#Researchers develop world's most sensitive test to detect infectious disease, superbugs Researchers at Mcmaster University have developed a new way to detect the smallest traces of metabolites, proteins or fragments of DNA.
In essence, the new method can pick up any compound that might signal the presence of infectious disease,
be it respiratory or gastrointestinal. Array"The test has the best sensitivity ever reported for a detection system of this kind--it is as much as 10,000 times more sensitive than other detection systems,
researchers developed a molecular device made of DNA that can be switched'on'by a specific molecule of their choice--such as a certain type of disease indicator
or DNA molecule representing a genome of a virus--an action that leads to a massive,
"explains Yingfu Li, a professor in the Departments of Biochemistry and Biomedical sciences, Chemistry and Chemical Biology."
"This invention will allow us to detect anything we might be interested in, bacterial contamination or perhaps a protein molecule that is a cancer marker.
allowing users--family physicians, for example--to run the test. The Biointerfaces Institute has developed a series of paper-based screening technologies
which enable users to generate clear, simple answers that appear on test paper indicating the presence of infection or contamination in people, food or the environment t
#Two biomarkers linked to severe heart disease found Arrayarrayinterestingly, Nichols and his colleagues did not set out to pinpoint the two key biomarkers.
They wanted to create an insulin resistant animal model that mimicked human heart disease. They chose pigs,
which are metabolically similar to humans and have hearts very much like human hearts. By feeding the animals a diet high in fat and salt over the course of a year,
all the pigs became insulin resistant. That is, their bodies produced a lot of insulin but their cells did not respond to the hormone as well as normal.
All the pigs also developed coronary and aortic atherosclerosis. But only about half of the pigs developed the most severe form of the disease.
When the researchers checked the pigs for high levels of insulin resistance, they found no correlation with the most severe atherosclerosis.
This was a surprising and unexpected finding. Arrayclemmons and colleagues tested the pigs for high levels of fructosamine and oxidized LDL cholesterol,
which are surrogates for high levels of glycated proteins. Sure enough, all the pigs with severe heart disease had elevated levels of fructosamine and oxidized LDL."
"Also, this correlation was more common in females, "Clemmons said. Fourteen of the 20 pigs that developed severe atherosclerosis were females.
Fourteen of the 17 pigs that did not develop severe atherosclerosis were male.""This surprised me,
so I looked in the literature for anything similar.""Clemmons found a study from Finland published in 2005 showing that elevated glycated protein levels were associated strongly with advanced heart disease and increased mortality in women but not in men."
"The underlying causes of this correlation are said unknown, "Clemmons.""But now we have a unique animal model that very much mimics
what we see in humans. Our model is a good predictor of diet-induced atherosclerosis in females."
"A next step could be to study the affected heart tissue to find abnormal biochemical reactions in the cellular pathways involved in glycated proteins and severe coronary disease.
This could lead to potential new treatment approaches or tailored dietary interventions. Clemmons added,"We could also study what's different about these female pigs that make them much more susceptible to severe heart disease,
if they have higher levels of glycated proteins
#Study identifies new way to kill the malaria parasite Scientists have discovered new ways in which the malaria parasite survives in the blood stream of its victims,
a discovery that could pave the way to new treatments for the disease. The researchers at the Medical Research Council's (MRC) Toxicology Unit based at the University of Leicester
and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine identified a key protein, called a protein kinase,
that if targeted stops the disease. The study is published in Nature Communications. Malaria is caused by a parasite that lives inside an infected mosquito
and is transferred into the human through a bite. Once inside the body parasites use a complex process to enter red blood cells
and survive within them. By identifying one of the key proteins needed for the parasite to survive in the red blood cells,
The discovery could be the first step in developing a new drug to treat malaria. The scientists--funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC)
and the Wellcome Trust--used state-of-the-art methods to dissect the biochemical pathways involved in keeping the malaria parasite alive.
This included an approach called chemical genetics where synthetic chemicals are used in combination with introducing genetic changes to the DNA of the parasite.
but with limited toxicity, making them safe enough to be used by children and pregnant women.
Co-lead author of the study Professor Andrew Tobin from the MRC Toxicology Unit which is located at the University of Leicester,
said:""This is a real breakthrough in our understanding of how malaria survives in the blood stream
and invades red blood cells. We've revealed a process that allows this to happen and if it can be targeted by drugs we could see something that stops malaria in its tracks without causing toxic side-effects."
"Professor David Baker, co-lead author from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said:"
"It is a great advantage in drug discovery research if you know the identity of the molecular target of a particular drug and the consequences of blocking its function.
It helps in designing the most effective combination treatments and also helps to avoid drug resistance which is a major problem in the control of malaria worldwide."
"According to the World health organization malaria currently infects more than 200 million people world wide and accounts for more than 500,000 deaths per year.
Most deaths occur among children living in Africa where a child dies every minute of malaria and the disease accounts for approximately 20%of all childhood deaths.
Professor Patrick Maxwell, chair of the MRC's Molecular and Cellular Medicine Board, said:""Tackling malaria is a global challenge,
with the parasite continually working to find ways to survive our drug treatments. By combining a number of techniques to piece together how the malaria parasite survives,
this study opens the door on potential new treatments that could find and exploit the disease's weak spots but with limited side-effects for patients
#Cancer drug 49 times more potent than Cisplatin Based on a compound of the rare precious metal osmium and developed by researchers at the University of Warwick's Department of chemistry and the Warwick Cancer Research Unit,
FY26 is able to shut down a cancer cell by exploiting weaknesses inherent in their energy generation. The researchers argue that the drug could be cheaper to produce,
less harmful to healthy cells than existing treatments and has been shown to be active against cancer cells which have become resistant to platinum-based drugs.
Similar results were obtained by the National Cancer Institute USA in tests conducted on 60 cell lines.
The new drug works by forcing cancer cells to use their mitochondria, the'power house'of a cell,
to generate the energy necessary to function. Whilst healthy cells use mitochondria to generate energy,
cancer cells contain defective mitochondria which are incapable of sustaining the cell's energy requirements. In the absence of FY26, cancer cells switch from using their defective mitochondria to using metabolic activity in their cytoplasm to generate energy.
By stopping this switch of energy source, the drug causes the cancer cell to die. Lead researcher Professor Peter Sadler
of the University of Warwick's Department of chemistry, said explains:""Healthy cells generate their energy in organelles called mitochondria,
but cancer cells have defective mitochondria and are forced to generate energy through glycolysis in the cytoplasm.
Our new compounds work by attacking the energy balance in cancer cells.""Commenting on the drug's benefits
when compared to existing platinum-based drugs, such as Cisplatin, Professor Sadler says:""Platinum-based drugs are used in nearly 50%of all chemotherapeutic regimens
and exert their activity by damaging DNA and cannot select between cancerous and non-cancerous cells.
This can lead to a wide-range of side-effects from renal failure to neurotoxicity, ototoxicity, nausea and vomiting.""
""Existing platinum-based cancer treatments often become less effective after the first course, as cancer cells learn how they are being attacked,
but our new osmium compound with its different mechanism of action, remains active against cancer cells that have become resistant to drugs such as Cisplatin."
"The research could also lead to substantial improvements in cancer survival rates, suggests co-researcher Dr Isolda Romero-Canelon:"
"Current statistics indicate that one in every two people will develop some kind of cancer during their life time, with approximately one woman dying of ovarian cancer every two hours in the UK according to Cancer Research UK
and two deaths every hour from bowel cancer.""It is clear that a new generation of drugs is necessary to save more lives
and our research points to a highly effective way of defeating cancerous cells.""Arrayfollowing the successful test results the researchers have been awarded a Wellcome Trust Pathfinder grant to begin preclinical development of organo-osmium compounds s
#New information on brain development, fertility discovered The protein CEP63 is crucial for the correct division of brain stem cells.
In its absence, mice reproduce Seckel syndrome. The scientists rescued the microcephaly during mouse embryonic development by removing a protein that caused the loss of stem cells.
Arrayarraythere are no treatment options for microcephaly to date. This defect in brain growth is present in several neurodevelopmental diseases,
including Seckel syndrome.""There are diagnostic tests for some of these kinds of pathologies that can be performed during pregnancy,
but other than early detection, the expectant parents are limited to two choices, either to abort or to continue with the pregnancy,
being fully aware of the outcome, "explains the North american scientist Travis Stracker.""Our research paves the way to explore therapeutic approaches for microcephaly involving the inhibition of the protein p53,
"says the head of the Genomic Instability and Cancer Lab at IRB Barcelona. The scientists describe that this protein triggers the death of brain stem cells.
This occurs because cells without CEP63 have delayed cell division, leading them to enter programmed cell death through p53."
"Cell death due to mutations in CEP63 is the main cause of the brain defects. When we prevent cell death by removing p53 from developing embryos,
the brain develops to its normal size, "explains Jens Lüders, head of the Microtubule Organization Lab. This finding paves the way to study
"Our next goal is to test the p53 inhibitors currently available in the same mouse models
The study has been financed by the"Plan Nacional"of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and by the European union programme Marie Curie Actions,
#Key mechanism that causes neuropathic pain found Scientists at the University of California, Davis, have identified a key mechanism in neuropathic pain.
The discovery could eventually benefit millions of patients with chronic pain from trauma, diabetes, shingles, multiple sclerosis or other conditions that cause nerve damage."
"said co-author Bruce Hammock, distinguished professor at the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology and the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center."
"We can now specifically search for agents to control ER stress and its downstream pathways,
"This search is already underway in a number of laboratories working on cancer and other diseases."
"Working with Professor Fawaz Haj of the UC Davis nutrition department, Bettaieb found that key molecular signatures associated with diabetes
and diabetic pain were linked to ER stress. Neuropathic pain is a common consequence of both Type 1
and Type 2 diabetes, affecting up to 70 percent of patients. Inceoglu, working in Hammock's laboratory,
The team was able to show that blocking soluble epoxide hydrolase blocks ER stress and associated neuropathic pain.
The work sheds new light onto at least one biological process that mediates neuropathic pain, Inceoglu said.
With this knowledge, researchers can now test ER-stress blocking drugs in the clinic, and carry out fundamental research on how different types of pain grouped under the name"neuropathic"differ from each other
what causes neuropathic pain said John Imig, professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the Medical College of Wisconsin,
The work provides new opportunities for drugs or drug combinations to treat chronic pain, he said d
and now humans can do it, too University of California, Berkeley, physicists have used graphene to build lightweight ultrasonic loudspeakers and microphones,
enabling people to mimic bats or dolphins'ability to use sound to communicate and gauge the distance and speed of objects around them.
They can also be used to communicate through objects, such as steel that electromagnetic waves can't penetrate."
"Until now, we have not had good wideband ultrasound transmitters or receivers. These new devices are a technology opportunity."
"Speakers and microphones both use diaphragms, typically made of paper or plastic, that vibrate to produce
The grapheme loudspeakers and microphones operate from well below 20 hertz to over 500 kilohertz.
"There's a lot of talk about using graphene in electronics and small nanoscale devices, but they're all a ways away,
and a member of the Kavli Energy Nanosciences Institute, operated jointly by UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab."The microphone and loudspeaker are some of the closest devices to commercial viability,
because we've worked out how to make the graphene and mount it, and it's easy to scale up."
and since then has been developing the electronic circuitry to build a microphone with a similar graphene diaphragm.
One big advantage of graphene is that the atom-thick sheet is so lightweight that it responds well to the different frequencies of an electronic pulse, unlike today's piezoelectric microphones and speakers.
when using ultrasonic transmitters and receivers to transmit large amounts of information through many different frequency channels simultaneously,
or to measure distance, as in sonar applications.""Because our membrane is so light, it has an extremely wide frequency response
converting over 99 percent of the energy driving the device into sound, whereas today's conventional loudspeakers and headphones convert only 8 percent into sound.
Zettl anticipates that in the future, communications devices like cellphones will utilize not only electromagnetic waves--radio--but also acoustic or ultrasonic sound,
which can be highly directional and long-range.""Graphene is a magical material; it hits all the sweet spots for a communications device,
Arraywhen Zhou told his wife, Jinglin Zheng, about the ultrasound microphone, she suggested he try to capture the sound of bats chirping at frequencies too high for humans to hear.
So they hauled the microphone to a park in Livermore and turned it on. When they slowed down the recording to one-tenth normal speed,
converting the high frequencies to an audio range humans can hear, they were amazed at the quality and fidelity of the bat vocalizations."
Bat expert Michael Yartsev, a newly hired UC Berkeley assistant professor of bioengineering and member of the Helen wills said Neuroscience Institute
,"These new microphones will be incredibly valuable for studying auditory signals at high frequencies, such as the ones used by bats.
"Zettl noted that audiophiles would also appreciate the graphene loudspeakers and headphones, which have a flat response across the entire audible frequency range."
#Activated T cell therapy for advanced melanoma developed Published in the July/August issue of Journal of Immunotherapy,
these new findings demonstrate that T cells derived from lymph nodes of patients with melanoma can be expanded in number
Led by Julian Kim, MD, Chief Medical officer at UH Seidman Cancer Center, the research team has developed a novel technique to generate large numbers of activated T cells
which can be transferred back into the same patient to stimulate the immune system to attack the cancer."
"This study is unique in that the source of T cells for therapy is derived from the lymph node,
which is the natural site of the immune response against pathogens as well as cancer, "says Dr. Kim who is also Professor of Surgery at Case Western Reserve University School of medicine and the Charles Hubay Chair at UH Case Medical center."
"These encouraging results provide the rationale to start testing the transfer of activated T cells in a human clinical trial."
"In his research laboratory at the School of medicine, Dr. Kim and his team developed a new method to grow
which have been exposed to growing melanoma in the patient's body. Rather than trying to activate the T cells while in the body,
This novel approach to cancer treatment, termed adoptive immunotherapy, is offered only at a few institutions worldwide.
These promising findings have led to the recent launch of a new Phase I human clinical trial at UH Seidman Cancer Center in patients with advanced melanoma.
The research leading to the clinical trial was funded by the National institutes of health and the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The new Phase I clinical trial is being supported by University Hospitals as well as a significant philanthropic effort including the Immunogene Therapy Fund, Paula and Ronald Raymond Fund and the Kathryn and Paula Miller Family Fund."
and is an area of great potential for the treatment of patients with cancer, "said Dr. Kim."
Our goal is to eventually combine these T cells with other immune therapies which will result in cures.
These types of clinical trials place the UH Seidman Cancer Center at the forefront of immune therapy of cancer."
"Additionally, the research team has been researching the possibility of using lymph nodes from patients with pancreatic cancer to develop T cell therapy.
Their goal is to expand the program and eventually study other tumor types including lung, colorectal and breast cancers s
#Omnidirectional free space wireless charging of multiple wireless devices Scientists have made great strides in wireless-power transfer development.
A new WPT system is capable of charging multiple mobile devices concurrently and with unprecedented freedom in any direction,
even while holding the devices in midair or a half meter away from the power source,
which is a transmitter. A group of researchers at KAIST has developed a wireless-power transfer (WPT) technology that allows mobile devices to be charged at any location and in any direction,
even if the devices are away from the power source, just as Wi-fi works for Internet connections. With this technology,
so long as mobile users stay in a designated area where the charging is available, e g.,, the Wi-Power zone, the device, without being tethered to a charger,
will pick up power automatically, as needed. Arrayprofessor Rim's team has showcased successfully the technology on July 7,
2015 at a lab on KAIST's campus. They used high-frequency magnetic materials in a dipole coil structure to build a thin,
flat transmitter (Tx) system shaped in a rectangle with a size of 1m2. Either 30 smartphones with a power capacity of one watt each or 5 laptops with 2. 4 watts each can be simultaneously
and wirelessly charged at a 50 cm distance from the transmitter with six degrees of freedom, regardless of the devices'three-axes positions and directions.
This means that the device can receive power all around the transmitter in three-dimensional space.
The maximum power transfer efficiency for the laptops was 34%.%The researchers said that to fabricate plane Tx
and Rx coils with the six-degree-of-freedom characteristic was a bottleneck of WPT for mobile applications.
Arraythe research team used the Dipole Coil Resonance System (DCRS) to induce magnetic fields, which was developed by the team in 2014 for inductive power transfer over an extended distance.
The DCRS is composed of two (transmitting and receiving) magnetic dipole coils, placed in parallel, with each coil having a ferrite core
and connected with a resonant capacitor. Comparing to a conventional loop coil, the dipole coil is very compact
and has a less dimension. Therefore a crossed dipole structure has 2-dimension rather than 3-dimension of a crossed loop coil structure.
The DCRS has a great advantage to transfer power even when the resonance frequency changes in the range of 1%(Q factor is below 100).
The ferrite cores are designed optimally to reduce the core volume by half, and their ability to transfer power is unaffected nearly by human bodies or surrounding metal objects,
making DCRS ideal to transmit wireless power in emergency situations. In a test conducted in 2014,
Professor Rim succeeded in transferring 209 watts of power wirelessly to the distance of five meters.
Arraythe research team rearranged the two dipole coils from a parallel position to cross them
in order to generate rotating magnetic fields, which was embedded in the Tx's flat platform. This has made it possible for mobile devices to receive power from any direction.
Although wireless-power technology has been applied to smartphones it could not offer any substantial advantages over traditional wired charging
because the devices still require close contact with the transmitter, a charging pad. To use the devices freely
and safely, including in public spaces, the WPT technology should provide mobile users with six degrees of freedom at a distance.
Until now, all wireless-charging technologies have had difficulties with the problem of short charging distance, mostly less than 10 cm,
as well as charging conditions that the devices should be placed in a fixed position. For example, the Galaxy S6 could only be charged wirelessly in a fixed position
having one degree of freedom. The degree of freedom represents mobile devices'freedom of movement in three-dimensional space. In addition, the DCRS works at a low magnetic field environment.
Based on the magnetic flux shielding technology developed by the research team, the level of magnetic flux is below the safety level of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) guideline (27 T) for general public exposure to electromagnetic field (EMF).
Professor Rim said, "Our transmitter system is safe for humans and compatible with other electronic devices.
We have solved three major issues of short charging distance, the dependence on charging directions, and plane coil structures of both Tx and Rx,
which have blocked the commercialization of WPT.""Currently, the research team and KAIST's spin-off company, TESLAS, Inc.,have been conducting pilot projects to apply DCRS in various places such as cafes and offices.
Arra r
#Crystal structure and magnetism: New insight into the fundamentals of solid state physics A team at HZB has carried out the first detailed study of how magnetic and geometric ordering mutually influence one another in crystalline samples of spinel.
To achieve this, the group synthesized a series of mixed crystals with the chemical formula Ni1-xcuxcr2o4 in
which the element nickel was replaced successively by copper. They discovered through neutron scattering experiments at BER II not only how the crystal structure changes,
but also uncovered new magnetic phases. The results were published in Physical Review B. Spinels consist of densely packed
highly symmetrical planes of oxygen atoms (somewhat like a densely packed box of marbles) where different metallic elements are lodged in the spaces between them.
A great many different types of compounds arise as a result that are employed in extractive industries
and as heat-resistant and magnetic materials. The embedded metal ions in the Ni1-xcuxcr2o4 spinel system cause a distortion of the crystal structure.
In addition, they also display magnetic moments due to the geometrical structure that cannot be oriented as they otherwise would be.
As a result, spectacular new temperature-dependent ordering arises. The HZB team has analysed now comprehensively the chromium-spinel system
and have explained the complex phase diagram at a fundamental level for the first time. Preparing a series of samples
The series begins with samples of pure nickel-chromium spinel (x=0; a green powder) and continues with increasing proportions of copper.
The exciting thing about this series of mixed crystals is that nickel or copper atoms sit at
what are referred to as tetragonal sites of the crystal structure. Due to their different configurations of electrons, these tetrahedra become elongated along the crystallographic c-axis for nickel,
The distortion of the crystal structure can thus be controlled, which in turn has an effect on the magnetic ordering.
Phase diagramm between 2 and 900 Kelvin Using neutron scattering experiments at the BER II research reactor,
Manfred Reehuis and Michael Tovar were successful in determining the structural and magnetic properties for each of the mixed crystal specimens over quite a wide temperature range,
This shows that the crystal structure is cubic (three right angles three equal edges) at high temperatures, since the kinetic energy of the atoms still suppresses the Jahn-Teller effect
and magnetic ordering cannot become established. As the temperature declines, the Jahn-Teller effect comes to the fore and causes a reduction of the crystal symmetry initially to tetragonal (three right angles, two equal edges),
which lies far below room temperature for pure nickel-spinel as well as for copper-spinel.""We were able for the first time to determine the magnetic characteristics exactly
and thereby prove there is a relationship between the conditions for magnetic ordering and the crystal structures.
Peninsula of orthorhombic state At a mixture ratio of 85%nickel and 15%copper, the spinel system displays a kind of narrow peninsula of orthorhombic state in the phase diagram where the observed Anm
especially when they are in a geometrical system like a crystal, rather than in isolation,"says Michael Tovar v
#Discovery could improve in vitro fertilization success rates for women around the world Scientists at Oregon Health & Science University, Stanford university,
University of Valencia and IGENOMIX have discovered that chromosomal abnormalities in human embryos created for in vitro fertilization,
because chromosomal abnormalities may not be identified until day five or six.""Many couples are choosing to have children later in life,
and assistant professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Physiology and Pharmacology, in the OHSU School of medicine.""A failed IVF attempt takes an emotional toll on a woman who is anticipating a pregnancy as well as a financial toll on families, with a single IVF treatment costing thousands and thousands of dollars per cycle.
Our findings also bring hope to couples who are struggling to start a family and wish to avoid the selection
and transfer of embryos with unknown or poor potential for implantation,"explained Chavez. Arraythe current study took advantage of significant advances in both single-cell genetic profiling and noninvasive imaging,
high throughput single-cell gene expression and time-lapse imaging simultaneously in the same human embryo.
Through single cell gene expression profiling--the measurement of the activity of hundreds of genes at once--Chavez
and colleagues identified a subset of developmentally relevant genes that are activated prior to the first cell division using computer-assisted mathematical modeling that can be used to predict
and research to improve a couple's chances of having a biological child of their own. This discovery can potentially increase those chances."
Researchers say future studies should also focus on the zygote as a potential source of noninvasive biomarkers that can prospectively predict chromosomal status
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