genetics and disease diagnosis. But carrying out such analyses requires expensive lab equipment, making its application out of reach for many people who live in resource-limited places.
Advances in nanomaterials however, could make analysis of genetic material possible at a much lower cost.
David Sinton and colleagues wanted to see if they could come up with a new paper device with such nanomaterials to test DNA without the use of high-tech facilities.
The researchers made a paper-based diagnostic test out of materials that cost less than $1 per device.
After only a 10-minute run, the device could detect the Hepatitis b virus in blood serum at a level low enough to flag an early-stage acute infection,
That is precisely what University of Washington mathematics professor Gunther Uhlmann was expecting when he and three colleagues proposed a means to develop an electromagnetic wormhole in a 2007 paper in Physical Review Letters.
Their theoretical wormhole an invisible tube for electromagnetic fields would cloak an electromagnetic field while it passed through the tube,
Their 2007 manuscript details a specific mechanism to cloak electromagnetic fields under certain circumstances. The cloaked field,
such as a magnetic field, would not be detectable by an outside observer and would not disrupt other magnetic fields. o do this,
you would construct a material that surrounds the object in such a way that currents go around it.
Uhlmann theoretical device for cloaking magnetic fields would have practical applications, such as in devices that use optical data transmission.
Another real-world use for magnetic field cloaking would be medicine. Magnetic resonance imaging or MRI, utilizes magnetic fields. A cloaking device for magnetic fields could make it easier for doctors to utilize MRI during operations by idingthe field from surgical instruments. hat just one application.
But who knows what other applications there could be for this theory, which works for almost any kind of wave, said Uhlmann.
The primary reason this theory seemed so far from practice centered on the physical and mathematical constraints of the cloaking field.
Rendering a magnetic field invisible to outside observers but without disrupting the inherent properties of that field would require materials that do not exist in the natural world.
Uhlmann and his colleagues knew what types of properties a cloaking material must have and that no naturally-occurring substance was up to the task. he experimental side of the problem requires new materials that do not have properties that exist in nature,
said Uhlmann. hey have to be created artificially. The general term for these substances are metamaterials,
and they were the limiting factor in realizing the cloaking field, according to Uhlmann. he main problem is that, for this device,
the metamaterials have to be constructed precisely for the wavelength of the field you want to make invisible,
he said. A group of researchers at the Autonomous University of Barcelona were able to design
and construct a metallic metamaterial that could enclose two objects: a superconducting sphere and a magnetic sheet that had been wound into a cylinder.
The metamaterial had just the right properties to cloak a specific magnetic field encased within the sphere,
as the authors reportedin a paper published in August in Science Reports. They tested the device under different types of conditions
and discovered that the magnetic field within the sphere could be rendered invisible to outside detection. hat essentially
what you want such a device to do, said Uhlmann. Uhlmann first began working with cloaking theories in 2003, back then with electric fields in two dimensions.
The 12-year gap between these first theories and the realization of a functional cloaking device a relatively short period in science has left him hopeful that future devices could be built.
Uhlmann co-authors on the 2007 paper were Allan Greenleaf at the University of Rochester, Yaroslav Kurylev at University college London and Matti Lassas at Helsinki University of Technology e
#Biologist uncovers fundamental new strategy for destroying cancer cells University of Virginia cell biologist John Herr believes that the most ground-breaking findings always start with an insight built on basic science.
and eggs has lead to numerous breakthroughs in reproductive health, and now he believes his team has discovered a revolutionary strategy to treat cancer. he focus of my work has always been to define the signature molecules that are on
and within the egg and the sperm, said Herr, a professor of cell biology in the School of medicine.
Signature molecules are those that are unique to the sperm and the egg and are not found in other tissues in the body.
and his team create using monoclonal antibodies antibodies designed to bind to proteins originating in only one type of cell.
He used his research to launch three biotech companies centered on forensic science, fertility assessment and contraception methods.
Last year, Herr entered the female contraceptive arena with his new start-up, Ovastasis. Like his previous companies,
Ovastasis focuses on protein biomarkers that are specific to the reproductive cells, in this case, the egg.
The difference is that Ovastasis plans to use those protein biomarkers as targets for a novel female birth control medication. he identification of drug targets that are selective to the egg
or to the sperm gives you opportunities to create small-molecule drugs for female and male contraception, contraceptive vaccines,
and opens opportunities for biological drug strategies that selectively target the gametes in the ovary and testis,
Currently approved female birth control medications work by manipulating the female body estrogen and progesterone levels. While effective, these drugs are steroids
This vastatinbirth control method would be free of unpleasant side-effects like mood swings, acne and breast tenderness,
It was through the same research into egg biomarkers that Herr and his team uncovered a fundamental,
and previously unknown, characteristic of cancerous tumors arising from a variety of organs. e discovered membrane proteins that among the normal tissues,
These egg-specific proteins are also found in cancers that arise in a wide range of organs,
For some reason, when many cancers dysregulate, or begin to grow on their own, they revert back and take on features of a developing egg.
and acquire their own unique set of biomarkers as they begin to form specific organs.
Herr and his team are bringing awareness to an aspect of cancer that is fundamental to the disease:
At the same time, theye creating an entirely new field of study into cancer-oocyte neoantigens. athologists have appreciated long that cancer cells may de-differentiate
What we have confirmed now is that cancers from many organs de-differentiate to take on features of the oocyte, the original mother cell from
With this discovery, Herr started his first cancer research company, Neoantigenics. Like Ovastasis, Neoantigenics is focused on creating a targeted drug that will affect only those cells identified by the correct cell surface biomarkers.
Their goal is to create a cancer treatment that will track and kill cells that carry the SAS1B protein,
the biomarker that is found only on growing eggs and tumor cells. The monoclonal antibodies to SAS1B can be thought of as a homing mechanism to guide a miniscule warhead selectively to the surface of cancer cells.
When that warhead enters the bloodstream, it seeks out all the cells that are marked on their surfaces with SAS1B targets
and then after binding on the tumor cell surface, the antibody-drug burrows inside them to release a toxic payload. ou add an antibody with a drug on it
and within 15 minutes of contacting the cancer cells, it binds at the cell surface and begins the internalization process,
Herr said. After about an hour, the SAS1B-marked antibodies reach compartments inside the cell
and release the drug payload, triggering changes that result in cell death within a few days.
The same biomarkers that will help limit the area of impact for Ovastasis birth control will also help Neoantigenics confine the toxic effects of cancer treatment to growing egg and tumor cells.
This unique medication could mean a dramatic reduction of the difficult side-effects of traditional cancer treatments like hair loss, nausea, anemia and neuropathy.
The drug can be used by both women and men but for female cancer patients especially, a treatment that doesn touch their body healthy tissues is a huge breakthrough. e think we have a way
not only to target cancer cells, but a way that could become a frontline treatment for women who have cancers of many types
and want to preserve fertility, Herr said. While Neoantigenicsmedication would have to attack growing egg cells in order to kill similar cancer cells,
After the cancer treatment is complete those primordial eggs can begin the cycle of normal egg growth and ovulation again.
and the company will work with U. Va. labs as it begins testing the cancer medication first in model organisms,
Herr biggest hope is that his breakthroughs demonstrate the value of investing time and public money into basic research goals.
Herr said. ithout a deep level of understanding of the fundamental biology, commercial applications are not possible.
That what we do well as a university. That our task, to create a knowledge base and disseminate it into society by launching new ventures
#An efficient and convenient protocol for generation of human ipsc-derived hepatocytes Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed an efficient and cheap protocol for production of human ips cell-derived liver cells.
so may find applications in drug toxicity tests, the search for new drugs and cell therapy.
Assistant professor Taketomo Kido, Professor Atsushi Miyajima and their research group at the Laboratory of Cell Growth
and Differentiation in the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences have established a technique to isolate hipsc-derived liver progenitor cells (LPCS, cells
says Assistant professor Kido. He continues, hese cells exhibit the characteristics of mature hepatocytes for more than two weeks,
making them useful for applications in drug discovery and toxicology. This study was supported by CREST program of Japan Agency for Medical Research and development,
and Grants-in-Aid for Scientific research of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science f
#Study Blocks Ebola virus Budding by Regulating Calcium Signaling The Ebola virus acts fast. The course of infection, from exposure to recovery,
or death, can take as little as two weeks. That may not leave enough time for the immune system to mount an effective response.
The goal of some antiviral therapies, therefore, is to buy more and give the immune system a leg up on the virus. A new study led by Bruce Freedman
and Ronald Harty in the Department of Pathobiology of the University of Pennsylvania School of veterinary medicine demonstrates a way to do that,
by reducing the ability of the virus to exit a host cell and spread. Their work showed that blocking a calcium-signaling pathway could inhibit not only the Ebola virus,
but also Marburg, Lassa and Junin viruses, all sources of deadly infections. The work paves the way toward designing a potential broad-spectrum drug that could serve as a therapy for a number of serious viral infections. ur work is aimed at handicapping the virus
so that the immune system has time to respond, said Freedman. e could also imagine this type of drug would be part of a cocktail therapy,
like those used for HIV, to cripple the virus at different stages of its life cycle,
echoed Harty. The research was published in the journal PLOS Pathogens. Freedman and Harty teamed with scientists from Fox Chase Chemical Diversity Center and the United states army Medical Research Institute of Infectious disease on the study.
Because viruses must hijack host cell proteins to complete their life cycle and reproduce, the Penn Vet scientists have focused on developing drugs that interfere with the host proteins
and mechanisms that viruses depend on. They conducted initial experiments using noninfectious viral-like particles or VLPS, the production of which is orchestrated by the virusmatrix protein and
Next they looked directly at VLP production in normal cultured cells or cells with a mutation in ORAI1.
which requires the highest levels of biocontainment. There, researchers carried out experiments similar to what had been done with the VLP assays.
and found that it lowered infection rates in a dose-dependent manner. Finally, they confirmed that ORAI1 inhibition was blocking the ability of viruses to exit the cell,
Freedman and Harty have launched a company called Intervir Therapeutics Inc.,with support from the Penn Center for Innovation UPSTART program,
and minimize any toxic effects. They noted that such drugs would only be given for a short duration,
In addition, if used as part of a combination therapy, ORAI inhibitors could be administered at lower doses m
#Researchers build nanoscale autonomous walking machine from DNA Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a nanoscale machine made of DNA that can randomly walk in any direction across bumpy surfaces.
Future applications of such a DNA walker might include a cancer detector that could roam the human body searching for cancerous cells
and tagging them for medical imaging or drug targeting. The study by researchers Cheulhee Jung, Peter B. Allen and Andrew Ellington, published this week in the journal Nature Nanotechnology,
developed DNA machines that were able to walk, unprogrammed and in different directions, over a DNA-coated surface.
Previously, nanoparticle walkers were only able to walk on precise and programmed one-and two-dimensional paths.
and its movement in a random fashion is different from movement seen in other studies. his is an important step forward in developing nanoscale nucleic acid machines that can autonomously act under a variety of conditions,
said Ellington, professor in the Department of Molecular Biosciences and member of the UT Center for Systems and Synthetic biology.
NA nanotechnology is especially interesting because it explores the world of atter computers, where computations (including walking) are carried out by physical objects, rather than by electronic or magnetic shuttles.
DNA walkers may eventually allow protective cells to walk the surface of organs, constantly computing whether a cancer is present. ore immediate practical applications may include deploying the DNA walker in the body
so that it can amplify signals from cancer cells to make them more easily identified and targeted by doctors.
There also may be implications for future delivery of nanoscale therapeutics. Although it may be a long march from diagnosing cancer to curing it,
ll breakthroughs begin with baby steps. Only in this case they are the steps of a DNA walker,
said co-author Jung. The walker is made from a single piece of DNA with two legs connected by a torso.
Like a human, it moves by putting one leg forward, then lifting the other leg
The study demonstrated that as the nanoscale machine walked, it did not go over the same area twice e
#Cancer cells use secret tunnels to communicate and smuggle cancer signals their neighbors New research in The FASEB Journal suggests that an in vitro co-culture system robustly quantifies the transfer of fluorescent proteins between cells
and can also compare between various conditions A new discovery published in the Nov. 2015 issue of The FASEB Journal shows that cancer cells use previously unknown channels to communicate with one another and with adjacent non-cancerous cells.
Not only does this cast an important light on how cancer metastasizes and recruits cellular material from healthy cells,
but it also suggests that these physical channels might be exploitable to deliver drug therapies. hope that the tools we have developed,
especially the mouse model, will be used by academics to isolate healthy cells modified by tumors, and by the pharmaceutical industry in the quest for novel anticancer drugs that block tumor-organ communication,
said Anne Burtey, Ph d.,study author from the Department of Biomedicine, at the University of Bergen in Bergen,
Norway. also hope the knowledge we provide here is paving the way to engineer uper-spreadingagents,
with increased abilities to diffuse within tumors and even reach the healthy cells involved in tumor progression.
To make this discovery, Burtey and colleagues studied the exchange of molecules between cells, by color-coding them with red or blue cellular fluorescent yesor ags.
suggesting that this protein is a key regulator of cell-cell communication in cancer. Live cell imaging confirmed that the transfer is contact-dependent.
they observed a transfer of red material into the green healthy cells of the mice mammary fat pads. exican drug lords are not the only ones who use secret tunnels to move material across seemingly impenetrable borders,
Now that we know these tunnels exist we can shut them down or use them to deliver lifesaving therapies. o
#New treatment targets cancers with particular genetic signature Oxford university researchers have found the Achilles heel of certain cancer cells mutations in a gene called SETD2.
Their findings will be presented to the National Cancer Research Institute conference in Liverpool 2nd november, 2015. It is well known that mutations drive cancer cell growth and resistance to treatment.
However, these mutations can also become a weak point for a tumour. The Oxford team found that that was the case for cancer cells with mutations in a key cancer gene called SETD2.
Study author, Dr Timothy Humphrey said: utations in SETD2 are frequently found in kidney cancer and some childhood brain tumours,
so we were excited when we discovered that a new drug we were studying specifically killed cancer cells with this mutation.
The presentation will discuss how Dr Humphrey and his team showed that cancer cells with a mutated SETD2 gene were killed by a drug called AZD1775 that inhibits a protein called WEE1.
WEE1 was discovered first by British Nobel prize winner Sir Paul Nurse. The team achieved this by exploiting the concept of ynthetic lethality where a combination of two factors kills a cancer cell.
This has the potential to be a less toxic and more effective treatment than more standard approaches because it can specifically target cancer cells.
Co-author Dr Andy Ryan said: hen WEE1 was inhibited in cells with a SETD2 mutation, the levels of deoxynucleotides,
the components that make DNA, dropped below the critical level needed for replication. Starved of these building blocks, the cells die.
Importantly, normal cells in the body do not have SETD2 mutations, so these effects of WEE1 inhibition are potentially very selective to cancer cells.
Importantly, the research team, funded by Cancer Research UK and the Medical Research Council, have developed also a biomarker test to identify SETD2 mutated tumours,
something that can be used immediately in cancer diagnosis. Professor Tim Maughan, Clinical Director of the Cancer Research UK/Medical Research Council Oxford Institute for Radiation Oncology, said:
his novel and exciting finding provides a new scientific basis for precision targeting of some cancers
which are currently very difficult to treat, and we are now taking these findings into clinical trials.
While there is still work to do before a treatment is available, the hope is that these findings will help to target other cancers with similar weak points
and provide a step towards personalized cancer therapy i
#Google Project Loon Set to Enmesh the Globe with Internet Balloons by 2016 Project Loon is yet another highly ambitious project of the tech-giant Google,
which aims to deliver Internet connectivity to areas of the world that don already enjoy good access to the web.
To achieve this, the company plans to send out a fleet of super-pressurised helium balloons,
set to hang in the stratosphere at an altitude of about 32 kilometres, forming a high-tech communications network capable of providing high-speed connectivity.
Hundreds if not thousands of these balloons are to be launched into the stratosphere providing Internet access to rural areas,
as well as improving communication during natural disasters, by next year. Basically, the balloons will be maneuvered by adjusting their altitude to float to a wind layer with the desired speed
and direction using wind data from the National oceanic and atmospheric administration (NOAA). The signal travels through the network balloon to balloon then to a ground-based station connected to an Internet service provider (ISP),
and finally onto the global Internet. The service will become available by attaching a special antenna to the roof of a user building.
Despite the project sounding like a pie-in-the-sky dream straight from a science fiction movie,
with Google itself calling it nprecedentedand even razy provided that all tests go as planned,
the company hopes to dispatch the very first oonsalready next year. We need about 300 balloons
or so to make a continuous string around the world, said Mike Cassidy, Vice-president of Project Loon. s one moves along with the wind out of range,
another one comes to take its place. We hope next year to build our first continuous ring around the world,
and to have some sort of continuous coverage for certain regions. he first, pioneering ring will encircle an area above the Southern hemisphere,
with each of the 300 proposed balloons providing connectivity to the ground below in an area that spans 40 kilometres.
As for the balloons themselves, the company claims theye come a long way since the announcement of the project two years ago. n the early days
the balloons would last five or seven or 10 days. Now we have had balloons that have lasted
as long as 187 days, said Cassidy. ee also improved the launch process. It used to take 14 people an hour
or two to launch a balloon. Now with an automated crane we can launch a balloon every 15 minutes with two
or three people. he oonsaren the only thing that was scaled up, by the way at the beginning,
connectivity at the ground was provided akin to that by 3g cellular networks, whereas now the balloons can deliver speeds up to 10 megabits per second,
or the equivalent to 4g mobile speeds in many parts of the world. Cassidy said that
if the flagship 300 balloon ring is a success, the project will then begin rolling out to the first beta commercial customers,
including Sri lanka and Indonesia, which have signed already on for the project. With over two-thirds of the world not yet online, the company predicts many more customers to step forward in the near future a
#Engineers created a new flexible phototransistor with impressive properties Phototransistors are rather important part of modern electronics.
They are used in such commonly used products as compact disc players, smoke detectors, remote control devices and many more.
They are even more important in scientific applications and equipment, such as photoconductors, charge-coupled devices, and photomultiplier tubes.
Now electrical engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have created a new kind of phototransistor and it is the fastest,
most responsive flexible silicon phototransistor ever made. Scientists say that this innovation may improve the performance of myriad products
such as digital cameras, night-vision goggles, smoke detectors, surveillance systems, satellites and other devices that rely on electronic light sensors.
Of course, electronic devices work differently phototransistors in digital cameras sense light, which is converted then into a long line of 1s and 0s,
However, our eyes are not flat, unlike most of contemporary phototransistors, which are made on rigid surfaces.
but the one developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison can be made in any curve to fit any optical system.
In this stage a reflective metal layer ends up being on the bottom. In this structure coming light is blocked not by any metal layers or other materials.
Scientists placed electrodes under this ultrathin silicon nanomembrane layer. This resulted in the metal layer and electrodes acting as reflectors,
which improved light absorption. This means that an external amplifier is needed not. Scientists say that there is an integrated capability to sense weak light,
which is beneficial for a variety of applications. Professor Zhenqiang ackma, one of the developers of this project
explained: his demonstration shows great potential in high-performance and flexible photodetection systems. It shows the capabilities of high-sensitivity photodetection and stable performance under bending conditions,
showing how rapidly electronics are developing these days. Even such small and invisible parts are getting more and more advanced
and influence entire industry of electronic devices. In fact, since flexible phototransistor are used in cameras, it is likely that very soon we will soon see the results of this achievement in shape of better quality photos and videos y
#Study reveals structure of tuberculosis enzyme, could offer drug target A team of scientists, including several from the U s. Department of energy Argonne National Laboratory,
have determined the structures of several important tuberculosis enzymes, which could lead to new drugs for the disease.
Tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria, has proved incredibly stubborn even in the age of powerful antibiotics,
infecting about one third of all people worldwide. Treatment can take up to nine months. It has stealth properties that protect it from antibiotics;
and it very resourceful at acquiring resistance. hat we have now may not work in a few years,
said Andrzej Joachimiak, an Argonne Distinguished Fellow, head of the Structural biology Center, co-principal investigator at the Center for Structural genomics of Infectious diseases and a corresponding author on the new study.
which is part of a cellular process that controls the making of guanine nucleotides, one of the building blocks for DNA and RNA.
It so essential that virtually all living organisms, including human and bacterial pathogens, have versions of it. hat we discovered earlier this year is that the human and bacterial versions bind molecules differently,
Joachimiak said. his is very important for finding a molecule to build a drug aroundou don want to inhibit a human enzyme, just the pathogen one.
and then determined the structure employing synchrotron protein crystallography at the Advanced Photon Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facility (both at Argonne).
Brandeis University professor Lizbeth Hedstrom and University of Minnesota professor Courtney Aldrich, two of the study other research collaborators, had identified several inhibitor molecules that bind to IMPDH,
Helena Boshoff at the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious diseases performed complementary studies showing that these inhibitors do in fact efficiently block mycobacterium growth l
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