#Breakthrough finds molecules that block previously'undruggable'protein tied to cancer A team of scientists at the University of Kansas has pinpointed six chemical compounds that thwart Hur,
an"oncoprotein"that binds to RNA and promotes tumor growth. The findings, which could lead to a new class of cancer drugs,
thus blocking Hur function as a tumor-promoting protein, "said Liang Xu, associate professor of molecular biosciences and corresponding author of the paper.
The results hold promise for treating a broad array of cancers in people. The researcher said Hur has been detected at high levels in almost every type of cancer tested,
including cancers of the colon, prostate, breast, brain, ovaries, pancreas and lung.""Hur inhibitors may be useful for many types of cancer,
"Xu said.""Since Hur is involved in many stem cell pathways, we expect Hur inhibitors will be active in inhibiting'cancer stem cells,
'or the seeds of cancer, which have been a current focus in the cancer drug discovery field."
"Hur has been studied for many years, but until now no direct Hur inhibitors have been discovered, according to Xu.""The initial compounds reported in this paper can be optimized further
and developed as a whole new class of cancer therapy, especially for cancer stem cells, "he said."
"The success of our study provides a first proof-of-principle that Hur is druggable,
"A cancer-causing gene, or oncogene, makes RNA, which then makes an oncoprotein that causes cancer
or makes cancer cells hard to kill, or both,"Xu said.""This is the problem we're trying to overcome with precision medicine."
"The scientist said the Hur-RNA binding site is like a long, narrow groove, not a well-defined pocket seen in other druggable proteins targeted by many current cancer therapies."
"Hur tightly binds to RNA like a hand, "Xu said.""The Hur protein grabs the'rope'r the RNAT a site called'ARE'on the rope.
and involved the collaboration of chemists, cancer biologists, computer modeling experts, biochemists and biophysicists at KUOTABLY the labs of Xu, Jeffrey Aubé in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Jon Tunge in the Department of chemistry.
For Xu, the findings are reflective of a personal commitment to improving odds for people diagnosed with cancer
the second-largest killer in the U s. after heart disease.""Trained as medical doctor and Ph d.,with both a grandfather and an uncle who died of cancer,
I devoted my career to cancer research and drug discoveryiming to translate discovery in the lab into clinical therapy,
to help cancer patients and their families, "he said.""We hope to find a better therapynd eventually a cureor cancer. c
#Synthetic muscle ready for launch Rasmussen developed the material at RAS Labs and has worked closely with researchers
and engineers at the U s. Department of energy's Princeton Plasma physics Laboratory (PPPL) to develop the material's ability to adhere to metal.
The Synthetic Muscle could be used in robotics in deep space travel such as travel to Mars because of its radiation resistance."
She recently received a grant from the Pediatric Medical device Consortium at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia to research this possibility.
Carman did so by working nights as a nurse. For Rasmussen, the launch is the culmination of her dreams."
One such instrument is the gas chromatography system used in a number of scientific, medical,
For example, wearable/biomedical devices and electronic skins (e skins) should stretch to conform to arbitrarily curved surfaces and moving body parts such as joints, diaphragms, and tendons.
These noteworthy results were achieved by the non-destructive stress-relaxation ability of the unique electrodes as well as the good piezoelectricity of the device components.
It can open avenues for power supplies in universal wearable and biomedical applications as well as self-powered ultra-stretchable electronics."
which could help curb the risk of unwanted infections in agricultural or garden plants, the team says.
an infection of Cryptosporidium parvum may mean nothing more than a few days of bad diarrhea. For someone with a compromised immune system,
it can mean death, following an excruciating, protracted bout of watery diarrhea. Recently, researchers at Fudan University's Institute of Biomedical sciences in Shanghai developed a lab-on-a-chip device that can rapidly diagnose cryptosporidium infections from just a finger prickotentially bringing point-of-care diagnosis to at-risk areas in rural China
in order to improve treatment outcomes. Worldwide treatment for the parasitic infection consists largely of oral rehydration
and managing symptoms until the body clears the infection, something that may take far longer for people with HIV infections.
Currently, China has more than 780,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, but there is very little data on how many of them are living with Cryptosporidium infections.
This stems from the difficulties of diagnosing an infection in the field-poor sensitivity and a short window of spore secretion both limit the viability of acid-fast staining,
a standard diagnostic assay in use today. More advanced immunoassays such as ELISA, are difficult to use broadly
because they require relatively advanced lab settings and skilled technicians. To address this need, Xunjia Cheng and Guodong Sui, both professors at Fudan University,
Cheng's research has involved medical protozoa and opportunistic HIV infections, and Sui's lab focuses on microfluidics.
pumps and columns, collectively sitting at the heart of a platform of reagent cartridges, an injection pump, a fluorescence microscope and a digital camera.
The microfluidic device tests for the presence of the parasites'P23 antigen, a major molecular target of host antibody responses against the pathogen's infective stages.
Sui and Cheng tested their device's efficacy at diagnosing Cryptosporidium infections in 190 HIV-infected patients in Guangxi, China.
Future work for Sui and Cheng involves expanding the chip's sample processing capacities to include other infectious diseases
Defects in this process can lead to cancer, genetic problems and premature aging. In a research paper published in the Journal of Cell biology, Alessandro Vindigni, Ph d.,professor in the Edward A. Doisy Department of Biochemistry and Molecular biology at Saint louis University
Lesions in DNA can occur as often as 100,000 times per cell per day. They can be the result of normal metabolic activities, like free radicals,
Improper repair of DNA lesions can lead to mutations, abnormal chromosome structures, or loss of genetic information that in turn can cause premature aging, cancer, and genetic abnormalities.
Depending on the degree of genome instability these alterations will determine whether a cell survives, goes into a growth-arrest state, or dies.
If the cell's replication machinery collides with the lesion, a strand break can occur."
"Or, a serious lesion may be tolerated and the cell will continue to replicate. This may or may not be a good decision,
as this can lead to cancer. It is the degree of genomic instability caused by the lesion that will determine
whether the cell will survive.""While these scenarios pose serious threats, our cells have evolved elegant mechanisms to cope,
"Sometimes, these forks run into obstacles-like the lesions described above-that block their progress. When they do,
"Fork reversal is a central mechanism that our replication machinery uses to deal with DNA lesions,
and collision with the lesion is prevented.""In this study, Vindigni and team have identified new enzymes that enable cells to resume replication once the DNA lesion has been repaired.
Vindigni found that DNA2, an enzyme that works both as a nuclease (an enzyme that degrades DNA)
and highlight top biomedical research. Vindigni's group also contributed to a second paper that was published as back-to-back in the same issue of the Journal of Cell biology on the role of a key homologous recombination factor in the formation of reversed replication forks:
Digital imaging is expected to enable many emerging fields including wearable devices, sensor networks, smart environments, personalized medicine,
A team from Massachusetts General Hospital investigating bone loss during bed rest, in microgravity or through diseases such as osteoporosis, will use the Alvetex Scaffold in experiments 150 miles above the surface of the Earth after the equipment is delivered by the Spacex Dragon capsule.
The experiment seeks to understand how the effects how physical forces such as gravity affect the biochemistry of bone cells
and could lead to better treatments for diseases such as for osteoporosis. BBSRC-funded research by Professor Stefan Przyborski
showing structural stress corrosion cracking and wing panel composite skin abnormalities, engineers have had to do extensive analysis to develop repairs."
"So the need for certifying a new material comes in, "says Michopoulos, "and says,'How are we going to compare a new material and,
and pursued postdoctoral research in multiphysics, fracture mechanics, and applied mathematics at Lehigh University. When he tells how he came to be at NRL in 1986,
#New synthetic technology for medicines and fine chemicals A University of Tokyo research group has succeeded in synthesizing (R)- and (S)- rolipram, the active component of a medicine,
in high yield with high selectivity by an innovative catalyzed flow fine synthesis instead of the traditional batch method used in the production of 99%of medicines.
the active components of medicines as well as other fine chemicals are synthesized by a repeated batch reaction method, in
Professor Kobayashi says"This new technology can be applied to not only other gamma aminobutyric-acids acids and medicines but also various chemicals such as flavors, agricultural chemicals,
developed by Albert Einstein College of Medicine biologist Robert Singer, uses fluorescent probes made of DNA
and identify areas of DNA responsible for desirable traits such as high yield or disease resistance. Crop breeding programmes can make use of this genetic information to ensure that the preferred trait is inherited by future crop yields,
and applied in a research project where it identified genetic markers that signal resistance to the wheat yellow rust pathogen (Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici).
This disease is responsible for devastating bread wheat crops and has developed'Warrior'strains capable of infecting individuals previously believed to have tolerance."
so it can be used in medicine, particle physics and material science. Terahertz radiation falls between the microwave and infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum (300 GHZ THZ),
Their anxiety is heightened only by the prospect of an imminent rise in U s. interest rates, which would draw capital away from emerging markets like China."
He centers his research on robotic systems and technologies that assist those in need due to advanced age or illness.
Massimiliano Zecca holds a Ph d. in Biomedical Robotics from the Scuola Superiore Santnna Pisa,(Italy),
He is a member of the National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine in the East midlands,
and of the NIHR Leicester-Loughborough Diet, Lifestyle and Physical Activity Biomedical Research Unit. Zecca M. IJARS Video Series:
Medical devices designed to reside in the stomach have a variety of applications, including prolonged drug delivery, electronic monitoring,
However, these devices, often created with nondegradable elastic polymers, bear an inherent risk of intestinal obstruction as a result of accidental fracture or migration.
Now, researchers at MIT Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have created a polymer gel that overcomes this safety concern
which is a medical emergency potentially requiring surgical intervention, says Koch Institute research affiliate Giovanni Traverso,
as there is a greater risk for fracture if a device is too large or too complex.
a professor of medical science and engineering at Brown University who was not involved with this study. his is a very smart approach.
patientsadherence to long-term therapies for chronic illnesses is only 50 percent in developed countries, with lower rates of adherence in developing nations.
Medication nonadherence costs the U s. an estimated $100 billion every year, the bulk of which comes in the form of unnecessary hospitalizations.
The researchers also say that single-administration delivery systems for the radical treatment of malaria
and other infections could significantly benefit from these technologies. In a March 2015 commentary piece in Nature, Traverso and Langer wrote that the GI TRACT is an area rife with opportunity for prolonged drug delivery in tackling this global health problem.
With this new material which can be used to create extended-release systems via swallowable ills,
they envision an emerging field of orally delivered devices that can maximize adherence and therapeutic efficacy.
#Researchers Reveal How Chronic Inflammation Can Lead to Cancer Chronic inflammation caused by disease or exposure to dangerous chemicals has long been linked to cancer,
but exactly how this process takes place has remained unclear. Now, a precise mechanism by which chronic inflammation can lead to cancer has been uncovered by researchers at MIT a development that could lead to improved targets for preventing future tumors.
In a paper published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
the researchers unveil how one of a battery of chemical warfare agents used by the immune system to fight off infection can itself create DNA mutations that lead to cancer.
As many as one in five cancers are believed to be caused or promoted by inflammation. These include mesothelioma,
a type of lung cancer caused by inflammation following chronic exposure to asbestos, and colon cancer in people with a history of inflammatory bowel disease, says Bogdan Fedeles,
a research associate in the Department of Biological engineering at MIT, and the paper lead author.
Innate immune response Inflammation is part of the body innate response to invading pathogens or potentially harmful irritants.
However, these molecules can also cause collateral damage to healthy tissue around the infection site:
he presence of a foreign pathogen activates the immune response, which tries to fight off the bacteria,
and James Fox all professors of biological engineering at MIT had identified the presence of a lesion,
or site of damage in the structure of DNA, called 5-chlorocytosine (5clc) in the inflamed tissues of mice infected with the pathogen Helicobacter hepaticus.
This lesion, a damaged form of the normal DNA base cytosine, is caused by the reactive molecule hypochlorous acid the main ingredient in household bleach
The lesion 5clc, was present in remarkably high levels within the tissue, says John Essigmann, the William R. 1956) and Betsy P. Leitch Professor in Residence Professor of Chemistry, Toxicology and Biological engineering at MIT,
who led the current research. hey found the lesions were very persistent in DNA, meaning we don have a repair system to take them out,
Essigmann says. n our field lesions that are persistent, if they are also mutagenic, are the kind of lesions that would initiate cancer,
he adds. DNA sequencing of a developing gastrointestinal tumor revealed two types of mutation: cytosine (C) bases changing to thymine (T) bases,
and adenine (A) bases changing to guanine (G) bases. Since 5clc had not yet been studied as a potentially carcinogenic mutagen,
the researchers decided to investigate the lesion further, in a bid to uncover if it is indeed mutagenic.
Using a technique previously developed in Essigmann laboratory, the researchers first placed the 5clc lesion at a specific site within the genome of a bacterial virus. They then replicated the virus within the cell.
The researchers found that, rather than always pairing with a guanine base as a cytosine would,
when triggered by infection, fires hypochlorous acid at the site, damaging cytosines in the DNA of the surrounding healthy tissue.
he explains. his scenario would best explain the work of James Fox and his MIT colleagues on gastrointestinal cancer.
the researchers replicated the genome containing the lesion with a variety of different types of polymerase,
or patterns of DNA mutations, associated with cancerous tumors. e believe that in the context of inflammation-induced damage of DNA,
says the paper provides a novel mechanistic link between chronic inflammation and cancer development. ith a combination of biochemical,
a type of mutation that is frequently observed in human cancers, Wang says. Studies of tissue samples of patients suffering from inflammatory bowel disease have found significant levels of 5clc,
Fedeles adds. By comparing these levels with his team findings on how mutagenic 5clc is,
the researchers predict that accumulation of the lesions would increase the mutation rate of a cell up to 30-fold,
who was honored with the prestigious Benjamin F. Trump award at the 2015 Aspen Cancer Conference for the research.
This expansion and contraction of aluminum particles generates great mechanical stress, which can cause electrical contacts to disconnect.
#Unexpected Discovery Offers Insight into Mechanisms of Asthma, Other Diseases A new study from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public health reveals an unexpected discovery In people with asthma,
The findings could also have important ramifications for research in other areas, notably cancer, where the same kinds of cells play a major role.
But the study showed that, in asthma, the opposite is true. The physics of biologythe researchers decided to look at the detailed shape and movement of cells from the asthmatic airway because, according to Fredberg,
and the fact that no one knows what causes asthma, which afflicts more than 300 million people worldwide it made sense to look at the shape and movement of epithelial cells,
which many scientists think play a key role in the disease. The study included lead authors Jin-Ah Park and Jae Hun Kim, research scientists in the Department of Environmental Health who study asthma,
and Jeffrey M. Drazen, a pulmonologist and professor in the department, who studies echanotransductionin asthma how the bronchial constriction of asthma might trigger cell changes in the epithelium.
The study also included mathematical physicists James Butler, senior lecturer on physiology in the Department of Environmental Health
whether asthma causes the cells to unjam, or the unjamming of the cells causes asthma. t a very big question to figure out why this particular cell shape
and movement is said happening Park. e know that asthma is related to genes, environment, and the interaction between the two,
but asthma remains poorly understood. hatever the reason, knowing more about how these cells jam
and unjam is said important Fredberg, because epithelial cells play a prominent role not just in asthma,
but in all processes involving cell growth and movement, including organ development, wound healing, and, importantly, cancer.
The findings open the door to new possibilities for developing drugs to fight asthma as well as other diseases
and to new research questions. rying to define how cells behave, how they exert forces on each other,
When the material did fracture, the researchers found it far more likely for this to happen at the eight-member rings,
Possible stem cell therapies often are limited by low survival of transplanted stem cells and the lack of precise control over their differentiation into the cell types needed to repair
Stem cell therapies have potential for repairing many tissues and bones, or even for replacing organs.
the Berlin-Brandenburg School for Regenerative Therapies; the Harvard College Research Program; and NSF Graduate Research, Einstein Visiting, Harvard College PRISE, Herchel-Smith and Pechet Family Fund Fellowships e
#New Protein-Based Sensor Detects Viral Infection, Kills Cancer cells Biological engineers from MIT have designed a modular system of proteins that can detect a particular DNA sequence in a cell
says James Collins, the Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering and Science in MIT Department of Biological engineering and Institute of Medical Engineering and Science (IMES).
Engineers Build Protein-Based Sensor to Detect Viral Infection At left, cells glow red to indicate that the detection system has been delivered successfully.
To achieve this, the researchers could program the system to produce proteins that alert immune cells to fight the infection,
a professor of biotechnology and bioengineering at The swiss Federal Institute of technology in Zurich, described this experiment as an legant proof of conceptthat could lead to greatly improved treatments for viral infection. entinel designer cells engineered with the DNA sense
This would represent a quantum leap in antiviral therapy, says Fussenegger, who was involved not in the study.
While treating diseases using this system is likely many years away, it could be used much sooner as a research tool,
#Bioadhesive Nanoparticles Help Protect Your Skin From the Sun Dermatologists from Yale university have developed a new sunscreen made with bioadhesive nanoparticles that doesn penetrate the skin,
Most commercial sunblocks are good at preventing sunburn, but they can go below the skin surface
the researchers tested their sunblock against direct ultraviolet rays and their ability to cause sunburn.
the researchersformulation protected equally well against sunburn. They also looked at an indirect and much less studied effect of UV LIGHT.
said co-author Michael Girardi, a professor of dermatology at Yale Medical school. n fact, the indirect damage was worse
and Julia Lewis, from the Department of Dermatology. Saltzman and Girardi are affiliated with the Yale Cancer Center
#Neurologists Speed up Connectome Analysis by More than 10-Fold Unraveling the connectivity maps between nerve cells in brains is a huge scientific endeavor called connectomics.
The main limitation to mapping large parts of the brain is the analysis of the data obtained with electron microscopes.
thanks to findings published today by Professor Gilbert Bernier of the University of Montreal and its affiliated Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital.
The transplanted photoreceptors migrated naturally within the retina of their host. one transplant represents a therapeutic solution for retinal pathologies caused by the degeneration of photoreceptor cells,
offering hope that treatments may be developed for currently non-curable degenerative diseases, like Stargardt disease and ARMD. esearchers have been trying to achieve this kind of trial for years,
he said. hanks to our simple and effective approach, any laboratory in the world will now be able to create masses of photoreceptors.
ARMD is in fact the greatest cause of blindness in people over the age of 50
But in order to undertake a complete therapy, we need neuronal tissue that links all RPE cells to the cones.
In 2001, he launched his laboratory at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital and immediately isolated the molecule.
Beyond the clinical applications, Professor Bernier findings could enable the modelling of human retinal degenerative diseases through the use of induced pluripotent stem cells,
offering the possibility of directly testing potential avenues for therapy on the patient own tissues e
#A Light-Reflecting Balloon Catheter Repairs the Heart without Surgery Harvard-affiliated researchers have designed a specialized catheter for fixing holes in the heart by using a biodegradable adhesive and patch.
The team reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine that the catheter has been used successfully in animal studies to help close holes without requiring open-heart surgery.
Pedro del Nido, chief of cardiac surgery at Boston Children Hospital, the William E. Ladd Professor of Child Surgery at Harvard Medical school,
and the Karp Lab at Brigham and Women Hospital, which is affiliated a Harvard hospital, as is Boston Children.
While medical devices that remain in the body may be jostled out of place or fail to cover the hole as the body grows,
As the glue cures, pressure from the positioning balloons on either side of the patch help secure it in place.
when it is needed no longer. his really is a completely new platform for closing wounds or holes anywhere in the body,
which can lead to better understanding of neurological conditions
#A Computer That Can Sniff out Septic Shock Dr. David Hagar treats dozens of patients each day at the intensive care unit at John Hopkins Hospital in Maryland.
One of his patients was almost perfectly healthy except for having low blood pressure. Within four hours, the patient died of septic shock.
which is the third level of sepsis, is difficult to predict. Sepsis is a severe immune system response triggered by an infection.
If untreated inflammation spreads throughout the body and can clot vessels. This blocks the blood flow to organs which can cause failure.
an alert was sent to a doctor who could then take action when the sepsis was relatively easy to counteract.
The study found that TREWSCORE identified 61 percent of the septic shock patients before one of its competitors,
000 people in the United states develop severe sepsis and septic shock each year; for 40 percent of them, the condition is ultimately fatal,
Part of the difficulty is that there may be systematic bias in the medical information recorded. For instance, a patient who is treated successfully will appear as low-risk in the electronic health records
This computer system can be tailored to many different medical conditions including acute lung injury, pneumonia, and post-rehabilitation illnesses like neuropathy. e are at a very exciting time,
says Saria. ore and more data is being collected on the electronic health records, and now our algorithms are reaching a point where they can be a real aid to clinicians. t
#3-D Printing Software Turns Heart Scans into Surgical Models A new 3-D printing system can transform medical scans of a patient heart into a physical models that help
plan surgeries. The efficient system relies on a computer algorithm that requires just a pinch of human guidance to figure out a patient heart structure from MRI scans.
and the Boston Children Hospital, can correctly identify an individual heart anatomical structures by following the lead of a human expert who interprets a small patch equivalent to just one-ninth of the area of each cross section, according to an MIT press release.
The group worked with high-precision MRI scans developed by Medhi Moghari, a physicist at Boston Children Hospital.
The researchers plan to report on their system at the International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention in October.
Seven cardiac surgeons at Boston Children Hospital will also test the usefulness of 3-D printed heart models in a clinical study this fall.
They will draw up surgical plans for 10 patients who have undergone already surgery at Boston Children hospital
and compare the plans with the documented surgeries that were performed. Such surgical plans will either be based on physical 3-D printed models or virtual 3-D models, with the models based on either human expertise or the computer software.
Virtual models of hearts have already proven their worth in basic research. But separate clinical trials aim to test how a personalized computer model for each individual patient could improve medical care,
as previously reported by Natalia Trayanova for IEEE Spectrum. The MIT and Boston Children Hospital research represents yet another promising step forward in this area
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