• Popular
    • Medicine
    • Radiology
    • Cardiology
    • Surgery
    • Nanomedicine
    • Military Medicine
    • Rehab
  • Categories
    • Exclusive
    • A-D
      • Anesthesiology
      • Art
      • Cardiac Surgery
      • Cardiology
      • Critical Care
      • Dentistry
      • Dermatology
      • Diagnostics
    • E-I
      • Emergency Medicine
      • ENT
      • Genetics
      • Geriatrics
      • GI
      • Informatics
    • M-N
      • Medicine
      • Military Medicine
      • Nanomedicine
      • Net News
      • Neurology
      • Neurosurgery
      • Nuclear Medicine
    • O-P
      • Ob/Gyn
      • Oncology
      • Ophthalmology
      • Orthopedic Surgery
      • Pathology
      • Pediatrics
      • Plastic Surgery
      • Psychiatry
      • Public Health
    • R-V
      • Radiation Oncology
      • Radiology
      • Rehab
      • Reproductive Medicine
      • Space Medicine
      • Sports Medicine
      • Surgery
      • Thoracic Surgery
      • Urology
      • Vascular Surgery
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • Submit PR
  • About
  • Follow
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Linkedin
    • Youtube
    • Instagram
    • RSS
  • Submit PR
  • Log in
Medgadget
Medgadget
  • Popular
    • Medicine
      Magnetic Dressing Improves Diabetic Wound Healing

      Magnetic Dressing Improves Diabetic Wound Healing

      Eko’s Newest CORE 500 Stethoscope: A Review

      Eko’s Newest CORE 500 Stethoscope: A Review

      Microfluidic System Incorporates Eight Organ Tissues for Drug Testing

      Microfluidic System Incorporates Eight Organ Tissues for Drug Testing

      Suction Cup Delivers Drugs Through Cheek

      Suction Cup Delivers Drugs Through Cheek

    • Radiology
      Shear-Thinning Biomaterial for Embolic Applications: Interview with Upma Sharma, President and CEO of Arsenal Medical

      Shear-Thinning Biomaterial for Embolic Applications: Interview with Upma Sharma, President and CEO of Arsenal Medical

      Ultrasound-Equipped Bra Monitors for Breast Cancer

      Ultrasound-Equipped Bra Monitors for Breast Cancer

      Portable and Radiation-Free Imaging with Magnetic Nanoparticles

      Portable and Radiation-Free Imaging with Magnetic Nanoparticles

      Imaging Technique Reveals Living Brain Tissue in its Complexity

      Imaging Technique Reveals Living Brain Tissue in its Complexity

    • Cardiology
      Eko’s Newest CORE 500 Stethoscope: A Review

      Eko’s Newest CORE 500 Stethoscope: A Review

      Shear-Thinning Biomaterial for Embolic Applications: Interview with Upma Sharma, President and CEO of Arsenal Medical

      Shear-Thinning Biomaterial for Embolic Applications: Interview with Upma Sharma, President and CEO of Arsenal Medical

      Ultrasound-Equipped Bra Monitors for Breast Cancer

      Ultrasound-Equipped Bra Monitors for Breast Cancer

      3D Printed Heart Muscle Beats

      3D Printed Heart Muscle Beats

    • Surgery
      Magnetic Dressing Improves Diabetic Wound Healing

      Magnetic Dressing Improves Diabetic Wound Healing

      Sensor Monitors Transplanted Organs for Signs of Rejection

      Sensor Monitors Transplanted Organs for Signs of Rejection

      Refillable Device for Drug Delivery Past the Blood-Brain Barrier: Interview with Mike Maglin, CEO at CraniUS

      Refillable Device for Drug Delivery Past the Blood-Brain Barrier: Interview with Mike Maglin, CEO at CraniUS

      Droplet Battery Harnesses Ionic Gradients for Bioelectronic Implants

      Droplet Battery Harnesses Ionic Gradients for Bioelectronic Implants

    • Nanomedicine
      Nanorobots Release Reactive Oxygen Species to Kill Fungal Biofilms

      Nanorobots Release Reactive Oxygen Species to Kill Fungal Biofilms

      Bottlebrush Nanoparticles Deliver Immunostimulatory Drugs

      Bottlebrush Nanoparticles Deliver Immunostimulatory Drugs

      Nanoparticles Deliver mRNA Therapy to the Lungs

      Nanoparticles Deliver mRNA Therapy to the Lungs

      Nanoparticles Get Lymphatic Vessels Pumping

      Nanoparticles Get Lymphatic Vessels Pumping

    • Military Medicine
      Wearable Can Take Multiple Sweat Samples

      Wearable Can Take Multiple Sweat Samples

      Wound Dressing Detects Infection, Changes Color

      Wound Dressing Detects Infection, Changes Color

      Device Measures Hemoglobin More Accurately in Dark Skin

      Device Measures Hemoglobin More Accurately in Dark Skin

      Fingertip Sensor Measures Lithium Levels in Sweat

      Fingertip Sensor Measures Lithium Levels in Sweat

    • Rehab
      Stretchable E-Skin for Robotic Prostheses

      Stretchable E-Skin for Robotic Prostheses

      Glasses Provide Audible Prompts for Blind Wearers

      Glasses Provide Audible Prompts for Blind Wearers

      A Wearable to Manage Parkinson’s Motor Symptoms: Interview with Lucy Jung, CEO at Charco Neurotech

      A Wearable to Manage Parkinson’s Motor Symptoms: Interview with Lucy Jung, CEO at Charco Neurotech

      Robotic Ankle Helps with Postural Control in Amputees

      Robotic Ankle Helps with Postural Control in Amputees

  • Categories
    • Exclusive
    • A-D
      • Anesthesiology
      • Art
      • Cardiac Surgery
      • Cardiology
      • Critical Care
      • Dentistry
      • Dermatology
      • Diagnostics
    • E-I
      • Emergency Medicine
      • ENT
      • Genetics
      • Geriatrics
      • GI
      • Informatics
    • M-N
      • Medicine
      • Military Medicine
      • Nanomedicine
      • Net News
      • Neurology
      • Neurosurgery
      • Nuclear Medicine
    • O-P
      • Ob/Gyn
      • Oncology
      • Ophthalmology
      • Orthopedic Surgery
      • Pathology
      • Pediatrics
      • Plastic Surgery
      • Psychiatry
      • Public Health
    • R-V
      • Radiation Oncology
      • Radiology
      • Rehab
      • Reproductive Medicine
      • Space Medicine
      • Sports Medicine
      • Surgery
      • Thoracic Surgery
      • Urology
      • Vascular Surgery
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • Submit PR
  • About
  • Log in
  • Submit PR
  • Follow
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Linkedin
    • Youtube
    • Instagram
    • RSS

‘Smart Petri Dish’ for Drug Interactions and Cancer Screening

June 14th, 2006 Justin Barad Diagnostics

UC San Diego has developed a petri dish that can quickly and cost-effectively determine a cell’s ‘health’ under different conditions. Let’s just say it’s smarter than your average petri dish. From the press release:

Their invention, described in the June 20 issue of Langmuir, a physical chemistry journal published by the American Chemical Society, uses porous silicon crystals filled with polystyrene to detect subtle changes in the sizes and shapes of the cells.
“You could also in principle use this to identify metastatic cancer cells circulating in a patient’s blood,” Sailor adds, “by putting blood samples from a patient onto the crystal and comparing them to normal blood samples.”
In addition, says Michael Schwartz, a postdoctoral scholar in Sailor’s laboratory and the first author of the paper: “The potential of our technique for fundamental studies of cell toxicity is exciting, Since we can monitor cells in real time without removing them from their natural environment, the observed changes provide a time course for performing more detailed tests to find out why drugs are toxic.”
The scientists constructed their Smart Petri Dish by first fabricating silicon crystals with nanometer-sized holes. This enabled them to produce a photonic crystal, capable of controlling light within the structure analogous to the way that semiconductors transmit electricity through computer chips. By attaching rat liver cells to the polystyrene within the crystals and measuring the scattering of light with a sensitive spectrometer, they were able to detect small changes in the shapes of the cells as they reacted to toxic doses of cadmium chloride and acetaminophen.
“As these cells shrivel up in response to a toxin, they scatter light better, much like fog on a car windshield, allowing us to quickly detect which drugs may have adverse side effects when taken in combination with another,” says Sailor. “You’re not supposed to drink alcohol when taking acetaminophen, because the combination of the two is much more toxic to your liver than either drug individually. This is known as an adverse drug-drug interaction and it is very expensive and time-consuming to screen a new drug candidate with all the possible combinations of drugs that a patient may be taking. The Smart Petri Dish allows us to perform a large number of such toxicity assays simultaneously, in order to provide an early indication of the particular physiological or pharmacological conditions that need more in-depth study.”
“Although we performed these experiments on rat cells, this technology can be easily extended to human cells,” says Sangeeta Bhatia, a professor of bioengineering at UCSD now at MIT, who also participated in the study. “This is important because we know that the enzymes that metabolize drugs-the P450 family-are very different in animal and humans. This is one of the reasons many drugs clear animal testing but end up toxic in patients. This type of sensor could help us predict human liver responses without patient exposure.”

If you have ever tried any sort of cell diagnostic test you’ll probably understand why we’re so excited about this easy to use real-time technology.
Read the press release here…
More…

Justin Barad

Justin Barad is a board eligible pediatric orthopaedic surgeon. He did his fellowship at Boston Children's Hospital in the Harvard Combined Orthopaedic Surgery program and his residency at UCLA. He is also the Founder and CEO of Osso VR, a clinically validated surgical simulation platform. His interests include Virtual/Augmented Reality, robotics, surgical navigation and 3D Printing/Scanning, He is always looking to discuss the latest and greatest in medtech. He has been writing for Medgadget about medical technology since 2006 and also has several research publications and presentations.

Sponsored
Ark Surgical Performs First Hysterectomies in the USA with its FDA-Cleared LapBox for Manual Morcellation

Ark Surgical Performs First Hysterectomies in the USA with its FDA-Cleared LapBox for Manual Morcellation

PACKAGING COMPLIANCE LABS WELCOMES NEW CFO, BERNADETTE LEGARETTA

PACKAGING COMPLIANCE LABS WELCOMES JENN GOFF, VP SALES, MARKETING, AND INNOVATION

Clarius Debuts its First Dual-Array Wireless Handheld Scanner Enabling Whole-Body Views of Superficial to Deep Anatomy

Clarius Debuts its First Dual-Array Wireless Handheld Scanner Enabling Whole-Body Views of Superficial to Deep Anatomy

National Liver Health Awareness Month Highlights the Urgent Need for Liver Disease Prevention

National Liver Health Awareness Month Highlights the Urgent Need for Liver Disease Prevention

interviews & reviews
A Wearable to Manage Parkinson’s Motor Symptoms: Interview with Lucy Jung, CEO at Charco Neurotech

A Wearable to Manage Parkinson’s Motor Symptoms: Interview with Lucy Jung, CEO at Charco Neurotech

Eko’s Newest CORE 500 Stethoscope: A Review

Eko’s Newest CORE 500 Stethoscope: A Review

Shear-Thinning Biomaterial for Embolic Applications: Interview with Upma Sharma, President and CEO of Arsenal Medical

Shear-Thinning Biomaterial for Embolic Applications: Interview with Upma Sharma, President and CEO of Arsenal Medical

Refillable Device for Drug Delivery Past the Blood-Brain Barrier: Interview with Mike Maglin, CEO at CraniUS

Refillable Device for Drug Delivery Past the Blood-Brain Barrier: Interview with Mike Maglin, CEO at CraniUS

UV-Free Air Decontamination: Interview with Sorel Rothschild, VP at Quantum Innovations

UV-Free Air Decontamination: Interview with Sorel Rothschild, VP at Quantum Innovations

EarliPoint Evaluation System for ASD Diagnosis: Interview with Tom Ressemann, CEO of EarliTec Dx

EarliPoint Evaluation System for ASD Diagnosis: Interview with Tom Ressemann, CEO of EarliTec Dx

Visually Guided Uterine Biopsies in Physician’s Office: Interview with Allison London Brown, CEO of LUMINELLE

Visually Guided Uterine Biopsies in Physician’s Office: Interview with Allison London Brown, CEO of LUMINELLE

  • Subscribe
  • Contact us
  • Submit
  • About
  • Back to top
Medgadget

Medical technologies transform the world! Join us and see the progress in real time. At Medgadget, we report the latest technology news, interview leaders in the field, and file dispatches from medical events around the world since 2004.

  • About
  • Editorial policies
  • Contact
  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy
  • Submit press release
  • Advertise
© Medgadget, Inc. All rights reserved. | The Medical Revolution Will Be Blogged.
Please support this website by adding us to your whitelist in your ad blocker. Ads are what helps us bring you premium content! Thank you!