Researchers at TU Wien in Vienna have developed a placenta-on-a-chip microfluidic device which uses a femtosecond laser-based 3D-printing method to create a customized hydrogel membrane. The printed membrane is populated with placental cells and mimics the microstructure of the placental barrier. This allows researchers to study how substances, inc (Read more...)
Tag: Genetics
Automation of Patch Clamp Technique to Speed Brain Studies
The patch clamp technique, for which the 1991 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded, is widely used to study the electrical activity of individual cells. It is particularly useful in neuroscience because electricity is the language through which neurons communicate. But it is slow and tedious since it requires a trained specialist to [& (Read more...)
New Device for Testing Immunotherapies on Tumor Fragments
Immuno-oncology, a rapidly developing field that harnesses the body’s immune system to attack cancers, lacks effective methods of testing potential therapies. In addition to animal studies, tiny bits of tumors are placed, along with chemical compounds being tested, within multiwell plates and watched over using a number of techniques. While t (Read more...)
Custom 3D-Printed Microfluidics for Cell-Based Health Research
Researchers at NYU Abu Dhabi (yes, there is such a thing) have developed a method to 3D print functional and inexpensive microfluidic probes for cancer research. The technique could make microfluidics more accessible, allowing researchers to easily design and produce their own devices, and conduct cell-based healthcare research, such as studying ca (Read more...)
Molecular Sensor to Detect if Cancer Drug is Working
Being able to monitor the chemical content of cancer cells may help scientists develop new anti-cancer medications. Additionally, it may also lead to personalized drug therapies for cancer patients that all too often end up trying multiple medications before finding one that works. Chemists at MIT have come up with just such a tool for […]
Optogenetic Cochlear Implants Aim to Improve Quality of Sound
At the University of Göttingen in Germany researchers have managed to use light to stimulate the auditory nerves of gerbils, in the process allowing the deaf animals to hear sounds. The technology is being developed to improve the audio quality of cochlear implants, devices that can bring hearing to people with several types of hearing [&helli (Read more...)
Genetics Blockchain Platform Shivom Partners with SingularityNET (Interview)
With an abundance of innovation already taking place in the field of genomics, the addition of blockchain technology opens the door to even more opportunities. Blockchain-based genomics platform Shivom and it’s partners are positioning themselves to step through that door. Last month, Shivom announced a partnership with Singula (Read more...)
Microfluidic Device Manipulates Droplets with Ultrasound: May Revolutionize Diagnostics
Microfluidic devices are a major topic of research lately, partly because they have the potential to scale down existing devices and to make new diagnostic tools possible. Typically, microfluidic systems consist of scaled-down versions of conventional tubes, pumps, and valves. While effective for many applications, conventional components often get (Read more...)
Twisters Inside a Lab-on-a-Chip Trap Viruses, DNA, Biomolecules
At Purdue University engineers have developed a new type of optical nanotweezers that can be used to grab onto and inspect viruses, DNA strings, and other important biomolecules. The innovative lab-on-a-chip device relies on a “nanostructured plasmonic metafilm” created out of a very thin gold sheet with nano-scale holes drilled into it (Read more...)
Microfluidic Device Detects Bacteria in Tiny Samples
Canadian researchers at McGill University and University of Toronto have come up with a new device for rapid detection of small concentrations of pathogenic bacteria within tiny samples. The technology may help to spot diseases early, and so allow clinicians to better treat their patients while slowing down the spread of infection. The device consi (Read more...)
Turbulent French Press Bioreactor Makes Platelets from Stem Cells
Researchers at Kyoto University have developed a technique to produce platelets from induced pluripotent stem cells (IPS cells). Platelets are formed when small fragments break off from large cells called megakaryocytes within blood flow. The technique involves creating IPS megakaryocytes and then culturing them in a specialized bioreactor. The bio (Read more...)
Map’s Connectivity Map Traced by Artificial Neural Networks
Our brains are composed of billions of nerve cells and each of those cells can be connected to thousands of other individual cells, making for an incredibly complex network. While three-dimensional electron microscopy is used to image cells and their connections, typically manual observation and mapping is used to create the connectivity diagr (Read more...)
Artificial Model of Heart Ventricle for Studying Cardiac Diseases, Drugs, Therapies
Custom-built artificial hearts are still something from science fiction, but the engineering knowledge to get there is already being assembled in labs around the world. One important piece of the puzzle has just been reported on by researchers at Harvard University, who have built a model of the heart’s left ventricle, seeded with living hear (Read more...)
Bioengineered Bone Grafts for Large Bone Defects
Researchers at the New York Stem Cell Foundation have developed a technique to produce bioengineered bone grafts for large bone defects, which are currently difficult to treat using conventional techniques. To deal with bone defects, clinicians currently use either synthetic materials or bone grafts from the patient or a donor. However, these graft (Read more...)
New Device Captures Circulating Tumor Cells Directly Within Blood Vessels
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are present in the blood of people suffering from most cancers, but because of their rarity their presence is very difficult to spot. A number of technologies have been developed in the past to capture and count CTCs (see flashbacks below), but they tend to still have a number of limitations. […]
Method Tracks How Cancer Drugs Spread to Tumor Cells
When it comes to anti-cancer drugs, it’s not only their effectiveness at killing the intended target that we want to know, but also their ability to reach and penetrate the cancer cells. Knowing whether the drug actually enters cancer cells can be as important as whether it’s effective once inside. Now researchers at Francis Crick (Read more...)
New Nano Microscope Gives Detailed New Look at Alzheimer’s Brains
Alzheimer’s disease seems to develop over many years, if not decades, before symptoms begin to show up. In order to better understand its development, researchers have been looking for new ways to track the formation of amyloid plaques within the brain, which are the best known biomarkers of Alzheimer’s. Researchers at Purdue University (Read more...)
Device Detects Mosquitoes Carrying Pathogenic Viruses
Mosquitoes are usually only an unpleasant nuisance, but when they’re carrying diseases we only find out once people start showing up sick at hospitals and clinics. A spinoff from Purdue University is hoping to give public health professionals, and mosquito eradication programs, an early warning system to know where to direct their resources. (Read more...)
Scientists Use Organ on Chip to Grow New Kidney Cells
Scientists at Harvard’s Wyss Institute have come up with a way of growing podocytes, kidney cells that filter out blood, from induced pluripotent stem cells inside a special chamber that replicates the glomerulus of a kidney. These cells, provided an environment similar to their natural one, have shown remarkable identity to their a (Read more...)
Plasmonic Patch Improves Sensitivity of Fluorescent Diagnostic Testing
A great deal of life science research relies on using fluorescent markers to track molecular biological activity. It’s extremely effective as long as the light signal coming back from a sample is strong enough, but if the light is dim, as with highly sensitive, low concentration tests, fluorescent markers are often insufficient. Now researche (Read more...)