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The 2008 Medical Weblog Awards: The Polls Are Open!
The polls are now open in the Fifth Annual Medical Weblog Awards. Best Medical Weblog Clinical Cases and Images Clinical Correlations The Health Care Blog Kevin, M.D. WSJ Health Blog Please vote here... Best New Medical Weblog (established in 2008) Laika's MedLibLog Life in the Fast Lane medtechinsider The New Health Dialogue Science-Based Medicine Please vote here... Best Literary Medical Weblog Notes of an Anesthesioboist On The Clock other things amanzi Reflections by Dr. Bruce Campbell Running for My Life: Fighting cancer one step at a time Please vote here... Best Clinical Sciences Weblog Clinical Cases and Images Clinical Correlations scan man's notes Please vote here... Best Health Policies/Ethics Weblog Better Health The Last Psychiatrist Stuart Laidlaw's Medical Ethics blog Medical Futility Respectful Insolence Please vote here... Best Medical Technologies/Informatics Weblog AppleQuack Clinical Cases and Images Life as a Healthcare CIO medtechinsider Ted Eytan, MD TomographyBlog Please vote here... Best Patient's Blog Alin's Site Beating Social Anxiety Brass and Ivory: Life with Multiple Sclerosis ButYouDontLookSick Confessions Of A CF Husband Duncan Cross Furious Seasons Look Me In The Eye Running for My Life: Fighting cancer one step at a time Six Until Me Soulful Sepulcher Survive the Journey Please vote here... The 2008 Medical Weblog Awards are proudly sponsored by Epocrates. The 2008 Medical Weblog Awards announcement... The 2008 Medical Weblog Awards Nominees......
Michael
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
EyeSeeCam: See What The Surgeon Sees
Biomed engineers and clinical neurologists at the University of Munich Hospital are working on commercialization of a head mounted camera designed to store and transmit the exclusive point of view of its wearer's eyes. The EyeSeeCam moves along with the pupils of the user, and as such allows "for the first time, to literally see the world through somebody else's eyes." The device will be presented at the upcoming MMVR 17 NextMed conference (Jan 19-22, in Long Beach, CA). The possibilities for the camera are endless. Here's what its designers think it could be used for: Health Care and Industry: Documentation, e.g., of Surgery; Teaching and Education; Quality Assurance Neurology, ENT: Diagnosis of eye movement disorders; Diagnosis of vestibular disorders and vertigo Movie and Video Making: Documentary and fictional movies; News and Videoart Security: Quality assurance of special forces training; Documentation by a "third eye" Sports: Sportsnews; Movie from the Athlete's perspective (Neuro-) Marketing:Shopping behavior; Advertisement perception; Ergonomy Research: Studies on attention; "Body language" during conversation Consumer Applications: Sightseeing; Events Project page... Project brochure... Abstract: Salient features in gaze-aligned recordings of human visual input during free exploration of natural environments (hat tip: ScienceRoll)...
Michael
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
Scientists Develop Microfluidic Method of Cell Fusion
Investigators from MIT developed a new method to sort and pair cells inside a specially designed microchip. This new technology should simplify and enable a new wave of research on chimeric cells: The researchers, led by a collaboration between Joel Voldman, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and Rudolf Jaenisch, professor of biology and a member of the Whitehead Institute, report the new technique in the Jan. 4 online edition of Nature Methods. The team's simple but ingenious sorting method increases the rate of successful cell fusion from around 10 percent to about 50 percent, and allows thousands of cell pairings at once. Though cell fusion techniques have been around for a long time, there are many technical limitations, said Voldman. Getting the right cells to pair up before fusing them is one major obstacle. If scientists are working with a mixture of two cell types, for example A and B, they end up with many AA and BB pairings, as well as the desired AB match. Researchers had previously trapped cells in tiny cups as they flow across a chip. Each cup can hold only two cells, but there is no way to control whether the cups capture an A and a B, two As or two Bs. In contrast, the cell-trapping cups on Voldman and Jaenisch's new sorting device are arranged strategically to capture and pair up cells of different types. First, type A cells are flowed across the chip in one direction and caught in traps that are large enough to hold only one cell. Once the cells are trapped, liquid is flowed across the chip in the opposite direction, pushing the cells out of the small cups and into larger cups across from the small ones. Once one A cell is in each large cup, type B cells are flowed into the large cups. Each cup can only hold two cells, so each ends up with one A and one B. After the cells are paired in the traps, they can be joined together by an electric pulse that fuses the cell membranes. In addition to helping with studies of stem cell reprogramming, this technique could be used to study interactions between any types of cells. "It's a very general type of device," said Voldman. Study abstract: Microfluidic control of cell pairing and fusion MIT press release: Getting cells to pair off......
Michael
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
Advancing Systems Biology for Medical Applications
The European Science Foundation has just released a science policy briefing titled Advancing Systems Biology for Medical Applications, a document that provides an excellent overview of systems biology and its possibilities for medicine and science. The policy briefing also looks at the Pan European strategy to harness the awesome might of this emerging science. The document is embedded bellow (you can zoom in or print it), but if you want to download the policy briefing, head over here....
Michael
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
Mosquitoes' Lives Cut Short
Scott O'Neill and colleagues at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia devised an interesting new way to control the spread of the deadly dengue fever in affected parts of the world. They think that the lifespan of Aedes aegypti (pictured), the major mosquito vector of dengue, can be cut short by infecting the pesky mosquitoes with Wolbachia pipientis bacterium. In a paper published in the prestigious international journal Science on January 2, researchers from The University of Queensland have proven the effectiveness of a new way of limiting the lifespan of the type of mosquito that spreads dengue fever. They have done it by infecting the dengue mosquito, Aedes aegypti, with a bacterium that is harmless to humans and other animals but halves Aedes' lifespan. This has the potential to greatly reduce dengue because only old mosquitoes are effective at transmitting the virus to humans. The scientists' success is critical to the progress of a $10 million project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and may lead to a new, safe and cheap way of curtailing dengue fever. Carried out in the laboratory of Professor Scott O'Neill, Head of UQ's School of Biological Sciences, the experiment's focus was painstaking work with the Aedes mosquito and Wolbachia, a bacterium that occurs naturally in fruit flies. PhD student Conor McMeniman used super-fine needles to manually inject 10,000 mosquito embryos with Wolbachia, and encouraged the surviving mosquitoes to feed on his own blood. “We ended up having to inject thousands of embryos to achieve success, but it was well and truly worth it in the end,” Mr McMeniman said. The hypothesis the researchers set out to prove was that the bacterium would: - reduce the lifespan of mosquitoes, which must be approximately 12-15 days old before they can transmit the dengue virus; - be passed by females to their offspring and spread into mosquito populations; - not kill mosquitoes before they were old enough to breed and produce more bacterium-carrying insects. The researchers have shown that Wolbachia halves mosquitoes' lifespan, which can be up to 30 days in the field. This dramatically curtailed their potential to spread dengue fever, without preventing the hereditary transmission of the bacterium. Professor O'Neill said the project's next stage would be a contained field cage setting in northern Queensland. “If that proves successful we hope to deploy this new dengue control measure in other parts...
Michael
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
HYPER-IMS, a Tiny Implantable Wireless Pressure Monitor
Intravascular wireless pressure monitoring sensors are nothing new. As our readers might remember , CardioMEMS Inc's EndoSure™ Wireless AAA Pressure Measurement System, a device we've seen before, has been 510(k)'ed by the FDA. Now researchers from Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems are reporting that they are designing a smaller, and maybe even better, intravascular arterial pressure monitoring device: If a person’s blood flows through their arteries at too high a pressure, even when they are lying still on the sofa, they could be in danger. High blood pressure causes the heart to constantly pump at full speed, which strains both the heart and vessel walls. Drugs can provide relief, but in many cases the patient’s blood pressure is still difficult to regulate and has to be consistently monitored over a long period of time. This is a tedious process: Patients have to wear a small case containing the blood pressure meter close to their body. An inflatable sleeve on their arm records their blood pressure values, for which it is regularly pumped up and deflated. This is a burden on the patients, particularly at night. The whole process is now due to become easier thanks to a tiny implant that could replace the current method. It is being developed by Fraunhofer researchers together with the company Dr. Osypka GmbH and other partners in a BMBF-funded project called “Hyper-IMS” (Intravascular Monitoring System for Hypertension Patients). “A doctor introduces the pressure sensor directly into the femoral artery in the groin,” explains head of department Dr. Hoc Khiem Trieu of the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems IMS in Duisburg. “The sensor, which has a diameter of about one millimeter including its casing, measures the patient’s blood pressure 30 times per second. It is connected via a flexible micro-cable to a transponder unit, which is likewise implanted in the groin under the skin. This unit digitizes and encodes the data coming from the micro-sensor and transmits them to an external reading device that patients can wear like a cell phone on their belt. From there, the readings can be forwarded to a monitoring station and analyzed by the doctor.” Because the researchers use special components in CMOS technology, the system requires little energy. The micro-implants can be supplied with electricity wirelessly via coils. Implantable pressure sensors are also suitable for other applications, such as monitoring patients suffering from...
Michael
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
Amimon's High Definition Wireless Video Goes Clinical
Stryker Endoscopy is launching a wireless high definition monitor for the clinical world. Utilizing wireless technology from Israel's Amimon Inc., the monitor can receive signals up to 1080i, which means uncompromising quality in OR imaging with fewer tangled cables getting in the way. AMIMON has granted Stryker Endoscopy exclusive access to AMIMON’s technology for the medical endoscopy market. “Only AMIMON’s High-Definition Wireless Technology is capable of transmitting the surgical video with no perceptible lag or interference throughout the entire operating room. This will allow surgeons greater flexibility in positioning the surgical display while operating. In addition, the hospitals and surgery centers will save the hassle and cost of routing DVI cables through the ceilings and overhead booms,” said William Chang, Stryker Endoscopy’s Vice President of Research & Development and Chief Technology Officer. AMIMON WHDI™ Technology - Overview ... Press release: Stryker Endoscopy Launches the World's First High-Definition Wireless Surgical Display With AMIMON Inc.'s High-Definition Wireless Technology ... Globes: Wireless video co Amimon wins deal with Stryker......
Michael
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
DNA Nanotubes Controlled by Gold Particles
Arizona State University researchers Hao Yan and Yan Liu harnessed the natural qualities of DNA and gold to manipulate the size and shape of nanotube structures. The National Science Foundation connects the dots: [Researchers] attached gold nanoparticles to DNA, taking advantage of its self-assembling biochemical properties to engineer nanotubes that form a number of different 3D structures. The researchers manipulated nanotube size and shape by changing the size of the gold particles attached to the DNA or the DNA structure itself. Anchi Cheng at the Scripps Research Institute contributed to the project by imaging the 3D conformations of nanotube structures using cryo-Electron Tomography This National Science Foundation-supported research is published in the January 2 issue of Science magazine. Yan is hopeful this groundbreaking work will serve as the foundation on which emerging fields and new technologies may be built. "Now that we have methods to alter the periodicity, diameter and chirality of nanotube formation, we can use what we have learned to control hierarchical assembly of these building blocks to create more complex 3D structures," he said. In the future, use of nanotubes may reduce the size of cell phones and other electronic devices even further. Scientists also envision using nanotubes for a number of biological applications including gene and drug delivery. Drugs or other treatments specifically delivered using nanotubes would target only affected tissues, potentially eliminating toxic side effects. Abstract in Science: Control of Self-Assembly of DNA Tubules Through Integration of Gold Nanoparticles Images: Top: The design of the DNA scaffold system permits formation of a variety of tubular structures carrying 5 nm AuNPs (gold particles). Researchers observed formation of tubes displaying patterns of AuNPs in stacked rings, single spirals, double spirals, and nested spiral tubes. This TEM image shows all four of these conformations. Side: This cartoon depicts a single nanotube formed from DNA tile arrays with gold particles attached. NSF press statement: Mother Nature Knows Nano ......
Michael
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
Learning What's Under the Hood of a Virus
A collaboration between investigators at Purdue University and Catholic University of America has uncovered the mechanism behind a critical movement that some pathogenic viruses, including herpes, exhibit. Parts of the motor move in sequence like the pistons in a car's engine, progressively drawing the genetic material into the virus's head, or capsid, said Michael Rossmann, Purdue's Hanley Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences. The motor is needed to insert DNA into the capsid of the T4 virus, which is called a bacteriophage because it infects bacteria. The same kind of motor, however, also is likely present in other viruses, including the human herpes virus. "Molecular motors in double-stranded DNA viruses have never been shown in such detail before," said Siyang Sun, a postdoctoral research associate working in Rossmann's lab. Other researchers have determined that the T4 molecular motor is the strongest yet discovered in viruses and proportionately twice as powerful as an automotive engine. The motors generate 20 times the force produced by the protein myosin, one of the two proteins responsible for the contraction and strength of muscles. The virus consists of a head and tail portion. The DNA-packaging motor is located in the same place where the tail eventually connects to the head. Most of the motor falls off after the packaging step is completed, allowing the tail to attach to the capsid. The DNA is a complete record of a virus's properties, and the capsid protects this record from damage and ensures that the virus can reproduce by infecting a host organism. Sun determined that the packaging motor is made of two ringlike structures, and both of these discs contain five segments made of a protein called gp17, for gene product 17. The researchers determined the atomic structure of these protein segments using a procedure called X-ray crystallography. They also used another technique called cryo-electron microscopy, which enabled them to see a more distant, overall design of the motor's ringlike structure. One disc sits on top of the other, and each of the five segments of the top disc shares a gp17 protein with a corresponding segment in the bottom disc. The gp17 proteins have two segments, or domains, one segment in the lower disc and the other segment in the upper disc. The lower disc first attaches to the DNA and is then drawn upward by the upper disc, pushing the DNA into the virus's capsid in...
Michael
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
The 2008 Medical Weblog Awards Finalists
After a careful analysis and consideration, we are pleased to present the finalists of the 2008 Medical Weblog Awards. But first, a few notes. Voting will begin tomorrow. We will have instructions, voting booths, and further details here at Medgadget.com. The 2008 Medical Weblog Awards, a competition in its fifth year, is proudly sponsored by Epocrates, whose mobile medical software solutions have been used by hundreds of thousands of clinicians and have been recognized as the industry's leading software for many years. Epocrates is generously donating to the winner in the Best Medical Weblog category the latest version of Epocrates Essentials Deluxe, a premium mobile suite of drugs, diseases and diagnostics that also features a medical dictionary, coding reference, clinical calculators and more, as well as the latest Palm® Tungsten™ E2 handheld. The package is valued at over $500. Winners of the individual categories will receive a Palm Z22 handheld with Epocrates Essentials, a package valued at $250. And to wrap up the prizes, all winners will receive an annual subscription to the Placebo Journal, "The Only Medical Journal That Will Make You Laugh... On Purpose!" Lastly, we would like to thanks everyone for taking the time to nominate their favorite medical blogs. As our judging committee went through the dozens of weblogs in each category, we enjoyed looking through so many fascinating sites, some known to us, some recently born, but all dedicated to the advancement of the science and art of medicine. We know firsthand that each blog is someone's labor of love, and that blogging is both labor intensive and a very personal experience, and as such, we took the job of selecting the finalists very seriously. And now, the drum roll... PLEASE MEET THE FINALISTS! Best Medical Weblog Clinical Cases and Images Clinical Correlations The Health Care Blog Kevin, M.D. WSJ Health Blog Best New Medical Weblog (established in 2008) Laika's MedLibLog Life in the Fast Lane medtechinsider The New Health Dialogue Science-Based Medicine Best Literary Medical Weblog Notes of an Anesthesioboist On The Clock other things amanzi Reflections by Dr. Bruce Campbell Running for My Life: Fighting cancer one step at a time Best Clinical Sciences Weblog Clinical Cases and Images Clinical Correlations scan man's notes Best Health Policies/Ethics Weblog Better Health The Last Psychiatrist Stuart Laidlaw's Medical Ethics blog Medical Futility Respectful Insolence Best Medical Technologies/Informatics Weblog AppleQuack Clinical Cases and Images Life...
Michael
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
FDA OKs New Drug That Lengthens Eye Lashes
The FDA has given approval to a drug that is applied to the eyelids to increase eyelash length and general voluptuousness. Sometimes even we, the champions of medical technology, stand in wonderment at what new pharmaceuticals can do. Scientific American reports: The active ingredient in Latisse is bimatoprost, a compound derived from fatty acids that bind to receptors in the eyelashes that may be involved in the development and re-growth of hair follicles. Allergan has used bimatoprost since 2001 in Lumigan, an Rx eye drop that lowers eye pressure in people with glaucoma. (Glaucoma is a disease that may cause vision loss from damage to the optic nerve if too much pressure builds up in the eye.) The company began studying the potential of using a lower dose of topical bimatoprost to stimulate eyelash growth after Lumigan users developed unusually lush lashes. It's specifically being marketed as a once-a-day med to treat eyelash hypotrichosis, or lack of hair growth. Full story @ Scientific American: Latisse: New eyelash-lengthening drug approved... Press release: Allergan Announces U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Approval of LATISSE(TM) -- First and Only Treatment Approved by the FDA for Hypotrichosis of Eyelashes ... Flashback: The Fight Is On for Drug That Lengthens Eyelashes...
Michael
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
Virulence Factor Found for 1918 Flu
The 1918 "Spanish Flu" pandemic killed between 20 and 50 million people worldwide. Many of the dead were young and healthy, an unusual pattern for influenza related deaths. As well, victims often succumbed quickly to this Influenza A (H1N1) infection. Scientists have been working "feverishly" to identify factors involved in its lethality before it (or a similar virus) reappears. University of Wisconsin-Madison virologists Yoshihiro Kawaoka and Tokiko Watanabe have discovered a gene complex which likely allows the influenza virus to replicate in the lungs, unlike most influenza strains, which are limited to replicating in the upper respiratory tract. This appears to answer the question of why so many died with massive pulmonary edema and hemorrhage. From the press statement by University of Wisconsin-Madison: "Conventional flu viruses replicate mainly in the upper respiratory tract: the mouth, nose and throat. The 1918 virus replicates in the upper respiratory tract, but also in the lungs," causing primary pneumonia among its victims, says Kawaoka, an internationally recognized expert on influenza and a professor of pathobiological sciences in the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine. "We wanted to know why the 1918 flu caused severe pneumonia." Autopsies of 1918 flu victims often revealed fluid-filled lungs severely damaged by massive hemorrhaging. Scientists assumed that the ability of the virus to take over the lungs is associated with the pathogen's high level of virulence, but the genes that conferred that ability were unknown. Discovery of the complex and its role in orchestrating infection in the lungs is important because it could provide a way to quickly identify the potential virulence factors in new pandemic strains of influenza, Kawaoka says. The complex could also become a target for a new class of antiviral drugs, which is urgently needed as vaccines are unlikely to be produced fast enough at the outset of a pandemic to blunt its spread. To find the gene or genes that enabled the virus to invade the lungs, Kawaoka and his group blended genetic elements from the 1918 flu virus with those of a currently circulating avian influenza virus and tested the variants on ferrets, an animal that mimics human flu infection. For the most part, substituting single genes from the 1918 virus onto the template of a much more benign contemporary virus yielded agents that could only replicate in the upper respiratory tract. One exception, however, included a complex of three genes that, acting in...
Stephen
Michael
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
Drug Delivery System Hits Gold
MIT researchers are reporting on a new multi-drug delivery system based on an interesting type of gold nanoparticles. Drugs attached to their surface are released when the gold nanoparticles dissolve after exposure to a specific frequency of infrared light. The infrared frequency is related to the nanoparticle shape and allows for the targeted release of drugs. From the press release: Delivery devices already exist that can release two drugs, but the timing of the release must be built into the device -- it cannot be controlled from outside the body. The new system is controlled externally and theoretically could deliver up to three or four drugs. The new technique takes advantage of the fact that when gold nanoparticles are exposed to infrared light, they melt and release drug payloads attached to their surfaces. Nanoparticles of different shapes respond to different infrared wavelengths, so "just by controlling the infrared wavelength, we can choose the release time" for each drug, said Andy Wijaya, graduate student in chemical engineering and lead author of the paper. The team built two different shapes of nanoparticles, which they call "nanobones" and "nanocapsules." Nanobones melt at light wavelengths of 1,100 nanometers, and nanocapsules at 800 nanometers. In the ACS Nano study, the researchers tested the particles with a payload of DNA. Each nanoparticle can carry hundreds of strands of DNA, and could also be engineered to transport other types of drugs. In theory, up to four different-shaped particles could be developed, each releasing its payload at different wavelengths. MIT press release: Gold particles deliver more than just glitter Dr. Kimberly Hamad-Schifferli's MIT Lab Website... Image: The top image shows a mixture of gold nanoparticles. The longer particles are called nanobones, and the smaller are nanocapsules. Bottom left: After the nanoparticles are hit with 800 nanometer wavelength infrared light, the nanocapsules melt and release their payload. Nanobones remain intact. Right: After the nanoparticles are hit with 1100 nanometer wavelength infrared light, the nanobones melt and release their payload. Nanocapsules remain intact....
Stephen
Michael
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
Evident Microwave Ablation System Gets US Approval to Treat Liver Tumors
Covidien has received FDA approval to market the company's Evident™ microwave ablation system for nonresectable liver tumor ablation. From the press release: The Evident MW Ablation System is intended for the coagulation of soft tissue during percutaneous, laparoscopic and open surgical procedures. The system uses microwave energy, emanating from the feed point of the radiating section of an antenna, to cause coagulation of the tissue. The microwave energy creates heat by generating friction through the vibration of water molecules. With microwave ablation, there is no current flow through the patient, eliminating the need for grounding pads. "The recent FDA concurrence for the Evident MW Ablation System's intended use for the ablation of nonresectable liver tumors is a testament to the comprehensive evidence-based approach EbD takes in the development of our products," said Ned Cosgriff, M.D., Vice President, Medical/Clinical Affairs, Covidien EbD. "As with any new technology, particularly one involving medical devices, training is essential for a product to be successful in today's healthcare environment. With the recently granted FDA clearance, our Interventional Oncology professionals can now train healthcare providers in the safe and effective use of the Evident MW Ablation System for the specific indication of ablation of nonresectable liver tumors." This major technological advance allows surgical oncologists, interventional radiologists, hepatobiliary surgeons and other medical specialists to perform percutaneous, laparoscopic or open surgical soft-tissue ablation, and to perform these procedures at speeds up to 60 percent faster than is possible with other ablation products. With the Evident MW Ablation System, ablations may be achieved in approximately 10 minutes. The speed and efficiency of the Evident MW Ablation System may mean less time in the operating or radiology suite for medical professionals and patients and less time under anesthesia for patients. Press release: FDA Clears Covidien's Evident(TM) Microwave Ablation System for Use in Nonresectable Liver Tumor Ablation......
Michael
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
BMJ Opens YouTube Channel
The British Medical Journal has opened up its own YouTube channel, featuring videos created exclusively for the publication. There are currently only ten videos up, including interviews and historical medical perspectives, but the BMJ promises to keep adding content on a regular basis. BMJ YouTube Channel... (hat tip: Scienceroll)...
Michael
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
Ins and Outs
Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption... [Marcia Angell @ The New York Review of Books] Little Blue Pills Among the Ways CIA Wins Friends in Afghanistan... [WaPo] Why Insurers Pay Certain Massachusetts Hospitals More ... [WSJ] Sun Sets on Drug-Company Pens in Doctors' Offices ... [WSJ] The Year in Materials... [MIT Tech Review] The Year in Biomedicine... [MIT Tech Review] St. Jude Medical Acquires MediGuide... [St. Jude Medical ] MediGuide flashbacks: Medical Position System (MPS) from MediGuide: GPS for Cath ; G-Wire: Visually Positioned Guidewire for Faster, Safer Procedures St. Jude Medical Acquires Radi Medical Systems... [St. Jude Medical] Same Genes Help Snails and Humans Tell Left from Right... [HHMI] Scientists Reveal Structure of New Botulism Nerve Toxin Subtype... [Brookhaven National Laboratory] Researchers engineer pancreatic cell transplants to evade immune response... [Albert Einstein College of Medicine] Gold particles deliver more than just glitter... [MIT] New "smart" materials for the brain... [Ecoles Polytechniques Fédérales de Lausanne] Amateurs are trying genetic engineering at home... [AP] Interview with Robert Taub, the Hebrew student who sold his firm for $438 million... [Globes] Human beings are born with numbers on the brain... [The Economist] Foreign Accents, Alien Hands and Other Medical Oddities... [WSJ] Ireland too grey for the burqa... [Times Online]...
Michael
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
Happy New Year!
As the year 2008 is about to enter history books, we'd like to thank all our readers for your patronage and support, and to wish you a happy, safe, and prosperous new year. Here at Medgadget we strive hard to deliver to you the latest, most relevant, and most exciting medical technology news. For a group of clinicians, working full time at our regular jobs, and blogging at our free times, we think we deliver one of the most active medical technology news sites on the web. And our effort seems to pay off. In 2008 we put out more posts and saw our readership rise like never before. Next year we pledge to continue offering our daily coverage while striving for more depth, breadth, and analysis of the news in science and technology of medicine. And we will also make sure to keep it lively. So please have a wonderful holiday, and we will see you here next year!...
Michael
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
FDA Clears Polyzene-F based Embolic Microspheres
CeloNova BioSciences out of Newnan, Georgia has received FDA clearance for the firm's Embozene Color-Advanced Microspheres for treatment of hypervascularized tumors. Classified as an embolic device, the microspheres are based on the company's proprietary material poly[bis(trifluroexthoxy)phosphazene], or Polyzene®-F, described as "lubricious and flexible," as well as "versatile, durable, and highly biocompatible." A while ago the European Union has cleared Embozene Color-Advanced Microspheres for marketing, and the device has been used by clinicians for embolizations of things like uterine fibroids, AVMs (ArterioVenous Malformations), hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC), and some other highly vascularized cancers. Back in January Medgadget had a post about CeloNova's interesting polymer for other applications: Polyzene-F Nanocoating for Cardiac Stents. From the press release issued by CeloNova: Embozene(TM) Microspheres are the first and only microspheres to be color- enhanced with a different color for each size for increased procedural safety, efficiency and visibility. They are also available in a wider range of sizes than any other spherical embolic on the market. They are available in 40 micrometers, 100 micrometers, 250 micrometers, 400 micrometers, 500 micrometers, 700 micrometers, and 900 micrometers sizes in 1 ml and 2 ml pre-filled syringes and vials. CeloNova plans to submit a supplemental 510(k) to the FDA to add three additional sizes, 75 micrometers, 1100 micrometers and 1300 micrometers, for a total of ten sizes including the smallest and the largest microspheres available for endovascular therapy. CeloNova is the only Company that provides this complete range of products. CeloNova's Embozene(TM) Microspheres consist of a hydrogel core and an exterior shell made from Polyzene®-F, CeloNova's proprietary polymer which is known to be anti-inflammatory and bacterial-resistant. Four design features distinguish Embozene(TM) Microspheres from other spherical embolics: biocompatibility, precise calibration, stable suspension, and structural stability. Embozene(TM) Microspheres are precisely calibrated, they retain their shape after passing through a catheter, and they can stay in suspension for an extended time. The unique color enhancement of the microspheres and finely calibrated sizes make selection easy, efficient, and precise for the operator. The result is an embolic microsphere that provides accurate and complete vessel occlusion. Embolization is a minimally invasive procedure used to control or prevent abnormal bleeding, to shrink tumors by blocking the blood vessels that supply them, and to block off blood vessel malformations. Physicians use enhanced imaging techniques to visualize the blood vessel, then insert and advance a catheter to the treatment site. The embolic agent is then released...
Michael
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
Computer Modeling Helping To Fight Malaria
MIT researchers have developed a computer modeling technique to assist in the fight against malaria, a disease which still accounts for 1/3rd of all deaths in children under 5 worldwide. The software analyzes numerous environment factors involved in malaria spread and can help predict what various interventions will have. Targeting environmental factors is not new, but being able to quantify the lasting effects of environmental interventions (such as leveling ground, planting trees in stagnant water, etc.) is. MIT press office explains: Modifying the environment by using everything from shovels and plows to plant-derived pesticides may be as important as mosquito nets and vaccinations in the fight against malaria, according to a computerized analysis by MIT researchers. The researchers have developed a new computer model for analyzing different methods of trying to control the spread of malaria, one of the world's most-devastating diseases. Among their findings using the model is that environmental measures such as leveling the land to eliminate depressions where pools can form can be an important part of the strategy for controlling the disease. Reports on the work, carried out by Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Elfatih Eltahir and graduate students Arne Bomblies and Rebecca Gianotti, were presented this week at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco... While most efforts at dealing with malaria have focused on the human side, such as attempts to develop a vaccine, Eltahir said that efforts to control environmental factors --such as working to eliminate the low spots where pools of water collect during the rainy season, or applying locally grown plant materials to limit the growth of mosquitoes -- can have a dramatic effect on controlling malaria's spread. And unlike importing expensive medicines, such an approach can rely on local efforts as simple as having people with shovels fill in the low spots in the terrain. "By using local tools and local labor, our approach relies less on high-technology equipment from outside the region, which tends to make the local people more dependent," he said. In addition, the new comprehensive computer model will provide a tool for analyzing how different areas' vulnerability to malaria will be affected by a changing climate. To validate the accuracy of the computer modeling of conditions, the team has been working for the last four years in a remote area of Niger, which lies in the Sahel desert region of northern...
Stephen
Michael
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
Quantum Cascade Lasers and the Future of Medical Diagnostics
Princeton scientists have developed a new more energy efficient way to generate laser light. The finding should allow for building of miniature diagnostic devices that monitor light's attenuation in a liquid sample, potentially leading to specialized blood glucose meters and other similar devices. The laser used in the Princeton study is a special type called a quantum cascade laser. Built at Princeton University's nanofabrication facility, the device is about one-tenth as thick as a human hair and 3 millimeters long. Despite its tiny size, it is made of hundreds of layers of different semiconductor materials. Each layer is only a few atoms thick. In this device, electrons "cascade" down through the layers as they lose energy and give off synchronized photons. In an earlier study published in Applied Physics Letters in June 2007, Franz [graduate student Kale Franz], Gmachl [Claire Gmachl, an electrical engineer and director of the Mid-Infrared Technologies for Health and the Environment (MIRTHE) center --ed.] and others had reported that a quantum cascade laser they had built unexpectedly emitted a second laser beam of slightly smaller wavelength than the main one. Further studies by Menzel and others revealed that the second beam could not be explained by any existing theory of quantum cascade lasers. Unlike a conventional semiconductor laser, the second beam grew stronger as the temperature increased, up to a point. Further, it seemed to compete with the "normal" laser, growing weaker as the latter strengthened when more electric current was supplied. "It's a new mechanism of light emission from semiconductor lasers," said Franz. To explain this mechanism, the researchers invoked a quantum property of electrons called momentum. In the conventional view of quantum cascade lasers, only electrons of nearly zero momentum participate in "lasing" (producing laser light). Further, a substantial number of electrons has to attain the same level of energy and momentum – be in a so-called "quasi-equilibrium" condition -- before they can participate in laser action. In contrast, studies by Gmachl's group showed that the second laser beam originated from electrons of lower energy, but higher momentum that were not in equilibrium. "It showed, contrary to what was believed, that electrons are useful for laser emission even when they are in highly non-equilibrium states," said Franz. The new laser phenomenon has some interesting features. For instance, in a conventional laser relying on low momentum electrons, electrons often reabsorb the emitted photons, and this...
Michael
Categories: International Health IT Blogs and News Sites
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