#Bionic Hand Uses Smart Wires To Mimic Muscle fibers, Study Engineers in Germany have built a biologically inspired artificial hand with muscles made from bundles of'smart'wires.
#"Pill On A String"Could Help Spot Early Signs Of Cancer Of The Gullet, University of Cambridge Study A ill on a stringdeveloped by researchers at the University of Cambridge could help doctors detect oesophageal cancer cancer of the gullet at an early stage,
helping them overcome the problem of wide variation between biopsies, suggests research published today in the journal Nature Genetics.
The ytospongesits within a pill which, when swallowed, dissolves to reveal a sponge that scrapes off cells when withdrawn up the gullet.
It allows doctors to collect cells from all along the gullet whereas standard biopsies take individual point samples.
Oesophageal cancer is preceded often by Barrett oesophagus, a condition in which cells within the lining of the oesophagus begin to change shape
and can grow abnormally. The cellular changes are cause by acid and bile reflux when the stomach juices come back up the gullet.
Between one and five people in every 100 with Barrett's oesophagus go on to develop oesophageal cancer in their life-time,
a form of cancer that can be difficult to treat, particularly if not caught early enough.
At present, Barrett's oesophagus and oesophageal cancer are diagnosed using biopsies which look for signs of dysplasia, the proliferation of abnormal cancer cells.
This is a subjective process, requiring a trained scientist to identify abnormalities. Understanding how oesophageal cancer develops
and the genetic mutations involved could help doctors catch the disease earlier, offering better treatment options for the patient.
An alternative way of spotting very early signs of oesophageal cancer would be to look for important genetic changes.
However, researchers from the University of Cambridge have shown that variations in mutations across the oesophagus mean that standard biopsies may miss cells with important mutations.
A sample was more likely to pick up key mutations if taken using the Cytosponge, developed by Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald at the Medical Research Council Cancer Unit at the University of Cambridge. he trouble with Barrett oesophagus is that it looks bland
and might span over 10cm, explains Professor Fitzgerald. e created a map of mutations in a patient with the condition
and found that within this stretch, there is a great deal of variation amongst cells. Some might carry an important mutation,
If youe taking a biopsy, this relies on your hitting the right spot. Using the Cytosponge appears to remove some of this game of chance.
and oesophageal cancer samples taken at one point in time from 23 patients, as well as 73 samples taken over a three-year period from one patient with Barrett oesophagus.
for example from A c to a t that provided a ingerprintof the causes of the cancer. Similar work has been done previously in lung cancer,
and oesophageal cancer, suggest that these changes occur very early on the process. Even in areas of Barrett oesophagus without cancer, the researchers found a large number of mutations in their tissue on average 12,000 per person (compared to an average of 18,000 mutations within the cancer.
Many of these are likely to have been ystanders genetic mutations that occurred along the way but that were implicated not actually in cancer.
The researchers found that there appeared to be a tipping point, where a patient would go from having lots of individual mutations,
but no cancer, to a situation where large pieces of genetic information were being transferred not just between genes but between chromosomes.
e know very little about how you go from pre-cancer to cancer and this is particularly the case in oesophageal cancer.
Barrett oesophagus and the cancer share many mutations, but we are now a step closer to understanding
which are the important mutations that tip the condition over into a potentially deadly form of cancer.
The research was funded by the Medical Research Council and Cancer Research UK. The Cytosponge was trialled in patients at the NIHR Clinical Investigation Ward at the Cambridge Clinical Research Facility
#Smartphone-Based Device That Reads Medical Diagnostic Tests Quickly And Accurately Created, University of California,
ELISA can detect a number of diseases, including HIV, West nile virus and Hepatitis b, and it is used widely in hospitals.
It can also be used to identify potential allergens in food, among other applications. A team of researchers from the California Nanosystems Institute at UCLA has developed a new mobile phone-based device that can read ELISA plates in the field with the same level of accuracy as the large machines normally found in clinical laboratories.
especially for administering medical tests that are done usually in a hospital or clinical laboratory, said Ozcan,
screening populations for particular diseases, or tracking vaccination campaigns in most resource-poor settings. It fantastic for an undergrad to be first author on the publication.
Traditional ELISA testing is performed with small transparent plates that resemble honeycombs, typically with 96 tiny wells. Samples are placed in the wells first,
The ELISA tests included those for mumps, measles, and herpes simplex viruses 1 and 2. With a total of 571 patient samples used in the comparison,
the mobile platform achieved 99.6 percent accuracy in diagnosing mumps, 98.6 percent for measles, and 99.4 percent each for herpes simplex 1 and 2. ur team is focused on developing biomedical technologies that work with mobile platforms to assist with on-site testing
and health-care in disadvantaged or rural areas, Berg said. e are always looking toward the next innovation,
and are looking to adapt the basic design of this ELISA cellphone reader to create smartphone-based quantified readers for other important medical tests,
The UCLA team included researchers from electrical engineering, physics and astronomy, bioengineering, pathology and laboratory medicine,
and surgery, as well as the California Nanosystems Institute and the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. The other authors on the paper were UCLA graduate students Bingen Cortazar, Derek Tseng, Haydar Ozkan, Raymond Yan-Lok Chan, and Steve Feng;
postgraduate scholar Qingshan Wei; undergraduates Jordi Burbano and Qamar Farooki; and Michael Lewinski, an adjunct faculty in UCLA bioengineering department.
which the desired rate of molecule delivery could be tuned dynamically over time to achieve the optimal therapeutic outcome.
or the induction of mechanical stress all of which can change the properties of a particular hydrogel designed to be responsive to those triggers. hese experimental and theoretical results provide a new conceptual framework for liquid motion confined by soft,
says Jeffrey Karp, a bioengineer at Brigham and Women Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. ne of the greatest implications of the work is to track thousands of cells simultaneously with a single technique,
He cautions that the technique is not yet ready for therapeutic use. But eventually the modified cells could be used to locate target tissue,
or producing designer therapeutics--and perhaps one day even non-biological polymers. No one has developed ever something of this nature."
A single vaccine that immunizes against all types of influenza may soon be a reality,
after a team of scientists from Australia and China have discovered how the body's immunity cells remember flu viruses. The study published in the journal Nature Communications elaborated that body's CD8 cells can memorize strains of influenza
Researchers said that the breakthrough could lead to the development of a vaccine that can fight all new influenza viruses. Professor Xu,
China, said this study would significantly enlighten T-cell based vaccine development and immune intervention during severe influenza infection in the future.
"It exemplifies the approach we are taking at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity,
and 10 mg (lenvatinib mesylate, Lenvima) as a treatment for unresectable thyroid cancer in Japan on May 20, 2015.
Lenvima is the first molecular targeted treatment in Japan approved with an indication for unresectable thyroid cancer
which covers differentiated thyroid cancer as well as medullary thyroid carcinoma and anaplastic thyroid carcinoma. Discovered at Eisai's Tsukuba Research Laboratories
which are involved especially in tumor angiogenesis and proliferation of thyroid cancer. Furthermore, Lenvima has been confirmed through X-ray co-crystal structural analysis to demonstrate a new binding mode (Type V) to VEGFR2,
and received a positive opinion from the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use in March 2015.
#Oncosil Medical introduces new device that treats cancer The global market for Pancreatic cancer is $1 billion,
and for HCC Liver Cancer an additional $1. 4 billionsingapore: Australia-based lifesciences company Oncosil Medical recently announced the commercialization of its device-Oncosil in the European union.
Oncosil is device that provides localized radiation treatment for cancer, and is the company's lead product candidate.
Oncosil, implantable nuclear medicine (radiotherapy) device, has been piloted successfully for treating pancreatic and liver cancer. The device was found to be safe and effective in laboratory studies
and has demonstrated clinically target tumor regression (tumour shrinkage) in both solid tumor indications of pancreatic and liver cancer.
We are excited very to be in the forefront of potentially a new radiation treatment for the dreaded disease of pancreatic and liver cancer."
"The company also announced the appointment of Professor Pierce Chow as chairman to lead primary liver cancer-hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)- Scientific Advisory board d
#Re-engineered antibiotic could fight drug-resistant bacteria The US scientists have created a promising second-generation antibiotic to fight against the bacteria that commonly cause respiratory and other infections,
which also includes the sexually transmitted gonorrhea disease. Researchers have led by St jude Children's Research Hospital,
have developed the antibiotics by changing the chemical structure of Spectinomycin, an old and weak antibiotic
and children globally,"said Mr Richard Lee, corresponding author, St jude Children's Research Hospital. In the study, the scientists have constructed based on the research
The second-generation Spectinomycins demonstrated an increased in antibacterial activity against several other commonly caused respiratory infections such as Haemophilus influenza and Moraxella catarrhalis.
which are mostly responsible for the cases like Legionnaires'disease and other sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea and chlamydia.
how Spectinomycin binds to the ribosomes of clinically important bacteria with a focus on producing compounds that would work on a broader field of disease-causing bacteria."
#Detecting potent tumors using a smartphone! Ms Maryam Sadeghi shows off an early version of Molescope (Picture courtesy:
an innovative hand-held tool that uses a smartphone to monitor skin for signs of cancer.
Once people take high-quality, high-resolution images of suspicious moles or skin abnormalities, they can archive images
#New device promises to detect cancer in 3 min! Singapore: Japanese researchers claim that they have developed a new device that can detect cancer from a drop of blood in just three minutes!
The device developed as a result of collaboration between Kobe-based medical device manufacturer My Tech researchers from Showa University uses a biochip,
a sensor comprising multiple tiny test sites. The chip, known as proteo, functions by attracting a faintly luminous substance found in cancer patients,
even when the cancer is at a very early stage.""We diagnosed without any errors
whether the tumor is benign or malignant in a study of 20 patients,"said Mr Yuki Hasegawa of My Tech.
Mr Hiroaki Ito, a researcher from Showa University, said the preliminary data suggests that the device could be more accurate and effective than existing blood tests."
"Currently, blood testing can only detect around 10 to 20 percent of cancers. In contrast, we are expecting to detect as much as 90 percent.""
""Most cancers are detectable only after they have developed for 15 to 20 years. Our technology allows diagnosing much earlier than that,
Vaccination will no longer be a painful process as researchers from Japan's Osaka University have developed a new technique that can deliver vaccines without needles.
The new method will encourage vaccination thus aiding in reducing global disease burden. The technique was found to be safe and effective in lab testssingapore:
Vaccination will no longer be a painful process as researchers from Japan's Osaka University have developed a new technique that can deliver vaccines without needles.
The new method will encourage vaccination thus aiding in reducing global disease burden. Through this technology, vaccines are delivered simply by laying a tiny patch onto a person's finger,
before it dissolves into their skin.""We were excited to see that our new microneedle patch is
just as effective as the needle-delivered flu vaccines, and in some cases even more effective,"said Professor Nakagawa, one of the authors of the Osaka University study.
The results of the trials are reported in a paper, linical study and stability assessment of a novel transcutaneous influenza vaccination using a dissolving microneedle patch,
'published this month in Biomaterials. The authors further explained that the new delivery mechanism uses a dissolvable material,
meaning that when it is placed onto the skin it will dissolve straight away, not leaving any fragments behind,
#Approval for AIDS Vaccine at Canadian University The Food and Drug Administration has given Canadian researchers approval to test a vaccine for HIV/AIDS on humans.
a vaccine could be on the market in about five years. Similar to the approaches used to develop vaccines for polio, influenza, rabies and Hepatitis a,
the vaccine is the first based on a genetically modified, killed whole virus and is the only HIV vaccine currently under development in Canada,
and one of the only few in the world. Beginning next month a clinical trial on 40 HIV-positive volunteers will begin.
Following the trials, tests will begin on 6, 600 HIV-negative but high-risk category volunteers.
These tests will focus on immune responses and effectiveness of the vaccine in two more phases s
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota have modified genetically domestic cats to resist the feline form of AIDS.
A green fluorescent protein was added to a gene from rhesus macaque monkeys that is known to restrict the feline and human form of the disease.
The real news here is the potential for developing disease resistant genetic lines. And maybe just maybe we#re one step closer to effectively combating this terrible disease b
#State Deficits to Shrink & Taxes Drop-Good News for Biotech Forecasters at the National Conference of State Legislatures2011 Legislative Summit expect a dramatic reduction of state deficits in the coming years,
The farmers went through a tough spot about a year ago, fighting disease. They got their crops to where they were ready to pick.
researchers at the University Medical center Utrecht announced that they have identified a gene that puts women at higher risk for breast cancer.
Their findings are published in the New england Journal of Medicine. MEN1 is the acronym for Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia type 1,
a rare hereditary disease in which a mutation of the MEN1 gene on chromosome 11 makes patients susceptible to developing both benign
and malignant tumors on hormone-producing organs such as the parathyroid gland, the pancreas and the pituitary gland. Animal studies previously linked this gene mutation with breast cancer;
Researchers concluded that the average age of diagnosis of breast cancer with this gene abnormality was 48 years old,
Besides skin cancer, it is the most commonly diagnosed cancer; breast cancer is also the 2nd deadliest type of cancer, right behind lung cancer.
About 85%of breast cancers occur in women who have no family history of breast cancer. Even though this study does not offer a cure,
it may provide future scientists with information that can help defeat this devastating disease and it may provide patients the chance to perform early action treatment. t is important that women with the MEN1 syndrome now know that they have to be aware that they run the risk of developing breast cancer,
because early treatment is always better, said Prof. Dr. Elsken van der Wall, a medical oncologist working for the UMC Utrecht Cancer Center e
#A Better Way to Make Unnatural Amino acids Discovered by Yu Certain amino acids that are not found in nature are highly sought after by pharmaceutical manufacturers.
These nnaturalamino acids have traditionally been very difficult to synthesize, so a new and improved technique for doing
and drugs that inhibit the formation of amyloid aggregates seen in Alzheimer, Parkinson and other diseases.
#Uniting To Accelerate Pediatric Medicine Drug companies inherently absorb significant risk when developing compounds and biologics for clinical use.
For many indications, such as Alzheimer and autism, the need for new treatments is enormous, yet investment in these areas is declining due to recent high profile failures.
along with academic institutions and disease foundations. These collaborations are defined coming together, in re-competitivespaces, to generate tools
In the field of autism, stakeholders such as academic researchers, pharma companies, and patient advocacy groups are coming together to better understand the inner workings of the disease in hopes to increase the development and approval of effective therapeutics.
A unified effort in Europe is named underway EU-AIMS a $40 million multi-year collaborative program to develop the infrastructure underpinning new treatments for autism.
These are just two instances of industry coming together to achieve a mutually beneficial goal and tackle challenges that no one organization can tackle alone.
As an industry, pediatric medicine faces many similar challenges. Addressing chronic and complex diseases in kids can improve health outcomes,
quality of life and reduce future medical spending when these children enter their adult lives. Surprisingly, the NIH only allocates five percent of it $30 billion budget to pediatric research
and this has been flat for nearly 20 years (See this blog post)..Other challenges I see include low commercial investment in pediatric medicine and devices, development of effective therapeutics for neurodevelopmental disorders,
and clinical interpretation of genomic data into pediatric clinical care. At the Technology and Innovation Development Office (TIDO) at Boston Children, we have the honor
and challenge of turning the research discoveries and clinical innovations made by our scientists and clinicians into new products that can benefit our kids and the public.
But we cannot do it alone. TIDO extends significant effort to set up strategic alliances with pharma
and biotech companies to develop better treatments most recently with Shire around rare diseases. These alliances leverage Boston Children research expertise and companiesdevelopment and commercialization capabilities.
the Technology Development Fund is an internal funding mechanism set up by the hospital in 2009 that invests in
Boston Children is interested in breaking down the barriers that remain in pediatric medicine. We can only do that if the innovation community
This is why Boston Children is convening top thought leaders to address the toughest challenges in pediatric health care today.
The National Pediatric Innovation Summit, to be held in Boston on September 26 and 27, will bring together leading clinicians, scientists and leaders in industry, private equity,
and health care policy to engage in discussions collectively taking on problems that no single organization can solve alone.
Vertex and Johnson & johnson will interact with thought leaders from leading children hospitals in the US
and innovative solutions needed to tackle the toughest challenges in pediatric healthcare because the lives and well being of children all over the world is depending on us.
is the Executive director of Technology & Innovation Development Office and Managing Partner, Technology Development Fund at Boston Children Hospital.
The mission of the Technology and Innovation Development Office (TIDO) is to translate the excellence of the laboratory research and clinical care at Boston Children into lifesaving biomedical products, devices and procedures for the public benefit e
The latest call for hospital-acquired infections closed recently with 35 applications. Back in September 2011, Roche global innovation program, called EIN (Expanding the Innovation Network,)
Roche agreed to support a new BIO-X project run by Karolinska Institutet spin out Liquid Biopsy in cancer diagnostics.
including circulating tumor cells from blood, paving the way for better cancer treatments. The project will get access both to the BIO-X process support
and Roche global R&d capabilities, offering access to equipment, services, reagents and know-how, as well as financial support for the project for up to two years f
#Wall street journal Highlights Promising Gene therapy Advances Yesterday, bluebird bio reported some very uplifting news at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology.
Two patients with beta-thalassemia, a genetic disorder which normally requires regular blood transfusions, have been able to forgo transfusions for at least five months following a gene therapy treatment from bluebird.
The Wall street journal Ron Winslow reports: Bluebird bio treatment involves extracting blood stem cells from a patient,
Alexis A. Thompson, head of hematology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of medicine in Chicago, and lead investigator of the study. n a relatively short period of time,
theye requiring minimal to no transfusion support. The first patient treated with a previous version of the treatment has now been transfusion-free for over six years
according to bluebird bio President and CEO Nick Leschly, who is also a member of BIO Board of directors.
In addition, many countries have their own national innovation agenda specifically focusing on biomedical research. Perhaps the most striking finding of this analysis is the similarity found across countries in terms of policies
America innovative biopharmaceutical companies face increasing challenges, ranging from the cost and increased complexity of bringing new medicines to patients, the prospect of attracting
and sustaining the capital needed to develop tomorrow new treatments and cures, the increasing uncertainty related to coverage and payment of innovative medicines,
including pests and pathogens, reduced habitat, lack of nutritional resources and exposure to pesticides. gripulse noted that The Washington post reported that the EPA will announce that it will accelerate a review of the effects of neonicotinoid pesticides on pollinators
For initial studies, silver was used to fill the tubes via nano-injection. Various experiments found the shape
#A paper microscope that costs only 50 cents can detect malaria from just a drop of blood
and it could revolutionize medicine TED Conference/Flickrmanu Prakash with the Foldscope, a microscope made almost entirely of paper.
For a whole lot of people, especially those in developing countries, science and with it, medicine isn readily available to the majority of citizens.
His endeavor aims to make medical devices both affordable and available to the masses. The way Prakash sees it
they remain an integral part of detecting disease and analyzing blood samples. Yet despite their necessity, theye expensive.
Practically, the Foldscope can help doctors correctly diagnose deadly diseases such as malaria, schistosomiasis, and African sleeping sickness.
In a TED Talk, Prakash explains that identifying these infections is as simple as adding dye to a single drop of blood.
With cheap, easy-to-use microscopes, any lab technician can learn to detect malaria, potentially revolutionizing healthcare in areas where these diseases run rampant.
While the generic Foldscope serves as a one-size-fits-all microscope, Prakash and his team have developed also specialized versions,
such as a malaria-centric one, that make identifying diseases even easier. TEDTHE completed Foldscope fits any standard microscrope slide.
Prakash vision of"frugal science"didn stop at the microscope, however. He built a $5 microfluidic chemistry lab that is able to test
More than just helping combat disease Prakash also hopes his"frugal science"movement will make science education and research accessible across the globe.
How exactly do these implants give you more freedom? For now, these devices primarily act as identifiers,
This RFID kit comes with everything needed to perform an implant. Eventually, implantable devices could even be tied to your bank account
Prices for products range from $39 for a basic RFID/NFC glass tag to $99 for a NFC injection kit and take only a few minutes to implant into the hands.
While each implant comes with a manuals on how to implant the device, Graafstra recommends not performing the procedure yourself.
these implants are designed perfectly. They are not this obtuse, destructive, difficult thing to deal with.
To date, Dangerous Things has sold several thousand implants and the client base has expanded to a much more diverse group of people,
#Smartphone skin cancer app developed by Vancouver dermatologist A new smartphone app for monitoring skin cancer made its debut at the World Congress of Dermatology in Vancouver on Tuesday.
"It enables patients to have access to the same system that doctors have in their clinic,
I don't have to wait 12 months to use a doctor's phone or...camera to look at my mole.
where doctors can view it in closer detail. Maryam Sadeghi shows off an early version of Molescope, an app for smartphones and ipads that people can use to monitor for signs of skin cancer.
"My Phd supervisor, she found her melanoma when she was designing the device, just testing the image quality,"said Sadeghi."
"Dr. Susan Poelman, a dermatologist at the University of Calgary, says the device could help solve problems in her own clinic."
"Lead researcher Duke university Medical center neurobiologist Miguel Nicolelis reported on the first direct brain-to-brain interface between animals two years ago.
The Brazilian neurobiologist was part of a team of researchers who created a mind-controlled robotic exoskeleton worn by Juliano Pinto as the paraplegic man took part in the kickoff for the 2014 World cup in Sao paulo o
#Smartphones tested as tools for medical research Jody Kearns doesn't like to spend time obsessing about her Parkinson's disease.
"The thing with Parkinson's disease is there's not much you can do about it, "she said of the nervous-system disorder,
but has no cure.""So when I heard about this, I thought, 'I can do this."'
"'Smartphone apps are the latest tools to emerge from the intersection of health care and Silicon valley,
and doctors together online, applying massive computing power to analyze DNA and even developing ingestible"smart"pills for detecting cancer.
Smartphone Medicine Dr. Michael Mcconnell, a cardiologist who's using an app to study heart disease,
Scientists overseeing the studies say the apps could transform medical research by helping them collect information more frequently and from more people, across larger and more diverse regions,
"said Dr. Michael Mcconnell, a Stanford university cardiologist, who's using an app to study heart disease."
"It's one thing that people have with them every day.""While the studies are in early stages,
in some cases, may be more reliable than a doctor's observations. These can be correlated with other health or fitness data and even environmental conditions, such as smog levels, based on the phone's GPS locater.
Google Inc. says it's developing a health-tracking wristband specifically designed for medical studies.
But if smartphones hold great promise for medical research experts say there are issues to consider
Democratizes medicine Apple had created previously software called Healthkit for apps that track iphone owners'health statistics and exercise habits.
and helping to democratize medicine, "Williams said in an interview. Apple launched its Researchkit program in March with five apps to investigate Parkinson's, asthma, heart disease, diabetes and breast cancer.
A sixth app was released last month to collect information for a long-term health study of gays and lesbians by the University of California,
a University of Rochester neurologist who's leading the Parkinson's app study called mpower.""Participating in clinical studies is often a burden,
Dorsey said that's more objective than a process still used in clinics, where doctors watch patients tap their fingers
and assign them a numerical score. Some apps rely on participants to provide data. Elizabeth Ortiz, a 48-year-old New york nurse with asthma, measures her lung power each day by breathing into an inexpensive plastic device.
She types the results into the Asthma Health app which also asks if she's had difficulty breathing or sleeping,
or taken medication that day.""I'm a Latina woman and there's a high rate of asthma in my community,
"said Ortiz, who said she already used her iphone"constantly"for things like banking and email."
and anyone else who suffers from asthma.""None of the apps test experimental drugs or surgeries.
Instead, they're designed to explore such questions as how diseases develop or how sufferers respond to stress, exercise or standard treatment regimens.
Stanford's Mcconnell said he also wants to study the effect of giving participants feedback on their progress,
or reminders about exercise and medication i
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