As the year 2009 is about to enter history books, we’d like to thank all of you for your continuing readership and support, and we wish you a happy, safe, and prosperous new year.
Here at Medgadget we try to deliver the latest, most relevant, and most exciting medical technology news. And as you know, we are just a group of clinicians, who, while working full time at our regular jobs, blog in the spare times. Thanks to you, our efforts seem to have paid off: in 2009 we put out many more posts and saw our readership rise like never before.
Next year we pledge to continue offering the same: more and more med tech, fresh, real and life saving.
Please have a wonderful holiday, don’t drink and drive, keep yourself safe, and we will see you here next year!
– Medgadget Editors
Archives: 12/2009
At SIGGRAPH2009 Asia, University of Tokyo researchers are showing off their new nifty handheld display that aims to bring more natural ergonomics to digital image viewing. Using a basic sheet of plexiglass positioned above a projector, the system can recognize the shape and orientation of the sheet and superimposes an image on the sheet. By bending, rotating, and moving the sheet with respect to the projector, the display changes the slice viewed on the screen for easy navigation through volumetric data.
From the white paper on the Volume Slicing Display:
With the VSD, radiologists would be able to retrieve a certain amount of three-dimensionality from a flat X-ray plate at any time, by just touching certain portions of the screen, orientating and manipulating it freely above a calibrated projector. It is interesting to note that such interface could solve another important issue, that of the confidentiality of the patient data, since without the machine the piece of paper will only show an undecipherable 2d-barcode identifying the patient.
Link: The Volume Slicing Display (PDF)…
(hat tip: Vizworld)
Building artificial tissue replacements cell by cell has been a subject of science fiction writers for many years. Now Organovo of San Diego, CA partnered with Invetech of Melbourne, Australia to develop printers that can layer three dimensional structures out of various cell types.
InformationWeek reports:
The technology works by using a robot to lay down cells in precise positions in three dimensions, accurate to within 20 microns. “It’s similar to the way a laser printer prints by putting solid particles in place,” [Organovo CEO Keith] Murphy, told InformationWeek. The 3D medical printer puts down objects on 2D layers, one on top of the other. The particles used in the construction are made up of stem cells, formed into tiny spheres and cylinders.
The stem cells are available for research purposes from companies including Life Technologies and Invitrogen. When the device is used for treatment, cells will come from the patient, such as bone marrow, or fatty adipose tissues, where stem cells can be harvested. “Because they come from the patient, there’s no risk of having a rejection,” Murphy said. These are adult stem cells, not the fetal stem cells that have been politically controversial.
Researchers take a cross-section picture of the object they want to build, such as an artery. “We use that as a map to paint by numbers,” he said.
Objects take about an hour to build, and then the cells fuse together on their own in the course of 24-48 hours, locking the object in shape.
From the press release:
The printer, developed by Invetech, fits inside a standard biosafety cabinet for sterile use. It includes two print heads, one for placing human cells, and the other for placing a hydrogel, scaffold, or support matrix. One of the most complex challenges in the development of the printer was being able to repeatedly position the capillary tip, attached to the print head, to within microns. This was essential to ensure that the cells are placed in exactly the right position. Invetech developed a computer controlled, laser-based calibration system to achieve the required repeatability.
Invetech plan to ship a number of 3D bio-printers to Organovo during 2010 and 2011 as a part of the instrument development program. Organovo will be placing the printers globally with researchers in centers of excellence for medical research.
Read on at InformationWeek…
Organovo press release: Organovo Receives Delivery of First Commercial 3D Bioprinters…
As many of our readers probably noticed, we’re big fans of Technology Review and their coverage of the latest scientific advancements. This year the publication has clearly expanded its reporting on the biosciences (and strangely taken “MIT” from the title). To “review” some of the more interesting news in the field from this dawning year, Technology Review just published a short summary of what they think is changing the world.
Link: The Year in Biomedicine
Nano Level Magnetic Resonance Imaging May Reveal Smallest Life Processes
by on Dec 28, 2009 • 12:22 am
Researchers at Cornell University and U.S. Military Academy are working hard on development of a method to detect the magnetic imbalance of nitroxides, stable organic compounds that have an unpaired electron. Nitroxides can be attached to other molecules, and so there’s a possibility to track just about anything at the nano level.
By creating a sample of nitroxide molecules dissolved in a thin-film polymer and bringing the sample close to a 4-micron nickel magnet attached to a 350-nanometer silicon cantilever, they can detect the electron spin by measuring the frequency of the cantilever as it wobbles, like a diving board. The cantilever is similar to those used in scanning probe microscopy, a type of imaging that involves a cantilever scanning a surface and recording the probe-surface interactions.
To improve their frequency readouts and get more accurate measurements, the group must learn, among others things, how to make their magnets smaller, Marohn said [John Marohn, associate professor of chemistry].
Full story at Cornell Chronicle: Researchers are on the path to creating nano-MRI images…
Abstract in PNAS: Scanned-probe detection of electron spin resonance from a nitroxide spin probe
PaPaLaB Co Ltd, a Japanese firm, has announced their development of the “YC-3300,” a camera they claim can capture the exact same colors as seen by the human eye. The camera is designed for archiving and medical applications. While cameras with similar technology currently exist, they are too large and expensive to be practical. The YC-3300 is currently priced at $140,477, with more affordable models in the pipeline.
Technology like this will be crucial with cameras in medicine taking an ever larger role in research, education, and diagnosis.
(Hat Tip: Engadget)
Read more at Tech-On…
Welcome Again to The 21st Century: Electroencephalography for At Home Entertainment
by on Dec 23, 2009 • 10:30 am
Emotiv Systems is finally releasing the much awaited Epoc headset brainwave controller. The available games and applications that the device can interface with are still scarce, so it seems to be geared toward developers and researchers that are thinking up new ways to utilize EEG. With a $300 starting price tag, this bodes well for a future where we’ll be able to chow down on cheeseburgers while blowing up virtual goblins in Halo 12.
EEG display:
* 5 second rolling time window (chart recorder mode)
* ALL or selected channels can be displayed
* Automatic or manual scaling (individual channel display mode)
* Adjustable channel offset (multi-channel display mode)
* Synchronized marker windowFFT display:
* Selected channel only
* ALL or selected channels can be displayed
* Adjustable sampling window size (in samples)
* Adjustable update rate (in samples)
* dB mode – power or amplitude calculations
* dB scale
* FFT window methods: Hanning, Hamming, Hann, Blackman, Rectangle
* Predefined and custom sub-band histogram display – Delta, Theta, Alpha, Beta, custom bandsGyro display:
* 5 second rolling time window (chart recorder mode)
* X and Y deflectionData Packet display:
* 5 second rolling graph of Packet Counter output
* Packet loss – integrated count of missing data packets
* Verify data integrity for wireless transmission linkData Recording and Playback:
* Fully adjustable slider, play/pause/exit controls.
* Subject and record ID, date, start time recorded in file naming convention.
Product page: EPOC Headset…
Flashbacks: Telekinetic Video Games; New Gaming Input Device Reads Your Mind; Mind Games
The European Union has issued the CE mark of approval to GI Dynamics of Lexington, MA for its EndoBarrier device as a treatment option for obesity and type 2 diabetes. The device, which is implanted endoscopically via the mouth, essentially creates a chamber in the stomach and effectively limits the amount of food a patient can digest. The device is not intended for permanent placement and the approval stipulates its use for a six month therapeutic period.
Press release: GI Dynamics Receives European CE Mark Approval for the EndoBarrier Gastrointestinal Liner System for the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes and Obesity…
Flashback: EndoBarrier May Be Helpful in Patients With Type II Diabetes; EndoBarrier, an Internal Condom, Gets Positive Results in Diabetic Clinical Trial; Eat Away, Just Don’t Digest
Live monitoring of individual cancer cells can greatly benefit the search for drugs that target tumors. Researchers from the Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences and Methodist Hospital of Cornell University transferred a gene from a firefly into cells of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) to make it bioluminesce in zebrafish.
They assessed the ‘invasiveness’ of the cells by measuring how quickly they moved through a three-dimensional matrix, and found that the most invasive cells express a gene that makes them more mobile. The same gene has also been correlated previously with reduced patient survival.
The researchers then injected the GBM cells into zebrafish embryos, and observed tumors in the embryos a few days later. By placing the embryos under a charge-coupled device camera, they were able to watch the bioluminescent tumor cells growing and moving around the body, invading other organs.
This new bioluminescence screening platform represents a unique real-time method for observing small numbers of cancer cells in a live animal. It is cheaper, easier and far more sensitive than existing imaging methods such as positron emission or computed tomography scanning, or magnetic resonance or fluorescent imaging. Furthermore, the discovery of a genetic subset of highly invasive GBM cells could help greatly in the development of drugs that target tumor-initiating cells.
The team plans to use the platform to screen anti-migration and invasion candidate compounds for GBM treatment and extend the platform for drug screening in other invasive tumors and for drug combination studies.
Press release: Bioimaging: Keeping an eye on cancer…
Abstract in Journal of Neurosurgery: A screening platform for glioma growth and invasion using bioluminescence imaging
