|
The Triple M At Work at Kansai University Japan
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|| June 04: 2018: Kansai University News Japan|| ά. The KU-SMART Project is led by Polymer Chemist, Professor Yuichi Ohya of the Faculty of Chemistry, Materials and Bioengineering at Kansai University in Japan. “This is five-year project, jointly funded by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology:MEXT and Kansai University to develop medical materials, as well as, treatment and diagnostic systems.” says Professor Yuchi Ohya. “We are building on our expertise in biomedical materials, mechanics, and medicine, ‘triple M’.
Specifically, the project is based on our research on medical polymers, that is, ‘Kansai University Medical Polymers:KUMP.’ These polymers exhibit unique properties, such as, hydrogels made from our polymers, that dissolve and biodegrade in a desired period in the body.” The research is divided into three groups: materials chemistry, mechanical engineering, both based at Kansai University and clinical medicine at Osaka Medical College.
Through the ‘triple M’, Materials, Mechanics, and Medicine, based on Kansai University Medical Polymer:KUMP, we develop medical devices and systems, that meet users’ needs and thus contribute to society.’’ Kansai University is aiming to contribute to the development of advanced technology, that will innovate medical care.
To this end, the Collaborative Research Centre of Engineering, Medicine and Pharmacology, which was established in the Organisation for Research and Development of Innovative Science and Technology:ORDIST, is working to develop medical devices and materials using Kansai University Medical Polymers:KUMP and, also, to develop human resources.
’’Currently in Japan, the transition from academic research to practical application is somewhat unsmooth. Therefore, we realised that it is necessary for material chemists, mechanical engineers and medical doctors to join forces and pursue the same research objectives. We believe that the time is ripe for such collaboration.’’ said Professor Ohya.
‘’We organised multiple occasions for the three disciplines to understand each other’s situations and challenges to avoid one-way approach. This process has created a shared platform in which each party pursues research with the same objectives and awareness of issues.’’
‘’This project aims to solve the medical problems, that Japan faces today. To this end, we material chemists, design and synthesize KUMP, while the mechanical engineers design devices and systems, that use KUMP.
Meanwhile, we identify needs of medical problems by listening to medical doctors at the frontline. In this way, we are developing medical devices for the people, patients and medical doctors, based on the triple M materials, mechanics, and medicine.
We intend to develop this project in a university-wide effort with a view to commercialising our products and making a real contribution to easing patients’ burdens. Another goal is to raise public awareness about the important role that manufacturers-a forte of Japan and Kansai University in particular-play in the medical sector and thereby, invigorate and inspire all those, ho work in Japan’s industrial sector. ::: ω.
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| University of Birmingham Receives Funding for a Powerful New Spectrometer to Study Molecules in Exquisite Detail |
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|| May 22: 2018: University of Birmingham News || ά. The University of Birmingham has won funding for a powerful new piece of spectrometer, which will allow scientists gain better insights into the molecular basis of human health, including, the progression of cancer and infectious diseases. The spectrometer, which will operate at a strength around 500,000 times stronger than the earth’s magnetic field, will be installed at the University of Birmingham’s Henry Wellcome Building for Biomolecular Nuclear Magnetic Resonance as part of a £20 million investment from four of the UK’s research councils, led by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council:EPSRC.The new 1GHz spectrometer uses Nuclear Magnetic Resonance:NMR, an analytical technique allowing the study of the structure and behaviour of molecules in exquisite detail. NMR can be used in a wide range of areas from physics and chemistry to biomedical science, including, allowing for the real-time measurement of cancer cell metabolism. This technique allows scientists to better understand the structures and mechanisms in proteins and other biomolecules, which is, often, essential for the development of new drugs. The spectrometer will secure the University of Birmingham’s place as an internationally leading centre for NMR research for the next decade.
Lead applicant Professor Ulrich Günther of the University of Birmingham’s Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences, said, “The 1GHz technology will be a crucial step-change for the UK NMR community. At the University of Birmingham, scientists will benefit from a unique line-up of magnets at a single location, which is not available anywhere else in the UK and only in very few places in Europe.”#
Professor Tim Softley, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Transfer at the University of Birmingham, said, “This exciting award will integrate with the strategic priorities outlined in our Life Sciences strategy. Not only will it give researchers at Birmingham and around the UK an exquisite tool to study challenging problems in structural biology, chemical biology and metabolism, it will serve as a catalyst for attracting scientists to this campus and boost the leading-edge research infrastructure in the immediate vicinity of the Birmingham Life Science Park development. This means new opportunities for translational science and for exploiting world class research to improve patient outcomes.”
The University of Birmingham has, already, pioneered scientific activities driven by NMR, including, the opportunity to decipher how metabolism is regulated in human cells at molecular levels.
The £20 million investment was announced by EPSRC on behalf of three other research councils, the Biotechnology and Biosciences Research Council:BBSRC, Medical Research Council:MRC and Natural Environment Research Council:NERC, who have supported the funding and also form part of UK Research and Innovation:UKRI, a non-departmental public body funded by a grant-in-aid from the UK government.
UKRI’s Chief Executive, Professor Sir Mark Walport said, “The UK’s global stature in research and innovation is founded on access to internationally competitive infrastructure. This investment means researchers will have new systems that provide greater sensitivity and a greater understanding of molecular structures, with potential impacts in pharmaceuticals, biomaterials, materials science and biotechnology.”
The £20 million investment will be divided between eight Universities, including, Birmingham, Liverpool, Warwick, Oxford, Edinburgh, Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield.
The Universities of Birmingham and Leicester formed a strategic alliance to apply for the EPSRC funding. Professor Geerten Vuister, of the University of Leicester, said, “It is very stimulating to team up with Professor Ulrich Günther at the University of Birmingham.
The University of Birmingham’s new 1GHz spectrometer will be a crucial step-change for the UK NMR community, and at Birmingham scientists will benefit from a unique line-up of magnets at a single location, that is available nowhere else in the UK and only in very few places in Europe.”
Caption: Spectrometer: Image: University of Birmingham ::: ω.
|| Readmore || ‽: 230518 || Up ||
|| April 06:
2018 || ά. The
Humanion was
first published
on September 24,
2015 and has
been run, since
that day, on a
complete
voluntary basis
without any
'formal' or
'constituted'
manner or form
and, it was run
on as a Human
Enterprise,
which is an idea
of Humanics, in
which, ownership
is replaced by
belongingship
and, thus, in a
Humanical
Society, no one
owns anything
but everyone
belongs to the
whole as the
whole belongs to
everyone
lawfully and
equally and, it
neither believes
in nor makes
money but human
utilities,
needs,
aspirations,
creativity,
imagination and
dreams are
served without
money, where
everyone works
and creates for
all others as
all others
create and work
for all others,
thus, bringing
in meaning and
purpose to life
along with it
come natural
justice,
equality and
liberty, that
establish a true
civilisation
within the Rule
of Law. And in
one word, this
system of human
affairs
management is
called, Humanics
and a society
that runs itself
in humanics is
called a
humanical
society. Today,
we have begun
the process of
'constituting'
this Human
Enterprise,
which does not
exist in the
current system,
but the next
closest thing to
it, that exists
in the UK Law is
Social
Enterprise.
Therefore,
today, Friday,
April 06, 2018,
we are beginning
Regine Humanics
Foundation, that
is the 'Agency',
that will lead,
run, manage and
develop
everything, that
The Humanion has
been trying to
do.
Regine Humanics
Foundation is
established by
the Thinker,
Author, Poet,
Novelist,
Playwright,
Editor of The
Humanion,
Festival
Director of
London Poetry
Festival and a
Humanicsxian:
hu: maa: neek:
tian: One, that
believes in,
lives and exists
by Humanics, Mr
Munayem Mayenin,
of London,
England, United
Kingdom. Mr
Mayenin says,
''Humanics is a
vision; people,
may, call it,
utopia, we, call
it our
Humanicsovicsopia;
Humanics.
Humanics is our
philosophy, our
faith, our
conviction, our
resolution, our
way of existing,
thinking, being
and doing: to
seek and try to
do so in the
determination
that all we must
do and be is to
exist to advance
the human
condition. People,
readers and
agencies and
organisations,
from all across
England,
Scotland,
Northern
Ireland, Wales
and the whole of
the United
Kingdom and
Australasia,
Africa, Asia,
Europe, North
and South
America, from
all walks and
strata of life,
have supported
our endeavours,
supported The
Humanion and The
Humanion Team,
who volunteered
their time to
run things,
since the
beginning of The
Humanion and
long before
that, when other
things, that are
now part of The
Foundation, were
developing.
Nothing has
changed in terms
of the nature
and value of
what we have
been seeking to
do.''
''But the
founding of The
Foundation
brings it all in
a solid
foundation so
that we can keep
on building this
'vision' so that
it keeps on
going regardless
of who come to
take the
vision-mission
of The
Foundation
forward. The
Foundation runs
along with time
and along with
the flowing
humanity. This
is the dream,
this is the
vision, this the
hope in founding
this Foundation.
And, in this, we
hope and invite
all our readers,
supporters, well
wishers and all
agencies and
organisations to
support our
endeavours to
build something,
a Human
Enterprise,
which we are in
the process of
registering as a
Social
Enterprise, as a
Community
Interest
Company, working
for the common
good of the one
and common
humanity. No one
makes or takes
profit out of
The Foundation,
which now runs
The Humanion and
everything else,
that is part of
it. The
Foundation, once
registered, will
have an Asset
Lock, which
means that in
any event,
should The
Foundation
dissolve itself,
all its existing
assets shall go
to a similar
Social
Enterprise.
Therefore, we
invite everyone
to support The
Foundation,
support The
Humanion in
whatever way
they can. And,
there are
endless number
of ways people
and
organisations
can support The
Foundation and
The Humanion.'' :::
ω.
|
Scanning
the
Brain
with
Anew-Style:
Better
and More
Flexible |
 |
|| March 27: 2018: UCL
News || ά. A new
generation of brain
scanner, that can be
worn like a helmet,
allowing patients to
move naturally whilst
being scanned, has been
developed by researchers
at UCL and the
University of Nottingham
as a Wellcome-funded
project. In a Nature
paper published
yesterday, the
researchers demonstrate
that they can measure
brain activity while
people make natural
movements, including,
nodding, stretching,
drinking tea and, eve,
playing ping pong. Not
only can this new,
light-weight,
magneto-encephalography:MEG
system be worn but,
also, it is more
sensitive than currently
available systems.
“This has the potential
to revolutionise the
brain imaging field and
transform the scientific
and clinical questions,
that can be addressed
with human brain
imaging.” said Professor
Gareth Barnes, who leads
the project at the UCL
Wellcome Centre for
Human Neuro-imaging.
''Importantly, we will
now be able to study
brain function in many
people, who, up until
now, have been,
extremely, difficult to
scan, including, young
children and patients
with movement disorders.
This will help us better
understand healthy brain
development in children,
as well as, the
management of
neurological and mental
health disorders.” he
said.
Brain cells operate and
communicate by producing
electrical currents.
These currents generate
tiny magnetic fields,
that are detected
outside the head.
Researchers use MEG to
map brain function by
measuring these magnetic
fields. This allows for
a millisecond by
millisecond picture of
which parts of the brain
are engaged, when we
undertake different
tasks, such as, speaking
or moving.
Current MEG scanners are
large and weigh around
half a tonne. This is
because the sensors used
to measure the brain’s
magnetic field need to
be kept very cold, at
-269°C, which requires
bulky cooling
technology.
With current scanners,
the patient, must,
remain very still whilst
being scanned, as even a
05-mm movement can make
the images unusable.
This means it is, often,
difficult to scan
people, who find it hard
to remain still, such
as, young children or
patients with movement
disorders, such as,
Parkinson’s Disease. It,
also, poses problems
when one might need a
patient to remain still
for a long time in order
to capture a rarely
occurring event in the
brain, such as, an
epileptic seizure.
These problems have been
solved in the new
scanner by scaling down
the technology and
taking advantage of new
‘quantum’ sensors, that
can be mounted in a
three-D-printed
prototype helmet. As the
new sensors are very
light in weight and can
work at room
temperature, they can be
placed directly onto the
scalp surface.
Positioning the sensors
much closer to the brain
increases the amount of
signals, that they can
pick up.
The light-weight nature
of the new scanner means
that, for the first
time, subjects can move
their heads during the
scanning. However, the
quantum sensors will
only operate in this
way, when the Earth’s
magnetic field has been
reduced by a factor of
around 50,000. To solve
this problem, the
research team developed
special electromagnetic
coils, which helped to
reduce the Earth’s field
around the scanner.
These coils were
designed, specifically,
to sit on either side of
the subject and close to
the walls of the room,
to ensure that the
scanner environment is
not claustrophobic.
The scanner is based
around helmets, that can
be made to fit anyone,
who needs to be scanned.
Following success of
their prototype system,
the researchers are now
working towards new
styles of helmet, which
will have the appearance
of a bicycle helmet,
that will be suitable
for babies and children,
as well as, adults. The
researchers predict this
new type of scanner will
provide a four-fold
increase in sensitivity
in adults, potentially,
increasing to 15 or
20-fold with infants.
Dr Matt Brookes, who
leads the MEG work at
the Sir Peter Mansfield
Imaging Centre,
University of
Nottingham, where the
prototype was built,
said, “This new
technology raises
exciting new
opportunities for a new
generation of functional
brain imaging. Being
able to scan individuals
whilst they move around
offers new
possibilities, for
example, to measure
brain function during
real world tasks or
genuine social
interactions. This has
significant potential
for impact on our
understanding of not
only healthy brain
function but, also, on a
range of neurological,
neuro-degenerative and
mental health
conditions.”
Mr Andrew Welchman,
Wellcome’s Head of
Neuroscience and Mental
Health, said, “MEG is a,
really, valuable tool in
neuroscience but current
scanners are still not
widely used as they’re
expensive, cumbersome
and their
‘one-size-fits-all’
design doesn’t work for
many patients. This new
scanner is exciting not
only because it
overcomes those issues
and will help improve
our understanding of how
the brain works but,
also, because it has
huge potential for
clinical use.''
The Paper: Moving
magnetoencephalography
towards real-world
applications with a
wearable system: Nature:
Elena Boto, Niall
Holmes, James Leggett,
Gillian Roberts, Vishal
Shah, Sofie S. Meyer,
Leonardo Duque Muñoz,
Karen J. Mullinger, Tim
M. Tierney, Sven
Bestmann, Gareth R.
Barnes, Richard Bowtell
and Matthew J. Brookes
Caption: Brain-Scan
Helmet: Image: Wellcome::ω.
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|
What are
You
Engineering
Professor:
Well
Tissues |
|
|
|| March 26: 2018:
University of Idaho News: Kate
Keenan Writing ||
ά. Career-ending Achilles
tendon tears in professional
athletes. A decline in an
aging population’s quality
of life due to injured
rotator cuffs. Outdoors
enthusiasts made immobile
because of tendon tears in
their knees. In the near
future, the debilitating
nature of these injuries
could be a thing of the
past, as a team of faculty
members and students in the
University of Idaho’s
Department of Biological
Engineering is focusing on
revolutionary research to
engineer regenerative tendon
tissue.
''Because tendons undergo
repetitive motions and
sustain such large
mechanical loads, they’re
prone to injury.'' said Mr
Nathan Schiele, Assistant
Professor of Biological
Engineering at the
University's College of
Engineering. Once injured,
treatment involves suturing
the tendon through surgery,
followed by rehabilitative
therapy. Re-rupture is a
common occurrence and
patients, rarely, regain the
mechanical strength they
once had. For Mr Schiele,
that prognosis is daunting.
Having suffered his own
share of tendon pain, the
second-year professor
doesn’t take for granted a
healthy musculoskeletal
system necessary for an
active lifestyle.
“I like to hike and ski and
bike, so it’s partially
selfish to work on tendons
because they’re so crucial
to an active lifestyle.” Mr
Schiele said. “I want to
keep doing these activities,
even, as I get older, so
having an alternative
treatment option besides
sutures seems like a good
idea to me.” The main focus
of his research is to better
understand the mechanisms
behind successfully
engineering tendon tissue
through stem cell
differentiation.
Mr Schiele said that one
of the challenges with stem
cell is that
once they’re harvested from
a person’s bone marrow or
fat tissue and injected into
the injury site for
regeneration, they remain
undifferentiated. This means
that the cells, which have
the potential to replicate
various cell types in the
body, can travel down any
number of lineage tracks,
bone, cartilage, muscle, fat
or tendon, posing great risk
to the patient.
Mr Schiele and his student
research team are trying to
ensure proper
differentiation of
functional tendon tissue in
the lab. Such a discovery
could, eventually, allow
doctors the ability to
extract stem cells from a
patient, differentiate them
toward tendon cells in the
lab, place them on an
engineered tissue scaffold,
that mimics the mechanical
strength of tendon and
suture them back into the
patient.
“For people, who have had
major trauma, like an
Achilles tendon rupture, we
aim to replace or augment
that injured tissue with a
mechanically functional
tendon replacement with
cells, that act like tendon
cells.” Mr Schiele said.
A number of factors exist,
that can, ultimately, push a
stem cell toward a desired
lineage, the shape of the
cell, the biochemical
environment or growth
proteins the cell is exposed
to, the stiffness of the
structure that the cell is
placed in and the mechanical
forces, such as, stretching,
that it undergoes.
It’s this last factor that
Mr Schiele’s research team
is honing in on. “By
applying mechanical
stretches, we think, we can
differentiate these stem
cells toward tendon.” Mr
Schiele said. “But we don’t,
really, understand how it’s
happening or how these
mechanical forces influence
cell behaviour, so we’re,
really, trying to get at the
processes behind that.”
The experiment of better
understanding the process
begins with stem cells
harvested from mice, which
provide a model system to
represent adult human stem
cells. Mr Schiele’s students
seed the cells into a small
sponge or scaffold, made of
bovine collagen. Since this
collagen protein is a major
component of human tendon
tissue, it acts as a natural
mimic. It’s this type of
material, that could be
sutured into patients’ torn
or ruptured tendons to
facilitate re-growth.
Once in the scaffold, the
cells attach to the surface
and spread out. Biological
Engineering student Ms
Sophia Bowen of Sandpoint,
who has worked in the lab
since spring 2016, is
experimenting with how many
stem cells to place on each
scaffold and, if, cell
seeding density influences
tendon formation. Upon
settling on an appropriate
number of cells, students
place the scaffolds in a
custom device, called, a
mechanical bioreactor
system, which allows them to
test how mechanical forces,
like stretching, influence
the behaviour of the stem
cells and the probability of
differentiating toward
tendon.
The bioreactor was designed
and constructed in-house by
Biological Engineering
senior Ms Abby Raveling of
Hamilton, Mont. Ms Raveling
began with a template and,
then, used the computer
program me Solid Works to
customise the device to suit
the team’s needs. The
finished product has three
chambers, that, each holds
one collagen scaffold, held
in place by grips. It, also,
has three motors, which are
operated through the code,
that Ms Raveling and
Biological Engineering
graduate student Mr Hee Jun
Um, from South Korea, wrote
in Lab View programming
language. Once turned on,
the motors attach to the
grips, move up and down and
stretch the scaffolds back
and forth.
Students can apply various
stretching parameters to the
scaffolds but they’ve
maintained that the strain
should be cyclical or
repetitive, rather than
static. “The reason we do it
cyclically is to mimic the
normal physiological
environment.” Ms Raveling
said. “Because, if, you’re
walking, your Achilles
tendon is being cyclically
strained as you walk.”
According to Ms Sophia
Theodossiou, a doctoral
student in Biological
Engineering from Athens,
Greece, “Tendon development
seems to depend quite a bit
on the mechanical loading,
that they experience.” Ms
Theodossiou began working in
the lab during the summer of
2016. After a given period
of time of mechanical
stretches, students remove
the scaffolds from the
bioreactor and stain them
with a fluorescent dye to
identify how the cells have
been affected by the force,
a process, that Ms Bowen, a
former art major, finds,
particularly, fascinating.
“There have been a lot of
times, when I’ve been
looking at something in the
lab and I’ve thought, ‘Wow,
I could see this in an art
gallery.’” she said. ''In a
preliminary experiment, the
proteins in the stem cells
with the highest percentage
of stretch were elongated,
an indication, that the
cells, may, turn toward
tendon.'' Mr Schiele said.
And there seemed to be more
intercellular connections.
“They were talking to each
other and attaching better
to our scaffolds.” Ms
Raveling said. Ms
Theodossiou, who is studying
how communication and the
transmission of cells’
signals influences what
lineage they travel down,
is, especially, interested
in this result.
“What is that magic
discussion cells have, when
they’re turning into tendon
versus fat or bone?” she
said. “One of our hypotheses
is that you have to have the
right ratio of all these
different communication
proteins during development
for the cells to turn into
functional tendon. So, if,
we know what the correct
ratio of proteins is and how
mechanical stimulation
affects them, then we can
manipulate them to develop
functional tendon in the
lab.”
Mr Schiele said, “Maybe, we
find that we need to turn on
a specific cell signalling
pathway. Or we need to turn
on a specific cell behaviour
to better direct stem cell
fate toward tendon.” Ms
Raveling and Ms Bowen
received funding through the
Idaho IDeA Network of
Biomedical Research
Excellence:INBRE and the
University's Office of
Undergraduate Research,
respectively, which gave
them 10-week stipends to
work in Mr Schiele’s lab
this summer.
In July, Ms Bowen presented
her findings on cell seeding
density to the Idaho
Conference on Undergraduate
Research. In June, Ms
Raveling shared her findings
from the bioreactor at the
SB3C or the Summer
Biomechanics, Bioengineering
and Biotransport Conference,
in Tucson, Ariz. She was one
of the only undergraduate
students to conduct a podium
presentation.
“The Biological Engineering
department, as a whole,
really, encourages students
to get involved in
undergraduate research as
freshmen.” Mr Schiele said.
“It’s a great hands-on
learning opportunity, where
you can apply the skills you
learn in your classes to
real world problems. A
student can be very
productive and, hopefully,
get abstracts and papers as
an undergraduate student,
if, they start their
freshman year.”
Ms Raveling and Ms
Theodossiou are currently
working on a paper related
to the bioreactor and plan
to include open-source
drawings of the device. In
the meantime, the team will
continue conducting
experiments to reach their
final goal. “If we can have
a tendon treatment option,
that replaces diseased or
damaged tissue and improves
strength after healing, that
would be a big benefit.'' Mr
Schiele said with the hope
that that would , possibly,
be the end to devastating
tendon injuries. ω.
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||
|
New Study:
New Yields:
What Exactly
are The
Yields: More
Than a
Million New
Cyclic
Compounds:
Some with
Pharmaceutical
Potential
|
 |
|| March 22: 2018: University of
Southampton News || ά.
Researchers are able to produce
a vast library of unique cyclic
compounds, some with the
capacity to interrupt specific
protein to protein interactions,
that play a role in disease. The
new compounds have unique cyclic
structures, that give them
stability and enhance their
ability to bind to their
targets. The study, reported in
the journal Nature Chemical
Biology, showed that one of the
newly generated compounds
interferes with the binding of
an HIV protein to a human
protein, an interaction vital to
the virus’ life cycle.
While linear proteins are
problematic, cyclic molecules
composed of one or more rings of
amino acids, are more stable and
less susceptible to cellular
enzymes, that tend to chew off
the ends of linear proteins.
They are, thus, more likely to
successfully bind to their
targets. In the new study,
researchers made use of an
enzyme they discovered from a
bacterium, that lives in the
ocean and tested whether it
could make analogs of these
natural products in Escherichia
coli. The report was co-authored
by Professor Ali Tavassoli from
the University of Southampton
and Professor Wilfred van der
Donk from the University of
Illinois and the Howard Hughes
Medical Institute.
Professor Wilfred van der Donk
said, “Most drug-discovery
efforts focus on
disease-inducing interactions in
enzymes and proteins, that
involve classic 'lock-and-key'
mechanisms. In most cases, small
chemical drugs bind to cavities
in enzymes, where the chemical
reactions take place. By binding
to these crevices, the drugs
prevent the enzymes from
working.
However, many disease processes
involve protein-protein
interactions, that do not fit
this model. These have long been
considered challenging because
they do not involve such
cavities. These protein-protein
interactions, often, are made up
of extended surfaces, that can
be difficult to inhibit with
small molecules.”
Professor Ali Tavassoli said,
“While significant strides have
been made against a variety of
protein-protein interactions,
including, our own work with
cyclic peptide libraries, there
is much potential for using new
chemical scaffolds for this
purpose.”
The research team found three
potential therapeutic agents.
Further testing showed that one
of the three worked best. In a
test tube and in cells, the
compound bound to the human
protein, stopping the HIV
protein from interacting with
it. This drug agent likely will
not be used therapeutically,
however, as it, may have, toxic
side effects at high doses as a
result of its interaction with
the human protein.
“We engineered the genes of the
E. coli strain such that its
survival depended on disrupting
the interaction between the
human protein and an HIV
protein. The real advance here
is the ability to generate
libraries of millions of,
potentially, therapeutic agents.
These could be screened to
identify inhibitors of other
disease-related processes, which
is where its real potential
lies.'' Professor
Tavassoli said. ω.
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|| ‽:
220318
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New Research on the
Strength of
Children’s Bones
Could Help in the
Design of Safer Car
Seats |
 |
|| March 13: 2018: University of
Sheffield News
|| ά. Researchers at the
University of Sheffield have
successfully used computer
simulated models and medical
imaging to test the strength of
young children’s bones,
producing results, which could
help car seat manufacturers
design safer car seats for young
children. The study, the first
on infant bone strength in
relation to age:weight using
models developed from modern
medical images, is published
today in the Journal of
Biomechanics and Modelling in
Mechanobiology.
The research
was carried out by the
University of Sheffield,
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS
Foundation Trust and the
Children’s Hospital Charity
could help companies
manufacturing children’s safety
products, such as, car seats,
use the modelling of bone
strength in designing and
testing their products before
bringing them to market. The
research used CT scans, x-rays
to take detailed pictures of the
bones from different angles and
subsequent computer models to
set up scenarios looking at how
a different amount of force
affects the bones, bending and
twisting the bones to detect the
breaking point.
These non-invasive techniques
created three-D models of the
femur, thigh bone in the study
of children’s bones in the
newborn to three-year-old age
range. This is the age range,
that has had the least research
conducted previously but, also,
the ages, where children can’t
talk or communicate effectively
about how their injury occurred.
There is, also, a period of
rapid growth between these ages
and the researchers were able to
determine how bones developed
during this time and how bone
strength changed.
Protection has improved,
significantly, since the
introduction of car seats but
car accidents are still a
leading cause of life
threatening injury in children.
Computer aided engineering is an
essential part of vehicle
development and safety
assessments are increasingly
relying on simulations.
Therefore, it is vital that the
correct simulations, using
accurate models, are used to
ensure optimum safety.
Current testing for car seats in
simulated crash tests often use
scaled down models of adults to
simulate a child in a given
situation. However,
anatomically, a toddler has a
very different bone structure to
an adult, the bones are not
fully formed and still growing.
Dr Xinshan Li, from the Insigneo
Institute for in silico Medicine
and the Department of Mechanical
Engineering at the University of
Sheffield, said, “There is
currently very little research
looking into the bone strength
of young children. Our data can
be applied to help car seat
manufacturers, pram
manufacturers, toy manufacturers
and any other companies
designing children’s products,
to design and make safer
products and use our modelling
of bone strength in testing
their products before bringing
them to market.
We will be continuing our
research in this area and hope
to work in partnership with
these industries to demonstrate
the impact our work could have
in helping to prevent and
minimise the impact of potential
accidents. This will give
parents peace of mind that their
child is as safe as possible and
that the products they are using
have been tested using the very
latest and accurate techniques.”
Dr Amaka Offiah, Reader in
Paediatric Musculoskeletal
Imaging in the Department of
Oncology and Metabolism at the
University of Sheffield and
Honorary Consultant Paediatric
Radiologist at Sheffield
Children’s Hospital, said, “Bone
fractures are common in
childhood and have been
estimated to account for 25 per
cent of all paediatric injuries.
They can broadly be categorised
into accidental or inflicted
injuries.
Currently, distinguishing
between these can often be
extremely difficult. Due to the
difficulties in obtaining
paediatric bone samples there
has been a lack of research to
provide evidence-based
information on bone strength in
young children. In addition to
the child safety industry-based
applications, the findings from
our study can be used in future
to aid clinical diagnosis.
If we can provide a table, which
shows bone strength by age range
for different bones in the body,
we can, then, calculate the
force required to break that
particular bone. This would help
clinicians to use evidence-based
information to decide whether an
injury is accidental or
inflicted, particularly, for
younger children, who aren’t
able to articulate how the
injury occurred. We are grateful
to the Children’s Hospital
Charity, who funded the initial
work in this area.”
The Insigneo Institute for in
silico Medicine is a
collaborative initiative between
the University of Sheffield,
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS
Foundation Trust and Sheffield
Children’s NHS Foundation Trust,
in silico medicine is, also,
known as computational medicine.
It is a multidisciplinary
collaboration between over 140
academics and clinicians to
develop computer simulations of
the human body and its disease
processes, that can be used
directly in clinical practice to
improve diagnosis and treatment.
MultiSim is an Engineering and
Physical Sciences Research
Council:EPSRC funded programme
which is based in Insigneo.
Professor Damien Lacroix,
Director of MultiSim, said, “The
MultiSim project provided
resources for this research, as
the research team was able to
use the same modelling
techniques and software we
created to look into
musculoskeletal diseases and
apply this to modelling for
children’s bones to test their
strength.
The potential applications of
this research are far-reaching
and demonstrate how computer
simulations can, potentially,
save time and provide a more
reliable diagnosis for
clinicians.”
The research team is continuing
their work in this area and will
be building on the current
research to assess other long
bones, such as, the tibia,
expand their database to ensure
a good representation of
children in each age range, and
look at more complex injury
scenarios.
This study was supported by the
Higher Committee for Education
Development in Iraq:HCED. The
project, also, received funding
from the MultiSim Project and
the European Commission H2020
programme through the CompBioMed
Centre of Excellence.
About University of Sheffield:
With almost 29,000 of the
brightest students from over 140
countries, learning alongside
over 1,200 of the best academics
from across the globe, the
University of Sheffield is one
of the world’s leading
universities. A member of the
UK’s prestigious Russell Group
of leading research-led
institutions, Sheffield offers
world-class teaching and
research excellence across a
wide range of disciplines.
Unified by the power of
discovery and understanding,
staff and students at the
university are committed to
finding new ways to transform
the world we live in. Sheffield
is the only university to
feature in The Sunday Times 100
Best Not-For-Profit
Organisations to Work For 2017
and was voted number one
university in the UK for Student
Satisfaction by Times Higher
Education in 2014. In the last
decade it has won four Queen’s
Anniversary Prizes in
recognition of the outstanding
contribution to the United
Kingdom’s intellectual,
economic, cultural and social
life. Sheffield has six Nobel
Prize winners among former staff
and students and its alumni go
on to hold positions of great
responsibility and influence all
over the world, making
significant contributions in
their chosen fields. Global
research partners and clients
include Boeing, Rolls-Royce,
Unilever, AstraZeneca, Glaxo
SmithKline, Siemens and Airbus,
as well as many UK and overseas
government agencies and
charitable foundations.
MultiSim: MultiSim is an
Engineering and Physical
Sciences Research Council:EPSRC
funded Frontier Engineering
programme awarded to the
University of Sheffield to
develop a multi-scale modelling
framework of the human
musculoskeletal system. MultiSim
aims to generate computer
simulations, that help diagnosis
and provide patient-specific
treatment recommendations. In
addition, to saving time and
money, the new computer tools
will provide a more reliable
diagnosis of the disease, a
better treatment and a detailed
prognosis and monitoring of the
treatment. The final goal of
such a programme is to improve
patients' quality of life. ω.
The Paper: Investigating
the mechanical response of
paediatric bone under bending
and torsion using finite element
analysis: Zainab Altai, Marco
Viceconti, Amaka Offiah and
Xinshan Li is published in the
Journal of Biomechanics and
Modeling in Mechanobiology
Whatever Your Field of Work and
Wherever in the World You are,
Please, Make a Choice to Do All
You Can to Seek and Demand the
End of Death Penalty For It is
Your Business What is Done in
Your Name. The Law That Makes
Humans Take Part in Taking Human
Lives and That Permits and Kills
Human Lives is No Law. It is the
Rule of the Jungle Where Law
Does Not Exist. The
Humanion
|
Innovative Physical
Organic Solutions
Finds £10 Millions
More Reasons to Keep
On Seeking for Ways
to Make Better |
|| March 09: 2018: University of
Huddersfield News
|| ά. A Team of scientists at
the University of Huddersfield
have reached a major milestone,
raising £10 million in
funding since they formed a
research group, that works
closely with industry, carrying
out complex chemical analysis.
Named Innovative
Physical Organic Solutions:IPOS,
the Group was formed in 2006 by Professor
Mike Page, Dr
Nick Powles and Dr
Matthew Stirling.
Now, the Group has 15 members,
including, industry-sponsored
doctoral researchers. The
Group's recent work has included
a new method for detecting
multiple sclerosis and ways of
overcoming resistance to
antibiotics.
There has, also, been important
work with the food industry,
such as, improvements to infant
milk and a method of analysing
animal gelatin. IPOS works in
the purpose-built Page
Laboratories, named after the
unit’s joint founder, a
distinguished Chemist, who has
published over 200 research
papers. Professor Page is, also,
a former Deputy Vice-Chancellor
of the University of
Huddersfield. The labs have been
named a Centre of Excellence by
multi-national supplier Agilent
and after an initial grant from
the European Regional
Development Fund, the advanced
equipment has all been purchased
with income earned by IPOS,
which has now attracted £10
million of research funding.
The unit has worked with more
than 250 companies, primarily,
based in the Yorkshire and
Humber region but, also, large
multi-nationals. The IPOS
scientists provide expert
research and analytical services
in such diverse fields as food,
agro-chemicals, pharmaceuticals,
healthcare, energy production
and polymers.
IPOS has, also, pioneered an
apprenticeship scheme, which
enables promising young
scientists to work in the lab
and study part-time for a
degree. The unit has, also,
received two awards from the
Society of Chemical Industry for
its outstanding contributions,
particularly, to regional
industry.
IPOS' recent work includes: i: A
new method of detecting multiple
sclerosis, that has led to a
joint project with the NHS and
Pinderfield’s hospital in
Wakefield to further validate
the test in a clinical setting
and, also, to develop additional
diagnostic tests for difficult
to diagnose diseases, such as,
neurological and intestinal
conditions.
ii: A project with Dairy Crest
leading to the international
adoption of an IPOS method of
carbohydrate analysis and
improving infant formula; iii:
Ways of overcoming bacterial
resistance to antibiotics and
development of probiotic foods
for human and animal health; iv:
An analytical method to
determine from which animal
gelatin originated. This is
important because, although,
gelatin has many applications in
the food, medical and cosmetic
industries, the outbreak of
bovine spongiform
encephalopathy:BSE in 1986 led
to restrictions on the use of
bovine gelatin for human
consumption. There are, also,
restrictions from some religions
and cultures banning the
consumption of porcine products.
About University of Huddersfield:
The University of Huddersfield
has a growing reputation as an
inspiring, innovative provider
of higher education of
international renown. Recognised
as a leader in enterprise and
innovation, the University has
been the recipient of the Times
Higher Education’s University of
the Year Award and
Entrepreneurial University of
the Year and was awarded a
Queen’s Awards for Enterprise.
In the 2015, the University
achieved five star status from
international ratings
organisation QS Stars in the
areas of teaching,
internationalisation,
employability and for facilities
and access. It is currently
number one in England for the
proportion of staff with
teaching qualifications and
recently became one of the few
universities in the UK to be
awarded the ‘Gold’ standard in
the Government’s new Teaching
Excellence Framework.
The University annually welcomes
over 19,000 students to a range
of undergraduate and
postgraduate programmes across
subjects covering: the sciences,
engineering and IT; ealth,
education and the social
sciences; business, management,
law and accountancy;
architecture, design, humanities
and the arts. The University of
Huddersfield’s researchers are
dedicated to solving the
problems and answering the
questions posed by industry,
science and society as a whole.
Its research is showcased by
internationally-recognised
centres of excellence, strategic
industry relationships and a
commitment to providing advanced
facilities and equipment. The
Chancellor of the University is
His Royal Highness The Duke of
York KG and the Vice-Chancellor
is Professor Bob Cryan CBE. ω.
Whatever Your Field of Work and
Wherever in the World You are,
Please, Make a Choice to Do All
You Can to Seek and Demand the
End of Death Penalty For It is
Your Business What is Done in
Your Name. The Law That Makes
Humans Take Part in Taking Human
Lives and That Permits and Kills
Human Lives is No Law. It is the
Rule of the Jungle Where Law
Does Not Exist. The
Humanion
01: Baroness
D'Souza: Speaker:
The UK Upper House:
02: Louisa
Innocenti: Leading
the European Space
Agency's Clean Space
Green Space: 03:
Luara Bates: Author:
04: Young
People:Women
Speaking at the UK
House of Commons:
Woman-Health Workers
in Mozambique
|
|
New Technique
Developed to Better
Liver Cancer
Treatment |
 |
|| March 05: 2018: National
University of Singapore News
|| ά. NUS researchers from the
Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine,
Faculty of Engineering and
Cancer Science Institute of
Singapore:CSI, in collaboration
with the National Cancer Centre
Singapore, have devised an
innovative technique to grow
liver cancer cells in the
laboratory, that were derived
from patients, paving the way
for a more cost effective and
efficient method of testing drug
efficacy. This multidisciplinary
effort was led by Dr Eliza Fong
from NUS Biomedical Engineering
and CSI Research Fellow Dr Toh
Tan Boon. The research was
published online in Biomaterials
in January.
Liver cancer is a leading cause
of cancer death for both men and
women in Singapore and the
disease is, often, only,
detected at an advanced stage,
that is beyond cure. Researchers
currently test the efficacy of
drugs on models of tumours,
known as patient-derived
xenografts:PDXs. However, these
PDXs are expensive and
time-consuming, when used for
drug screening. Furthermore,
current liver cancer models,
typically, make use of cancer
cell lines in which cells are,
mostly, homogeneous or similar.
In reality, liver tumours
exhibit intra-tumoural
heterogeneity in which a single
tumour mass can contain multiple
distinct populations of cancer
cells.
“Not all cancer cells within the
same tumour are the same. This
makes treating liver cancer very
challenging; because there is
heterogeneity, not all cancer
cells, may, respond similarly to
the same drug. This, may, result
in drug resistance later on in
the patient.” Dr Fong explained.
''This is a major advancement
for liver cancer because
researchers, for the most part,
have not been able to achieve a
reliable method of culturing
primary liver cancer cells in a
drug screenable platform outside
of the body.'' said Assistant
Professor Edward Chow, NUS
Pharmacology and CSI
 |
The researchers grew cancer
cells from 14 liver cancer PDXs,
each line derived from a patient
with liver cancer, on an
engineered three-dimensional
scaffold fabricated from a
plant-based porous hydrogel that
mimics the cellular environment
in the liver. The spongy
scaffolds, measuring 06mm in
diameter, serve as housing for
the cancer cells and were
designed to have optimised
biochemical and mechanical
properties conducive for the
culture of liver cells. These
properties allow the cells to
preserve their shape and
function and grow as organoids.
The three-D organoids possess
several advantages over existing
liver cancer models. Not only
are they able to replicate the
intra-tumoural heterogeneity
found in liver tumours as well
as molecular profile, they are
minuscule in size, a mere 0.1mm.
Through this technology, one PDX
can be used to produce up to
hundreds of scaffolds containing
organoids for drug studies,
increasing the throughput for
drug screening.
Speaking of the impact of the
research, Professor Hanry Yu
from NUS Physiology and
Institute of Bioengineering and
Nanotechnology, Agency for
Science, Technology and
Research, said, “The spongy
scaffolds were developed to keep
normal liver cells happy and,
also, preserve the important
properties of liver cancer for
drug testing. This could one day
allow patients to choose the
best treatment based on the drug
testing results of their own
liver cancer cells.
Dr Toh said that time was a
crucial factor in treating liver
cancer patients. “Our goal is to
move towards personalising
treatment for individual
patients. If, we can screen for
drugs, that actually work,
patients, may, have a better
chance of getting the right
treatment.” he said. Dr Fong
added that with this platform,
it, may be, possible to derive
drug responses on patient
tumours in one to two weeks.
Elaborating on the work,
Assistant Professor Edward Chow
from NUS Pharmacology and CSI,
said, “This is a major
advancement for liver cancer
because researchers, for the
most part, have not been able to
achieve a reliable method of
culturing primary liver cancer
cells in a drug screenable
platform outside of the body.”
The research team aims to build
a more complex liver cancer
model to better mimic the
disease in patients by including
other tumour supporting cells,
such as, immune cells and blood
vessels. ω.
Caption: Image 01: The research
team led by Dr Fong, left and Dr
Toh, 2nd from left, included
Assistant Professor Chow, 3rd
from left and Professor Yu:
Image 02: Hepatocellular
carcinoma organoids in culture:
Image: National University of
Singapore
Whatever Your Field of Work and
Wherever in the World You are,
Please, Make a Choice to Do All
You Can to Seek and Demand the
End of Death Penalty For It is
Your Business What is Done in
Your Name. The Law That Makes
Humans Take Part in Taking Human
Lives and That Permits and Kills
Human Lives is No Law. It is the
Rule of the Jungle Where Law
Does Not Exist. The
Humanion
 |
Dr Aoife Morrin is a Senior
Lecturer, at Dublin City
University's School of Chemistry
and Funded Investigator with the
Insight Centre for Data
Analytics, who works on clever
skin patches or ‘tattoos’, that
can pick up signals from the
body. Here she speaks of her
research and work. My group is
developing easy-to-wear
‘tattoos’ that you can leave on
the skin. We are developing this
tattoo platform as a wearable
medical device, so the tattoo
material sits on the skin and
can measure specific information
from the body, with the aim of
monitoring the person’s health
or performance.
How do these tattoos work: They
are like temporary tattoo
transfers: we screen print the
tattoo material onto a transfer
sheet as whatever pattern we
want, then you press the sheet
against the skin so the material
contacts the skin and you
release the tattoo by dabbing
the backing paper with water.
The scientific advance here is
that the materials that get
transferred are tightly
integrated with the skin so they
can pick up high quality signals
but they are also able to flex
and stretch and move with the
skin so you can wear them for a
long time. In practice it should
be even easier than wearing a
sticking plaster.”
What kinds of signals would you
design these tattoos pick up:
Different materials will respond
to different signals coming from
the skin. Measuring the
electrical properties of the
skin can give us information on
things like wound healing
progress. We are increasingly
looking at ways to measure
biochemical signals, too.
Specifically, we are looking at
ways to collect and detect the
gases or volatiles, that our
skin emits, to see if we can
interpret these signals in the
context of our health."
How do you measure the signals
that the materials on the skin
detect: At the moment we need to
physically contact with the
tattoo to measure the signals,
but we would anticipate that in
the future it could be a
wireless signal, where you
could, perhaps, measure it with
a smartphone app.”
And what kinds of medical
conditions might you monitor
with these wearable devices: One
of the big things we are looking
at is the integrity of the skin
barrier, which changes in skin
conditions, such as eczema and
to a certain extent in
psoriasis. Ideally, we would
like to be able to pick up
signs, that the skin barrier is
becoming compromised, which
could warn of an impending
flare-up. That would mean steps
could be taken to protect the
skin. Being able to measure
gases in the skin might, also,
be of use for a range of other
conditions, such as diabetes and
even cancer, too. I am confident
we will see a range of
wearables, such as these that
are capable of monitoring our
health status on the shelves of
pharmacies in as little as five
years.”
How did you become interested in
this area: As a chemist I have
always been interested in
materials and sensors. The idea
of using simple printing methods
for building chemical and
biochemical sensors and even
whole devices has always been of
interest. So I came up with this
project to develop printed
sensors into wearable platforms
for the skin and Science
Foundation Ireland granted me a
Career Development Award, which
funds the research.”
What is your typical day in
research: I run a research group
of four post-graduates and a
post-doctoral researcher, so I
spend a lot of time with the
group discussing ideas and
findings. We, also, work with
lots of other people in DCU and
in Insight, we are always
learning from our colleagues in
biochemistry and data science.
As well as running the research
group, I lecture to our
chemistry students. I am, also,
the Research Convenor in the
School of Chemistry, so I am
there to help, if anyone in the
School has issues around
research.”
What drives you to keep going in
research: I think it’s seeing
the people in the research group
develop themselves as we move
ideas through into development,
that is really rewarding. We
have a great bunch here and we
work well together, we all learn
from each other.” ω.
Caption: Dr Aoife Morrin: Dublin
City University: Image: Dublin
City University
Whatever Your Field of Work and
Wherever in the World You are,
Please, Make a Choice to Do All
You Can to Seek and Demand the
End of Death Penalty For It is
Your Business What is Done in
Your Name. The Law That Makes
Humans Take Part in Taking Human
Lives and That Permits and Kills
Human Lives is No Law. It is the
Rule of the Jungle Where Law
Does Not Exist. The
Humanion
|| Readmore
|| ‽: 050318 || Up ||
|
