Nectar Design, a Long Beach, California design firm, has been working with The Releef Initiative, a “non-profit pharmaceutical corporation” whose mission is to “develop innovative healthcare products that reduce mortality from child infections.” The two organizations jointly developed a dispenser that allows “health workers to simply put in the correct amount of pellets and give them directly to the child.” The idea is to simplify drug distribution among patients with the help of a cheap device, and to reduce medication errors.
Product page @ Nectar Product Development: Releef Initiative drug dispenser…
Archives: 6/2008
The DiabetesMine Design Challenge, a contest made to highlight and reward new product ideas for people with diabetes, is close to its deadline for accepting submissions. There’s five more days left to send in your innovative concepts for anything that may make the lives of diabetics easier. Medgadget is looking forward to reviewing all the submissions as a proud member of the contest’s judging committee.
Look for all the details and entries submitted so far at DiabetesMine…
Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have successfully created a protocell, a basic cell structure encapsulated with a membrane, capable of intaking nutrients and creating copies of its own DNA.
Szostak’s lab had already created membrane sacs out of molecules called fatty acids—long chains of carbon atoms that make up part of the lipids in modern cell membranes. In the current study, they substituted different fatty acids with specific structural characteristics until they created a membrane with the appropriate permeability. They found that fatty acids that were branched, and therefore unable to pack tightly together, allowed sugar molecules (key building blocks of nucleotides, which in turn make up RNA and DNA) to pass through. Fatty acids with shorter carbon chains or bulky “headgroups” had a similar effect.
Guided by these findings, the group created a protocell out of fatty acids that were likely present in the earth’s early environment. They were able to get nucleotides themselves to cross the membrane, showing that early cells could have taken up such molecules without protein channels.
Szostak says that’s important, but only a part of the problem. Once inside the cell, the nucleotides need to be able to assemble into polymers that—like the DNA in modern cells—store genetic information. Modern cells replicate their DNA by “unzipping” the two strands of the molecule, and then using the individual strands as templates to create two daughter strands, again with the help of proteins. The second half of Szostak’s experiment showed that his protocell could have carried out the template-copying part of the reaction.
The group created a protocell containing a single-stranded genetic molecule—a DNA template. Then, says Szostak, “we added nucleotides to the outside of the [protocell], let them diffuse across the membrane to the inside, and then take part in a template-copying reaction”—all without the help of proteins.
Full story at HHMI: Researchers Build Model Protocell Capable of Copying DNA …
Researchers at Rice Univesity have discovered that extremely high atmospheric pressure applied to cartilage tissue actually helps it regrow.
In the study, Elder [Benjamin Elder, doctorate student at Rice --ed.] took small samples of cartilage from calves’ knees, dissolved the ECM and isolated the living cartilage cells, or chondrocytes. The calf chondrocytes were used to create tissue-engineered cartilage. The engineered cartilage was placed into a chemical bath of growth factors and sealed inside soft plastic containers that were placed inside a chamber connected to a hydraulic press. For one hour per day, the bags were squeezed at intense pressures.
“Our knees are filled with fluid, and when we walk or run the hydrostatic pressure on the cartilage cells in the knee approaches the pressures we used in our experiments,” Elder said. “But in daily activities, these pressures are fleeting, just a second or so at a time.”
Most of the prevailing strategies in tissue engineering attempt to reproduce the conditions that cells experience in the body. Athanasiou [Kyriacos Athanasiou, Rice's Karl F. Hasselmann Professor of Bioengineering --ed.] said the unconventional approach of using unnaturally high-pressure stemmed from insights gained during years of previous experiments.
Elder said, “By combining high pressure and growth factors, we were able to more than triple the biomechanical properties of the cartilage. We’re not sure why they reinforce one another, but we do not get the same results when we apply them independently.”
Press release: Cartilage regeneration ’20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’ …
Article in PLoS ONE
Image credit: Wellcome images: Network of collagen fibrils…
Taser International has always defended the safety of its product. They have done such a good job of this that they have successfully won 40+ wrongful death cases.
In a stunning decision, however, a federal court in San Jose has found Taser International 15% responsible for the death of Robert Heston Jr. in February, 2005. He went into cardiac arrest after being tased up to 30 times according to the plaintiffs attorney. The jury decided that his death was due to “methamphetamine intoxication, an enlarged heart due to long-term drug abuse, and Taser shocks.” The family was awarded $6 million in punitive and compensatory damages.
Taser’s stock plummetted 12 percent as a result of the decision. Critics of the company are hopeful that Taser will begin issuing warnings about its products safety, or that police departments will be a bit more cautious in their use. However, the Salinas police chief had this to say to the Monterey Herald:
Salinas Police Chief Daniel Ortega said his department wouldn’t make any major changes in its Taser use and training procedures, despite the verdict finding that Tasers can be dangerous. Ortega said he was “elated” that his department was exonerated and called his officers “heroes” in the incident. He expressed doubt about the verdict against Taser International and said he expected the company to appeal the decision.
“I have absolutely no intention of not using Tasers,” Ortega said. “It’s not going to change a whole lot.”
Ortega said he would keep trying to purchase Taser cams, which videotape incidents when Tasers are used, and suggested that if the officers had been equipped with the Taser cams the trial never would have occurred.
Pictured here is a newly approved compact “sub-acute” ventilator from Dräger Medical.
The following is from the press release and the product brochure:
The Carina ventilator offers both invasive and non-invasive capabilities in one device. Its latest technology, known as “Synch Plus,” will compensate for leakage and provide effective breath delivery. The Carina is well-suited for the emergency room, general ward, ICU, or sub-acute facilities as it features an internal battery and can operate independent of a high-pressure gas system…
The SyncPlus function features automatic leakage compensation and automatic termination criteria. As a result, it precisely synchronizes ventilation to the patient’s breathing requirements… even in the presence of changing ventilation patterns or mask leakages. Its sophisticated trigger function helps to minimize the work of breathing. And, its automatic ramp adjustment optimizes the inflation pattern to the patient’s changing needs for increased comfort during ventilation…
Carina’s internal battery lasts about one hour, and the external battery option offers eight additional hours of battery life…
While Carina delivers all the performance and sophistication most ventilation situations require, it features the marvelous quiet blower. As a result, this uncompromising value offers the tranquil environment for patients and staff.
Press release: Draeger Announces FDA Clearance for New Ventilator …
Product brochure: Carina™ (PDF)
Product page: Carina…
Physicians from Children’s Hospital Boston, aided by a Harvard engineer who tinkered the output of an ultrasound machine to provide two slightly different angles of view at the same time, have been performing test surgeries wearing stereoscopic glasses. So far the initial evidence seems to show that the technology allows the surgeon to be more efficient with time and precise with technique.
From Children’s Hospital Boston:
The researchers, led by Pedro del Nido, MD, and Nikolay Vasilyev, MD, of Children’s department of cardiac surgery, had already been testing a three-dimensional ultrasound imaging system. But although the images are 3D and displayed in real time, they give little indication of depth. In animal tests, surgeons trying to navigate surgical tools inside the heart became disoriented when guided by these images.
Del Nido, chief of Cardiac Surgery at Children’s, realized that what they needed was stereoscopic vision. Watching the flat picture on the computer screen was like watching a baseball game on TV, he says. “It’s good enough to follow what’s happening in the game, but you could never grab a ball in mid-flight,” del Nido explains.
So collaborator Robert Howe, PhD, of Harvard University, plucked a solution from video games – splitting computer images in two and cocking them at slightly different angles. When wearing gamers’ flickering glasses, users can see ultrasound images of the beating heart as a hologram. “You definitely have depth perception,” says Vasilyev. “You feel like you’re inside the heart chamber.”
Vasilyev tested the glasses while operating on pigs with an atrial septal defect, a common form of congenital heart disease in which there is a hole in the wall dividing the heart’s upper chambers. Vasilyev closed each defect using a catheter carrying a tiny patch, threaded into the heart through a vein. Using another device, he fastened the patch around the hole with tiny anchors. In all, he placed 64 anchors: 32 under standard 3D ultrasound guidance, and 32 using the stereoscopic vision display.
Using the stereoscopic display, Vasilyev was able to place the anchors 44 percent faster than with the standard display (9.7 versus 17.2 seconds). The tip of the anchoring device also navigated more accurately – deviation from the ideal path averaged 3.8 millimeters, as compared with 6.1 millimeters, a 38 percent improvement.
The accuracy of anchor placement didn’t differ significantly between the two sets of tests, perhaps because of Vasilyev’s high level of experience and the availability of tactile information to help guide the final step of driving in the anchors. However, the speed of the anchor placement improved significantly. The researchers believe that the ability to precisely navigate tools inside the beating heart will minimize risk to neighboring heart structures.
Press release: Video game technology may help surgeons operate on beating hearts …
Image caption: Volumetric data on the atrial septal defect (arrowheads) are streamed in real time from an ultrasound system to a graphics station computer, which renders left-eye and right-eye views by alternating the position and orientation of the image, skewed by angle a. The rendered volumes, immediately displayed on a conventional monitor, are synchronized with flickering shutter glasses worn by the surgeon, yielding stereo-rendered 3D ultrasound images. This imaging technology provides surgeons with significantly better spatial information and depth perception for making repairs inside the beating heart. (LA, left atrium; RA, right atrium.) (Image courtesy Nikolay Vasilyev, MD, Children’s Hospital Boston)
A group of Dutch researchers clinically tested the effect that long exposure to bright light and melatonin have on the functioning of dementia patients. They say that the light produces positive effects similar to common drugs taken by such patients.
From Bloomberg:
“On the whole, light treatment could have clinically beneficial effects,” the authors said in the paper. “The long- term application of whole-day bright light did not have adverse effects, on the contrary, and could be considered for use in care facilities for elderly individuals with dementia.”
The ceiling-mounted lights, more than three times brighter than those the study used for comparison, also reduced depression 19 percent. Moreover, the researchers found that melatonin, a hormone, improved sleep and that the lights reduced melatonin’s side effects.
From the article abstract in JAMA:
Light attenuated cognitive deterioration by a mean of 0.9 points (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.04-1.71) on the Mini-Mental State Examination or a relative 5%. Light also ameliorated depressive symptoms by 1.5 points (95% CI, 0.24-2.70) on the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia or a relative 19%, and attenuated the increase in functional limitations over time by 1.8 points per year (95% CI, 0.61-2.92) on the nurse-informant activities of daily living scale or a relative 53% difference.
More from Bloomberg…
Abstract: Effect of Bright Light and Melatonin on Cognitive and Noncognitive Function in Elderly Residents of Group Care Facilities JAMA. 2008;299(22):2642-2655.
Image by eeland.
By slightly modifying the chemotherapy drug gemcitabine, researchers at UCLA have been able to utilize PET scanning to visualize three dimensionally the immune system and its response to cancer treatment. The new probe will allow oncologists to monitor the effectiveness of cancer treatments as well as the effect of chemotherapy on the immune system. Here’s more from UCLA:
The probe is based on a fundamental cell biochemical pathway called the DNA salvage pathway, which acts as a sort of recycling mechanism that helps with DNA replication and repair. All cells use this biochemical pathway to different degrees. But in lymphocytes and macrophages, the cells of the immune system that initiate immune response, the pathway is activated at very high levels. Because of that, the probe accumulates at high levels in those cells, said the study’s senior author, Dr. Owen Witte, a researcher at UCLA’s Jonsson Cancer Center and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.
“This is not a cure or a new treatment, but it will help us to more effectively model and measure the immune system,” said Witte, who also serves as director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA. “Monitoring immune function using molecular imaging could significantly impact the diagnosis and treatment evaluation of immunological disorders, as well as evaluating whether certain therapies are effective.”
Because the probe is labeled with positron-emitting particles, cells that take it in glow “hot” under PET scanning, which operates as a molecular camera that enables visualization of biological processes in living organisms. The research, done in animal models, will be further evaluated in subsequent studies. Eventually, Witte said, researchers hope to be able to monitor the immune systems of patients with FAC and other PET probes.
“This measurement is not invasive – it involves a simple injection of the probe,” Witte said. “We could do repetitive scans in a single week to monitor immune response.”
The new probe can even be used to monitor how the immune system changes in auto-immune diseases.
Read the full story here…
Image caption: A new PET imaging probe illuminates immune cells as it attacks infection within a mouse. Green areas indicate the presence of active immune cells. Credit: UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center
