More Confirmation That Photosynthesis Exhibits Quantum Effects
Filed under: in the news...
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
Related article in arXiv: Long-lived quantum coherence in photosynthetic complexes at physiological temperature
Image: Darrren Hester: Abstract background of colorful leaves created using Fractalius.
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Toshiba's Viamo Ultrasound Now Available in US
Filed under: Anesthesiology
, Cardiology
, Critical Care
, Emergency Medicine
, Medicine
, Ob/Gyn
, Pediatrics
, Radiology
, Surgery
, Urology
, Vascular Surgery
Toshiba won FDA approval to market the Viamo portable ultrasound, a convertible touchscreen device that the company promises provides the same image quality as premium cart systems. The package comes with a wheeled pole that can carry the Viamo and additional transducers for easy exchange.
From the product page:
Sharing its core imaging engine and transducer technology with Aplio XG, Viamo offers high-end image quality also in situations where unlimited portability is required.Its full range of high-performance imaging functions lets you visualize minute tissue details and vascular structures with precision for a faster, more accurate diagnosis. Advanced imaging functions such as Pulse Subtraction THI come standard with Viamo.
Viamo’s built-in touch screen allows for seamless workflow and an outstandingly comfortable and intuitive operation of the system. Viamo’s monitor can be rotated to enable free positioning of the screen. When fully turned and folded flat, Viamo can be operated in tablet mode solely via its touch screen. Individual key functions on Viamo’s console and touch screen are user programmable to suit your specific diagnostic requirements or personal preferences.
A whole range of workflow automation functions is available on Viamo. One-touch QuickScan for instance helps you achieve better imaging results in less time by automatically optimizing your imaging parameters. And Viamo’s innovative SonoSet™ function alows you to carry out examinations conveniently by simply executing freely programmable protocols step by step.
The battery-powered system is operational within just a few seconds when opened, making it instantaneously available also in critical situations.
Press release: TOSHIBA RECEIVES FDA CLEARANCE FOR VIAMO ULTRASOUND SYSTEM...
Product page: Viamo...
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3Di Volumetric Visualization Software Gets Clearance in US
Filed under: Radiology
Shina Systems of Caesaria, Israel won FDA approval to market the company's medical visualization software. 3Di creates a digital cloud of data from different sources which distributes the images to individual computers throughout a hospital. To optimize access, 3Di splits image processing between the client and server depending on the demands of clinicians.
3Di delivers imaging data, advanced reformatting and viewing tools, as well as powerful image processing on demand via a cloud environment. It eliminates costly dedicated 3D image processing workstations, enterprise servers and inconvenient image pre-formatting by technologists, while providing interactive advanced visualizations anytime and anywhere. With convenient software-as-a-service (SaaS), pay-per-use pricing and using existing hardware and networks, 3Di is available for use with no upfront cost whatsoever.With its cloud-based architecture, 3Di also serves as a clearinghouse for sharing medical imaging studies among hospitals, physicians and patients. Fully secure to support HIPAA compliance, 3Di allows users to upload studies from any location and share them with authorized users anywhere, essentially creating a global online medical imaging consultation platform. Depending on their expertise, users have access to a spectrum of capabilities – from basic image review to specialized diagnostic tools. The application also provides an image communication engine for electronic and personal health records (EHRs and PHRs).
The 3Di advanced visualization suite includes general multi-modality 3D reformations (MPR, MIP, Volume Rendering and related techniques), cardiac CT analysis, CT calcium scoring (WIP), virtual colonoscopy and PET/CT fusion (WIP). 3Di contributes to more accurate and efficient diagnosis by providing information more efficiently than 2D imaging. 3Di technology also will enable many imaging sites to capture additional revenue from existing image acquisition technology by adding new exam types.The complete thin-client 3Di suite operates seamlessly from the local PC, as the user accesses imaging data—stored locally or remotely—and processes, manipulates and views images using the vast computing power of the 3Di cloud network. 3Di takes advantage of available bandwidth and local computing power to optimize performance and speed. The user interface and all functionality will integrate seamlessly with a local PACS, while a bi-directional image synchronization feature ensures both the PACS and any 3Di offsite storage are up to date. All 3Di image data is stored on remote archives with multiple redundancy and support for HIPAA compliance.
Press release: Shina Systems Receives U.S. FDA 510(k) Clearance for its 3Di Cloud-based Medical Imaging Advanced (3D/4D) Visualization Solution...
Product page: 3Di...
(hat tip: AuntMinnie)
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Relief Central Helps Medics Get Through a Disaster
Filed under: Net News
Unbound Medicine just released a mobile app specifically developed to help disaster workers operating in the field. Relief Central, available for free on all the major mobile platforms, provides access to relevant reference material and supplies news feeds from government and private relief agencies.
Users can search The World Factbook from the CIA for detailed information on over 250 countries and territories or review disaster assessment and response guidelines in The Field Operations Guide from the USAID. Relief News gives you up-to-the-minute RSS feeds from trusted government, non-profit, and international resources such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Red Cross, ReliefWeb, and more. With Unbound Medicine's selected MEDLINE Journals users can link to the latest abstracts and articles in relevant scientific and medical literature.
Product page: Relief Central...
Press release: Unbound Medicine Releases Relief Central...
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Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Book Talk: "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks"
Filed under: in the news...
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.
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Lab-on-a-Chip Sorts Through Virus Specimens at Low Cost
Filed under: Pathology
Researchers at Brigham Young University are reporting the development of a microfluidic device that is able to sort individual virus particles based on size. In addition to potentially being used one day in the clinical setting as a diagnosis modality, this technology should provide researchers with high speed sorting of pathogens for laboratory work.
The chips work like coin sorters, only they are much, much smaller. Liquids flow until they hit a wall where big particles get stuck and small particles pass through a super-thin slot at the bottom. Each chip’s slot is set a little smaller than the size of the particle to be detected. After the particles get trapped against the wall, they form a line visible with a special camera.Capturing single particles has important applications besides simply knowing if a particular virus or protein is present.
“One of the things I hope to see is for these chips to become a tool for virus purification,” said David Belnap, an assistant professor of chemistry and co-author on the paper.
He explained that a tool like the BYU chip would advance the pace of his research, allowing him and other researchers to consistently obtain pure samples essential for close inspection of viruses.
A huge barrier to making chips that can detect viruses is $100 million – that’s the cost of machinery precise enough to make chips with nano-sized parts necessary for medical and biological applications.
The BYU group developed an innovative solution. First they used a simpler machine to form two dimensions in micrometers — 1,000 times larger than a nanometer. They formed the third dimension by placing a 50 nanometer-thin layer of metal onto the chip, then topping that with glass deposited by gasses. Finally they used an acid to wash away the thin metal, leaving the narrow gap in the glass as a virus trap.
So far, the chips have one slot size. Hawkins [Aaron Hawkins, professor of electrical and computer engineering at BYU] says his team will make chips soon with progressively smaller slots, allowing a single channel to screen for particles of multiple sizes. Someone “reading” such a chip would easily be able to determine which proteins or viruses are present based on which walls have particles stacked against them.
After perfecting the chips’ capabilities, the next step, Hawkins says, is to engineer an easy-to-use way for a lab technician to introduce the test sample into the chip.
Brigham Young press release: 'Lab on a chip' that detects viruses developed by BYU researchers...
Abstract in Lab on a Chip: Selective trapping and concentration of nanoparticles and viruses in dual-height nanofluidic channels
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Duo Ablation Catheter Going on Trial
Filed under: Cardiac Surgery
, Cardiology
The FDA has cleared St. Jude Medical to initiate a clinical trial of the company's Duo irrigated ablation catheter for treatment of atrial fibrillation. The device, which already has the European CE mark, features twelve irrigation ports that should provide better cooling of the electrode during ablation.
The IRASE AF trial is the industry's first and the largest head-to-head IDE trial studying irrigated ablation catheters, which use radiofrequency (RF) energy in a non-invasive procedure to destroy abnormal heart tissue. The trial will randomize patients 1:1 between the company's Duo 12 port open irrigated catheter ablation system and an irrigated catheter ablation system that has been approved by the FDA for the treatment of paroxysmal AF, a type of AF that begins suddenly and ends spontaneously. The trial is expected to take about three years to complete and will take place in both the U.S. and international markets with 324 patients.When the first line of therapy for the treatment of paroxysmal AF using antiarrhythmic medication is ineffective, RF ablation is currently recommended as a second line of therapy for long-term cardiac arrhythmia control. The IRASE AF pivotal study intends to determine whether or not ablation using the company's Duo 12 port open irrigated catheter system is safe and effective compared to the other market approved catheter for treatment of symptomatic paroxysmal AF. It will also determine if the ablation catheter can be indicated for the treatment of symptomatic paroxysmal AF.
The trial's primary efficacy endpoints are targeted pulmonary vein isolation (acute) and freedom from symptomatic AF for 12 months (chronic) following the procedure. The primary safety endpoints are freedom from acute major adverse events within seven days of the procedure and chronic major adverse events within 12 months.
Press release: St. Jude Medical Announces IRASE AF Clinical Trial to Evaluate Cardiac Ablation Catheter System for Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation...
Product page: Therapy Cool Path Duo...
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Paper Based Sensors and Other Solutions for Cheap Medical Care
Filed under: in the news...
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
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Swift-Lock to Make Lead Anchoring Fast and Easy
Filed under: Neurological Surgery
, Orthopedic Surgery
, Pain
At the ongoing American Academy of Pain Medicine annual meeting in San Antonio, St. Jude Medical unveiled the new Swift-Lock anchor for neurostimulation leads. The device was just approved by the FDA as an easier option of attaching anchors to leads of implantable neurostimulators.
From the announcement:
Designed to reduce anchoring time and enhance procedural efficiency, the Swift-Lock anchor eliminates the need for sutures or medical adhesive typically required to secure the anchor to the lead. Featuring an easy-to-use mechanical lock, physicians secure the anchor with a simple 90-degree twist. This design minimizes the complexity and variability associated with anchoring leads.The Swift-Lock anchor features include:
Intuitive locking mechanism that provides tactile and visual confirmation that the lead is locked
Strong fixation to the lead to help mitigate the risk of migration
Highly radiopaque material to provide easy fluoroscopic visualization
Simple twist lock mechanism allows for easy repositioning of the lead if needed
Press release: St. Jude Medical Unveils Latest Product at American Academy of Pain Medicine Annual Meeting
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