Biomed Engine

jtotheizzoe: genannetics: NOBEL PRIZE...

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 19:26:17 -0500

genannetics:

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:

I do think that the Nobel committee should have included Dr. James Thomson on this shared award. He was the first to derive human embryonic stem cells, and he and Dr. Yamanaka each published the iPS results in the same issue of Nature on work they had been doing simultaneously. Both recipients are very deserving, but Dr. Thomson made significant contributions to this field of research, in a manner deserving of recognition.

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 …

smarterplanet: New injection could keep you alive without...

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 13:43:43 -0500

smarterplanet:

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.

Painless administration of a vaccine by tiny microneedles on a...

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:56:59 -0500

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

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 17:49:28 -0500

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…

http://www.genesisgenetics.org/partnerclinics.html

Imagine having an entire pharmacy’s worth of...

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:06:53 -0600

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.

CrowdSourcing Competitions

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 14:32:04 -0600

CrowdSourcing Competitions

smarterplanet: Implantable Tumor Tracker Is a Tiny Lab That...

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 13:05:57 -0600

smarterplanet:

Implantable Tumor Tracker Is a Tiny Lab That Lives Inside Your Body And Reports Back | Popular Science

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:

realcleverscience: HEART STOP BEATING by: JEREMIAH ZAGAR In...

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:54:37 -0600

realcleverscience:

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!

And hat-tip to spleakstudios for the tip! (here) (Also, some info/photos here)

For cutting-edge biomedical materials, try corn

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:07:32 -0600

For cutting-edge biomedical materials, try corn:

harvardseas:

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]

jtotheizzoe: Synthetic trachea transplant shows promise of...

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:18:33 -0600

jtotheizzoe:

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)

jayparkinsonmd: Molecular visualizations of DNA. Stunning....

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:42:15 -0600

jayparkinsonmd:

Molecular visualizations of DNA. Stunning. Especially replication, which begins at 1:42.

dvdp: Diffusion Spectrum Imaging, A new imaging technique,...

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:27:31 -0600

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

futuramb: As Smartphones Get Smarter, You May Get Healthier:...

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:19:42 -0600

futuramb:

As Smartphones Get Smarter, You May Get Healthier: How mHealth Can Bring Cheaper Health Care To All | Fast Company

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.

jtotheizzoe: smarterplanet: IBM researchers store one bit of...

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:38:53 -0600

jtotheizzoe:

smarterplanet:

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...

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:34:23 -0600

Wonder what a comparison of helmet impact forces between high school, college, and NFL football players by position would look like?

jtotheizzoe: Brain Electrodes Fix Deep Depression Long-Term A...

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 22:05:16 -0600

jtotheizzoe:

Brain Electrodes Fix Deep Depression Long-Term

A placebo-controlled study showed that an electrode surgically implanted into a particular brain region could eliminate symptoms of the deepest, most untreatable forms of depression:

Deep depression that fails to respond to any other form of therapy can be moderated or reversed by stimulation of areas deep inside the brain. Now the first placebo-controlled study of this procedure shows that these responses can be maintained in the long term¹.

Neurologist Helen Mayberg at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, followed ten patients with major depressive disorder and seven with bipolar disorder, or manic depression, after an electrode device was implanted in the subcallosal cingulate white matter of their brains and the area continuously stimulated.

For psychiatrists accustomed to seeing severely depressed patients fail to respond — or fail to maintain a response — to antidepressant or cognitive therapy, these results seem near miraculous.

All but one of twelve patients who reached the two-year point in the study had completely shed their depression or had only mild symptoms.

“Its almost spooky.”

Of course, surgical implants to treat depression will never be mainstream or generally ethical, but it shows that focused therapies dealing with very precise brain regions could alleviate symptoms, at least for some of the most untreatable sufferers of depression.

(via Nature News)

Use your eyes to control the mouse on your computer… Would...

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:47:02 -0600

Use your eyes to control the mouse on your computer… Would love to have this function next time I’m playing Call of Duty.

notasenator: Neil deGrasse Tyson Lists 8 (Free) Books Every...

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:46:08 -0600

notasenator:

Neil deGrasse Tyson Lists 8 (Free) Books Every Intelligent Person Should Read

A Reddit.com user posed the question to Neil deGrasse Tyson: “Which books should be read by every single intelligent person on the planet?”

Below, you will find the book list offered up by the astrophysicist, director of the Hayden Planetarium, and popularizer of science. Where possible, we have included links to free versions of the books, all taken from our Free Audio Books and Free eBooks collections.

If you’re looking for a more extensive list of essential works, don’t miss The Harvard Classics, a 51 volume series that you can now download online.

1.) The Bible (eBook) - “to learn that it’s easier to be told by others what to think and believe than it is to think for yourself.”

2.) The System of the World by Isaac Newton (eBook) – “to learn that the universe is a knowable place.”

3.) On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin (eBook – Audio Book) - “to learn of our kinship with all other life on Earth.”

4.) Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift (eBook – Audio Book) – “to learn, among other satirical lessons, that most of the time humans are Yahoos.”

5.) The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine (eBook – Audio Book) – “to learn how the power of rational thought is the primary source of freedom in the world.”

6.) The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith (eBook – Audio Book) - “to learn that capitalism is an economy of greed, a force of nature unto itself.”

7.) The Art of War by Sun Tsu (eBook – Audio Book) - “to learn that the act of killing fellow humans can be raised to an art.”

8.) The Prince by Machiavelli (eBook – Audio Book) - “to learn that people not in power will do all they can to acquire it, and people in power will do all they can to keep it.”

Tyson concludes by saying: “If you read all of the above works you will glean profound insight into most of what has driven the history of the western world.”

H/T goes to Galley Cat

Alumina nano-straws help facilitate delivery of small molecule...

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:20:46 -0600

Alumina nano-straws help facilitate delivery of small molecule drugs at the cellular level, without inhibiting cell growth.

New discovery reveals the lubricating layer formed on implanted...

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:15:45 -0600

New discovery reveals the lubricating layer formed on implanted prosthetic joints with metal-on-metal contacts is a thin layer of carbon. Reminds me of graphite lubricant used on pinewood derby cars.