in the news... Archive

Monday, February 8, 2010

Jamie Heywood of PatientsLikeMe at TEDMED 2009

Jamie Heywood founded a website called PatientsLikeMe. Just like other social networks, PatientsLikeMe provides a place for people to discuss their condition, exchange information on countless diseases, etc. What makes PatientsLikeMe unique is the information that the firm mines from the content contributed by users. Here's Heywood giving a TEDMED talk about how his website can serve a similar function as large scale clinical trials and what useful data can be obtained from it.

Link: PatientsLikeMe...

TEDMED...

(0)

Monday, February 8, 2010

David Agus Talks Cancer Research Strategy at TEDMED 2009

David Agus, professor of medicine at the University of Southern California and co-founder of personal genomics company Navigenics, spoke at last year's TEDMED about the state of available cancer therapy treatments and how far they've come from fifty years ago. Turns out the progress made so far has not been very promising and Agus is calling for a new strategy in attacking this multifaceted disease.

Link: TEDMED...

(0)

Friday, February 5, 2010

"Artificial Pancreas" Using Available Commercial Technology Shows Promise

Clinical researchers at Cambridge University have been testing the effectiveness of combining commercial continuous glucose monitors with insulin pumps via a proprietary closed-loop algorithm developed by the researchers.. The study, performed on type 1 diabetic pediatric patients using pumps and meters from Smiths Medical, Medtronic, and Abbott, has demonstrated a significant overnight glucose management improvement over continuous drip pumps.

In the new study, 17 children and teenagers aged between 5 and 18 with type 1 diabetes were studied during 54 nights at Addenbrooke's Hospital. The team measured how well the artificial pancreas system controlled glucose levels compared with the children's regular continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) pump, which delivers insulin at preselected rates.
The study included nights when the children went to bed after eating a large evening meal or having done early evening exercise. Both are challenging to manage, a large evening meal because it can lead to so-called "insulin stacking" and, as a result, a potentially dangerous drop in blood glucose levels later in the night, and late afternoon or early evening exercise because it increases the body's need for glucose in the early morning and can therefore increase the risk of night time hypoglycaemia.

The pooled results showed the artificial pancreas kept blood glucose levels in the normal range for 60% of the time, compared with 40% for the CSII. The artificial pancreas halved the time that blood glucose levels fell below 3.9mmol/l - the level considered as mild hypoglycaemia. It also prevented blood glucose falling below 3.0mmol/l, which is defined as significant hypoglycaemia, compared with nine hypoglycaemia events in the control studies.

Press release: 'Artificial pancreas' a step nearer for children with type 1 diabetes

Image: Medtronic's Paradigm Veo Wireless Insulin Pump Helps Prevent Hypoglycemia

(0)

New Malaria Vaccine Passes Initial Clinical Trial

An internationalist team of researchers has just successfully finished the first human trials of a new malaria vaccine. Tested on 100 West African children susceptible to malaria, the trial showed a high level of relevant antibodies a year after the vaccine was administered.

From a Howard Hughes Medical Institute press release:

Plowe [Christopher V. Plowe, MD, MPH, a professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine] and a group of U.S. and Belgian collaborators from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, USAID and GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals have been developing and testing the vaccine with a large team of researchers led by Professors Ogobara K. Doumbo and Mahamadou A. Thera at the University of Bamako in Mali.
Plowe and his colleagues tested a vaccine that targets a molecule on the malaria parasite known as apical membrane antigen 1 (AMA1). The molecule sits on the surface of the merozoite form of the parasite and helps it invade red blood cells. The human immune system recognizes the presence of AMA1 molecules and generates antibodies that prevent invasion of red blood cells by the merozoites. But the body generates antibodies only after repeated exposure to malaria. If researchers could develop a vaccine that primes the immune system to recognize AMA1 before malaria infection occurs, it would be a major advance in the effort to control and eventually eradicate the disease.

In the trial, 100 healthy Malian children received either the vaccine or, as a control, a rabies vaccine. Some of the children experienced temporary pain and swelling at the site of the injections, but the effects were generally "well-tolerated," according to Plowe.

Prior to receiving the vaccine, the children in the trial had only low levels of antibodies against AMA1 in their blood. Those antibody levels increased more than 100-fold in the children receiving the malaria vaccine and remained high during a year of follow-up blood tests.

Based on its safety profile and strong immune response, Plowe and his U.S. and Malian collaborators are now testing the vaccine in 400 children. The results of the larger trial will shed light on a key uncertainty surrounding malaria vaccines. The AMA1 molecule occurs in many different forms both within Africa and around the world, and a vaccine against some forms of the molecule may not protect against other forms.

More: New Vaccine Shows Promise Against Malaria in Early-Stage Study...

Full paper in PLoS ONE: Safety and Immunogenicity of an AMA1 Malaria Vaccine in Malian Children: Results of a Phase 1 Randomized Controlled Trial

(0)

Thursday, February 4, 2010

More Confirmation That Photosynthesis Exhibits Quantum Effects

Thanks to femtosecond lasers, quantum mechanical processes continue to provide evidence of their existence in biological systems. Nature recently published news of an international team of researchers detecting an incredibly efficient mechanism happening during photosynthesis in plants. The scientists believe that this efficiency can only be achieved in quantum mechanical systems.

Wired Science explains:

Scholes’ team experimented on an antenna protein called PC645, already imaged at the atomic scale in earlier studies. That precise characterization allowed them to target molecules with laser pulses lasting for one-quadrillionth of a second, or just long enough to set single electrons spinning.
By analyzing changes to a laser beam sent through the protein immediately afterwards, the researchers were able to extrapolate what was happening inside — an ultra-high-tech version of shadows on a screen. They found that energy patterns in distant molecules fluctuated in ways that betrayed a connection to each other, something only possible through quantum coherence.

More at Wired Science: Everywhere in a Flash: The Quantum Physics of Photosynthesis...

Letter in Nature: Coherently wired light-harvesting in photosynthetic marine algae at ambient temperature

Image: Darrren Hester: Abstract background of colorful leaves created using Fractalius.

(0)

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Book Talk: "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks"

Getting human tissue cells to grow in a Petri dish was a long-sought goal of researchers in the early half of the last century. Until Henrietta Lacks, a poor cervical cancer patient, showed up at Johns Hopkins in 1951, it was nearly impossible to study human cell processes in a laboratory environment. The incredible thing about Henrietta Lacks was that cells harvested from her cervical tumor grew and multiplied outside the body with absolute ease. For sixty years now the so-called HeLa cells have been used across the world to study cellular physiology and pathology, to develop and test vaccines and drugs, to learn about radiation risks, and much more.

National Public Radio yesterday aired an interview with Rebecca Skloot, author of a new book about the "immortal" Henrietta Lacks, and discussed HeLa cells' impact on her family, science, and the evolution of medical ethics.

Rebecca Skloot's essay about Henrietta Lacks from 2000: Henrietta's Dance

Link: A STATEMENT FROM JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINE ABOUT HELA CELLS AND THEIR USE...

Image: HeLa cells stained with Hoechst 33258 stain. Wikimedia Commons.

(1)

Paper Based Sensors and Other Solutions for Cheap Medical Care

At last year's TEDxBoston conference, renowned Harvard chemist George Whitesides discussed the development of paper based diagnostic sensors. The motivation for the research is the fact that current methods of testing sample fluids for disease markers require expensive, and therefore often distant laboratory equipment. Whitesides proposes that a paper sensor, perhaps with some help from a camera phone, can provide sophisticated diagnostics for remote points of care.

Flashback: Paper-based Diagnostic Microfluidic Devices

(0)

Computers Taught How to Map Brain's Neural Geography

Scientists around the world are working on mapping out the neural connections found within the brains of animals, hopefully one day leading to a complete "connectome" of the giant human brain. It is believed that once maps of healthy brains can be compared to those troubled by disease, we should have a much better understanding of what causes some ailments and how to treat them. To this end researchers at MIT have been working on getting computers to analyze digital scans of brain slices and intelligently trace observed connections within. Because it is difficult to actually teach a machine to do this, the team is utilizing computer learning to first demonstrate how humans trace connections and then have the computer imitate the same process on different slices.

With machine learning, the researchers teach computers to learn by example. They feed their computer electron micrographs as well as human tracings of these images. The computer then searches for an algorithm that allows it to imitate human performance.
After the computer is trained on the human tracings, it is applied to electron micrographs that have not been traced by humans. This new technique represents the first time that computers have been effectively taught to segment any kind of images, not just neurons.

Jain and Turaga [Viren Jain and Srinivas Turaga, computational neuroscience postdocs] have also invented new ways of evaluating how well the computer imitates humans at the task of tracing. Those measures are crucial for machine learning because the computer, just like students in a class, will not learn the desired task well unless the "exam" properly measures performance.

In their early efforts, it took the computer weeks or even months to come up with an accurate neuron-tracing algorithm. However, Jain and Turaga cut that time dramatically when they started using computers equipped with graphics processing cards, allowing them to perform computations 50 to 100 times faster. Now, it takes only days for their computer programs to produce a new tracing algorithm.

Their eventual goal is to use computers to process the bulk of the images needed to create connectomes, but they expect that humans will still need to proofread the computers' work.

More from MIT: Mapping the brain...

Image credit: Chris Nurse, Wellcome Images

(0)

Monday, February 1, 2010

Stanford Hospital's Pneumatic Tube Messaging System

In its recent press release, the media relations department at Stanford University Hospital is touting the clinic's pneumatic tube messaging system. The technology, which has faded away in most other industries with the advent of modern telecommunications, can still be highly efficient in large medical centers. The pneumatic highway is typically used to pass around clinical samples and orders between departments. While a lab may be within walking distance of patient rooms in small hospitals, it becomes increasingly distant as a facility grows in size. That's what happened at Stanford, and now they have one of the largest such installations in the country. The pneumatic system is completely computer controlled and includes features like soft landings to prevent damage to any samples within the capsule.

It hosts 124 stations (every nursing unit has its own); 141 transfer units, 99 inter-zone connectors and 29 blowers. To help alert employees to the arrival of containers, the system has more than three dozen different combinations of chiming tones.
Such pneumatic tube systems date back to the early 19th century, when they drove the workings of postal services, department stores and other commercial businesses whose physical size demanded something faster than standard human pace. But those versions were usually designed to move paper. As computers and then the Internet made it possible to deliver data electronically without paper, tube systems lost their value for many industries.

But the technology endures—and thrives—in hospitals, thanks in part to more recent improvements in the delivery system. Originally, the tubes would arrive with a thud, a hard landing that could damage sensitive lab samples. Then in the late 1980s engineers figured out a way to control airflow to slow down the containers for a soft landing at their destination station.

At Stanford Hospital, before 1993, a team of about 20 people had the job of transporting the multitudes of tissue, medications and documents. However, the increasing size of the hospital, and the addition of two adjacent buildings—the Blake Wilbur Outpatient Clinic, the Stanford Cancer Center and Packard Children’s Hospital—made the tube system option the most modern solution.

Depending on the diameter of a tube, cylinders can reach speeds of up to 25 feet per second, about 18 miles per hour, far faster than any human could ever manage.

It was also a question of best use of employee time, if, as often happened, a courier wasn’t available when a specimen needed to get to the lab. Having a nurse leave a patient’s bedside for a minutes-long run to the lab made no sense.

Reliable speed is crucial when the system carries blood products, some of which are temperature-sensitive and, by regulations, must be discarded if not properly maintained.

Will Apple iPad be Adopted as The Next Clinical Tablet?

The Apple iPad has finally been introduced, and thoughts about its potential future in medicine are abound. The device is light and probably straightforward to use, making it perfect for EMR access and for viewing radiological images. From our point of view, the fact that the iPad is likely not designed to be splash-proof is a big problem for a clinical environment. There are also other downsides of the device, such as a lack of camera and microphone for communications, absence of standard USB ports or even a card reader, the fact that the pad may not work with some examination and surgical gloves, and the battery cannot be swapped in the device. Moreover, it's not clear if hospitals or clinician offices would want to adopt a platform based on the locked down iPhone operating system. However, iPAD's size, price, and an intuitive interface may in the end win over the downsides to bring the iPad to the medical world.

More thoughts from Bertalan Meskó: Apple iPad in Healthcare: Pros and Cons...

HCPlive: Apple's iPad an Impressive Product in Need of Tweaking for Healthcare Success...

Blaine Warkentine: 10 Commandments of Success for the iPad in Healthcare...

iMedicalApps: Five Lessons Apple must learn from current Healthcare Tablets...

Richard Stefanacci: iPad Touches Electronic Medical Records Adoption...

Sacramento Bee: iPad, anyone? Hospitals looking at the mobile device...

MacTalk: iPad use in the Medical Field...

(4)

Friday, January 29, 2010

Flexible Rubber Sheets May Power Future Implantable Devices

Princeton and Caltech researchers have developed special silicone rubber sheets with embedded nanorods that, when bent, generate electricity with impressive efficiency. The technology is projected to be used as a power source for implantable devices like pacemakers by harnessing energy from moving organs like the thoracic cage.

The Princeton team is the first to successfully combine silicone and nanoribbons of lead zirconate titanate (PZT), a ceramic material that is piezoelectric, meaning it generates an electrical voltage when pressure is applied to it. Of all piezoelectric materials, PZT is the most efficient, able to convert 80 percent of the mechanical energy applied to it into electrical energy.

Fabrication starts with the researchers producing PZT nanoribbons -- strips so narrow that 100 fit side-by-side in a space of a millimeter. In a separate process, they embedded these ribbons into clear sheets of silicone rubber, creating what they call "piezo-rubber chips." Silicone, which is used for cosmetic implants and medical devices, already is biocompatible. "The new electricity-harvesting devices could be implanted in the body to perpetually power medical devices, and the body wouldn't reject them," McAlpine said.

In addition to generating electricity when it is flexed, the opposite is true: The material flexes when electrical current is applied to it. This opens the door to other kinds of applications, such as use for microsurgical devices, McAlpine said.

Full story from Princeton: Energy-harvesting rubber sheets could power pacemakers, mobile phones...

Abstract in Nano Letters: Piezoelectric Ribbons Printed onto Rubber for Flexible Energy Conversion

(0)

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Bill Davenhall: Your health depends on where you live

Bill Davenhall from ESRI, a company providing localized geographic information, spoke at TEDMED promoting the idea of including one's living history into personal health records. Davenhall believes that physicians, when presented with substantially comprehensive and intuitive data on a patient's exposure to polluted environments, can make more informed decisions about treatment and diagnosis.

More at TED...

(0)

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Terahertz Radiation Detector May Open New Possibilities in Medicine

Terahertz radiation has the potential to revolutionize certain aspects of medical imaging because the energy is non-ionizing and so shouldn't have the side effects of X-rays. (It doesn't penetrate tissue nearly as deep as X-rays, though.) The big problem with putting this technology into practice is the lack of practical detection technology. Now Japanese scientists from the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute in Wako have developed a detector based on a carbon nanotube transistor that can sense small numbers of terahertz frequency photons.

One component, a structure known as a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG), absorbs THz radiation. A 2DEG is a thin layer of electrons that are confined between two different semiconducting materials—in this case, GaAs and AlGaAs—but are free to move within the layer. A 2DEG is highly conducting and therefore highly absorbing of THz radiation.
On top of the 2DEG, the researchers built a carbon nanotube single electron transistor—a device that behaves like a switch with electrical characteristics controlled by the presence or absence of individual electrons in its channel. They found that when the 2DEG beneath this transistor absorbed a burst of THz radiation, it shifted the voltage at which the transistor switched. At the lowest levels of radiation, they also observed intermittent switching behavior known as telegraph noise, suggesting that only a few photons were needed to induce switching.

As well as achieving unprecedented detection sensitivity, the device operates at temperatures much higher than most previously demonstrated detectors. This means it needs much simpler refrigeration techniques, making it cheaper and easier to use in practical applications.

Press release: Sensitive hybrid...

Abstract in Applied Physics Letters: Terahertz sensing with a carbon nanotube/two-dimensional electron gas hybrid transistor

(0)

New Evidence for Polarization Being Cause of Life's Homochirality

A major mystery of life on Earth is that organisms are exclusively made up of left-handed amino acids. A number of different theories exist for why left chirality was chosen over right (1, 2, 3, 4). A new astronomic observation of the Orion Nebula has shown that much of the star forming region is bathed in circularly polarized light. Though ultraviolet light has the energy necessary to influence chirality and the observation is of visible light, the researchers from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan believe that large scale polarized ultraviolet light exists in the Orion Nebula though we can't see it due to intra-stellar interference. If ultraviolet polarized light bathed our solar system during formation, it could have pushed left-handedness to dominate the balance of chirality.

We present a wide-field (~6'x6') and deep near-infrared (Ks band: 2.14 micro m) circular polarization image in the Orion nebula, where massive stars and many low-mass stars are forming. Our results reveal that a high circular polarization region is spatially extended (~0.4 pc) around the massive star-forming region, the BN/KL nebula. However, other regions, including the linearly polarized Orion bar, show no significant circular polarization. Most of the low-mass young stars do not show detectable extended structure in either linear or circular polarization, in contrast to the BN/KL nebula. If our solar system formed in a massive star-forming region and was irradiated by net circularly polarized radiation, then enantiomeric excesses could have been induced, through asymmetric photochemistry, in the parent bodies of the meteorites and subsequently delivered to Earth. These could then have played a role in the development of biological homochirality on Earth.

Article in arXiv: Extended High Circular Polarization in the Orion Massive Star Forming Region: Implications for the Origin of Homochirality in the Solar System...

Image credit: Don J. McCrady

(hat tip: Physics arXiv Blog)

(0)

Monday, January 25, 2010

Mussel Inspired Surgical Glue Showing Promise in Trials

Northwestern University researchers have developed a surgical glue based on the adhesive that mussels use to stick themselves to rocks. Now an international team of scientists has tested the effectiveness of the glue in repairing damage in the human fetal membrane, a wet and fragile tissue, resulting in performance and toxicity improvements over common surgical glues.

Messersmith [Phillip Messersmith, professor of biomedical engineering at Northwestern University --ed.] and colleagues from Belgium, Switzerland, and Canada punched holes three millimeters wide into human fetal tissue in vitro to replicate the tiny holes found in fetal membrane defects.
They then applied their sealant as well as other sealant candidates (such as medical-grade superglues) to the holes and analyzed fetal tissue cell death for each sealant. The mussel-inspired sealant had the best results in both bonding and toxicity.

The injectable sealant is a mixture of two different solutions that, when combined, form a sealant or gel in 10 to 20 seconds.

One solution is a simple synthetic polymer containing DOPA, a key amino acid found in the sophisticated proteins that are essential to mussels' ability to adhere to wet surfaces, and the other is a catalyst.

The foot of the common mussel (Mytilus edulis) produces a sticky glue that keeps the shelled organism anchored to rocks and other objects, allowing them to withstand the extreme pounding of waves. Chemical analysis of this natural, waterproof glue showed that the key to its adhesiveness is a family of unique proteins called mussel adhesive proteins, which contain a high concentration of DOPA (dihydroxyphenylalanine).

Press release: Medical 'glue' mimics sticky mussels...

Abstract in American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology: Injectable candidate sealants for fetal membrane repair: bonding and toxicity in vitro

Image credit: itspaulkelly

(0)

A Quick Look at The Status of Smart Pill Technology

The Economist is profiling the latest efforts to develop smart pills that can wirelessly communicate information about the state of their absorption in the GI tract, as well as be designed to deliver a pharmacological load at a precise time and location. We've written about a number of the technologies mentioned in the article, particularly Proteus Biomedical's chip on a pill that Novartis has recently invested in.

A snippet from the article:

Though Proteus is in the vanguard, it has rivals. Philips, a big Dutch electronics company, has just set up a commercial group to promote its “intelligent pill”, which is able to deliver drugs at precisely the right spot in the digestive tract. MicroCHIPS, an American start-up, is developing smart, implantable microchips which have reservoirs to hold drugs or tiny monitoring devices. John Santini, its boss, says his company is working on drug delivery with a big pharmaceuticals firm, and that his laboratory curiosity will be a commercial reality within three to five years.
Terry Hisey of Deloitte, a consultancy, argues that the coupling of smart pills with wireless networks and mobile phones, allowing the information the pills capture to be beamed to doctors, patients and relatives, turns the technology into “a disruptive innovation about to happen”.

The Economist: Potential encapsulated

(0)

BIOFAB Aims to Bring Modular DNA Components to Synthetic Biology Labs

The maturing field of synthetic biology is just about due for a more modular, standardized system of cataloging genetic information. Currently, each research team around the world has to work from scratch to identify and implement relevant components of the genetic assembly process, leading to long development times and escalated costs spent on projects. But things are about to change. Now with funding from the National Science Foundation, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the BioBricks Foundation, researchers from Stanford and Berkeley are setting up an "open-source" lab to develop a large set of interchangeable DNA parts. The organizers of the BIOFAB project (International Open Facility Advancing Biotechnology) are taking a lesson from the semiconductor industry that has standardized its production and development cycle to the point where the creation of a new device is essentially a matter of bringing known components together.

From a statement by Stanford University:

BIOFAB takes its name from the fabrication, or fab, service laboratories established in the early semiconductor industry to make it easier for academic and small industrial labs to design and manufacture small quantities of custom chips. Endy [Drew Endy, PhD, an assistant professor in Stanford's bioengineering department and president of the BioBricks Foundation --ed.] and Arkin [Adam Arkin, PhD, UC-Berkeley professor of bioengineering and head of Synthetic Biology for LBNL's Physical Biosciences Division --ed.] proposed a similar fab lab for biology more than 10 years ago, but only now, Endy said, is the time ripe for an open and cooperative full-scale production facility.
Nevertheless, of the estimated 3,500 critical control elements in an E. coli bacterium, fewer than 100 have been seriously studied and characterized. Of the 500-plus promoters listed in current registries, for example, fewer than 50 have been measured, Endy said.

BIOFAB is raising additional funds to hire 29 full-time staff who will systematically refine, standardize and characterize the activity of each genetic control element in E. coli, so that large-scale collections of genetic parts can be treated more like standardized components. What the researchers learn in working with E. coli, will then be applied to parts collections in other technologically useful microbes, such as yeast, and used to assemble engineered biological systems.

BIOFAB also will promulgate standards for technical and professional practice through application of resources such as the BioBrick Public Agreement, a new legal framework supporting open technology platforms in genetic engineering.

To best accomplish its goals, the BIOFAB is also fully integrating ethics research within its production planning and operations.

Stanford press release: Lab to be first 'open-source' for genetic parts...

Link: International Open Facility Advancing Biotechnology (BIOFAB)...

(0)

Friday, January 22, 2010

New Approach Speeds Up Differentiation of Stem Cells

The business of turning stem cells into specific endothelial cells is now a fairly mature field of science, but bringing that knowledge into clinical use requires being able to do this quickly and on a large scale. With the help of green fluorescent protein markers, a group of scientists from a number of US institutions identified a compound that may increase the efficiency of producing endothelial cells 40-fold.

Daylon James, a scientist in Rafii’s laboratory, engineered a new line of human embryonic stem cells that produce green fluorescent protein when they become vascular endothelial cells. The label allowed the scientists to rapidly and easily track when the stem cells morphed into this cell type. The researchers bathed the stem cells in a variety of different small molecules and looked for those that resulted in more green cells. They found the most green —and hence vascular endothelial – cells when the stem cells were exposed to a compound that blocks TGF-beta, a growth factor that helps control cell specialization.
Blocking TGF-beta at just the right time during cell culturing dramatically increased the number of vascular endothelial cells produced. Previously, the researchers needed to start with five stem cells for every endothelial cell they hoped to generate. But with the new method, starting with five stem cells gave Rafii and his colleagues 40 endothelial cells. “We’ve turned the ratio around,” says James.

Most importantly, the cells work. The researchers grew human vascular endothelial cells and injected them into mice. After a week, the new “humanized” cells had assimilated into the mouse circulatory system. The cells still glowed green, allowing the team to pick out the injected cells. In addition, a molecule that sticks to the walls of working blood vessels also stuck to the green cells, suggesting that the new cells functioned normally.

Using a small molecule inhibitor of TGF-beta circumvents some problems of testing in humans. Other methods for generating endothelial cells from embryonic stem cells have required factors derived from animals, and because of safety concerns, cells produced in this way are not suited for clinical application. Rafii’s approach, however, avoids the use of animal-derived factors, making it appealing for therapeutic blood vessel formation in patients.

Here's a 3D rendering of vessels being formed from newly created endothelial cells:

Video: Embryonic stem cell -derived endothelial cells connecting to one another to form primitive vascular tubules...

More from Howard Hughes Medical Institute: A Bountiful Harvest Offers Promise for Regenerating Blood Vessels...

Study abstract in Nature Biotechnology: Expansion and maintenance of human embryonic stem cell-derived endothelial cells by TGFβ inhibition is Id1 dependent

(0)

Navy Hospital Ship Arrives, Begins Treating Injured Haitians

The largest, and coincidentally our favorite, medical gadget is finally in the waters off Haiti providing medical services to people injured in the earthquake. The US Navy hospital ship Comfort, with its 12 surgical suites and 1,000 patient beds, is already treating patients as it's getting ready to dock for an extended mission on the shores of Hispaniola. Conveniently, the ship has a number of Haitian-American crew members aboard that can provide Creole translation and guidance regarding cultural norms of the arriving population.

Here's a video report from the New York Times on the situation on board:

More from the Wall Street Journal Health Blog: Taking Comfort: Hospital Ship Fills With Haiti Quake Victims...

USNS Comfort homepage...

(0)

More from in the news...:

archives

ADVERTISEMENT

Syndication

Medgadget by Email

Mailing List

Monday, February 8, 2010

Jamie Heywood of PatientsLikeMe at TEDMED 2009

Monday, February 8, 2010

David Agus Talks Cancer Research Strategy at TEDMED 2009

Friday, February 5, 2010

"Artificial Pancreas" Using Available Commercial Technology Shows Promise

New Malaria Vaccine Passes Initial Clinical Trial

Thursday, February 4, 2010

More Confirmation That Photosynthesis Exhibits Quantum Effects

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Book Talk: "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks"

Paper Based Sensors and Other Solutions for Cheap Medical Care

Computers Taught How to Map Brain's Neural Geography

Monday, February 1, 2010

Stanford Hospital's Pneumatic Tube Messaging System

Will Apple iPad be Adopted as The Next Clinical Tablet?

Friday, January 29, 2010

Flexible Rubber Sheets May Power Future Implantable Devices

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Bill Davenhall: Your health depends on where you live

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Terahertz Radiation Detector May Open New Possibilities in Medicine

New Evidence for Polarization Being Cause of Life's Homochirality

Monday, January 25, 2010

Mussel Inspired Surgical Glue Showing Promise in Trials

A Quick Look at The Status of Smart Pill Technology

BIOFAB Aims to Bring Modular DNA Components to Synthetic Biology Labs

Friday, January 22, 2010

New Approach Speeds Up Differentiation of Stem Cells

Navy Hospital Ship Arrives, Begins Treating Injured Haitians