Researchers at UC San Diego have built a bacterial light source of about 13,000 ‘biopixels’, as they call it. Their work on synchronized fluorescent protein expression was published in Nature last week. This is not only a new form of art but also a piece of high tech bioengineering. The light producing chips consist of more than 50 million bacteria that interact and synchronize with each other using a mechanism known as quorum sensing, a method in which bacteria communicate with their fellows and gives them group-like behavior. They can regulate gene expression according to the density of the population or to determine adaptation strategies to their local environment.

The researchers in San Diego coupled the expression of a fluorescent protein to a biological clock which is synchronized with other colonies using a quorum sensing mechanism. In this way the bacteria will periodically fluoresce in unison like blinking light bulbs.

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Here at Medgadget we cover the latest in high tech medicine, so it is no surprise that many of the devices we profile help doctors save lives, but cost millions of dollars. That is due primarily to the fact that the developed world has overcome diseases and conditions, such as diarrhea and dysentery, that continue to ravage large swathes of the Third World. Yet cheap technological solutions exist that can save millions right now, and LifeStraw from Vestergaard Frandsen, is a perfect example. The Swiss company that makes it has been supplying mosquito nets to regions suffering from malaria and is now addressing diseases arising from dirty water with a device that purifies it at the point of consumption.

We recently had a chance to sit down with  a spokesperson from Vestergaard Frandsen, who gave us an overview of the company’s efforts. Because a lack of clean water, and the infrastructure to supply it, is typically due to more structural issues within the affected nations, there is often no hope that water treatment plants are going to be built and pipes installed any time soon.  And so for decades entire regions around the world have been resorting to boiling water using locally chopped wood as their only option of purification.  Not only is this probably not very good for the environment, the amount of time and labor spent harvesting wood could be going into other tasks, like laying pipe for example.

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Toshiba has developed a portable gamma camera for radiation detection at a distance. The device is going out for field testing around Fukushima to help identify radiation hotspots that people should avoid.

A larger, less sensitive model has already been used around the melted down nuclear plant and this more portable model now features a 30 times greater sensitivity up to 0.1μSv per hour, according to Nikkei’s Tech On!.

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Plasma is hot: a few weeks ago we reported about a new atmospheric plasma technology to create sealed plastic bags which are suitable for cell culture. Now a research group headed by David Graves from the University of Berkeley, California has shown that ionized plasma does not only sterilize water, but can make it antimicrobial as well. They will report their findings this month in the Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics

Graves and his colleagues report that the water treated with plasma killed all the E.coli bacteria that were put into it within a few hours, and after seven days the water continued to kill 99.9% of the bacteria put into it at that time. Interestingly, they also showed that plasma can get rid of dangerous proteins and lipids like prions that standard sterilization processes leave behind.

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Intelligent Fingerprinting, a spin out company of the University of East Anglia, has created the first prototype of a portable fingerprint drug testing device. This device is able to detect drugs or other substances from the sweat contained in fingerprints. It will enable mobile testing with instant results.

The device itself tests the sweat from fingerprints using disposable cartridges. One can easily collect the samples and it does not require a specialist handling the device or biohazard precautions. The device is able to carry out the full analyses and imaging of a fingerprint in a few minutes. It can be used in various settings and some institutions have already shown interest in the technology. It could be applied in forensic science, homeland security, prisons and workplaces. The mobility of the device will open new opportunities.

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Scientists at the Wellcome Trust Major Overseas Programme in Vietnam and the Oxford University Clinical Research Units in Nepal and Vietnam have put Google Earth to good use once again. By using DNA sequencing technology and GPS, they have created a way to map typhoid outbreaks in Kathmandu, Nepal. They published their research in journal Open Biology.

It is extremely difficult to study how typhoid-causing bacteria, Salmonella typhi and Salmonella paratyphi, evolve and spread at local level. Using the new technologies mentioned above, the scientists have created accurate geographical and genetic maps of the spread of typhoid, enabling them to trace the bacteria sources. To make this possible, health workers visited patients’ homes and mapped the location with GPS. Using blood samples taken from the patients in the hospital, they determined the genotype of the typhoid strain.

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DHS Systems, a company that manufactures military tents, has unveiled a new feature for their products that may help prevent the spread of pathogens.  XYTEX 500, as the technology is called, is used to modify the inside fabric of the tent to make the surface be full of nano sized spikes that can rapture cell walls.  Bacterial pathogens flying around the tent, a space that can be dangerously crowded and full of patients with exposed wounds, will have a hard time making a safe landing, hopefully leading to fewer infections.

The fabric is also resistant to mold, mildew, and fungus.

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This month Pall Corporation (Port Washington, NY) will install new solar-powered water filtration systems in Senegal. The company, that specialized in filtration, separation and purification technologies, developed this solar-powered system especially for low resource countries. It will be able to supply clean water for up to 3,000 people in these rural areas.

The Pall Aria Pure unit is an easily transportable, manual, low-pressure reverse osmosis system engineered for total dissolved solids removal from well water. It can produce 500 liters (132 U.S. gallons) of pure water every hour. A unique cross flow construction of stacked discs minimizes fouling and enhances performance. No pre-treatment or chemicals are needed for operation. A built-in maintenance system enables effective membrane cleaning and maintenance.

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BI, Inc. a manufacturer of compliance monitoring technology for community offenders, has announced an upgraded version of the company’s BI-TAD alcohol consumption monitoring bracelet.

The BI-TAD is an ankle worn bracelet which measures an offender’s alcohol consumption levels through vapors and perspiration passing through the skin. The device also features radio-frequency circuitry to detect the presence of the offender in their own home at a given time. The upgraded BI-TAD sensor now includes wireless functionality allowing it to transmit compliance data through the cellular network to a remote base station. The device log can then be checked against an offender’s profile to see if he is adhering to specific curfews or drinking restrictions.

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Chemical suicides, the macabre chemistry of mixing liquids normally found under the kitchen sink to create a deadly gas, are becoming more popular these days, a trend originally started by the trendy Japanese. But the cooks of the deadly brew are not the only victims of their acts. According to a recent New York Times story, “of 72 chemical suicides experts have documented in the United States since 2008, at least 80 percent have resulted in injuries to police officers, firefighters, emergency workers or civilians exposed to the gas, despite the efforts of suicide victims to protect others by putting warning signs on car windows or closet doors, said Deputy Chief Jacob Oreshan of the New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control, who has been tracking the cases.”

Morphix Technologies out of Virginia Beach, VA recently released its Chameleon suicide gas detection kit that warns first responders when they encounter one of the common chemical suicide gasses. The kit is wrist worn and when a gas is detected, one of the indicators changes color.

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