#New designs to breathe life back into our cities By the middle of this century,
Not only are cities responsible for 40%of our total carbon emissions, but they also deal with a limited set of physical conditions,
Our buildings are designed for dryness and therefore deteriorate in the presence of water. Modern architecture is designed also to just house people
not other life forms, and therefore does not inherently promote biodiversity. We therefore need to think about architecture very differently.
We must search for new models for constructing buildings, as well as searching for improvements to our current industrial processes.
Already, designers and architects are considering more ecological urban design, especially in the way that resources are used.
These new fabrics are quintessentially fluid, and can respond to changing urban demands. For example, Paris Habitat, the capitalslargest owner of social housing is using body heat from the Paris Metro to heat buildings.
Bioprocesses are powering buildings such as the BIQ house with a bio reactive facade which was built as part of this year International Building Exhibition (IBA) in Hamburg.
And WSP plans for seasonal ponds to deal with water storage in Jaypee City in India begin to deal with the changes that happen as the seasons change.
Cities are being imagined that challenge the permanence of building materials and their inertness, and we are likely to see a change in our experience of cities thanks to augmented realities a new way of seeing via our smart phones and Google glasses.
That said, we need an even greater range of approaches to enable our cities to respond to potential challenges some of which may be permanent
such as sea-level rises and unpredictable weather patterns. I founded the Avatar (Advanced Virtual and Technological Architectural Research) group in 2004 to explore how the rapidly changing technologies would affect architecture.
These promising possibilities could lead to new building materials, especially by using emerging biotechnologies, and might encourage diversity in the kinds of architectures we produce.
We explore realms as varied as synthetic biology, surreal digital theory, film and animation, interaction design,
and mixed and augmented reality to inform architectural, landscape and urban design. Our agenda is illustrated best by Lars Lerup concept of the"bull machine"
where the Pamplona Running of the Bulls ceremony is described as a loose and evolving set of couplings between technology, animals and humans,
and how they interact with each other. Using the idea of the ull machinelerup observes how the city's traditional effects on us may be outmoded.
He proposes new building materials that could allow new opportunities through their fluid structure, and says architecture
and the role of architects must be rethought. Interactions between these dynamic elements provide a"new"way to think about design,
which Professor Lee Cronin's group at the University of Glasgow are using to develop into a carbon-fixing paint.
Elsewhere, the first permanent algaeponics unit in Britain will be installed on the green roof at the new school of architecture,
Simon Park at the University of Surrey is integrating bacterial technology into building facades, and using 3d desktop printers to mix chemistries as a form of wet fabrication,
which is a very flexible material. Everyday architecture is being imagined re around the world. For instance, there the Paik Nam June Media Bridge
a proposed river crossing in the South korean capital Seoul. This bold design will be much more than a bridge;
included in its vast form will be a park, a mall, meeting spaces and a museum.
Solar panels on the structure top will generate power. Such concepts allow us to see bridges in new ways not just as a method of crossing natural barriers,
but as a new kind of structure for living and working on. Rather than constructing buildings from inert materials transported across the world,
people are exploring technologies that could transform one group of substances into another on a building site.
For example, Markus Kayser is transforming sand into glass using a solar sinter which focuses the sun rays to create obsidian.
Other transformative processes include Ginger Krieg Dosier printed sandstone bricks of bio-manufactured masonry grown using bacteria.
And it not just buildings On earth that we need to be thinking about. Phil Watson, Dr Rachel Armstrong and Elizabeth Anne Williams are working on initial drawings and concepts for Project Persephone,
part of Icarus Interstellar initiative that aims to construct a crewed interstellar craft within a hundred years.
Persephone aims to build a synthetic biological interior for the spaceship, working with teams from the fields of science, technology, architecture
In addition, a flexible approach to architectural design may also help us think about sustainability and biodiversity.
could help buildings better withstand wet conditions. Using new design models, technologies and materials, it may be possible to escape the bonds of industrial manufacturing processes as the driving force for human development.
Nothing is impossible i
#Tech fix for Africa's big farming challenge Africa could help feed the world if its farmland was utilised properly.
Things are starting to change, however, thanks to ideas transforming farmerslives. Before last year, George Wainaina tiny shop selling agricultural goods
and veterinarian supplies in Karura, a lush farming area of central Kenya, wasn doing so well.
others would simply leave. didn sell many products, I didn have many suppliers, and I used to have problems with working capital, recalls Wainaina,
and that of the farmers he wanted to serve, cut straight to the heart of one of Sub-saharan africa deepest challenges
Africa is home to a quarter of the world arable land ripe and ready to become the world breadbasket.
And of the 20%that is, the majority is owned by poor smallholder farmers with just one or two hectares of land,
who face enormous challenges when it comes to accessing things to improve harvests and incomes that developed world farmers perhaps take for granted:
credit; seeds; fertiliser; information on weather and market prices; and the markets to sell their products.
which hopes to boost smallholder productivity by providing farmers with high-quality products, services, and information.
now his shop aisles and shelves are neatly stocked with everything from fertilisers to hybrid seeds, insecticides,
and micro-drip irrigation systems. The store holds demos, promotions, and free training sessions. One of the keys to Farm Shop radical overhaul is that it has done away with the incredibly cumbersome, slow,
and inefficient process of paper ledgers and stock keeping. In each store, owners are given an Android-powered tablet with software that allows them quickly and easily order inventory all at the touch of a button.
Point-of-sale transactions are tracked now in real-time which gives the company a unique ability to track
and respond to every single sale, as well as prices and inventory levels. efore, we used to use cash receipts
and paper record books, says Wainaina. We can now trace all our sales, find totals easily,
The company is also offering to help farmers actually figure out what they need to improve their harvest.
With their new soil-testing service, Farm Shop agents can collect soil samples from farmers,
and within a few days send results directly to the farmers via SMS, informing them what will help improve yields.
a farmer can then go to the shop and purchase more fertiliser, or get the right kind for
o individual solution can solve the problems for rural farmers in Africa. It an ecosystem that needs to be built.
Hedging harvests That ecosystem, at least in Kenya, is slowly starting to develop. Several innovations like Farm Shop are improving the lives and income of Africa struggling smallholder farmers,
and across the entire value chain of rural agriculture. For the past few years, social enterprise Kilimo Salama has been piloting a crop insurance scheme for smallholder farmers
hoping to reduce risk and serve a critical and vulnerable market that traditional insurance schemes don reach. obody ever really wakes up
and says want insuranceconfesses Rose Goslinga, Technical Coordinator for Kilimo Salama. But, it become a highly valuable tool for helping farmers secure much-needed credit from banks.
Traditionally, farmers try to reduce their exposure to risks like crop failure (from bad rains or crop parasites) by minimising their investment in farming inputs.
As a consequence, farmers remain trapped in a cycle of low agricultural productivity and poverty. If the rains fail,
they are left with nothing to invest in the next season. Using weather stations across the country Kilimo Salama has developed a unique eather-based index insurance,
which farmers can buy into at the beginning of the season, for typically around 10-20%of the amount they invest in seeds and inputs.
Weather stations are equipped with small sim cards that wirelessly transmit data every five minutes to a cloud-based server.
At the end of the season, this data is aggregated and coupled with satellite data, and used to map out rain patterns.
Kilimo Salama then works with agronomists to calculate the index and find where the rain was too much, too little,
or at the wrong time. Farmer payouts are calculated automatically based on their crops, location, and number of seeds purchased.
By coupling bank loans with Kilimo Salama insurance scheme, the organisation has enabled banks and microfinance institutions to be more comfortable with giving loans,
making access to essential credit easier for farmers. e not just selling insurance, says Goslinga,
ee enabling farmers to get a harvest. As of this year, Kilimo Salama has insured over 100,000 smallholder farmers across Kenya and Rwanda.
One SMS at a time Yet even if farmers have a great harvest that doesn mean it easy for them to sell their produce.
Calestous Juma, Harvard Professor and author of The New Harvest; Agricultural innovation in Africa claims that the greatest failure of Africa agricultural sector is the absence of investment in rural infrastructure. arkets cannot function
if you cannot move goods, services, information and ideas, he says. In a nutshell, the problem is many of Africa rural farmers can get their produce to the markets in time, because of bad roads, lack of communication,
and the nature of a highly fractured middleman-dominated agricultural market. Back in 2011, when nearly 3. 7 million people in northern Kenya were facing near-famine conditions,
farmers in other parts of the country were driven either by swindling middlemen to sell cabbage at nearly a tenth of the price,
or waste it all together. MFARM, a Kenya-based tech startup, is trying to boost this sector, ne SMS at a time.
Sub-saharan africa has the fastest-growing mobile market in the world, increasing at an average of 44%annually since 2000, according to the worldwide mobile communications industry association GSMA.
Mobile penetration in Kenya is well over 70%.%Through a simple text message, MFARM allows rural farmers in remote areas of Kenya to check the latest market prices,
post information on their harvest for buyers to see and purchase, and band together with other farmers in their area to make bulk purchases of expensive but needed agricultural inputs like seeds,
fertilisers and equipment at discounted rates. It also allows them to join together to sell their harvests,
making it easier for buyers to reach them. MFARM approach hopes to improve the agricultural sector by in a sense leapfrogging physical infrastructure troubles,
and using existing mobile communications infrastructure to increase buyer/seller relationships and transactions. efore services like MFARM,
farmers were being exploited by middlemen, claims Adrian Mukhebi, Chairman of the Kenya Agricultural Commodities exchange (KACE.
ow, with information via mobiles, farmers are better able to bargain prices against middlemen, and can in some cases increase 25-35%of their profits.
Technology role in improving access for farmers may be exciting and hold great potential, Mukhebi claims,
but as these tools and information are not yet available to all farmers it still has some way to go.
But if and when they do, perhaps Africa could begin fulfilling its vast potential feeding itself and the rest of the world c
#For the first time a Marker of Neuroinflammation Is seen in Brain Scans of Depressed Patients Research conducted by Elaine Setiawan, Ph d.,a 2013 NARSAD Young Investigator grantee,
and her colleagues provides the first evidence of a link between inflammation of brain cells? neuroinflammation?
and major depressive disorder (MDD. The team results were reported January 28th in JAMA Psychiatry. Although some scientists have suspected that neuroinflammation can play a causal role in MDD,
it has been difficult to prove. Inflammation often occurs when the immune system is active. It is known that activation of the immune system causes behaviors that are present during major depressive episodes,
including low mood, inability to experience pleasure, weight loss, and even anorexia. Yet until now, neuroinflammation has not actually been observed in a living patient during a major depressive episode.
There has been some evidence of the link between inflammation and depression in the analysis of postmortem brain tissue.
Dr. Setiawan and her colleagues used a new dye that is visible on brain scans of patients
which led them to correlate neuroinflammation with the severity of depression symptoms. The team of scientists was led by Jeffrey Meyer, M d.,Ph d.,of the University of Toronto and included five other past NARSAD grant recipients.*
*They performed PET scans on 20 adults with MDD and 20 adults who did not have MDD.
whether the biological marker of neuroinflammation (called translocator protein) that is visible with the new dye would be elevated in regions of the brain that regulate mood.
ecause it implies that therapeutics that reduce microglial activation should be promising for treating major depression.
Spinal meningitis as a baby and extremely poor eating habits my entire life, I feel, have caused my immune system to overact.
Also, would this suggest that perhaps taking an anti inflammatory medicine can alleviate depression???I'm a counselor in training
#Problems With attention Traced to Specific Brain Circuit People with schizophrenia, for example, often find it difficult to focus their attention on a task or conversation.
The ability to do so lies at the heart of the attention problem in schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders.
The team most important discovery sheds light on what causes the TRN-thalamus-cortex circuit to perform abnormally.
much like attention deficit in people with schizophrenia? was intriguing for several reasons. First, the Erbb4 receptor and the molecule known as neuregulin-1 that normally connects,
or ockswith it, have repeatedly been observed to be irregular in genetic studies of people with schizophrenia.
The team results are additional evidence that these proteins are regulated abnormally in schizophrenia. The experiments also explain what appears to go wrong
#Medical device Industry Mergers and Acquisitions Hit All-time High in 2014 says Globaldata Analyst The medical device industry witnessed an all-time record high in terms of deal valuations in 2014,
Niharika Midha, MSC, Globaldata Analyst covering Medical devices, states that the unusually high amount of M&a activity last year highlights a trend that goes beyond mega-mergers and into the expansion of product portfolios.
as the medical device industry consolidates into fewer prominent players that directly compete with each other and innovation is fueled by heightened demand.
creating the world largest medical device company. Despite criticism that the move was rooted in tax inversion,
Globaldata analyst believes there were a number of strategic motives behind the deal. Midha explains: ovidien has established an market position in surgical and wound care specialties,
which are promising segments. Medtronic can now readily leverage this reputation for an expanded product portfolio and enhanced global footprint. dditionally,
areas likely to generate significant revenue in the near future. The analyst adds that players with an extensive product portfolio tend to have a competitive advantage in the current industry scenario. he demand side is displaying an increasing preference for manufacturers that offer a one-stop solution for all their needs
#Neostem and Invetech Announce Agreement to Develop Closed Processing System for Cell Therapy Manufacturing Source:
NBS), a leader in the development and manufacturing of cell therapy products and regenerative medicine, and Invetech Pty Ltd("Invetech"),a global leader in instrument development, custom automation and contract manufacturing, today announced an agreement for the development of a new closed processing system (the"System")for cell
therapy manufacturing. Under the agreement, Invetech will provide system design and engineering development and Neostem will develop applications for performing closed cell processing manipulations such as separation.
which would constitute its first branded entry into the cell therapy tools market. The System will be applicable to a range of cell therapy processes in development and commercialization stages
and will consist of an instrumentation platform, disposable flow path, and operating and application software for automated execution of user-selected protocols.
The System will provide a flexible small scale process suitable for GMP manufacturing of autologous and other patient-specific products where small scale is full scale,
"We are pleased to be partnering with Invetech on the development of a new technology specifically designed to meet the needs of our clients as their cell therapy products progress through clinical trials on a path towards commercialization,
PCT will carry out the work and is owned a wholly subsidiary of Neostem..""By combining PCT's more than 15 years of process development and manufacturing experience with Invetech's industry leading automated processing device expertise,
""Working with Neostem to create equipment that will deliver services to companies in the emerging cell therapy industry is exciting
and satisfying,"said Richard Grant, global vice president, cell therapy division of Invetech.""Our team shares a common passion with Neostem to grow the cell therapy industry by developing new technology to support successful product development and commercialization.""
""Neostem's Engineering and Innovation Center (EIC) is one of the first dedicated centers responding directly to the major challenges that are facing the manufacturers of cell based therapeutics,
"said Brian Hampson, vice president, manufacturing development and engineering.""If ultimately commercialized, the sale of disposables associated with the System, especially for patient-specific therapies where one disposable set is used per patient,
could potentially become a meaningful revenue area for Neostem
#Moffitt researchers discover mechanism leading to drug resistance metastasis in melanoma Moffitt Cancer Center researchers have discovered a mechanism that leads to resistance to targeted therapy in melanoma patients
and are investigating strategies to counteract it. Targeted biological therapy can reduce toxicity and improve outcomes for many cancer patients,
when compared to the adverse effects of standard chemotherapeutic drugs. However, patients often develop resistance to these targeted therapies,
resulting in more aggressive cells that can spread to other sites or cause regrowth of primary tumors.
B-Raf is a protein that is frequently mutated in human cancers leading to increased tumor cell growth, survival and migration.
Drugs that target B-Raf or another protein in the same network called MEK have proved effective in clinical trials.
Several B-Raf and MEK inhibitors have been approved with the combination of A b-Raf and a MEK inhibitor being the current standard of care for patients with B-Raf mutant melanoma.
However over time many patients become resistant to B-Raf and B-Raf/MEK inhibitor therapy.
Moffitt researchers found that patients who are on B-Raf inhibitor drugs develop more new metastases than patients who are on standard chemotherapy.
The researchers wanted to determine how this acquired resistance develops in order to devise better treatment options for patients.
They found that melanoma cells that are resistant to B-Raf inhibitors tend to be more aggressive and invasive,
thereby allowing the tumor to spread to a new organ site. They used a large screening approach
and discovered that this resistance and aggressive behavior was due to high activity of a cell surface protein called Epha2,
and MEK inhibitors are given to patients intermittently may reduce the aggressiveness of the disease...meaning patients could stay on therapy for more time,
"said Keiran S. Smalley, Ph d.,scientific director of the Donald A. Adam Comprehensive Melanoma Research center of Excellence at Moffitt.
The research also showed that targeting Epha2 reduced the aggressive behavior of the melanoma cells.
This suggests that drugs that target Epha2 may prevent the development of new disease in patients who receive B-Raf and B-Raf/MEK inhibitor therapy y
#Chemists show proof of concept for new method of accelerating drug discovery research Source: Emory Health Sciences Chemists have made a significant advancement to directly functionalize C-H bonds in natural products by selectively installing new carbon-carbon bonds into highly complex alkaloids
and nitrogen-containing drug molecules. C-H functionalization is a much more streamlined process than traditional organic chemistry,
Nature Communications published the findings, emerging from a collaboration with Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research and Emory University.
"We've shown that C-H functionalization has reached the stage where it can readily be applied to derivatization of nitrogen-containing compounds, ubiquitous in the discovery and development of new medicines."
The center brings together scientists from leading research universities across the United states, Asia and Europe-as well as from private industry-with the aim of making organic synthesis faster, simpler and greener.
or functional, molecular bonds and the inert, or nonfunctional bonds carbon-carbon (C-C) and carbon-hydrogen (C-H). The inert bonds provide a strong, stable scaffold for performing chemical synthesis on the reactive groups.
C-H functionalization flips this model on its head: It bypasses the reactive groups and does synthesis at the inert C-H sites."
"We had demonstrated already that we have a tool box of reagents and catalysts that allow us to control
which sites in a molecule will undergo C-H functionalization, "Davies says.""Novartis wanted to explore
whether this chemistry was robust enough to be carried out on really complex compounds like alkaloids."
"Alkaloids are a family of natural products produced by plants that have biological properties important to medicine.
whether a compound is toxic or carries other liabilities, or has the right mix of properties to become a safe and effective therapeutic agent,
"Davies says. The results outlined in the paper demonstrate the efficiency of rhodium catalysts to selectively install a new carbon-carbon bond into complex alkaloids in a highly controlled manner.
The research also demonstrates the ability of the CHHF to pioneer new ways of chemists working together:
Breaking through the traditional boundaries of individual labs, academic institutions, countries and corporations to create a global collaboration of chemists taking different approaches to similar problems."
#Enzymes believed to promote cancer actually suppress tumors Upending decades-old dogma, a team of scientists at the University of California,
San diego School of medicine say enzymes long categorized as promoting cancer are, in fact, tumor suppressors and that current clinical efforts to develop inhibitor-based drugs should
instead focus on restoring the enzymes'activities. The findings are published in the January 29 issue of Cell.
Protein kinase c (PKC) is a group of enzymes that act as catalysts for a host of cellular functions, among
which are cancer-relevant activities, such as cell survival, proliferation, apoptosis, and migration. The discovery that they are receptors for tumor-producing phorbol esters,
plant-derived compounds that bind to and activate PKC, created a dogma that activation of PKCS by phorbol esters promoted carcinogen-induced tumorigenesis."
"For three decades, researchers have sought to find new cancer therapies based on the idea that inhibiting
or blocking PKC signals would hinder or halt tumor development,"said Alexandra Newton, Phd, professor of pharmacology and the study's principal investigator,
"but PKCS have remained an elusive chemotherapeutic target.""The reason, suggest Newton and colleagues, is that contrary to conventional wisdom,
PKCS do not promote cancer progression; rather, they act to suppress tumor growth. Using live cell imaging, first author Corina Antal, a graduate student in the Biomedical sciences program at UC San diego,
characterized 8 percent of the more than 550 PKC mutations identified in human cancers. This led to the unexpected discovery that the majority of mutations actually reduced
or abolished PKC activity, and none were activating. The mutations impeded signal binding, prevented correct structuring of the enzyme,
or impaired catalytic activity. When the scientists corrected a loss-of-function PKC mutation in the genome of a colon cancer cell line
tumor growth in a mouse model was reduced, demonstrating that normal PKC activity inhibits cancer. One possible explanation, said the researchers,
is that PKC typically represses signaling from certain oncogenes-genes that can cause normal cells to become cancerous.
When PKC is lost, oncogenic signaling increases, fueling tumor growth.""Inhibiting PKC has so far proved not only an unsuccessful strategy in a number of cancer clinical trials,
but its addition to chemotherapy has resulted in decreased response rates in patients, "said Newton.""Given our results,
this isn't surprising. Our findings suggest therapeutic strategies need to go the other way
and target ways to restore PKC activity, not inhibit it. This is contrary to the current dogma."
"How could this misconception of PKC promoting tumors have arisen? Long-term activation of PKCS by phorbol esters results in their degradation, said first author Antal.
In models of tumor promotion, a sub-threshold dose of a carcinogen is painted on mouse skin,
followed by repeated applications of phorbol esters.""This repeated application of phorbol esters will lead to the loss of PKC.
Thus, their tumor-promoting function may arise because a brake to oncogenic signaling has been removed
#UCLA study IDS two genes that boost risk for posttraumatic stress disorder Why do some people develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
while others who suffered the same ordeal do not? A new UCLA discovery may shed light on the answer.
UCLA scientists have linked two gene variants to the debilitating mental disorder, suggesting that heredity influences a person's risk of developing PTSD.
Published in the February 2015 edition of the Journal of Affective disorders, the findings could provide a biological basis for diagnosing
and treating PTSD more effectively in the future.""Many people suffer with posttraumatic stress disorder after surviving a life-threatening ordeal like war,
rape or a natural disaster, "explained lead author Dr. Armen Goenjian, a researcher at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA."But not everyone who experiences trauma suffers from PTSD.
We investigated whether PTSD has genetic underpinnings that make some people more vulnerable to the syndrome than others."
"In 1988, Goenjian, an Armenian American, raced to Spitak, Armenia, after a 6. 8 magnitude earthquake devastated the country.
The temblor leveled entire towns and cities, killing more than 25,000 Armenians, two-thirds of them children.
With support from the Armenian Relief Society, Goenjian and his colleagues helped establish a pair of psychiatric clinics that treated earthquake survivors for 21 years.
A dozen multigenerational families in northern Armenia agreed to allow their blood samples to be sent to UCLA,
where Goenjian and his colleagues combed the DNA of 200 individuals for genetic clues to psychiatric vulnerability.
In the current study, Goenjian and first author Julia Bailey, an adjunct assistant professor of epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public health, focused on two genes called COMT and TPH-2
Too much or too little dopamine can influence various neurological and psychological disorders. TPH-2 controls the production of serotonin
"The team used the most recent PTSD criteria from the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual to measure genes'role in predisposing someone to the disorder.
"Assessments of patients based upon the latest diagnostic criteria may boost the field's chances of finding new genetic markers for PTSD,
and identify new drug therapies for prevention and treatment.""Still, Goenjian cautioned, PTSD is caused likely by multiple genes
and became a pressing health issue for a large percentage of war veterans returning from tours in Iraq and Afghanistan."
such as gene therapy or new drugs that regulate the chemicals associated with PTSD symptoms
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