Gene Mutation Thought To Control Energy Levels Discovered

Studies at the University of Ottawa indicate that a particular mutation in a gene may play a big role in the energy levels in our bodies. This gene for AMPK, adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase, is activated in our cells when energy storage depletes helping control the amount of energy available to cells and helping them sustain energy challenges due to exercise. Researchers found two cases in individuals in which AMPK activity was doubled in muscle cells during rest where no considerable depletion of energy supplies was taking place. This was due to a mutation in the gene coding for AMPK.

In that a potential career in sports medicine interests me, this article caught my eye. Developing drugs to increase the activity of AMPK could be extremely beneficial to those involved in endurance sports and training. By increasing the amount of muscle glycogen, athletes would be able to maintain high output for longer periods of time. Upping a person's endurance could potentially be used for weight loss as long as the mind set of the person was right.

Additionally, and more importantly, this mutation has been found to reduce storage of fat in muscle. Because excess fat storage in muscle has been linked to insulin resistance, increasing AMPK activity could also be used to treat those with type 2 diabetes. This new study can only help expand on the drug metformin which is already being used to treat diabetes and acts by increasing AMPK acitivity.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070919073011.htm

Unlocking the Secrets of Regeneration

The protein Wnt has been linked to regenerative capabilities of organisms and their organ systems. In the past it was known that this protein played a central role in the embryonic development of lower level animals, but its exact purpose and place in the vertebrate world was left unknown. For the past 19 years, Randall Moon, who leads the University of Washington's Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, has studied the effects of Wnt and its role in signal processing. His research, along with the research of others now in the field, has led to a better understanding of this protein's use in higher level organisms.

As noted in the article, many animals have evolved the ability to completely regrow lost tissues and limbs. Humans, for example, who create ~10 billion new cells daily, can almost completely regrow their liver. Other human tissues, however, such as pancreatic or heart tissue, tend to scar much more readily instead of regrowing. Moon's long term goal is to use Wnt to get stem cells to differentiate into these types of non-regrowing tissues to help diseased patients. Wnt turns on a pathway responsible for the regeneration of cells. Other Wnt spin-offs, such as Wnt5b inhibit Wnt and essentially block this pathway from occurring. It was noted, for example, that tadpoles only regenerate their limbs fully when the Wnt is active and not inhibited.

Research done by hematologist/oncologist Leonard Zon at Harvard has shed light on another molecule, this one is used to boost the immune response in animals. Some prostaglandins have the ability to help boost production of some stem cells. Zon found one such prostaglandin, PGE2, helped to boost production of blood stem cells. In his research Zon irradiated zebrafish, wiping out their immune system. Zon then injected PGE2 and the animals easily produced new blood stem cell lines. Zon is now working with Moon on research involving the regrowth of tissue in zebrafish and in developing their work for possible human applications.

The question still remains of why the liver but not the pancreas. Other scientists listed in the article have done research of cells that dedifferentiate at the site of an injury and then redifferentiate into cells needed. Other research has been done on inhibitors that stop the growth of cells, which when removed, allowed certain tissues to grow again. The problem with such research is that these mechanisms look very closely related to cancer. In fact, colorectal cancer and melanoma has been shown to be caused when the genes for WTX (a Wnt inhibitor) are mutated and Wnt levels raise to high. Too much or not enough of these growth stimulating molecules can lead to severe problems. Indeed the solution might be found in the balance.

Link: http://www.hhmi.org/bulletin/aug2007/pdf/Regeneration.pdf

New Treatment Brings Patients Back From The Dead

New research has shown that inducing a mild state of hypothermia following a severe heart attack may help to avoid brain damage and increase a patient’s survival odds. During a heart attack, interrupted blood flow starves organs of oxygen and may cause permanent organ damage or death. Total-body hypothermia lowers the body temperature and slows the metabolic rate, protecting organs from reduced oxygen supply during the interruption of blood flow. This new technology has been brought into the spot light recently because a similar treatment was used on professional football player, Kevin Everett, following a sever spinal cord injury sustained on national television. Diseases of the heart are listed among the leading causes of death in the United States. This new technology is important because of its capacity to potentially save the lives of patients who suffer from many of these heart complications. Doctors are constantly in the process of improving this new technology. A new method which uses a slushy type saline that contains ice particles is in the works, and will help to reduce body temperature even faster than current methods.

http://cbs3.com/health/health_story_271115428.html

Bacteria Ferry Nanoparticles Into Cells For Early Diagnosis and Treatment

Common bacteria has recently been found able to deliver “smart nanoparticles” into a cell to precisely positioned censors, drugs, or DNA for the early finding or treating of a disease. This was found in a research study done by researchers at Purdue University. The harmless bacteria are used as a sort of transport vehicle because of their ability to penetrate cell membranes and nuclei. Once inside the cell, the nanoparticles could be used for detection of things such as tumors, or also treatments such as gene therapy. One thing about this new approach that is different from previous ones is that the bacteria can carry larger structures or even hundreds of nanoparticles into the cell. This could now open up a world of opportunities for scientists who have struggled with ways to get medicine directly into specific cells. With this discovery researchers are well on their way to coming up with a cure for cancer and many other various diseases that occur at the cellular level.

Germs In Space

WASHINGTON — It sounds like the plot for a scary B-movie: Germs go into space on a rocket and come back stronger and deadlier than ever. But it really happened.
The germ: Salmonella, best known as a culprit of food poisoning. The trip: Space Shuttle STS-115, September 2006. The reason: Scientists wanted to see how space travel affects germs, so they took some along — carefully wrapped — for the ride.
The result: Mice fed the space germs were three times more likely to get sick and died quicker than others fed identical germs that had remained behind on Earth.
"Wherever humans go, microbes go — you can't sterilize humans. Wherever we go, under the oceans or orbiting the earth, the microbes go with us, and it's important that we understand ... how they're going to change," explained Cheryl Nickerson, an associate professor at the Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology at Arizona State University.

Nickerson added, in a telephone interview, that learning more about changes in germs has the potential to lead to novel new countermeasures for infectious disease.
She reports the results of the salmonella study in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers placed identical strains of salmonella in containers and sent one into space aboard the shuttle, while the second was kept on Earth, under similar temperature conditions to the one in space.
After the shuttle returned, mice were given varying oral doses of the salmonella and then were watched.
After 25 days, 40 percent of the mice given the Earth-bound salmonella were still alive, compared with just 10 percent of those dosed with the germs from space. And the researchers found it took about one-third as much of the space germs to kill half the mice, compared with the germs that had been on Earth.
The researchers found 167 genes had changed in the salmonella that went to space.
Why?
"That's the 64-million-dollar question," Nickerson said. "We do not know with 100 percent certainty what the mechanism is of space flight that's inducing these changes."
However, they think it's a force called fluid shear.
"Being cultured in microgravity means the force of the liquid passing over the cells is low." The cells "are responding not to microgravity, but indirectly to microgravity in the low fluid shear effects."
"There are areas in the body which are low shear, such as the gastrointestinal tract, where, obviously, salmonella finds itself," she went on. "So it's clear this is an environment not just relevant to space flight, but to conditions here on Earth, including in the infected host."
She said it is an example of a response to a changed environment.
"These bugs can sense where they are by changes in their environment. The minute they sense a different environment, they change their genetic machinery so they can survive," she said.
The research was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Louisiana Board of Regents, Arizona Proteomics Consortium, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center, National Institutes of Health and the University of Arizona.


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,297902,00.html

Surgeon takes new route to gallbladder

New Surgical techniques are being developed to help minimize the effects of open surgery. In this article a surgeon in Oregon removes a women's gallbladder through her mouth. This type of surgery has been performed on animal models and human patients in Europe. I think this is fairly important because as future healthcare professionals and biomedical engineers it should be out goal to provide new and innovative ideas that better the health of our patients/customers. With this new procedure post-op pain, intra operative complications are and recovery time is reduced. With the perfection of the NOTES technique many common surgeries will be expedited.


http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/118248452444390.xml&coll=7

Anit-HIV Strategy Backfires in Botswana

Due to the fact that a third of pregnant women in Botswana were infected with HIV, the Botswana government, going beyond the World Health Organization’s recommendation, advised that all HIV infected women use infant formula. Previous studies had shown that breast-feeding, depending on how it was performed, accounts for 5-20% of the transmission from infected mothers to their children. This public policy along with the use of anti-HIV drugs during labor and delivery were part of the government’s comprehensive strategy in 1998 to decrease these transmission rates.

This policy has lead to approximately 63% of infected mothers in Botswana currently using the formula.

However, from January to March 2006, 532 children under the age of 5 died from diarrhea. A study of this deadly outbreak of disease in children under the age of 5 revealed that infant formula, as compared to breast feeding, increased a child’s risk of death by 50 times. It is believed that this is likely the result of contaminated water used for making the formula. In the article, Tracy Creek, a medical epidemiologist, suspected that the severe flooding in Botswana in 2005 contributed to this outbreak due to increased levels of micro-organisms in the water supply.

This story seems to illustrate the importance of treating a medical case uniquely from others. While this infant formula policy might have helped in a more developed country where the quality of water would not have been an issue, it only served to create an even worse situation in this developing country. In other words, this story demonstrates that the factors in an individual’s life must be considered when administering medical care. The treatment method must be feasible for the patient to perform. I think that is incredible that the governmental medical officials failed to consider how the infant formula would be made by their citizens. Also, this article just shows how even the most basic treatment idea can lead to such horrific outcomes.

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/226/1

Innovative Physics Device May Revolutionize Cancer Treatment

Research is currently being done in using photons to treat the spread of cancer. This proves to be more effective than current radiation therapy, in that the photons can deposit more cell-killing energy in their tumor targets and less in surrounding healthy tissue. The only drawback is that the protons need to be accelerated to great speeds using a machine called a cyclotron, which costs hundreds of millions of dollars and occupies a room the size of a basketball court. Due to this constraint, this treatment is available at only a handful of centers. Luckily, a new, smaller design known as "dielectric wall accelerator" (DWA) is being presented. This prototype can accelerate protons to up to 100 million electron volts in just a meter, and at the size of just two meters, could provide the power necessary to treat all tumors, including those buried deep in the body, while fitting in a conventional radiation treatment room. Further, this design would allow for both the energy and intensity to be altered at the same time, a technique which cannot be done in current photon-treatment facilities.

http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/531547/?sc=swhr

New study reveals why restricting calories may lead to longevity

Finding a way to increase the lifespan of humans has been a subject of interest for a very long time. Since seventy years ago, scientists have known that to increase the life of animals they could cut the caloric intake by 30-40%, but they didn't know why this was effective. Recently though they have found that two enzymes, SIRT3 and SIRT4, may be the causes for the longevity. These enzymes are located in the mitochondria and when calories are cut, the levels of these enzymes increase, which strengthens the mitochondria. The enzymes prevent flagging mitochodria from developing pores that allow proteins that trigger apoptosis to seep into the rest of the cell.

If a diet with lowered levels of calories will activate a gene inside cells that codes for an enzyme, NAMPT(nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase). An increase in NAMPT will in turn cause NAD to be produced. The NAD plays a key role in cellular metabolism and signaling. With more NAD, the SIRT3 and SIRT4 genes are activated. While it is not known how these enzymes help with mitochondria energy output, scientists do know that events leading up to cell death are delayed with the prescence of the enzymes.

The next step for scientists is to create a "supermouse" that will overexpress NAMPT to see if the animal lives longer and is more resistant to disease than other unaltered mice.

Remembering the SNBAL that we did a few weeks ago, this article really interested me. It provides some effective evidence for mitochondria being a source for aging. With this new information, more experiments with aging can be done and the mitochondria can be specifically targeted to stop cell death. The question that remains though, are humans willing enough to make extreme changes to their diet in order to live longer?

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=242CBE56-E7F2-99DF-37DEAE209E877BFB&chanID=sa011

Wilson's Disease

I have just watched a movie few days ago and the actor in this movie was diagnosed having Wilson's Disease. I've never heard about this disease before. Therefore, I find that this disease is interesting and do some research about this.

Wilson's Disease, also known as Hepatolenticular degeneration, is an autosomal recessive hereditary disease. It is a rare inherited disorder that causes the body to retain copper. In Wilson's disease, a genetic mutation of chromosome 13 affects ATP7B, a protein that helps transport copper into the bile. The liver doesn't release copper into bile as it should. ( Bile is the liquid produced by the liver that helps the digestion.) Then, intestines absorbs copper from consumed food, causing the copper builds up in the liver. As a result, the liver is being injured and the liver releases copper directly to the bloodstream and carries copper throughout the body.

In people with Wilson's disease, copper begins accumulate in the liver immediately after birth. However, the symptoms will appear before the age 30 while sometimes appear much later in life. Mostly, symptoms appear between the ages of 6 and 20.

The most characteristic sign is the appearance of the Kayser-Fleischer ring, a rusty brown ring around the cornea of eye that can be seen only through an eye exam. While some other obvious symptoms are yellowing of the eyes and skin, speech and language problems, tremors in the arms and hands, rigid muscles, clumsiness (ataxia), loss of fine motor skills, difficulty in swallowing, and slowness of movements. A person can be diagnosed by doing an eye exam, detecting the Kayser-Fleischer Ring, and doing tests to measure the amount of copper in the blood, urine, and liver.

Although some ATP7B mutations occur spontaneously, most are passed from one generation to the next. This disease is inherited as an autosomal recessive trait. If both parents are carriers of one abnormal Wilson's gene, they have 25% chance of having a child with 2 normal genes, 50% chance of having a carrier child, and 25% chance of having a child with Wilson's Disease. In fact, Wilson's Disease itself is rare, but as many as one in 100 people has one defective ATP7B gene.

The mostly treatment for Wilson's disease is using drug. There are 3 kinds of drugs used to cure this disease. They are D-penicillmine that removes copper from tissue; Zinc acetate that stops the intestines from absorbing copper and promotes copper excretion; and Tetrathiomolybdate. Tetrathiomolybdate is an investigational drug with a lower toxic profile. It hasn't been approved by the Food and Drug Administration because of its unknown long-term safety and effectiveness.

With early detection and proper treatment, a person with Wilson's disease can enjoy normal life. However, Wilson's disease can cause fatal effects, especially loss of liver function and toxic effects of copper on the nervous system. In this case, that person should do the liver transplantation surgery.

As a conclusion, many scientist still think that it still needs furhter research to treat Wilson's disease.

Parkinson's Disease prevention

Blood Pressure Drug May Slow Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease is caused by the death of a group of nerve cells in the brain's substantia nigra that are vulnerable to toxins and stress. A blood pressure drug being tested has proven to help protect these neuron cells. This drug, isradipine, reduced the vulnerability of the neurons by forcing them to generate electrical signals in a more"youthful way" by blocking calcium channels.

Young mice use sodium channels rather than calcium channels to generate activity, while older mice use calcium channels. Researchers believe that the calcium channels in this certain area of the brain produce calcium at dangerous levels making the neurons vulnerable. By blocking the calcium ions with the drug, older mice were forced to use sodium channels, just like the young mice.

This drug is currently used to lower blood pressure in humans. the reason it is not yet used for patients of Parkinson's is because of the fear of dangerous drop of blood pressure. The amount of drug needed to treat the brain would be substantially larger than to lower blood pressure. This can be dangerous especially to Parkinson's patients since some of them already suffer from low blood pressure.

Having a personal connection to Parkinson's disease I am thrilled to see many advances in this research field.

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/news_and_events/news_articles/news_article_Parkinson_isradipine.htm

Gene Therapy For Childhood Blindness In First Clinical Trial

Science Daily- The first clinical trials for the revolutionary use of virus carrying genes to treat childhood blindness has been announced by the University College London (UCL). This kind of research is the first of its kind and will have an extraordinary impact on the future treatments of eye disease.

The trial will involve patients of all ages with Leber's congenital Amaurosis (LCA) which is an inherited type of retinal degeneration. One of the known causes of LCA is due to an abnormality in a gene called RPE65 which prevents normal function of the retina. At the present time there are no known treatments for LCA.

The new treatment will involve the injection of healthy copies of the RPE65 gene into the retina cells by using a harmless virus, also called a "vector". Restoration of these genes should restore vision. Trials on dogs with LCA produced very positive results.

I found this advancement in research particularly exciting because I personally have very horrible vision (legally blind without glasses) and have often wondered about cures for completely blind children and adults. If scientists are able to prove this method of healthy gene injection beneficial to LCA patients, it may lead to finding a way to prevent poor vision to non-LCA patients.

Source : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070501115151.htm
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/

Regrowing Fingers? Cont.

Solving the Antidepressant Paradox

Studies have shown that two genes involved in the brain's chemical signaling may explain the reason why some adolescents and children have had increased tendencies of suicide while taking antidepressant medications. Because of this research, the British government has banned the use of certain antidepressants called selective seratonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and the US FDA has deemed it necessary to include a warning with the medications.

A study was conducted to show how these SSRIs cause suicidal thoughts in some people. A group of researchers looked at 68 genes in 1915 adults who had severe depression and who were also taking SSRIs. They found that there are two genes, GRIA3 and GRIK2, that are linked with suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Apparently, small differences in these strands of DNA are all that distinguish those who have suicidal thoughts from those who do not while taking the drug.

These findings show that the reaction to antidepressants could be in our genes from birth. This has given researchers new ideas for finding better treatments for depression. In the future, it may be possible to test a patient's DNA in order to find the right treatment for his or her specific genetics.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20992619/

Regrowing Fingers?

This article primarily relates the story of a craft shop owner who lost the tip of his middle finger. His brother (formerly a surgeon from Harvard) now runs a company that specializes in a formula from pig bladders that promotes tissue regeneration. The formula has been used to regrow horse ligaments but is also approved in use for humans.

The craft shop owner 's finger grew back in 4 weeks, and after 4 months it looked just like his normal finger. (Photos of finger in early regrowth, and now, shown above).

The "magic powder" that regrew the finger is mostly collagen and provides a scaffolding for incoming human cells to occupy and also sends chemical signals to the cells to regenerate. There is a federally funded project coming up to try this treatment on patients who have lost most or all of their fingers and cannot brush their teeth or pick up objects to see if they can grow "stubs" of fingers, not even whole ones, in order to increase their mobility and use of their hands.

Situations such as this are generating more interest in the study of regenerative healing, and how some animals, such as salamanders and some types of mice, can regrow lost limbs. The primary difference between these animals and humans is that instead of forming scar tissue to cover a wound, they form a blastema, a clump of regenerative cells that essentially manufacture a new limb. More research in this area may lead to eventually being able to replicate this phenomena in humans, but as of right now it is still out of grasp.

The Beam of Light That Flips a Switch That Turns on the Brain

A new technique is floating through the medical world that may be able to control neurons in the human brain. The technique was founded by Dr. Karl Deisseroth along with Feng Zhang and requires fiber-optic wires with laser light to stimulate certain neurons. Dr. Deisseroth is shown to the right with two fiber-optic cables. A protein called channelrhodospin-2 (found in pond scum) allows the laser light to control altered cells.

Other studies have been done using channelrhodospin. The channel protein lets positive ions stream into cells when exposed to blue light, this can be very helpful with cell diffusion. The cool thing about these proteins is how they have shown there ability to function in different parts of the body.

German researchers teamed up with Dr. Deisseroth and Mr. Zhang in 2005 and found a way to "silence" neurons. The experiment showed that by using a bacterial protein, halorhodospin, and placing it in the brain that and shining yellow light on it would cause the cell to shut down. The image on the left shows there experiment with a roundworm.

A study at the University of California, Berkeley, preformed by Dr. Ehud Isacoff and Dirk Trauner, was done similar in technique but instead used a channel protein that anchors in the cell membrane of most human brain cells. The scientists then attached the protein to a molecular chain that contained glutamate (a neurotransmitter). When light was shined on the chain, the violet light was absorbed then the glutamate connected with the protein receptor and an electrical impulse was generated.

Research is being down in the medical field trying to implement this technology and grasping its fully potential in medicine. A study is being done trying to help rats with spinal cord injuries breathe independently using the channelrhodospin protein. Using the technique to help blindness and depression.

There are still several kinks to fix before the technique can become fully operational in humans. These problems included how to pipe the light into the brain, the gene-therapy required to put in the proteins, and how the immune system will react to foreign agents. However, the research thus far has been very promising.

I feel this article really connects medicine and engineering thus encompassing the concept of biomedical engineering. The fact that these scientist can control the movement of mice and roundworms shows that possible cures for paralyzed patients or other disorders aren't far off. I found this to be really interesting and I hope others do as well.



http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/science/14brai.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

MIT's new microchip promises to improve protein sorting

Resarchers at MIT engineered a new microchip system that could be a vital asset for proteomics. Using a "microsieve"_a sieve is just a filtering structure_built into the microchip system, they are able to separate proteins accurately by size. A sample containing different proteins is placed in a reservoir above the chip and run through the sieve continuously.
Protein sorting with this new system is done in minutes compared to older gel electrophoresis techniques that take hours. It can also isolate proteins of small sizes. But most importantly, the system can be designed such that pores in the microchip only hold proteins of a specific size. This can be used to isolate biological markers, which are crucial in diagnosis and treatment of diseases. What is cool is that the authors of this device are two pretty young doctors and a young Ph.D. student, not the conventional old beardy scientists like you would expect.


http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/sieve.html

Hope over tumor-killing skin cancer drug

Doctors emphasize and agree that melanoma tumors were different from, and deadlier than, other cancers. Nearly half of all skin cancer patients that have tumors 4 millimeters thick will die while 95 percent breast cancer patients with tumors the same size will survive. This explains why the study has been focused mainly on skin cancer because melanoma tumors are particularly deadly.

In Barcelona, Spain, doctors have found a new drug to treat skin cancer by causing tumor cells to self-destruct by overloading them with oxygen. Unlike normal cells that can control their oxygen levels relatively easily, cancer cells have trouble balancing the levels. This weak spot of cancer cells is proving very useful in cancer research. The new drug, called STA-4783 has no effect on normal cells, and so it does not come with many side effects. Experiments with the new drug have shown that the treated patients have survived an average of one year after being diagnosed while those getting the regular standard treatment have survived only an average of 7.8 months.

This amazing innovation can expand the research and treatment of cancer dramatically. It is still being heavily studied because not everything about the new drug is entirely known but there is a bright future because although the study showed patients living longer with the cancer, there is some hope that the drug can be used as an actual cure for cancer since it causes the tumor cells to die off.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20992619/

A Future Flu Vaccine that can be Puffed into the Nose

Research is being conducted at Texas A&M University about combining a chemically pure powder of aloe vera leaves with the flu vaccine. The powdery substance, when puffed into the nose, becomes a sticky jelly-like substance that clings to the inside of the nose and is absorbed into the body effectively. Since the medicine is a powder, it has the advantage of being stored for long periods of time and also only a small amount of the substance is needed to be effective.

Tests on humans using this vaccine will begin next year, but so far it has been successful in animal trials. There are also current trial treatments being used to treat the bird flu in humans. This new medicine has exciting potential to replace the common flu shots, as well as this vaccine method possibly being used to treat other diseases in the future.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/83686.php

Gamma Knife

The Gamma Knife is one of the newest and safest ways to treat patients with brain tumors, but is in fact not a "knife" at all. The Gamma Knife is a helmet like apparatus that, with the help of medical imaging, can locate and eliminate tumors of the brain. Both malignant and benign tumors can be safely destroyed using Gamma Knife technology. The complexity of the human brain makes precision vital when dealing with these brain tumors. The Gamma Knife can produce high powered Cobalt-60 gamma rays with extreme accuracy so as not to destroy healthy brain tissue. The other amazing benefit of this technology is its ease on the patient. Gamma Knife procedures usually last only a matter of hours and patients are usually released on the day of the procedure or the day after. This process also reduces cost for the patient by minimizing time in the hospital. Complications, such as infection and hemmorhage that are a result of surgery are also effectively eliminated. One of the disadvantages of this technology is that it can only be used on small tumors around 4cm. The Gamma Knife is an exciting new form of therapy for brain tumors and is making recovery easier for patients around the world.

http://healthlink.mcw.edu/article/1031002173.html

Good News for Minimally Conscious Patients

A 38-year old man who has been in a minimally conscious state for six years due to severe brain trauma. Before the operation he could only move his fingers or eyes, and couldn't eat and had to be fed through a tube. Now, after the operation, he lives a normal life. The procedure used is common for patients with Parkinson's disease.

The procedure implants three components: the lead, the extension, and the neurostimulator. The lead (also called an electrode)—a thin, insulated wire—is inserted through a small opening in the skull and implanted in the brain. The tip of the electrode is positioned within the targeted brain area. Visit http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/deep_brain_stimulation/deep_brain_stimulation.htm for more information about the procedure.

This operation has been the first of hopefully many to help patients with traumatic brain injury.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/science/jump-leads-revive-man-after-6-years/2007/08/02/1185648010317.html

Scientists Get First Look At Nanotubes Inside Living Animals

Flourescent glow of carbon nanotubes in live fruit fly. (Credit: Image courtesy of Rice University)



Researchers at Rice University used near infrared flourescence imaging to view carbon nanotubes in a living organism for the first time.

To retrieve these images, the research team mixed carbon nanotubes into the food of common fruit flies. They then used a custom microscope, by aiming a red laser beam at the flies, which illuminated the carbon nanotubes within the fly. A special camera was then used to view the excited nanotubes.

The researchers found a concentration of nanotubes in the main blood vessel of the fly, and a lesser concentration in the brain, ventral nerve cord, trachea and fat. Also the ingestion of these carbon nanotubes did not effect the normal growth and life of the fruit flies.

The reason this article is interesting is because detection of these nanotubes in living organisms is the next step to having a more accurate and less invasive method of diagnosing certain diseases. Also, due to the small scale, this method will allow the diseases to be detected much earlier than present-day diagnosis.

Is Liposcution actually improving our health?

The image to the left shows what five pounds of fat would look like in your stomach. If you want to discuss the "obesity epidemic" just take a look at that picture and think about how much weight people are constantly putting on. Five pounds these days is nothing and it is no wonder humans are reaching these abnormal sizes. The main problem with having an excess amount of fat is that the fat surrounds the bodies organs and makes them work harder. This ultimately leads to serious problems ranging from diabetes to cardiovascular disease. Unfortunately, most people are not fans of exercising and as a result they sometimes turn to an easy way out.

Liposuction is a major surgery that is becoming more and more popular in the U.S. Essentially, trained surgeons make small incisions along the targeted area and remove the actual adipose cells which house the fat. Liposuction was designed as a body changing surgery and nothing more. It is by no means supposed to substitute a proper diet and exercise.

So the question: Is Liposuction actually improving our health?

Dr. Gonzalez-Campoy says "It is not the fat under the skin that really matters. It is the fat inside the abdominal cavity that matters." Liposuction unfortunately only targets the fat under the skin. In other words, people getting these surgeries may not be improving their health at all despite the amount of fat they've gotten removed because the fat stressing the organs is still there.

In conclusion the best way to lose fat is diet and exercise which will actually deplete the adipose cells and get rid of any stresses put on your organs. Liposcution should only be considered by those who are within their ideal body weight and have unporportional areas of fat deposits in their body that they can not get rid of despite the intese amount of exercise and diet.

The following sources were used:

http://weight-loss-story.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liposuction

http://www.docshop.com/education/cosmetic/body/liposuction/risks/

Researchers begin to understand how animals maintain balance

[Jevin Scrivens (left) holds a robot used by Georgia Tech and Emory researchers to simulate balance control. Stacie Chvatal (middle) and Lena Ting (right) are setting up a human balance test. (Credit: Image courtesy of Georgia Institute of Technology)]

Researchers at Georgia Tech and Emory University have gained a greater understanding of how the body maintains balance ... and regains its balance after losing some of its sensory capabilities ... by refocusing on how they attempted to study it. Instead of focusing on how each part of the body reacts to a change in balance and adjusts accordingly, they are studying how the nervous system reacts to control the muscles when the body's center of gravity changes horizontally.

They made a computer simulation that focused on a small set of sensory information that the body collects regarding its center of gravity, and were able to use it to accurately predict muscle reactions to changes in balance, based on the relation of the center of gravity to the ground. They found that subjects with impaired sensory information began to develop new pathways that enabled them (the subjects) to track their center of gravity and adjust accordingly ... close to what the simulation predicted as the optimum balance ... even though the muscle patterns appeared to be 'abnormal'.

In the future, this computer simulation could be used to determine what is impaired/where it is impaired in humans with balance impairment, and what the optimum recovery points are. Applying this method to robots, they were able to make the robots move in a fluid, animal-like manner, indicating that this is, indeed, closer to how living creatures maintain balance.

I think this is fascinating because the team 'simplified' their focus, and were able to make a major breakthrough in how we understand the body's balancing system. They used engineering principles and robots to understand how the body responds to balance disturbances, and now we can hopefully apply that to help people with injury or disease that disrupts the normal sensory pathways by which the body gathers balancing information.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070925160637.htm

Reading in Color

This article talks about a neurological condition known as synaethesia, which links different pathways in the brain. “Grapheme-color synaesthesia" is the term which describes the linking of colors to letters and numbers. When people with this condition (about 1 in 20) are reading something, they might either see the color in their head, or they might actually see a color on top of the actual black text. In other words, these people read in color. In an experiment, researchers found that letters which appear more often, such as vowels, are associated with brighter colors. Even people without the condition seemed to associate popular letters with brighter colors. The exact reasons behind this phenomena are unknown, but researchers believe it has something to do with the wiring in the brain getting “cross-wired.”

I found this article interesting because it proves that even though we have been researching on the human body since the beginning of time, there are still many things which we do not, and perhaps never will, understand. The article shows how intimate the wiring of the brain is and how one little thing can make a person read in colors. If something as simple as color association cannot be explained, how many other complexities of the brain and body are waiting to be discovered?

An Advantage of Obesity?

The Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) Study examined the effect of body mass index (BMI) on patients’ mortality. The study included 1,759 subjects with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) and was conducted over a ten year period. In the general population a higher BMI, which is a primary indicator of obesity, leads to an increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and CVD-induced death as well as all-cause mortality.

Strikingly, scientists noticed an interesting trend in patients with hemodialysis therapy and incident dialysis therapy (two common methods used to treat CKD). An increase in these patients’ BMI actually appears to be protective, leading to better survival rates and decreased cardiovascular death. In this group of patients with CKD, those who lost weight showed a poorer chance of survival. In addition, high BMI was associated with a lower chance of hospitalization and lower all-cause mortality.

Studies exist that published the exact opposite results of the MDRD Study. They claim that obesity in CKD patients puts them at a higher risk for CVD and thus mortality, just like the general population. Differences in the results may be explained by the severity of CKD of the patients in each study. Patients with earlier, less advanced stages of CKD seem to better reflect the general population. Patients with stage 3-4 CKD who had a high BMI, however, did show an overall better chance of survival compared with patients with a low BMI.

The authors make no mention of the causation of such a finding. Nor do they necessarily imply that having Chronic Kidney Disorder and being on hemodialysis therapy should justify obesity. Still, the article does provide some insight into the condition and treatment of patients with CKD and may spark a realization of how the disorder can be treated in the future.

Body Mass Index and Mortality in CKD. American Journal of Kidney Diseases - Volume 50, Issue 3 (September 2007) - Copyright © 2007 W. B. Saunders Company

Girl's Growth Purposely Stunted

An article on MSNBC's website described how a mother and a father purposely stunted the development of their daughter in order to make it easier for them to care for her. She was diagnosed shortly after childbirth with severe brain damage and this has left her in a constant infant state, which she will likely be in for the rest of her life.

Her parents decided to stunt her growth because as she grows bigger without developing mentally she becomes harder to care for. Basically, she would just a stronger, bigger baby, which would be harder to care for.

I thought this article was interesting because it brings up several ethical issues up for debate. Should the parents be allowed to do this? Should doctors even consider to do this?

Many of us chose this particular major with the idea of working in some wort of medical field to help people but then things like this pop up and it makes me wonder whether this sort of treatment is truly helping people and how it may be abused in the future. Is it really a doctor's job to purposely suppress a child's growth? It just seemed really like the opposite of what I always imagined being a doctor or some sort of medical researcher would do.

Link To Article On MSNBC
Link To Archived Paper On Stunting Child Growth
(Referenced in MSNBC Article)

Facebook a la Personal Genetics?

Science Magazine recently published an article entertaining the legal, ethical, and social ramifications of personal genome sequencing. Estimations that personal genome sequencing will be a widespread and cost-efficient enough to be integrated into everyday clinical care have prompted a host of companies to offer various genome-related services, including ancestry tracing and social networking - not unlike Facebook. 

While these potentialities are certainly exciting, especially to the bioengineer, the article duly notes the need for serious reflection on the possible outcomes of these services. Who will have access to this information? How do these services protect the patient's right to know - or not to know? How is the correct utility of this information ensured - and who should be allowed to draw conclusions based upon it (think "insurance companies")? Such questions have put a damper on many a clinician's urge to implement such services. 

I found this article particularly interesting because it asked these questions. There is no doubt that what is on the horizon is exciting and could hold something approaching limitless potential, but I feel that all too often people (and scientists) get caught up in the science itself and forget that the effects of the science's practical application in our everyday lives needs serious thought.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/317/5845/1687

Genes Key to Future Cancer Treatment

BARCELONA, Spain) — The treatment that more cancer patients receive may one day depend on their genes.
With an increasing number of biological clues available, doctors hope they will be able to customize more patients' treatments based on their genetic profiles.
In research presented at a meeting of the European Cancer Organization in Barcelona, experts said this week that these clues will help doctors determine not only which patients will probably develop cancer, but even those who will relapse, or be suitable for specific treatments.
"We are going to witness a revolution in cancer treatment," said Dr. Martine Piccart, head of medicine at the Institut Jules Bordet in Belgium. "In a few years, we will be able to fully demonstrate how powerful these new technologies are."
The real test, however, will be if doctors can then figure out what to do next.
"It's never encouraging to say to a patient that she's going to do poorly because of her genes," Piccart said. "We need to be able to offer patients an effective treatment."
Piccart and colleagues have been working to confirm the genetic sequences for women susceptible to breast cancer.
Tailoring treatment based on patients' genes is being used now on a limited basis. Doctors have been deciding how to treat women with breast cancer depending on their tumor type for the last few years. A simple genetic test can identify breast cancer patients who will actually benefit from chemotherapy, making the toxic side effects worthwhile.
But learning more about breast cancer has also given experts new tools to fight other cancers.
A study presented at the Barcelona meeting Tuesday found an unexpected twist: patients with a certain overactive breast cancer gene were also less likely to respond to chemotherapy for lung cancer.
"We know quite a bit about breast cancer genes, and now we're looking into the black box of what role they might play in other cancers," said Dr. Gordon McVie, a cancer expert at the European Institute of Oncology.
The problem, McVie said, is that even though researchers may understand a little about what a thousand of the genes involved in cancer do, there are about 31,000 others that they don't.
Other studies presented in Barcelona on Tuesday identified genes that could triple a woman's risk of ovarian cancer, as well as molecular profiling to predict which colon cancer patients would benefit from chemotherapy.
Cancer is an incredibly complicated disease, and is influenced by other variables like diet and environmental exposure. Even if researchers can identify the genetic components responsible, many factors remain beyond doctors' control.
"We haven't had any big genetic hits," McVie said, explaining that while scientists have identified genes that predispose people to cancers including breast, bowel, ovarian and colon, those make up only a small amount of all cancers.
"Cracking the genetic code is still a very imprecise science," he said.
Also, on Monday, German researchers said they had developed a test to identify cancer cells circulating in the blood of breast cancer patients. That could potentially enable doctors to catch cancer cells en route to another location — and give them time to intervene to prevent a tumor.
Dr. Julia Juckstock and colleagues at the University of Munich analyzed blood samples from 1,767 women with breast cancer before treatment and compared them to samples taken after about half of them had completed chemotherapy. Preliminary results found evidence of tumor cells in transport in less than 10 percent of the treated patients.
"This is a fascinating development," said Dr. John Smyth, a professor of medical oncology at the University of Edinburgh, who was unconnected to the Munich study.
Instead of a blanket approach to treatment, Smyth said that the test could help doctors pinpoint those women in whom breast cancer was likely to spread and needed extra care.

Athleticism: Practice makes perfect or is it just good genes?

Researchers at the Institute for Neuromuscular Research in Sydney, Australia have conducted studies recently that show there may be a gene associated with endurance in athletic performance. In order to understand this first you need to know that there are two kinds of muscle fibers, fast fibers and slow fibers. Fast fibers do not need oxygen and are associated more with quick muscle strength and sprinting while slow fibers use an aerobic pathway to do activities that require more endurance such as cross country running. Researchers have found that there is a protein called alpha-actinin-3 that is associated with the fast fibers in your muscles. If alpha-actinin-3 is present then you will be more prone to use the fast fibers and be a sprinter. Yet if there is a mutation on the gene ACTN3 which codes for alpha-actinin-3 then there are higher levels of enzymes associated with aerobic metabolism found in fast fiber's which causes them to behave more like slow fibers. Researchers are also connecting the gene with different populations and races to show that one race might be more susceptible to the mutation of ACTN3 therefore making them inherently better at long distance running.

This article is very interesting to me because the more we study genes and the proteins they code for the better prepared the scientific community can be for gene therapy which is a rapidly evolving field. Maybe even one day it could be possible to introduce this mutant gene into an individual in order to train him as a future soldier with better stamina.

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/910/3

SRP-6 gene in worms used to better understand necrosis

Scientists studying proteins in worms stumbled across a new discovery linking necrosis, a common form of cell death, with the sudden death of worms in room-temperature water after their SRP-6 genes had been removed. Necrosis, a phenomenon previously thought to be uncontrollable, was observed as the scientists were washing the worms in room-temperature water, and they rapidly began to die. This is because, the team found, the worms couldn't adjust the volume of the fluid in their cells when exposed to water because the lysosomes had burst due to a gene called SRP-6 being removed from the worms for their intended experiment. These findings suggest that SRP-6 protects worm cells against lysosome rupture and necrosis. I found this article to be very interesting because scientists never believed they could control necrosis and the discovery can be used to better understand necrosis and maybe even to figure out ways to stop it in human diseases.

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/2007/920/3

Virtual Reality is Helping Veterinary Medicine

Sarah Baillie is a professor at the Royal Veterinary College in London. She has come up with a way to help veterinary students located the organs inside animals such as cows and horses without using live subjects. Baillie teamed up with a virtual reality experts from Virtalis to create a simulation of a cow using haptic technology.



It works in a unique way. They attach a robotic arm to the student's middle finger that is placing their hand inside the "animal" (their hand is floating in thin air). Depending on where the student moves their hand, the mechanical arm give a counter acting force that resembles the same force that a certain organ would give depending on the location of the hand (indicating an organ). This simulatin is perfect for students trying to find the uterus of a cow.

The simulation is very versatile. Baillie can create different scenarios for the student to work with. For instance, she can simulate a pregnant cow or even a cow with a cyst. There are many learning possibilities that come along with this new innovative way to teach veterinary students.

To test if the effectiveness of the training, they did a study with both students that were trained with the simulation device and students that were trained the traditional way. The results showed that those who were trained with the simulation did significantly better on locating the uterus of a cow.

The virtual reality concept is a brilliant idea. I believe that there is so much more that biomedical engineers can do with this new technology. Hopefully in a few years we can relate this to help train surgeons, dentist, and any medical profession that is hands on.

Web Site Link:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/08/09/fs.haptic.cow/index.html

Regulating Nanomedicine

The emergence of nanotechnology as a viable drug delivery system has opened many new venues into medicinal applications over the past decade. However, Nanomedicine's great promises are, at times, overshadowed by its potential downfalls. This article discusses the importance of regulating nanomedicine from the point of view of the FDA's Nanotechnology Task Force.

In the wake of drug recalls with unforseen side effects and in the atmosphere of pre-emptive measures, the FDA Nanotechnology Task Force was created to set specific guidelines to regulate nanomedicine. Concern about assessing toxicity and environmental exposure to nanomaterials such as self-assembled complexes, dendrimers or inorganic nanotubes need to be addressed. Engineered nanoparticles are highly reactive and mobile within the human body, and there are
currently no effective methods of monitoring ENP exposure risks in patients or health care workers.

Currently, there are over 215+ medical companies developing or researching nanomedicine within the United States; nanomedicine earned a $2.6 billion gross product market in 2004. Such a large market requires regulation to control the limits, set guidelines, and ensure public and enviromental safety.

http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/v6/n4/full/nmat1875.html

Cancer cell survival facilitated by Heat Shock Factor 1

All cells depend on heat shock proteins to help them properly function when under a variety of physiological stressors. These heat shock proteins or HSPs make sure that proteins produced by the cell are being folded properly and that the proteins do no gather together forming hazardous clumps. This can all contribute to the prevention of neurological disorders and helps maintain good cell health. The HSPs are primarily controlled by heat shock factors, specifically Heat Shock Factor 1 or HSF1. It was already known that cancer cells used HSPs when exposed to stressors but the role played by HSF1 in controlling the HSPs was unknown. Research, done at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, recently tested the effects of the presence of HSF1 on cancer cells. In mice, they found that HSF1 dramatically limited spontaneous tumor formation initiated by either the p53 tumor suppressor gene or activation of mutations of the H-Ras proto-oncogene. “These results suggest that HSF1 is necessary for cells to become cancerous.” They also found that reducing the amount of HSF1 in previously established human cancer cell lines impaired growth and survival of these cells, while having little effect on normal cells. The loss of the protein affects the cell’s rate of glucose intake and protein production, affecting the ability of the cell to continue rapid proliferation. HSF1 coordinates a network of core cellular functions in the cancerous cells, making them more dependent on HSF1 then normal cells.
This article is rather interesting because it shows the complex dual function of a protein. On one hand it helps healthy cells survive under harsh conditions, preventing a variety of disorders and enabling the continuation of proper physiological functions, but on the other hand it aids in the survival and growth of cancer, which ultimately hurts those other healthy cells. It is also interesting because this presents a new potential treatment of cancer. The researchers believe that through short, intense treatments of HSF1 inhibitors, cancer growth could be stopped without leaving patients too vulnerable to neurodegeneration and other problems induced by cell stress. This approach is exciting because it would actually target the cancer cells and help destroy them instead of current methods of removal that usually take healthy cells as well.

Heat Shock Factor 1 Is a Powerful Multifaceted Modifier of Carcinogenesis
Published in Cell (Volume 130, Issue 6, 21 September 2007, Pages 1005-1018):
http://www.cell.com/content/article/abstract?uid=PIIS0092867407009579
(click on Full text at left to see complete article)

Summary Article from Science: “Cancer Cells Chill Out to Survive” http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/920/1

Effects of Collagen Density on Cardiac Fibroblast Behavior and Gene Expression

This article talks about the relationship between the ECM stiffness and cell migration. Collagen with different densities have different effects on the migration of these fibroblast. It shows how the tests were done and the results. It shows that the higher ECM stiffness will aggregate the cell to migrate in a faster way than cells in lower concentration of ECM.
In the discussion section, it says that the ECM stiffness actually do have an effect on cells migration, range from stimulatory to permissive and even to inhibitory. Besides, the effects are cell-type specific. The reason for in aggregated migrations of fibroblasts in high ECM stiffness is unclear. However, it was suspected that it is due to the ectivation of integrins, which leads to the enhanced cell migration through a serious of protein activation. These protein activations further alter the gene expression of the cells.
The study is important because it opens a door to the study of cancerous cells. The cancerous cells have two properties which make it difficult to be cured: uncontrolled proliferation and migration. The uncontrolled proliferation of the cancer cells has been related to the matrix stiffness, which is the stiffness of the extracellular matrix (ECM) of the cells. The higher matrix stiffness has caused the cells to multiply at abnormally high rates. These cancer cells are generally less adhesive than normal cells. However, this study shows that not only cell proliferation is affected by the ECM stiffness, but also the cell migration. If we can understand why the ECM stiffness can affect the cell migration, then an effective method can be figured out to control the matastasis of the cancerous cells.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com.ezproxy.tamu.edu:2048/cgi-bin/fulltext/104533600/PDFSTART

Surgical Infection Preventer

This article from LiveScience introduces an idea discovered at the University of Southern Mississippi. They have found a way to coat surgical equipment used in invasive surgery to prevent infections from bacteria found in hospitals. 90,000 people die a year from bacteria from the hospital. This is the first time we have been able to attach antibodics to a surface. Penicillin-lined surfaces were shown to be highly effective against the bacteria that causes staph infections. I believe that this development will hopefully lower the amount of deaths caused by bacteria found in hospitals. Hospitals need to be clean and bacteria free enough that people don't end up with more illnesses on the way out of the hospital than on their way in. Even though this issue of antibodic coatings still has much research to be done, we have to feel good about the future.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20070910/sc_livescience/newcoatingcouldpreventinfectionfromsurgicaltoolsandimplants

Anti-Psychotic Drug Enters Phase II Trials

LY2140023, an anti-psychotic drug developed by Eli Lilly and Company, has entered phase II proof of concept trials today. The drug activates glutamate receptor mGlu2/3, and has been shown to display fewer side effects than already available anti-psychotic drugs while still improving the quality of life for schitzophrenics.

I found this article interesting because of its ties into our brain project. By modifying a single receptor protein, LY2140023 is able to change biochemical pathways to the extent that it manifests itself behaviorally. Even more interesting are the side effects of the medicine, and the glimpses into the segue between brain chemistry and organism function. The article can be found at: http://www.medpagetoday.com/Psychiatry/GeneralPsychiatry/tb/6611

Cartilage Grown from Human Embryonic Stem Cells

Biomedical engineers at Rice University have developed a technique that successfully produces neo-cartilage from human embryonic stem cells. The cartilage grown had mechanical and chemical properties similar to those of fibrocartilage, particularly the outer portion of the knee meniscus and the temporomandibular joint disk.

Stem cells were chondrogenically differentiated, and some of the methods used produced cells with size and shape similar to those of control chondrocytes. After 28 days of differentiation, the differentiated cells were treated in various ways then seeded into wells with 2% agarose. This allowed for self assembly of tissue, and formation of extracellular matrix was observed.

The journal article where the results were published may be found at: http://stemcells.alphamedpress.org/cgi/content/full/25/9/2183

New CPR Promises Better Results By Compressing Abdomen, Not Chest

A biomedical engineer has developed a better technique to improve the current CPR procedure. The traditional CPR success rate is very low and goes almost nil within 10 minutes. Unlike the regular CPR that works by pushing the chest, the new CPR “OAC-CPR” operates by pushing on the abdomen. In standard CPR, the rescuer pushes on the chest and blows into the patient’s mouth. This leads to few problems; many doctors and nurses refuse to perform CPR due to its risks of transferring infection and if you push too hard or not that hard, the patient’s chances of survival decrease drastically. The new method does not has to face problems on how much force should be applied while pushing the abdomen and completely eliminates the risks of transferring infection by mouth-to-mouth breathing. Another amazing advantage of OAC-CPR is that it requires only one rescuer; whereas, traditional CPR requires two rescuers. The new technique increases blood flow by 25% to the heart than the current method. Usually, blood flow by using regular CPR can bring de-oxygenated blood back to the heart (backward flow). But the OAC-CPR completely eliminates backward flow and rib fracture. I find this article very interesting because it is fascinating to observe the concept that biomedical engineers can improve healthcare tremendously. If interested, I have posted the link below I hope this article inspires.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070905155141.htm

Obese U.S. youngsters suffer iron deficiency: study

A new study shows that many obese U.S. children suffer from iron deficiency. It is believed that diets high in calories but low in nutrients may be the primary cause of both the iron deficiency and obesity in the children. The study lists “excessive milk or juice intake, prolonged bottle-feeding, snacking and junk food” as the possible contributing factors. Iron is present in all cells and has several vital functions, including the transport of oxygen to the tissues from the lungs in the form of hemoglobin. Iron deficiency is the most common form of nutritional deficiency and if present in infancy and early childhood can lead to learning and behavior problems. In the study of 1,641 children aged 1 to 3, iron deficiency was found in 20 percent of those who were overweight and only 7 percent of those who were not.

This article can be viewed at the following link and is interesting as it outlines another problem brought about by the less than nutritious, typical American diet.

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSN2934050920070904

Microrobots made from heart muscle cells, nanobots next

Nano robots that could crawl around inside the human body to monitor and treat our ailing bodies have always been the stuff of myth and legend. However a major step in that direction has been achieved. Microrobots have now been made in South Korea that utilize heart muscle cells to propel themselves though water and possibly human vasculature. While this is currently only a landmark achievement, there are many possible applications of such a machine. These crab-like robots could crawl throughout the body using its three front and back legs, clearing clogged arteries, or releasing medication in specialized ways. They made the "robot" by "growing heart muscle tissue from a rat onto tiny robotic skeletons made from polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)." And the scientists measured the robot's average speed at about 100 micrometers per second. You can find a video of it moving under a microscope in the link.

Sources: Sarah Corcoran, Chemical Science, UK, August 31, 2007.

The publishing magazine's URL: http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/ChemScience/Volume/2007/10/robots_with_a_heart.asp
Video of the robot: http://www.rsc.org/suppdata/LC/b7/b705367c/b705367c.avi