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Breakthrough in detecting DNA mutations could help treat tuberculosis, cancer | UW TodayPosted under: Engineering, Health and Medicine, News Releases, Research
The slightest variation in a sequence of DNA can have profound effects. Modern genomics has shown that just one mutation can be the difference between successfully treating a disease and having it spread rampantly throughout the body.
This conceptual image shows probe and target complexes at different stages of the reaction that checks for mutations. The red dots represent mutations in a target base pair, while the illuminated green light indicates that no mutation was found.
Now, researchers have developed a new method that can look at a specific segment of DNA and pinpoint a single mutation, which could help diagnose and treat diseases such as cancer and tuberculosis. These small changes can be the root of a disease or the reason some infectious diseases resist certain antibiotics. The findings were published online this week (July 28) in the journal Nature Chemistry.
Now, researchers have the ability to check for that mutation preventatively.
Seelig, along with David Zhang of Rice University and Sherry Chen, a UW doctoral student in electrical engineering, designed probes that can pick out mutations in a single base pair in a target stretch of DNA. The probes allow researchers to look in much more detail for variations in long sequences – up to 200 base pairs – while current methods can detect mutations in stretches of up to only 20.
When surgeons thread a catheter through a vein to the heart -- a procedure called cardiac ablation -- they are relying on electrodes at the catheter's tip to listen to the heart's electrical activity and find the source of -- and hopefully fix -- any heartbeat irregularities.
Now, a new system called the Rhythmia Mapping System, recently bought by Boston Scientific, translates that activity into a 3D map of the heart as it pumps blood. The system received FDA 510(k) clearance in the U.S., only months after receiving the similar CE Mark of approval in Europe.
In clinical trials, Rhythmia cut the time it takes to map electrical activity in half, Boston Scientific's Peter Sommerness told Fast Company last fall. A 64-electrode catheter tracks the heart's shape and electrical signals as it beats, and then the system's software turns that data into a 3D map of the organ. The idea is to help surgeons and physicians spot abnormalities right down to the precise section of muscle where the electrical activity is disrupted.
Scientists have grown rudimentary teeth out of the most unlikely of sources, human urine.
The results, published in Cell Regeneration Journal, showed that urine could be used as a source of stem cells that in turn could be grown into tiny tooth-like structures.
The team from China hopes the technique could be developed into a way of replacing lost teeth.
Other stem cell researchers caution that that goal faces many challenges.
Teams of researchers around the world are looking for ways of growing new teeth to replace those lost with age and poor dental hygiene.
Stem cells - the master cells which can grow into any type of tissue - are a popular area of research.
The group at the Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health used urine as the starting point.
The group of neurological disorders known as epilepsy not only cause disruptive, alarming seizures, but those seizures also tend to increase in frequency and severity over time. While the majority of patients can gain some control of their condition via medication or surgery, approximately 30 percent cannot. Now, however, help may be on the way ... in the form of tiny pieces of silk implanted in the brain.
A diabetes pill has anti-ageing effects and extends the life of male mice, research suggests.
Scientists believe the drug, metformin, may mimic the effects of extreme calorie restriction.
This regime, which is based on eating a very low calorie diet, is thought to promote healthy ageing.
The human implications of the study are unclear, the researchers report in the journal, Nature Communications
US scientists say they have moved a step closer to being able to grow a complete human ear from a patient's cells.
In a new development in tissue engineering, they have grown a human-like ear from animal tissue. The ear has the flexibility of a real ear, say researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Researchers at Harvard University have created the first noninvasive brain-to-brain interface (BBI) between a human… and a rat. Simply by thinking the appropriate thought, the BBI allows the human to control the rat’s tail. This is one of the most important steps towards BBIs that allow for telepathic links between two or more humans — which is a good thing in the case of friends and family, but terrifying if you stop to think about the nefarious possibilities of a fascist dictatorship with mind control tech.
Researchers from Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have made a fundamental discovery relevant to the understanding and treatment of heart failure, a leading cause of death worldwide. The team discovered a new molecular pathway responsible for causing heart failure and showed that a first-in-class prototype drug, JQ1, blocks this pathway to protect the heart from damage.
In contrast to standard therapies for heart failure, JQ1 works directly within the cell’s nucleus to prevent damaging stress responses. This research lays the foundation for a new way of treating a diseased heart. The study appears in the August 1 issue of Cell. 


Artificial human ear grown in lab
US scientists say they have moved a step closer to being able to grow a complete human ear from a patient's cells.
In a new development in tissue engineering, they have grown a human-like ear from animal tissue. The ear has the flexibility of a real ear, say researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
BBC News - Artificial human ear grown in lab
A discovery by a University of Maryland-led research team offers hope for treating "lazy eye" and other serious visual problems that are usually permanent unless they are corrected in early childhood
Amblyopia afflicts about three percent of the population, and is a widespread cause of vision loss in children. It occurs when both eyes are structurally normal, but mismatched – either misaligned, or differently focused, or unequally receptive to visual stimuli because of an obstruction such as a cataract in one eye.
The enormous promise of regenerative medicine is matched by equally enormous challenges. But a new finding by a team of researchers led by Weill Cornell Medical College has the potential to improve both the safety and performance of reprogrammed cells.
The researchers' study, published in today's issue of the journal Nature, found that an enzyme, activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID), helps in the process that changes an adult human cell into an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS cell). These iPS cells can then be developed into any kind of cell needed to therapeutically restore tissues and organs.
The finding settles an ongoing controversy regarding use of AID to reprogram cells, says the study's senior investigator, Dr. Todd Evans, vice chair for research and professor of cell and developmental biology in the Department of Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College.
Ultrasound treatments could be used to prevent a common kidney complication than can arise after major surgery, researchers suggest.
The work, published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, was carried out on mice.
But the researchers said there could be a "rapid translation" to human studies because the treatment for acute kidney injury (AKI) was simple and routine.
Experts said the study suggested potential for new therapies.
AKI is the sudden loss of kidney function, which can easily develop in any sick person through infection such as pneumonia, diarrhoea or a heart attack.
AKI can develop after major surgery, such as some kinds of heart surgery, because the kidneys can be deprived of normal blood flow during the procedure.
Once it has developed, there are few treatment options
Scripps Research Institute Scientists Find Long-Sought Method to Efficiently Make Complex Anticancer CompoundLA JOLLA, CA – August 1, 2013 – Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have achieved the first efficient chemical synthesis of ingenol, a highly complex, plant-derived compound that has long been of interest to drug developers for its anticancer potential. The achievement will enable scientists to synthesize a wide variety of ingenol derivatives and investigate their therapeutic properties. The achievement also sets the stage for the efficient commercial production of ingenol mebutate, a treatment for actinic keratosis (a common precursor to non-melanoma skin cancer), that at present must be extracted and refined inefficiently from plants.
Chemically modified inhibitors of the COX-2 enzyme relieve anxiety behaviors in mice by activating natural "endocannabinoids" without gastrointestinal side effects, Vanderbilt University scientists will report next week.
Endocannabinoids are natural signaling molecules that activate cannabinoid receptors in the brain, the same receptors turned on by the active ingredient in marijuana.
These receptors are also found in the gastrointestinal system and elsewhere in the body, and there is evidence that they play a role in wide range of physiological and pathological processes, in addition to modulating stress and anxiety.
New hope for high blood pressure patients | Health | News | Daily ExpressA SIMPLE skin patch to treat high blood pressure could dramatically slash deaths from heart attacks and strokes.
The revolutionary device, which is changed every day, could improve control of the condition and save millions of lives.
In a world first, it gradually allows a drug to seep through the skin and into the bloodstream once patients stick it on to their arm, chest or back.
It provides a steady flow of bisoprolol, which is a type of beta-blocker – unlike pills which can cause blood pressure levels to peak and trough dangerously. Experts believe that having a constant and steady supply of the drug could reduce the incidence of heart attacks and strokes.
The breakthrough patch has been cleared for use in Japan and could be available in the UK within the next couple of years.
In a new study, researchers at The Center for Brain and Spinal Cord Repair at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center show that is possible to restore immune function in spinal injured mice.
Phys.org) —The applications of gene therapy and genetic engineering are broad: everything from pet fish that glow red to increased crop yields worldwide to cures for many of the diseases that plague humankind. But realizing them always starts with solving the same basic scientific question—how to "transfect" a cell by inserting foreign DNA into it. Many methods already exist for doing this, but they tend to be clumsy and destructive, not allowing researchers to precisely control how and when they insert the DNA or requiring them to burn through large numbers of cells before they can get it into one.
A team of scientists in South Korea have now developed the most precise method ever used to insert DNA into cells. The method combines two high-tech laboratory techniques and allows the researchers to precisely poke holes on the surface of a single cell with a high-powered "femtosecond" laser and then gently tug a piece of DNA through it using "optical tweezers," which draw on the electromagnetic field of another laser. The team's approach, which is a breakthrough in precision and control at the single-cell level, was published today in the Optical Society's (OSA) open-access journal Biomedical Optics Express.
Software upgrades to bionic eye enable color recognition, improve resolution, image focus, zooming | KurzweilAIThe first bionic eye to be approved for patients in the U.S. is getting software upgrades.
As KurzweilAI has reported, the FDA-approved Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System from Second Sight Medical Products transmits images from a small, eye-glass-mounted camera wirelessly to a microelectrode array implanted on a patient’s damaged retina.
The array sends electrical signals via the optic nerve, and the brain interprets a visual image.
Researchers at the University of Southampton, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Cambridge, have developed a technique to help treat fatal diseases more effectively. Dr Sumeet Mahajan and his group at the Institute for Life Sciences at Southampton are using gold nanoprobes to identify different types of cells, so that they can use the right ones in stem cell therapies.
Stem cell therapy is in its infancy, but has the potential to change the way we treat cancer and other life-threatening diseases, by replacing damaged or diseased cells with healthy ones. One of the key limitations of stem cell therapy is identifying the right cells to use for different therapies. This fundamental problem with the treatment is being tackled by this new research.
There’s a vast, vast sea of the smartphone accessories out there that are designed to solve first-world problems (do we honestly need another bottle opening case?), but here’s one that aspires to change the rest of the world. The folks at Dreamit Ventures-backed Biomeme have developed a device that will turn your humble iPhone or iPod touch into a lean, mean, mobile DNA replicating machine that they hope will ultimately change how diseases are tracked and treated.
