and Ear/Harvard Medical school and Boston University have shown successfully neuroprotection in a Parkinson's mouse model using new techniques to deliver drugs across the naturally impenetrable blood-brain barrier.
Their findings, published in Neurosurgery, lend hope to patients around the world with neurological conditions that are difficult to treat due to a barrier mechanism that prevents approximately 98 percent of drugs from reaching the brain and central nervous system."
"We are developing a platform that may eventually be used to deliver a variety of drugs to the brain,
Eye and Ear/Harvard Medical school.""Although we are currently looking at neurodegenerative disease, there is potential for the technology to be expanded to psychiatric diseases, chronic pain,
seizure disorders and many other conditions affecting the brain and nervous system down the road.""Using nasal mucosal grafting,
researchers delivered glial derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), a therapeutic protein in testing for treating Parkinson's disease, to the brains of mice.
They showed through behavioral and histological data capture that their delivery method was equivalent to direct injection of GDNF--the current gold standard for delivering this drug in Parkinson's disease despite its traumatic nature and high complication rates--in diffusing drugs to the brain.
The researchers chose to test their delivery method with GDNF because the therapy has been shown to delay and even reverse disease progression of Parkinson's disease in preclinical models.
The study was funded by The Michael j fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (MJFF.""Brain diseases are notoriously difficult to treat due to the natural protections the body builds against intrusion,
"said Jamie Eberling, Phd, senior associate director of MJFF research programs.""Dr. Bleier's group has identified a potential avenue to pass that barrier,
and we look forward to the next stage of research to further test its utility in people with Parkinson's disease."
"Nasal mucosal grafting is a technique regularly used in the ENT field to reconstruct the barrier around the brain after surgery to the skull base.
ENT surgeons commonly use endoscopic approaches to remove brain tumors through the nose by making a window through the blood-brain barrier to access the brain.
with the nasal lining protecting the brain from infection just as the blood brain barrier has done. Dr. Bleier saw an opportunity to apply these techniques to the widespread clinical dilemma of delivering drugs across the barrier to the brain and central nervous system.
surgeons may create a"screen door"to allow for drug delivery to the brain and central nervous system. The technique has the potential to benefit a large population of patients with neurodegenerative disorders,
where there remains a specific unmet need for blood-brain penetrating therapeutic delivery strategies.""We see this expanding beyond Parkinson's disease,
as there are multiple diseases of the brain that do not have good therapeutic options, "Dr. Bleier said."
"It is a platform that opens doors for new discovery and could enable drug development for an underserved population
#Internal fingerprint sensor peers inside fingertips for more surefire ID In the 1971 film Diamonds are Forever,
British secret agent James bond uses fake fingerprints as part of a ploy to assume the identity of a diamond smuggler.
At the time, sham prints were purely a futuristic bit of Bond gadgetry, but technology has since caught up.
In 2002, the Japanese cryptographer Tsutomu Matsumoto showed that imitation fingerprints made cheaply from gelatin,
a main component of gummy sweets, could trick up to 80 percent of standard fingerprint sensors.
The sensors also sometimes fail to recognize legitimate prints when the finger being scanned is dirty,
The researchers report their results in the journal Biomedical Optics Express, from The Optical Society (OSA."
"In the past years, the use of fingerprint sensors has expanded greatly beyond the field of forensics. Far from just being used for border security or passport registration,
current uses of these sensors allows access to mobile phones, computers and even gym facilities,"said Egidijus Auksorius, postdoctoral researcher, The Langevin Institute.
Despite the widespread use of commercial fingerprint sensors, problems with the devices persist, Auksorius said,
including up to 5 percent of the population having difficulties using the sensors because their fingerprints are flattened from old age
or damaged by routine manual work or sports such as rock climbing. Additionally people attempting to escape identification might deliberately thwart the sensors by rubbing out their fingerprints,
and the systems can be tricked by fake prints, as was demonstrated by Matsumoto and others. To combat these problems Auksorius worked with Claude Boccara,
a professor who specializes in scientific instruments at The Langevin Institute, to develop a new"internal fingerprint"sensor.
Most optical fingerprint sensors today produce images by reflecting light from areas where the skin does not come in contact with a glass plate, a technique that captures details from only the very top layer of skin.
In contrast Auksorius and Boccara's device images the"internal fingerprints, "which have the same pattern as external fingerprints,
but are about half a millimeter below the skin's surface.""In fact, the internal fingerprints serve as a'master template'from
The new sensor uses a special variant of an imaging technology called optical coherence tomography (OCT). OCT is used already for medical imaging
and works by analyzing an interference pattern created when a beam of light that travels through a biological sample,
Standard OCT systems gather 3d data and often require sophisticated lasers systems and light detectors, which can get expensive.
While the price is still significantly higher than standard fingerprint sensors, Auksorius predicts that the new device could find a market dedicated to imaging problematic fingerprints
Cardiac experts find novel approach to treat heart failure A teenage girl faced with sudden rapid heart deterioration,
a man in the prime years of his life suffering from debilitating heart failure and a former NFL athlete crippled by end-stage heart failure were treated all successfully with a surgical approach pioneered by cardiac experts at University of California, San diego School of medicine.
The work, recently published in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, demonstrated significant benefits of implanting a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) in the right atrium to provide better blood flow through the lungs,
giving complete biventricular circulatory support and fully replacing the heart's function. An LVAD is a small mechanical pump traditionally placed inside the left ventricle--one of four chambers of the heart,
located in the lower left of the organ--to help restore blood flow throughout the body.
and death for a person waiting for a transplant or suffering from advanced heart failure.""An LVAD relieves symptoms,
or short of breath in patients with advanced heart disease,"said Victor Pretorius, MBCHB, lead author of the report and surgical director of cardiac transplant and mechanical circulatory support at UC San diego Health."
"The caveat is that the LVAD still depends on the right side of the patient's heart to function optimally,
Our team placed an additional Heartware HVAD, the smallest available LVAD, in the right atrium, the upper chamber of the heart,
"The right atrium is considered a more ideal chamber for placing a mechanical pump to support right-sided circulation.
and the location next to the right lung makes accommodation for the pump's motor in the chest cavity more feasible.
An LVAD is composed of a computer controller, a power pack and a reserve power pack that remain outside the body
Two of three patients in the study received successful heart transplants after receiving right-sided circulatory support
and hope,"said Eric Adler, MD, co-auther of the report and director of cardiac transplant and mechanical circulatory support at UC San diego Health.
Pretorius and Adler added that more data is needed to evaluate the efficacy of this approach as a long-term solution n
#New research paves the way to begin developing a computer you can control with your mind A team of researchers led by Angelika Lingnau, from the Department of psychology at Royal Holloway,
University of London has been able to predict participants'movements just by analysing their brain activity. The research,
and could be the first step in the development of brain-computer interfaces. Dr. Lingnau and her team used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fmri)
while participants planned and performed simple hand movements inside the scanner. Crucially participants freely chose which of three hand movements to select.
Using machine learning algorithms, the researchers then determined whether they were able to predict which movement the participant was going to perform on the basis of the brain activity measured during the planning phase.
""This opens up huge possibilities for the future including the development of technology you can control with your mind as well as enabling the development of methods for helping those with paralysis to have direct brain control to the affected areas
#New computational strategy finds brain tumor-shrinking molecules Patients with glioblastoma, a type of malignant brain tumor,
usually survive fewer than 15 months following diagnosis . Since there are no effective treatments for the deadly disease, University of California,
San diego researchers developed a new computational strategy to search for molecules that could be developed into glioblastoma drugs.
In mouse models of human glioblastoma, one molecule they found shrank the average tumor size by half.
The newly discovered molecule works against glioblastoma by wedging itself in the temporary interface between two proteins
whose binding is essential for the tumor's survival and growth. This study is the first to demonstrate successful inhibition of this type of protein,
Phd, research scientist at UC San diego Moores Cancer Center, as well as the San diego Supercomputer Center and Department of Neurosciences at UC San diego."
"But we addressed this challenge and created a new strategy for drug design--one that we expect many other researchers will immediately begin implementing in the development of drugs that target similar proteins, for the treatment of a variety of diseases."
"Transcription factors control which genes are turned on"or"off"at any given time. For most people, transcription factors labor ceaselessly in a highly orchestrated system.
leading to quick-growing tumors. In order to work, transcription factors must buddy up, with two binding to each other and to DNA at same time.
If any of these associations are disrupted, the transcription factor is inhibited. In this study, Tsigelny and team aimed to disrupt the OLIG2 buddy system as a potential treatment for glioblastoma.
associate project scientist at UC San diego, developed a computational strategy to search databases of 3d molecular structures for those small molecules that might engage the hotspot between two OLIG2 transcription factors.
The team used the Molecular Operation Environment (MOE) program produced by the Chemical Computing Group in Montreal,
Canada and high-performance workstations at the San diego Supercomputer Center to run the search. With this approach, the researchers identified a few molecules that would likely fit the OLIG2 interaction.
They then tested the molecules for their ability to kill glioblastoma tumors in the Moores Cancer Center lab of the study's senior author
The most effective of these candidate drug molecules, called SKOG102, shrank human glioblastoma tumors grown in mouse models by an average of 50 percent."
"While the initial preclinical findings are cautioned promising, "Kesari, "it will be several years before a potential glioblastoma therapy can be tested in humans.
SKOG102 must first undergo detailed pharmacodynamic, biophysical and mechanistic studies in order to better understand its efficacy and possible toxicity."
"To this end, SKOG102 has been licensed to Curtana Pharmaceuticals, which is currently developing the inhibitor for clinical applications.
University of Wisconsin-Madison electrical engineers have created the fastest, most responsive flexible silicon phototransistor ever made.
night-vision goggles and smoke detectors to surveillance systems and satellites--that rely on electronic light sensors. Integrated into a digital camera lens, for example, it could reduce bulkiness and boost both the acquisition speed and quality of video or still photos.
Developed by UW-Madison collaborators Zhenqiang"Jack"Ma, professor of electrical and computer engineering and research scientist Jung-Hun Seo, the high-performance phototransistor far and away exceeds all previous flexible phototransistor parameters,
and 0s that create the digital image. While many phototransistors are fabricated on rigid surfaces, and therefore are flat,
At that point, a reflective metal layer is on the bottom.""In this structure--unlike other photodetectors--light absorption in an ultrathin silicon layer can be much more efficient
The researchers also placed electrodes under the phototransistor's ultrathin silicon nanomembrane layer--and the metal layer and electrodes each act as reflectors
and improve light absorption without the need for an external amplifier.""There's a built-in capability to sense weak light,
whose work was supported by the U s. Air force.""It shows the capabilities of high-sensitivity photodetection and stable performance under bending conditions,
#Super sensitive magnetic sensor created Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed a new hybrid magnetic sensor that is more sensitive than most commercially available sensors.
This technological breakthrough hails opportunities for the development of smaller and cheaper sensors for various fields such as consumer electronics, information and communication technology, biotechnology and automotive.
The invention, led by Associate professor Yang Hyunsoo of the Department of Electrical and Computer engineering at NUS'Faculty of engineering, was published in the journal Nature Communications in September 2015.
High performance magnetic sensors in demand When an external magnetic field is applied to certain materials a change in electrical resistance, also known as magnetoresistance, occurs as the electrons are deflected.
The discovery of magnetoresistance paved the way for magnetic field sensors used in hard disk drives and other devices,
revolutionising how data is stored and read. In the search for an ideal magnetoresistance sensor, researchers have prized the properties of high sensitivity to low and high magnetic fields, tunability,
and very small resistance variations due to temperature. The new hybrid sensor developed by the team led by Assoc Prof Yang,
who is also with the NUS Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Institute (NUSNNI) and the Centre for Advanced 2d Materials (CA2DM) at NUS Faculty of science,
may finally meet these requirements. Other members of the interdisciplinary research team include Dr Kalon Gopinadhan of NUSNNI and CA2DM;
Professor Thirumalai Venkatesan, Director of NUSNNI; Professor Andre K. Geim of the University of Manchester;
and Professor Antonio H. Castro Neto of the NUS Department of physics and Director of CA2DM. More than 200 times more sensitive than commercially available sensors The new sensor, made of graphene
and boron nitride, comprises a few layers of carrier-moving channels, each of which can be controlled by the magnetic field.
The researchers characterised the new sensor by testing it at various temperatures, angles of magnetic field,
and with a different pairing material. Dr Kalon said, "We started by trying to understand how graphene responds under the magnetic field.
We found that a bilayer structure of graphene and boron nitride displays an extremely large response with magnetic fields.
This combination can be utilised for magnetic field sensing applications.""Compared to other existing sensors, which are made commonly of silicon and indium antimonide,
the group's hybrid sensor displayed much higher sensitivity to magnetic fields. In particular, when measured at 127 Degree celsius (the maximum temperature
which most electronics products are operated at), the researchers observed a gain in sensitivity of more than eightfold over previously reported laboratory results and more than 200 times that of most commercially available sensors.
Another breakthrough in this research was the discovery that mobility of the graphene multilayers can be adjusted partially by tuning the voltage across the sensor
enabling the sensor's characteristics to be optimised. This control gives the material an advantage over commercially available sensors.
In addition, the sensor showed very little temperature dependence over room temperature to 127 Degree celsius range, making it an ideal sensor suitable for environments of higher temperature.
Meeting industry demand The magnetoresistance sensor industry, estimated to be worth US$1. 8 billion in 2014,
is expected to grow to US$2. 9 billion by the year 2020. Graphene-based magnetoresistance sensors hold immense promise over existing sensors due to their stable performance over temperature variation, eliminating the necessity for expensive wafers or temperature correction circuitry.
Production cost for graphene is also much lower than silicon and indium antimonide. Potential applications for the new sensor include the automotive industry,
where sensors in cars, located in devices like flow meters, position sensors and interlocks, are made currently of silicon or indium antimonide.
For instance, when there is a change in temperature due to the car's air-conditioner or heat from the sun,
properties of the conventional sensors in the car change as well. To counter this, a temperature correction mechanism is required, incurring additional production cost.
However, with the team's new hybrid sensor, the need for expensive wafers to manufacture the sensors,
and additional temperature correction circuitries can be eliminated.""Our sensor is poised perfectly to pose a serious challenge in the magnetoresistance market by filling the performance gaps of existing sensors,
and finding applications as thermal switches, hard drives and magnetic field sensors. Our technology can even be applied to flexible applications,"added Assoc Prof Yang.
The research team has filed a patent for the invention. Following this proof-of-concept study,
the researchers plan to scale up their studies and manufacture industry-size wafers for industrial use e
#World first lab-in-a-briefcase Academics at Loughborough University hope to boost early detection rates of cancer in developing countries with their portable lab-in-a-briefcase that can operate even at high temperatures.
Believed to be the first kit of its kind dedicated to the portable measurement of cancer biomarkers,
the concept is the brainchild of Dr Nuno Reis, a Lecturer in Chemical engineering. The full study has been published in the Lab on a Chip journal.
The number of people dying from cancer in developing countries is on the increase, partly due to steadily ageing populations
but also due to limited access to proper diagnostic tools. Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide,
accounting for over 8 million deaths per year, and 70%of the world's cancer deaths occur in Africa, Asia and Central and South america.
The number of new cancer cases is expected to rise by 70%over the next two decades 1. With the help of his Research Associate Ana Isabel Barbosa,
Dr Reis has developed a solution for diagnostic testing in remote areas of developing countries that lack adequate technology to support a full laboratory.
The lab-in-a-briefcase comprises of four components; a manually driven multi-syringe device capable of performing up to 80 simultaneous tests from whole blood samples at any one time;
microwell plates pre-loaded with assay reagents; a portable USB-powered film scanner to image the test strips;
and a portable computer for real-time data analysis. The entire system can be carried in a small briefcase, handbag or laptop case,
and requires just one operator with minimal training to conduct the test within 15 minutes--with no need for additional equipment or instruments.
One of the remarkable features of the lab-in-a-briefcase is that it uses whole blood without the need for any sample preparation--a previously challenging task outside of a laboratory setting.
A new affordable and disposable microfluidic test strip--comprising of tiny tubes about the size of a human hair--is used specifically for the quick measurement of different types of cancer biomarkers in a whole blood sample.
This technology which operates in a similar way to a pregnancy test, has already been used successfully by Dr Reis in a separate study that detected prostate cancer with the help of a smartphone camera.
Dr Reis said:""Our lab-in-a-briefcase is both inexpensive and simple to use;
it means that high precision diagnostic kits, complete with clinical laboratory equipment, can be made accessible to remote populations,
and this is what makes it a truly life-changing concept for the screening and monitoring of different types of cancer."
"This portable lab can really make a difference, boosting levels of cancer detection in developing countries where ordinarily people would not have such easy access to early diagnostics.
I envisage that our lab-in-a-briefcase could also be developed further in the future to allow for rapid testing of infectious diseases and allergens."
"The study was funded co by Capillary Film Technology Ltd--a UK SME developing low-cost microfluidic fluoropolymer film for life sciences and clinical diagnostics.
Although the study focused on rapid detection for prostate cancer, Dr Reis said the microfluidic test strip is versatile enough to measure several cancer biomarkers simultaneously from one whole blood sample. 1 World health organization World Cancer Report 201 1
#Detecting diabetes in a saliva sample with a smart phone With the participation of Mexican and international experts,
the device will present immediate results and will be used for diagnosis within low-income populations. A device that detects in saliva a biological indicator of a possible risk of TYPE II DIABETES is the development of a technological and scientific team of the Tec de Monterrey (Mexican University) in collaboration with the University of Houston.
What makes this development unique is that it is adaptable to the cell phone and gives results in a few seconds,
avoiding the annoying use of needles. In other words it is a cartridge adaptable to the mobile phone that will record
whether a compound is present in saliva, which becomes visible if the patient has diabetes."
"It's as simple as pregnancy tests, where the specific marker shows in a few seconds,"explains project coordinator Dr. Marco Antonio Rite Palomares, director of the Biotechnology Center of the Tec de Monterrey FEMSA.
The project is planned to be completed in two years, "We wanted a device which could identify a biomarker in a sample of saliva,
and it had to emit fluorescent light so a cell phone camera could records it, "explains Rite Palomares.
The multidisciplinary team united scientific experts to work in enzyme technology to make visible this marker and use an analytical process;
also, they developed a micro device that can be integrated into a cell phone and where one can place a saliva sample showing the results through a software.
The director of FEMSA Biotechnology Center mentions that he considered using the camera phone to detect the marker in saliva,
as the resolution is getting better each year. Afterwards it was considered to make it visible through an enzymatic reaction where the biomarker is fluorescent
or emits light identifiable from the rest of the compounds through a strategy that has been used in other areas of technology
and is applied now to biology.""While the idea is to make the patient's life easier,
we also want to bring health care to the low-income population, helping to make and early detection before it can lead to more problems
and take action to prevent high costs for the population and the government, "he added.
As part of the concluding phase of the development the team is seeking who may be interested in the mass production of the device e
#Engineers design magnetic cell sensors MIT engineers have designed magnetic protein nanoparticles that can be used to track cells
or to monitor interactions within cells. The particles, described in Nature Communications, are enhanced an version of a naturally occurring, weakly magnetic protein called ferritin."
"Ferritin, which is as close as biology has given us to a naturally magnetic protein nanoparticle,
is really not that magnetic. That's what this paper is addressing, "says Alan Jasanoff, an MIT professor of biological engineering and the paper's senior author."
"We used the tools of protein engineering to try to boost the magnetic characteristics of this protein."
"The new"hypermagnetic"protein nanoparticles can be produced within cells, allowing the cells to be imaged or sorted using magnetic techniques.
This eliminates the need to tag cells with synthetic particles and allows the particles to sense other molecules inside cells.
The paper's lead author is former MIT graduate student Yuri Matsumoto. Other authors are graduate student Ritchie Chen and Polina Anikeeva, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering.
Magnetic pull Previous research has yielded synthetic magnetic particles for imaging or tracking cells, but it can be difficult to deliver these particles into the target cells.
In the new study Jasanoff and colleagues set out to create magnetic particles that are encoded genetically.
With this approach, the researchers deliver a gene for a magnetic protein into the target cells,
prompting them to start producing the protein on their own.""Rather than actually making a nanoparticle in the lab
and attaching it to cells or injecting it into cells, all we have to do is introduce a gene that encodes this protein,
"says Jasanoff, who is also an associate member of MIT's Mcgovern Institute for Brain Research.
the researchers used one of the most promising candidates to create a magnetic sensor consisting of enhanced ferritin modified with a protein tag that binds with another protein called streptavidin.
Researchers could track this activity using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), potentially allowing them to observe communication between neurons, activation of immune cells,
Such sensors could also be used to monitor the effectiveness of stem cell therapies Jasanoff says."
"As stem cell therapies are developed, it's going to be necessary to have noninvasive tools that enable you to measure them,
The researchers are now working on adapting the magnetic sensors to work in mammalian cells. They are also trying to make the engineered ferritin even more strongly magnetic c
Now, two postdoctoral scholars from UC Santa barbara's Kavli Institute for Theoretical physics (KITP) have developed a means of reducing data size
Taking advantage of the layered structure of many biological specimens, Sebastian Streichan and Idse Heemskerk created the Image Surface Analysis Environment (Imsane),
By implementing Imsane as an open source MATLAB toolbox the KITP researchers provide a practical, highly accessible tool for data reduction and analysis of layered tissues.
MATLAB is a high-level language and interactive environment used by millions of engineers and scientists to explore
and visualize ideas and to collaborate across disciplines.""We can now record the entire development of fruit flies from a couple hundred cells until a maggot hatches
"Such data allows us to answer basic questions about developmental biology and the role of physics in shaping the developing body,"Heemskerk added.
The downside of high-resolution recordings is the resulting very large data set.""A 10-hour recording is easily 2 terabytes (TB),
which exceeds the hard drive capacity of most computers and would take 100 hours to transfer with a good Internet connection,
"said Heemskerk.""That makes it challenging to extract the information we want from the data."
"Often in biology, the action is curved on a surface of interest. Although the recording of the cube containing this surface is 2 TB,
the surface itself is only a few gigabytes. Imsane takes advantage of this by isolating the surface
and reducing it to a number of overlapping 2-D images that contain all the same information, much like making maps of Earth,
which is dubbed why they their method"tissue cartography.""Cartography makes the resulting data not only much smaller but also much easier to interpret.
While Imsane's cartographic projections of tissue are very useful, they result in distortion similar to
Analyzing certain data now takes a couple of days instead of a couple of months and requires much less computational infrastructure, saving both time and money."
"Imsane is an alternative to brute force 3-D data crunching that allows people to quantitatively analyze complex-shaped organs with relative ease,"noted Streichan."
"The program is especially useful for biologists who otherwise would have to acquire the skillset and hardware to handle large data
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