It has been proven to decrease the risk of obesity and diabetes. This discovery holds promise on many fronts beyond food systems.
#GUMBOS technology promises new drugs, electronic devicesmention a breakthrough involving gumbo technology in New orleans and people think of a new twist on The Local Dish the stew that's the quintessence of southern Louisiana cooking.
what may be an advance in developing GUMBOS-based materials with far-reaching medical electronic and other uses.
and treat cancer. In diagnosing cancer nanoparticles with cancer-seeking properties might be injected into a patient before a medical scan.
If even an early form of cancer were present the particles would accumulate in the abnormal tissue
and make it visible for early diagnosis and the best chances for recovery. For treating the disease nanoparticles would preferentially collect in
and destroy only the abnormal cells sparing healthy tissue from the damage that triggers side effects with existing cancer chemotherapy.
Warner acknowledges that his studies are not at this stage yet because to date all of their studies are based on in vitro measurements
and are still currently under review. Warner said that nanogumbos technology allows scientists to produce new nanoparticles in a focused way such that these particles are produced for specific uses from the beginning.
However many nanoparticles developed so far for medical use for instance must be coated with other materials to provide the desired medicinal property.
For example some nanoparticles are used as the drug delivery vehicle. We can make nanogumbos that are both the drug
and the drug delivery vehicle he said. Warner cited as one example a newly developed nanogumbos material with a provisional patent application filed that his team at LSU foresees as a lead in possible development of new anticancer drugs.
Using in vitro studies they are completing key research to better understand how nanogumbos can be tuned to be selectively toxic to cancer cells and nontoxic to normal cells.
More details are presented on this technology at this New orleans ACS meeting. We have a material that is normally toxic to both cancer cells
and normal cells Warner explained. If we introduce this material in vitro to normal cells it kills them.
Put them in the presence of cancer cells it kills them. However when we convert them to our GUMBOS it only kills cancer cells.
In addition to biomedical applications the materials also have potential uses in solar cells and as nanosensors and biomedical imaging reagents Warner pointed out.
Thus far the scientists have made nanogumbos in many shapes and sizes. For example they can be shaped spherical
The imperative science needs for health-related water research and education1. Joan B. Rose1 Phd Michigan State university Department of Fisheries and Wildlife 480 Wilson Road Natural resources Bldg Rm 13 East Lansing MI 48824
and a growing recognition of the impacts of contaminants that cannot be removed easily by existing treatment processes.
Emerging opportunities for water disinfection integrated urban water management and risk assessment1. Pedro J. Alvarez1 Phd Rice university Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering 6100 Main street MS 519 Houston TX 77005 United states 713-348-5903
alvarez@rice. eduthe extraordinary properties of some nanomaterials offer leapfrogging opportunities to develop next-generation applications for drinking water disinfection
and safer wastewater reuse (e g. photocatalytically-enhanced disinfection biofouling-resistant membranes and biofilm-and corrosion-resistant surfaces).
The convergence of nanotechnology with environmental microbiology could expand the limits of technology enhance global health through safer water reuse
This presentation will consider the antibacterial mechanisms of various nanomaterials within the context of environmental implications and applications.
Dow has made also investments that are solving the waterborne disease crisis by bringing affordable potable water through deployment of low-cost community-based water systems.
and soils negatively impacting ecological health. Researchers have used now publicly accessible data collected weekly or monthly at numerous monitoring sites during the period from 1980-2010 to track wet deposition of nitrate and sulfate near several U s. and East Asian cities.
#New diagnostic technology may lead to individualized treatments for prostate cancera research team jointly led by scientists from Cedars-Sinai Medical center
and grab circulating tumor cells or CTCS that break away from cancers and enter the blood often leading to the spread of cancer to other parts of the body.
If more studies confirm the technology's effectiveness the Nanovelcro Chip device could enable doctors to access
and identify cancerous cells in the bloodstream which would provide the diagnostic information needed to create individually tailored treatments for patients with prostate cancer.
The researchers believe this technology may function as a liquid biopsy revolutionizing conventional biopsy practices
and significantly advancing the field of personalized medicine. Today's biopsies require the removal of tissue samples through a needle inserted into a solid tumor a procedure that is invasive and sometimes painful.
Biopsies are extremely difficult in metastatic prostate cancer because the disease often spreads to bone where the availability of the tissue is low.
The biggest challenges in the treatment of cancer are that every person's tumor differs greatly
and often mutates over time especially in response to treatment. Researchers hope that by analyzing these CTCS doctors will be able to understand the tumor evolution in each individual.
By monitoring the genetic changes in CTCS and their invasiveness in a tissue culture dish doctors may be able to quickly adjust their treatment plans in response We are optimistic that the use of our Nanovelcro CTC technology will revolutionize prostate cancer treatment.
We know that cancers evolve over time and that every patient's cancer is a unique problem--the'one-size-fits-all'approach is not going to allow us to cure prostate cancer
or any other cancer said Edwin M. Posadas MD medical director of the Urologic Oncology Program at Cedars-Sinai's Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute and senior author
of the article in the March online issue of Advanced Materials. This evolution means that we need to be able to monitor these changes over time
and to ensure a patient's treatment is individualized and optimized. The molecular characterizations of CTCS will provide real-time information allowing us to choose the right treatment for the right patient at the right time.
This improvement will be a great step toward developing personalized medicine he added. The existence of CTCS and their role in cancer metastasis was suspected first more than 140 years ago
and the first test for the routine measurement of CTCS became available in 2004 but earlier methods have produced low capture efficiencies
and limited capability of captured cells to be utilized for later molecular analysis. Our technology is the combination of three state-of-the-art technologies:
the Nanovelcro CTC chip laser capture microdissection and whole exome sequencing said Yi-Tsung Lu MD a postdoctoral scientist at the Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer
Institute and one of the article's first authors. This advancement will in principle allow us to track the genomic evolution of prostate cancer after we initiate a therapy
and will allow us to better understand the mechanism of drug resistance that is common in prostate cancer patients.
We hope the comprehensive understanding of cancer biology at the individual level will ultimately lead to better therapy choice for patients suffering from advanced cancer.
With the new system a patient's blood is pumped through the Nanovelcro Chip--the microvilli protruding from the cancer cells will stick to the nanofiber structures on the device's surface much like Velcro.
This phenomenon facilitates the capture of rare CTCS in the blood stream. Next laser capture microdissection technology allows the scientists to selectively cut out
and pick up the CTCS from the Nanovelcro Chip virtually eliminating any trace of any contamination from white blood cells
which can complicate analysis. Finally the isolated and purified CTCS are subjected to single cell next-generation sequencing
which reveals mutations in the genetic material of the cells and may help doctors personalize therapies to a patient's unique cancer.
To date CTC capture technologies have been able to do little more than count the number of CTCS which is informative but not very useful from a treatment planning perspective.
It is a scientific breakthrough to have the ability to isolate pure CTCS and maintain their integrity for sophisticated genomic and behavioral analyses said Hsian-Rong Tseng Phd associate professor of molecular and medical pharmacology at UCLA and the inventor of the Nanovelcro Chip concept and device.
His enthusiasm is echoed by Leland W. K. Chung Phd director of the Urologic Oncology Research Program at the Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute.
Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Science Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA and VA Greater Los angeles Healthcare System Beijing Genomics Institute in China Cytolumina Technologies
Corp. and Fourth Military Medical University in China contributed to the article. Cedars-Sinai researchers were supported by a Young Investigator Award and a Challenge Award from the Prostate Cancer Foundation research grants (P01 CA098912 and R01 CA122602) from the National institutes of health a Department of defense Idea
Award (W81xwh-11-1-0422) and from Spielberg Family Foundation. UCLA researchers were supported by a Creativity Award from the Prostate Cancer Foundation and research grants (R21 CA151159 and R33 CA157396) from the National institutes of health/National Cancer Institute Innovative Molecular Analysis
Technologies (IMAT) Program. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Cedars-Sinai Medical center.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference e
#Waste heat may economize CO2 capturein some of the first results from a federally funded initiative to find new ways of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from coal-fired power plants Rice university scientists have found that CO2 can be removed more economically using waste heat
--low-grade steam that cannot be used to produce electricity. The find is significant because capturing CO2 with conventional technology is an energy-intensive process that can consume as much as one-quarter of the high-pressure steam that plants use to produce electricity.
The state of the lesser prairie chicken is an indicator of prairie health he said. A general decline shows that the ecosystem as a whole faces uncertainty
But new research from Dr. Jay Narayan John C. Fan Distinguished Chair Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at NC State may revolutionize the sintering process.
The beetles don't carry disease but their larvae feed on the ash trees'sap effectively killing the trees by depriving trees of their nourishment.
The first project was launched in 2009 by the Department of energy at a corn ethanol production facility in Decatur Ill. operated by the Archer daniel midlands Company.
#Lack of energy an enemy to antibiotic-resistant microbesrice University researchers cured a strain of bacteria of its ability to resist an antibiotic in an experiment that has implications for a longstanding public health crisis. Rice environmental engineer Pedro Alvarez
and his team managed to remove the ability of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa microorganism to resist the antibiotic medication tetracycline by limiting its access to food and oxygen.
and often transmissible DNA element--that allows it to resist tetracycline. The researchers'results reported this month in the American Chemical Society journal Environmental science
and Technology are the latest in a long effort to understand the environmental aspects of antibiotic resistance which threatens decades of progress in fighting disease.
The propagation of antibiotic resistance has been perceived as a medical or microbiology-related problem Alvarez said.
A lot of the antibiotic-resistant bacteria originate in animal agriculture where there is overuse misuse and abuse of antibiotics.
Alvarez contended that confined animal feeding operations (CAFOS) are potential sources of environmental contamination by antibiotics
and the associated antibiotic-resistant genes that find their way into the ground water and ultimately the food supply.
We started with the hypothesis that microbes don't like to carry excess baggage he said. That means they will drop genes they're not using
The Rice researchers tested their theory on two strains of bacteria P. aeruginosa which is found in soil
and/or oxygen through successive generations they found that in the absence of tetracycline both microbes dumped the resistance plasmid though not entirely in the case of E coli.
which made it susceptible once again to antibiotics. When a high level of tetracycline was present both microbes retained a level of resistance One long-recognized problem with antibiotics is that they tend to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
If any antibiotic-resistant bacteria are part of a biological mix whether in a person an animal or in the environment the weak microbes will die
and the resistant will survive and propagate; this process is known by biologists as selective pressure.
If we can put an anaerobic barrier at the point where a lagoon drains into the environment we will essentially exert selective pressure for the loss of antibiotic-resistant genes
but it's enough to have bacteria notice a deficiency in their ability to obtain energy from the environment and feel the stress to dump resistant genes.
His study of the Haihe River in China funded by the Chinese government and published last year found tetracycline resistance genes are common in the environment there as well.
Jim Drouillard professor of animal sciences and industry developed a technique that enriches ground beef with omega-3 fatty acids--fatty acids that have been shown to reduce heart disease cholesterol and high blood pressure.
though many doctors and nutritionists recommend between 1200-1600 milligrams daily depending on a person's age and health.
The health benefits of omega-3s are limited not to humans. Studies show that dairy and beef cattle with an enriched diet of flaxseed
and other omega-3 rich grains have fewer respiratory diseases. The cattle also have higher fertility rates which helps offset infertility among dairy cattle.
and reduce diabetes in cattle. Research showed that omega-3 levels dramatically increased in the cattle as more flaxseed was introduced into their diet.
and Drug Administration's seal of approval for containing omega-3 fatty acids. Todd Hansen CEO of NBO3 Technologies LLC said consumer response has been positive in test markets.
We really believe in the health aspect of this product and are using the slogan 'When Every Bite Counts'to emphasize that.
For instance the fibers can be wound to coat complex shapes. Because the fibers change color under strain the technology could lend itself to smart sports textiles that change color in areas of muscle tension
or that sense when an object is placed under strain as a result of heat. Additional coauthors included Alfred Lethbridge at the University of Exeter Moritz Kreysing at Ludwig Maximilians University (Germany) and Jeremy B. Baumberg Professor of Nanophotonics at the University of Cambridge (UK).
#Magnetic levitation tissues could speed toxicity testsin a development that could lead to faster and more effective toxicity tests for airborne chemicals scientists from Rice university and the Rice spinoff company Nano3d Biosciences have used magnetic levitation to grow some of the most realistic lung tissue ever produced in a laboratory.
The research is part of an international trend in biomedical engineering to create laboratory techniques for growing tissues that are virtually identical to those found in people's bodies.
Killian and fellow scientists from Rice and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center co-founded Nano3d Biosciences in 2009 after creating a technology that uses magnetism to levitate
because there's a large potential payoff in terms of reducing costs for pharmaceutical and toxicological testing. Nano3d Biosciences won a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2011 to create a four-layered lung tissue from endothelial cells smooth muscle cells
which is important for toxicological testing because primary cells provide the closest possible match to native cells.
Souza said bronchiole tissue could solve another problem that's frequently encountered in testing the toxicity of airborne agents.
which is what you'd prefer for toxicity testing he said. With our technology we can easily levitate the bronchiole tissue to the air-liquid interface
so that airborne toxins are exposed to the epithelial layer of the tissue just as it would occur in the lungs.
Dr. Robert Moore a pediatric pulmonologist at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM; and former BCM scientist Jacob Gage now with Nano3d Biosciences.
#New company applies regenerative medicine to corneal transplantsocular Systems Inc. OSI) Wake Forest Baptist Medical center
The new approach not yet tested in patients involves isolating cells from banked donor corneas to grow replacement corneal tissue in the lab. The advantage is that cells from a single donor could potentially benefit multiple patients with impaired vision.
The company formed by OSI the sponsor and initial funder of the project Wake Forest Baptist Medical center
whose Institute for Regenerative Medicine is conducting the research and the North carolina Eye Bank is an example of the type of collaboration that is a strategic goal of the Piedmont Triad Research Park (PTRP).
and Drug Administration to begin studies in human patients. This is expected to take several years.
The current surgical technique is to replace a patient's damaged CECS with a very thin layer of tissue containing cells from a cadaveric donor cornea.
The goal of the new partnership is use regenerative medicine technology to meet this increased demand.
and scaffolds can theoretically be applied to almost any tissue in the body said Anthony Atala M d. director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
It is exciting that a collaboration based in the Piedmont Triad research Park right here in Winston-salem has the potential to create products that can bring benefits to patients throughout the world said Eric Tomlinson D. Sc.
Shay Soker Ph d. professor of regenerative medicine at Wake Forest Baptist is the lead scientist for the project.
Other team members are Tracy Criswell Ph d. instructor of regenerative medicine; Ocular Systems Inc. scientists Jin San Choi Ph d. and Belinda Wagner Ph d.;
and Wake Forest Baptist Department of Ophthalmology physicians Craig Greven M d. chair Matthew Giegengack M d. assistant professor and Keith Walter M d. associate professor.
Wake Forest Baptist Medical center and Keith Walter M d. receive royalties from OSI from sales of the Endoserter device
and Dr. Walter serves on OSI's Medical Advisory board and provides consulting for OSI. Story Source:
The above story is provided based on materials by Wake Forest Baptist Medical center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length t
#Cow behavior changes in response to deterioration in healthwhen a cow develops mastitis her behaviour changes
but is it possible to recognise the signs of this diseases in other ways and even earlier?
A dairy cow becomes restless four hours after it contracts bacterial mastitis. Simultaneously the other symptoms of a steadily progressing inflammation such as increased body temperature
The study showed that it is in the milk that the first symptoms of a disease can be detected
while changes in a cow's behaviour acted as an indicator for a change in the cow's health says Jutta Kauppi summing up the results of her study.
At a conventional milking stall mastitis is detected often as late as during a milking session
Kauppi's doctoral dissertation sought to identify critical points in cow behaviour pointing to deterioration in the cow's health.
Changes in cow behaviour including restlessness proved promising indicators for an incipient change in health status. To our surprise changes in milk composition were identifiable before such symptoms were evident
Technology provides extra set of eyes for the stockpersonin addition to the stockperson's good eye for cattle technology is used heavily in the modern cowshed in feeding cattle in ensuring a successful completion of milking and in monitoring cows'health and activity levels.
Because some cows are naturally more active than others technology alone is insufficient detect decreasing health status of a cow.
and on welfare technologies will increasingly target at early detection of signals that predict a health problem of an animal.
This will enable the launch of preventive measures at an earlier stage than before affecting the process of a cow contracting a disease and shortening the recovery time.
Mastitis is extremely harmful for both the farmer and the cow. When an inflammation has gained a footing the cow is seriously ill.
The milk extracted from the cow is also unsuitable for the food chain causing substantial loss due to treatment with antibiotics
With regard to the cow's well-being and the financial impact caused by the disease warning signals should be intercepted as early
Our laboratory has ongoing research with the USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service into remote-reporting Internet-based technologies
#Wildland fire modeling can lead to better predictionsif we can better understand scientifically how wildland fires behave we'll have a better chance to accurately predict the spatial and temporal evolution of high intensity wildfires says Dr. Shankar Mahalingam dean of the UAH College of Engineering
Dr. Mahalingam is studying how wildland fire propagates in an effort to be able to more accurately model such fires via physically based computational models.
and homes says Dr. Mahalingam. High confidence in the reliability of fire prediction is lacking today even as Western drought
That currently is about the range of prediction ability that we have with operational fire behavior models for low intensity fires Dr. Mahalingam says.
and managers who have fought blazes for years Dr. Mahalingam says. With funding from the U s. Department of agriculture's U s. Forest Service Division Dr. Mahalingam and his collaborator UAH Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering faculty member Dr. Babak Shotorban are currently supervising four doctoral
students in the MAE department to do the kind of basic forest fire combustion research that can move our predictive ability from the experiential realm to scientific mathematical models and longer-range computational predictions.
In 1998 his previous fundamental work in turbulent combustion at the University of Colorado at Boulder led Dr. Mahalingam to do NSF-sponsored field research in Alaska comparing the properties of prescribed permafrost
The process begins with pyrolysis the thermochemical decomposition of organic material at elevated temperature Dr. Mahalingam says.
or small tree that are prevalent in southern California have been the focus of Dr. Mahalingam's research:
Dr. Mahalingam studied that more closely in association with the U s. Forest Service while at the University of California Riverside.
and the other is moisture Dr. Mahalingam says. California's seasonal combination of Santa anna winds and rising temperatures both serve to dry the fuel for combustion and drive the fire's process once underway.
I call a fire transition phenomena Dr. Mahalingam says. Fire is losing heat through radiative
and started collaborating with Dr. Shotorban. Currently under study is the effect of shrubs as undergrowth in wildland fires
We light the shrub then figure out how much time it takes to burn out Dr. Mahalingam says.
Dr. Mahalingam asks. We are interested in how the fire spreads from shrub to shrub what the interaction is and at what spacing and
Meeting Salt lake city UT May 19-22 2013) All of this scientific effort is being driven by Dr. Mahalingam's quest for reliable scientific computerized fire prediction.
and Osaka universities who have come up with a simple way to spot contaminants. Because it's so easy to accidently introduce impurities into graphene labs led by physicists Junichiro Kono of Rice
To address this technological challenge Prof Sow Dr Lu Junpeng a postdoctoral candidate from the Department of physics at the NUS Faculty of science
The nightjar--Caprimulgus europaeus--is a migratory species protected under the Birds Directive (Directive 2009/147/EC) and in the UK by the classification of Special Protection Areas (SPAS.
Benefits of carotenoidswhatâ's more according to the researchers the inclusion of carotenoids in a diet can help to reduce risk of developing diseases such as certain types of cancer heart disease or damage to vision especially those related to an aging population.
Their discovery should help biologists better understand how the steadily increasing levels of CO2 in our atmosphere (which last spring for the first time in recorded history remained above 400 parts per million) are affecting the ability of plants and economically important crops to deal with heat stress and drought.
Less evaporation adds to heat stress in plants which ultimately affects crop yield. â#Schroeder is also co-director of a new research entity at UC San diego called â#oefood and Fuel for the 21st Centuryâ
which when mutated abolished the plantâ##s ability to respond to CO2 stress. Cawas Engineer a postdoctoral scientist in Schroederâ##s lab and the first author of the study found that
#New technologies will bring health benefits of oats and barley to a greater number of foodsnew technologies may help food manufacturers more broadly utilize the many healthful benefits of oats
Oats are now the third largest food staple in China growing in popularity as that country deals with rising rates of cancer diabetes heart disease and intestinal issues.
And yet recent discoveries of the varied health benefits of oats and barley have spurred food scientists to develop new
and oats we can improve public health said Liu. Many researchers have worked on processing barley or oats into value-added fractions enriched with nutrients some with commercial success said Liu.
and to educate consumers about the health benefits of beta-glucan and these two grains.
#Advantages, potential of computer-guided spinal surgeryin a series of research studies Cedars-Sinai spinal surgeons show that a new method of computer-guided spine surgery is beneficial for spinal reconstruction
and for treating complex tumors and degenerative spine problems resulting in fewer complications and better outcomes for patients.
The Cedars-Sinai surgeons highlight the advantages of a spinal navigation technique that uses high-speed computerized tomography (CT) imaging to navigate in and around the spinal column from different angles.
They present their findings in six articles published in the current issue of Neurosurgical Focus an online peer-reviewed journal published by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons.
Investigators say the three-dimensional navigational method is a major improvement over traditional two-dimensional fluoroscopic X-rays.
It allows surgeons to more precisely and accurately place reconstruction screws in the narrow bony corridors of the spine avoiding nerves blood vessels and other critical structures.
This reduces or may even avoid complications postoperative pain and the need for follow-up surgeries they write.
Computer-guided surgical navigation technology delivers on quality and safety said J. Patrick Johnson MD a neurosurgery spine specialist and director of Spine Education and the Neurosurgery Spine Fellowship program in the Department of Neurosurgery.
It clearly improves outcomes in spine care. The computerized navigation system uses a mobile CT-scanner to take cross-sectional images of the spine
while a patient is in surgery. The images are transferred to a computer which displays them on overhead monitors that allow precise tracking of surgical instruments as surgeons insert screws for reconstruction
and perform other complex procedures on the spine. Surgeons said the technique is superior to existing methods because of its precision and speed.
They point out that even small miscalculations with two-dimensional technology can cause problems that require follow-up operations
The Cedars-Sinai surgeons say they have cut these to nearly zero by using computer-guided methods.
The surgeons said the technology has others applications for treating spinal disorders serving as a tool to remove tumors decompress the spinal column
and perform minimally-invasive surgery. This approach represents a major leap forward for instrumented spine surgery said Terrence T. Kim MD an orthopedic spine surgeon in the Cedars-Sinai Spine Center and expert in the computer-guided navigation field.
We're looking at the future. Joining Drs. Johnson and Kim as study co-authors are Doniel Drazin MD a senior resident in the Department of Neurosurgery and Robert S. Pashman MD a clinical associate professor and orthopedic spine surgeon at the Cedars
-Sinai Spine Center. The group's studies accounted for six of 10 articles in the March issue of Neurological Focus.
A spokeswoman at the online journal said it is highly unusual for a single institution to publish a majority of articles in a single journal issue.
and computer-aided system used during minimally invasive surgery increased the accuracy of screw placement into vertebral pedicle bones.
and the mobile CT scanner allowed for more accurate surgical placement even within the narrowest parts of the thoracic spine particularly challenging regions in women
A third study determined that the image-guided technique can be useful for other minimally invasive procedures including thoracic endoscopic spine surgery to remove tumors infections
The final two articles offer an overview of computer-guided surgery of the spine including its use in revision
or redo spine surgeries that are often the most complex; and the potential future use of robotic spine surgery with computer navigation.
The special issue of the journal can be accessed at: http://thejns. org/toc/foc/36/3story Source:
The above story is provided based on materials by Cedars-Sinai Medical center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
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