The Promised Future of Prosthetics: Robotic Limbs

Posted on February 11, 2013 by | 6 comments

It must feel great to be able to feel a friend’s hand after seven years. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and UPMC have enabled a 30-year-old paralysed man to be able to move his robotic arm by means of electrodes placed in his brain. The tested patient has been paralysed for seven years after a motorcycle accident. “It feels like I’m robocop” says Tim Hemmes, the spinal patient. Researchers used the newly developed brain-computer interference (BCI) technology to make Tim he has hand again. The data released from Tim’s thoughts are then interpreted by an IBM designed processor. The analysed data are then put into command language for the robotic limb. “When Tim reached out to high-five me with the robotic arm, we knew this technology had the potential to help people who cannot move their own arms achieve greater independence,” said Dr. Wang, when watching a memorable scene in 2011.

Today, different types of bionics are being made. There exists bionic lenses, bionic arms and bionic legs. However, the accuracy of these devices are not perfect yet but the clinical cases are showing a promising future in this field.

Tim Hemmes’s case

How does it work?!

In order for patience to feel comfortable using the prosthetic limb, the designed limb’s weight should match the actual limb’s weight. This prevents researchers from producing gigantic robots. The next step in making a robotic limb is building an appropriate BCI which matches the right part of the brain. In order to do so, researchers use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to find the right place for the conductors. Conductors take data orders from your brain and analyse those data using bio-computational algorithms to transform data into machine language. The robots then do the job for the patient.

 

The robots used should have the same functionality as the actual limb since it is believed the brain of the patient can only command in a certain manner. That certain manner matches with what the patient did with his/her actual limb and our brains are not trained for anything beyond what our limbs can do.

Below is a Ted talk showing the clinical accomplishments of robotic limbs:

Although it is very early to comment on this technology but it is pretty evident that soon this technology will become a solution for amputated limbs. Many different researched are also being conducted on robotic lenses but not a lot of successful cases have been reported yet.

References:

1. Di Pino G, Porcaro C, Tombini M, et al. A neurally-interfaced hand prosthesis tuned inter-hemispheric communication. Restorative Neurol Neurosci. 2012;30(5):407-418.

2. Di Pino G, Porcaro C, Tombini M, et al. A neurally-interfaced hand prosthesis tuned inter-hemispheric communication. Restorative Neurol Neurosci. 2012;30(5):407-418.

3. Guymer R. The challenge and the promise of the bionic eye. the bionic vision australia project. Clin Exp Ophthalmol. 2012;40:123-124.

4. Li Hu, Yang Jian-yu, Su Peng-cheng, Wang Wan-shan. Computer aided modeling and pore distribution of bionic porous bone structure. J Cent South Univ. 2012;19(12):3492-3499.

5. Mironov V, Boland T, Trusk T, Forgacs G, Markwald RR. Organ printing: Computer-aided jet-based 3D tissue engineering. Trends Biotechnol. 2003;21(4):157-161.

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science, Science Communication, Science in the News

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Gene therapy, newly developed treatment approved in Europe

Posted on February 10, 2013 by | 2 comments

Genes (composed of deoxyribonucleic acid, also known as DNA) function as the biological determinants of heredity that exhibit traits, such as eye color and they are located on chromosomes inside cells.

Gene therapy

Gene therapy is an experimental treatment that involves introducing genetic material (DNA or RNA) into a person’s cells to fight or prevent disease. It facilitates our body by providing the genes in needs, or correct copies of defective genes that may potentially cause genetic disorders. So far, researchers are studying gene therapy in clinical trials to suit different types of cancer and other various diseases, such as hemophilia B, Parkinson’s disease, and HIV.

Several approaches are being attempted in order to cure diseases via gene therapy. First of all, mutated genes that cause diseases are replaced with healthy copies of the genes. Also, mutated genes that are functioning improperly are inactivated. Finally, new genes are introduced into the body to help fighting against diseases.

Generally, a gene cannot be directly inserted into a person’s cell. So, a vector, which is used to deliver a gene to a person’s cell, is used. Virus is the most commonly used vector in gene therapy. Although the viruses are genetically altered to be safe and carry normal human DNA, some risks still exist with gene therapy.

Gene therapy was not available outside a clinical trial until recently. Since 1990, hundreds of clinical trials have been conducted and most have failed as it was difficult to deliver the genes and keep them activated for a long time. Also, the incident of a teenager’s death during a clinical trial at the University of Pennsylvania in 1999 brought the safety concerns on the surface. However, researchers have been slowly overcoming the obstacles and in the last few years there have been reports of successes in attempts to treat cancer, hemophilia B, certain immune diseases and a condition that causes blindness.

After all, gene therapy was first officially approved in Europe. The European Medicines Agency has recommended the application of a gene therapy to treat rare genetic diseases. This was actually the very first regulatory approval of a gene therapy drug in the Western world. Also, a gene therapy to treat cancer won an approval in China in 2003.

As illustrated, a gene therapy has been a controversial topic and it was successful in establishing realistic procedure in the world. Still it is not such a common method that we encounter in the medical field. As it was proven to be beneficial and effective in treating number of symptoms, our deeper attention and acknowledgement regarding this content would be an advantageous step in discovering a new tool to cure diseases.

Here is a video more detailed descriptions about the gene therapy.

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KiWon Min

Online reference

http://www.genetherapynet.com/

http://www.ema.europa.eu/ema/

http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/health_medicine/gene_therapy/

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/21/health/european-agency-recommends-approval-of-a-gene-therapy.html?_r=0

 

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Science in the News

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Are HIV Medications a Thing of the Past?

Posted on February 4, 2013 by | 4 comments

Being diagnosed with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is one of the most devastating things a person can hear.  This virus which breaks down a person’s immune system and eventually leads to acquired immune deficiency (AIDS) is still one of Earth’s incurable tragedies.  However, new research has come to light where gene therapy  may be used as an alternative to medications for patients with HIV.

HIV gains entry into the body by attaching to the surface proteins CCR5 and CXCR4 of a person’s immune cells, also known as T-cells.  The current medication treatment of HIV is called highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) which is a mixture of pharmaceutical drugs.  HAART acts to prevent the spread of HIV in the body.   However,  researchers at the Stanford University of Medicine have found a way to halt further HIV infection in the body without requiring patients to take medications.

A model of HIV that was on display at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in July of 2012. Image from Fickr user dctim1.

Many different gene therapy research approaches are being investigated, but Dr. Matthew Porteus and his team at Stanford made a unique adjustment to the other research.  The Stanford scientists utilized zinc finger nucleases in order to break open the CCR5 receptor protein’s DNA found on T-cells.  From there, they added three genes that are resistant to HIV in a process known as stacking.  Stacking the genes is what differs between the various teams of gene therapy research.  Faced with the resistant genes, HIV has less of a chance of entering the cell.  In order to test this, the scientists inserted either one, two or the three genes and then exposed the T-cells to HIV.  They found that the cells with the combination of the three genes were the most resistant.

Some people in the world actually have a resistance to HIV because of a mutation in their CCR5 receptors.  Thus, if this new gene therapy can mimic this resistance hopefully HIV will not be as daunting.  Below is a video displaying the research done at the University of Pennsylvania , which is similar to what is being done at the Stanford School of Medicine.  The video is from February of 2011.

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Although this research appears very promising, it is by no means perfect yet. There are certain problems that could arise including the cells not responding to the genes and breakages in the other areas possibly causing cancer or other problems.  This research is extremely new and still has a lot of work to be done before it is ready to be tested on the general public.

Brittany Maxwell

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Excess Sugar link to cancer

Posted on February 3, 2013 by | 4 comments
What are sugars?
Sugars are carbohydrates that are composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. There are numerous types of sugar: glucose, fructose,galactose, sucrose, maltose and lactose. Everyone loves sweets; we cannot resist ourselves when we see candies, ice cream or any types of sweet foods. Sugars are needed to provide us with energy and contribute to our wellness. They sweet-favored substances used in our food but we have never thought of sugar as “bad nutrient” that link to the causation of cancer in our body.On science news, it proposed that high levels of sugar is found in diabetics; it damages our cells to increase our chance of getting cancer. The key point is that obesity can cause diabetes; a disease where body fails to control blood sugar levels, and it can increase the risk of cancer development. Thus, the diabetic population has doubled the chances to suffer pancreatic or colon cancer according to the epidemiological studies. With obesity in British and Spanish children reaching about 16 percents, the highest in Europe, this epidemic has major health implications. Obesity and diabetes increase cancer risk has been a major health issue.

High sugar level in the body leads to obesity which causes diabetes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discovery:

A picture of diabetes in body

Dr. Jimenez at the University Rey Juan Carlos linked obesity and diabetes with cancer due to high sugar levels which increase activity of  a gene widely implicated in cancer progression. He conducted a laboratory study on how cells in the intestine respond to sugars and signal to the pancreas to release insulin, the key hormone that controls blood sugar levels. Sugars in the intestine trigger cells to release a hormone called gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP) in which it enhances insulin release by the pancreas. In molecular cell study, Dr. Jimenez’s team presented that the ability of the intestinal cells to secrete gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP) is manipulated by β-catenin which its activity is strictly dependent on sugar levels. Therefore,  They have explained their discovery that increased activity of β-catenin increase the development of many cancers. Thus, the high sugar levels induce nuclear accumulation of β-catenin and leads to cell proliferation. The changes induced on β-catenin, the molecules involved and the diversity of cancer cells susceptible to these changes have been found.

There is a short clip about how sugar leads to initiation of cancer.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) published that obesity are the fifth leading risk for global death and approximately 2.8 million adults die each year; addition, 44 % of the diabetes burden, 41% of cancer were attributed to obesity. The changes in our metabolism caused by dietary sugar impact on our cancer risk is a serious health issue in the world. Before the initiation of cancer in our body and suffer cancer, reducing the sugar level we intake must be limited.

Brian Ahn

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Video games are good for you!

Posted on February 3, 2013 by | 4 comments

The topic of whether or not video games are good for you has always been in murky waters. Are they really good or bad for your health? They are both good and bad actually, as it depends on what situation you are in. Just to throw in some examples, too much may lead to addiction, and also bad grades, if you are playing hours on end right before a final exam. However, playing games can improve problem solving, multitasking, hand-eye coordination, etc. Of course, that’s why moderation is vital here to prevent negative effects from taking over the positive ones. Alcohol is a great example of why moderation is good and this concept can also be applied to video games.

However, despite knowing the obvious negative effects of video gaming are, what are the positive effects of playing them in moderation? As a person playing video games since age 5, I have always wondered what life perks I have gotten from playing games. In Dr. Bavelier’s TED Talk, she focuses on some of the misconceptions of the gaming and the benefits of what ‘training’ in gaming can do for one person.

Here are some of the main ideas of her talk:

  • Gaming does not have a detrimental effect on your vision, but it actually improves your eyesight.

Some parents may believe staring at a TV or computer screen for long periods of time is the cause of their children having nearsightedness, but this is false. Gaming helps you distinguish small details in clutter and different shades of grey. For example, being able to read small print and driving in the fog easily are examples of how your vision is better.

  • Gaming improves your ability to pay attention.

By comparing gamers and people who don’t play video games, and using brain imaging, Dr. Bavelier’s study shows that areas of the brain which control your ability to pay attention are much more efficient in gamers than those who are not.

  • Gaming improves your multitasking skills.

Gamers are able to deal with many tasks and filter out unnecessary information to perform their tasks well. This idea is completely different than multi-media tasking, where you listen to music, text a friend, check your e-mail at the same time.  Multi-media taskers are actually worse when tested for multitasking than with gamers.

These are not the only positive effects of gaming but it should shed some light that gaming is not totally bad. The skills developed from gaming even made a boy save his sister from a moose (if the story is true)! If you’re a gamer, you will enjoy this multitasking game and should try to compete with your friends. If you’re not a gamer, compare your score with a gamer. Start casually gaming and you may start developing skills you never had before!

Derrick Lee

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Insulin – Spreading The Cure

Posted on February 3, 2013 by | 1 comment

Prior to the discovery of insulin, diabetes often resulted in fatalities. The disease is considered much less serious now that extractable insulin is well-established as an effective treatment for diabetes; however, it is important to analyze the historical methods in which the cure was globally implemented in case something similar occur. Imagine if a cure for cancer was discovered – I can picture the news making global headlines that very same day. But how would such groundbreaking news spread to the most isolated communities? Or would it at all? Who would have physical access to such a cure first? Using insulin as an example, I can deduce why it is too quickly assumed that such a cure would automatically reach everyone in the world with cancer.

Insulin As a Cure – Patients with type 1 diabetes can’t produce insulin by themselves, so insulin can be extracted from animals and injected into the patient to stabilize blood sugar levels (which if unstable could lead to toxic effects.) Insulin stops the catabolism of fat into energy by inhibiting the release of glucagon and removing excess glucose from the blood. The structure of insulin protein is shown below:

Insulin (click on images to view source)

The following is a short animated video about Insulin, Glucose and You:

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Discovery

Insulin was extracted from the pancreas by Frederick Banting and Charles Best in 1921 at the University of Toronto. They tested the anti-diabetic qualities of the pancreatic extract on a dog before their first human test subject, a 14 year-old boy, in 1922 – the results were “spectacular.” The two went around the diabetic ward of the Toronto General Hospital injecting comatose and dying children. “Before injecting their last comatose patients, the first started to awaken from their comas.”

 

How did the discovery spread globally?

Banting and his laboratory director John MacLeod received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery in 1923 and both immediately shared credit (and prize money) with other individuals involved including Best. This news made headlines all over the world.

A historical newspaper clipping during the time of the discovery of insulin.

Banting and Best made the patent available without charge and didn’t try to control the commercial production of insulin. This played a huge role in the rapid spread of insulin as a cure. Also, prior to insulin, a strict diet was the best way to increase life-expectancy of diabetics (American Diabetes Association 2012). Insulin surely allows diabetics a less restrictive lifestyle (another reason for the increased demand); unfortunately the dietary freedom has caused the percentage of the US population diagnosed with diabetes to increase since 1980 (Polonsky 2012).

There is very little analysis of the physical spread of insulin at its time of discovery. It was such a major discovery that improved and saved the lives of many, yet how it became this way has been taken for granted, all we remember is that it happened. It is popular belief that the cure was in such a high demand and was so dramatically effective that it would find its own way around the globe. I argue that this isn’t exactly the case  – many poorer countries in Africa still suffer fatalities from diabetes today because they lack access to insulin (Cohen 2011).

Grattin Cox

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A Man loses his colon in pursuit of acne-free skin?

Posted on February 2, 2013 by | 3 comments

Adult acne sufferer

Just how far are people willing to go for cosmetic enhancement? Apparently, very far, as a New Jersey man had to have his colon removed due to a severe inflammatory bowel disorder, which was caused by an anti-acne drug called Accutane. This raises the question of when personal responsibility is required, instead of relying on the expertise of pharmaceutical companies and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Accutane, manufactured by Roche

Acne affects 85% of people between the ages of 12 and 24 and can cause embarrassment and depression. Although acne may clear up – or at the very least diminish – by age 25, millions suffer from acne even into late adulthood. As a result, anti-acne drugs are a multi-billion dollar industry. Accutane, which is manufactured by Roche, is considered the miracle drug, as it can dramatically clear up acne. However, as with many prescription drugs, this comes with severe side effects including stomach pain, bone and muscle pain, persistent fever, depression, suicidal thoughts, and dry skin to name a few. For many years, the public has been divided on Accutane’s presence on the market; some heavily advocate against it due to the severe side effects, which can be permanent, but acne sufferers simply believe that Accutane is their only hope for clear skin.

Due to countless lawsuits similar to the man in New Jersey, who won a 25 million dollar verdict, the pharmaceutical company that manufactures the prescription drug has pulled the drug off the market in 12 countries, including the US. In other countries, they have quietly stopped marketing the drug. However, numerous generic forms of Accutane exist, going under the names of Amnesteem, Claravis and Sotret. As a result, this “miracle drug” is still circulating among acne sufferers, some who have faced devastating consequences, including miscarriages, psychosis, mental problems, hepatitis, night blindness, and even death. Where does personal responsibility take place in deciding to take such a dangerous drug? Why are pharmaceutical companies oblivious to such problems and knowingly continue to sell dangerous prescription drugs, where the side effects far outweigh the benefits?

This article, along with a similar article discussing the presence of generic Accutane drugs, is particularly intriguing, as both raises the question of when personal responsibilities are necessary in deciding to undergo extreme oral medication for cosmetic reasons. As well, the article warns us that the public must do extensive research, instead of heavily replying on the expertise of pharmaceutical companies. After reading this article, I began to wonder when I ever questioned the advice of a doctor regarding prescription drugs and their side effects. I myself was on this particular drug for a year due to severe acne and experienced plethora of side effects, including depression. The ironic thing is that I never questioned whether the benefits outweigh the negative side effects, being oblivious to the negative impact on my overall health and well-being. Now that I am no longer on this extreme drug, I have become wary of prescription drugs and have begun to ask whether the benefits of prescription drugs outweigh the negative side effects. I would like to end my blog with the video below; Dr.Neal, a licensed dermatologist, discusses the dangerous side effects and educates the public about whether Accutane is the right solution for acne sufferers.

Derek Song

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Online references:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotretinoin

http://www.naturalnews.com/028611_accutane_side_effects.html

http://www.naturalnews.com/037552_generic_Accutane_acne_drug_health_risks.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITQQx4ATu80[/youtube]

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FAST: The mnemonic that might one day save your life

Posted on January 30, 2013 by | 4 comments

A cerebrovascular accident (CVA), also known as a stroke, is a potentially life threatening medical condition if left unaware and untreated. However, if the patient suffering from a stroke receives immediate medical attention, there is a high chance of survival and the patient is more likely to have limited damage by the stroke. Studies have shown that most people with stroke symptoms are still not getting to the hospital fast enough. Therefore, it is crucial that the local emergency services are contacted immediately after a person displays symptoms that resembled that of a stroke. Imagine the situation where you are dining at a restaurant and a person seated next to you experience a stroke. How would you know if this person is indeed having a stroke and needs immediate medical attention?

Signs of stroke

A stroke can happen to anyone of any age and health conditions. It can also occur at anytime and anywhere, so knowing how to detect whether a person or even yourself is potentially having a stroke may prove to be useful in case of emergency. A stroke is caused by disrupted blood flow to part of the brain, causing extensive damage to brain cells. When supply of oxygen is cut off by the disrupted blood flow, the brain cells fail to perform like they usually do and causing stroke symptoms that present themselves in several ways:

1. Sudden numbless of the face, limbs, especially on one side of the body
2. Sudden confusion or troubles speaking or comprehending
3. Sudden trouble seeing in either or both eyes
4. Sudden difficulties walking, balancing or in coordination
5. Sudden head aches

A full list of signs of stroke

FAST, or the Face Arm Speech Test

The FAST mnemonic is developed by a group of physicians and paramedics as a way to detect potential stroke patients and to deliver immediate treatment to the patient as quickly as possible. The four parts of the FAST mnemonic are namely:

Facial Weakness – whether a person can smile without dropping of the mouth
Arm Weakness – whether a person can hold up both arm
Speech Difficulty – whether a person can speak or understand speak
Time to act

with the last part “Time to act” signifying how important it is that the suspected stroke patient be sent to the hospital immediately for diagnosis and treatment.

The time frame for treatment is approximately 3 hours starting from the onset of symptoms where a drug that dissolve blood clots may be effective to prevent further brain cells damage. Knowing how to detect for potential stroke signs will speed up the process that the patient gets to the hospital, and potentially saving precious lives.

Jonathan Lui

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Limbal Rings: Do you have them?

Posted on January 28, 2013 by | 3 comments

I was brushing my teeth one night, when I, for some unknown reason, got fascinated with my eyes and their color. I’m sure everyone has had those private moments in front of the mirror where they have analyzed some aspect of themselves. As I leaned closer to the mirror, I noticed that I had this very dark ring around my iris (the colored part of my eye).  I had never paid attention to it before and I had no idea what it was, but I was so pleased with my discovery that I decided to research it further and find a name for what I had observed. The term that came up was “limbal ring”. At this point, I got very excited and decided I wanted to try to capture my limbal rings in a photo.  It took some work, and some very good lighting, but I managed to do it and this was the final result:

Upon further research, I discovered a study that was done at the University of California in Irvine that investigated if there was a correlation between the limbal ring and facial attractiveness.

They described that the thickness of the limbal ring lessens with age and sickness; therefore it is a good indicator of youth and health.

Participants of the study were seated in front of a screen which showed them two faces. These faces were identical except for the fact that one of the faces had the limbal rings edited out. The participants were then asked to choose the face they found more attractive.

These are two of the faces that were shown during the study:

Evolutionary Psychology Journal

Which face do you think is more attractive, the one on the left or the one on the right? 

Only light colored eyes were used for the faces because the limbal rings are more prominent in light colored eyes. All of the faces had a very neutral expression and there was a mix of male and female faces.

It was shown that both males and females significantly rated the faces with visible limbal rings as more attractive.

In the pictures above, both faces had the limbal ring present in the photo on the right and the limbal ring absent in the photo on the left. When these pictures were shown to participants of the study, there was a greater preference for the two faces on the right.

To me it appears that there may be somewhat of a subconscious attraction to eyes with this feature because many people also choose to buy contact lenses that stimulate the appearance of a prominent limbal ring.

I found the results of this experiment fascinating and am amazed at how such a small feature can greatly influence our perception of facial attraction.

Alright, go check out those limbal rings!

Dragana Savic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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