MIT researchers have developed a device to keep implanted pancreatic islets oxygenated and alive. The technique involves a replenishable oxygen reservoir and a coating that protects the cells from the immune system. In tests in diabetic rats, the subcutaneous implants kept nearly 90% of the islets alive for up to eight months, and blood glucose […]
Tag: Genetics
Amazing New Microscope Looks Deep Through Cells in Living Tissues
A team of researchers from Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard, Stony Brook, Caltech, and UC Berkeley have developed a remarkable new microscope for looking at living cells in 3D still inside the body. The microscope relies on a technique dubbed as lattice light-sheet microscopy, which involves passing a plane of light through tissue repeatedly. The beam […]
Amazing New Microscope Looks Deep Through Cells in Living Tissues
A team of researchers from Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard, Stony Brook, Caltech, and UC Berkeley have developed a remarkable new microscope for looking at living cells in 3D still inside the body. The microscope relies on a technique dubbed as lattice light-sheet microscopy, which involves passing a plane of light through tissue repeatedly. The beam […]
Transgenic Silkworms Produce Fluorescent, Bacteria Killing Silk
Fluorescent proteins tend to be toxic, so their clinical applications are sometimes limited and suspect. Researchers from Purdue University and the Korean National Institute of Agricultural Research engineered a new material, made of silk and some genetic engineering, that fluoresces well under green light without causing too much toxicity. The technology works thanks to a protein, which […]
Google Augmented Reality Microscope to Help Automate Pathology
Google has developed an “Augmented Reality Microscope” that allows various deep learning algorithms to be tried on the images that it captures and for the results to be immediately seen in the microscope’s field of view. Moreover, the same technology can be integrated into existing clinical microscopes. This can really help the people working on […]
Complex Brain Organoids to Help Study Neuro Diseases and Cures
At the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, researchers have been building 3D models of bits of living brain. In a new study appearing in Nature Biotechnology, the investigators have now come up with a technique for delivering oxygen to these organoids, growing them into more complex units, and transplanting them into living rodents. The […]
Ultra-Thin Endoscope to Peer at Neural Activity Deep Inside Brain
At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, engineers have created an endoscope that’s about as thin as human hair, featuring an optical fiber only 125 microns in diameter. It’s so small that it can be inserted deeper than ever before into the brains of living mice to see individual in situ neurons. While similar endoscopes have existed […]
Rendering Brain Tissue Transparent with OPTIclear to Unlock Secrets of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s
Researchers from Imperial College London and The University of Hong Kong have published results in Nature Communications of a revolutionary process that renders human brain tissue transparent and allows the complex network of neurons to be mapped. This technique of clearing alters brain tissue’s optical properties without impacting the cell structure, allowing neurons to be […]
Artificial Organelles Allow Manipulation of Chemical Processes Inside Cells
At the University of Basel in Switzerland, researchers have come up with a way of implanting artificial organelles into individual cells of zebrafish embryos. Introducing artificial organelles into cells can allow for manipulation of inter-cellular activities that are otherwise very difficult to influence. Artificial organelles can be made to carry enzymes and other compounds that […]
Cardiomyocyte Molds to Improve Cardiac Cell Therapy
Researchers at Michigan Tech and Harvard Medical School have developed a new way to create cardiomyocytes from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), for improved cardiac cell therapy. The team developed a culture mold that mimics the physiological conditions under which cardiomyocytes grow. When the team tested the molds, they found that the cells matured more […]
Interview with Devyn Smith PhD, COO of Sigilon Therapeutics
Sigilon Therapeutics is a Cambridge, MA-based biotech company developing innovative therapeutics by encapsulating cells in a novel coating that renders them invisible to the immune system. The engineered cells contained in the company’s particles can provide long-term continuous therapy for a range of chronic disorders, including hemophilia and diabetes, and eliminate the need for intermittent […]
Peptide Hydrogel Promotes Tissue Growth to Heal Without Drugs
Rice University researchers studying how different drugs, proteins, and cells embedded in peptide hydrogel can boost healing and promote tissue formation, discovered that the hydrogel itself exhibits powerful therapeutic properties. Their self-assembling multidomain peptide (MDP) with the amino acid sequence K2(SL)6K2 can be injected into tissue to provide a place for new cells to grow, the […]
3D Printed Patches with Living Cells Help to Overcome Tiny Blocked Vessels
Thrombotic blockages within blood vessels are a common health problem. When occlusions occur in large vessels, they can be relatively easy to deal with using wires, catheters, balloons, and stents. It is the smaller vasculature, which can be too narrow for intravascular instruments, that is currently nearly impossible to deal with. Researchers at the National […]
Nanotechnology for Biological Sample Preservation Without Refrigeration
Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have developed a method to preserve protein biomarkers in clinical samples, without the need for refrigeration. The technique relies on growing molecules called metal-organic frameworks around the proteins in the sample, potentially enabling clinicians in remote and low-resource settings to send patient samples long distances for analysis, using […]
3D Jet Writing Creates Highly Porous Polymer Microtissue for Drug Screening
Researchers at Purdue University and University of Michigan have developed a device they call a 3D jet writer, which can print high-resolution polymer microtissues on a small scale, with appropriate pore sizes to allow cancer cell infiltration. The researchers hope that the printed tissues will allow them to study cancer metastasis and conduct drug screens […]
Nanoplasmonic Sensor Can Count Dividing Cells and Detect Biomolecules
Researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology in Japan have developed a nanoplasmonic sensor that can measure cell division over extended periods and detect biomolecules with high sensitivity. The device has potential as a diagnostic test for disease biomarkers, or as a research tool to screen the effects of therapeutic molecules on cell […]
Acoustic Shear Poration Technique to Deliver Genetic Material into Cells
Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have developed a new technique to deliver genetic material into cells. Called Acoustic Shear Poration (ASP), the method combines ultrasound waves and focused mechanical force to create pores in the cell membrane, allowing genetic material to enter the cell. Gene therapy holds enormous promise, but getting DNA and […]
Microfluidic Device to Capture Tumor-Specific Extracellular Vesicles
Scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital have developed a microfluidic device to capture tumor-derived extracellular vesicles from patient blood samples. The device paves the way for minimally invasive characterization and monitoring of difficult-to-treat cancers, such as glioblastoma. Assessing biomarkers present in the blood is a promising way to characterize and keep track of tumors, but some […]
3D-printed Microfluidic Device for Point-of-Care Single-Cell Analysis
Researchers at the New York Genome Center and New York University have developed a portable low-cost analysis device that can perform single-cell RNA sequencing. The researchers hope that the device will enable genetic sequencing at the bed-side to help identify cell types that can be targeted using specific drugs, and the device also has potential […]
Liquid-Powered Bioprinting of Tissues at Any Scale
Researchers at Queen Mary University of London, University of Oxford, and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, have developed an unusual way to print complex biological structures with multiple ingredients that can harness further tissue growth. The 3D structures that are created are made of modular components that can be brought together in specific concentrations and locations. The […]