A New Method to Alter Genetic Code

PIGS really could save our bacon. Organs that are invisible to our immune system and so won't be rejected when they are transplanted could be ready within 10 years, thanks to a faster way of genetically engineering pigs.

Progress towards these "xenotransplants" has stalled through lack of funding and problems with the cloning technique used to engineer the pigs. Now there is a simpler way. The new technique will alter the DNA in a boar's sperm cells, and therefore in any future offspring, by injecting a virus into its testicles carrying the desired genes - such as those used to "disguise" pig organs. When the boars breed naturally, they should pass on the genetic changes to 

Tags: DNA, Xenotransplants, genetically engineered pigs

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Simulation Based Research by Henry Markham

Henry Markham proposes 'simulation based research'  

1. Reverse Engineer natural processes.


2. Generate Neurons


3. Reverse Engineer Electrical Types.


4. Molecular Basis of Electrical Diversity


5. Forward Engineering Single Neuron Models


6. Probe Neuron Models


7. The channelome project

The human “channelome,”  comprises families of
membrane ion channel proteins regulating bodily functions—some
400 genes, mixed and matched.

1. Placing snapses


2. 
   
   
   
   1. Blue Builder Simulation Package
   
   
   
   


3. Capturing snaptic transmission


4. 
   
   
   
   1. 6 types of snapsis
   
   
   2. anatomy of Martinotti Loops
   
   
   
   


5. Network Activity


6. 
   
   
   
   1. Most processing is analog
   
   
   2. 
      
   
   
   
   

Blue Brain has no hypothesis so it had funding problems in the US.

Emergent properties

1.     Consciousness?

IT challenge

1. workflows


2. supercomputers


3. build neurons


4. VISUALIZATION


5. 
   
   
   
   1. INTERACTIVE VISUALIZATION
   
   
   2. Analysis
   
   
   
   

Blue Brain is a facility to build circuits 

1.         The future is virtual labs

Funding is trivial

1.     over 1000 different diseases affected by the brain circuits

Robotic Surgery on the Rise

Robotic surgical device manufacturing is at the burgeoning intersection of the automation industry and the medical instrumentation field. Although the current-day technology has existed since the early 2000s, the last couple of years have seen a large upswing in robotic surgery procedures.

The market for robot-assisted medical systems grew from $626.5 million in 2007 to an estimated $1 billion in 2008, according to a report published by Research and Markets. At the current rate, it is forecast to expand to $14 billion by 2014.

Much of this growth has been driven by sales of the "da Vinci" robotic system, developed by Intuitive Surgical. According to Barron's, the number of patients who underwent da Vinci surgery last year soared to 85,000, an increase of 75 percent from 2006. System sales rose by 42 percent over the same period.
The system's tiny robot arms are able to go places where human hands cannot, such as between the ribs in order to access the heart. The arms follow commands given by a surgeon in another room, who monitors the operation on a magnified screen. This process is particularly helpful for high-risk patients who would normally be considered poor candidates for intensive surgery.

Tags: da Vinci, Robotic Surgery

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The Hidden Talents of the Lowly Sea Cucumber | Popular Science

 

A recent study shows that a gene in the sea cucumber blocks transmission of the parasite that causes malaria. Passed to humans by mosquitoes, malaria threatens around 40 percent of the world's population and is blamed for up to a million deaths a year. The idea is to incorporate the gene into mosquitoes, causing them to produce the protein lectin, which is poisonous to the malaria parasite early in development. The new, genetically modified mosquitoes would be released into the wild in hopes that they reproduce and spread the new gene to future generations and tamp out the spread of malaria.

The Hidden Talents of the Lowly Sea Cucumber | Popular Science

 

Technorati Tags: malaria,sea cucumber,genetics,genetic switch,lectin

Cancer Risk Linked To Gum Disease

This looks like another indicator of inflammation risk.

 

The researchers found that after adjusting for details about the history of smoking, dietary factors, and other known risk factors, participants with a history of gum disease were 14% more likely to develop any type of cancer compared to those without history of gum disease.

Cancer Risk Linked To Gum Disease

Technorati Tags: cancer,inflammation

AFP: Sedentary life accelerates aging: study

 

AFP: Sedentary life accelerates aging: study

Printable Robots - OhmyNews International

 

Consider recent advances in inkjet printing. The same basic technology in a $100 home printer has been used by researchers at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina for the printing of "bio-ink" skin tissue as potential grafts for burn victims. It may also provide the basis for the printing of complete artificial organs such as kidneys and livers.

Printable Robots - OhmyNews International

Technorati Tags: Inkjet robot,robot,printable organ

The Race to Read Genomes on a Shoestring, Relatively Speaking - New York Times

 

A person wanting to know his or her complete genetic blueprint can already have it done — for $350,000.

But whether a personal genome readout becomes affordable to the rest of us could depend on efforts like the one taking place secretly in a nondescript Silicon Valley industrial park. There, Pacific Biosciences has been developing a DNA sequencing machine that within a few years might be able to unravel an individual’s entire genome in minutes, for less than $1,000. The company plans to make its first public presentation about the technology on Saturday.

The Race to Read Genomes on a Shoestring, Relatively Speaking - New York Times

Technorati Tags: DNA,Genomes

Pigs raise hopes for blindness cure - Telegraph

 

"The results are really encouraging," says Prof Coffey. "We plan to do the first patient within three years."

Using surgical instruments introduced through three one millimetre holes in the eye, the team goes under the retina, a translucent layer, then inflate it so it separates from the underlying cells.

The human eye cells derived from embryonic cells were then introduced on a rolled up patch and injected through a one millimetre hole, where the patch of human cells unfolded under the retina.

"I was over the moon when I got the results because it is a proof of concept," says Prof Coffey. "We really can do it."

Although the implanted human cells are black, the same as the surrounding pig cells, they can be distinguished when light of a given colour is shone into the eye. The human cells glowed when viewed this way under the gaze of an instrument called a scanning laser opthalmoscope. "That indicates good function," says Prof Coffey.

The operation on three sighted pigs took only 30 minutes, suggesting the stem cell implants could eventually become a routine outpatient operation, they told an event backed by the company Mostra at the Globe Theatre to promote the London Project to Cure Blindness - a scientific initiative between UCL, Moorfields and The University of Sheffield.

Pigs raise hopes for blindness cure - Telegraph

 

Technorati Tags: macular degeneration

Doctors Report Transplant Breakthrough

 

The treatment involved weakening the patient's immune system, then giving the recipient bone marrow from the person who donated the organ. In one experiment, four of five kidney recipients were off immune-suppressing medicines up to five years later.

"There's reason to hope these patients will be off drugs for the rest of their lives," said Dr. David Sachs of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who led the research published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.
Since the world's first transplant more than 50 years ago, scientists have searched for ways to trick the body to accept a foreign organ as its own. Immune-suppressing drugs that prevent organ rejection came into wide use in the 1980s. But they raise the risk of cancer, kidney failure and many other problems. And they have unpleasant side effects such as excessive hair growth, bloating and tremors.
Eliminating the need for anti-rejection drugs is "a huge advance," said Dr. Suzanne Ildstad, a University of Louisville immunology specialist who had no role in the work.
"It still needs some fine-tuning so that everyone who gets treated gets the same consistent outcome ... It's not the holy grail of tolerance yet," she cautioned.

Doctors Report Transplant Breakthrough

Technorati Tags: Organ Transplants,immune system