NOBEL PRIZE ANNOUNCEMENT!
Congratulations to the winners of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Medicine:
John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka are the joint winners of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent.
Check out this article for more information on pluripotent stem cells and these two scientist’s contribution to medicine:
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2012/advanced-medicineprize2012.pdf
Personal note:
This was a pretty obvious choice this year, but that does not diminish the incredible science done by these two gentlemen. I guess what I’m really saying is “I totally picked right, so go me!”
I agree that Wisconsin’s James Thomson could/should have been included in this award along with Yamanaka (although Gurdon’s work predates them). The protein factors that turn on the appropriate genes to convert adult cells back into an embryonic or stem cell-like state would not be known without Dr. Thomson’s work. We got mad love for ya, Dr. Thomson.
It’s one of the fastest “research to Nobel” turnarounds that I know of, but I think it’s well-deserved. It may yet be decades before we see medical benefits resulting from this sort of work, but we have come close to decoding one of the most basic questions of biology: What makes this cell do this thing, and how can we make it do something else?
Happy Nobel-mas! More awards to come …
New injection could keep you alive without breathing.
A team led by researchers at Boston Childrens Hospital have developed tiny, gas filled microparticles that can be delivered via an injection to quickly oxygenate the blood. In lab tests, the injection kept mice alive for 15 minutes after their airways were blocked.
The team hopes that one day the microparticle solutions could be used by paramedics or emergency room doctors to allow time for a breathing tube or other measure to be put in place. The injections could likely be used for up to 30 minutes, after which time the injected fluid would start to overload the bloodstream.
(Source: medicalxpress.com)
Painless administration of a vaccine by tiny microneedles on a skin patch. Interestingly, this mechanism of antigen exposure promotes a better immune response compared to the traditional bolus injections that make our arm’s go limp for an afternoon.
Designer Babies
Preimplantation genetic testing. Useful for pre-selecting embryos that will:
Create babies that do not carry debilitating genetic mutations that have been in you family history.
Create babies to be a matching bone marrow donor for someone in your family who needs a bone marrow transplant; such as in multiple myelome or leukemia.
Fascinating…
Imagine having an entire pharmacy’s worth of drugs implanted in your body primed for release upon demand. It’s like a medical “OnStar”. This idea of an implantable microchip for programmable multi-dose drug delivery finally shows proof of concept with the osteoporosis drug teriparatide.
Rather than bringing people into the lab, researchers at MIT are putting tiny labs into people via a tiny implantable capsule that can track the growth of a tumor or detect heart-deterioration or even silent heart attacks from inside the body. The miniature lab is small enough to implant via a needle during a normal biopsy, and can remain inside the body vigilantly watching for increased tumor growth. The inside of the device is filled with nanoparticles, each sporting an antibody specially designed to bind to specific molecules like those that are produced by certain kinds of tumors or by damaged heart muscle cells.
via joshbyard:
HEART STOP BEATING
by: JEREMIAH ZAGAR
In March 2011, two visionary doctors from the Texas Heart Institute successfully replaced a dying man’s heart with a ‘continuous flow’ device, proving that life was possible without a heart beat.
Jeremiah Zagar is the Emmy-nominated director of In a Dream, Delhi House, and Coney Island, 1945.
___This is a pretty cool 3 minute film. Check it out!
For cutting-edge biomedical materials, try corn
Winter mini-course explores plant-derived materials for wound closures, drug delivery, and tissue engineering
One might expect, these days, to find corn products in food, fuel, and fabric, but a corn-based glue that can heal an injured eyeball? That’s a-maize-ing.
Creating new materials from abundant, natural plant sources, today’s biomedical and biochemical engineers are finding clinical uses for new “custom” materials that were not even remotely considered in recent decades.
Both renewable and remarkable, plant-based medical products are on the cutting edge of a field called “sustainable biomaterials,” a topic so intriguing that 23 undergraduates chose to spend an extra week at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) to take a course on it during their winter break.
“It was engaging, comprehensive, and demonstrated just how ‘sexy’ science can be,” said Aubrey Walker ‘15.
The seminar-style mini-course was led by Sujata Bhatia, Assistant Director for Undergraduate Studies in Biomedical Engineering, who arrived at SEAS last spring. As an industry scientist at DuPont, Bhatia had been at the forefront of research resulting in clinically relevant products, including plant-based tissue adhesives. She now brings that expertise to guide an agile and modern curriculum at SEAS…. [more]
Synthetic trachea transplant shows promise of tissue engineering
Got a bum trachea? WIndpipe not blowing up to steam? We can grow a new one for you.
Thanks to a new technique where a patient’s own stem cells are grown on plastic scaffolds and differentiated into tracheal cells, it looks like that might be a reality.
More on the Baltimore man who was the recipient of this science magic at the New York Times.
(via CIRM)
Molecular visualizations of DNA. Stunning. Especially replication, which begins at 1:42.
dvdp:
Diffusion Spectrum Imaging, A new imaging technique, developed at Massachusetts General Hospital, makes it possible to see in detail how neural fibers criss-cross the brain and connect its regions. Read more
//via wanderlustmind
This is the thrilling, disruptive potential of “mHealth,” the rapidly growing business of using mobile technology in health care. Leveraging the wonders of a device that’s fast becoming ubiquitous—two in three people worldwide own a cell phone—a new generation of startups is building apps and add-ons that make your handheld work like high-end medical equipment. Except it’s cheaper, sleeker, and a lot more versatile. “It’s like the human body has developed a new organ,” says Raja Rajamannar, chief innovation officer at Humana. Smartphones can already track calories burned and miles run, and measure sleep patterns. By 2013, they’ll be detecting erratic heartbeats, monitoring tremors from Parkinson’s disease, and even alerting you when it’s prime time to make a baby.
IBM researchers store one bit of magnetic information in just 12 atoms (by IBMResearchAlmaden)
IBM Research - Almaden physicist Andreas Heinrich explains the industry-wide need to examine the future of storage at the atomic scale and how he and his teammates started with 1 atom and a scanning tunneling microscope and eventually succeeded in storing one bit of magnetic information reliably in 12 atoms.
When do I get this in my iPhone?
Wonder what a comparison of helmet impact forces between high school, college, and NFL football players by position would look like?
