Friday, August 1, 2008
New Test Promises to Clarify Unknown Cancer Diagnoses
The days of "Carcinoma of Unknown Primary Origin" diagnoses are coming to an end. The Food and Drug Administration has just announced clearance for marketing of a new genetic test, dubbed Pathwork Tissue of Origin test, from Pathwork Diagnostics, Inc., a Sunnyvale, CA firm. The test is based on a microarray technology to analyze thousands of pieces of genetic material from a cancer sample, which can provide an estimate on the origin of hard-to-identify tumor specimens. The company says that the "test measures the expression pattern, comprising more than 1,500 genes, in an uncertain tumor to compare it to expression patterns of a panel of 15 known tumor types, representing 60 morphologies overall, and provides a comprehensive report.."
The FDA explains:
The Pathwork Tissue of Origin test compares the genetic material of a patient's tumor with genetic information on malignant tumor types stored in a database.It uses a microarray technology to analyze thousands of pieces of genetic material at one time. The test considers 15 common malignant tumor types, including bladder, breast, and colorectal tumors.
"The clearance of the Pathwork test is another step in the continued integration of molecular-based medicine into standard practice," said Daniel Schultz, M.D., director of the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, which oversees medical diagnostics. "In the past, scientists have classified different types of cancers based on the organs in which the tumors develop. With the help of microarray technology, they will be able to classify these types of cancers in a standardized non-reader dependent manner based on the patterns of gene activity in the tumor cells..."
Pathwork's proprietary software converts the scanned image data to gene expression measurements. The gene expression patterns are compared with known gene expression patterns in the database that correspond to different tumor types.
The Pathwork Tissue of Origin test has been found to provide patterns that confirm existing tissue of origin of the 15 common tumor types using standard clinical and pathological information. This accuracy of this test is similar to that achieved by expert pathologists using current standards of practice.
To learn more about the test, head on to the product page: The Pathwork® Tissue of Origin Test...
Press release: FDA Clears Test that Helps Identify Type of Cancer in Tumor Sample...
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Friday, July 18, 2008
The Ergopip: Pipette Remixed
We are not terribly sure that this newly designed pipette adds any more grandeur to the institution where it is coming from, the University of Cambridge. However, it does seem to offer a more convenient way for those in labs to go though routines.
From the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge:
While current models satisfy the need for precision and reliability, their design falls a long way short in terms of ease of use. They are entirely thumb-operated and are known to cause cases of repetitive strain injury. The students have designed a comfortable, easy-to-use pipette, the Ergopip, which distributes workload to the user's fingers and is just as precise and reliable as existing versions.
Full story from The Engineer Online: Students design better pipette...
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Friday, May 16, 2008
Leica Introduces New Stereomicroscopes M205 FA and M165 FC
Leica Microsystems has introduced two new stereomicroscopes, Leica M205 FA (top) and M165 FC (below). The devices are based on the company's innovative FusionOptic™ technology that utilizes normal human neurology to increase the resolution of stereomicroscopes (for details, see our Nov. 2007 post:FusionOptic™ technology).
German Healthcare Export Group provides the details:
The Leica M205 FA and M165 FC stereomicroscopes are Leica Microsystems‘ latest addition to its innovative M series for demanding fluorescence applications in developmental, molecular and cellular biology.Combining the revolutionary FusionOptics™ technology with the successful TripleBeam™ principle, the fully automated Leica M205 FA creates fluorescence images of exceptional quality. Used for the first time in the M series, FusionOptics™ (patent pending) takes advantage of a neurological phenomenon: The left beam path produces great depth of field, while the right beam path provides a high-resolution image.
The human brain itself then combines the best information from both channels, using it to compose an image whose resolution and depth of field have never been achieved in any stereomicroscope before.
With its fully apochromatic optics, the largest zoom range on the market (20.5:1) and the top resolution performance of up to 1050 lp/mm, the Leica M205 FA is able to show the viewer details that used to be invisible.The TripleBeam™ principle, with its patented third beam path reserved exclusively for fluorescence illumination, delivers evenly illuminated, reflex-free fields of view at all zoom settings. Besides this, the FluoCombi III™ objective revolver features the unique capability to exploit all the advantages of both stereo and high-resolution micro-objectives on one instrument with a simple switch. It enables parallaxfree imaging from overview magnification to the finest detail. Time-intensive studies of living organisms and documentation of complex images series and multifluorescence images are made possible and instantly reproducible by motorizing focus, zoom, filter changer, iris diaphragm fluorescence intensity manager and microscope stage.
An external SmartTouchTM control unit ensures convenient control of all microscope functions using a clearly arranged touch display and freely programmable control buttons. The microscope is fully integrated in the modular software solutions Leica AF6000 E to AF6000. For documentation, image overlay and time series, the Leica AF6000 E is recommended as an introductory software package. This can be upgraded to the Leica AF6000 as necessary to suit applications ranging from multi-channel fluorescence, time and z series with parallax correction to 3D reconstruction.
The Leica M165 FC continues the tradition of high-quality manual fluorescence stereomicroscopes. With this microscope, the classical stereo-optics approach has been exploited to the utmost optical limits. The fully apochromatically corrected 16.5:1 zoom – combined with TripleBeam™ and FluoCombi III™ – guarantees high-contrast fluorescence images down to the finest structures of the specimen. Encoded zoom, iris diaphragm and objective revolver allow configuration parameters and optical data to be reproducibly read out at the computer.
Product pages: Leica M205 FA and Leica M165 FC
German Healthcare Export Group: Leica Microsystems Combines FusionOpticsTM with TripleBeamTM...
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Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Prion Filter for Donated Blood
ProMetic Life Sciences, a company out of Mont-Royal, Quebec, has developed a blood filter touted to remove prions responsible for variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). Considering that currently there is no available test for vCJD in donated blood, filtering may soothe the nerves of potential transfusion recipients.
The team took five years to create the hand-sized filter, screening millions of small peptides to find one that had the strongest affinity for the prions found in contaminated blood. They stuck the best peptide onto commercial polymethacrylate resins, and then sandwiched these in alternating layers with a membraneIn tests, the disposable filter can clean the prions out of a single pack of contaminated blood in less than an hour. No prions remain in the cleaned blood, which is otherwise unchanged by the process. Tests with prion-infected hamsters showed that their filtered blood could be injected into disease-free hamsters with no ill effects.
The team hope that the UK's National Blood Service could be using the device by the end of this year. Peter Edwardson, ProMetic's vice-president of medical technologies, says that Ireland's clinical trial, aiming to confirm that the filtered red blood cells are just as effective as untreated blood when transfused into humans, should be complete in a few months.
More at the Royal Society of Chemistry...
Flashbacks: Leukotrap® Affinity Prion Reduction Filter
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Thursday, April 3, 2008
Leica TCS LSI Super Zoom Confocal Microscope
Leica is showing off its new high zoom 3D-confocal microscope, designed for observation of biological specimens, at the ongoing Analytica 2008 conference in Munich.
From the product page:
The Leica TCS LSI is the first super zoom 3D-confocal, offering high resolution plus a large field of view for in vivo imaging. The new Large Scale Imaging (LSI) platform provides generous workspace and adapts perfectly to the experiment needs of native specimen analysis.True confocal technology provides crystal clear images of highest spectral resolution, revealing the finest details of the model organism.
An automated optical zoom system allows for seamless magnification change on demand, easy switching from overview to details and free 3D navigation through the specimen.
Key Features
Zoom factor up to 16x
Field of view up to 16 mm
Generous workspace
Free sample access by wing doors
Easy sample manipulation
Largest motorized z-control
Large xy-travel range for optimal positioning
Precise z-control by galvo stage
Motorized and manual xy-stages
Accessories for environmental control of temperature, CO2, humidity
Press release: High-Resolution Microscopy Systems from Macro to Nano
Product page: Leica TCS LSI
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Monday, March 17, 2008
CellScope for Rural Microscopy On The Go
At the University of California Berkeley, a few handy researchers modified an off-the-shelf camera cellphone to produce a mobile microscope capable of 50x magnification. Coupled with the phone's natural ability to send out images, the device may help to virtually bring dermatologists, pathologists and oncologists to remote areas of the world.
Using Bluetooth, wi-fi and cellular networks, a phone needs no modification itself. Capable of 50x magnification today, the devices could provide twice that. A smaller prototype features its own light source."This could be useful even at home," suggests Fletcher [Associate Professor of Bioengineering at Berkeley --ed.], "where, for example, early warnings of a change in the shape of a mole could be sent to your clinician on a regular basis to monitor."
In addition, cancer patients could conduct their own blood cell counts that today require larger microscopes and particle counters.
Dr. Lam, Pediatric Oncologist at UCSF, is one of the grad students working on CellScope. He adds, "By no means do we think this is going to replace those large particle counters. It's just a good adjunct for the patient to have at home."
More, with video, from ABC...
Project page: Telemicroscopy for Disease Diagnosis...
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Tuesday, January 22, 2008
No More Needles with Virtual Biopsies
Researchers are exploring the possibility of using bioimpedance to quickly and accurately differentiate healthy tissue from pathological one.
Jye Smith from QUT’s [Queensland University of Technology --ed.] School of Physical and Chemical Sciences has developed a new diagnostic technique using bioimpedance spectroscopy to diagnose cervical and skin cancers.Bioimpedance measures the electrical characteristics of biological tissue and is used by gyms to calculate amounts of lean tissue, water and fat.
“It has only recently been applied to biological tissue to determine healthy, cancerous or dead cells,” Mr Smith said.
“It offers the possibility of a simple device that can be run over the surface of the skin or internal organ that can quickly, cheaply and accurately record changes in cellular structure that point to cancerous changes.”
Mr Smith said the bioimpedance technique sent tiny electrical currents into the tissue.
“By running the currents through a surface it can identify the boundaries of a lesion,” he said.
“If a cell’s structure has changed, the impedance characteristics change and clinicians can use the changes to diagnose the type of lesion.”
He said the technique picked up changes inside the cells, changes in cells’ membranes and also changes in the space between cells.
“By putting all this information together, it may be possible to diagnose types of cancer along with their boundaries.”
“The beauty of this technique is that the patient doesn’t need an anaesthetic, the data is immediate, and it has the potential to be as accurate as more time-consuming, expensive techniques.
Mr Smith said further development of the technique could very well see it make its way into GP or skin clinics.
Abstract: A Pilot Study For Tissue Characterisation Using Bioimpedance Mapping...
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Thursday, January 3, 2008
Celestron Debuts New LCD Digital Microscope
Professionals and amateurs alike will appreciate the vivid screen, digital zoom, and internal storage of this new affordable microscope.
Celestron will be showing off another cool product at CES 2008 with its new LCD Digital Microscope with a retail price of $299.99. The microscope has an integrated 3.5-inch LCD screen for viewing subjects.The microscope has three magnification levels with 4x, 10x, and 40x along with a 4x digital zoom and a six position color filter wheel. Internal storage for still shots and video is 128MB and the built-in digital camera has 2MP.
Celestron says the microscope is perfect for looking at close-ups of stamps, coins, molds, yeasts, bacteria and animal parts. The microscope has both top and bottom LED illumination and an SD card slot for more storage capacity.
Product Page...
(hat tip: I4U News via Engadget)
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Monday, December 17, 2007
In the Works: Photoacoustic Tomography Device
The New Scientist is reporting about the efforts of Dr. Paul Beard and colleagues from the Dept. of Medical Physics and Bioengineering at University College London to develop a portable surgical probe based on photoacoustic tomography. In essence, the device's technology works on a near infrared laser that is fired into tissue. The laser's energy, once absorbed by the tissues, generates heat, which in turn generates the photoacoustic signals that are picked up by an ultrasound transducer.
Here's how Dr. Beard's Photoacoustic Imaging Group website explains the technology:
The sensor is placed in acoustic contact with the surface of the target tissue, the excitation laser pulses transmitted through it and the resulting photoacoustic signals recorded at different points over the surface of the sensor. From the time-of-arrival of the signals, and with knowledge of the speed of sound, a 3D image of the tissue structure, based upon the absorbed optical energy distribution, can then be reconstructed. This type of imaging instrument has several important advantages over conventional piezoelectric based photoacoustic detection systems. Firstly, the system operates in "backward mode". That is to say, the photoacoustic signals can be detected on the same side and over the same region of the tissue surface that is irradiated with the excitation light, a consequence of the transparent nature of the sensor. This is particularly important for imaging superficial anatomical features, such as blood vessels in the skin, where it would be problematic to deliver the excitation laser beam around an array of opaque piezoelectric receivers. Secondly, the concept provides excellent acoustic performance, with uniform broadband frequency response characteristics (to at least 30MHz) and wideband detection sensitivities (<0.1kPa noise-equivalent-pressure) comparable to piezoelectric PVDF receivers but with much smaller "element" sizes (<50μm) and "interelement" spacings -- the latter being a consequence of the optically addressable nature of the sensor which, in principle, affords near-optical diffraction limited spatial sampling of the incident acoustic field. These attributes make the instrument well suited to high resolution (10μm-100μm) tissue imaging applications - click here to see examples of some of the images that have been obtained with the system.
More from Photoacoustic Imaging Group ...
NewScientist: Laser scanner gives 3D view inside tumours ...
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Tuesday, November 27, 2007
New Digital Camera from Leica for Live Cell Research
This new monochrome digital camera from Leica, designed for high-resolution imaging and recording of living cells, molecular processes and fluorescence specimens, will put on fire even the most heavy-hearted pathologists:
Thanks to state-of-the-art CCD technology, the new camera system achieves maximum frame rates of 20 fps for full frame up to more than 100 fps in binning mode. The highly sensitive sensor and active Peltier cooling ensure a high dynamic range even for low light intensities. The Leica DFC360 FX is the ideal solution for excellent results in live cell imaging.The Leica DFC360 FX will convince even the most demanding user with its performance on PC and MAC systems, intuitive Leica Imaging Software LAS and LAS AF and optimal integration into high-end fluorescence systems of Leica Microsystems such as Leica AM TIRF MC or Leica AF6000 LX. Experiments such as z-stack, multi-channel fluorescence with overlay, 3D deconvolution, time-controlled analysis and many other applications are controlled swiftly and effectively. Ultrafast and uncomplicated data transmission is ensured by the Firewire 1394b interface.
The light sensitivity and the frame rate can be further enhanced by binning (over 100 fps with 8x8 binning, for example). Binning and ROI can be used, as can multi-channel experiments with different amplifications, in the fast overlapping mode. The active Peltier cooling minimizes the dark current and guarantees noise-free images even at low light intensities. With shutter speeds of 4µs to 10 minutes and up to tenfold signal amplification, the Leica DFC360 FX offers maximum flexibility. The Leica DFC360 FX proves its full performance potential with ultrafast fluorescence filter wheels, high-precision light sources and perfect sequencer synchronization, satisfying even such demanding applications as Ca++ and FRET experiments.
Press release: Ultrafast, High-Resolution Fluorescence Image Recording ...
Product page: Leica DFC360 FX ...
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Friday, November 16, 2007
FusionOptic™ Technology from Leica
We've seen quite a few devices that are designed to improve all sorts of neurologic functions. However, we've never seen a medical gadget that is designed to utilize normal human neurology for improvement of its own function. And that is what FusionOptic™ Technology from Leica is supposedly doing: increasing the resolution of stereomicroscopes, models M205 C and M165 C, by delivering two different images to each eye.
From the press release about Leica M205 C, a model just introduced at the Medica 2007 in Düsseldorf (shown above; M165 C model is shown below).
The new Leica M205 C breaks through the previous optical resolution limits of stereomicroscopy by incorporating Leica's new FusionOptic™ technology (patent pending) which takes advantage of a neurological phenomenon. The left beam path produces great depth of field, while the right beam path provides a high-resolution image. The human brain then combines the best information from both channels to compose an image whose resolution and depth of field have never been achieved in any stereomicroscope before. The Leica M205 C is the world's first stereomicroscope with a fully apochromatically corrected 20.5:1 zoom. In the zoom range from 0.78x to 16x, the resolution increases continuously up to 1050 lp/mm (planapochromat objective 2x). Due to the natural laws of optics, this performance class has never been seen before in stereomicroscopes.
The high-end surgical microscope Leica M525 OH4 offers 36% more reach than comparable instruments. Another remarkable feature is its precise, harmoniously balanced yet easy movement. The combination of Leica OptiChrome™ optics, 300 watt xenon illumination and fully automatic lamp changer ensures high-contrast images with great field depth. The AutoIris™ feature prevents overheating of the tissue outside the field of view. The Leica BrightCare™ feature automatically regulates the light to the optimum intensity. The combination of the Leica M525 microscope and the compact stand F40 is particularly suitable for ENT and spine specialists, offering an excellent view, easy maneuverability, optimal stability and a convincing price-performance ratio.
Product pages: Leica M205 C ...; Leica M165 C ...
Press releases: Revolutionary Stereomicroscopes, New Research and Diagnosis Microscopes and Microscope Systems for Microsurgery ...; Revolutionary Stereomicroscopy and Unique Precision Instrument for Surface Preparation ...
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Thursday, August 23, 2007
Tomographic Phase Microscopy: A New Imaging Modality for Cells
Finally some exciting pathology news, as if there is such a thing. Scientists at the Spectroscopy Laboratory at MIT developed a novel technique to create 3D images of live organelles, cells, and even small organisms. The idea is to recreate a volumetric image from multiple 2D ones, all of which were obtained from different angles, and were based on refractive index patterns:
"You can reconstruct a 3D representation of an object from multiple images taken from multiple directions," said Wonshik Choi, lead author of the paper and a Spectroscopy Laboratory postdoctoral associate.Cells don't absorb much visible light, so the researchers instead created their images by taking advantage of a property known as refractive index. Every material has a well-defined refractive index, which is a measure of how much the speed of light is reduced as it passes through the material. The higher the index, the slower the light travels.
The researchers made their measurements using a technique known as interferometry, in which a light wave passing through a cell is compared with a reference wave that doesn't pass through it. A 2D image containing information about refractive index is thus obtained.
To create a 3D image, the researchers combined 100 two-dimensional images taken from different angles. The resulting images are essentially 3D maps of the refractive index of the cell's organelles. The entire process took about 10 seconds, but the researchers recently reduced this time to 0.1 seconds.
The team's image of a cervical cancer cell reveals the cell nucleus, the nucleolus and a number of smaller organelles in the cytoplasm. The researchers are currently in the process of better characterizing these organelles by combining the technique with fluorescence microscopy and other techniques.
"One key advantage of the new technique is that it can be used to study live cells without any preparation," said Kamran Badizadegan, principal research scientist in the Spectroscopy Laboratory and assistant professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School, and one of the authors of the paper. With essentially all other 3D imaging techniques, the samples must be fixed with chemicals, frozen, stained with dyes, metallized or otherwise processed to provide detailed structural information.
"When you fix the cells, you can't look at their movements, and when you add external contrast agents you can never be sure that you haven't somehow interfered with normal cellular function," said Badizadegan.
The current resolution of the new technique is about 500 nanometers, or billionths of a meter, but the team is working on improving the resolution. "We are confident that we can attain 150 nanometers, and perhaps higher resolution is possible," Feld said. "We expect this new technique to serve as a complement to electron microscopy, which has a resolution of approximately 10 nanometers."
MIT creates 3D images of living cell...
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Tuesday, May 8, 2007
World's First: One Trillion Pixel Image
In a move rarely seen in an industry plagued by proprietary technologies, Aperio has released its latest digital pathology imaging file format to the open source software community. To debut this technology, they have taken the world's first terapixel image of 225 pathology slides from a sample of breast tissue, making it the largest image of a breast available on the internet today!
Aperio Technologies, Inc., the leading provider of digital pathology systems and services for the healthcare and life sciences industry, is pleased to announce it has implemented support for BigTIFF - Tagged Image File Format for files which are larger than 4 gigabytes - across all its products and systems. This enhancement to the TIFF standard enables image files larger than 4GB to be created and processed, in a backward-compatible fashion. As part of its commitment to open standards, Aperio has donated these enhancements to the public domain, and is working with the TIFF standards body to incorporate them into a future standard release.This enhancement makes it possible to create very large high resolution digitized images of bone marrow and peripheral blood smears as part of my work with Aperio's new high power oil immersion ScanScopes," stated Douglas Tkachuk, MD and Associate Professor at the University of Toronto.
Aperio's ScanScope® slide scanning systems create digital images of entire microscope slides at gigapixel resolution in minutes. These digital slide images are very large, with dimensions that routinely exceed 100,000 x 100,000 pixels. The TIFF standard is perfect for storing digital slides - it is an open standard supported by a large number of applications on a wide variety of platforms. Until recently TIFF files were limited in size to 4GB, or about 30 gigapixels. With BigTIFF support it is now possible to store images of all sizes, including those larger than 4GB, in the TIFF format. The BigTIFF design was first proposed in 2004 by Joris Van Damme of Aware Systems, and has been refined in online discussions on the TIFF message boards.
"Aperio believes strongly in open standards and anticipates that with this enhancement, TIFF will continue to be the standard for storing and managing very large images such as digital slides," stated Ole Eichhorn, chief technology officer for Aperio.
Check out the image for yourself...
Aperio...
(hat tip: The Raw Feed)
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Tuesday, March 20, 2007
New System for Super Fast Blood Donation
Stanford Blood Center is the first facility in the US to install and use a new, high-tech blood collecting system by Fenwal Blood Technologies.
Mark Hayes walked into the Stanford Blood Center on March 12 and emerged 25 minutes later a pioneer of sorts. Hayes, a newly minted Stanford PhD, was the first official blood donor in the nation to have his precious fluid collected using a new automated device that allows donors to give their red cells, plus up to 2 1/2 times the usual amount of plasma, all in one sitting."It feels good," said Hayes, 30, unfazed by his new status. "I'm happy to contribute to progress and science."
The blood center's new process, still in the implementation phase, automatically extracts red cells and plasma and returns the unneeded components back to the donor. The system also pumps saline back into the donor so he or she emerges in relative comfort, without any lost fluids. The result is a more efficient collection system, said Dorothy Nguyen, MD, assistant medical director of the blood center and assistant clinical professor of pathology at the Stanford School of Medicine.
"I think the advantage of the new process is that we can still collect red cells, which are always needed for surgeries and trauma patients. But at the same time, we can collect more plasma, so the donor can do it all in one sitting," Nguyen said. "It also collects what is needed and returns what is not used. It's able to do it in a machine that's very small and can go out on mobiles. So donors can feel good--they've contributed these two valuable products."
The new system, combined with previous technologies, will enable the blood center to tailor its collections to its daily needs, based on demand for particular blood types and blood components.
"We want to be able to collect the right products from the right donor at the right time," Nguyen said.
The process is part of the trend toward automation in the blood banking industry. Three years ago, the Stanford Blood Center acquired a new device, called the Alyx machine, which could automatically extract two unit-equivalents of red blood cells from donors, without collecting plasma. This helped boost supplies of these needed cells and made it convenient for donors, who did not need to visit the center as often to donate. Now Fenwal Blood Technologies (formerly owned by Baxter Laboratories), the maker of the Alyx device, has taken the technology one step further with a new process that enables donors to give more plasma, while donating a unit of red cells as well. Patients will be able to give up to 650 milliliters of plasma, depending on their weight and size; with manual blood draws, donors can give only 250 milliliters.
"Plasma is the mostly liquid component of blood that contains vitally needed clotting factors. These can be extracted for use in patients with rare factor deficiencies, as well as some patients with liver disease and some trauma patients," Nguyen said.
The need for additional plasma supplies has been boosted by a recent discovery that certain antibodies contained in plasma are a prime contributor to a condition known as transfusion-related acute lung injury, or TRALI. These antibodies may be carried in the plasma of women who have been pregnant, as well as previously transfused patients.
The American Association of Blood Banks has recommended that blood centers find a way to reduce the incidence of TRALI, which is the most reported cause of transfusion-related mortality in the country. Because it is anticipated that fewer donors will be able to provide plasma in the future, the Stanford Blood Center is looking at ways of boosting its supplies--and the new system should meet that need, Nguyen said.
In addition to providing more plasma, the new automated collection process filters out leukocytes, the white blood cells that can cause fevers in recipient patients. That eliminates the extra step of having a technician in the lab filter out these cells.
Press release: Stanford Blood Center first in nation to launch new red blood cell and plasma collection device.
Product page...
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Friday, January 26, 2007
Aperio's ScanScope Systems
Nikon Instruments Europe will now be distributing on the continent a line of ScanScope slide scanning systems for pathology and histocellular diagnostics and research. According to a press release by Aperio Technologies, Inc., a Vista, Calif. company, distribution will include Aperio's "award-winning ScanScope slide scanning systems and Spectrum(TM) digital pathology information management software to the clinical market, including hospitals and academic medical centers, within Europe."
The technology in a nut-shell:
Aperio's digital pathology systems are based on the company's patented linear array-based ScanScope slide scanners, which create seamless, true color whole slide images from an entire glass slide in a matter of minutes. Aperio's slide scanning systems include the ScanScope GL-E configured for education, the ScanScope GL-T configured for telepathology, as well as the 5-slide ScanScope CS and the 120-slide high throughput ScanScope XT. Aperio's slide scanning systems are offered with Spectrum software to enable the secure viewing, analysis and management of digital slides and other images in multi-user, multi-site environments...
Line scanning is a significant advancement in rapid, high resolution virtual microscopy. ScanScope scanners make it practical -- for the first time -- to create seamless digital slides of an entire microscope slide with superior image quality and speed.Image tiling involves the capture of multiple small regions of a microscope slide using a traditional CCD camera. Image tiles are stitched together (aligned) to create a large contiguous digital image (mosaic) of an entire slide. Image tiling systems can take hours to capture and align the thousands of tiles that are required to create a contiguous image.
Line scanning is a superior methodology to image tiling. ScanScope scanners do not use a fixed-area camera to capture thousands of individual image tiles but instead employ linear-array detectors in conjunction with specialized motion control components, a microscope objective lens and customized optics. As a result, ScanScope scanners efficiently capture a small number of contiguous overlapping image stripes. Whereas image tiling is inherently stop-and-go, ScanScope scanners continuously move microscope slides during the acquisition of imagery data. This ability to capture imagery data while the sample is moving is a key reason why line scanning is ideally suited for rapid slide digitization.
Aperio's technology page...
(hat tip: MTB Europe)
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Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Purosol Optical for Your Microscope
Origin Laboratories LLC, a Pasadena, CA company, informs us that it has released a new high tech cleaner of microscope lenses.
Unlike ordinary off-the-shelf cleaners, which are made up primarily of alcohol, ammonia, harsh solvents and colored dye, the PUROSOL line of products is completely organic and environmentally safe. This advanced cleaner is non-toxic, hypo-allergenic, contains no CFCs, no detergents and no solvents of any kind (including alcohol, ammonia and chlorine) which can subtly eat away at porous electronic screens and strip away the crucial anti-glare coatings of today's high-priced glasses lenses...... cutting-edge, enzyme based PUROSOL Optical acts to breaks up the bonding molecules which hold dirt, salt, oil and grime to the lens surface -- without damaging the lens coating.
As part of its unique formula, PUROSOL Optical neutralizes the molecular charges on the lens surface, which normally attracts dust and dirt particles, thereby extending the life of the cleaning. While this effect diminishes over time, the particles which do come to rest on the lens can be easily repelled by blowing or wiping (without the solution) following a recent cleaning. Without having to clean as frequently, the lens surface remains protected longer and the life of the product (and solution) is extended.
Geek.com has a positive review of the product from the same line, Purosol Plasma.
Product page...
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Monday, January 22, 2007
Bring Out Your Dead!
Arpad Vass, a forensic anthropologist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and his colleagues have suffered the odor of rotting corpses for the past four years to isolate 30 compounds specific to buried bodies. They hope their research will eventually be used to better train "cadaver dogs" or even to make an electronic sniffing device.
Human body odor historically has a bad name, but for ORNL's Arpad Vass, determining the chemical composition of human body odor after death could lead to the invention of a desirable "electronic nose." Such a detector could help police more quickly find bodies buried in hidden, shallow graves.A tool that mimics a cadaver dog's nose is high on the wish list of law enforcement agencies. The wish is a goal for Vass, who is close to developing a superb training tool for cadaver dogs and eventually a detector of clandestine graves...
At the University of Tennessee Anthropological Research Facility (dubbed the Body Farm), Vass and his colleagues found that donated dead bodies lying on the surface or buried in shallow graves emitted more than 400 different volatile compounds. The researchers are honing in on groups of chemicals that are consistently emitted for each stage of decomposition: fresh, bloated, decayed, and skeletonized.
"We identified fluorinated compounds coming out as vapors from buried bodies," Vass says. "Since Americans drink fluorinated water, it may be possible that, as dead bodies decompose, fluorine combines with hydrocarbon compounds, generating an odor. We'd like to test whether cadaver dogs key in on these compounds."
At the UT facility, ORNL researchers collect vapors from a 2.5-ft-deep grave outfitted with perforated pipes, sampling ports, a video camera for visual monitoring of a body as it decomposes, and a capture hood containing a triple-sorbent trap system developed in ORNL's Chemical Sciences Division--a metal cylinder loaded with carbon granules that bind lightweight, medium-size, and large molecules. The collected vapors are desorbed from the carbon trap and analyzed by a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer at ORNL.
"We found that a human body in a shallow grave decomposes eight times slower than a corpse left on the surface," Vass says. "Some reasons may be that bacterial decay in the body slows down because of the lack of oxygen, and insect infestation of the body is minimal."
If the chemicals that attract cadaver dogs can be identified, then one type of detector that ORNL researchers could build would use polymers that react with specific chemical vapors wafting by. A reaction changes each polymer's electrical conductivity enough to produce an electronic signal. Thus, a specific group of signals from the electronic nose could alert law enforcement that a shallow grave is nearby.
More from Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Review Magazine . . .
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Monday, June 5, 2006
BioView Duet™ Scanning Unit
Globes [online] is reporting that BioView Ltd., a company from Israel, "has signed an agreement with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, for the joint development of an early diagnosis system for lung cancer among high risk population groups."
The company has expertise in designing and manufacturing pathology diagnostic system, dubbed BioView Duet™ scanning unit, developed to automatically scan for rare cells.
Here's what the system can do:
BioView's Duet™ system links the inspection of cell morphology and genetic content analysis of the cells, resulting in superior results that are unparalleled in speed, accuracy and sensitivity. Duet operates in fully automatic or interactive mode.Scan 10 000 cells/minute in bright light illumination to:
Detect rare cells according to their morphology
Classify cells by type
Image samples stained with immuno-cytochemical stains Scan thousands cells/hour in fluorescent illumination in true color and high resolution to:
Detect rare cells according to their fluorescent markers
Identify genetic aberrations
Enumerate the cells showing the genetic aberration of interest Effectively analyze results:
Correlate results from both scans on one screen to view both morphological and genetic pictures
Tag cells of interest for record and further analysis
Sort cells by type, by marks applied by user or by number of spots in florescent mode in a given color
Measure cell size and apply zoom function
Examine captured image in a variety of color planes and define real translocation by analyzing color content of the image
Store results in the system or transfer directly to patients' files
Read more about the system, the proprietary software and preapration kits, over at the BioView...
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Thursday, April 6, 2006
DESI Does Diagnostic Tissue Analysis
Last fall we noted that Purdue and Vanderbilt surgeons had developed a mass spectrometer for the OR. This classic device had been adapted for use in surgery, helping to determine the chemical composition of tissues on-the-fly -- which help doctors diagnose and guide management, even while the patient's still out on the table.
Last week we got a picture of the device -- it's the toaster-like object pictured at right. We also learned that it can be adapted to detect anything from urine abnormalities to explosives.
Today's MIT Technology Review has a follow-up on the DESI Mass Spectrometer, and its implications for realtime OR decision-making:
Cooks and Caprioli can make a crude map of a tissue biopsy surface by performing a DESI reading at multiple spots, each about 500 micrometers in area. First, a hose sprays the tissue surface with a mist of charged solvent particles. The solvent picks up molecules from the surface, imparting them with an electrical charge, and is then sucked up by another hose into the vacuum chamber of a mass spectrometer, where it is analyzed."In the cases we've looked at, which include different grades of tumor, as well as tumor and nontumor regions, you have a very characteristic molecular fingerprint," Cooks says.
During surgery, DESI could be used to create molecular profiles of tumors that would allow doctors to personalize their patients' post-operative care. Caprioli believes mass spectrometry can play an important role in such personalized medicine. DESI can be used to perform rapid, extensive analyses of not only biopsies but also urine and blood samples and the surface of human skin, and it could detect molecular markers of diseases such as cancer much earlier on.
The article goes on to describe something called mass-spectrometry imaging, a new modality that, until now, hasn't been tried in open air. It sounds like the DESI technique could eventually be refined to make a test as convenient as ultrasound, but as diagnostic as a pathologist's slide. Amazing!