich in fruit and vegetables have been linked to important health outcomes including reductions in cardiovascular disease type 2 diabetes and some forms of cancer.
But only 11 percent of the US population currently meets the daily recommendations for vegetable consumption
Brenda Cartmel a senior research scientist and lecturer at the Yale School of Public health is a co-author of the paper along with researchers from the USDA/Agricultural research service Grand Forks Human nutrition Research center and the University of Utah.
#Iron-rich biochar filters arsenic from water Biochar may be a fast inexpensive and easy way to remove arsenicâ one of the world s most common pollutantsâ from water.
For a new study researchers used used iron-enhanced carbon cooked from hickory chips to successfully remove the toxin.
and has been shown to cause cancer. Because biochar can be produced from various waste biomass including agricultural residues this new technology provides an alternative
and cost-effective way for arsenic removal says Bin Gao associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering at University of Florida.
As reported in the journal Water Research Gao ground wood chips that were heated then in nitrogen gas but not burned.
The resulting biochar which has the consistency of ground coffee was treated then with a saltwater bath to impregnate it with iron.
Plain biochar does not have the same effect Gao says. Current methods to remove arsenic include precipitation adding lime
or coagulants to water using membranes to filter it out or using an ion exchange process.
Water treatment plants could use large biochar filters to extract the arsenic. Homeowners could use a small filter attached to their tap.
#Lab mice bred to test Ebola vaccines University of North carolina at Chapel hill University of Washington rightoriginal Studyposted by Mark Derewicz-UNC on November 3 2014researchers have developed the first genetic strain
of mice that can be infected with Ebola and display symptoms similar to those that humans experience.
It s a critical step toward developingâ#treatments and vaccines.####You can t look for a cure for Ebola
unless you have an animal model that mimics the Ebola virus disease spectra##says study coauthor Ralph Baric professor of epidemiology at the University of North carolina at Chapel hill.
Typical laboratory mice usually do not develop humanlike Ebola disease including the severe symptoms that can prove fatal in humans.
So the researchers asked whether all mice are immune to Ebola or whether some strains of mice are susceptible;
and if some are susceptible could they harness the power of mouse genetics to figure out what genes make someone susceptible to the disease.
To find out the team including researchers from the University of Washington and the NIH Rocky mountain National Laboratory where the research took place were breed able to together eight genetic mouse variants
and successfully test a strain of mice to permit active research on potential Ebola vaccines and treatments.
This model system more accurately reflected the human experience when infected with the virus. The team was able to show that a combination of genes were involved in producing a range of disease symptoms such that the genetic variation of the mice directly led to the variety of symptoms that the disease produced.
What s more the researchers pinpointed a single gene that accounted for much of that variationâ##a gene responsible for encoding a protein known as TEK.##
##A basic understanding of how our genetics influence susceptibility to viral infections and affect disease development is absolutely critical to creating much needed therapeutic interventions.##
##says William Fischer an assistant professor of medicine who has treated Ebola patients in Africa.####We can decrease Ebola fatality rates with intensive critical care
but this is difficult to do in places with limited human and material resources. Rationally designed treatments and vaccines are needed desperately##adds Fischer who was not part of this research project.
Martin Ferris coauthor of the paper published in Science and a research assistant professor of genetics in the UNC School of medicine says:##
##Public perception of Ebola infection typically focuses on the high mortality rate following hemorrhagic fever but Ebola actually produces a range of disease symptoms.##
##During an outbreak it is often difficult to assess the role that genetic variation plays in determining disease severity in people.
And if we re going to develop treatments then we need to know about this genetic variation.##
##Source: UNC-Chapel Hillyou are free to share this article under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noderivs 3. 0 Unported license o
#How to coax doctors out of their comfort zones Hearing about a new therapy from an influential colleague increases a doctor s odds of trying it out.
The authors of a new study have used this new finding to simulate a technology intervention that acts like an influential colleague opinionated but not too bossy that they plan to design for the real world.
It s difficult to get doctors to adopt new therapies because you are invading people s comfort zones
and the way they usually do things says lead author Curtis Weiss assistant professor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of medicine and a physician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
By analyzing physician social networks the researchers examined how doctors are connected professionally and pass information to each other and how that leads to increasing adoption.
The current belief is physicians catch a new therapy in what is known as a contagion model.
One doctor sees another doctor prescribing a drug or ordering a test and she will catch
While our study is focused on critical care physicians our findings are relevant for other settings in education research
whose utility is difficult if not impossible to gauge says senior author Luis Amaral professor of chemical and biological engineering at the Mccormick School of engineering and Applied science and a professor of medicine at Feinberg.
It s a surprisingly long road from Food and Drug Administration approval of a new drug or technique to doctors actually using the new drug in their practices notes Weiss whose research focuses on how to get doctors to adopt best practices.
and discussed at medical conferences and then doctors in that field were supposed to integrate that into their clinical practice Weiss says.
The problem with that is doctors are busy and don t always read the journals or go to those conferences.
But the bigger issue is even if you read the article and go to the conference if you don t see a patient with that condition for six months you may have forgotten the therapy.
And there s no follow up or reinforcement after the conference about how to use it. The authors analyzed the social networks of critical care physicians in the medical intensive care unit (ICU) at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
The test case was a new high-impact serum assay or blood test that measures an enzyme shown to be a marker of life-threatening bacterial infections and sepsis in critically ill patients.
The assay has been reported in medical literature as an effective marker but is not yet a part of the guidelines for care.
The current way to diagnose infection is a culture but those results take 48 to 72 hours.
A quicker diagnosis may improve patient treatment. Prior to the study Northwestern didn t have the assay available in its lab. Weiss learned the assay was going to become available and convinced the lab director not to tell anyone before the experiment.
Weiss and Amaral then seeded information about the new serum to two other ICU physicians chosen at random.
which time 20 out of 36 doctors adopted the assay. We discovered the persuasion model was more accurate in explaining the number
A computer simulation based on the experimental data aimed at optimizing adoption showed a reminder every five to seven days delivered as a strong suggestion
Optimized interventions could help increase adoption of best practices in hospitals around the country and increase quality of care Weiss says.
and emphasize using the new therapy (or best practice) closer to the point at which they would actually use it.
or by email or automated reminders generated by the electronic health record. Interventions also can regularly audit doctors adoption.
It could say hey you only used this 30 percent of the time when you should have used it 100 percent of the time'Weiss says s
which we were working on controlling says Steven J. Schiff an engineering professor at Penn State and director of the Center for Neural engineering.
We realized that no one had kept ever proper track of the neuronal energy being used and all of the ions the charged atoms going into and out of brain cells.
Potassium and sodium contribute the ions that control electricity in the brain. Researchers added fundamental physics principles of conservation of energy charge
and mass to an older theory of this electricity. They kept track of the energy required to run a nerve cell and kept count of the ions passing into and out of the cells.
The brain needs a constant supply of oxygen to keep everything running because it has to keep pumping the ions back across cell membranes after each electrical spike.
The energy supply is linked directly to oxygen concentrations around the cell and the energy required to restore the ions to their proper places is much greater after seizures
or migraines We know that some people get both seizures and migraines says Schiff. Certainly the same brain cells produce these different events
and we now have increasing numbers of examples of where single gene mutations can produce the presence of both seizure and migraines in the same patients and families.
The researchers who also included Yina Wei a former doctoral student at Penn State and currently a postdoctoral fellow at University of California Riverside and Ghanim Ullah former Penn State postdoctoral fellow
and now a professor of physics at University of South Florida explored extending older models of brain cell activity with basic conservation principles.
We have found within a single model of the biophysics of neuronal membranes that we can account for a broad range of experimental observations from spikes to seizures
While the initial intent was to better model the biophysics of the brain the connection
Although the mathematics are complex the linking of these phenomena seems rock solid. The ability to better understand the difference between normal and pathological activity within the brain may lead to the ability to predict
when a seizure might occur. We are interested not only in controlling seizures or migraines after they begin
The National institutes of health and the Mathematical Biosciences Institute of the National Science Foundation supported the work.
cut the oxygen University of California Davis rightoriginal Studyposted by Andy Fell-UC Davis on October 31 2014both natural
and engineered types of cartilage get stronger in a low-oxygen environment researchers report. Lab-grown tissues could one day provide new treatments for injured or damaged joints tendons and ligaments.
Biomedical engineers exploring ways to toughen up engineered cartilage and keep natural tissues strong outside the body report new developments in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.##
##The problem with engineered tissue is that the mechanical properties are far from those of native tissue##says first author Eleftherios Makris a postdoctoral researcher biomedical engineering department of University of California Davis
or approved for use in humans a current method for treating serious joint problems is with transplants of native cartilage.
and made up of long fibers that can be cross-linked together. The teamâ#has been maintaining native cartilage in the lab
##The ramifications of the work presented in the PNAS paper are tremendous with respect to tissue grafts used in surgery as well as new tissues fabricated using the principles of tissue engineering##says Kyriacos A. Athanasiou a professor of biomedical engineering and orthopedic surgery and chair
of the biomedical engineering department who oversaw the work. Grafts from cadavers such as cartilage tendons or ligamentsâ##notorious for losing their mechanical characteristics in storageâ##can now be treated with this new processes to make them stronger
The National institutes of health funded the work. Source: UC Davisyou are free to share this article under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noderivs 3. 0 Unported license r
#Team makes spiny neurons without stem cells Washington University in St louis rightoriginal Studyposted by Julia Evangelou Strait-WUSTL on October 30 2014scientists have figured outâ#howâ#to convert human skin cells
The researchers demonstrate that these converted cells survived at least six months after injection into the brains of mice
##Not only did transplanted these cells survive in the mouse brain they showed functional properties similar to those of native cells##says senior author Andrew S. Yoo assistant professor of developmental biology at the Washington University School of medicine in St louis.##These cells
And we found the human transplanted cells also connected to these distant targets in the mouse brain.
They are affected the primary cells in Huntington s disease an inherited genetic disorder that causes involuntary muscle movements and cognitive decline usually beginning in middle-adulthood.
The research involved adult human skin cells rather than more commonly studied mouse cells or even human cells at an earlier stage of development.
In regard to potential future therapies the ability to convert adult human cells presents the possibility of using a patient s own skin cells
and his colleagues put the skin cells in an environment that closely mimics the environment of brain cells.
##We think that the micrornas are really doing the heavy lifting##says co-first author Matheus B. Victor a graduate student in neuroscience.##
When transplanted into the mouse brain the converted cells showed morphological and functional properties similar to native neurons.
To study the cellular properties associated with the disease the investigators now are taking skin cells from patients with Huntington s disease
The work appears in the journal Neuron. Funding came from a National Science Foundation Graduate Research fellowship a fellowship from Cognitive Computation and Systems neuroscience Pathway grants from the National institutes of health and awards from the Mallinckrodt Jr.
Foundation Ellison Medical Foundation and Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. Source: Washington University in St. Louisyou are free to share this article under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noderivs 3. 0 Unported license t
#Stressed girls show signs of premature aging Stanford university rightoriginal Studyposted by Dan Stober-Stanford on October 30 2014
Otherwise healthy girls at high-risk for depression may be aging at a faster rate than their peers.
A new study shows the girls with a family history of depression respond to stress by releasing much higher levels of the hormone cortisol.
Telomeres are caps on the ends of chromosomes. Every time a cell divides the telomeres get a little shorter.
Telomeres also shorten as a result of exposure to stress. Previous studies have uncovered links in adults between shorter telomeres and premature death more frequent infections and chronic diseases.
I did not think that these girls would have shorter telomeres than their low-risk counterparts they'e too young says Ian Gotlib professor of psychology at Stanford university.
For the study published in Molecular Psychiatry researchers recruited 10-to 14-year-old healthy girls with a family history of depression
and compared them to healthy girls without that background. Researchers measured the girls response to stress tests asking them to count backward from 100 by 7
Healthy but high-risk 12-year-old girls had significantly shorter telomeres a sign of premature aging.
It's the equivalent in adults of six years of biological aging Gotlib says but it's not at all clear that that makes them 18
so girls at high-risk girls should learn stress reduction techniques Gotlib says. Other studies show that neurofeedback
Other investigators are studying techniques based on mindfulness training. Gotlib says he and colleagues are continuing to monitor the girls from the original study.
or two fist-size servings of these nonstarchy vegetables reduced their risk for liver problems Type 2 diabetes and other complications of obesity.
For a lot of at-risk children intake of vegetables is really low says Jaimie Davis assistant professor in the nutritional sciences department at University of Texas at Austin.
Researchers from the Keck School of medicine at the University of Southern California are coauthors of the study.
#Prototype uses LED LIGHTS to detect Ebola In a worst-case scenario 1. 4 million people in Liberia
and Sierra Leona could be infected with Ebola by late January according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
and difficulty of diagnosing the disease when a patient is seen first. Conventional fluorescent label-based virus detection methods require expensive lab equipment significant sample preparation transport and processing times and extensive training to use.
A rapid label-free photonic device that can provide affordable simple and accurate on-site detection could be a potential solution.
The device could be used to diagnose Ebola and other hemorrhagic fever diseases in resource-limited countries.
A team led by Selim Ã#nlã#a professor of biomedical engineering electrical and computer engineering and materials science and engineering at Boston University in collaboration with physics professor Bennett Goldberg showed the ability to pinpoint
and size single H1n1 virus particles. Researchers reported the first demonstrated of the concept in Nano Letters in 2010.
Now after four years of refining the instrumentation with collaborators including John Connor a School of medicine associate professor of microbiology the team has demonstrated the simultaneous detection of multiple viruses in blood serum samplesâ##including viruses genetically modified to mimic the behavior of Ebola
and the Marburg virus The device identifies individual viruses based on size variations resulting from distinct genome lengths and other factors.
but none have been nearly as successful in detecting nanoscale viral particles in complex media##says Ã#nlã#referring to typical biological samples that may have a mix of viruses bacteria and proteins.##
and hemorrhagic fever diseases our collaborative research effort has produced a highly sensitive device with the potential to perform rapid diagnostics in clinical settings.##
and handling our system can reduce potential exposure to health care workers##says Connor a researcher at Boston University s National Emerging Infectious diseases Laboratories (NEIDL).#
##The shoebox-sized prototype diagnostic device known as the single particle interferometric reflectance imaging sensor (SP-IRIS) detects pathogens by shining light from multicolor LED sources on viral nanoparticles bound to the sensor surface by a coating
of virus-specific antibodies. Interference of light reflected from the surface is modified by the presence of the particles producing a distinct signal that reveals the size and shape of each particle.
The sensor surface is very large and can capture the telltale responses of up to a million nanoparticles.
In collaboration with BD Technologies and Nexgen Arrays a start-up based at the Photonics Center and run by longtime SP-IRIS developers David Freedman
and postdoctoral fellow George Daaboul the research team is now working on making SP-IRIS more robust field-ready
and fastâ##ideally delivering answers within 30 minutesâ##through further technology development and preclinical trials.
SP-IRIS devices are now being tested in several labs including a Biosafety Level-4 (BSL-4) lab at the University of Texas Medical Branch
which is equipped to work with hemorrhagic viruses. Other tests will be conducted at the university s NEIDL once the facility is approved for BSL-4 research.
Based on the team s current rate of progress a field-ready instrument could be ready to enter the medical marketplace in five years.
#Upgraded circuits built to run biocomputers ETH Zurich right Original Studyposted by Fabio Bergamin-ETH Zurich on October 27 2014.
Scientists have taken a key step toward realizing the goal of building programmable biocomputers that could detect
If cancer markers are found in a cell the circuit could for example activate a cellular suicide program.
Healthy cells without cancer markers would remain unaffected by this process. Biocomputers differ significantly from their counterparts made of silicon
and bioengineers still face several major obstacles. A silicon chip for example computes with ones and zeros current is
either flowing or not and it can switch between these states in the blink of an eye.
In contrast biological signals are less clear: in addition to"signal"and"no signal"there is a plethora of intermediate states with"a little bit of signal".
"This is a particular disadvantage for biocomputer components that serve as sensors for specific biomolecules and transmit the relevant signal.
A team led by ETH Zurich Professor Yaakov Benenson has developed several new components for biological circuits.
These components are key building blocks for constructing precisely functioning and programmable biocomputers. The circuit controls the activity of individual sensor components using an internal timer.
This circuit prevents a sensor from being active when not required by the system; when required it can be activated via a control signal.
The researchers recently published their work in the scientific journal Nature Chemical Biology. To understand the underlying technology it is important to know that these biological sensors consist of synthetic genes that are read by enzymes
and converted into RNA and proteins. In the controllable biosensor developed by doctoral candidate Nicolas Lapique the gene responsible for the output signal is not active in its basic state as it is installed in the wrong orientation in the circuit DNA.
The gene is activated via a special enzyme a recombinase which extracts the gene from the circuit DNA
"The input signals can be transmitted much more accurately than before thanks to the precise control over timing in the circuit"says Benenson professor of synthetic biology who supervised Lapique s work.
To date the researchers have tested the function of their activation-ready sensor in cell culture of human kidney and cancer cells."
"In electronics the different components that make up a circuit are connected always in the same way:
In biology there are a variety of different signals a host of different proteins or microrna molecules.
In order to combine biologic components in any desired sequence signal converters must be connected between them. Laura Prochazka also a doctoral candidate student under Benenson has developed a versatile signal converter.
She published her work recently in the magazine Nature Communications. A special feature of the new component is that not only it converts one signal into another
but it can also be used to convert multiple input signals into multiple output signals in a straightforward manner.
This new biological platform will significantly increase the number of applications for biological circuits.""The ability to combine biological components at will in a modular plug-and-play fashion means that we now approach the stage
when the concept of programming as we know it from software engineering can be applied to biological computers.
Bioengineers will literally be able to program in future"says Benenson. Source: ETH Zurichyou are free to share this article under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noderivs 3. 0 Unported license e
#Ebola family is at least 16 million years old University at Buffalo rightoriginal Studyposted by Charlotte Hsu-Buffalo on October 26 2014the family of viruses to
which Ebola and its lethal relative Marburg belong likely existed in the Miocene epoch at least 16 to 23 million years ago.
Experts once believed filoviruses came into being some 10000 years ago coinciding with the rise of agriculture.
##Filoviruses are far more ancient than previously thought##says lead researcher Derek Taylor professor of biological sciences at University at Buffalo.##
and Marburg s comparative evolution could##affect design of vaccines and programs that identify emerging pathogens##researchers write in the journal Peerj.
The research does not address the age of the modern-day Ebola virus. Instead it shows that Ebola
Taylor and coauthor Jeremy Bruenn professor of biological sciences research viral##fossil genes##â##chunks of genetic material that animals and other organisms acquire from viruses during infection.
One fossil gene called VP35 appeared in the same spot in the genomes of four different rodent species:
##These rodents have billions of base pairs in their genomes so the odds of a viral gene inserting itself at the same position in different species at different times are very small##Taylor says.##
##The genetic material in the VP35 fossil was more closely related to Ebola than to Marburg indicating that the lines leading to these viruses had begun already diverging from each other in the Miocene.
The new study builds on Taylor s previous work which used viral fossil genes to estimate that the entire family of filoviruses was more than 10 million years old.
which was recognized in humans in 1967 and implicated in the death of a Ugandan health worker this month.
Understanding the virus ancient past could aid in disease prevention Taylor says. If a researcher were trying to create a single vaccine effective against both Ebola
and Marburg it could be helpful to know that their evolutionary lineages diverged so long ago.
Knowing more about filoviruses in general could provide insight into which host species might serve as##reservoirs##that harbor undiscovered pathogens related to Ebola
##When they first started looking for reservoirs for Ebola they were crashing through the rainforest looking at everythingâ##mammals insects other organisms.
University at Buffaloyou are free to share this article under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noderivs 3. 0 Unported license e
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