Breaking News: Craig Venter and Others Make Synthetic Self-replicating Bacteria

The J. Craig Venter Institute just concluded a press conference where they announced the results of a 15 year project to make what could be called the ultimate medical gadget, a living, replicating cell.

From the announcement:

Now, this scientific team headed by Drs. Craig Venter, Hamilton Smith and Clyde Hutchison have achieved the final step in their quest to create the first synthetic bacterial cell. In a publication in Science magazine, Daniel Gibson, Ph.D. and a team of 23 additional researchers outline the steps to synthesize a 1.08 million base pair Mycoplasma mycoides genome, constructed from four bottles of chemicals that make up DNA. This synthetic genome has been 'booted up' in a cell to create the first cell controlled completely by a synthetic genome.

Here's Venter's talk from TEDMED 2009 where he discussed some of his work from the research just announced:






Venter Institute: FIRST SELF-REPLICATING SYNTHETIC BACTERIAL CELL...

Abstract in Science : Creation of a Bacterial Cell Controlled by a Chemically Synthesized Genome...


[Medgadget]

Electronic Noses Can Smell If You Have Asthma [Health]

Asthma affects about 300 million people around the world, but can be difficult to diagnose. That's why scientists designed an electronic nose which can sniff the air exhaled by a patient to determine whether he or she has asthma.

The electronic noses basically consist of a bunch of gas sensors which sample and analyze inhaled and exhaled air. And based on initial testing, they're rather accurate:

In a test involving 14 people, the electronic nose proved to be 87.5 percent accurate, compared to conventional tests like fraction of exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) and lung function tests, which were 79.2 percent and 70.8 percent accurate respectively.

Now if only they can combine combine these asthma detectors with breathalyzers then every horrid driver could get a free medical exam before being handcuffed.

[Gizmodo via Science Daily via Inhabitat]

New Pills Send Messages When Swallowed [Pills]

University of Florida researchers have developed a signaling technology that can be embedded into drug tablets to notify clinicians and caretakers that a pill has been ingested. Although a bit of electronics is going to be moving through the digestive system, the researchers believe that it will pass safely without causing side effects to the patient. If the technology proves itself, we may soon be using it to confirm compliance in clinical trials or to monitor patients under a strict drug regimen.

One part is the pill, a standard white capsule coated with a label embossed with silvery lines. The lines comprise the antenna, which is printed using ink made of nontoxic, conductive silver nanoparticles. The pill also contains a tiny microchip, one about the size of a period.

When a patient takes the pill, it communicates with the second main element of the system: a small electronic device carried or worn by the patient – for now, a stand-alone device, but in the future perhaps built into a watch or cell phone. The device then signals a cell phone or laptop that the pill has been ingested, in turn informing doctors or family members.

Bashirullah [Rizwan Bashirullah, UF assistant professor in electrical and computer engineering] said the pill needs no battery because the device sends it power via imperceptible bursts of extremely low-voltage electricity. The bursts energize the microchip to send signals relayed via the antenna. Eventually the patient’s stomach acid breaks down the antenna – the microchip is passed through the gastrointestinal tract — but not before the pill confirms its own ingestion.

The team has successfully tested the pill system in artificial human models, as well as cadavers. Researchers have also simulated stomach acids to break down the antenna to learn what traces it leaves behind. Bashirullah said those tests had determined the amount of silver retained in the body is tiny, less than what people often receive from common tap water.

[Medgadget, Press release]

This Is the Future of the Fight Against Cancer [Medicine]

Look close. You may be staring at the end of cancer. Those tiny black dots are nanobots delivering a lethal blow to a cancerous cell, effectively killing it. The first trial on humans have been a success, with no side-effects:

It sneaks in, evades the immune system, delivers the siRNA, and the disassembled components exit out.

Those are the words of Mark Davis, head of the research team that created the nanobot anti-cancer army at the California Institute of Technology. According to a study to be published in Nature, Davis' team has discovered a clean, safe way to deliver RNAi sequences to cancerous cells. RNAi (Ribonucleic acid interference) is a technique that attacks specific genes in malign cells, disabling functions inside and killing them.

The 70-nanometer attack bots—made with two polymers and a protein that attaches to the cancerous cell's surface—carry a piece of RNA called small-interfering RNA (siRNA), which deactivates the production of a protein, starving the malign cell to death. Once it has delivered its lethal blow, the nanoparticle breaks down into tiny pieces that get eliminated by the body in the urine.
The most amazing thing is that you can send as many of these soldiers as you want, and they will keep attaching to the bad guys, killing them left, right, and center, and stopping tumors. According to Davis, 'the more [they] put in, the more ends up where they are supposed to be, in tumour cells.' While they will have to finish the trials to make sure that there are no side-effects whatsoever, the team is very happy with the successful results and it's excited about what's coming:

What's so exciting is that virtually any gene can be targeted now. Every protein now is druggable. My hope is to make tumours melt away while maintaining a high quality of life for the patients. We're moving another step closer to being able to do that now.

Hopefully, they will be right.
[Gizmodo via Caltech via Nature]

3D printer uses bio-ink to create the first 'printed' human veins [Medicine]

It sounds like science fiction, but researchers from the University of Missouri have a 3D printer that could one day recreate human organs by using a cocktail made from human cells. If your liver was failing, for instance, cells from your liver could be used to print a healthy one, or cells from your heart could be used to create a new heart, and so on.

Right now, all of that is still a long way off. What has been done, however, is recreate a human vein using 'bio-ink,' or the liquid sludge that's produced using human cells and printed onto 'bio-paper.' This paper slowly dissolves as the layers of ink bind and start to take on the shape us humans would recognize.

Gabor Forgacs, the man who created the Organovo NovoGen prototype printer, told NPR that the blueprints for the organs, or 'schemes' as he calls them, can be created using x-ray technology and the like, giving researchers an outline and floor plan to each organ. It's not as simple as it sounds, though, and you probably won't hear about printed organs replacing a failing liver. Human testing could begin within five years, according to Forgacs, whose team is currently perfecting the process to print out a human vein.

Each vein starts as a series of circles and then, like layering flattened donuts one on top of the other, the entire stack creates a cylinder — a vein.

NPR has an interview with Forgacs you can listen to here.

[DVICE via Inhabitat]

Invetech Delivers World's First Production Human Tissue Printer [Medicine]

Or, as they call it, a '3D bio-printer.' Essentially, it allows scientists to build tissue cell by cell. It's that cool sci-fi medical stuff we all dream about.

'Scientists and engineers can use the 3D bio printers to enable placing cells of almost any type into a desired pattern in 3D,' Murphy said. 'Researchers can place liver cells on a preformed scaffold, support kidney cells with a co-printed scaffold, or form adjacent layers of epithelial and stromal soft tissue that grow into a mature tooth. Ultimately the idea would be for surgeons to have tissue on demand for various uses, and the best way to do that is get a number of bio-printers into the hands of researchers and give them the ability to make three dimensional tissues on demand.'

The system includes software that enables engineers to build a model of the tissue before layering cells with laser-calibrated print heads. So, it seems pretty similar to a standard 3D model printer. Hopefully, most of us will live to see the day when we can have new hearts and livers printed on demand. That would be handy. Teeth would be great in the short term too. That whole Polygrip lifestyle where corn cobs and apples could lead to disaster does not seem appealing.
[Gizmodo via Livescience]

Thought-to-Speech Machine Could Be the Beginning of Something Huge [Medicine]

The Neuralynx System translates thoughts into speech. It connects to the neurons, sending signals wirelessly to a laptop, which translates the brain activity into spoken English. It's not science fiction: They tried it with a paralyzed 26-year-old and it works.
According to the research paper, they inserted the electrodes into the patient's brain, installing signal amplifiers and transmitters under the scalp. The circuitry—powered by an induction electric supply—transmits the signals to a laptop via FM radio. The software then converts the analog signal to digital data that the neural decoder interprets these into speech commands, which are then sent to the synthesizer.
The whole process takes 50 milliseconds, which is the same amount of time it takes to any normal person to do the same process, using their nerves, vocal chords, and mouth. According to Neuralynx project leader Frank Guenther—from the Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems and the Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at Boston University—their system is going to get even better soon.

The results of our study show that a brain-machine interface (BMI) user can control sound output directly, rather than having to use a (relatively slow) typing process. Our immediate plans involve the implementation of a new synthesizer that can produce consonants as well as vowels but remains simple enough for a BMI user to control. We are also working on hardware that will greatly increase the number of neurons that are recorded. We expect to tap into at least 10 times as many neurons in the next implant recipient, which should lead to a dramatic improvement in performance.

Obviously, this is going to be a miraculous invention for people who can't talk because of nerve damage or any other reason. It could also mean the beginning of something bigger, perhaps enabling new kinds of communication. Imagine an implant that could do the same thing on reverse, basically enabling long distance telepathy. Or an jet fighter that can take mind commands in Russian!
Hmmm... on second thought, this may be the best worst idea ever created.
[Gizmodo via Physorg]

New CAT scan technology allows for 3D imaging of individual cells [3D Model]

Medical imaging is an interesting field. There are things like fMRI, PET scans, CAT scans, radioactive dye traces, and a million other different techniques — but they’re usually so limited and specific (as extraordinary as they are) that there’s always a need for a new one. In this case it’s soft X-ray tomography, a variant on the more familiar CAT scan.

Normal X-rays penetrate too effectively for them to be used on individual cells; the amount of interference provided by the cell is simply not enough to detect and create an image from. So they use soft X-rays, which have a slightly longer wavelength than the kind used on a broken arm. A new technique developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has enabled soft X-ray images to be taken quickly and sequentially, and then assembled into a 3D model of the subject.

It’s not “live” like an fMRI, and it doesn’t provide the detail one finds in electron microscopy, but obviously it’s very useful. I doubt any of us will ever run into one of these machines in real life, but it’s cool to know they exist.

[CrunchGear via Reddit]

GlucoTrack Ear Lobe Non Invasive Glucometer [Diabetes]

Amy Tenderich of DiabetesMine recently met a representative of Integrity Applications, an Ashkelon, Israel firm that has developed the GlucoTrack non-invasive blood glucose monitor. The device, which we profiled about four years ago when it was still in prototype stage, uses ultrasound, conductivity and heat capacity in an ear clip sensor to take glucose readings in a matter of seconds. Integrity recently received European approval for the GlucoTrack and is now waiting for FDA's blessings to market in the US.

From DiabetesMine:

But even on the existing non-continuous model, the key question of course is how accurate is it? That’s the deal-breaker, because who’s going to switch to something less accurate than what we already have? The bottom line is that right now, Integrity’s data show that GlucoTrack is more accurate than other non-invasive technologies, but not as consistently accurate as current fingerstick meters.

“We’re working to improve that. Our technology uses three different measurements simultaneously, and then correlates and averages the results for more precise readings,” Avner tells me.

“Fine,” I reply, “But the big advantage of a device like this is doing away with the need for test strips. That only works if you’re accurate enough so people (who take insulin!) don’t need to do fingersticks alongside the ear measurements.”

Naturally they’re feverishly gathering data. Even with improved numbers, they cannot predict whether the FDA would move GlucoTrack out of the “adjunctive therapy” category (a device to be used for extra information only).

Read on at DiabetesMine...

Product page: GlucoTrack...
Flashback: The GlucoTrack

[Medgadget]

New PillCam Colon 2 May Be Viable Alternative to Colonoscopies

Given Imaging out of Yoqneam, Israel is releasing a new version of PillCam Colon, an endoscopic capsule designed for imaging of the large intestine. The PillCam COLON 2 has recently received European approval and was just unveiled at the Gastro 2009 Conference in London, England.
From the press release:

The Company also announced that independent investigators presented results of a 98-patient feasibility study. The investigators concluded that PillCam COLON 2 is a safe and effective method to visualize the colon and detect colonic polyps. An article discussing the study has been accepted for the December 2009 edition of the journal Endoscopy.

Results of the study comparing PillCam COLON 2 to colonoscopy, showed a sensitivity of 89 percent and a specificity of 76 percent in detecting polyps greater than or equal to 6 mm and a sensitivity of 88 percent and a specificity of 89 percent in detecting polyps greater than or equal to 10 mm. Conducted by clinicians at five hospitals in Israel, the study evaluated the performance of PillCam COLON 2 in 98 patients who had risks or warning symptoms of colon pathology. Like Given Imaging's other PillCam capsules, PillCam COLON 2 does not require the use of sedation, intubation or air insufflation during the procedure, offering physicians and patients a convenient way to visualize the colon.

Features:

• Bi-directional communication between PillCam Colon 2 and the DataRecorder enables tracking of the capsule's motion in the GI tract so that the image capture rate can be adjusted to maximize colon tissue coverage.
• Adaptive Frame Rate adjusts the image capture rate from four frames per second to 35 frames per second, enabling creation of a smooth, continuous video.
• Polyp Size Estimation is a new research tool that allows clinicians to estimate the size of polyps.
• Superior Imaging Compared to COLON 1
• Advanced optics for enhanced image quality and polyp detection.
• 172 degrees field of view from each imager offers a near 360 degrees view of the colon.

It should also be mentioned that last year FDA has rejected Given Imaging's 510(k) application to market the original PillCam COLON in the United States, citing a 'not substantially equivalent' applicability of the device.

Press release: Given Imaging Launches Next-Generation PillCam(R) COLON 2 at GASTRO 2009 Conference...

Product page: PillCam COLON...

Flashbacks: PillCam Colon; FDA Rejects PillCam Colon

[Medgadget via Globes Online]

Virtual Autopsy Table Makes a Dirty Business Clean

Sweden's Norrköping Visualization Center, in collaboration with the Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization, has developed a virtual autopsy system to substitute some of the manual work for touch manipulation on a flatscreen. A body under investigation is first scanned through a CT or MRI and the results of that can be manipulated using software that can filter images based on tissue density, luminance, and other criteria.

Here's a couple videos demonstrating the Virtual Autopsy Table:

Link: Virtual Autopsy Table...

[Medgadget via Gizmag]

GE's New Ultra Small Ultrasound May Become as Ubiquitous as Stethoscope

Yesterday at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, GE showed off their new handheld ultrasound device.























The Vscan looks like a cross between an iPod and a cell phone, making it possibly the world's smallest ultrasound. Later today we'll be attending GE's healthymagination technology showcase in New York where further details and specs will hopefully become available.

For critical care clinicians, Vscan can offer an immediate look beyond patient vital signs with the potential to identify critical issues, like fluid around the heart, which could be a sign of congestive heart failure. And for cardiologists, Vscan provides a dependable visual evaluation of how well the heart is pumping at a glance, so they can treat patients more efficiently.

[Medgadget]

Nanobees Sting Tumors to Death

We have known for many years that melittin, an ingredient in bee venom, is a poison to tumor cells. Development of therapeutic uses of the substance has been stymied by the fact that melittin does damage to healthy cells as well. Now researchers from Washington University in St. Louis have developed nanoparticles called 'nanobees' that can ferry the melittin directly to tumor cells with great specificity.
The Wall Street Journal reports:

Among Dr. Soman's first experiments was to see how melittin interacted with the nanoparticles. He found that not only did it attach quickly to the outer, lipid layer of the nanoparticles, but that the attachment was stable, suggesting that the nanoparticle-melittin combination, or nanobee, might be able to circulate in the body and not attack healthy cells.
The next issue was to figure out how to get the melittin, once it came upon a tumor, to detach from the nanoparticle and transfer to the cancer cells, taking its cell-killing properties with it. The researchers accomplished this by attaching a third component to the mix—a ligand, which is a chemical that binds two distinct compounds. The ligand they used in this case—which Dr. Schlesinger likens to a "molecular ZIP Code"—has an affinity for attaching to a receptor plentiful in newly formed blood vessels. That's useful in cancer treatment because tumors tend to form new blood vessels to feed themselves and grow.
The scientists began testing the resulting mix, which resembles a milky substance, in mice in 2007. They tried it on a few dozen lab mice with three kinds of tumors: a mouse form of skin cancer; a form of human breast cancer transplanted into the mice; and precancerous lesions caused by human papillomavirus, which can cause cervical cancer in humans.
After about two weeks of treatment, the nanobees slowed the growth of the breast-cancer tumors, shrank the melanoma tumors and reduced the precancerous lesions, compared with control groups that received saline injections and nanoparticles lacking melittin.

Full paper in J. Clin. Invest.: Molecularly targeted nanocarriers deliver the cytolytic peptide melittin specifically to tumor cells in mice, reducing tumor growth
Link to WSJ: The Buzz: Targeting Cancer With Bee Venom ...
[Medgadget]