This new online game, a protein folding puzzler, is a product of a collaboration between scientists at University of Washington and Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The game is designed to entertain and advance science at the same time. In other words, this is a distributed computing project with built-in fun.
...Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers at the University of Washington are bringing the arcane world of protein folding to the online gaming arena with the launch of “Foldit,” a free game in which players around the world compete to design proteins. The real world benefit: Scientists will test proteins designed by the game's players to see if they make viable candidate compounds for new drugs.
Users can access the game via the web at www.fold.it
The development of the online game is a natural extension of HHMI investigator David Baker's quest to understand how proteins - the building blocks of cells — fold into unique three-dimensional shapes. Over the past decade, Baker and his colleagues have made steady progress in developing computer algorithms to predict how a linear string of amino acids will fold into a given protein's characteristic shape. A detailed understanding of a protein's structure can offer scientists a wealth of information — revealing intricacies about the protein's biological function and suggesting new ideas for drug design.
Predicting the shapes that natural proteins will take is one of the preeminent challenges in biology, and modeling even a small protein requires making trillions of calculations. Over the last three years, volunteers around the globe — now numbering about 200,000— have donated their computer down-time to performing those calculations in a distributed network called Rosetta@home. The computing logic behind the network is an algorithm called Rosetta that uses the Monte Carlo technique to find the best “fit” for all of the parts of a given protein.
But as the Rosetta volunteers watched their computers blindly trying to work out a solution by methodically testing every possible combination and shape to find the best fit, they began to think that a little human intervention might speed things up. “People were writing in, saying, 'Hey! The computer is doing silly things! It would be great if we could help guide it,'” remembers Baker, who is based at the University of Washington (UW) where he developed the Rosetta algorithm and network.
Baker didn't know how he could make that happen until about 18 months ago, when he went hiking on Mt. Rainier with his neighbor David Salesin, a University of Washington computer scientist who also runs a research laboratory at nearby Adobe Systems. Baker and Salesin began discussing ways to make Rosetta more interactive. With the inherent fun of competition, Salesin thought a multiplayer online game was the way to go. By the time they got back to the car, they had settled on that idea. Salesin provided Baker with the names of three colleagues, led by UW computer scientist Zoran Popovic, who could help Baker create the game.
Over the next few months, doctoral student Seth Cooper and postdoctoral researcher Adrien Treuille, working with Popovic and Baker, created the program, and team tested it in small venues. One match between teams from the University of California and the University of Illinois aroused unexpected fervor and cheering among spectators. “30 or 40 people participated,” says Baker. “The competition was very intense.”
“Foldit” takes players through a series of practice levels designed to teach the basics of protein folding, before turning them loose on real proteins from nature. “Our main goal was to make sure that anyone could do it, even if they didn't know what biochemistry or protein folding was,” says Popovic. At the moment, the game only uses proteins whose three-dimensional structures have been solved by researchers. But, says Popovic, “soon we'll be introducing puzzles for which we don't know the solution.”
David - Thought you would be interested in solving internet puzzles for science. - Grandpa Larry
:: David Katzman
May 11, 2008 01:14 PM
The Bright-F Translation System for Color Blind
(08:56AM)
This is a prototype device idea from designer Lifeng Yu, that promises to improve the lives of people with color blindness by empowering them.
Here's what one person at Yanko Design, an excellent design blog, tells Medgadget:
As we know, blind ... can’t see any thing including colors . Though they can feel the shape and material of the object by their fingers, they still can’t feel the color of it by this way. But can’t see the colors doesn’t mean that they don’t need to distinguish them. There are many problems about colors in their daily lives. For example, their clothings always dye each other when they wash them together by washer. Also, blind people like to have beautiful shapes just like common people, but they are always vexed at dressing because of the problem of color assortment. So, the Bright-F is designed to solve these problems. It can help the blind man to distinguish the colors with a in-build color identification system and then tell them through a audio set. Bright-F has a program of practical teaching about colors which can help the blind to know the action of the colors, such as the way of composing garments of different colors, how to avoid clothing dyeing, and how the colors influent people’s motions. Flashlight can bring bright to most people in the dark except the blind people. However, the shape of Bright-F, which comes from the flashlight, can bring the brightness in colors to the blind .By touching the flashlight-like outside of this design, the blind people can easily associate the function of it. This can bring them more confidence about life.
It looks like it's a lot more helpful for blind people than for colorblind people! Most colorblind folks are only missing a couple of colors but completely blind individuals are missing all their colors! Seems to me that a blind person could use this device to shop for matching outfits or pick out clothes in their favorite colors without help. Awesome medgadget! Hope it will be a reality soon.
This looks like a fantastically useful device. Not mentioned here are the safety problems associated with colour deficiency, but this device could get around these. I'm thinking of red lights vs. green lights, green potatoes, which are poisonous, hemlock plants which look a bit like parsnip plants but have a purple/red stripe on the stems.
A problem with other colour detectors is that colours come in an infinite number of variations. I'm wondering what kind of system the device has for differentiating different shades and mixtures. Names such as 'indigo', 'fuchsia', 'burgundy' might be useful to some but leave others puzzled. This does seem quite a complication.
I'm sorry to find there's a visual-only CAPTCHA here, which means that most blind people can't comment.
Duke Scientists Report Success with Early Autonomous Robot Surgeries
(12:00AM)
Investigators at Duke are all enthused with a possibility of autonomous robots one day operating on your autonomic nervous system, and other parts:
Engineers at Duke University believe that the results of feasibility studies conducted in their laboratory represent the first concrete steps toward achieving this space age vision of the future. Also, on a more immediate level, the technology developed by the engineers could make certain contemporary medical procedures safer for patients, they said.
For their experiments, the engineers started with a rudimentary tabletop robot whose “eyes” used a novel 3-D ultrasound technology developed in the Duke laboratories. An artificial intelligence program served as the robot’s “brain” by taking real-time 3-D information, processing it, and giving the robot specific commands to perform.
“In a number of tasks, the computer was able to direct the robot's actions,” said Stephen Smith, director of the Duke University Ultrasound Transducer Group and senior member of the research team. “We believe that this is the first proof-of-concept for this approach. Given that we achieved these early results with a rudimentary robot and a basic artificial intelligence program, the technology will advance to the point where robots – without the guidance of the doctor – can someday operate on people.”
The results of a series of experiments on the robot system directing catheters inside synthetic blood vessels was published online in the journal IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control. A second study, published in April in the journal Ultrasonic Imaging, demonstrated that the autonomous robot system could successfully perform a simulated needle biopsy.
Advances in ultrasound technology have made these latest experiments possible, the researchers said, by generating detailed, 3-D moving images in real-time.
The Duke laboratory has a long track record of modifying traditional 2-D ultrasound – like that used to image babies in utero – into the more advanced 3-D scans. After inventing the technique in 1991, the team also has shown its utility in developing specialized catheters and endoscopes for real-time imaging of blood vessels in the heart and brain.
In the latest experiment, the robot successfully performed its main task: directing a needle on the end of the robotic arm to touch the tip of another needle within a blood vessel graft. The robot’s needle was guided by a tiny 3-D ultrasound transducer, the “wand” that collects the 3-D images, attached to a catheter commonly used in angioplasty procedures.
“The robot was able to accurately direct needle probes to target needles based on the information sent by the catheter transducer,” said John Whitman, a senior engineering student in Smith’s laboratory and first author on both papers. “The ability of the robot to guide a probe within a vascular graft is a first step toward further testing the system in animal models.”
While the research will continue to refine the ability of robots to perform independent procedures, the new technology could also have more direct and immediate applications.
“Currently, cardiologists doing catheter-based procedures use fluoroscopy, which employs radiation, to guide their actions,” Smith said. “Putting a 3-D ultrasound transducer on the end of the catheter could provide clearer images to the physician and greatly reduce the need for patients to be exposed to radiation.”
No Spillage VantageCath Gets FDA Approval
(12:00AM)
VantageCath is a new peripheral IV catheter designed to not only prevent unexpected needlestick injuries, but also to eliminate the spillage of blood during the IV placement. The device is a product of a firm called Advantage Medical Devices from Solana Beach, CA.
From the product page:
The VantageCath is an innovative peripheral Intravenous (IV) Catheter Safety System designed to significantly reduce blood borne pathogen exposure without compromising the "pop and glide" that users want and need. Utilizing a patented "closed hub" design, blood is contained during the entire cannulation and needle retraction process. This eliminates the need to tamponade above the site of the IV catheter and allows the provider to have both hands free to secure the IV and attach tubing using sterile technique.
In addition to the protection from blood borne pathogen exposure delivered by the VantageCath, there are many features that providers and patients will appreciate:
Built-in saline lock
Improved flash for confident cannulation
Safe and easy blood draws
Rapid delivery of life saving drugs -- 20% reduction in tubing distance
Eliminates need to loop tubing
Built-in needle-free access
Flawless needle retraction mechanism
Rotating L-Tube allows for easy access to luer-lock port
Frontline providers have had to make do with the safety engineered IV catheters made available to them in the clinical setting; compromising their relationships with patients who must endure multiple sticks, a bloody mess and the risk of an infection. The VantageCath offers a significant improvement in protection and utility. More importantly, the opportunity to gain back the confidence that the patient's IV start will be safe and effective.
GE Healthcare Unveils New 3.0T Signa MR750 System
(12:00AM)
GE Healthcare is introducing a new 3.0 Tesla magnetic resonance scanner, the latest addition to its Signa family of MRI systems, a machine called Signa® MR750 3.0T. The device, newly approved by the FDA, has just been unveiled at the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine in Toronto, May 3-9.
The Signa MR750 features a newly designed RF Transmit system maximizing performance with a 17 percent gain in scanning efficiency. In addition, the system includes the GE-exclusive Optical RF Technology that adds up to 27 percent higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) over conventional, non-optical MR receivers by reducing electrical noise and increasing signal detection.
When combined with GE’s use of high-density surface coils, the optical receive chain is a critical path for ensuring clear signal reception and data analysis. To ensure that the high-density approach will always be maintained, the Signa MR750 3.0T architecture is scalable to 128 channels of simultaneous data acquisition.
Revolutionizing imaging capabilities with new parallel imaging technique
In efforts to improve full-body imaging on 3.0T MR, GE Healthcare’s Signa MR750 features a newly developed parallel imaging technique entitled ARC™, Auto Calibrating Reconstruction for Cartesian imaging. In addition to reducing specific absorption rate (SAR), the ARC technique also improves body imaging by allowing:
Auto-calibration that helps avoid collecting external sensitivity map;
Less sensitive to field-of-view (FOV) positioning with a tight FOV;
Clinically practical reconstruction times for continuous scanning; and
Workflow simplification that can be seamlessly integrated into sequences without the need for separate calibration scans.
As a result of this new imaging technique, the MR 750 also features new operational efficient advanced applications, including:
LAVA-IDEAL™
LAVA-IDEAL is a dual-echo acquisition technique that raises the bar on existing sequences to provide consistent, detailed, three-dimensional abdominal images in one breath-hold. By allowing the user to select the output image types-- in-phase, opposed-phase, water and fat-- LAVA-IDEAL has the ability to produce four image contrasts with only one scan. With this new 3.0T application, clinicians can now conduct a complete liver exam in 15 minutes.
“LAVA-IDEAL is a robust sequence that offers ‘fat only’ and ‘water only’ images in addition to excellent in-phase and opposed-phase images in a single breath-hold. This sequence has quickly become a routine part of all our abdominal sequence protocols at 3.0T,” said Dr. Elmar Merkle, professor of Radiology, Head of Body Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Medical Director of the Center for Advanced Magnetic Resonance Development at Duke University.
VIBRANT-IDEAL™
VIBRANT-IDEAL is a new application that allows for fat-free breast imaging with high spatio-temporal resolution. This application catches the shortest in- and out-of phase echoes to keep scan times comparable to single echo acquisitions even though twice the amount of data is collected.
VIBRANT-IDEAL optimizes acquisition with a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR ) for acquiring high quality water and fat images. This capability lets the user prescribe thinner slices for high spatial resolution imaging.
PROPELLER 2.0™
PROPELLER 2.0 enables strong performance in all neuro imaging planes with the implementation of the No Phase Wrap (NPW) technique. NPW allows virtually ghost-artifact-free, motion-immune scans in sagittal, coronal, axial and oblique planes. Since this technique effectively deals with the aliasing artifact, PROPELLER 2.0 is now more robust performing small field-of-view (FOV) scans.
Driven by customer demands for improved clinical capabilities, the Signa MR750 has been designed around clinical workflow needs with a strong focus on improving productivity, With that in mind, the system also includes operational efficiencies such as the newly designed detachable patient table and the first ever in-room operator console.
In addition, The Signa MR750 features automated acquisition based on the concept of touch and go protocols. The aspect of the system allows for more focused attention on the patient and consistent protocols and processing across operating technicians.
Boston Scientific ALTREA Pacemaker EU Approved
(11:07AM)
Boston Scientific just received approval from the EU to market the company's newest family of pacemakers.
The following features are listed in the press release:
ALTRUA is Boston Scientific's most advanced pacemaker and delivers enhanced therapies while maintaining its small size and battery longevity. It is the first Boston Scientific-branded pacemaker to treat bradycardia, a condition in which the heart beats too slowly -- usually less than 60 beats per minute -- depriving the body of sufficient oxygen.
Multiple Atrial Ventricular (AV) Delay programming options: These options are designed to reduce unnecessary right ventricular (RV) pacing, without dropping ventricular beats, a key distinction from other competitive RV pacing algorithms. The ALTRUA 50 and 60 series also include an enhanced AV search hysteresis feature, now with an extendable AV delay out to 400 milliseconds, providing physicians with additional flexibility to tailor device programming for unique patient needs.
Minute Ventilation (MV) Blended Sensor: This proprietary technology treats a condition called Chronotropic Incompetence, which is the inability of the heart to regulate its rate appropriately in response to physical activity and emotional stress. Boston Scientific's MV Blended sensor is the only sensor that has been shown to restore Chronotropic Competence.
Ventricular Rate Regulation (VRR): This feature helps physicians manage patients with frequent atrial arrythmias.
Automatic Capture: This capability is designed to offer automatic, safe and accurate ventricular pulse management. The device checks every heart beat to see if the lower chambers of the heart contract in response to the delivered pulse. If no contraction is detected, a backup pace with more energy is delivered.
Yesterday we published a story about a man who re-grew a tip of his finger using "pixie-dust" supposedly sent to him by his brother who worked in a regenerative medicine lab. By now the story has largely been discredited. In our defense, when we saw the story on BBC and other respectful outlets, we did not publish it right away. We sat on it for 5 days or so, awaiting a press release from the University of Pittsburgh. When it did not materialize, without realizing that the story has been discredited, we went ahead and published it. We apologize for this gaffe.
Your excuse is just lame. I'm sorry, but it just is. I'm rather disappointed in you; you guys usually do much better. It would have been better if you had just said, "Hey, we screwed up and didn't check this out" than trying to excuse it using the "reputable news outlet" gambit. Surely you must have figured out by now that just because a story appears on the BBC and other "respectable" news outlets is no guarantee that it isn't a load of pseudoscience. Heck, even urban legends show up from time to time reported by "reputable" news outlets as fact.
Here's hoping you learn a lesson from this. By the way, for whatever reason you didn't publish my previous comment in which I included a link to Steve Novella's excellent debunking of this hoax. Here it is again:
Peak PlasmaBlade Wants to Be The New Bovie
(10:07AM)
PEAK Surgical, Inc. from Palo Alto, CA hates the bovie cutter/coagulator. The company cannot stand the 1920's technology behind the bovie, and how its thermal function destroys healthy patient tissue around the cut. What do we hate about the bovie? Well, you know: all those bovie induced burns and destroyed gloves that surgeons are regularly subjected to.
Long story short, PEAK Surgical wants its Peak PlasmaBlade, a cold cutter and coagulator, to be the bovie of the 21st century. The company is quite hopeful: a new study presented in a poster session at the ongoing American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' (ACOG) 56th Annual Clinical Meeting in New Orleans showed that PEAK PlasmaBlade™ "cut freshly excised human abdominal tissue with little thermal tissue injury compared with traditional electrosurgery."
More about the technology:
Electrosurgery was invented in the beginning of the 20th century and became one of the most-often used surgical tools after William Bovie introduced his electrosurgery (radiofrequency) generator in 1926. Since then, electrosurgical cutting has been performed using continuous radiofrequency waveforms, which thermally vaporizes soft tissue via an electrical arc through air and Joule heating. This results in a cutting and coagulation action that leaves a wide zone of collateral thermal damage.
By contrast, PEAK Surgical’s PULSAR Generator supplies pulsed waveforms that produce short plasma-mediated, highly controlled electrical discharges through extensively insulated electrodes on a handheld device -- the PEAK PlasmaBlade. Because the radiofrequency is provided in short pulses with low duty cycle (fraction of time the voltage is ON), and the PEAK PlasmaBlade is so highly insulated, heat diffusion and associated thermal damage to surrounding tissues is limited, resulting in greatly reduced collateral damage and extreme cutting precision.
PEAK Surgical’s technology including the pulsed plasma-mediated discharges and electrode insulation techniques were originally developed by Professor Daniel Palanker’s group at the Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory and Department of Ophthalmology at Stanford University. They have been evaluated in ophthalmic applications, including human studies in retinal and cataract surgery – one of the most delicate, precise and difficult types of surgery, and in preclinical studies.
Check out the following product brochure distributed by PEAK Surgical:
HYDROCHALARONE MRI Contrast Agent Does Well in Early Study
(10:06AM)
HYDROCHALARONE™ nanomaterial is a next generation contrast agent, under development by Roanoke, Virginia based firm Luna Innovations, that has just been successfully demonstrated as an effective MRI image enhancer in the mouse model. HYDROCHALARONE is based on the company's proprietary TRIMETASPHERE® molecular cage construct (second picture below), a molecule formed by up to 80 carbon atoms, that is capable of encapsulating a variety of metals (Scandium, Lutetium, Holmium, Gadolinium) inside its cage.
From the press statement by Luna Innovations:
The new class of molecules discovered by Luna is called HYDROCHALARONE(TM) ( hi-dro-kal-a-rone )-- Hydro, meaning water, combined with Chalaro, the Greek word for relax. The level of relaxivity is the characteristic of molecules that provides the image enhancement. "The high relaxivity in Hydrochalarone means fewer molecules are needed to obtain a better quality image," said Robert Lenk, President of Luna's nanoWorks division. "Our studies demonstrate that our proprietary nanomaterials do not release gadolinium under conditions which are found in the human body. Our imaging studies in mice have shown Hydrochalarone improves image quality up to 30 minutes after injection at a dose 20 times lower than that used with current agents."
"Achieving high magnetic resonance relaxivity with a small, biologically inert, chemical moiety that can be derivatized for targeted tissue delivery, cell tracking, or inclusion as part of a nanoparticle drug delivery vehicle is a Holy Grail within the fast evolving field of biomarker development," said Dr. Joseph Ackerman renowned MRI researcher and Chemistry Department Chairman at Washington University in St. Louis. "The design and production of Hydrochalarones by scientists at Luna nanoWorks may herald such an advance."
Luna's HYDROCHALARONE(TM) was selected for preclinical studies and a collaboration with National Cancer Institute's Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory (NCL). "We hope within 12 months the NCL will provide us a complete preclinical package which will contribute to an Investigational New Drug application," said Lenk. "The end goal of Luna's product development effort with the Hydrochalarone is using it as a fundamental building block that will generate a portfolio of novel imaging agents targeted to reveal diagnostic information specific for a variety of different diseases, such as cancer tumors, sites of inflammation and plaque related to coronary artery diseases, as announced in our previous press release."
In the Works: Inhalable Drug Testing Device
(09:28AM)
Cambridge Consultants is reporting that the company is developing "a low-cost, portable instrument that has the potential to revolutionise [sic] the way certain drug delivery devices are tested."
From the press release:
Through the innovative use of technology, the new device can mirror the performance and level of data provided by current laboratory laser diffraction measurement machines, for an estimated one-hundredth of the cost when integrated into a high volume device. The device measures the droplet size distribution in an airstream, a technique used in testing respiratory drug delivery devices.
Airborne drug delivery for deep-lung treatment relies on generating particles of a very specific size - too large and the drug never reaches the deep lung, too small and the drug is exhaled and is similarly ineffective. Methods for accurately measuring particle size are very much laboratory-based, for instance the Anderson Cascade method, which is laborious and can slow the development of devices, and the current generation of large laser diffraction measurement devices, which have high initial costs and require a lot of space and skill to operate.
By applying its established expertise in optical systems, electronic signal processing and advanced capabilities in the Mie scattering mathematical theory – a critical element of this form of droplet analysis - Cambridge Consultants has started developing a test unit which could be manufactured in volume for just a few hundred pounds - less than one-hundredth of the cost of a full laboratory laser diffraction installation, the only real solution to such measurements today.
It is also small enough to be highly portable, so it would be ideal at clinical drug delivery trials, where it is critical to establish how much drug reaches the patient’s deep lung so that doses can be accurately compared to the patient’s response. It would also be useful during end-of-line production testing of drug delivery devices...
The Cambridge Consultants device is based on low-cost LED components, considerably simplified optical configurations and the application of modern signal processing. It is designed to be robust, portable and simple enough to potentially be operated by semi-skilled clinicians, with standard IT equipment to produce highly accurate plots that indicate the number of droplets within a pre-selected range of sizes. Drugs can therefore be tested at the point of delivery, during clinical trials for example, to ensure doses are delivered as intended by the drug developer.
Chew This Over: Mechanical Mouth Unveiled in France
(12:00AM)
French researchers have developed an artificial mechanical mouth, which can supposedly munch up food very similarly to how a human mouth does it. The device is intended to be used for testing various foods with regards to quality, and to also understand how flavors are influenced by the physical composition of the food.
The munching device mimics the first steps of digestion - chewing, saliva release and food breakdown. About five times the size of a human mouth inside, the steel container is kept at a steady 37°C by an electrical element. Its internal surfaces are coated with a chemically resistant plastic used for medical implants.
The ceiling and floor of the cylindrical chamber are attached to variable speed motors. Food is placed on the floor which is able to revolve, while the ceiling coated spiky "teeth" moves up and down like a plunger (see image, right).
The compression and rotation simulate the mechanical forces food undergoes in the mouth. The process is made more realistic by the addition of enzyme-containing artificial saliva through a pipe in the base of the chamber.
Helium supplied through another inlet flows through the "mouth" to reproduce the effect of breathing and carry volatile compounds away for analysis.
Full article in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (DOI: 10.1021/jf073145z)
:: Comments left behind ::
ei*Nav/Artemis Prostate Ultrasound Machine Receives FDA Clearance
(12:00AM)
Eigen, a Grass Valley, California company, just received FDA clearance for its 4D ultrasound system specifically designed for urologists to find and track prostate cancer biopsy locations.
Using proprietary next-generation 3D/4D imaging, Artemis™ provides solutions not available today by enhancing urologists' existing ultrasound machines, the vast majority of which are only 2D. Now, Artemis allows urologists to virtually see inside the prostate in real time during biopsy, guides them with 4D needle navigation during the delicate procedure, maps biopsy locations and generates an image of 3D biopsy coordinates for future reference...
Artemis' 3D/4D imaging allows doctors to select and biopsy a location within the boundary of the prostate with pinpoint accuracy. The biopsy location is then recorded by Artemis' patented registration technology, which allows doctors to revisit or avoid the exact same area during repeat procedures. Artemis provides doctors with data they can analyze to determine if the prostate gland has changed and manage treatment accordingly.
Gore Receives EU's CE Mark for PRECLUDE Vessel Guard
(12:00AM)
Gore & Associates has received EU's approval to market its PRECLUDE vessel guard, developed to provide protection for vasculature following anterior spinal surgery for degenerative disc disease, just in case if these surgical patients have to return for a revision procedure. Anterior vertebral re-explorations have inherently increased risks of damage to major abdominal vessels, such as the aorta, the vena cava, and the iliacs.
GORE PRECLUDE Vessel Guard enables vasculature management in patients having undergone anterior spinal surgery for degenerative disc disease, including artificial disc replacement (ADR), where scarring around the aorta, vena cava, and iliac vessels can complicate revising, repositioning, or removing a disc prosthesis.
An ideal biomaterial for intimate vessel contact and protection, GORE PRECLUDE Vessel Guard is soft and conformable with excellent handling characteristics. The tight microstructured membrane is inserted between the prosthesis and the vessels during the primary surgery. In a revision surgery, the vessels can be identified, dissected from the device and mobilized.
GORE PRECLUDE Vessel Guard has a three-layer construction with two outer layers consisting of a tight expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) microstructure preventing penetration by fibroblasts, thus minimizing vascular tissue attachment to the device, allowing safer anterior revision. GORE PRECLUDE Vessel Guard is also easy to use--an elastomeric inner layer minimizes impingement and provides the stiffness needed for accurate placement. The material may be trimmed and tailored without fraying.
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) cleared GORE PRECLUDE Vessel Guard indicated for vessel protection in August 2006.
Two years ago we reported on the SolarAid, a low cost solar-powered hearing aid intended for the hearing-impaired in developing countries. A recent article in Newsweek looks at the success of the device and gives a little insight into the mind behind it, Howard Weinstein:
Weinstein knew what he had to do: change the business model. Drawing on his years in the corporate bunker, he started working the phones, chatting up financiers, consulting with electronics wizards and haggling with manufacturers. He landed a small grant from the U.S. government-run African Development Foundation and, with help from some dedicated electronics geeks and industry execs willing to forgo their usual profits, came up with something new: a cheap hearing aid powered by rechargeable solar batteries. It looked ordinary enough—just a cashew-shaped piece of plastic to tuck behind the ear—but it cost less than $100, a fifth the price of the cheapest retail model. Rechargeable batteries, $1 apiece, last two to three years. None of this was much use without a reliable power source, so he also built a pocket-size recharger that can either plug into a wall outlet or use its own built-in solar panel.
Weinstein has tapped into another source of underused energy: deaf people. "Because mastering sign language takes acute hand-eye coordination, deaf people are well suited to the fine soldering and microelectronics that go into making hearing aids," he says. Today the once empty room in the African semi desert has become the hub of a thriving nonprofit business. Some 20,000 people in 30 countries are using SolarAid brand hearing aids, chargers and batteries. With funding from the Ashoka Foundation and the Oregon-based Lemelson Foundation, Weinstein is working with engineers from the University of São Paulo on a second-generation, digital hearing aid. He sees Brazil as a beachhead for all of Latin America; he plans to set up another nonprofit company in Jordan to reach the entire Middle East. Then he'll take on China and India. All told, he hopes to employ 1,000 deaf people over the next three to five years.
Sentinelle Vanguard Breast MR Auxiliary Table
(12:02AM)
Sentinelle Medical Inc., a Toronto, Ontario firm, is reporting that its president Mr. Cameron Piron was just recognized as Best Young Innovator by the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation. Putting aside the whole twisted idea of "Ministry of Research and Innovation", we ventured to check out the product of Sentinelle Medical. It turns out that the product, called Sentinelle Vanguard Breast MR Auxiliary Table®, is a pretty clever device. Designed to work in tandem with GE Healtcare's Signa® HDx 1.5T MRI system, the table features an eight channel coil array that enhances imaging of the breast, while the configuration of the table makes percutaneous biopsies (and other interventions) more tolerable for the clinician and the patient, thanks to an open design that offers easy accessibility to all quadrants of the breast.
More about the system:
Variable Coil Geometry® of the 8 channel array allows the position of the coils to be customized for every patient. Vanguard® coils can be moved medially and laterally, as well as posteriorally towards the axilla and chest wall providing improvements to image quality unavailable on traditional tabletop coils
The unique coil geometry improves overall signal to noise ratio which can result in higher resolution images. Higher resolution images provide more detailed information and may promote earlier detection of lesions. This can, in turn, result in better management of disease and treatment...
Complete and open medial and lateral access provided by the Vanguard® design allows interventions to all quadrants of the breast. The system employs adjustable interventional grids which can be moved medially and laterally as well as towards the axilla and chest wall, providing access to lesions in the inner upper and outer upper quadrants of the breast. Use of a removable sternum support and support plate improves access to lesions near the chest wall in medial approaches.
The Vanguard® works in combination with several biopsy devices and localization needles...
A Significant amount of effort has been put into the design and padding of the patient support. Increased patient clearance in the bore means that more patients can be comfortably positioned with arms by their side. This improves comfort for the patient and reduces motion during the exam. The ‘wings’ of the system not only provide support for this positioning but also protect the patient from the magnet.
The padding used is made of visco-elastic foam providing improved comfort especially in common pressure areas such as the diaphragm and sternum. All padding is adjustable, allowing customized cushioning for every patient. The foam is covered in surgical grade material allowing for easy clean up.
The Sentinelle Vanguard Breast MR Auxiliary Table® is a comprehensive system. All features, including storage drawers, tray tables, biopsy grids, padding, safety rails, movable sternum supports, and integrated lighting are designed to work together for improved workflow. The Vanguard® is the only dedicated, detachable table design available for Breast MR.
The Vanguard’s® unique detachable table design allows patient preparation prior to and after both imaging and intervention to be performed outside the MR suite. Used in conjunction with the standard Signa™ detachable table, this results in significant savings in per-patient magnet use time. Experience with Vanguard® has shown an average efficiency increase of 10-25 minutes per patient.
Investigators at Duke are all enthused with a possibility of autonomous robots one day operating on your autonomic nervous system, and other parts: 
Boston Scientific just received approval from the EU to market the company's newest family of pacemakers.
HYDROCHALARONE™ nanomaterial is a next generation contrast agent, under development by Roanoke, Virginia based firm Luna Innovations, that has just been successfully demonstrated as an effective MRI image enhancer in the mouse model. HYDROCHALARONE is based on the company's proprietary TRIMETASPHERE® molecular cage construct (second picture below), a molecule formed by up to 80 carbon atoms, that is capable of encapsulating a variety of metals (Scandium, Lutetium, Holmium, Gadolinium) inside its cage.
"Achieving high magnetic resonance relaxivity with a small, biologically inert, chemical moiety that can be derivatized for targeted tissue delivery, cell tracking, or inclusion as part of a nanoparticle drug delivery vehicle is a Holy Grail within the fast evolving field of biomarker development," said Dr. Joseph Ackerman renowned MRI researcher and Chemistry Department Chairman at Washington University in St. Louis. "The design and production of Hydrochalarones by scientists at Luna nanoWorks may herald such an advance."
French researchers have developed an artificial mechanical mouth, which can supposedly munch up food very similarly to how a human mouth does it. The device is intended to be used for testing various foods with regards to quality, and to also understand how flavors are influenced by the physical composition of the food.
Eigen, a Grass Valley, California company, just received FDA clearance for its 4D ultrasound system specifically designed for urologists to find and track prostate cancer biopsy locations. 
Two years ago we reported on the 
