#Nanotechnology developed to help treat heart attack and stroke Australian researchers funded by the National Heart Foundation are a step closer to a safer
and more effective way to treat heart attack and stroke via nanotechnology. The research jointly lead by Professor Christoph Hagemeyer, Head of the Vascular Biotechnology Laboratory at Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute and Professor Frank Caruso,
an ARC Australian Laureate Fellow in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular engineering at the University of Melbourne, was published today in Advanced Materials("Multifunctional Thrombin-Activatable Polymer Capsules for Specific Targeting to Activated Platelets").
Professor Frank Caruso from the Melbourne School of engineering said the targeted drug with its novel delivery method can potentially offer a safer alternative with fewer side effects for people suffering a heart attack
or stroke. p to 55,000 Australians experience a heart attack or suffer a stroke every year. bout half of the people who need a clot-busting drug can use the current treatments
because the risk of serious bleeding is too high, he said i
#Molecular tinkering doubles cancer drug's efficacy The drug paclitaxel has been used for decades to fight breast, ovarian, lung and other cancers.
But its effectiveness has been limited by its small molecular size and insolubility in water--properties that allow the body to clear the drug too quickly,
reducing its accumulation in tumors. Many molecular packaging systems have been developed to deliver the drug while counteracting these effects, with a protein-bound version of the drug called Abraxane currently the leading therapy.
But Ashutosh Chilkoti, professor and chair of the Department of Biomedical engineering at Duke university thought his team could do better.
the Duke team doubled tumor exposure to the drug compared to Abraxane while simultaneously reducing its effects on healthy tissue.
This kept mice with tumors alive significantly longer and, in some cases, completely eradicated the tumors.
The results were published online in Nature Communications on August 4, 2015("A paclitaxel-loaded recombinant polypeptide nanoparticle outperforms Abraxane in multiple murine cancer models".
and accumulate in tumors where they take advantage of a tumor's acidic environment.""The chemical bonds holding the polypeptide cage together are stable in blood,
but dissolve in a tumor's lower ph levels,"said Jayanta Bhattacharyya, senior researcher in Chilkoti's lab and first author on the paper."
"This delivers the drug directly to the tumor and helps prevent it from randomly absorbing into healthy tissue, reducing side effects."
A second group of mice had human prostate tumors growing under their skin. Similarly, while they did not survive past 60 days
with some experiencing a complete cure. As the mortality rates suggest the Duke technology showed a higher concentration of paclitaxel in the tumors with more staying power than Abraxane,
while simultaneously showing much lower levels throughout the rest of the mice's bodies.""Clearly in the animal model there is a night and day difference,
"said Neil Spector, an oncologist at Duke Medicine familiar with the work.""But it's not just the increase in clinical efficacy
it could be a game-changer for cancer therapy.""In future work, Chilkoti and coworkers will begin applying the packaging system to other cancer drugs with the goal of developing a"one size fits all"technology to improve the effectiveness of many other cancer drugs s
With Rodriguez new approach, existing robots in manufacturing, medicine, disaster response, and other gripper-based applications may interact with the environment,
A surgical robot may push a scalpel against an operating table to adjust its grip, while a forensic robot in the field may angle a piece of evidence against a nearby rock to better examine it. xploiting the environment is,
or surgery, or field operations, or even space exploration whenever you have a gripper that is not dexterous like a human hand,
and industrial R&d in a wide spectrum of applications, from transport to medicine. The Laser Applications Centre of AIMEN is devoted to applied research in the field of laser materials processing,
However, one challenge is reducing the tissue/neuron damage associated with needle penetration, particularly for chronic insert experiment and future medical applications.
In addition, as an actual needle application, we demonstrated fluorescenctce particle depth injection into the brain in vivo,
#Engineering a permanent solution to genetic diseases (Nanowerk News) In his mind, Basil Hubbard can already picture a new world of therapeutic treatments for millions of patients just over the horizon.
Its a future in which diseases like muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis and many others are treated permanently through the science of genome engineering.
There is a trend in the scientific community to develop therapeutics in a more rational fashion,
Were moving towards a very logical type of treatment for genetic diseases, where we can actually say,
Your disease is caused by a mutation in gene X, and were going to correct this mutation to treat it.
In theory, genome engineering will eventually allow us to permanently cure genetic diseases by editing the specific faulty gene (s). Revolutionizing health care Genome engineering involves the targeted
and may one day revolutionize medical care. One of the obstacles still to be addressed in the field before it can see widespread use in humans is how to ensure the proteins only affect the specific target genes in need of repair.
but more improvements are needed to ensure off-target genes arent modifieda result that could potentially cause serious health problems itself.
Examples include diseases such as hemophilia sickle cell anemia, muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis. While the field is still in its relative infancy,
Hubbard says human clinical trials involving sequence-specific DNA-editing agents are already underway. If successful, he expects the first clinical applications could be seen in the next decade.
gene editing could possibly provide a permanent cure for a lot of different diseases, says Hubbard. We still have to overcome many hurdles but
I think this technology definitely has the potential to be transformative in medicine e
#Reflexes for robots (w/video)( Nanowerk News) Deep in the basement of MITS Building 3, a two-legged robot named HERMES is wreaking controlled havoc:
such as applying anticancer medications to melanomas or applying growth factors and antibiotics for wound healing, says Jin Di,
Now, Slater and a team of researchers from Duke university, Baylor College of Medicine and Rice university have developed an image-based,
which may someday extend the life of medical implants, fiber-optic cables and other hard to repair in place objects, according to an international team of researchers."
"Maybe someday we could apply this approach to healing of wounds or other applications, "he said."
When the material did fracture, the researchers found it far more likely for this to happen at the eight-member rings,
such as ejector pins for iphones, watch springs for expensive hand-wound watches, trial medical implants,
#3d bone marrow made from silk biomaterials successfully generates platelets (Nanowerk News) Researchers funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging
Failure to produce new bone marrow can be caused by disease, trauma, or some cancer treatments, and can lead to a significantly higher risk of infections,
and the need for blood transfusions. Understanding and reproducing key features of bone marrow formationnd hence, the creation of blood cells and platelets in tissue culture for storage and later useould help in treatment of a variety of medical problems.
The researchers worked to mimic the complex environment where megakaryocytes develop and mature into platelets.
This environment includes endothelial cells (the cells lining the inside of blood vessels) and extracellular matrix (ECM) components,
which provide structural support and signaling to surrounding cells. David Kaplan, Ph d.,professor and Director of the NIH P41 Resource Center on Tissue Engineering, Alessandra Balduini, M d,
including recalcitrant ulcers and burns. The key feature is that the platelets are functional, thus, the system can be used for fundamental and applied studies of the bone marrow. his is an elegant example of how to deconstruct a complex process into its basic elements,
Taking this incremental approachdding to the structure one step at a time, this group is making great strides on the path to creating therapeutic quantities of platelets on demand. t
If youe a doctor (examining) a patient you have to know the properties of (your instruments)
#3d printed guide helps regrow complex nerves after injury A team of researchers has developed a first-of-its-kind,
3d printed guide that helps regrow both the sensory and motor functions of complex nerves after injury.
The groundbreaking research has the potential to help more than 200,000 people annually who experience nerve injuries or disease.
Because of this complexity, regrowth of nerves after injury or disease is very rare according to the Mayo Clinic.
Nerve damage is often permanent. Advanced 3d printing methods may now be the solution. This is a 3-D printed nerve regeneration pathway implanted in a rat helped to improve walking in 10 to 12 weeks after implantation.
"This represents an important proof of concept of the 3d printing of custom nerve guides for the regeneration of complex nerve injuries,
and printer right at the hospital to create custom nerve guides right on site to restore nerve function."
or cadavers that hospitals could use to create closely matched 3d printed guides for patients s
The researchers anticipate a wide range of applications, for example in portable electronics and in the medical world l
biotechnology and medical treatments. The study appears September 21 in Nature Materials("Sequence Heuristics To Encode Phase Behaviour In Intrinsically Disordered Protein Polymers"."
""The very simple design rules that we have discovered provide a powerful engineering tool for many biomedical
however, drugs could be encapsulated in protein cages that accumulate inside of a tumor and dissolve once heated.
they could break down into additional therapeutic agents. We can now design two things into one."
#Protein-based sensor could detect viral infection or kill cancer cells MIT biological engineers have developed 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).
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,
. who is the Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical school and Boston Children's Hospital as well as Professor of Bioengineering AT SEAS."
This is a crucial step in creating a new generation of foldable electronics-think a flat-screen television that can be rolled up for easy portability-and implantable medical devices.
indicating it is a good material for implantable medical devices. Fatigue is a common problem for researchers trying to develop a flexible, transparent conductor,
That means the materials aren't durable enough for consumer electronics or biomedical devices.""Metallic materials often exhibit high cycle fatigue,
and fatigue has been a deadly disease for metals, "the researchers wrote.""We weaken the constraint of the substrate by making the interface between the Au (gold) nanomesh and PDMS slippery,
and cancer drugs Longing to find a cure for cancer, HIV and other yet incurable diseases,
each requiring preclinical and clinical testing with live subjects. How many chemical agents more to try? Moving at such rate, will we find the cure during our lifetime?
This approach will eventually provide more effective preclinical selection of drug candidates for the subsequent long-term and expensive clinical trial.
and vaccines against many dangerous diseases including HIV, hepatitis and cancer. The research, led by Yury Stebunov,
a scientist at the MIPT, was published in the ACS Applied materials & Interfaces("Highly sensitive and Selective Sensor Chips with Graphene oxide Linking Layer").
Owing to the above-mentioned merits, SPR biosensing is an outstanding platform to boost technological progress in the areas of medicine and biotechnology.
Widespread introduction of this method into preclinical trials will completely change the pharmaceutical industry. With SPR sensors we just need to estimate the interaction between the drug and targets on the sensing surface,
"Our invention will help in drug development against viral and cancer diseases. We are expecting that pharmaceutical industry will express a strong demand for our technology,
However, the developed chip should go through a clinical trial for medical applications s
#Pioneering research develops new way to capture light-for the computers of tomorrow The key breakthrough will allow large quantities of data to be stored directly on an integrated optical chip,
Biomedical engineers are interested in recreating these developmental gradients in adults to aid the growth of new tissue in areas that have sustained damage.
IBIB goal is to help develop enabling technologies that could have big impacts on important medical problems,
noninvasive 3d biomedical imaging photonic chips aerospace photonics micromachines laser tweezing the process of using lasers to trap tiny particles.
and maintain excellent focusing properties under high stress, lead author of the research, Phd candidate Xiaorui Zheng said. hey have the potential to revolutionise the next-generation integrated optical systems by making miniaturised and fully flexible photonics devices.
"may aid efforts to build point-of-care devices for quick medical diagnosis of various diseases ranging from cancer, allergies, autoimmune diseases, sexually transmitted diseases (STDS),
when atoms are brought too close together-to detect a wide array of protein markers that are linked to various diseases.
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 key breakthrough underlying this new technology came by chance."
explains that this novel signaling mechanism produces sufficient change in current to be measured using inexpensive electronics similar to those in the home glucose test meter used by diabetics to check their blood sugar.
allowing us to build inexpensive devices that could detect dozens of disease markers in less than five minutes in the doctor's office
including pathogen detection in food or water and therapeutic drug monitoring at home, a feature which could drastically improve the efficient of various class of drugs and treatments a
#Quantum dots light up under strain Semiconductor nanocrystals, or quantum dots, are sized tiny, nanometer particles with the ability to absorb light
this novel device is very suitable for applications such as soft robotics, wearable consumer electronics, smart medical prosthetic devices,
which are utilised already increasingly for monitoring critical parameters in biomedical applications, especially for those that may come in contact with human skin
With the rapid advancement of healthcare and biomedical technologies as well as consumer electronics we are optimistic about new possibilities to commercialise our invention,
and reduce side effects of allergy shots Whether triggered by cats, bees, pollen or mites, allergies are on the rise.
And the bad news doesn stop there. The only current therapy that treats their causes is allergen-specific immunotherapy or allergy shots
which can cause severe side effects. Now, researchers report in Biomacromolecules("Biodegradable ph-Sensitive Poly (ethylene glycol) Nanocarriers for Allergen Encapsulation and Controlled Release")the development of a potentially better allergy shot that uses nanocarriers to address these unwanted issues.
For many people, allergies are a seasonal annoyance. But for others exposure to a particular allergen can cause adverse reactions such as itching, breathing problems or even death.
Allergy shots can reduce sensitivity by slowly ramping up exposure to the offending substance. But because these shots expose the body to the very thing people are allergic to,
the treatment itself can sometimes trigger reactions. In order to develop a safer, more direct, cause-based therapy,
researchers have developed nanoparticles that envelop an allergen and deliver it to specific cells. But these carriers degrade too slowly,
hampering the effectiveness of the treatment. Holger Frey and colleagues set out to overcome these limitations.
The researchers say this approach also could be used for vaccines or immunotherapies for other conditions such as cancer or AIDS o
#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);
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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,
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
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,
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