Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: biotech/medical – Page 1,343

MIT’s Raman Lab: At the Forefront of Building With Biology

Ritu Raman leads the Raman Lab, where she creates adaptive biological materials for applications in medicine and machines.

It seems that Ritu Raman was born with an aptitude for engineering. You may say it is in her blood since her mother is a chemical engineer, her father is a mechanical engineer, and her grandfather is a civil engineer. Throughout her childhood, she repeatedly witnessed firsthand the beneficial impact that engineering careers could have on communities. In fact, watching her parents build communication towers to connect the rural villages of Kenya to the global infrastructure is one of her earliest memories. She still vividly remembers the excitement she felt watching the emergence of a physical manifestation of innovation that would have a long-lasting positive impact on the community.

Raman is “a mechanical engineer through and through,” as she puts it. She earned her BS, MS, and PhD in mechanical engineering. Her postdoctoral work at MIT.

Cancer Cells Thrive in Body’s Sweet Spots: Study

Cancer researchers have discovered how mutated cells can sense the Goldilocks sweet spots in a human body.

Led by the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, an international group of researchers has shed new light on how cancer thrives.

Previous studies have shown how cancer cells can sense the stiffness of the environment they are in, from hard bone and tough muscle to soft, fatty tissue.

Study Finds Traditional Native Indian Medicine Effective Treatment for Type 2 Diabetes

Several traditional medicines commonly used in South Asia, are effective in maintaining blood sugar levels in patients with type 2 diabetes, according to a new study led by experts at the University of Nottingham.

Many South Asian countries, including India and Nepal, have been using the Ayurvedic natural medical system for thousands of years. Some of the herbs included in this traditional medical system are also used in other parts of the world including Iran, China, and Mexico – to name a few.

It features a multi-pronged and individualized approach to managing health conditions that can include lifestyle modification (including diet), Ayurvedic detoxifying and purifying therapies (e.g. Panchakarma), and Ayurvedic medicines (containing plant, animal, or mineral-origin ingredients – single or in combination).

Bacteria-based biohybrid microrobots on a mission to one day battle cancer

A team of scientists in the Physical Intelligence Department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems have combined robotics with biology by equipping E. coli bacteria with artificial components to construct biohybrid microrobots. First, as can be seen in Figure 1, the team attached several nanoliposomes to each bacterium. On their outer circle, these spherical-shaped carriers enclose a material (ICG, green particles) that melts when illuminated by near infrared light. Further towards the middle, inside the aqueous core, the liposomes encapsulate water soluble chemotherapeutic drug molecules (DOX).

The second component the researchers attached to the bacterium is . When exposed to a magnetic field, the iron oxide particles serve as an on-top booster to this already highly motile microorganism. In this way, it is easier to control the swimming of —an improved design toward an in vivo application. Meanwhile, the rope binding the liposomes and magnetic particles to the bacterium is a very stable and hard to break streptavidin and biotin complex, which was developed a few years prior and reported in a Nature article, and comes in useful when constructing biohybrid microrobots.

E. coli bacteria are fast and versatile swimmers that can navigate through material ranging from liquids to highly viscous tissues. But that is not all, they also have highly advanced sensing capabilities. Bacteria are drawn to chemical gradients such as or high acidity—both prevalent near tumor tissue. Treating cancer by injecting bacteria in proximity is known as bacteria mediated tumor therapy. The microorganisms flow to where the tumor is located, grow there and in this way activate the immune system of patients. Bacteria mediated tumor therapy has been a therapeutic approach for more than a century.

Dr Rosamund Lewis MD — Head, WHO Smallpox Secretariat — Surveillance, Preparedness & Health Security

Surveillance, Preparedness & Health Security In Critical Disease Emergencies — Dr. Rosamund Lewis, MD, Head, WHO Smallpox Secretariat, Technical Lead for Monkeypox.

Dr. Rosamund Lewis, MD, is Head, WHO Smallpox Secretariat, Emerging Diseases and Zoonoses Unit, World Health Emergencies Programme, at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, leading on emergency preparedness and advising on health security for the agency in this very critical domain, including as technical lead for Monkeypox. She also holds an appointment as Adjunct Professor in the School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa.

Previous to this role, Dr. Lewis joined the WHO COVID-19 response team as the health sciences lead for management of infodemics.

A public health physician with an early career in family and emergency medicine, Dr. Lewis has served the WHO, the Government of Canada, Ottawa Public Health and other agencies at global, national and municipal levels in emergency preparedness, health security, disease surveillance and response, offering country support for a range of immunization and disease control programs.

Dr. Lewis has served other roles focused on field epidemiology in emergency settings with organizations like Doctors Without Borders, and new vaccines and health systems development with the Global Vaccine Alliance (GAVI).

Continue reading “Dr Rosamund Lewis MD — Head, WHO Smallpox Secretariat — Surveillance, Preparedness & Health Security” | >

Scientists develop new method and device to isolate single cells using electric fields

In cancer research, it all comes down to a single cell.

Over the last decade, cancer researchers have homed in on the fact that an individual cell from a tumor can be used to perform molecular analyses that reveal important clues about how the cancer developed, how it spreads and how it may be targeted.

With this in mind, a team of researchers at Brown University has developed an advanced way to isolate single cells from complex tissues. In a study published in Scientific Reports, they show how the approach not only results in high-quality, intact single cells, but is also superior to standard isolation methods in terms of labor, cost and efficiency.