The material potentially could extend the life of medical implants, fiber-optic cables, and other hard-to-repair objects,
Healing wounds The researchers created a dog-bone shaped sample of the polymer and then cut it in half.
saving time and money. aybe someday we could apply this approach to healing of wounds or other applications,
and size of lab tests A new device could make it much cheaper and easier to perform lab tests on blood and fluid for disorders like HIV and Lyme disease.
Until now, animal research on central nervous system disorders, such as spinal cord injury and Parkinson disease, has been limited because researchers could not extract sufficient cerebrospinal fluid to perform conventional assays. ith our technology,
The discovery could also lead to more comprehensive research on autoimmune joint diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis through animal studies.
The National institutes of health, the National Science Foundation, the New jersey Commission on Brain injury Research, and Corning, Inc. provided funding for the research n
and gynecologists use ultrasound images to study fetuses in the womb. Material testing procedures that regularly check for fissures in rail tracks or aircraft support structures also rely on ultrasound.
He is aiming to improve the acoustic imaging method for potential use in biological research or medicine
#Vaccine might replace surgery for cervical cancer A genetically engineered cervical cancer vaccine performed well in a clinical trial,
offering hope that many women can one day avoid surgery that short-circuits the disease but threatens their ability to have a baby.
The vaccine eradicated high-grade precancerous cervical lesions in nearly half of women who received it, scientists report.
The goal of the trial was to find nonsurgical ways to treat precancerous lesions caused by human papillomavirus (HPV),
which is the most common form of sexually transmitted infection and can lead to cervical cancer,
according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Infection. very standard therapeutic option for women with these lesions destroys part of the cervix,
which is particularly relevant for women of childbearing age, who may then be at risk for preterm birth due to a weakened cervix,
says Cornelia Trimble, professor of gynecology and obstetrics, oncology, and pathology at Johns hopkins university School of medicine. vaccine able to cure precancerous lesions could eventually be one way women can avoid surgery that is invasive
and can also harm their fertility. The cervix is the lower part of a woman uterus.
Despite dramatic progress in recent decades, about 12,000 women still develop cervical cancer in the United states each year, and about 4
High-grade cervical lesions occur most often in women 40 or younger. Because the lesions can progress to cancer,
they are removed today usually by surgery, freezing, or laser treatment. The procedures remove the precancerous areas in about 80 percent of women.
Less troublesome low-grade lesions usually are monitored just. They pose less of a cancer risk and usually regress on their own.
CLEARS OUT THE VIRUS If a vaccine is approved eventually for use, the slow development of cervical cancer would leave an opening for patients to try it. t typically takes about 10
or more years for precancerous cells to become cancer, so there is a window of opportunity to intervene with nonsurgical approaches,
Trimble says. The new study, published online in the journal the Lancet, involved a vaccine developed by University of Pennsylvania scientist David Weiner that is engineered to teach immune system cells to recognize precancerous and cancerous cells.
Between 2011 and 2013, the scientists recruited 167 women, 18 to 55, with newly diagnosed, high-grade precancerous cervical lesions.
The women were assigned randomly to receive either three doses of the vaccine over a 12-week period or saline injections.
Of 114 who received at least one vaccine dose 55 (48.2 percent) had regression of their precancerous lesions,
meaning they disappeared or converted to low-grade lesions, compared with 12 of 40 (30 percent) who received saline.
The regression rate was closer to 50 percent in 107 women who received all three vaccine doses. n many of these women,
the vaccine not only made their lesions disappear, but it also cleared the virus from their cervix,
Trimble says. n most unvaccinated patients whose lesions went away, the virus was still present,
and many still had low-grade lesions. Clearance of the virus is a ignificant bonus she says,
because lingering HPV is a major risk factor for recurrence of cervical lesions. In biopsy samples, patients whose lesions completely regressed after vaccination had more immune T cells in the tissue. t important that T cells capable of recognizing HPV stay in the cervix
and fight off any recurrence of the infection, Trimble says. She is also studying other types of vaccines to prevent high-grade cervical lesions from developing into cancer.
The injection vaccine is made by Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc, . which funded the clinical trial and whose employees coauthored the report with Trimble.
Trimble received an unrestricted grant from Inovio but has no other financial or consulting arrangements with the company a
#wiss Army knifehelps turn algae into biofuel Scientists have figured out a way to streamline the molecular machinery that turns cyanobacterialso known as blue-green algaento biofuels.
They fabricated a synthetic protein that not only improves the assembly of the carbon-fixing factory of cyanobacteria,
but also provides a proof of concept for a device that might improve plant photosynthesis. he multifunctional protein wee built can be compared to a Swiss Army knife,
says Raul Gonzalez-Esquer, a doctoral researcher at Michigan State university. rom known, existing parts, wee built a new protein that does several essential functions.
Gonzalez-Esquer worked with Cheryl Kerfeld professor of structural bioengineering, who studies bacterial microcompartments (BMCS), to build the protein.
or light in a way that is precisely timed to create space structures, deployable medical devices, robots, toys, and range of other structures.
and respond to toxic injury in ways that are similar to kidney tubules in people.
and Women Hospital in Boston and is now an assistant professor of medicine in the nephrology division at the University of Washington. nswering this question was important for understanding the potential of mini-kidneys for clinical kidney regeneration and drug discovery.
To re-create human disease, researchers used the gene-editing technique called CRISPR. They engineered mini-kidneys with genetic changes linked to two common kidney diseases:
polycystic kidney disease and glomerulonephritis. The organoids developed characteristics of these diseases. Those with mutations in polycystic kidney disease genes formed balloon-like, fluid-filled sacks, called cysts, from kidney tubules.
The organoids with mutations in podocalyxin, a gene linked to glomerulonephritis, lost connections between filtering cells. utation of a single gene results in changes kidney structures associated with human disease,
thereby allowing better understand of the disease and serving as models to develop therapeutic agents to treat these diseases,
says senior author Joseph Bonventre, chief of the renal division at Brigham and Women Hospital.
CLINICAL TRIALS IN A DISH hese genetically engineered mini-kidneys Freedman says, ave taught us that human disease boils down to simple components that can be re-created in a petri dish.
This provides us with faster, better ways to perform linical trials in a dishto test drugs
and therapies that might work in humans. Genetically matched kidney organoids without disease-linked mutations showed no signs of either disease,
Freedman says. RISPR can be used to correct gene mutations, explained Freedman. ur findings suggest that gene correction using CRISPR may be a promising therapeutic strategy.
In the United states, costs for kidney disease are about 40 billion dollars per year. Kidney disease affects approximately 700 million people worldwide.
Twelve million patients have polycystic kidney disease and two million have complete kidney failure. Dialysis and kidney transplantation, the only options for patients in kidney failure, can cause harmful side effects and poor quality-of-life. s a result of this new technology,
Freedman says, e can now grow, on demand, new kidney tissue that is 100 percent immunocompatible with an individual own body. e have shown that these tissues can mimic both healthy and diseased kidneys,
and that the organoids can survive in mice after being transplanted. The next question is whether the organoids can perform the functions of kidneys after transplantation.
and the Biomedical Research Centre at the University of British columbia funded the work. Bonventre holds patents on kidney injury molecule-1
which have been assigned to Partners Healthcare. The other researchers declare no competing interests t
#Device plays sounds to let blind people eethe world is a jumble of sights, sounds, and smells.
The National Science Foundation, the Della Martin Fund for Discoveries in Mental illness, and the Japan Science and Technology Agency, Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology funded the work
and a 3d printer, bioengineers and surgeons have created an implant with an intricate network of blood vessels.
or weeks to grow in the lab prior to surgery. A research team led by Jordan Miller, assistant professor of bioengineering at Rice university,
and Pavan Atluri, assistant professor of surgery at the University of Pennsylvania, conducted the study. Published in the journal Tissue Engineering Part C:
In this study, we are taking the first step toward applying an analogy from transplant surgery to 3d printed constructs we make in the lab. Miller
and his team thought long-term about what the needs would be for transplantation of large tissues made in the laboratory. hat a surgeon needs
in order to do transplant surgery isn just a mass of cells; the surgeon needs a vessel inlet
and an outlet that can be connected directly to arteries and veins, he says. SUGAR AGESBIOENGINEERING graduate student Samantha Paulsen and research technician Anderson Ta worked together to develop a proof-of-concept construct small silicone gel about the size of a small candy gummy bearsing 3d printing.
but they have some of the key features relevant for a transplant surgeon, Miller says. e created a construct that has one inlet and one outlet,
Collaborating surgeons at Penn in Atluri group connected the inlet and outlet of the engineered gel to a major artery in a small animal model.
and unobstructed for up to three hours. his study provides a first step toward developing a transplant model for tissue engineering where the surgeon can directly connect arteries to an engineered tissue,
and mental states, has been linked to numerous neurological and mental illnesses, including depression. But because there has been no way to obtain live human serotonin neurons to study these diseases,
most serotonin research has been done with lab animals. Now, researchers have generated human serotonin neurons from human fibroblasts,
The work, published in Molecular Psychiatry, builds on previous studies showing that human fibroblasts can be converted to neurons,
since they can be generated from individual patients suffering from illnesses involving the neurotransmitter. hese patient-specific serotonin neurons will be very useful to the discovery of new drugs for diseases ranging from depression
and anxiety to obsessive-compulsive disorder and many others, says Feng. hey will not only allow researchers to study why certain individuals develop a disease
and Ruijin Hospital and Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of medicine. Feng also has an appointment at the Veterans Affairs Western New york Healthcare System in Buffalo.
#Drug combo shows promise for skin cancer n transitnew melanoma research finds a combination therapy is highly effective at treating patients with skin metastases.
The treatment, interleukin (IL)- 2 combined with imiquimod and topical retinoid therapy, is a promising option for patients with so-called n-transit metastases.
The findings appear online in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. WHY ISN THIS TREATMENT CATCHING ON?
t unclear if the recently developed targeted melanoma therapies that have revolutionized management of patients with internal melanoma metastases are useful in patients with metastatic disease limited of the skin,
says study leader Emanual Maverakis, an associate professor of dermatology at the University of California, Davis. ur results demonstrate that intralesional therapy with a protein that causes immune cells to divide,
given in combination with a topically applied immune activator, can be a highly effective treatment for these patients.
Although intralesional IL-2 has recently been included in the US National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines for management of melanoma metastases of the skin
About 10 percent of patients with advanced melanoma develop what are called cutaneous metastases, often located n-transitto the patientslymph nodes.
Historically, treatment for these metastatic lesions has been surgical excision with or without radiation therapy, but disease recurrences can still be very high.
For the study, the researchers did a retrospective analysis of patients with either stage III
or stage IV melanoma who had history of treatment with IL-2 therapy combined with imiquimod and a topical retinoid.
The patients had been seen by the dermatology service between 2006 and 2015; most were had elderly and other illnesses.
Ten of the 11 patients had experienced recurrences of the disease after surgery, and several had failed nonsurgical treatments, as well.
TWO YEARS LATER The data indicate that all patients achieved complete clinical response to the treated lesions within one to three months of starting the intralesional IL-2-based therapy.
and seven were alive at the conclusion of the study without melanoma recurrence. The remaining five patients died from unrelated causes. he favorable outcomes in these patients are encouraging
and suggest that the therapeutic regimen may have a survival benefit, conclude Maverakis and the research team.
and there were no experiments conducted to determine the effects of the therapeutic regimen on the systemic immune response.
and potentially cheaper way to make other types of plant-based medicine. Hydrocodone and its chemical relatives such as morphine and oxycodone are opioids,
It can take more than a year to produce a batch of medicine, starting from the farms in Australia, Europe,
and refined into medicines. hen we started work a decade ago, many experts thought it would be impossible to engineer yeast to replace the entire farm-to-factory process,
400 gallons of bioengineered yeast to produce a single dose of pain reliefhe experiment proves that bioengineered yeast can make complex plant-based medicines. his is only the beginning,
and demonstrate for opioid pain relievers can be adapted to produce many plant-derived compounds to fight cancers,
infectious diseases and chronic conditions such as high blood pressure and arthritis. any medicines are derived from plants, which our ancestors chewed
to reprogram the cells into custom chemical assembly lines to produce medicinal compounds. An important predecessor to the new work has been the use of genetically engineered yeast to produce the antimalarial drug artemisinin.
the Stanford team had to fill in a missing link in the basic science of plant-based medicines.
Many plants, including opium poppies, produce (S)- reticuline, a molecule that is a precursor to active ingredients with medicinal properties.
Smolke says. e need options to help ensure that the bio-based production of medicinal compounds is developed in the most responsible way. molke says that in the United states,
where opioid medicines are already widely available, the focus is on potential misuse. But the World health organization estimates that 5. 5 billion people have little
and the techniques we developed show that it is possible to make important medicines from scratch using only yeast,
and fairly provide medicines to all who need. tanford has patents on the technology and Smolke and researchers on her team have formed a company o
and easily repeatable test for pancreatic cancer, scientists at Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University, have developed a three-protein biomarker panel that can screen urine samples to identify pancreatic cancer
Moreover, it readily distinguishes between pancreatic cancer and chronic pancreatitis, conditions that are mistaken easily for each other.
The scientists settled on just three proteins after conducting proteomic analyses of 488 urine samples92 from patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC
92 from patients with chronic pancreatitis, 87 from healthy volunteers, and 117 samples from patients with other benign and malignant liver and gall bladder conditions.
Patients suffering from chronic pancreatitis had significantly lower levels than cancer patients. Combining the three proteins
The panel performance was described August 3 in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, in an article entitled, dentification of a Three-Biomarker Panel in Urine for Early Detection of Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma. hen comparing
The biomarker panel established by the Barts Cancer Institute scientists, however, shows promise. e've always been keen to develop a diagnostic test in urine as it has several advantages over using blood.
if the three-biomarker signature is present during the latency periodhe time between the genetic changes that will cause the cancer to develop and the clinical presentation.
With few specific symptoms even at a later stage of the disease, more than 80%of people with pancreatic cancer are diagnosed
when the cancer has already spread. This means they are not eligible for surgery to remove the tumorurrently the only potentially curative treatment.
Patients are diagnosed usually when the cancer is already at a terminal stage, but if diagnosed at stage II,
the survival rate is 20, %and at stage I, the survival rate for patients with very small tumors can increase up to 60%.
%It is hoped that with early detection, the survival rate for pancreatic cancer will improve. At present, only about 3%of patients found to have pancreatic cancer survive more than five years c
#Genetic Variance Found as Cause for Cerebral palsy Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common form of physical disability in children, with an incidence rate of approximately two cases for every 1, 000 live births.
Historically, CP has been attributed to an array of factors such as asphyxia, stroke, and infections in the developing brains.
However, researchers from The Hospital for Sick Children (Sickkids) and the Research Institute of the Mcgill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) have uncovered evidence for genetic causes of CP that may precipitate a change in the clinical
diagnostics for children and expecting mothers.""Our research suggests that there is a much stronger genetic component to cerebral palsy than previously suspected,
"explained lead author Maryam Oskoui, M d.,pediatric neurologist at The Montreal Children's Hospital (MCH) of the MUHC and co-director of the Canadian Cerebral palsy Registry."
"How these genetic factors interplay with other established risk factors remains to be understood fully. For example, two newborns exposed to the same environmental stressors will often have very different outcomes.
Our research suggests that our genes impart resilience or conversely a susceptibility to injury.""The findings from this study were published recently in Nature Communications through an article entitled linically relevant copy number variations detected in cerebral palsy.
The investigators performed genetic tests on 115 children with CP, many of whom had been identified previously with other risk factors as a cause for their disease.
DNA tests were performed also on the children parents, in order to paint a more comprehensive picture of the genetic background for CP.
"In light of the findings, we suggest that genomic analyses be integrated into the standard of practice for diagnostic assessment of cerebral palsy."
as they are associated with and array of genetic disease states.""It's a lot like autism, in that many different CNVS affecting different genes are involved
which could possibly explain why the clinical presentations of both these conditions are noted so diverse
or new, CNVS identified in these patients with cerebral palsy is even more significant than some of the major CNV autism research from the last 10 years.
We've opened many doors for new research into cerebral palsy.""While the researchers were excited by their findings,
as they noted that their CNV data would have impacted the diagnosis or classification in almost 10%of the patients they studied."
"Finding an underlying cause for a child's disability is an important undertaking in management,
"stated co-author Michael Shevell, M d. co-director of the Canadian Cerebral palsy Registry and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the MCH-MUHC."
This study will provide the impetus to make genetic testing a standard part of the comprehensive assessment of the child with cerebral palsy."
"Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common form of physical disability in children, with an incidence rate of approximately two cases for every 1, 000 live births.
Historically, CP has been attributed to an array of factors such as asphyxia, stroke, and infections in the developing brains.
However, researchers from The Hospital for Sick Children (Sickkids) and the Research Institute of the Mcgill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) have uncovered evidence for genetic causes of CP that may precipitate a change in the clinical
diagnostics for children and expecting mothers.""Our research suggests that there is a much stronger genetic component to cerebral palsy than previously suspected,
"explained Dr. Oskoui.""How these genetic factors interplay with other established risk factors remains to be understood fully.
Our research suggests that our genes impart resilience or conversely a susceptibility to injury.""The findings from this study were published recently in Nature Communications through an article entitled linically relevant copy number variations detected in cerebral palsy.
The investigators performed genetic tests on 115 children with CP, many of whom had been identified previously with other risk factors as a cause for their disease.
DNA tests were performed also on the children parents, in order to paint a more comprehensive picture of the genetic background for CP.
"In light of the findings, we suggest that genomic analyses be integrated into the standard of practice for diagnostic assessment of cerebral palsy."
as they are associated with and array of genetic disease states.""It's a lot like autism, in that many different CNVS affecting different genes are involved
which could possibly explain why the clinical presentations of both these conditions are noted so diverse
or new, CNVS identified in these patients with cerebral palsy is even more significant than some of the major CNV autism research from the last 10 years.
We've opened many doors for new research into cerebral palsy.""While the researchers were excited by their findings,
as they noted that their CNV data would have impacted the diagnosis or classification in almost 10%of the patients they studied."
"Finding an underlying cause for a child's disability is an important undertaking in management,"stated Dr. Shevell."
This study will provide the impetus to make genetic testing a standard part of the comprehensive assessment of the child with cerebral palsy. e
because they are key to enabling bacteria to cause disease. Toxins typically go after molecules that are either scarce or
shows that one toxin linked to cholera and other diseases, which hones in on a popular and plentiful protein target,
and is an important player in the body's response to an infectious disease. In particular, actin is a molecular motor that enables immune cells to chase
cholera (Vibrio cholera), septicemia or gastroenteritis from eating infected raw oysters (Vibrio vulnificus) and gastric illnesses that threaten people with weakened immune systems (Aeromonas hydrophila.
#Engineering Therapeutic Proteins into Antibodies Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have devised an improved method for building proteins into larger proteins such as antibodies.
otherwise, including powerful hormone-based therapies.""Unlike prior approaches to this design problem, ours is based a selection method,
First identified by Dr. Friedman in 1994 as a satiety hormone that switches off hunger, leptin initially failed as an obesity therapy,
and also diabetes. Leptin on its own and in an unmodified state isn't ideal as a therapy
because it doesn't last long in the bloodstream.""The kidneys and other organs clear it very rapidly,
and function properly, the researchers used a selection system that they had developed previously for finding therapeutic antibodies in large antibody libraries.
such as the preparation of foods, dietary supplements, therapeutics, and chemical materials. The ability to precisely tune enzymatic reactions with small biomolecules holds enormous potential for industrial manufacturing, analytical science,
and drug therapeutics. Now, researchers at the University of Chicago have developed what they believe is a novel approach to control the activity of enzymes through the use of synthetic,
"explained senior author M. Laura Feltri, M d.,professor of biochemistry and neurology in the Jacobs School of medicine and Biomedical sciences at UB."
"This work may help to provide much-needed insight into demyelinating diseases such Krabbe Leukodystrophy, MS,
and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.""In Krabbe's, for example, the problem is not just that there isn't sufficient myelin,
and look to continue their work with the hope of better understanding this critical connection between neuronal cellsossibly leading to a druggable target for demyelinating diseases."
"This research has profound implications for glial disease like Krabbe's, Charcot-Marie-Tooth, peripheral neuropathies or Multiple sclerosis,
"Similarly, neurodegenerative diseases like Huntington's disease or Lou Gehrig's, that were considered unique diseases of neurons in the past,
are considered now diseases of cellular communications between neurons and glial cells
#Protein Based Sensors Expand Synthetic biology Repertoire Engineering proteins to detect specific DNA, RNA, or peptide sequences may not be a new idea,
senior author James Collins, Ph d.,professor of medical engineering and science in MIT's Department of Biological engineering and Institute of Medical Engineering and Science (IMES)."
while treating diseases using this system is likely many years away, it could be used much sooner as a research tool.
#At home Molecular Diagnostics could become Reality with New Test Design Does being able to test for allergies, STD,
or even cancer in minutes from the comfort and privacy of your home sound like science fiction?
This new design could aid efforts in building point-of-care devices for quick medical evaluations.
This design allows the assay to detect a wide range of protein markers associated with various disease states."
and the results sent back to the doctor's office. If we can move testing to the point of care,
which would enhance the effectiveness of medical interventions. The findings from this study were published recently in the Journal of the American Chemical Society through an article entitled highly selective electrochemical DNA-based sensor that employs steric hindrance effects to detect proteins directly in whole blood.
allowing us to build inexpensive devices that could detect dozens of disease markers in less than five minutes in the doctor's office or even at home,"concluded Dr. Vallée-Bélisle a
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