#Team Develops Transplantable Bioengineered Forelimb in Animal Model A team of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators has made the first steps towards development of bioartificial replacement limbs suitable for transplantation.
M d.,of the MGH Department of Surgery and the Center for Regenerative medicine, senior author of the paper. imbs contain muscles, bone, cartilage, blood vessels, tendons, ligaments and nerves each
Over the past two decades a number of patients have received donor hand transplants, and while such procedures can significantly improve quality of life,
they also expose recipients to the risks of lifelong immunosuppressive therapy. While the progenitor cells needed to regenerate all of the tissues that make up a limb could be provided by the potential recipient,
the experience of patients who have received hand transplants is promising. n clinical limb transplantation, nerves do grow back into the graft, enabling both motion and sensation,
Ott is an assistant professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical school. Bernhard Jank, M d.,of the MGH Center for Regenerative medicine is lead author of the Biomaterials paper.
through proper diagnosis and medical care if it was available. Now, a British team of eye specialists are hoping to attach the diagnostic tools onto an iphone,
PEEK provides the basics to diagnose eye defects and disease. It provides an eye chart exam,
The vast majority of the millions of blindness cases worldwide can be treated whether it uncorrected refractive errors, cataracts or glaucoma, according to the World health organization.
The PEEK team, who recently presented their app at a TED Talk, said getting the examination tool to the low-income areas could benefit millions of the sightless. t is incredibly simple,
Better understanding of how it works could eventually offer strategies for helping those with brain damage manage day-to-day life better.
and Health Columbia University scientists have developed a computational method to investigate the relationship between birth month and disease risk.
The researchers used this algorithm to examine New york city medical databases and found 55 diseases that correlated with the season of birth.
Overall, the study indicated people born in May had the lowest disease risk, and those born in October the highest.
The study was published this week in the Journal of American Medical Informatics Association. his data could help scientists uncover new disease risk factors,
Ph d.,an assistant professor of biomedical informatics at Columbia University Medical center (CUMC) and Columbia Data science Institute.
By identifying what causing disease disparities by birth month, the researchers hope to figure out how they might close the gap.
Earlier research on individual diseases such as ADHD and asthma suggested a connection between birth season and incidence,
688 diseases against the birth dates and medical histories of 1. 7 million patients treated at Newyork-Presbyterian Hospital/CUMC between 1985 and 2013.
600 associations and confirmed 39 links previously reported in the medical literature. The researchers also uncovered 16 new associations,
including nine types of heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United states. The researchers performed statistical tests to check that the 55 diseases for
which they found associations did not arise by chance. t important not to get overly nervous about these results
because even though we found significant associations the overall disease risk is not that great, notes Dr. Tatonetti. he risk related to birth month is relatively minor
The new data are consistent with previous research on individual diseases. For example, the study authors found that asthma risk is greatest for July and October babies.
An earlier Danish study on the disease found that the peak risk was in the months (May
and August) when Denmark sunlight levels are similar to New york in the July and October period.
The researchers also found a relationship between birth month and nine types of heart disease, with people born in March facing the highest risk for atrial fibrillation, congestive heart failure,
A previous study using Austrian and Danish patient records found that those born in months with higher heart disease ratesarch through Junead shorter life spans. aster computers
a graduate student at Columbia. e are working to help doctors solve important clinical problems using this new wealth of data.
and immune system that could result in drastic breakthroughs in treatment for diseases, such as Alzheimer. Researchers at the University of Virginia have discovered that blood vessels directly connect the brain to the body immune system.
so our research can be relevant for diseases. The second point we are addressing is the role of the vessels in neurological pathology.
While it is too early to tell, it is possible that these blood vessels could be related to a large number of neurological and developmental conditions from autism to attention deficit disorder (ADD TO multiple sclerosis.
However, Louveau said the biggest focus has been on Alzheimer. think the disease we have written the most about is Alzheimer,
which is characterized by an accumulation of protein in the brain, Louveau said. e think that protein might start to accumulate in the meninges
and block those vessels and that might start the disease progressing. We are still working on it,
and Applied science and California Nanosystems Institute has identified an unexpectedly general set of rules that determine which molecules can cause the immune system to become vulnerable to the autoimmune disorders lupus and psoriasis.
the multidisciplinary team also included Michel Gilliet of Switzerland Lausanne University Hospital and Jure Dobnikar and Daan Frenkel of the University of Cambridge.
Autoimmune diseases strike when the body attacks itself because it fails to distinguish between host tissue
and disease-causing agents, or pathogens. Two such disorders are lupus, which can damage the skin, joints and organs, causing rashes, hair loss and fatigue;
and psoriasis, which causes rashes, lesions and arthritis, and creates an increased risk for cancer and diabetes.
When a healthy person is infected by a virus, VIRAL DNA can activate immune cells via a receptor called TLR9.
The receptor triggers the cells to send signaling molecules called interferons to initiate a powerful defensive response.
In people with lupus or psoriasis, these cells are activated by their own DNA, or self-DNA.
Using synchrotron X-ray scattering and other techniques, researchers determined that a broad range of molecules,
Wong said. his new knowledge will make it easier to design new therapeutic strategies to control immune responses. athan Schmidt,
and triggering responses in disorders such as lupus and psoriasis. We were able to elucidate something that was understood poorly a key to triggering the immune response is that the molecules must arrange the DNA
#MERS Not Given Same Vaccine Attention as Ebola, Other Viruses A MERS outbreak has infected about 150 people in South korea,
Authorities are scrambling to control the spread of the illness, known fully as the Middle east Respiratory Syndrome.
But a vaccine is not among their tools since it doesn yet exist, and is probably not close to being developed.
The coronavirus, similar to the SARS virus which killed hundreds in Asia a decade ago,
has no vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. MERS was discovered only in 2012 in Saudi arabia.
MERS is considered more deadly than SARS, according to a Reuters report. However, fewer companies have worked on vaccines and drugs for the MERS virus, according to Reuters. Small biotech companies such as Greffex,
Inovio and Novavax have done all some investigation on vaccines for the sickness but the research is still all preclinical,
the news service reported. Other diseases have appeared to take precedence in the research pipeline in recent years.
Ebola research, including vaccines and treatments, dominated headlines worldwide in the wake of the outbreak of the virus in multiple West african nations last year.
Johnson and Johnson announced in January it was administering 400 000 doses of its Phase I trial vaccine in Africa.
However, other viruses were also acingfor deployment amid the panicked fears as that outbreak spread.
One has made it beyond the Phase I trials and is being readied for the next potential outbreak,
The SARS vaccine work proceeded for years but since the virus mostly disappeared, there are not enough live examples of disease to effectively test it, according to multiple reports.
Such investment of resources was made never for MERS, according to Reuters. Saudi arabia secretive response to the outbreak is partly to blame,
Medical experts have said the virus may have originated in bats, that cases have been linked to camels, and that it is communicable between people.
Severe fever, coughing and shortness of breath are among the symptoms of MERS, which can ultimately result in pneumonia and kidney failure, according to the CDC.
So far, 16 have died in the South korea outbreak
#Newfound Groups of Bacteria are Mixing Up the Tree of Life University of California, Berkeley,
This discovery gives a new understanding to genetic diseases that are caused by mutations in these proteins.
Mutations in many nucleoporin genes has been linked to human diseases and developmental disorders, including some forms of leukemia and inherited heart problems.
Until now, Hetzer said, researchers have assumed the mutations led to disease by altering the transport of proteins in and out of a cell nucleus. ow,
wee realizing this is probably not the only explanation, he said. any of those diseases and developmental disorders might actually be caused by the ability of these genes to regulate gene expression programs.
His lab is planning to follow up with studies on Nup153, and exactly how it recruited to genes,
The work and the researchers involved were supported by grants from the National institutes of health and the National Cancer Institute
#Smart Insulin Patch Could Replace Painful Injections for Diabetes Painful insulin injections could become a thing of the past for the millions of Americans who suffer from diabetes, thanks to a new invention from researchers at the University of North carolina
painless patch could lower blood glucose in a mouse model of type 1 diabetes for up to nine hours.
More preclinical tests and subsequent clinical trials in humans will be required before the patch can be administered to patients,
but the approach shows great promise. e have designed a patch for diabetes that works fast,
and the UNC Diabetes Care Center. he whole system can be personalized to account for a diabetic weight and sensitivity to insulin,
Diabetes affects more than 387 million people worldwide, and that number is expected to grow to 592 million by the year 2035.
Patients with type 1 and advanced type 2 diabetes try to keep their blood sugar levels under control with regular finger pricks and repeated insulin shots, a process that is painful and imprecise.
M d.,Ph d.,co-senior author of the PNAS paper and the director of the UNC Diabetes Care Center, said,
njecting the wrong amount of medication can lead to significant complications like blindness and limb amputations,
or even more disastrous consequences such as diabetic comas and death. Researchers have tried to remove the potential for human error by creating losed-loop systemsthat directly connect the devices that track blood sugar
they had to figure out a way to administer them to patients with diabetes. Rather than rely on the large needles
The researchers tested the ability of this approach to control blood sugar levels in a mouse model of type 1 diabetes.
They gave one set of mice a standard injection of insulin and measured the blood glucose levels,
They also found that the patch did not pose the hazards that insulin injections do.
Injections can send blood sugar plummeting to dangerously low levels when administered too frequently. he hard part of diabetes care is not the insulin shots,
or the blood sugar checks, or the diet but the fact that you have to do them all several times a day every day for the rest of your life,
the director of the North carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences (NC Tracs) Institute and past president of the American Diabetes Association. f we can get these patches to work in people,
The research was funded by a pilot grant from the NC Tracs Institute and a athway to Stop Diabetesresearch Award from the American Diabetes Association.
New Device Tracks Chemical Signals Within Cells Biomedical engineers at the University of Toronto have invented a new device that more quickly
and could identify new targets for cancer medications. Throughout the human body, certain signalling chemicals--known as hormones--tell various cells
leading to cancer. To look into the responses of different cells, the U of T team harnessed the emerging power of digital microfluidics,
or proteins that could be targeted by drugs, eventually leading to new medicines to fight cancer.
said principal investigator Arturo Alvarez-Buylla, Ph d.,UCSF professor of neurological surgery, Heather and Melanie Muss Endowed Chair and a principal investigator in the UCSF Brain tumor Research center and the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research. t may be unwelcome
news for those who thought of adult neural stem cells as having a wide potential for neural repair.
Alvarez-Buylla also noted that the paper has possible implications for the success of human stem cell therapy in the brain
the likelihood of our being able to use stem cell therapy to repair brain injury is very low.
#Major Step for Implantable Drug Delivery Device An implantable, microchip-based device may soon replace the injections
and pills now needed to treat chronic diseases: Earlier this month, MIT spinout Microchips Biotech partnered with a pharmaceutical giant to commercialize its wirelessly controlled, implantable,
each capped with a metal membrane, that store tiny doses of therapeutics or chemicals. An electric current delivered by the device removes the membrane,
for example, diabetes, cancer, multiple sclerosis, and osteoporosis. Now Microchips Biotech will begin co-developing microchips with Teva Pharmaceutical, the world largest producer of generic drugs,
to treat specific diseases, with licensing potential for other products. Teva paid $35 million up front, with additional milestone payments as the device goes through clinical trials before it hits the shelves. bviously,
this is a huge validation of the technology, Cima said. major pharmaceutical company sees how this technology can further their efforts to help patients.
to $289 billion annually in unnecessary health care costs from additional hospital visits and other issues.
Failure to follow prescriptions, the study also found, causes around 125,000 deaths annually and up to 10 percent of all hospitalizations.
While its first partnership is for treating chronic diseases, Microchips Biotech will continue work on its flagship product, a birth-control microchip, backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,
sees this hormone-releasing microchip as one of the first implantable rtificial organsbecause it acts as a gland. lot of the therapies are trying to chemically trick the endocrine systems Cima said. e are doing that with this artificial organ we created.
and somewhat fantastical, applications beyond drug delivery, including disease diagnostics and jewelry that could emit scents. e were trying to find the killer application.
and researchers from Microchips, conducted the microchipsfirst human trials to treat osteoporosis this time with wireless capabilities.
In that study, published in a 2012 issue of Science Translational Medicine, microchips were implanted into seven elderly women,
Results indicated that the chips delivered doses comparable to injections and did so more consistently with no adverse side effects.
The research was supported by the National institutes of health's National Institute of General Medical sciences (NIGMS) and Georgia Tech.
Because of their importance to therapeutics, these proteins have been studied extensively over a period of 50 years or so.
"This research was supported by the National institutes of health, National Institute of General Medical sciences (NIGMS. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors
how we develop the next generation of medications for chronic painhich is by far the most prevalent human health conditionnd the way we execute basic biomedical research using mice. esearch has demonstrated that men
The research was conducted by teams from Mcgill University, The Hospital for Sick Children (Sickkids), and Duke university
and looked at the longstanding theory that pain is transmitted from the site of injury or inflammation through the nervous system using an immune system cell called microglia.
said Michael Salter, M d.,Ph d.,Head and Senior Scientist, Neuroscience & Mental health at Sickkids and Professor at The University of Toronto,
Including female mice The discovery comes as there is increased attention to the inclusion of female animals and cells in preclinical research.
and cell lines in preclinical research . or the past 15 years scientists have thought that microglia controlled the volume knob on pain,
experimental gene transfer-based treatment for children with giant axonal neuropathy (GAN). Researchers led by Steven J. Gray, Ph d,
. assistant professor in the Department of Ophthalmology and a researcher in UNC Gene therapy Center and Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, developed the experimental treatment in studies conducted at UNC.
a charity founded by the parents of Hannah Sames, an 11-year-old girl with giant axonal neuropathy (GAN),
to support the development of a treatment and cure. This extremely rare genetic disorder causes children to gradually lose the ability to balance themselves,
move their muscles and to feel certain sensations. Most children born with GAN do not survive beyond their early 20s because of progressive impairment of their ability to breath.
The therapeutic viral vector to be used in each of these injections is prepared at the UNC Vector Core Human Applications Laboratory.
and is expected to pave the way to developing treatments for many other related diseases. Gray chose to focus his career on this rare genetic condition after meeting Hannah,
Our goal has always been to bring hope to the families affected by this devastating disease,
and wee already seeing clear application of this approach to treat other diseases studied in my lab. ray serves as an associate investigator on the trial as does R. Jude Samulski, Ph d.,director of the UNC Gene therapy Center."
it is very rewarding to finally see these approaches being tested for some of the unmet clinical needs caused by these terminal genetic disorders,
"This first intrathecal (into the spinal fluid) delivery of a viral gene therapy vector in a human patient is a fundamental step towards developing a causal treatment for giant axonal neuropathy (GAN), a devastating progressive neurogenetic
including spinal muscular atrophy. Bringing such path-breaking treatments to children affected by neurogenetic disorders is really the core mission of our team here at the NINDS
which will be given by a single injection by spinal tap into their cerebrospinal fluid, which flows around the brain and spinal cord.
#Microarray for Research into Haematological and Solid Cancers Oxford Gene Technology (OGT) released a new microarray designed to improve the accuracy and efficiency of cancer research.
The Cytosure Cancer+SNP array (4x180k) combines long oligo array comparative genomic hybridisation (acgh) probes with fully validated single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) content
The array has been optimized in collaboration with Professor Jacqueline Schoumans from the Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland, an expert in both acgh and cancer genomics.
Unique to the proprietary Cytosure Cancer+SNP array any reference sample can be used for analysis without changes to the standard acgh protocol and, thanks to novel SNP probe chemistry,
The capacity to use matched samples is a particular advantage for research into genetic aberrations in cancer,
enabling any constitutional abnormalities to be filtered out. The 60-mer oligonucleotide probes utilized in the array provide a high signal-to-noise ratio and highly sensitive detection;
such as the B-allele frequency plot, that have been optimized for the identification of biologically relevant genomic variants in tumor samples s
#New Technique Maps Elusive Chemical Markers on Proteins Unveiling how the 20,000 or so proteins in the human body worknd malfunctions the key to understanding much of health and disease.
because theye so hard to study, said Tony Hunter, American Cancer Society Professor, holder of the Dulbecco Chair in the Salk Molecular and Cell biology Laboratory and senior author of the new paper.
#Scientists Use Nanoparticles to Shut down Mechanism that Drives Cancer Growth When scientists develop cancer therapies,
they target the features that make the disease deadly: tumor growth, metastasis, recurrence and drug resistance.
In epithelial cancers cancers of the breast, ovaries, prostate, skin and bladder, which begin in the organslining these processes are controlled by a genetic program called epithelialesenchymal transition.
Epithelialesenchymal transition is regulated by a protein called Twist, which means that Twist directly influences the development of cancer, its spread to other organs and its return after remission.
In a major step toward developing a novel therapy that targets epithelialesenchymal transition, scientists from UCLA and City of Hope have become the first to inhibit the mechanism of Twist using nanoparticles to deliver a nucleic acid called small interfering RNA,
or sirna, into tumor cells. In mouse models, delivering sirna into cancer cells inhibited the expression of Twist,
which in turn reduced epithelial-mesenchymal transition and dramatically reduced the size of tumors. The study,
which was published online in the journal Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine, was led by Jeffrey Zink and Fuyu Tamanoi, both members of the California Nanosystems Institute and Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA,
and Carlotta Glackin of City of Hope Cancer Center. e were surprised truly by the dramatic effect of delivering Twist sirna,
said Tamanoi, who also is a professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics and a director of the signal transduction and therapeutics program at the Jonsson Cancer Center. his demonstrates the effectiveness of our treatment
and encourages us to explore further what is happening to the tumor. In previous studies
sirna has been shown to effectively shut down gene expression in tumor cells grown in the laboratory. But the technique had not been effective in living organisms
because enzymes in the blood called nucleases degrade sirna before it can reach tumor cells.
To circumvent that problem, the UCLA and City of Hope researchers attached sirna to the outside of a particular type of nanoparticle developed by Zink called mesoporous silica nanoparticles.
In the study, the nanoparticles were coated with a substance called polyethyleneimine, which acted to bind
the nanoparticles could accumulate in the tumor cells and the sirna could go to work inhibiting the cellsexpression of Twist.
The study found that giving mice sirna-loaded nanoparticles once a week for six weeks inhibited tumor growth,
which promotes tumor invasion and metastasis in many cancers, said Glackin, an associate professor at the City of Hope who has been studying the function of Twist for 20 years.
Twist is reactivated in a number of metastatic cancers including triple-negative breast cancer melanoma and ovarian cancer.
By shutting down the epithelialesenchymal transition process, Zink and Tamanoi may develop new therapy options for these cancers.
Another important finding was that shutting down Twist expression enabled cancer cells to overcome their resistance to cancer drugs.
The researchers now are working to design a next-generation nanoparticle that will enable delivery of Twist sirna
#Optical og Nosedeveloped to Detect Cancer, Other Diseases Researchers at the University of Adelaide in Australia are using optical spectroscopy to develop a quick,
noninvasive reath testthey believe will have the potential to screen for a variety of diseases, including diabetes, infections and cancers.
The research team, led by Dr. James Anstie, Australian Research Council (ARC) Research Fellow with the University Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS), compared the instrument to an ptical dog nosewhich uses a special laser to measure the molecular content
of a sample of gas. ur device will use broadband cavity-enhanced frequency-comb spectroscopy to achieve sensitivities to molecular concentrations in the low parts-per-million,
which show that diseases like lung and oesophageal cancer, asthma and diabetes can be detected in this way,
even before external symptoms are showing. owever, Anstie told Bioscience Technology, ther conditions, although they have a clear molecular signature in the breath may be masked by the general complexity involved in getting a good repeatable sample.
That means Anstie team will need to work with medical researchers to improve sampling techniques, and improve the analysis of data coming out of the device,
which may one day allow them to be programmed to detect and ultimately treat diseases such as colon cancer and immune disorders.
with future applications that might include the early detection and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease or colon cancer.
and report on pathologies in the gut, including signs of bleeding or inflammation, the bacteria will need to remember this information and report it externally.
To enable them to do this, the researchers equipped B. thetaiotaomicron with a form of genetic memory.
and respond to signs of disease could also be used elsewhere in the body, he adds.
In addition, more advanced genetic computing circuits could be built upon this genetic toolkit in Bacteroides to enhance their performance as noninvasive diagnostics and therapeutics. or example,
and specificity when diagnosing disease with engineered bacteria, Lu said. o achieve this, we could engineer bacteria to detect multiple biomarkers,
or even in-situ synthesis of therapeutic molecules as and when they are needed. e
#Ultrasound Accelerates Skin Healing Especially for Diabetics and the Elderly Researchers from the University of Sheffield Department of Biomedical science discovered the ultrasound transmits a vibration through the skin
and wakes up cells in wounds helping to stimulate and accelerate the healing process. More than 200,000 patients in the UK suffer with chronic wounds every year at a cost of over £3. 1 billion to the NHS.
The ultrasound treatment, which also reduces the chance of wounds getting infected, is particularly effective
when treating diabetics and the elderly. There are 11 million over-65s, three million diabetics and 10 million smokers in the UK all of whom are likely to suffer problems with healing wounds.
A quarter of diabetics suffer from skin ulcers, particularly foot ulcers, due to the loss of sensation and circulation in the legs.
Lead author of the study Dr Mark Bass, from the University Centre for Membrane Interactions and Dynamics (CMIAD), said:
kin ulcers are excruciatingly painful for patients and in many cases can only be resolved by amputation of the limb. sing ultrasound wakes up the cells
and stimulates a normal healing process. Because it is just speeding up the normal processes,
the treatment doesn carry the risk of side effects that are associated often with drug treatments. he pioneering study,
which is published in The Journal of Investigative Dermatology, was carried out in collaboration with the School of Biochemistry at the University of Bristol, the Wound Biology Group at the Cardiff Institute of Tissue Engineering and Repair,
and the orthopaedic company, Bioventus LLC. Dr Bass added: ow that we have proven the effectiveness of ultrasound we need to explore the signal further.
We have found that the ultrasound signal we currently use is effective, but it is possible that by refining the treatment we could improve the effects even further. ecause ultrasound is relatively risk free we could expect to see it in broad clinical use within three or four years. ource:
The University of Sheffiel u
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