NASA, NSBRI Select 26 Proposals to Support Crew Health on Deep Space Missions

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NASA's Human Research Program (HRP) and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) will fund 26 proposals to help investigate questions about astronaut health and performance on future deep space exploration missions. This research may help protect astronauts as they venture farther into the solar system than ever before to explore an asteroid and, eventually, Mars.The selected proposals are from 16 institutions in eight states and will receive a total of about $17 million during a one- to three-year period. The 26 projects were selected from 123 proposals received in response to the research announcement "Research and Technology Development to Support Crew Health and Performance in Space Exploration Missions." Science and technology experts from academia and government reviewed the proposals. NASA will manage 21 of the projects and NSBRI will manage five.The selected proposals will investigate the impact of the space environment on various aspects of astronaut health, including visual impairment, behavioral health, bone loss, cardiovascular alterations, human factors and performance, neurobehavioral and psychosocial factors, sensorimotor adaptation and the development and application of smart medical systems and technology.HRP and NSBRI research provides knowledge and technologies that may improve human health and performance during space exploration. They also develop potential countermeasures for problems experienced during space travel. The organizations' goals are to help astronauts complete their challenging missions successfully and preserve their long-term health.HRP quantifies crew health and performance risks during spaceflight and develops strategies that mission planners and system developers can use to monitor and mitigate the risks. These studies often lead to advancements in understanding and treating illnesses in patients on Earth.NSBRI is a NASA-funded consortium of institutions studying health risks related to long-duration spaceflight. The Institute's science, technology and education projects take place at approximately 60 institutions across the United States.For a complete list of the selected principal investigators, organizations and proposals, visit:http://go.nasa.gov/1mvlsLdFor information about NASA's Human Research Program, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/humanresearch/For information about NSBRI's science, technology and education programs, visit:http://www.nsbri.orgFor information about NASA and agency programs, visit:http://www.nasa.gov

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NASA, NSBRI Select 26 Proposals to Support Crew Health on Deep Space Missions

NASA captures huge explosion on surface of sun

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by Doyle Rice, USA TODAY

KING5.com

Posted on May 6, 2014 at 2:20 PM

Updated today at 2:42 PM

Ever wanted to know what it's like to dance on the sun?

Instruments aboard NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured stunning views of our nearest star late last month, as seen in this video of "prominence eruptions" blasting off the surface of the sun.

It's not a solar flare, according to NASA, but "material on the sun, doing what it always does, dancing and twisting and in this case erupting off the side of the sun," according to NASA spokeswoman Susan Hendrix.

The material is a small, hovering mass of twisted plasma that shifts back and forth before erupting into space over the course of just one day.

The suspended plasma is being pulled and stretched by competing magnetic forces until something triggers the breakaway, NASA reports. This kind of activity is fairly common on the sun, but we have only been able to view them at this level of detail since the SDO began operations just four years ago.

The SDO is a satellite that's in orbit around the Earth, with sensors pointed at the sun to take a variety of measurements of the sun and solar activity.

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NASA captures huge explosion on surface of sun

Clamping Down on Cancer-Causing Mutations

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Newswise An international research team has built molecular clamps out of DNA that offer a powerful new tool for identifying individuals with an increased risk of cancer. The clamp is capable of detecting genetic mutations, associated with cancer and other genetic diseases, with better specificity and affinity than more traditional techniques. The high affinity of the clamp for its target and the ability to add a fluorescent label that lights up when the clamp grabs the errant DNA sequence, make these new DNA clamp nanoswitches the state-of-the-art in highly-sensitive molecular diagnostics.

The international team includes NIBIB grantee Kevin Plaxco, Ph. D., University of California, Santa Barbara and his colleagues at the University of Rome in Italy and the University of Montreal in Quebec, Canada. The work is described in the December 2013 issue of the American Chemical Society Journal ACS Nano.

With the list of cancer-causing genetic mutations increasing every day, these bioengineers envision that an individuals DNA could be screened for known cancer-causing mutations long before the development of disease. With this type of early identification, it may be possible for high-risk individuals to change lifestyle habits known to increase cancer risk. In the future, as the molecular basis for certain cancers is revealed, medications could be developed that inhibit or block the process of cancer formation before it even begins.

How does it work? DNA exists naturally as two complementary strands known as a double helix, which separates into single strands when heated. Existing DNA-based diagnostic tools consist of a single strand of DNA that binds to one strand of the patients heated DNA to form a double helix. However, the new DNA clamp has a powerful vice-like grip that grabs both sides of a patients heated, single stranded DNA to form a triple helix -- one DNA strand of the patients surrounded by the clamps 2 DNA strands. The triple helix creates a bond that is 200-times stronger, and 10-times more specific than a double helix. The superior grip of the DNA clamp nanoswitch enables it to firmly bind to the smallest cancer-causing genetic changes, known as single point mutations. The new method has the ability to identify single point mutations in patient DNA samples with significantly increased specificity, offering much more consistent and reliable identification of mutations than is possible with the systems currently in use. The DNA clamp nanoswitch can be engineered to carry a molecule that lights-up when the clamp snaps shut on the target DNA, clearly indicating the presence of the mutation.

Co-author Francesco Ricci, Ph.D., Laboratory of Bionsensors and Nanomachines, Rome, elaborates: The advantage of our fluorescence clamp is that it allows distinguishing between mutant and non-mutant DNA with much greater efficiency than other detection methods. This information is critical because it tells patients which cancers they are at risk for or already have. Identifying potential cancer-causing mutations with confidence requires the engineering of a highly accurate and reliable system.

Dr. Plaxco goes on to explain the basis for the clamps efficiency: Usually, any improvement in affinity is coupled with a reduction in specificity. For example, receptors that bind to their intended target more tightly often also bind to the wrong target more tightly as well. By bringing in additional recognition elements (the second strand of the clamp that forms the triple helix) the DNA nanoswitch improves affinity without sacrificing specificity. To me, thats the critical lesson here.

Brenda Korte, Ph. D., the NIBIB Program Director for Sensors and Microsystems stresses the broader significance of the technology: In addition to the identification of genetic mutations, this work has great potential for numerous new applications of DNA-based nanostructures. The clamp has the potential to be a valuable component for DNA-directed construction of a range of nano-machines including biosensors, and molecular motors. Ultimately, such nano-devices could have a major impact on many aspects of healthcare in the future. This is precisely the type of research NIBIB aims to support new technologies that have direct applications to a specific problem, but also serve as new, innovative approaches that can be applied to other challenging biomedical issues.

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Clamping Down on Cancer-Causing Mutations

Poetic Process Could Extend the End of Moores Law

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TORONTO A technology in development for more than two decades may have the answer for extending the end of Moores law, according to a company coming out of stealth mode.

POET Technologies derives its name from Planar Opto-Electronic Technology, which is its gallium arsenide (GaAs) process used to build electrical, optical, and electro-optical integrated circuits. It is the result of research spearheaded by Geoffrey Taylor, the companys chief scientist, who has been directing its development and is concurrently a professor of electrical engineering and photonics at the University of Connecticut, where the company houses its research and development facilities.

Geoffrey Taylor, POET Technologies' chief scientist

Taylors three decades of experience in design and development in electronic and optical device physics, circuit design, and opto-electronic technology, materials, and applications has been critical to the development of the POET platform. As part of a presentation to EE Times, the company outlined the heart of POET Platform -- a patented materials system that supports monolithic fabrication of integrated circuits containing active and passive optical performance analog and digital elements.

The full POET process also includes a Planar Electronic Technology electrical subset that can support CMOS, Bi-CMOS, and bipolar device fabrication, and offers cheaper, simpler process and fabrication options for applications that dont require optical.

Semiconductor performance has historically improved at a logarithmic rate because transistors have shrunk in size, allowing more transistors to be packed into a semiconductor chip, notes Taylor. Moores Law established the idea that the number of transistors in a chip doubles every 1.5 to 2 years, thus increasing capabilities of electronic equipment, but the challenge is that as transistors become smaller, the cost of reducing size while increasing speed becomes more expensive, and eventually uneconomical.

Theres been much discussion about the demise of Moores Law. Last year, one expert suggested it would be dead as soon as 2020 at the 7 nm node, while MonolithIC 3Ds Zvi Or-Bach recently wrote that 28 nm is actually the last node of Moores Law because, even though its possible to make smaller transistors and more of them can be packed into the same-size die, costs cant continue to be reduced. Last year, Broadcoms CTO predicted that standard CMOS silicon transistors will stop scaling around 5 nm, and everything will plateau.

POETs view is that recently developed 3D silicon semiconductors stacking multiple chips and other silicon high-performance compound devices are very expensive to make and only offer moderate improvements over incumbent chips. One of the advantages POET presented about its process is that it can leverage existing CMOS chipmaking equipment, and it is fully compatible with existing semiconductor design and manufacturing flows. Taylor says POETs benefits are analogous to the benefits of the first silicon integrated circuits, in that it eliminates connectors, solder joints, assembly, and multiple packaging steps while decreasing size, cost, complexity, and power. The companys final CMOS Si geometry at 10/11 nm is under development now and expected to go into production in 2015.

POET expects commercial applications for the process to include CPUs, memory, and processor-to-processor optical interconnect. A POET memory cell can concurrently support SRAM, DRAM, and NVRAM devices, and offers lower bit error rates than silicon-based memories, according to the company.

To validate the POET process, the company has partnered with a third-party international defense services company, which has researchers working on its continued development. The partnership has successfully reproduced the POET technology through production and testing of the critical elements of the POET platform sub-process steps for transistors.

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Personalized Medicine 2.0 Webinar Series – Integrating Key Learnings Across the Organization – Video

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Personalized Medicine 2.0 Webinar Series - Integrating Key Learnings Across the Organization
This webinar, the second in Diaceutics #39; series on Personalized Medicine (PM), focused on PM education across the pharmaceutical company from the R D team to regulatory to commercial and...

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Married To Medicine After Show Season 2 Episode 5 "Chariot Of Fiyah" | AfterBuzz TV – Video

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Married To Medicine After Show Season 2 Episode 5 "Chariot Of Fiyah" | AfterBuzz TV
AFTERBUZZ TV -- Married To Medicine edition, is a weekly "after show" for fans of Bravo #39;s Married To Medicine. In this show, host Michelle Renee breaks down the episode in which Quad hires...

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The Raw Doctor….Connecting Science, Medicine, Health and Plant- Food! – Video

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The Raw Doctor....Connecting Science, Medicine, Health and Plant- Food!
A most exciting and current research project of mine is a search for the FIRST ever treatment natural treatment for Huntington #39;s Disease (HD). Dr. Ken Carly (The Raw Doctor) Willeford #39;s research...

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School of Medicine Gala 2014-Profiles of Innovation and Discovery – Video

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School of Medicine Gala 2014-Profiles of Innovation and Discovery
The Profiles Of Innovation And Discovery video was just one of the presentations at the Designers of Innovation and Discovery 2014 University of Maryland School of Medicine Gala, held May 3...

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3 Natural Homemade Cures for Eczema – Treat Eczema Without Medicine – Video

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3 Natural Homemade Cures for Eczema - Treat Eczema Without Medicine
FULL ECZEMA INFO AT: http://www.VanishEczema.net What is eczema? Eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis, is a chronic allergic condition in which the skin develops areas of itchy, scaly rashes....

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Medicine in the Yahoo! Directory

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Medscape Integrated, multi-specialty medical information and education tool for specialists, primary care physicians, and other health professionals. http://www.medscape.com WebMD Internet-based network that connects medical services, communication, and information tools. http://www.webmd.com National Library of Medicine (NLM) Extensive collection of online information for the public and health care professionals dealing with clinical care, toxicology and environmental health, and basic research. http://www.nlm.nih.gov MedicineNet.com Free medical reference featuring articles about illnesses, medical procedures, and medications. http://www.medicinenet.com MedWatch: The FDA Medical Products Reporting Program Purpose is to enhance the effectiveness of postmarketing surveillance of medical products as they are used in clinical practice and to rapidly identify significant health hazards associated with the products. http://www.fda.gov/medwatch Virtual Hospital Continuously updated digital health sciences library which provides rapid, convenient access to health care information for both health care providers and patients. http://www.vh.org Doctor's Guide Extensive, customizable repository of peer-reviewed literature, case studies, webcasts, and more drawn from a variety of disciplines. http://www.docguide.com American Academy of Physician Assistants American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) is a national organization that represents Physician Assistants (PAs) in all specialties. http://www.aapa.org Lab Tests Online Provides better understanding of lab tests during routine care, as well as diagnosis and treatment of a broad range of conditions and diseases. http://www.labtestsonline.org HealthLinks Virtual community for health care professionals providing a number of ways for the exchange of ideas and opinions with other experienced professionals, and facilitating easy access to information. http://www.healthlinks.net MedConnect http://www.medconnect.com Virtual Naval Hospital Digital health sciences library for providers, patients and families. http://www.vnh.org MedLink Homepage In Swedish http://www.medicallink.se Medical Mnemonics Searchable database of medical mnemonics for students. http://www.medicalmnemonics.com Cyberounds Offering interactive grand rounds for physicians and medical students. Each conference is authored and moderated by a distinguished academic who is the permanent moderator for their specialty. http://www.cyberounds.com Medcalc Clinical Calculators Online calculators for IV administration, growth, body mass index (BMI), pregnancy, and more. http://www.medcalc.com Nanomedicine Online home of the Nanomedicine book series, the science of designing and using molecular machine systems to address medical problems. Includes information about the multi-volume books, as well as background about nanomedicine and nanotechnology. http://www.nanomedicine.com Research Matters at Harvard University [read review] Offers insight and news on the latest discoveries and advances by Harvard researchers. Organized by topic: mind, body, society, earth, space, and technology. http://www.researchmatters.harvard.edu Health Communcation Network@ dir.yahoo.com/.../Health/Health_Communication_Network Medical Online Contains medical information for professionals and patients. http://www.medicalonline.com.au

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