Archives: 6/2005

Diagnostics / Ob/Gyn / OTC / Surgery

iFind: Home Breast Screening Device

by Gene Ostrovsky on Jun 10, 2005 • 10:16 am

3959806 iFind: Home Breast Screening DeviceThe Department of Defense is the second largest funder of breast cancer research in the US. The following is taken from the press release from “Era of Hope” meeting held this week by the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program:

A hand-held device in development may one day allow women to screen themselves for breast cancer in the privacy of their homes. The device, tentatively named “iFind,” monitors the differences in blood oxygen ratios in growing cancers and normal tissues, reported researchers from the University of Pennsylvania. If it picks up potential early signs of breast cancer, it alerts the user with either a light or a vibration.
“It’s important to know that this would be part of a breast exam, not a full diagnostic device,” explained Britton Chance, Ph.D., emeritus professor of physics and radiology at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in Philadelphia, and developer of the device. “It would provide an indication of early signs of breast cancer that need to be followed up by a doctor.”
The device measures oxygenation rather than blood volume to detect hypermetabolism — the speedier growth rate of cancer cells. The prototype breast cancer detector performed with a positive predictive value of about 93%, which the researchers describe as a remarkably successful test for detecting breast cancer. Reliance on near-infrared light makes it a safe technology as well; women can use it as frequently as they wish. The study was conducted over a six-year period at two sites.
“This equipment gives women an opportunity to take charge of their own health, and it only requires minimal training,” said Dr. Chance. “The device also has a longitudinal memory, so if something suspicious is flagged, the woman can bring the device with her to her doctor who will have results from every time it has been used…”
In addition to the hand-held imager, Dr. Chance is developing an imaging tool intended for use in a clinical setting rather than at home.

The prototype device designed by Dr. Chance, was previously known as NIRScanner™ (after extensive search of the internet, we were unable to find pictures of iFind–”I cann’t find iFind” situation). The device was demonstrated earlier by Dr. Chance to Philadelphia’s NBC10, and can be seen in the video on this page.
HealthDay has more info on the device and news from the meeting here…
More info on NIRScanner™ is here (.pdf)…
FLASHBACK: BreastChecker

Military Medicine

Floating Medgadget Heading Home

by Gene Ostrovsky on Jun 10, 2005 • 9:27 am

mercy sm Floating Medgadget Heading HomeThe Associated Press reports:

The United States Navy Ship Mercy heads towards San Diego Wednesday, June 8, 2005 after a five-month mission of tsunami relief and humanitarian assistance in Southeast Asian and the Pacific Islands. One of Mexico’s Coronado Islands is in the backround. The ship’s medical personnel treated more than 100,000 patients following the devastating tsumani on Dec. 26, 2004. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

The US Navy’s floating medgadget–the biggest of them all–that we covered earlier, is one of two General Dynamics supertankers converted into a hospital for the US military. For more information on the facilities provided on the ship and many additional photos, take a look at the ship’s own homepage.

Nanomedicine

MIT: New Technique May Speed DNA Analysis

by Gene Ostrovsky on Jun 10, 2005 • 6:45 am

dna dots sm MIT: New Technique May Speed DNA AnalysisA new “nano-printing” technique developed at MIT could revolutionize mass production of DNA microarray and other diagnostic devices:

In the new printing method, called Supramolecular Nano-Stamping (SuNS), single strands of DNA essentially self-assemble upon a surface to duplicate a nano-scale pattern made of their complementary DNA strands. The duplicates are identical to the master and can thus be used as masters themselves. This increases print output exponentially while enabling the reproduction of very complex nano-scale patterns.
One such pattern is found on a DNA microarray, a silicon or glass chip printed with up to 500,000 tiny dots [see picture above - ed.]. Each dot comprises multiple DNA molecules of known sequence, i.e. a piece of an individual’s genetic code. Scientists use DNA microarrays to discover and analyze a person’s DNA or messenger-RNA genetic code. This allows for, say, the early diagnosis of liver cancer, or the prediction of the chances that a couple will produce a child with a genetic disease.
Frequent, widespread use of these devices is hindered by the fact that producing them is a painstaking process that involves at least 400 printing steps and costs approximately $500 per microarray.
MIT’s nano-printing method requires only three steps and could reduce the cost of each microarray to under $50. “This would completely revolutionize diagnostics,” said Stellacci. With the ability to mass produce these devices and thus make DNA analysis routine, “we could know years in advance of cancer, hepatitis, or Alzheimer’s.”
Another benefit would be large-scale diagnostics that could provide useful information about disease. Take diabetes. “We don’t know if it’s genetic. The only way to find out is to test a lot of people,” said Stellacci. “The more we test with microarrays, the more we know about illnesses, and the more we can detect them.”

The press release…

Nanomedicine / Society

NIH Establishes Nanomedicine Roadmap Initiative

by Gene Ostrovsky on Jun 10, 2005 • 6:22 am

NIH has launched nanomedicine roadmap initiative:

NIH will begin its effort by establishing Nanomedicine Development Centers, which will serve as the intellectual and technological centerpiece of the NIH Nanomedicine Roadmap Initiative. These centers will be staffed by highly multidisciplinary scientific teams including biologists, physicians, mathematicians, engineers and computer scientists. Research conducted over the first few years will be directed toward gathering extensive information about the physical properties of intracellular structures that will inform us about how biology’s molecular machines are built.
As this catalogue of the interactions between molecules and larger structures develops, patterns will emerge, and we will have a greater understanding of the intricate operations of molecular structures, processes, and networks inside living cells. Mapping these networks and understanding how they change over time is crucial to help us understand nature’s rules of biological design that, in turn, will enable researchers to use this information to correct biological defects in unhealthy cells. This knowledge will lead to the development of new tools that will work at the “nano” scale and allow scientists to build synthetic biological devices, such as tiny sensors to scan for the presence of infectious agents or metabolic imbalances that could spell trouble for the body, and miniature devices to destroy the infectious agents or fix the “broken” parts in the cells. This initiative is an important component of the NIH Roadmap endeavor because these tools will be developed and applied, not just for a single disease or particular type of cell, but for a wide range of tissues and diseases.

More here…
(hat tip: DrTony)

Genetics

Human Kidney Development and the Drosophila Eyes

by Gene Ostrovsky on Jun 10, 2005 • 2:12 am

kidney fly sm Human Kidney Development and the Drosophila EyesThe Washington University School of Medicine is reporting about some very interesting research:

The laws of physics combine with the mutual attraction of two proteins to create the honeycomb pattern of fruit fly eyes, say molecular biologists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. This same combination of forces forms the delicate filtering structures of the mammalian kidney.
The findings, reported in the June issue of Developmental Cell, provide a new understanding of how individual cells find their niche during organ development. They also mean that the fruit fly eye can now become a fast, inexpensive system for gaining insight into how kidneys develop in mammals and why development sometimes goes awry.
“We’ve challenged scientists who study the development of organs such as eyes and kidneys to think about physics,” says Ross Cagan, Ph.D., associate professor of molecular biology and pharmacology. “In the developing fruit fly eye, we found that cells change shape and move into their proper placement because they want to minimize the free energy of the system.”
Just as molecules of oil floating in water will gather together to exclude water molecules, cells with “sticky” molecules on their surface will gather together in clumps to exclude “non-sticky” cells during organ development. This property of cell adhesion has been previously proposed as a key to moving different cell types into the right positions as developing organs change from an immature, disorganized state to a mature, functional state.

More in the press release…

the good old days...

The Forgotten Lives of Down, Alzheimer, Parkinson and Hodgkin

by Gene Ostrovsky on Jun 10, 2005 • 1:19 am

down plaq sm The Forgotten Lives of Down, Alzheimer, Parkinson and HodgkinIn case you’ve missed it, we are in the midst of the Down’s Syndrome Awareness Week, according to Down’s Syndrome Association. The BBC News brings us the amazing story of John Langdon Haydon Langdon-Down:

The man after whom Down’s Syndrome is named did not want to be called Down at all.
Born in 1828, John Langdon Haydon Down wanted to change his name officially to Langdon-Down and settled eventually for John Langdon Haydon Langdon-Down.
His own grandson, born in 1905 nine years after his death, had Down’s Syndrome.
Dr Langdon-Down pioneered education and training of the mentally handicapped in his own Normansfield Hospital in Teddington, Middlesex, from 1868.
He and his wife Mary, known as “Little Mother”, ran a community surrounded by a farm and wooded grounds, where the patients learned trades, and imprisonment and teasing were forbidden.
The crowning glory was the theatre, opened in 1879, with the finest workmanship in scenery and lighting.
From the 1860s, Dr Langdon-Down published works classifying conditions by their mental and physical characteristics.
In line with popular theories of the time, he classed these types in racial terms, most of them long forgotten – but the term “Mongolism” was common until it was officially replaced by “Down’s Syndrome” in the 1960s.
Conversion of the disused Normansfield Hospital to a hotel is planned. The magnificent theatre remains, though much restoration work has been necessary on its sumptuous scenery.

The BBC article has also short stories about the lives of Alois Alzheimer, James Parkinson and Thomas Hodgkin. It is an easy Friday read.
Thank you for spending your time on our website this week. Please have a safe and relaxing weekend! With this ‘The Good Old Days’ feature we sign off… until Monday.

Nanomedicine

Georgia Tech: New Device Could Shorten Drug Development

by Gene Ostrovsky on Jun 9, 2005 • 8:41 am

amuse sm Georgia Tech: New Device Could Shorten Drug DevelopmentA research team at the Georgia Institute of Technology has developed a device that has the potential to significantly reduce the time for drug development. The device is based on Georgia Tech’s AMUSE (Array of Micromachined Ultra Sonic Electrospray) technology, that presents proteins for spectrometric analysis in nanodroplets:

“The device has the potential to completely change the landscape of this field,” said Andrei Fedorov, an associate professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech who leads the project. Fedorov’s collaborators on the project include Professor F.L. Degertekin from the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and Professor F.M. Fernandez from the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
The device is a critical component of a mass spectrometer, an instrument that can detect proteins present even in ultra-small concentrations by measuring the relative masses of ionized atoms and molecules. Mass spectrometers can provide a complete protein profile and essentially make proteomics, the study of how proteins are produced and interact within an organ, cell or tissue, possible.
“You need to be able to take a blood sample, pass it through a system and figure out the complete protein profile of the human plasma. It’s an extremely technology-intensive process and you need to have a technology to do this kind of testing quickly and inexpensively,” Fedorov said.
But before the mass spectrometer can analyze a sample, molecules must first be converted to gas-phase charged ions through electrospray ionization (ESI), a process that produces ions by evaporating charged droplets obtained through spraying or bubbling.
Georgia Tech’s AMUSE (Array of Micromachined Ultra Sonic Electrospray) technology has several key advantages over currently available electrospray methods. In AMUSE, the sample aerosolization and protein charging processes are separated, giving AMUSE the unique ability to operate at low voltages with a wide range of solvents. In addition, AMUSE is a nanoscale ion source and drastically lowers the required sample size by improving sample use.
Also important, AMUSE is a “high-throughput” microarray device, meaning that it can analyze many more samples at a time than a conventional electrospray device.

More at Georgia Tech…

Medicine

Robot Food Inspector

by Nicholas Genes on Jun 9, 2005 • 8:20 am

food robot med Robot Food InspectorVia Gizmodo comes a report on the world’s first ‘tasting’ robot, which actually doesn’t eat. But it can tell you what you’re eating, how to eat it, and when you’re being naughty (diet-wise, at least):
Here’s how the robot works (we’re relying on Google’s Translator to bring you primary-source material):

It irradiates the infrared ray of plural wave lengths to the foodstuffs, reflects and it is the mechanism which understands the spectrum by the fact that you analyze, some molecule is included the infrared ray which returns in the foodstuffs that.
The robot inspects the component and the ratio which are included in the foodstuffs, warns taking too much fat and the sugar amount, teaches the eating time and the like of the fruit. In addition if infrared ray reflectance distribution of the various foodstuffs was registered beforehand, compared with the data of the food which was inspected, it decides also the type of food. For example you say it can presume also the brand of the cheese and the type of pan instantaneously.

Impressive stuff. I’d like it more if the robot could freak out, Lost-in-Space style, if you showed some of the items from my fridge.
Update: More here…

Surgery

Wound and Gadget Coating from Covalon

by Nicholas Genes on Jun 9, 2005 • 6:40 am

colActiveAg Wound and Gadget Coating from CovalonThe FDA has approved Covalon Technologies‘ ColActiveAg, an antimicrobial silver / collagen wound dressing:

The Silver Collagen Antimicrobial Gel Sheet is a hydrated denatured porcine collagen produced by polymerization. It maintains a moist environment at the wound surface that aids in granulation tissue formation, epithelialization, and enables healing to occur at a rapid rate. The sustained release of ionic silver into the wound creates an effective barrier to fungal penetration and is effective as a method to reduce infection of partial and full thickness wounds.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned while covering the medical technology beat, it’s that wound dressing ‘breakthroughs’ are a dime a dozen. But this company may be more than a one-hit wonder; they’re developing their antimicrobial coating for widespread use on medical devices:

Covalon offers a dip-coating process using ultraviolet light to induce the ‘growth’ of polymers on medical device surfaces. The low-energy, surface modification process can be applied to a variety of polymers including, but not limited to, silicone, polyurethane, polyvinyl chlorides and others. When activated by ultraviolet light our initiator reagents yield highly reactive intermediate molecules that remove a hydrogen atom from the polymer surface… The high reactivity of the initiator intermediates make covalent coating attachment adaptable to many polymer medical devices… Therapeutics are introduced in a dip-coating process, post-polymer matrix formation.

The potential is there for foley catheters, prostheses, and more to have built-in antibiotic or drug-delivery coatings. Neat.
More at Covalon…

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