‘Safe in 30 seconds’ , as new test detects major ‘date rape drug’ in your glass itself

Chemists at the National University of Singapore have developed a unique test to detect one of the major ‘date rape drugs’ , Gamma Hydroxy Butyric acid (GHB) in any beverage. Date rape drugs , also called predator drugs are sedatives which cause loss of consciousness and possibly amnesia , used widely for recreational and criminal purposes.Earlier tests involved chromatographic separation and subsequent testing, which required some bit of geeky apparatus and minimum 10 minutes, both of which are obviously the last things you have sitting in a club with a spiked drink in your hand. In this test, the ‘sensor’ when added to the drink makes GHB change its color to orange.

The team , from 17 fluorescent compounds , finalized what they call ‘GHB Orange’ , after testing all of them with drinks laced with various concentrations of GHB. The efficiency of ‘GHB Orange’ was determined by mixing with samples of various beverages , alcoholic, non alcoholic, colorless and colored ,containing GHB , which were differentiated from non spiked drinks by adding the sensor.
For transparent or translucent drinks, the difference was easy to make out with the naked eye, but in case of colored drinks , additional light was required to detect the color change.

The team is hoping to develop a commercial kit based on this tech, which is one which all clubbers really should be looking out for , keeping your safety in mind…

 

Source : DailyMail

The Little Engines That Could

Stem cells can redevelop into multiple cell types in the body. They can also be used as a repair system inside the body for tissues and can replenish other cells already present. When stem cells divide, each cell that comes from the division can remain a stem cell or transform into another cell type with a new function—such as transforming into a red blood cell or brain cell. For a cell to be considered a stem cell it must contain two unique properties:
 1) it must be able to renew itself through cell division—even after long periods of inactivity;
 2) under certain conditions it must be able to transform into multiple cell types, such as bone marrow, tissues or organs.
Scientists have historically worked with two types of stem cells: embryonic and somatic (non-embryonic). Stem cells carry unique regenerative properties and have a high potential for curing disease. While the research is ongoing, researchers are much closer to using stem cell therapies to treat patients.

About the Author - Written by Dr. Joseph Purita, founder of The Institute of Regenerative and Molecular Orthopedics and a pioneer in the use of the laser in orthopedic surgery.

360 TB data storage legacy for the future generation

The picture doesn't make you any wiser about this thing here? Well that's because this a modeled section. The thing we are talking about here is a disk, built by researchers at University of Southampton. A glass disk to be precise. And like any of the CD's, DVD's to Blur Ray's you may have come across, this one here stores data as well. So what's so special about this?

Firstly, the storage space offered- a MASSIVE 360 TB (here, which is Tera Bytes FYI ) of storage space is what this disk offers. That's huge, to the point that you may not realize actually how huge it is. So let me help you a bit - 360 Tera Bytes, or 360,000,000,000,000 or 360 Trillion bytes of data, which is equal to space in 941,400 DVD's!!! In short, its real huge!!!Secondly, this storage is designed to last a lifetime, or to be precise, the lifetime, of the entire humanity. With a life of what is said to be 1 Million years, this disk is set to outlive the human race (which is incidentally facing quite a few survival issues lately). Thirdly, this storage is durable, to the extent that it is fine with anything below 1832 Fahrenheit.

So, massive memory space, monstrous life, superman-level durability.... and we have a perfect candidate for transferring our legacy to future generations (if any survive) or maybe some future , smarter species, or even more fantastically, maybe some extraterrestrial species, to find about the 'wonders  that human race was destined for, had not it been for a few blips here and there' . Frankly, i believe it to be a great idea , for the future species to know about the civilization currently existing, and laugh at our primitiveness, which is better than at least what species 1 million years from us left for us to know

Take care of your veggies' schedule, their nutrients are very punctual!

Ever felt the guilt of plucking a fruit from a tree, or while eating one bought from the market, thinking how it must have hurt the plant as it got separated from the fruit? Jokes apart, this is one new finding that will give weight to non vegetarians , who are constantly under seige of the 'vegy boys' for killing animals and all that. Guess what? It is found that fruits and vegetables plucked from the plants are actually 'alive', in a sense at least, even later on. That is untill you eat 'em!!! *May God forgiveth thou*

Well not actually alive and kicking or anything, it just means that the fruits show the same biological response to day and night post plucking, as they would while clinging on to their plant parts. According to Janet Braam from Rice University, the fruits were found to indulge in changes in physiology due to their circadian rythm even after being harvested. A phenomenon initially found in cabbage, it was later found in lettuce, spinach, sweet potatoes, carrots and blueberries.

So the consequence is that fruits and vegies subjected to light and dark end up staying fresh for long, with more nutrients available at certain time of the day. What purpose could it have for the plants? Not for being eaten and for the 'greater good' of humanity of course. It's found that fruits under normal circadian rhythm after breaking off show changes in physiology which prevents them from being eaten by insects (check this out, even plants hate bugs!!)

So the consequence is that one is advised to not keep fruits and vegetables in dark cupboards, or even in fridges, and subject them to normal day and night patterns, in an innovative way of course to prevent over ripening. Another aspect to be taken care of is the time of harvesting them, which is decided based on when there is max concentration of nutrients, freezing them at that time to preserve the ultra beneficial phytochemicals. So next time you pop a fruit in your mouth (like I am doing with Litchis ), remember that you need to think of the fruit's time table as well.

Check what you take when you cough, say anaesthetists

The normal cough syrups or lozenges that you may take for that common cold induced cough may end you in a tight spot in a future surgery,thats what the Australian anaesthetists say. A group of anaesthetists , led by Dr Helen Crilly, have asked the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration to ban around 53 various cough medicines and lozenges , which contain opioid cough suppressant pholcodine, the prolonged use of whose has been researched to lead to allergic reaction during surgeries upon administration of muscle relaxants.

1 in 10000 people were found to show anaphylaxis normally during surgeries upon giving muscle relaxants, the number increasing to 1 in 6000 in case of patient exposed to pholcodine containing medications. Though fatalities are low, at 1-2% , but the anaphylaxis could cause brain damage in other cases.

There is quite some reason to believe that pholcodine is the culprit for the increased allergic response to the muscle relaxants. In US, where cough suppressants do not contain the opioid, the incidences of anaphylaxis are less. Also, it was found that the cases for anaphylaxis to muscle relaxants decreased in Norway after pholcodine containing cough medications were banned there.

Though there is scope for more work to be done to actually come up with a solid association between the two, the evidence up till now can be considered bewaring enough for patients to check on their dosages.

'Switch' to a younger mind even in old age

credits : Shutterstock

A basic answer one would get upon asking someone old enough about the difference in their mental faculties now and during childhood would be regarding the better grasping capacity they had. As it has been researched and recorded, the brain does get rigid and mind tends to have greater 'inertia' as it becomes mature, and that aint always a good thing. A young brain learns and absorbs information much faster, and is much more 'malleable' , even allowing it to recover from trauma faster. Found out in a research at Yale university, a single gene, the Nogo receptor gene I , is what is responsible for this effect that age has on the brain, which as it turns out, is due to slowdown of the synaptic connections and the inter transmission.

The research was done on mice (as usual) and it was found that the mice with suppressed Nogo receptor I genes retained the mental capacities and physiology of adolescent mice, as well as the ability to recover from an injury Nogo receptor is also found to be slow the loss of memory , so mice without this gene forgot bout stressful memories sooner. Though yeah other memories need to be tested as well to fully realize the side effects of suppressing this gene

“These are the molecules the brain needs for the transition from adolescence to adulthood,” said Dr. Stephen Strittmatter. Vincent Coates Professor of Neurology, Professor of Neurobiology and senior author of the paper. “It suggests we can turn back the clock in the adult brain and recover from trauma the way kids recover.”

The reseach has been puclished in the Neuron

Source: Yale via Gizmag

Intel 'inside' (literally) your body -microchip detects 50 diseases accurately

Processor and microchip giant Intel is taking its motto 'Intel inside' quite seriously, to the effect that it is currently researching and developing a microchip that is placed inside the body, and detects accurately more than 50 diseases. In collaboration with Stanford University School of Medicine, Intel's Biosystem's group, headed by Dr. Madhu Verma, is developing a microchip, the types used in computers, which analyzes various disease related proteins and peptide chains present in the blood, to diagnose diseases.

The chip is embedded inside the arm, and in contact with blood, it analyzes the peptides , with its surface itself covered with around 9000 peptides, and the data is then fed into a computer, along with gauging the related possible symptoms. These peptides were embedded on the silicon chip the same way as normal chips are done with, using photo-lithography technique.

Before joining hands with Intel, Stanford researchers were trying glass to stick peptides on and do the detection process, after which Intel came in. Earlier skeptical on its success, it soon turned out much better than the earlier one, with silicon having advantage over glass being relatively non sticky towards other peptides, as well as providing way to embed peptides more closely, and thus save more space. Use of microchips always gives a chance of improvement in the detection system.“If we couple these Intel arrays with an electronic detection method, for example, we could have real-time sensing over a period of minutes,” said Dr.P.J. Ultz, Associate Professor at Stanford.

In the research program, it was tested on the disease Lupus , which is a highly variant auto immune disorder. Leaving the technicality aside, with the help of the chip using various amino acid sequence combinations, they found out the sequence that antibodies look for, as well as the modifications to find out specific binding sites.
This will make way for better targeted drugs, by manipulating and seeing results accurately at the amino acid where required. Researchers are now looking to use this to design better influenza vaccines with better immune response.

Research is being done so as to embedded an Integrated Circuit inside the chip, so as to make it function as a mini computer itself, and conclude while present inside. Also it is being tried to make it connect to a smartphone or any other computing device wirelessly. Although clinical trials will take another 2 years to complete, but its success could pave way to better and early diagnosis, even in the field, ensuring better chance of treatment for patients.

Source : Stanford Medical University

'Like cures like' principle could treat AIDS!

It's just a start currently, and far from the clinical trials stage itself, a scientist at Australia's Queensland Institute of Medical Research has created a protein , modifying one from the HIV virus, that inhibits the replication of the virus itself!. The original HIV 1 Tac protein has been transformed into what is called ' Nullbasic', by Dr David Harrich led team , which successfully inhibited the virus in lab. That would mean no indefinite antiretroviral drug regime fr HIV +ve patient, saving them from suffering from AIDS. Animal trials are scheduled for later this year.

“This is like fighting fire with fire,” Associate Professor Harrich said. “If this research continues down its strong path, and bear in mind there are a many hurdles to clear, we’re looking at a cure for AIDS.”
A paper of this research was published in the journal Human Gene Therapy, and can be accessed online for free

Graphene saves the day again?'clumps' out radioactive waste from solution

Removing radioactive waste from water, especially in cases of nuclear disasters such as that in Fukushima, has been a cause of concern for long now, due to the multifold harmful effects that it has. But the wonder molecule, Graphene, again promises to be the savior, as researched by scientists from Houston's Rice University and Lomonosov Moscow State University, which causes radionuclides (that is the ions) to clump , which can be filtered off, making the water clean.

Presently , betonite and activated carbon are used to clean contaminated water, but graphene flakes are much more effective, due to their larger surface area. In a test, the one atom thick flakes were added to uranium and plutonium containing water, along with calcium and sodium (which actually hamper the cleaning process). Graphene was still able to condense out the toxins, irrespective of pH of water.

(left vial containing graphene flakes in solution, right vial with
clumping having occurred)

“Where you have huge pools of radioactive material, like at Fukushima, you add graphene oxide and get back a solid material from what were just ions in a solution,” said Rice chemist James Tour, heading the reasearch, along with moscow's Stepan Kalmikov. “Then you can skim it off and burn it. Graphene oxide burns very rapidly and leaves a cake of radioactive material you can then reuse.”"Graphene oxide’s large surface area defines its capacity to adsorb toxins, Kalmykov said. “So the high retention properties are not surprising to us,” he said. “What is astonishing is the very fast kinetics of sorption, which is key."

This research could surely prove to be a boon for people of areas living near nuclear plants, and disaster struck areas as well,  with graphene providing a cheap, biodegradable  solution to the polluted water problem


Source: Rice University via Gizmag

Restoring hearing in mammals by regenerating auditory hair cells

To give some technical info, auditory cells are located in cochlea in the inner ear, and translate auditory wave disturbances into nerve signals , sending them to the brain to be interpreted. And they are pretty fragile, and their destruction due to loud noise, or maybe some toxins, cancer, is irreparable, causing the most common form of hearing loss- the sensorineural hearing loss, untill now, with researchers at Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Harvard Medical School have found a drug which has the ability to stimulate the regeneration of these hair cells, from stem cells.

The drug inhibits a protein called "Notch", which stimulates the stem cells to form new hair cells, causing partial hearing recovery, as done in mice. The researchers are excited to have made it possible for the first time in adults, paving way for better treatment for permanent deafness in the future

Their article has been published in Neuron . Watch the video for more information.


Source: Massachusetts Eye and Ear

Inexpensive cobalt catalyzes hydrogen production at room temperature

Hydrogen, one of the best bets for future fuels, has long faced the downside due to the high costs for its production, either by using platinum as catalyst, or from fossil fuels, which has always 'fueled' the research to find a cheaper way to get these tiny gaseous molecules. But now, University of Cambridge researchers have found a cheap volunteer for this - the humble cobalt!

It was found that Cobalt catalyzes production of hydrogen in pH neutral water at room temperature, in the presence of oxygen. Dr Erwin Reisner said , "Until now, no inexpensive molecular catalyst was known to evolve H₂ efficiently in water and under aerobic conditions. However, such conditions are essential for use in developing green hydrogen as a future energy source under industrially relevant conditions."

The research was funded by EPSRC, the Christian Doppler Research Association and the OMV Group. Their research was published today, 23 August, online in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.
At the same time, researchers are working on solar water splitting technology, to split water into hydrogen and oxygen using sunlight, with some optimistic results.

Though there is a slight problem with Cobalt - its relative instability, which is a major hurdle in this process.
Though even if this is countered, don't expect to see hydrogen powered supercars soon, as there is yet to be found a credible storage technology for the gas, as a fuel. Though graphene and sodium borohydride- Nickel combination are some good options researched as of yet. So optimistic we are, for a more 'energetic' future.

Source : University of Cambridge

Harmful effects of cosmic rays on brain researched

Future manned deep space missions would expose astronauts to levels of radiation that can accelerate the onset of Alzheimer's disease (Image: NASA, JAXA)

Unlike the later on discarded "space madness" problem , studies now have shown that the cosmic rays to which astronauts will be exposed during future manned missions could cause cognitive problems and  even hasten the onset of Alzheimer's Disease. This is an addition to the already large list of possible effects of cosmic rays, along with cancer risk, impact on cardiovascular and skeletomuscular system, which have been found in the research funded by NASA since the last 25 years in this field.

A team from the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, led by M. Kerry O’Banion, M.D., Ph.D., which has been working with NASA for over eight years, focused on the impact of high-mass, high-charged (HZE) particles. Unlike hydrogen protons that are produced by solar flares and which astronauts can take precautions against with appropriate warning, HZE particles are propelled through space at very high speeds from the force of exploding stars. They come in various forms, including iron particles, which is the one the researchers chose to examine.
“Because iron particles pack a bigger wallop it is extremely difficult from an engineering perspective to effectively shield against them,” said O’Banion. “One would have to essentially wrap a spacecraft in a six-foot block of lead or concrete.”

As a part of the research, mice were exposed to various levels of various radiations, and then tested for various cognitive faculties, in which many irradiated ones failed.The brains of the mice also showed signs of vascular alterations and a greater than normal accumulation of the protein “plaque” beta amyloid, the accumulation of which is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease.“These findings clearly suggest that exposure to radiation in space has the potential to accelerate the development of Alzheimer’s disease,” said O’Banion. “This is yet another factor that NASA, which is clearly concerned about the health risks to its astronauts, will need to take into account as it plans future missions.”

This  sure is a concern for NASA , who are planning for a manned mission to mars in 2025, and will have to start thinking of ways to prevent from this soon, soon enough for its efficacy to be verified as well in time.
The team’s study appears in the journal PLOS ONE.
Source: University of Rochester Medical Center, Gizmag

"Most detailed look" at visual info processing in brain

Berkeley scientists have created the first map of how the brain organizes what we see (Image: Shutterstock)

How does our brain organize the visual information that our eyes capture? Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, used computational models of brain imaging data to answer this question and arrived at what they call “continuous semantic space” – a notion which serves as the basis for the first interactive maps showing how the brain categorizes what we see.

The data on which the maps are based was collected while the subjects watched movie clips. Brain activity was recorded via functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), a type of MRI that measures brain activity bydetecting related changes in blood flow. In order to find the correlations in the data collected, the researchers used a type of analysis known as regularized linear regression. Based on the results of that analysis, they built a model showing how each of the 30,000 or so locations in the cortex responded to each one of the 1,700 categories of objects and actions seen in the movie clips. Finally, another analytical method called principal components analysis was used to find the "semantic space" common to the all the study subjects.

The maps show more than 1,700 visual categories and their relationships to one another, with color coding used to indicate categories that activate the same brain areas. In some cases, the relationships between categories made sense (for example, humans and animals), but in other categories, they were less obvious (such as hallways and buckets). The researchers also found that different people shared a similar semantic layout.

Traditionally, scientists have assumed that categories of objects or actions humans see (people, animals, movements etc.) are represented in a separate region of the visual cortex, the part of the cerebral cortex responsible for processing visual information. In this study, however, it was found that the process is much broader with categories represented in highly organized maps that overlap each other and cover up to 20 percent of the brain. This includes somatosensory (receptors for sensory modalities such as touch and pain) and frontal cortices, which determine a wide range of behavior types and functions.

The research could potentially be used to aid in medical diagnosis and to treat brain disorders, as well as being applied in the field of brain-machine interfaces – especially for facial and other image recognition systems, increasingly used in border control set-ups. It could also be used to make self-checkout systems more efficient in recognizing goods.

“Our methods open a door that will quickly lead to a more complete and detailed understanding of how the brain is organized," said Alexander Huth, a doctoral student in neuroscience at UC Berkeley and lead author of the study.

The team has produced an online brain viewer to display the findings.

The study was published in the December 19 edition of the journal Neuron.

Alexander Huth explains the method and results of his team's experiment in the video below.

Source: Berkeley , Gizmag

Harvard researchers fold proteins with D-Wave quantum computer

Back in 2007, the canadian firm D-Wave had claimed to have created a commercially viable quantum computer, much to the skepticism of many.. But now, in an article co-authored by D-Wave and Harvard in the latest issue of Nature's Scientific Reports , they are proving their claims all right."The D-Wave computer found the ground-state conformation of six-amino acid lattice protein models. This is the first time a quantum device has been used to tackle optimization problems related to the natural sciences," said Harvard professor Alán Aspuru-Guzik, the lead author of the paper.
Leaving the precise and complex details aside, they were basically looking for lowest energy configuration, and thus the most stable configuration of folded proteins, a normal state of biologically existing proteins.[The quantum computer correctly solved 13 times out of 10,000 for four-amino-acid and six-amino-acid sequences under the Miyazawa-Jernigan model of lattice protein folding.]
The authors are optimistically hoping "the approach employed here can be extended to treat other problems in biophysics and statistical mechanics such as molecular recognition, protein design, and sequence alignment." And Google has adopted the system to train image recognition software.

D wave has been working on 512 qubit computers since 2011, but for the experiment 128 qubit ones were used, which aint fast as even some of the high end desktops currently available, but what's interesting is that the 512 qubit one is 1000 times faster than 128 qubit, and the projected 2048 ones are another 1000 times faster than 512 ones, as stated in an interview with NextBigFuture!! So that IS some speed to await for all right!!
:D

Targeted drug treatment for malaria with NanoMal's handheld blood analyzer

Anopheles mosquito after taking a snack (Photo: US Center for Disease Control and Prevention)

NanoMal, a small UK based company is developing a hand held device which will detect malaria , along with checking DNA markers that suggest which antimalarial drug would be most effective. If fielded, such a device could help alleviate the 200+ million cases of malaria per year, as well as prevent some of the nearly one million deaths associated with malarial illness. Malaria, a protozal disease, with Anopheles mosquito as its vector, is 5th most likely cause of death in developing nations.

Map of the world showing the primary range of malaria infestation with dark red regions indicating drug resistant malaria, lighter red regions resistance to older drugs, yellow regions showing no drug resistance, and grey regions being malaria-free (Photo: Percheire via Wikipedia)

This project, funded by EU, involves researchers from St. George's University, the University of London, the Newcastle-based QuantuMDx Group, the University of Tuebingen, and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, and are developing way to make the device perform a full screening panel, including identification of which of the five parasitic species is involved and what levels of drug 

resistance should be expected. 

Mock-up of the NanoMal blood analysis unit (Photo: Nanomal)

It is projected to perform the test in aroud 20 minutes, and costs would be of levels of a smartphone. What's great is that this device will be adaptable for other disease diagnosis as well

The malaria-causing Plasmodium falciparum parasites in human blood cells (Photo: US Center for Disease Control and Prevention)

There is currently no approved malaria vaccine, although several experimental versions are currently in clinical trials. While several classes of antimalarial drugs exist, in the wild the malarial parasite is quickly developing resistance to their effects, including artemisinins, the most powerful class of anti-malarial drugs. As a result, combination therapies are increasingly being used to slow the process whereby malarial parasites gain resistance to a particular drug.

Ongoing research has established that certain combinations of genes in the parasite's DNA are associated with various types of drug resistance. The Nanomal unit will sample the DNA from a drop of blood with a MEMS-like apparatus then opening the cell walls of the blood cells and of the malarial parasites found within. The malarial DNA is selectively grown using PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) amplification, until enough material is available for analysis. The small scale of the reaction vessels on the chip allows sufficient analysis material to be grown in minutes rather than the hours required by table-top reactors.

The PCR material is then processed by a microscopic gene sequencer that is built to search for two things – genes identifying the parasite's species, and gene sequences corresponding to drug resistance. This is accomplished by unraveling the DNA into long straight sections that are passed through channels in proximity to nanowires.

These nanowires are treated along their length with regions of molecular probes which encode the DNA sequences being searched for. When they appear, the DNA adheres to the nanowires, driving an electrical signal that identifies the gene sequence that has been found. The Nanomal unit contains a large number of such nanowires, resulting in a gene sequencer that can perform a relatively thorough analysis that points away from the parasite's strengths, and toward an effective treatment regimen.

According to Elaine Warburton, CEO of QuantuMDx, "placing a full malaria screen with drug resistance status in the palm of a health professional's hand will allow instant prescribing of the most effective anti-malaria medication for that patient. Nanomal's rapid, low-cost test will further support the global health challenge to eradicate malaria."

To be effective in the poorer nations suffering from malarial epidemics, the cost of a diagnostic and treatment analysis must be affordable. A single-test diagnostic cartridge is currently expected to cost about US$18, although plans are underway to provide the units through donations where necessary. Clinical trials of the device should begin within three years.

Source: NanoMal via FierceMobileHealthCare.com , Gizmag

Hopefully the drug to treat more than 50% of all types of cancers is on the cards!

Cancer has been one of the highly researched against diseases , with researchers trying hard , with the most ingenious methods tried till date, to try to find some sort of cure for this disease... a cure that has actually a curing rate higher than that of luck, and which causes more good than harm , seeing the consequences of chemo and radiotherapy.Also most therapies are for the common cancers in initial stages, like breast cancer, etc, but are totally useless in case of other cancers, some of which are rare.
For a long time now, researchers have been trying to identify the the various genetic anomalies , which cause cancer formation , and had come across what Dr Gary Gilliland of Merck call "the cell's angel of death" - a gene named p53- which they had found to be inactivated by some proteins binding to it, causing cell death, or apoptosis to not occur.



Now, three pharmaceutical firms, Merck, Roche and Sanofi,  are racing against each other to test for the efficacy of a new compound that Dr Debussche's team struck upon at University of Michigan in 2009, which showed remarkable results in mice, clearing of tumors in a week , after just one dose. This compound manages to cleave the protein bound to the gene and causes cell to 'self destruct'.
This trial is first of its kind, as it is targeting many types of cancers at once, and not the usual single target trials. Merck has started testing for the efficacy of dosages and is doing trials on patients of acute mylogenous lukemia.


If the trials fail to show any effect, they will have to reluctantly admit defeat. But still, there is great hope for the patients of rare types of cancers , for whom there are no cures due to unprofitablity of the research for the various pharmaceutical firms , for a better and safer cure in the future. Even if this fails, at least the idea based on which the research was going on can be taken on to find other more efficient cures

Molecule linking two hormones effectively treats obesity in mice

An study led by Indiana University has found that linking two hormones into a single molecule could lead to improved treatments for medical conditions such as obesity (Photo: Shutterstock)

With health authorities saying the world is facing an obesity epidemic and with a recent major study finding that – for the first time – more people now die from obesity-related illnesses like heart attacks and strokes than malnutrition, scientists have been tackling the fat problem.

Recent approaches to this problem include looking at ways to slow down the biological clock and converting calorie-storing white fat cells into heat-generating brown fat cells. Now, a new study has found that linking two hormones into a single molecule could lead to improved treatments for medical conditions such as obesity.

The research was carried out by chemistry professor Richard DiMarchi at Indiana State University and Matthias Tschop, professor of medicine and director of the Institute of Diabetes and Obesity, Helmholtz Center Munich, Germany.

The findings show that the female steroid estrogen, which enters cells and directly affects nuclear DNA, can be engineered to be more effective in treating obesity and diabetes by combining it with glucagon-like peptide 1, or GLP-1, creating a single molecule with fewer side effects.

GLP1, a peptide hormone from the digestive system, is used in drugs to treat Type II diabetes. These drugs improve blood sugar control and can lead to some weight loss, but not enough to be used as weight-loss drugs. Similarly, estrogen is another hormone that can cause weight loss by regulating receptors in the brain but its side effects increase the risk of cancer, particularly of breast and ovarian cancers. As a result, it is not really used for weight loss.

DiMarchi and Tschop combined the GLP1 with estrogen in obese lab mice and found that the combination was more effective in producing weight loss than when used on their own. The GLP1, they found, acted as a “medical chaperone” for the estrogen, taking it to the hypothalamus and pancreas which metabolize foods. The precise targeting and synergy between the peptide and steroid hormone in combination as a single molecule reduced the likelihood of the estrogen producing cancers or growing tumors.

"We find that combining the hormones as a single molecule dramatically enhanced their efficacy and their safety," DiMarchi said. "The combination improves the ability to lower body weight and the ability to manage glucose, and it does so without showing the hallmark toxicities associated with estrogen."

The research also opens the possibility of targeted steroid hormones being used to treat other diseases, where side effects had prevented therapeutic use in the past.

The next obvious step for DiMarchi and his researchers is to test other combinations of peptide and steroid hormones to see how broad an approach medicine can take in treating conditions. There is still a lot they don’t know about how they can work together and whether it’s safe.

DiMarchi says research will continue to focus on the biological action and identifying a suitable drug that can be used in further studies on humans.

The team's study has been published in Nature Medicine.

Source: Indiana University , Gizmag

Sonic "invisible scalpel" could be used for non-invasive surgery

A confetti-sized artificial kidney stone, with a sub-150-micrometer hole bored into it using the focused sound beam

First of all, how can non-invasive surgery even be possible? After all, even in the case of minimally-invasive laparoscopic surgery, small incisions are still made in the skin. Nonetheless, that’s just what scientists from the University of Michigan are proposing. They believe that it could be achieved by using a beam of sound, which would be emitted through the skin to a highly-focused point within the body – and they’ve already created such a beam and used it.

Focused sound waves are already used in the field of medicine, for doing things such as non-invasively shattering kidney stones and prostate tumors. These waves can generally only be focused to a point no smaller than several millimeters across, however. This means they wouldn’t work at all well for performing delicate surgery.

By contrast, the U Michigan sound beam can be focused down to a point measuring just 75 by 400 micrometers. At that size, it can manipulate individual cells, and could perhaps avoid coming into contact with nerve fibers – if that were possible, the patient wouldn’t experience any pain during the operation.

To create the beam, the researchers used an optoacoustic lens, that converts pulsed laser light into high-amplitude sound waves. Ordinarily, these waves wouldn’t be powerful enough to be of much use. To amplify them, the scientists coated the lens with a layer of carbon nanotubes and a rubbery material known as polydimethylsiloxane. The nanotubes absorb the laser light, and respond by generating heat. That heat causes the polydimethylsiloxane to rapidly expand, which in turn gives a boost to the sound waves passing through it.

Those waves have a frequency 10,000 times higher than that which humans are able to hear. When focused on a target, they produce shockwaves and micro-bubbles. These create pressure, which can be used to blast or cut away that target. The sound waves currently used for things like kidney stones, by contrast, work by producing heat, not mechanical pressure.

In tests of the technology, the scientists have successfully detached a single ovarian cancer cell, and bored a hole measuring under 150 micrometers into an artificial kidney stone – in less than one minute. Down the road, it is hoped that “micro ultrasonic surgery” could be used to remove items such as tumors or arterial plaque deposits, or even to deliver medication to individual cells.

A paper on the research was recently published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Source: University of Michigan , Gizmag

Boeing replaces people with potatoes!!! ;)

Some of the potatoes used by Boeing to test WiFi

There doesn't seem to be anything you can’t do with potatoes. You can boil them, mash them, fry them, roast them and even make pens out of them. Boeing is taking this versatility a step further by using them to replace people. No, this isn't a strange genetic experiment. The plane maker’s engineers at the Boeing Test & Evaluation laboratories have discovered that sacks of potatoes work as a substitute for people, when testing the effect on WiFi of an airline cabin packed with passengers.

The program is called Synthetic Personnel Using Dielectric Substitution (SPUDS) and its purpose is to develop the most evenly spread and reliable WiFi coverage for an airliner.

Putting a WiFi network on an airliner isn't a matter of just plugging in a couple of routers. The cabin is a metal tube packed with wires and electronics that can interfere with WiFi signals, or the reverse. Worse, the human body can randomly distort signals. This distortion doesn't matter much for WiFi systems on the ground, but in a passenger cabin where hundreds of people are crammed together and moving around, it adds up to a major problem.

A graphic image showing WiFi hot spots on an airliner

The usual method of testing WiFi on a plane involves using human beings. That means asking a couple of hundred people to sit still inside a decommissioned airliner for two weeks. This is boring, expensive and makes an economy flight from New York to Hong Kong seem like paradise.

Boeing engineers discovered that potatoes have the same dielectric properties as people, so in developing the company’s new WiFi system they used 20,000 pounds (9,072 kg) of potato sacks piled in the seats. Not only did this save a lot of cramped legs, but the tests could be done in only ten hours.

The purpose of all this is to test how evenly a WiFi signal spreads in the cabin and how strong it is at any particular spot under various conditions using “proprietary measurement technology and analysis tools.” After the potatoes are tested, humans replace them for the much briefer final test, since people moving or switching on hundreds of mobile devices can also cause changes in signal strength that need to be accounted for.

Images released by Boeing shows that red potatoes were used. The company did not say whether russets or Yukon Golds produced different results.

Source: Boeing , Gizmag

Stanford University creates peel-and-stick solar cells

Traditionally, thin-film solar cells are made with rigid glass substrates, limiting their potential applications. Flexible versions do exist, although they require special production techniques and/or materials. Now, however, scientists from Stanford University have created thin, flexible solar cells that are made from standard materials – and they can applied to just about any surface, like a sticker.

To make the peel-and-stick cells, the researchers started by applying a 300-nanometer layer of nickel onto a rigid silicon/silicon dioxide wafer. Using standard fabrication techniques, thin-film solar cells were then deposited onto the nickel. A protective polymer was then applied over the cells, followed by a layer of thermal release tape being applied over it.

The resulting sandwich of material was then submerged in room-temperature water and one edge of the tape was peeled back, letting water seep in between the nickel layer and the wafer. Once the nickel completely separated from the wafer, the researchers were left with a bare wafer, and the tape with everything else still clinging to it.

The tape and its contents were then heated to 90ºC (194ºF) for several seconds, adhesive was applied to the non-tape side, and the whole thing was applied to a chosen surface. When the tape was subsequently peeled off, all that was left were the polymer-covered cells, adhered like a decal.

The cells have been successfully applied to a variety of both flat and curved surfaces – including glass, plastic and paper – without any loss of efficiency.

Not only does the new process allow for solar cells to applied to things like mobile devices, helmets, dashboards or windows, but the stickers are reportedly both lighter and less costly to make than equivalent-sized traditional photovoltaic panels. There’s also no waste involved, as the silicon/silicon dioxide wafers can be reused.

According to assistant professor of mechanical engineering Xiaolin Zheng, the process could likely also be used to create peel-and-stick thin-film electronics, such as printed circuits or LCDs.

“Obviously, a lot of new products – from 'smart' clothing to new aerospace systems – might be possible by combining both thin-film electronics and thin-film solar cells,” she said. “And for that matter, we may be just at the beginning of this technology. The peel-and-stick qualities we're researching probably aren't restricted to Ni/SiO2 [nickel/silicon dioxide]. It's likely many other material interfaces demonstrate similar qualities, and they may have certain advantages for specific applications. We have a lot left to investigate.”

A paper on the research was published this Thursday in the journalScientific Reports.

Source: Stanford University , Gizmag