NEWARK, N.J., June 9, 2012 /PRNewswire-Asia-FirstCall/ --American Oriental Bioengineering, Inc., (the "Company" or "AOBI"), a pharmaceutical company dedicated to improving health through the development, manufacture and commercialization of a broad range of prescription and over-the-counter ("OTC") products, today announced that Boke Pharmaceutical Co, Ltd., one of the Company's wholly owned subsidiaries has passed the short notice inspections of its capsule products directed by China State Food and Drug Administration ("SFDA").

About American Oriental Bioengineering, Inc.

American Oriental Bioengineering, Inc. is a pharmaceutical company dedicated to improving health through the development, manufacture and commercialization of a broad range of prescription and over the counter products.

Safe Harbor Statement

Statements made in this press release are forward-looking and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in these statements. The economic, competitive, governmental, technological and other factors identified in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those described in the forward looking statements in this press release. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Contact:

American Oriental Bioengineering, Inc.

Kewa Luo

(646) 367-1765

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American Oriental Bioengineering Announces Boke Subsidiary Passes Inspection

BOSTON (AP) A Stanford University professor has won a $500,000 award from a Massachusetts Institute of Technology program in recognition of his inventions.

In awarding the 2012 Lemelson-MIT Prize, university officials on Monday called Stephen Quake "a prolific inventor with a fearless ability to explore and work across disciplines."

Quake invented a chip, similar to those in electronic devices, that lets scientists take nearly 10,000 different measurements at once. Through his work, called microfluidic large-scale integration, companies and research organizations are able to use the rubber chip technology in developing cancer drugs.

MIT officials said on the school's website that Quake's research has led to the creation of four companies and 82 patents.

The 43-year-old professor of bioengineering and applied physics also created a noninvasive prenatal testing method for detecting Down syndrome.

Stanford University officials said in a prepared statement that Quake is using a similar approach to provide tests that can show earlier and more easily whether an organ transplant recipient is rejecting an organ donation.

Quake said Monday he was "incredibly excited and humbled" by the prize.

"Hopefully, it will give me a little more credibility with the investment community as we try to commercialize our inventions," the professor told The Associated Press.

Inventor Jerome H. Lemelson and his wife founded the Lemelson-MIT Program at the university in 1994. MIT said the award Quake won is known as the "Oscar for inventors" and recognizes people who translate ideas into innovations that improve the world.

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Stanford professor wins $500K MIT invention prize

For Immediate Release Monday, June 11, 2012

Media Advisory

More information: Registration and more information at http://www.nibib.nih.gov/NewsEvents/TenthAnniversary. This event will not be videocast.

About the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB): NIBIBs mission is to support multidisciplinary research and research training at the crossroads of engineering and the biological and physical sciences. NIBIB supports emerging technology research and development within its internal laboratories and through grants, collaborations, and training. More information is available at the NIBIB website: http://www.nibib.nih.gov/.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.

NIH...Turning Discovery Into Health

Excerpt from:
A decade of innovation for health

A non-profit startup called Wishbone is using the Internet to connect donors with underprivileged and at-risk kids hoping to participate in summer instructional programs in areas like computer science, bioengineering, art, and fashion.

Wishbone was founded in 2008 by former Teach for America high school English teacher Beth Schmidt but only recently launched Wishbone.org, a digital meeting ground for students needing assistance to attend summer programs and potential sponsors.

Profiles of students participating in the program indicate the areas of summer study they'd like to pursue, the idea being that would-be sponsors can more easily find a student whose interests match their own, according to Reed Matheny, outreach coordinator for Wishbone.org.

"We've had some good momentum since we've launched. We've been able to fully fund 12 of our students now," Matheny told PCMag recently. "They're ready to go to their summer programs. More than 50 percent of the rest are pretty close to being fully funded as well."

Wishbone is currently open to 9th through 12th graders from low-income families at a dozen schools located in New York and San Francisco, but hopes to expand to other schools and cities, Matheny said. The non-profit may also expand its mission to sponsor students for programs offered during the school year in addition to its summer program activities.

The initial online effort has already turned up some interesting data. Matheny said most sponsored students have received a steady stream of small donations rather than big lump sums, for example.

"So far it's been a big collection of smaller donations. A huge number of people are coming in and donating like $25 or even just $10. We do have some bigger donors who'll find a student they really like and donate $250 or something really sizable," he said.

For safety and propriety reasons, students and sponsors don't directly communicate. But Wishbone.org does post "success stories" about students who've secured funding for a summer program. Profiles include video messages from the students themselves and donors can also read about a sponsored student's experiences at an instructional program like the UC Davis Cosmos Camp, which one Wishbone student interested in bioengineering will attend this year.

Other Wishbone kids are headed for fashion design and technology camps in New York this summer, and a couple of Bay Area kids will attend an art program at San Francisco's Academy of Art, Matheny said.

Several students still need funding for their summer camp dreams, he noted. The good news is that those programs don't start until late June and July, so there's plenty of time for interested PCMag readers to head over to Wishbone.org and contribute to a deserving student's cause.

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Wishbone Taps Power of the Net to Help At-Risk Kids

Skip image

Brittany Hutchinson demonstrating the pipette that she raised money to fund. through the Donors Choose program.

By Whitney Hamrick | May 24, 2012

Teachers daunted by the shortage of school funding in Seminole County may have a source of relief.

Brittany Hutchinson, who teaches bioengineering at Lyman High School in Longwood, raised more than $700 to pay for micropipettes and other equipment through her partnership with a website called donorschoose.org.

"Ms. Hutchinson did a great job of promoting her project through donorschoose.org," said Tony Williams, who is the Horace Mann representative for Seminole County. "We work with the schools and we want to see the educators succeed."

Donors Choose is a nonprofit organization that provides a platform for donors and public school teachers to connect in order to fund necessary classroom materials they would otherwise have to do without in a tough economy.

The website was established by Horace Mann, an insurance company founded by teachers to focus on the financial needs of educators. The website was first launched in February 2011 and has since contributed $1.3 million to school projects nationwide.

Williams arrived in Seminole County three months ago, and during his search to learn more about the community, he found Hutchinson's profile.

The rest is here:
Teachers experiment with fundraising pays off

NEWARK, N. J., May 31, 2012 /PRNewswire-Asia-FirstCall/ -- American Oriental Bioengineering, Inc. (AOBI) (the "Company"), today announced that it received written notification on May 25, 2012, from the NYSE Regulation, Inc. staff, on behalf of the New York Stock Exchange LLC ("NYSE"), that the staff had determined to immediately suspend trading in the common stock of the Company and file a delisting application with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") pursuant to Section 804.00 of the Listed Company Manual. The staff stated in its notice that it had determined that the Company no longer meets the standard for continued listing on the NYSE and that it is necessary and appropriate for the protection of investors to immediately suspend trading in its common stock and initiate delisting proceedings.Trading in the Company's common stock on the NYSE had been halted since March 16, 2012.

As a result of the above actions, on Tuesday, May 29, 2012, the Company's common stock commenced quotation on the OTC Markets under the ticker symbol "AOBI."

About American Oriental Bioengineering, Inc.

American Oriental Bioengineering, Inc. is a pharmaceutical company dedicated to improving health through the development, manufacture and commercialization of a broad range of prescription and over the counter products.

Safe Harbor Statement

Statements made in this press release are forward-looking and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.Such statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in these statements.The economic, competitive, governmental, technological and other factors identified in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those described in the forward looking statements in this press release.The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Contact:

Kewa Luo 646-367-1765

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American Oriental Bioengineering Inc. Announces Suspension of Trading in its Common Stock and the Initiation of ...

Researchers at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) have developed a miniaturised biochip, the Droplet Array, to investigate the effect of drugs on cancer stem cells. -- PHOTO: IBN

Researchers at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) have developed a miniaturised biochip to investigate the effect of drugs on cancer stem cells.

The miniaturised biological assay, dubbed the Droplet Array and developed by a team of researchers led by IBN executive director, Professor Jackie Y. Ying, will make it easier for drug screenings using limited samples.

The new technology could boost the development of more effective cancer drugs, according to a statement released by IBN.

In a tumour, cancer stem cells form a small and distinct class of cancer cells that are more resistant to chemotherapy. They can produce and differentiate into different cell types. If they are not eradicated, they can cause cancer to recur.

More here:
Researchers in Singapore develop cancer stem cell biochip

CHICAGO, IL--(Marketwire -05/15/12)- The NanoFabrication Systems Division of NanoInk is pleased to announce that it has reached a non-exclusive agreement with the Research Institute of Biomolecule Metrology Co., Ltd. (RIBM) to serve as a distributor in Japan. RIBM will distribute NanoInk's desktop nanofabrication equipment, including the NLP 2000 System and the DPN 5000 System, which has a wide range of applications ranging from nanoarray-based protein analysis to nano-bioengineering and biomaterial research. As a leader in the visualization and measurement of biomolecules, RIBM aims to spearhead technological advancements in the field of nano-biotechnology.

"RIBM is a leading player in the Japanese nano-biology industry and has already established a strong relationship with NanoInk's target customers in Japan. Its sales and technical teams have the in-depth knowledge required to understand the scientific instrument market and it has proven expertise in selling technically-sophisticated equipment into that space. With these strengths, RIBM is the ideal partner for driving sales of NanoInk's unique nanofabrication platforms for use in life science and bioengineering applications," said Oliver Yeh, General Manager, NanoInk's NanoFabrication Systems Division, Asia-Pacific region. "We look forward to a close and successful long-term partnership with RIBM as we expand our reach in Japan by promoting the unique capabilities and benefits of the NanoInk line of patterning systems."

"We are delighted to be appointed as a distributor for NanoInk's products in Japan's life science and bioengineering markets," said Dr. Takashi Morii, Director of the Biomolecule Metrology Division at RIBM. "NanoInk's product lines are complementary to our current product portfolio and are attractive to our targeted nano-biotechnology markets. We look forward to working with the NanoInk team."

NanoInk's NanoFabrication Systems Division brings sophisticated nanofabrication to the laboratory in an easy to use and affordable platform. NanoInk's NLP 2000 System is a desktop instrument that allows researchers to rapidly design and create custom engineered and functionalized surfaces by using Dip Pen Nanolithography (DPN) to transfer minute amounts of materials over a large, environmentally controlled work area. With the ability to create custom patterns of nano-to-microscale features in under an hour, the NLP 2000 System is valuable for protein and biomolecular patterning, microstructure and biosensor functionalization, cell biology and polymer printing applications.

The DPN 5000 System is a full-featured, dedicated instrument for versatile nanopatterning of a variety of materials with nanoscale accuracy and precision. With its user-friendly interface, it is possible to easily design complex patterns while also precisely controlling tip movements during the writing process. The DPN 5000 System is the ideal platform for nanofabrication, nanomaterials and biomaterials applications that exhibit nanoscale printing, imaging and registration requirements.

With locations in Tsukuba, Tokyo, and Hiroshima, RIBM specializes in biomolecule metrology, molecular imaging and food & environmental analysis applications. It develops, manufactures, and sells SPM equipment and conducts contract measurement services using SPM. In addition, it manufactures and sells high-speed AFM for biology which can capture movie images of moving molecules. RIBM also markets nano-measurement equipment and inspects food and environmental samples for genetic modifications, allergens, viruses and residual agricultural chemicals.

To obtain more information or to place an order through RIBM for NanoInk's desktop nanofabrication systems, please email Dr. Takashi Morii at morii@ribm.co.jp. More background on RIBM is available at: http://www.ribm.co.jp/index-e.htm.

For information on additional NanoInk distributors, visit: http://nanoink.net/distributors.html. More detail about the NanoFabrication Systems Division of NanoInk is available at: http://www.nanoink.net/divisions.html#NanoFabrication.

About NanoInkNanoInk, Inc. is an emerging growth technology company specializing in nanometer-scale manufacturing and applications development for the life sciences, engineering, pharmaceutical, and education industries. Using Dip Pen Nanolithography (DPN), a patented and proprietary nanofabrication technology, scientists are enabled to rapidly and easily create micro-and nanoscale structures from a variety of materials on a range of substrates. This low cost, easy to use and scalable technique brings sophisticated nanofabrication to the laboratory desktop. Headquartered in the Illinois Science + Technology Park, north of Chicago, NanoInk currently has several divisions including the NanoFabrication Systems Division, the Nano BioDiscovery Division, the NanoProfessor Division and the NanoGuardian Division. For more information on products and services offered by NanoInk, Inc., visit http://www.nanoink.net.

NanoInk, the NanoInk logo, Dip Pen Nanolithography, DPN, and NanoProfessor are registered trademarks of NanoInk, Inc.

Excerpt from:
NanoInk Expands Presence in Japan With Prestigious New Distributor

Bioengineering, an academic unit of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, is on the table to move to Allston, according to several University officials.

According to University Provost Alan M. Garber 76, the Harvard administrators are considering moving portions of bioengineering, a growing sector within SEAS, to its proposed Allston Science Centerwhich was originally conceptualized as a mecca for stem cell researchupon the sites completion.

Garber said that University officials have yet to finalize academic planning for Allston.

Well have more to say about our academic direction for the building in June, but among the groups that seem to be particularly promising fits for Allston are bioengineering and stem-cell research, Garber said.

Kevin Casey, University associate vice president of public affairs and communications, said that Harvard is carefully considering its options for Allston development.

For each area, the provost has been meeting extensively with faculty and deans to further develop the plans in each area, and with fundraising leadership to determine possible strategies for philanthropic support, Casey wrote in an email. This planning process is ongoing.

SEAS Dean Cherry A. Murray, who also serves as the area dean for bioengineering, declined to comment.

In 2007, the University released its Institutional Master Plan for Allston, which included the creation of a $1 billion science complex in Allston. in Allston. However, development on the Allston Science Complex was halted in 2009 when the financial crisis delivered a significant blow to the University endowment.

In 2011, the University resumed planning for Allston development, including the its science complexnow called the Allston Science Center.

The development of the Allston Science Center is just one piece of the two-phase plan for Allston construction released by University Executive Vice President Katie N. Lapp.

Read the rest here:
Bioengineering May Relocate To Allston

MEDIA RELEASE

IBNs Droplet Array Sheds Light on Drug-Resistant Cancer Stem Cells

Singapore, May 9, 2012 Researchers at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN), the worlds first bioengineering and nanotechnology research institute, have developed a miniaturized biochip for investigating the effect of drugs on cancer stem cells (CSCs). Published recently in Nano Today, this new technology could boost the development of more effective cancer drugs.

In a tumor, CSCs form a small and distinct class of cancer cells that are more resistant to chemotherapy. Similar to stem cells found in human tissues, CSCs can produce and differentiate into different cell types. If CSCs are not eradicated, they can repopulate the tumor and lead to cancer recurrence. Hence, it is important for researchers to understand the efficacy of anti-cancer drugs against CSCs. However, since CSCs are so scarce they make up approximately 1% of cancer cells their study has been hampered by conventional drug screening methods, which require large sample volumes and are slow and expensive.

A team of researchers led by IBN Executive Director, Professor Jackie Y. Ying, has developed a miniaturized biological assay called the Droplet Array to perform cheaper, faster and more convenient drug screening using limited samples.

In traditional biological assays, microplates a flat plate with multiple wells in which samples are placed are commonly used, and each well requires at least 2,500 or 5,000 cells, to be present for viable analysis. By comparison, IBNs Droplet Array is a flat, rectangular glass plate on which a series of spots, each 2 millimeters in diameter, are arranged. The samples are pipetted into these tiny spots, making them appear like droplets. The plate is then coated with a layer of proprietary oil to prevent evaporation and cross contamination between the sample droplets during the rinsing process. An accompanying bench-top device to automate the rinsing process of the plate has also been developed. Being one-fifth the size of a well in a standard microplate, each spot on IBNs Droplet Array requires only 500 cells for screening. This massive reduction in sample volume not only saves money, but is also particularly advantageous for studying scarce quantities of target cells, such as CSCs.

Using the Droplet Array, the IBN researchers investigated the drug responses of CSCs extracted from breast, liver and colon cancer cells. It was found that chemotherapeutic drugs such as doxorubicin, which usually induce cell death in liver cancer cells, demonstrated poor efficacy in liver CSCs. The CSCs from the breast and colon tumors also showed much greater ability to survive the effects of anti-cancer drugs.

Animal studies were conducted to validate the findings of the Droplet Array. CSCs and non-CSCs from liver tumors were implanted into two different sets of mice at the same time. After 6 weeks, tumors were formed in the mice implanted with CSCs, whereas the mice without CSCs did not develop any tumors. Tumors extracted from the mice with CSCs also showed blood vessel formation, which confirmed the self-renewal property of these cells.

The drug resistance properties of CSCs have been widely discussed in recent years but until now, it has been challenging to quantify this correlation. Using the Droplet Array, IBN researchers have successfully demonstrated that CSCs can survive chemotherapy and drive metastasis.

Professor Jackie Y. Ying said, The Droplet Array marks a significant breakthrough in nanotechnology and lab-on-a-chip concepts, and provides an efficient platform for accelerating drug screening and development. The study of cancer stem cells, in particular, is an exciting application of this technology for both the academic and pharmaceutical industries. We hope that this finding will facilitate the development of more effective cancer drugs. We also hope to leverage on the Droplet Arrays capabilities to complement/replace animal models for drug toxicity testing, and develop new cancer diagnostics.

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:: 09, May 2012 :: IBN’S DROPLET ARRAY SHEDS LIGHT ON DRUG-RESISTANT CANCER STEM CELLS

Public release date: 30-Apr-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Wileen Wong Kromhout wwkromhout@support.ucla.edu 310-206-0540 University of California - Los Angeles

If you throw a rubber balloon filled with water against a wall, it will spread out and deform on impact, while the same balloon filled with honey, which is more viscous, will deform much less. If the balloon's elastic rubber was stiffer, an even smaller change in shape would be observed.

By simply analyzing how much a balloon changes shape upon hitting a wall, you can uncover information about its physical properties.

Although cells are not simple sacks of fluid, they also contain viscous and elastic properties related to the membranes that surround them; their internal structural elements, such as organelles; and the packed DNA arrangement in their nuclei. Because variations in these properties can provide information about cells' state of activity and can be indicative of diseases such as cancer, they are important to measure.

UCLA bioengineering researchers have taken advantage of cells' physical properties to develop a new instrument that slams cells against a wall of fluid and quickly analyzes the physical response, allowing for the identification of cancer and other cell states without expensive chemical tags.

The instrument, called a deformability cytometer, was developed by UCLA biomedical engineering doctoral students Daniel Gossett and Henry Tse and assistant professor of bioengineering Dino Di Carlo. It consists of a miniaturized microfluidic chip that sequentially aligns cells so that they hit a wall of fluid at rates of thousands of cells per second. A specialized camera captures microscopic images of these cells at a rate of 140,000 pictures per second, and these images are then automatically analyzed by custom software to extract information about the cells' physical properties.

Other researchers had previously discovered that the physical properties of cells could provide useful information about cell health, but previous techniques had been confined to academic research labs because measuring the cells of interest could take hours or even days. With the deformability cytometer, the group can prepare samples and conduct an analysis of tens of thousands of cells within 10 to 30 minutes.

"Our system makes use of an approach that (U.S. Secretary of Energy) Steven Chu used to stretch DNA to, instead, stretch cells," Di Carlo said. "This required us to engineer the fluid dynamics of the system such that cells always entered the stretching flow in the same place, making use of inertial focusing technology my group has been pioneering."

With a system in place to measure the physical properties of cells at much higher rates, the bioengineers teamed up with collaborators across the UCLA campus to measure various cell populations of interest to biologists and doctors.

Read the rest here:
When cells hit the wall: UCLA engineers put the squeeze on cells to diagnose disease

ScienceDaily (May 1, 2012) If you throw a rubber balloon filled with water against a wall, it will spread out and deform on impact, while the same balloon filled with honey, which is more viscous, will deform much less. If the balloon's elastic rubber was stiffer, an even smaller change in shape would be observed.

By simply analyzing how much a balloon changes shape upon hitting a wall, you can uncover information about its physical properties.

Although cells are not simple sacks of fluid, they also contain viscous and elastic properties related to the membranes that surround them; their internal structural elements, such as organelles; and the packed DNA arrangement in their nuclei. Because variations in these properties can provide information about cells' state of activity and can be indicative of diseases such as cancer, they are important to measure.

UCLA bioengineering researchers have taken advantage of cells' physical properties to develop a new instrument that slams cells against a wall of fluid and quickly analyzes the physical response, allowing for the identification of cancer and other cell states without expensive chemical tags.

The instrument, called a deformability cytometer, was developed by UCLA biomedical engineering doctoral students Daniel Gossett and Henry Tse and assistant professor of bioengineering Dino Di Carlo. It consists of a miniaturized microfluidic chip that sequentially aligns cells so that they hit a wall of fluid at rates of thousands of cells per second. A specialized camera captures microscopic images of these cells at a rate of 140,000 pictures per second, and these images are then automatically analyzed by custom software to extract information about the cells' physical properties.

Other researchers had previously discovered that the physical properties of cells could provide useful information about cell health, but previous techniques had been confined to academic research labs because measuring the cells of interest could take hours or even days. With the deformability cytometer, the group can prepare samples and conduct an analysis of tens of thousands of cells within 10 to 30 minutes.

"Our system makes use of an approach that (U.S. Secretary of Energy) Steven Chu used to stretch DNA to, instead, stretch cells," Di Carlo said. "This required us to engineer the fluid dynamics of the system such that cells always entered the stretching flow in the same place, making use of inertial focusing technology my group has been pioneering."

With a system in place to measure the physical properties of cells at much higher rates, the bioengineers teamed up with collaborators across the UCLA campus to measure various cell populations of interest to biologists and doctors.

Along with UCLA stem cell biologist Amander Clark, an assistant professor of of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, Di Carlo's team confirmed that stem cells that have the capability to become any tissue type stretch much less than their progeny, which are already in the process of becoming a particular tissue.

In collaboration with cytopathologist Dr. Jian Yu Rao, a professor of pathlogy and laboratory medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, the team accurately detected cancer cells from pleural fluids using the high-speed deformability cytometer. Pleural fluid, which builds up around the lungs, is traditionally challenging to analyze because it contains a mixture of cell types -- including immune cells, mesothelial cells from the chest wall lining and, potentially, low concentrations of cancer cells.

Read the original post:
When cells hit the wall: Engineers put the squeeze on cells to diagnose disease

This news release and any accompanying images can be accessed on the web at: http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressreleases/ blinking_microbubbles_for_early_cancer_screening _take_grand_prize_at_resear/ Blinking microbubbles for early cancer screening take grand prize at Research Expo 2012

Newswise Carolyn Schutt, a Ph.D student in bioengineering at the University of California, San Diego is developing a new imaging technique that could lead to highly-sensitive light imaging deeper inside the body, improving the way we diagnose breast cancer. Schutts research, which was entered in the nanoengineering category, received the grand prize April 12 at the UC San Diego Jacob School of Engineering Research Expo 2012.

Schutt's aim is to build a bridge between optical imaging and ultrasound imaging, in order to get the benefits of both technologies: the chemical sensitivity of visible light and the tissue penetrating properties of ultrasound. Such a "smart particle contrast agent" would render biological tissue effectively transparent to light and enable highly sensitive light imaging deeper inside the body, improving the way we diagnose cancer. Conventional X-ray mammography can only show the density of tissue, indicating the presence of a mass, but cannot determine any of the biochemical differences between a benign mass and a malignant tumor.

There is a very high false positive rate with just X-ray mammography, said Schutt, who was honored with the best poster award for the Department of NanoEngineering and Jacobs School-wide Rudee Outstanding Poster Award. By being able to extract chemical information we hope to avoid unnecessary biopsies that are done on benign lesions.

For example, because of their rapid growth, cancerous tumors consume a lot of oxygen so the area around a tumor is likely to be hypoxic or depleted of oxygen. Cancer cells also require increased blood flow to fuel their growth creating a region of new blood vessel formation. The use of this technique could allow this sort of biochemical information to be determined for tumor diagnosis.

Schutts work, advised by nanoengineering Professor Sadik Esener, focuses on the use of gas-filled microbubble contrast agents that change their fluorescence intensity, or blink, only in response to focused ultrasound. A solution of these microbubbles would be injected into the body to circulate through the blood stream. When gas microbubbles encounter an ultrasound pressure wave, they contract and expand their outer surface in response to the pressure peaks and troughs. By loading the microbubble surface with a fluorescent dye that turns off when it is very close to other dye molecules the ultrasound creates a blinking signal. Initially, less than 10 percent of the bubbles produced this modulating fluorescence. Analysis of the nanostructure by super-resolution microscopy showed that most of the dye partitioned into isolated clusters, which were likely preventing the dye from blinking in response to ultrasound. Schutt was able to manipulate the bubble nanostructure by heating the bubbles to melt their outer surface and distribute the dye more evenly, and then rapidly cooling them to lock in this distributed state. This melting and quick cooling process increased the fraction of blinking microbubbles to over 50 percent, making this a more viable imaging platform.

This blinking light can then be used to build up an image of the ultrasound-scanned tissue (a suspected tumor, for example) with the sensitivity and contrast offered by optical imaging. This is a new and powerful capability that could significantly improve present diagnostics as well as image guided therapeutic capabilities. In addition to NanoEngineering, Esener is affiliated with the departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science and Engineering, and UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center and director of the multi-institutional NanoTumor Center.

Schutt is also active in campus outreach and leadership programs. As a Gordon Scholar, Schutt participates in the Gordon Engineering Leadership Centers engineering leadership programs, a course of study Schutt takes seriously. In her current position as outreach chair of the Bioengineering Graduate Student Society, Schutt organized the groups exhibit at the recent San Diego Festival of Science and Engineering as well as a festival-wide science challenge for K-12 students to learn and discuss key science concepts. Read our chat with Schutt about organizing the Home Run Science Challenge.

Schutt was one of more than 230 graduate students who presented at Research Expo, which was sponsored by Qualcomm, ViaSat and SAIC. Judges were impressed by the students high level of technical proficiency and their ability to communicate their ideas.

Three-time Research Expo Judge Silvia De Dea, a staff scientist at Cymer, which is a member of the Jacobs School Corporate Affiliates Program, was impressed by the entrepreneurial mindset of many of the students she met who already had some experience with the patent process, including thinking about how their technology could be eventually sold or licensed to industry. Realizing that they had that type of mindset was very interesting, said De Dea, a Jacobs School alumna who earned a masters (2004) and doctorate (2008) in chemical engineering.

Read the original post:
'Blinking Microbubbles' for Early Cancer Screening Take Grand Prize at Research Expo 2012

SAN DIEGO Carolyn Schutt, a Ph.D student in bioengineering at the University of California, San Diego is developing a new imaging technique that could lead to highly-sensitive light imaging deeper inside the body, improving the way we diagnose breast cancer. Schutts research, which was entered in the nanoengineering category, received the grand prize April 12 at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering Research Expo 2012.

Schutt's aim is to build a bridge between optical imaging and ultrasound imaging, in order to get the benefits of both technologies: the chemical sensitivity of visible light and the tissue penetrating properties of ultrasound. Such a "smart particle contrast agent" would render biological tissue effectively transparent to light and enable highly sensitive light imaging deeper inside the body, improving the way we diagnose cancer. Conventional X-ray mammography can only show the density of tissue, indicating the presence of a mass, but cannot determine any of the biochemical differences between a benign mass and a malignant tumor.

There is a very high false positive rate with just X-ray mammography, said Schutt, who was honored with the best poster award for the Department of NanoEngineering and Jacobs School-wide Rudee Outstanding Poster Award. By being able to extract chemical information we hope to avoid unnecessary biopsies that are done on benign lesions.

For example, because of their rapid growth, cancerous tumors consume a lot of oxygen so the area around a tumor is likely to be hypoxic or depleted of oxygen. Cancer cells also require increased blood flow to fuel their growth creating a region of new blood vessel formation. The use of this technique could allow this sort of biochemical information to be determined for tumor diagnosis.

Schutts work, advised by nanoengineering professor Sadik Esener, focuses on the use of gas-filled microbubble contrast agents that change their fluorescence intensity, or blink, only in response to focused ultrasound. A solution of these microbubbles would be injected into the body to circulate through the blood stream. When gas microbubbles encounter an ultrasound pressure wave, they contract and expand their outer surface in response to the pressure peaks and troughs. By loading the microbubble surface with a fluorescent dye that turns off when it is very close to other dye molecules the ultrasound creates a blinking signal. Initially, less than 10 percent of the bubbles produced this modulating fluorescence. Analysis of the nanostructure by super-resolution microscopy showed that most of the dye partitioned into isolated clusters, which were likely preventing the dye from blinking in response to ultrasound. Schutt was able to manipulate the bubble nanostructure by heating the bubbles to melt their outer surface and distribute the dye more evenly, and then rapidly cooling them to lock in this distributed state. This melting and quick cooling process increased the fraction of blinking microbubbles to over 50 percent, making this a more viable imaging platform.

This blinking light can then be used to build up an image of the ultrasound-scanned tissue (a suspected tumor, for example) with the sensitivity and contrast offered by optical imaging. This is a new and powerful capability that could significantly improve present diagnostics as well as image guided therapeutic capabilities. In addition to NanoEngineering, Esener is affiliated with the departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science and Engineering, and UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center and director of the multi-institutional NanoTumor Center.

Schutt is also active in campus outreach and leadership programs. As a Gordon Scholar, Schutt participates in the Gordon Engineering Leadership Centers engineering leadership programs, a course of study Schutt takes seriously. In her current position as outreach chair of the Bioengineering Graduate Student Society, Schutt organized the groups exhibit at the recent San Diego Festival of Science and Engineering as well as a festival-wide science challenge for K-12 students to learn and discuss key science concepts. Read our chat with Schutt about organizing the Home Run Science Challenge.

Schutt was one of more than 230 graduate students who presented at Research Expo, which was sponsored by Qualcomm, ViaSat and SAIC. Judges were impressed by the students high level of technical proficiency and their ability to communicate their ideas.

Three-time Research Expo judge Silvia De Dea, a staff scientist at Cymer, which is a member of the Jacobs School Corporate Affiliates Program, was impressed by the entrepreneurial mindset of many of the students she met who already had some experience with the patent process, including thinking about how their technology could be eventually sold or licensed to industry. Realizing that they had that type of mindset was very interesting, said De Dea, a Jacobs School alumna who earned a masters (2004) and doctorate (2008) in chemical engineering.

Judge Greg Kusinski, DeepStar director with Chevron Energy Technology Co., who serves on the Industrial Advisory Board for the Department of NanoEngineering, said the winners demonstrated a unique capacity to explain the relevance of their research. The students had the ability to present the big picture, said Kusinski. Thats why they stood out. He said that they did a great job at showing the problem they were trying to solve, steps taken during the research process and the next steps in their research.

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Cancer screening technique wins research prize

by JIM BERGAMO / KVUE News and Photojournalist MICHAEL MOORE

kvue.com

Posted on April 24, 2012 at 9:05 PM

Updated yesterday at 9:04 AM

AUSTIN -- The words surgery and bioengineering did not seem to fit together a few decades ago. On Tuesday, students at the University of Texas got a first-hand look at how the two are now the perfect fit in the field of surgical technology.

Back in the day the board game Operation was as close as any kid got to performing an operation. On Tuesday,UT pre-med studentsand those just preoccupied with curiosity, got under the hood and took da Vinci Surgical Robots for a test drive.

"To allow students to handle equipment that is for operating procedures is fantastic," said Elizabeth Coyne, a junior studying biology. "I could not pass that up."

Students took turns on the da Vinci, and then took turns asking questions from real surgeons who shared their expertise on robotic surgery.

"It enables visualization effects that I cannot traditionally achieve," said Reginald Baptiste, M.D., who is a cardiothoracic surgeon.

Students learned that da Vinci's minimally invasive surgery benefits patients because there's less pain, blood loss and fewer complications,not to mention shorter recovery times.

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UT students get hands-on opportunity with da Vinci surgical robot

Despite decades of cancer research, cancer remains a leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for 7.6 million deaths in 2008, and breast cancer is one of the most common causes of cancer deaths each year . In Singapore, more than 1,400 women are diagnosed with breast cancer and more than 300 die as a result of breast cancer each year . The high fatality rate of cancer is partially attributed to the invasive ability of malignant tumors to spread throughout the human body, and the ineffectiveness of conventional therapies to eradicate the cancer cells.

A team of researchers led by IBN Group Leader, Dr Shu Wang, has made a landmark discovery that neural stem cells (NSCs) derived from human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells could be used to treat breast cancer. The effectiveness of using NSCs, which originate from the central nervous system, to treat brain tumors has been investigated in previous studies. This is the first study that demonstrates that iPS cell-derived NSCs could also target tumors outside the central nervous system, to treat both primary and secondary tumors.

To test the efficiency of NSCs in targeting and treating breast cancer, the researchers injected NSCs loaded with a suicide gene (herpes simplex virus thymidine) into mice bearing breast tumors. They did this using baculoviral vectors or gene carriers engineered from an insect virus (baculovirus), which does not replicate in human cells, making the carriers less harmful for clinical use. A prodrug (ganciclovir), which would activate the suicide gene to kill the cancerous cells upon contact, was subsequently injected into the mice. A dual-colored whole body imaging technology was then used to track the distribution and migration of the iPS-NSCs.

The imaging results revealed that the iPS-NSCs homed in on the breast tumors in the mice, and also accumulated in various organs infiltrated by the cancer cells such as the lung, stomach and bone. The survival of the tumor-bearing mice was prolonged from 34 days to 39 days. This data supports and explains how engineered iPS-NSCs are able to effectively seek out and inhibit tumor growth and proliferation.

Dr Shu Wang shared, "We have demonstrated that tumor-targeting neural stem cells may be derived from human iPS cells, and that these cells may be used in combination with a therapeutic gene to cripple tumor growth. This is a significant finding for stem cell-based cancer therapy, and we will continue to improve and optimize our neural stem cell system by preventing any unwanted activation of the therapeutic gene in non-tumor regions and minimizing possible side effects."

"IBN's expertise in generating human stem cells from iPS cells and our novel use of insect virus carriers for gene delivery have paved the way for the development of innovative stem cell-based therapies. With their two-pronged attack on tumors using genetically engineered neural stem cells, our researchers have discovered a promising alternative to conventional cancer treatment," added Professor Jackie. Y. Ying, IBN Executive Director.

Compared to collecting and expanding primary cells from individual patients, IBN's approach of using iPS cells to derive NSCs is less laborious and suitable for large-scale manufacture of uniform batches of cellular products for repeated patient treatments. Importantly, this approach will help eliminate variability in the quality of the cellular products, thus facilitating reliable comparative analysis of clinical outcomes.

Additionally, these iPS cell-derived NSCs are derived from adult cells, which bypass the sensitive ethical issue surrounding the use of human embryos, and since iPS cells are developed from a patient's own cells, the likelihood of immune rejection would be reduced.

References: 1. J. Yang, D. H. Lam, S. S. Goh, E. X. L. Lee, Y. Zhao, F. Chang Tay, C. Chen, S. Du, G. Balasundaram, M. Shahbazi, C. K. Tham, W. H. Ng, H. C. Toh and S. Wang, "Tumor Tropism of Intravenously Injected Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-derived Neural Stem Cells and their Gene Therapy Application in a Metastatic Breast Cancer Model," Stem Cells, (2012) DOI: 10.1002/stem.1051.

2. E. X. Lee, D. H. Lam, C. Wu, J. Yang, C. K. Tham and S. Wang, "Glioma Gene Therapy Using Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Neural Stem Cells," Molecular Pharmaceutics, 8 (2011) 1515-1524.

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IBN Discovers Human Neural Stem Cells with Tumor Targeting Ability - A Promising Discovery for Breast Cancer Therapy

Public release date: 25-Apr-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: LaKisha Ladson lakisha.ladson@UTDallas.edu 972-883-4183 University of Texas at Dallas

Dr. Mathukumalli Vidyasagar, an internationally known expert in control and system theory, has been elected a Fellow of The Royal Society, the oldest continuously operating scientific society in the world.

Vidyasagar, head of the Department of Bioengineering at The University of Texas at Dallas, joins the ranks of the most distinguished international scientists drawn from all areas of science, engineering and medicine.

Vidyasagar's selection recognizes his contributions to various aspects of control and system theory, robotics, statistical learning theory and computational biology. His citation reads: "He has combined probability theory, combinatorics, and artificial intelligence to produce a beautiful unified theory of statistical learning, and used it to solve NP-hard design problems."

Vidyasagar's pattern in life has been to master a subject area, write a book about it, and then move to a different research problem at the forefront of the field. Two of his books co-authored with Dr. Mark W. Spong, dean of UT Dallas' Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, are among the most popular textbooks on robot dynamics and control.

"Joining the Fellowship of the Royal Society is the proudest moment of my career. The joy and satisfaction this election brings is immeasurable."

Vidyasagar holds the Cecil H. and Ida Green Chair in Systems Biology Science at UT Dallas and leads the bioengineering department in the Jonsson School. The department collaborates with other schools within the University, UT Southwestern Medical Center and the University of Texas at Arlington.

"Dr. Vidyasagar has made many fundamental contributions in several areas of engineering, including control theory, robotics, and learning theory, which have earned him numerous awards and an international reputation as an outstanding scientist," Spong said. "His latest work in the area of computational biology, in collaboration with UT Southwestern Medical Center, has the potential to greatly advance our knowledge of the causes of cancer and the effectiveness of new drugs for the treatment of cancer. Election to the Royal Society is a very high honor and brings distinction to him, the Jonsson School, and to UT Dallas."

A native of India, Vidyasagar attended the University of Wisconsin and earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering by age 17. At 21, he completed his doctorate and by age 35, he was given an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers fellowship for "contributions to the stability analysis of linear and nonlinear distributed systems."

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UT Dallas bioengineering head to be inducted as Fellow of Royal Society

Probiotics are an enormous field and even bigger market but and as interesting as they are an, arguably, more interesting biotic is starting to gain traction as more innovative researchers explore its possibilities. This is the field of designer probiotics.

The central idea is this, certain pathogenic bacteria (and I am speaking exclusively within the gut) use host sugars to facilitate binding or toxin targeting and by doing so cause disease. However, if we expressed these host sugars on something else, a harmless strain of Escherichia coli for example, we would create more sites for the attachment of pathogens and their weapons. This dilutes the effect these pathogenic bacteria can have on our insides and either prevents disease or certainly reduces the severity of it and the harmless E. coli,ladenwith pathogen and toxin, passes out of the body before they can cause any problems.

Additionally, there is little chance that the pathogens will evolve around this therapeutic strategy as doing so would comprimise their capacity to recognise the target receptor that has been copied and expressed on our harmless E. coli strain and therefore would reduce their capacity to cause disease as part of their lifecycle.

Then of course there is money. Currently, host sugars have been developed synthetically to be used in isolation to attempt prevention of pathogen binding but are not optimally successful as these sugar structures must survive the stomache and early gut before reaching the distal gut where much disease occurs. Making these sugars alone is not cheap but you know what is cheap, bacteria and broth. Vats of drug can be grown in labs much faster than the sugars can be synthesised making it a much more cost effective approach. Of course then there is also the problem of hostmetabolismof the synthesised sugars. By the time the distal gut is reached the gastro-intestinal system has done what it does best and broken much of the sugar down into its component parts rendering it ineffective as a therapeutic. The probiotic approach secures the expression of the host sugars deep into the distal gut as long as the bacteria survive, which they have been shown to do. Once they get there they grow and divide increasing the amount of drug in the system for free.

I am aware of three such bioengineered bugs capable of doing this work, one for Shiga toxigenic E. coli (STEC) infections, one for enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) infections and one for cholera. Together these three species account for a large proportion of the 2 million deaths that occur each year due to enteric infections, not including the significant morbidity that occurs at the hands of these species.

STEC produces, as you would expect, a shiga toxin which is a very powerful toxin that causes breakdown of cell membranes leading to haemorrhagic colitis (bleeding gut) and the significantly worse haemolytic uraemic syndrome where the patient develops haemolytic anaemia (not enough blood cells because they keep popping), thrombocytopenia (not enough platelets so your blood cant clot) and renal failure (kidneys shut down). Importantly, in this case at least, the shiga toxin is made in the gut before binding to a host sugar called GB3 which facilitates absorption into the body where it does its damage. When GB3 was expressed on a harmless E. coli strain and fed twice daily to STEC infected mice it was found to be 100% effective in preventing disease as the toxin was being soaked up before reaching the gut wall. For the cautious out there the use of dead GB3 expressing E. coli was also tested and found to be just as effective if the dosage was increased to three times daily. Dead bacteria do not mutate and are not technically genetically modified organismsany moreso this approach has long term promise to treat STEC infection in the future.

ETEC is behind travellersdiarrhoea but should not be underestimated. This bacteria is endemic in developingcountriesand is the major killer of young children in these areas. It kills by messing around with the way your body controls water loss in the gut. The toxin made by ETEC binds to the host sugar GM1 and then is internalised by the cell. The target cells are those that line the gut surface and are responsible for absorbing nutrients, ions and water. Once inside the cell the toxin modifies a biochemical pathway to ensure a protein called adenyl cyclase is constantly stimulated which in turn causes aninterruptionto ion movement resulting in ions moving out of the cell into the gut but not back in again. A general rule in gut physiology is where the ions go water will follow and so water flows straight of the body into the gut causing watery diarrhoea. This diarrhoea facilitates the spread of the ETEC into water supplies and then into new hosts as they consume the contaminated water. The production of a harmless E. coli strain capable of binding the ETEC toxin was performed and the result was a bacterial strain that could bind 5% of its own weight in toxin! There is the suggestion that the administration of this strain prophylactically to travellers from developed coutries before travel to the developing world may eliminate a good proportion of disease cases and the ease in growing high quantities of drug would make treating the developing world significantly easier and cheaper providing some additional hope in these areas.

Finally, cholera. Vibrio cholera is endemic to Asia and causes epidemics all over the world. Usually as a result of eating undercooked fish the pathogen enters the system, colonises the small intestine and releaases its toxin which works in the same way as the ETEC toxin. If no treatment is made available, as is the case for many where cholera is endemic, the chance of death rockets up to 50%. Treatment here is tricky as antibiotics can actually make the disease worse as toxin leeches from the dying pathogens and overwhelms the patient so most are treated with fluid therapy, keep drinking salty water (made using sachets of important salts which can be added to sterilised water) until you get better, or not. A GM1 expressing E. coli was developed and shown to be very effective in preventing disease. Mice given V. cholera infections were treated with the harmless GM1 expressing strain 1 or 4 hours post infection and 12/12 survived compared to 1/12 for the post 1 hour treatment, 8/12 compared to 2/12 for the post 4 hour treatment. In this case it was found that the GM1 producing strain could remain stable when freeze dried and so could be made, stored, then added to the oral rehydration salts as part of the current therapeutic strategy which would keep costs significantly down.

This is but the start. Similar approaches could be applied to Clostridium difficile, Helicobacter pylori and Schistosoma mansonii infections as this novel approach is developed.

So thats it. The problem of antibiotic resistance is solved right? We just dont use antibiotics and instead use these cleverly designed genetically modified organisms that cant be evolved aroundwithoutthe pathogenreducingits ability to infect at all. We produceenormousquantities cheaply in vats where the drug grows itself on $10 worth ofingredientsand then treat the whole world.

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Bioengineering the bugs

NEWARK, N.J., April 6, 2012 /PRNewswire-Asia-FirstCall/ -- American Oriental Bioengineering, Inc. (NYSE: AOB - News) (the "Company") today announced that the New York Stock Exchange (the "NYSE") has notified the Company that it is not in compliance with NYSE rules due to the Company's failure to timely file its Annual Report on Form 10-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Under NYSE rules, when a Company does not comply with annual report filing requirements, the NYSE allows a company an additional six months to file its annual report in order to regain compliance. In the case of the Company, the annual report would be due on or before October 29, 2012. If the Company fails to file its annual report within that time period, the NYSE may, in its sole discretion, allow the Company's securities to remain listed for up to an additional six months or may, in its sole discretion, commence suspension and delisting procedures.

As previously announced, during the performance of the annual audit of the Company's financial statements for the fiscal year 2011, the Company's auditors, Ernst & Young Hua Ming's (E&Y), noted certain inconsistencies. As a result, the Audit Committee has commenced an independent investigation into the matters identified by E&Y. Although the Company cannot know at this time how long the investigation will take, the Company will endeavor to file the Form 10-K as soon as possible upon the completion of the investigation.

About American Oriental Bioengineering, Inc.

American Oriental Bioengineering, Inc. is a pharmaceutical company dedicated to improving health through the development, manufacture and commercialization of a broad range of prescription and over the counter products.

Safe Harbor Statement

Statements made in this press release are forward-looking and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in these statements. The economic, competitive, governmental, technological and other factors identified in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those described in the forward looking statements in this press release. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Contact:

American Oriental Bioengineering, Inc.

Hong Zhu

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American Oriental Bioengineering Inc. Receives NYSE Notice of Delisting or Failure to Satisfy a Continued Listing Rule ...

Replacing the Osterizer as standard lab equipment

By Kate Rix

Lina Nilsson, Tekla Labs founder. KAP STANN PHOTO

Imagine a research laboratory relying on little more than old phonographs and kitchen blenders. This is what Lina Nilsson, a post-doctoral researcher in the bioengineering lab of professor Daniel Fletcher, saw in Bolivian labs, inspiring her to develop alternatives to expensive laboratory equipment.

After a year in Asia and South America visiting labs that lacked the basics, Nilsson and a team of engineering colleagues brainstormed about how to develop low-cost, accessible tools that could produce research-grade results. They created protocols for making do-it-yourself laboratory equipment, along with detailed how-to blueprints available for free online.

The team evolved into Tekla Labs, a cooperative of ten partners from Berkeley Engineering and UCSF. Their idea won first place for social entrepreneurship in the 2010-11 Big Ideas @ Berkeley contest.

A lot of basic equipment is really expensive, but it doesnt have to be, says Nilsson. She adds that while many charitable organizations make contributions to labs in developing countries, most donated equipment consists of larger and more costly machines.

A sample rotator designed and built by Berkeley student Anthony Fernando for Tekla Labs. LINA NILSSON PHOTO

Each semester, Tekla Labs researchers help individual students build equipment. They also team up with Engineering World Health on a DeCal (student-run) course that tasks undergraduate students with designing inexpensive product prototypes. In one case, a student was sent to Radio Shack for supplies to build a magnetic stirrer; she returned with a light-switch circuit box, which ended up serving quite nicely as housing for the stirrer.

Where the outlet would have plugged in we placed the speed dial, Nilsson says. The core requirement is that the parts must be cheap and easy to find. My lab has four magnetic stirrers and they cost $250 and up. We built one for $30 that runs off a battery.

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Turning kitchen gadgets (and more) into low-cost lab equipment