#Ultrafast lasers offer 3-D micropatterning of biocompatible hydrogels Tufts University biomedical engineers are using low energy,
The laser-based micropatterning represents a new approach to customized engineering of tissue and biomedical implants.
#Chip-based technology enables reliable direct detection of Ebola virus A team led by researchers at UC Santa cruz has developed chip-based technology for reliable detection of Ebola virus and other viral pathogens.
accurate detection of Ebola infections is needed to control outbreaks. Laboratory tests using preparations of Ebola virus
Virologists at Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San antonio prepared the viral samples for testing. The system combines two small chips, a microfluidic chip for sample preparation and an optofluidic chip for optical detection.
"We are also working to use the same system for detecting less dangerous pathogens and do the complete analysis here at UC Santa cruz
and help design new drug therapies against pathogens by targeting enzymes that interact with DNA"There are other single-molecule tools around,
These fine details may also help scientists understand how mutations in proteins can lead to disease
or find protein properties that would be ideal targets for drug therapies.""For example, viral genes code for their own proteins that process their DNA,
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
In each test, the researchers'newly fabricated patches picked up body signals that were stronger than those taken by existing medical devices,
and cancer cells to help us unravel disease mechanisms, and for characterizing cells from diseased tissue of patients.""
and development of new medicines by greatly accelerating the computer-aided design of pharmaceutical compounds (and minimizing lengthy trial and error testing);
researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have created a new flame retardant to replace commercial additives that are often toxic
these chemicals can migrate out of the products over time, releasing toxic substances into the air and environment.
a mix of human-made chemicals thought to pose a risk to public health. A team led by Cockrell School of engineering associate professor Christopher Ellison found that a synthetic coating of polydopamine--derived from the natural compound dopamine--can be used as a highly effective, water-applied flame retardant for polyurethane foam.
this question of toxicity immediately goes away, "Ellison said.""We believe polydopamine could cheaply and easily replace the flame retardants found in many of the products that we use every day,
including cancer drug delivery and implantable biomedical devices. However the UT Austin team is thought to be one of the first to pursue the use of polydopamine as a flame retardant.
and potentially use this knowledge to subsequently modulate its activity, especially for therapeutic or biotechnological purposes.
#Detecting HIV diagnostic antibodies with DNA nanomachines Detecting HIV diagnostic antibodies with DNA nanomachines (Nanowerk News) New research may revolutionize the slow,
cumbersome and expensive process of detecting the antibodies that can help with the diagnosis of infectious and autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and HIV.
"whose customized modifications enable it to recognize a specific target antibody. Their new approach, which they described this month in Angewandte Chemie("A Modular, DNA-Based Beacon for Single-Step Fluorescence Detection of Antibodies and Other Proteins"),
"promises to support the development of rapid, low-cost antibody detection at the point-of-care, eliminating the treatment initiation delays
and increasing healthcare costs associated with current techniques. New research may revolutionize the slow, cumbersome and expensive process of detecting the antibodies that can help with the diagnosis of infectious and autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and HIV.
An international team of researchers have designed and synthesized a nanometer scale DNA"machine "whose customized modifications enable it to recognize a specific target antibody.
Their new approach, which they described this month in Angewandte Chemie, promises to support the development of rapid,
low-cost antibody detection at the point-of-care, eliminating the treatment initiation delays and increasing healthcare costs associated with current techniques.
The light-generating DNA antibody detecting nanomachine is illustrated here in action, bound to an antibody.
Marco Tripodi) The binding of the antibody to the DNA machine causes a structural change (or switch),
and is rapid-acting within five minutes-enabling the targeted antibodies to be detected easily, even in complex clinical samples such as blood serum."
so that it can detect a huge range of antibodies, this makes our platform adaptable for many different diseases"."
""Our modular platform provides significant advantages over existing methods for the detection of antibodies,"added Prof.
Valle-Blisle of the University of Montreal, the other senior co-author of the paper.""It is rapid,
built its own neurological map of the office. The computer navigation system assists the robot in situations where it is lost in a new environment,
misfolding is associated frequently with diseases such as Alzheimer and Parkinson. Until now, it has been difficult to fully characterize the different structures that proteins can take on in their natural environments.
but when human proteins form amyloids they are associated usually with diseases especially neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer, Parkinson,
and deform plastically under application of stress.""That means that a metal thin film lateral spring structure cannot be used as a stretchable antenna,
which in turn has a wide range of applications from biomedical imaging to airport security. The next step for the research team is to present a proof-of-concept experimental realization of this scheme e
Scientists at the University of Nebraska Medical center designed a new delivery system for these drugs that,
Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine. While current HIV treatments involve pills that are taken daily, the new regimenslong-lasting effects suggest that HIV treatment could be administered perhaps once or twice per year.
thereby prolonging its therapeutic effect.""The chemical marriage between URMC-099 and antiretroviral drug nanoformulations could increase drug longevity,
and reduce general toxicities, said Gendelman, lead study author and professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience at Nebraska,
who has collaborated with Gelbard for 24 years. e are excited about pursing this research for the treatment and eradication of HIV infections."
"The two therapies were tested together in laboratory experiments using human immune cells and in mice that were engineered to have a human immune system.
Gelbard, director of UR Center for Neural development and Disease, developed URMC-099 to treat HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders or HAND,
as any patient prescribed URMC-099 would also be taking antiretroviral therapy. The goal was to determine
Much to Gelbard and Gendelman surprise, URMC-099 increased the effectiveness of the nanoformulated drug. ur ultimate hope is that wee able to create a therapy that could be given much less frequently than the daily therapy that is required today,
reduce side effects and help people manage the disease, because they won have to think about taking medication every day. a
steel braces straighten crooked teeth, steel scalpels remove tumors. Most of the goods we consume are delivered by ships
Steel surgical tools can still carry microorganisms that cause deadly infections. Now researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of engineering and Applied sciences (SEAS) have demonstrated a way to make steel stronger, safer and more durable.
and avenues for commercialization, including non-fouling medical tools and devices, such as implants and scalpels, nozzles for 3d printing and, potentially, larger-scale applications for buildings and marine vessels.
Medical steel devices are one of the material's most promising applications, said Philseok Kim,
and cofounder and vice president of technology AT SEAS spin-off SLIPS Technologies Inc."Because we show that this material successfully repels bacteria and blood, small medical implants,
Future applications of such a DNA walker might include a cancer detector that could roam the human body searching for cancerous cells
constantly computing whether a cancer is present.""More immediate practical applications may include deploying the DNA walker in the body
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,
"All 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.
as the single strand moves over other portions of the structure, some"surveillance"protein components check for lesions or mistakes in the nucleotide sequence before it gets copieda sort of molecular quality control.
#Researchers show how new hydrogel can facilitate microsurgery Skillful surgeons can do amazing things in extremely small places,
and now is in the Chemical Biology laboratory at the National Cancer Institute. Also part of the study were researchers from Johns hopkins university School of medicine
using a transmission electron microscope at the National Cancer Institute to show how the fibers change
allowing surgeons to make an easier connection.""This would help in any type of surgery where you are trying to restore as many vessels as you can,
whether in a whole transplant or in damaged tissue from some kind of accident,"Nagy-Smith said."
"It not only holds the vessel open, it actually sticks vessels in place without using a lot of clamps.
The surgeon essentially has a third hand.""Tested with mice, whose femoral arteries are about 200 microns in diameter-four
and transplant surgeries and also could open up new possibilities in research h
#Artificial material mimics photosynthesis A Florida State university researcher has discovered an artificial material that mimics photosynthesis
In addition to detecting toxic or flammable gases, theoretical work indicates that boron-doped graphene could lead to improved lithium-ion batteries
a team of bioengineers at Rice university and surgeons at the University of Pennsylvania have created an implant with an intricate network of blood vessels that points toward a future of growing replacement tissues and organs for transplantation.
or weeks to grow in the lab prior to surgery. The new study was performed by a research team led by Jordan Miller, assistant professor of bioengineering at Rice,
and Pavan Atluri, assistant professor of surgery at Penn. The study showed that blood flowed normally through test constructs that were connected surgically to native blood vessels.
In this study, we are taking the first step toward applying an analogy from transplant surgery to 3-D printed constructs we make in the lab."Miller
"What a surgeon needs in order to do transplant surgery isn't just a mass of cells;
the surgeon needs a vessel inlet and an outlet that can be connected directly to arteries and veins,
"he said. Bioengineering graduate student Samantha Paulsen and research technician Anderson Ta worked together to develop a proof-of-concept construct--a small silicone gel about the size of a small candy gummy bear--using 3-D printing.
but they have some of the key features relevant for a transplant surgeon, "Miller said."
"Collaborating surgeons at Penn in Atluri's group connected the inlet and outlet of the engineered gel to a major artery in a small animal model.
"This study provides a first step toward developing a transplant model for tissue engineering where the surgeon can directly connect arteries to an engineered tissue,
which to test viruses and vaccines.""This plant is the'laboratory rat'of the molecular plant world,
"We have discovered that it is the plant equivalent of the nude mouse used in medical research.""
or sterile growing environments where plants were protected from disease --and space was an intriguing option."
So just as nude mice can be really good models for cancer research, 'nude'versions of crop plants could also speed up agricultural research,
which to make antibodies for pharmaceutical use. Researchers around the world can access Professor Waterhouse's open source website
Their new approach created the first-ever flexible Fresnel zone plate microlenses with a wide field of view--a development that could allow everything from surgical scopes to security cameras to capture a broader perspective at a fraction of the size required by conventional lenses.
Their new approach created the first-ever flexible Fresnel zone plate microlenses with a wide field of view--a development that could allow everything from surgical scopes to security cameras to capture a broader perspective at a fraction of the size required by conventional lenses.
The enhanced limit of detection will allow biomedical and environment monitoring of important molecules at high sensitivity by SERS."
Pharmaceutical companies spend millions of dollars testing therapeutic drugs on animals only to discover in human trials that the drug has an altogether different level of effectiveness.
but brain disorders like schizophrenia, and degenerative brain disease. ACES Director and research author Professor Gordon Wallace said that the breakthrough is significant progress in the quest to create a bench-top brain that will enable important insights into brain function,
in addition to providing an experimental test bed for new drugs and electroceuticals. e are still a long way from printing a brain
These brain-like structures offer the opportunity to reproduce more accurate 3d in vitro microstructures with applications ranging from cell behavior studies to improving our understanding of brain injuries and neurodegenerative diseases r
Stony Brook researchers publish experimental findings in the Journal of Neuroscience that show the lateral position more efficiently rids the brain of solutes that may contribute to disease.
The buildup of brain waste chemicals may contribute to the development of Alzheimer disease and other neurological conditions.
Dr. Benveniste, Principal investigator and a Professor in the Departments of Anesthesiology and Radiology at Stony Brook University School of medicine, has used dynamic contrast MRI for several years to examine the glymphatic pathway in rodent models.
and therefore the assessment of the clearance of damaging brain proteins that may contribute to or cause brain diseases. r. Benveniste and first-author Dr. Hedok Lee,
Assistant professor in the Departments of Anesthesiology and Radiology at Stony Brook developed the safe posture positions for the experiments.
Many types of dementia are linked to sleep disturbances, including difficulties in falling asleep. It is increasing acknowledged that these sleep disturbances may accelerate memory loss in Alzheimer disease.
Our findng brings new insight into this topic by showing it is also important what position you sleep in,
which has implications not only for a range of neuropsychiatric disorders such as ADHD, eating disorders and anxiety disorders,
but also for more common problems involving maladaptive daily decisions about drug or alcohol use, gambling or credit card binges.
lesions to other parts of the brain, including the prefrontal cortex, known to be involved in certain aspects of decision-making,
and those with brain disease, said Prof. Yogita Chudasama, of Mcgill Psychology department and the lead researcher on the paper. n some ways this relationship makes sense;
to be a therapeutic target in human patient groups. m
#Brain Friendly Interface Could Change the Way People with Spinal cord Injuries Lead Their Lives Recent research published in the journal Microsystems
& Nanoengineering could eventually change the way people living with prosthetics and spinal cord injury lead their lives.
Instead of using neural prosthetic deviceshich suffer from immune-system rejection and are believed to fail due to a material and mechanical mismatch multi-institutional team,
helping people living with limb loss and spinal cord injury become more independent. However not only do neural prosthetic devices suffer from immune-system rejection,
this same methodology could then be applied in getting these extracellular matrix derived electrodes to be the next wave of brain implants,
There is a significant burden in cost of care and quality of life for people suffering from this disability.
Further, it rendered the implants sufficiently rigid for penetration into the target brain region and allowed them subsequently to soften to match the elastic modulus of brain tissue upon exposure to physiological conditions,
#How Chronic Inflammation Can Lead to Cancer Researchers discover how the immune system can create cancerous DNA mutations when fighting off infection.
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.
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, genetic,
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.
neuropathology or treatment prognosis. Thus far, the neuroscience of emotion has yielded many important results but no such indicators for emotional experiences.
Chang and his colleagues studied 182 participants who were shown negative photos (bodily injuries, acts of aggression, hate groups, car wrecks, human feces) and neutral photos.
A new study may have unlocked understanding of a mysterious part of the brain with implications for neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer.
& Technology (TVST), open up new areas of research in the pursuit of neuroprotective therapies. Glaucoma is a neurodegenerative disease where patients lose seemingly random patches of vision in each eye.
This random pattern of vision loss is in stark contrast to loss from a brain tumor or stroke,
which causes both eyes to develop blind spots in the same location. Scientists have thought long that glaucoma progression is independent of
or uncontrolled by the brain. Last year researchers found evidence that the progression of glaucoma is not random
and that the brain may be involved after all. Specifically, they found patients with moderate to severe glaucoma maintained vision in one eye where it was lost in the other like two puzzle pieces fitting together (a igsaw Effect. his suggests some communication between the eyes must be going on
and that can only happen in the brain, explains the study lead author, William Eric Sponsel, MD, of the University of Texas at San antonio, Department of Biomedical engineering.
In the latest TVST paper, Refined Frequency Doubling Perimetry Analysis Reaffirms Central nervous system Control of Chronic Glaucomatous Neurodegeneration
Sponsel and his research team found that the Jigsaw Effect begins at the earliest stages of glaucoma and discovered clues as to
which part of the brain is responsible for optimizing vision in the face of glaucoma slow destruction of sight.
which challenge longstanding assumptions about glaucoma, have been met with skepticism. Other glaucoma experts challenged the results in a letter to the TVST editor. f the brain controls the distribution of vision loss in glaucoma,
then a patient vision with their two eyes should be better than if you simply ix and matchthe vision of right and left eyes from different patients,
their letter analyzed a new cohort of glaucoma patients in which hat essentially what we did.
The progression of Alzheimer and Parkinson diseases, which have neurodegenerative biology similar to glaucoma, may also be mediated actively by the brain. ur work has illustrated that the brain will not let us lose control of the same function on both sides of the brain
if that can be avoided. It seems likely that the same kind of protective mechanism will be at work with other neurodegenerative disorders,
he says. The investigative team believes that if the brain regulates neurodegeneration that if the brain controls how it loses control then researchers will now be able to look into largely unexplored regulatory processes for opportunities to slow
or stop the progression of these diseases. ee opened up this beautiful new world; there is so much to discover here,
says Sponsel. Additional Information: The letter to the editor xtraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence: Centrally Mediated Preservation of Binocular Visual field in Glaucoma is Unlikelyby Jonathan Denniss
and Paul H. Artes is available here. The response to the above letter efinitive Response to Denniss and Artes:
Case control study of 41 consecutive patients with bilaterally mild to severe glaucoma; each right eye visual field locus was paired with randomly-selected co-isopteric left eye loci,
Refined data analysis of paired Matrix visual fields confirms the existence of a natural optimization of binocular visual function in severe bilateral glaucoma via interlocking fields that could only be created by CNS involvement.
The paired eyes and brain are reaffirmed to function as a unified system in the progressive age-related neurodegenerative condition chronic open angle glaucoma,
Given the extensive homology of this disorder with other age-related neurodegenerations, it is reasonable to assume that the brain will similarly resist simultaneous bilateral loss of paired functional zones in both hemispheres in diseases like
Alzheimer and Parkinson disease. Glaucomatous eyes at all stages of the disease appear to provide a highly accessible paired-organ study model for developing therapeutics to optimize conservation of function in neurodegenerative disorders. efined Frequency Doubling Perimetry Analysis Reaffirms Central nervous system Control of Chronic
Glaucomatous Neurodegenerationby Matthew A. Reilly; Analaura Villarreal; Ted Maddess; and William Eric Sponsel in Translational Vision Science & Technology d
#Giving Paralyzed People a Voice A new device which transforms paralysis victimsbreath into words believed to be the first invention of its kind has been developed by academics from Loughborough University.
Billed as a tool to help bring back the art of conversation for sufferers of severe paralysis and loss of speech,
and Dr. Kaddour Bouazza-Marouf, Reader in Mechatronics in Medicine, said the device learns from its user,
Consultant Anaesthetist at Glenfield Hospital. hat we are proposing is a system that learns with the user to form an effective vocabulary that suits the person rather than the machine,
A new device which transforms paralysis victimsbreath into words believed to be the first invention of its kind has been developed by academics from Loughborough University. hen it comes to teaching our invention to recognise words and phrases,
or other speech disorders communicate. In an intensive care setting, the technology has the potential to be used to make an early diagnosis of locked-in syndrome (LIS),
by allowing patients, including those on ventilators, to communicate effectively for the first time by breathing an almost effortless act
#Oxytocin Delivering Nasal Device to Treat Mental illness Researchers at the University of Oslo have tested a new device for delivering hormone treatments for mental illness through the nose.
This method was found to deliver medicine to the brain with few side effects. About one out of every hundred Norwegians develop schizophrenia or autism in the course of their lifetime.
Moreover, at any one time some 20,000 people are receiving treatment for these problems. Many psychiatric disorders such as autism, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are characterised by poor social functioning.
Oxytocin is a hormone that influences social behaviour and has shown promise for the treatment of mental illness.
Researchers at Uio have discovered now that low doses of oxytocin may help patients with mental illness to better perceive social signals.
As part of this project, they have collaborated with the company Optinose, who have developed a new device designed to improve medicine delivery to the brain via the nose.
Regulates social behaviour Oxytocin has historically been known to play a crucial role in child rearing as it facilitates pregnancy, birth,
Medicine through the nose Because of oxytocin role in social behaviour, researchers have explored the possibility of administering the hormone for the treatment of mental illness.
Breathing helps Optinose uses a new technology to distribute medicine to the brain, making use of the user breath to propel medicine deep into the nasal cavity.
The device administers oxytocin high up into the patient nasal cavity. When the medicine is targeted deep inside the nose,
it enables brain delivery along nerve pathways from the uppermost part of the nasal cavity. Conventional nasal spray devices are suited not to consistently deliver medicine high up enough into the nose.
The device also expands the nasal cavity, facilitating nose-to-brain medicine delivery. As the user exhales into the device
this closes the soft palate and prevents the medicine from being lost down the throat. Since less medicine is lost along the way,
patients can take smaller doses and accordingly experience fewer side effects. May yield new treatments The next step in the research is to carry out the same tests on people with mental illness. e are now running tests in volunteers diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders,
says Dr Quintana. e hope that this research project is the first step in the development of a series of new medicines that may be of great help to more people with mental illness,
concludes Professor Andreassen o
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