CRV puts advanced bioengineering in its shopping basket – TechCrunch

Posted on by

CRV, an early-stage venture firm that made headlines last year for its stance on then-candidate Donald Trumps campaign, is looking to get out a new (non-political) message:its diving more deeply into the business of AI-driven biotech.

The move comes years after some other venture firms have taken a deep dive into biotech, including True Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. But CRV general partner George Zachary would argue that CRVs timing is pretty good, given both the burgeoningopportunity, and the potentialoutcomes.

Consider that late last year, Stanford researchers trained a computer to identify images of skin cancer moles and lesions as accurately as a dermatologist. Entrepreneur and computer scientist Sebastian Thrun who wasinvolved in the project as an adjunct professor in the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratorytold us earlier this year that the researchers are forming a startup around their findings. (Natch.)

Another young company, Viz,is applying deep learning to ultrasounds, which typically require either a radiologist or other technicians expertise(which can translate into a long wait for anxious patients). More specifically, Vizssoftware compares ultrasoundswith millions of other images and videos, ostensibly empowering primary care physicians to interpret the images and quickly take action.

And these are but two in a sea on examples that range from cancer-screening to blood-testing to human microbiome-focused startups (which alone number in thedozens).

What finally captured CRVs interest? In part, it was personal, says Zachary, who had his own health scare several years ago when a large tumor was detected near his hip. For weeks, doctors thought he had sarcoma;they later discovered he did not, but todays more advanced testing would have saved him a months worth of anguish.

Zachary doesnt say so, but likely institutional investors see the same opportunity that VCs have spied, too, and CRVclosed its most recent fund with $393 million in 2014. Youd expect that it might raise another fund in 2017 (if its not actively in the market already); you might also expect that some focus on biotech might elicit even more enthusiasm fromthose investors.

For what its worth, Zachary whosepast investments include the enterprise social networkYammer (acquired in 2012), the genealogy-focused social networking platform Geni (also acquired in 2012) and the education platform Udacity (cofounded by Thrun) says CRV doesnt plan to create a separate fund around advanced bioengineering. But he says that going forward, it will be his focus exclusively.

It took me awhile to figure this out, he says. But like something staring me in the face, he finally decided to put my work behind my passion.

Founders, take note.

See the rest here:
CRV puts advanced bioengineering in its shopping basket - TechCrunch

Higher ed Q&A: Stephen Knisley, bioengineering professor at NC A&T – Greensboro News & Record

Posted on by

GREENSBORO Shortly after he came to N.C. A&T, engineering professor Stephen Knisley noticed that the National Science Foundation had embarked on a groundbreaking project.

The NSF, the federal agency that supports research in science and engineering, wanted universities to look for different ways to teach engineering and computer science.

Intrigued, Knisley applied for a Revolutionizing Engineering Departments, or RED, grant. The NSF in June awarded him $2 million to fund a five-year project to improve A&Ts undergraduate engineering curriculum.

A professor and researcher who has devoted his career to working with cardiac devices, Knisley will lead a team that includes professors from A&Ts engineering, education and health and human sciences colleges.

News & Record higher education reporter John Newsom sat down with Knisley on Wednesday in McNair Hall, home of the biological, chemical and bioengineering department that Knisley chairs. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: Whats the goal of the RED project?

A: Its quite visionary. What (the NSF is) talking about will really change the way engineering is taught in the U.S. It will lead to a quantum increase in the competitiveness and talents and skills of our engineers, which will ultimately bleed over to economic competitivenessand competitivenessin all other areas of technology. ... The U.S. has always had a leading role (in engineering), but its a challenge to really keep up with all the other countries that are also doing well with their engineers.

Q: Whats the problem youre trying to solve?

A: Its motivation. I dont know why some students really do well in school and some dont. What I have to believe is for the most part is that engineering students are not achieving their full potential. I know some are getting close.

Our students in this department are some of the brightest ones who come to the university. I see some very high-performing, hard-working students who really are serious and they might be getting close to their potential. I see some who are getting by and are somewhere in between. Maybe theyre lacking motivation. We think maybe design activity would trigger those motivators.

Q: Design activity? What's that?

A: Design is a very integral part of engineering. . Engineers are doing things that apply their knowledge and skills to solve some problem and create some solution.

The way design is taught in most engineering programs that I've known is that it usually gets introduced to freshmen and then they go into coursework for a couple of years. Sophomores and juniors are doing engineering science and engineering analysis types of courses without much design. Then they come back in their senior year and do a very significant design project.

Theres a big gap in the middle where design isnt really emphasized ... The way it is now, (design is taught mostly) in the senior year, which really is maybe too late to really have the big impact on these students.

Q: Why do you think design is the key?

A: Part of the reasoning is based on some very compelling scientific literature that talks about why people want to learn things. (What) made the most sense to me was about certain features of the material that will become motivators to learn. One of those is value. If a student believes that what theyre about to learn has value, that will make them want to go in the class and learn it.

If youre working for an engineering firm thats making new bolts or something for companies that use them to manufacture lawn chairs or something like that, its hard to get the feeling for how youre impacting people with that.

But when youre creating a solution like this for people who have sore backs [motions behind him to a poster about a lumbar device designed by A&T students] you think, wow, if that works, then all these peoples grandmas and uncles are going to feel a lot better. Thats really a positive thing and they get real excited and they want to get up in the early in the morning and want to work late at night. Ive seen it time and time again because theres a social human impact piece in those disciplines.

What were doing now is looking at our curricula (in his department) and planning changes that were going to try to implement as soon as we can that will add design labs and design principles into the coursework for freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors.

One of the things were aiming to do is to decrease lecture content and add lab content where (students) can do these design activities, which will include hands-on activity. Some of that lab time is spent understanding the user and their need requirements looking at the market, looking at existing solutions, looking at gaps those solutions have. Its a similar process that entrepreneurs go through when they start a project.

Q: Why are you taking an entrepreneurial approach?

A: It emphasizes the need first and then the solution. What struck me about it was, of all the professors I had known over the years at universities, almost never does it happen that way, at least in my experience. The professors work in their lab and come up with a solution and sometimes theyre going after a need. After theyve discovered the molecule or the solution or the phenomena, then theyre saying, I wonder if this can be used for that problem or that problem or that problem? ...

The entrepreneurs never do that. They always have a need first looking for a solution. It was the flipping of an order. I thought that was kind of revolutionary, just that whole concept. Thats basically the way were doing our design now need first, then the solution.

Q: So if it works?

A: A lot of this is revolutionary stuff. If it works the way we think, its going to be steering us in a better direction toward producing more highly competitive engineers.

Contact John Newsom at (336) 373-7312 and follow @JohnNewsomNR on Twitter.

More here:
Higher ed Q&A: Stephen Knisley, bioengineering professor at NC A&T - Greensboro News & Record

Walking Sticks Stop, Drop and Clone to Survive – KQED

Posted on by

Fortunately, the unusual insects, who live on every continent except Antarctica, are readily available as subjects.

"It's a very prevalent invasive species that can be found all throughout California, including right here on campus, Ramirez said. "All of our specimens we study were collected when they're out and about at night around the nearby creek, since they're nocturnal."

Colors are an important part of a stick insects camouflage defense. When these stick insects first hatch, theyre brown. As they mature and go through successive molts, they may change to an array of vibrant colors from light green to a much darker brown.

"Having adults in a variety of colors allows them to occupy and better survive in different parts of a plant, Ramirez said. "Having a darker stick insect may allow it to blend in more with the trunk of a tree or the darker stems of ivy and blackberry. On the other hand, lighter green stick insects have an advantage on greener surfaces such as the bottom of leaves or greener stems of plants."

These differences in color also affect how well they can escape predators. A darker stick insect can use another means of defense behavioral mimicry if it feels threatened. Once it tucks in its limbs, itll fall down to the ground and "look like a dead twig," Ramirez said.

One puzzle Ramirez is trying to solve is why theres such a colorful palette of Indian walking sticks. Theyre parthenogenic, which means the females dont need males to reproduce. They can actually clone themselves.

"So to see a wide variety of different colors in the stick insects is very interesting because if they're clones of the mother they should all be the same exact thing, but they're not," he said.

"That's something that's really interesting to explore and would definitely require more genetic analysis, which we haven't gotten to quite yet. But hopefully someday that'll be possible in the future," he added.

One reason could be due to genetic mutations.

"There are plenty of other species that undergo parthenogenesis such as aphids, species of bees, ants, wasps, flies, and others which all go through similar asexual cloning mechanisms and can have mutations," Ramirez said. "However, these insects contain very little or do not have any noticeable color variation compared to the Indian stick insects."

Ramirez said he hopes to use the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing tool to try and unlock the mysteries behind the Indian walking stick.

Hes also planning to apply to dental school after he graduates later this year, with the goal of using what hes learned studying walking sticks. His background in genetics and gene editing will help him in emerging fields of research, such as bioengineering human teeth using stem cells.

"This would be revolutionary for dentistry as patients who have lost their permanent teeth could have them replaced," Ramirez said.

See original here:
Walking Sticks Stop, Drop and Clone to Survive - KQED

Harvard Scientists Admit Geoengineering Is Scary, But It’s Time to … – Big Think

Posted on by

Climate scientists have been drawing red lines in the sand for some time, pointing out various thresholds we dare not cross for fear of doing irreparable damage to the planet and our future on it. And yet we continue to do not enough, and one by one those milestones are falling behind us. Few experts now believe we'll be able to avoid warming the earth past the 1.5C increase that's expected to signify irreversible catastrophe. To the horror of experts who have been desperately trying to get our attention in the hopes that we may still have time to change our ways, more and more scientists are switching to Plan B. Their attitude is essentially, "Okay, the battle may already be lost. Let's see if we can geoengineer our way out of this mess." And now researchers at Harvard are about to begin the largest geoengineering experiment ever, a $20 million project to see if they can simulate the cooling effects of a natural volcano in the atmosphere.

There are basically two objections to bioengineering experiments like this.

First is that they take scarce financial resources away from clean energy research and other projects to mitigate the damage we're doing. Indeed, the Harvard team envisions a man-made solar shield covering the earth for $10 billion a year.

Alaskas Pavlov volcano (NASA/GODDARD)

Second, bioengineering can be an extremely dangerous thing to experiment with. Kevin Trenberth, of the UNs intergovernmental panel on climate change, recently told The Guardian that he understood researchers' growing desperation, "But solar geoengineering is not the answer, he said. Cutting incoming solar radiation affects the weather and hydrological cycle. It promotes drought. It destabilizes things and could cause wars. The side effects are many and our models are just not good enough." We have plenty of evidence that the volcanic cooling Harvard wants to learn to replicate can be devastating: The Mount Tambora eruption in 1815 caused crop failures, resulting in famine and outbreaks of disease during Europe's "year without a summer."

The Harvard scientist leading the project, Frank Keutsch, doesn't especially disagree, but he says, At the same time, we should never choose ignorance over knowledge in a situation like this." When Harvards scientists look at the intersection between our energy and climate systems, they dont see how we can switch to cleaner fuels in time, and theve produced a video to make their case.

The first test Harvard has planned is a $10 million "stratospheric controlled perturbation" (SCoPEX) test. In the experiment, a StratoCruiser suspended from a balloon would spray a mix of water and small, reflective sulphate particles into the stratosphere 20km up to generate a 100-meter wide and 1-kilometer long ice plume.

(DYKEMA)

The craft has an engine, aerosol generator, and detection equipment. What they want to observe is if there are harmful side-effects to our injecting sulphur into the atmosphere as volcanoes do. If they see a sudden drop in ozone vital for shielding us from the suns radiation they'd shut the experiment down. They say the test wont put any more sulphur into the stratosphere than an intercontinental flight from Europe to the U.S.

The scientists are currently lab-testing a limestone compound for its aerosol properties with the plan to send that up next in a StratoCruiser. By 2022, they hope to deploy two small scale water dispersals, followed by calcium carbonate particles. Aluminum oxide and diamonds are other possible materials to be aerosolized and injected into the skies at some point down the road.

(PENN STATE)

Geoengineering advocates recognize that large scale tests are too dangerous to attempt, and theres no clear-cut way to extrapolate large-scale outcomes from small-scale test results. So the only option left is to conduct so many small experiments that scientists can feel at least somewhat more confident about what to expect in larger deployments.

To me, solar geoengineering is terrifying, says Daniel P. Schrag in Harvards video. Were talking about an engineering project that will affect every living thing on this planet. The possibility that something could go wrong is really scary and yet, as scary as that is, and uncertain as some of the impact of solar engineering may be, I think the evidence is clearer and clearer that not doing climate bioengineering, and letting climate change proceed, may be actually worse.

parag-khanna-on-climate-change-and-connectivity

Read this article:
Harvard Scientists Admit Geoengineering Is Scary, But It's Time to ... - Big Think

AI Just Discovered a New Antibiotic to Kill the World’s Nastiest Bacteria – Singularity Hub

Posted on by

Penicillin, one of the greatest discoveries in the history of medicine, was a product of chance.

After returning from summer vacation in September 1928, bacteriologist Alexander Fleming found a colony of bacteria hed left in his London lab had sprouted a fungus. Curiously, wherever the bacteria contacted the fungus, their cell walls broke down and they died. Fleming guessed the fungus was secreting something lethal to the bacteriaand the rest is history.

Flemings discovery of penicillin and its later isolation, synthesis, and scaling in the 1940s released a flood of antibiotic discoveries in the next few decades. Bacteria and fungi had been waging an ancient war against each other, and the weapons theyd evolved over eons turned out to be humanitys best defense against bacterial infection and disease.

In recent decades, however, the flood of new antibiotics has slowed to a trickle.

Their development is uneconomical for drug companies, and the low-hanging fruit has long been picked. Were now facing the emergence of strains of super bacteria resistant to one or more antibiotics and an aging arsenal to fight them with. Gone unchallenged, an estimated 700,000 deaths worldwide due to drug resistance could rise to as many as 10 million in 2050.

Increasingly, scientists warn the tide is turning, and we need a new strategy to keep pace with the remarkably quick and boundlessly creative tactics of bacterial evolution.

But where the golden age of antibiotics was sparked by serendipity, human intelligence, and natural molecular weapons, its sequel may lean on the uncanny eye of artificial intelligence to screen millions of compoundsand even design new onesin search of the next penicillin.

In a paper published this week in the journal, Cell, MIT researchers took a step in this direction. The team says their machine learning algorithm discovered a powerful new antibiotic.

Named for the AI in 2001: A Space Odyssey, the antibiotic, halicin, successfully wiped out dozens of bacterial strains, including some of the most dangerous drug-resistant bacteria on the World Health Organizations most wanted list. The bacteria also failed to develop resistance to E. coli during a month of observation, in stark contrast to existing antibiotic ciprofloxacin.

In terms of antibiotic discovery, this is absolutely a first, Regina Barzilay, a senior author on the study and computer science professor at MIT, told The Guardian.

The algorithm that discovered halicin was trained on the molecular features of 2,500 compounds. Nearly half were FDA-approved drugs, and another 800 naturally occurring. The researchers specifically tuned the algorithm to look for molecules with antibiotic properties but whose structures would differ from existing antibiotics (as halicins does). Using another machine learning program, they screened the results for those likely to be safe for humans.

Early study suggests halicin attacks the bacterias cell membranes, disrupting their ability to produce energy. Protecting the cell membrane from halicin might take more than one or two genetic mutations, which could account for its impressive ability to prevent resistance.

I think this is one of the more powerful antibiotics that has been discovered to date, James Collins, an MIT professor of bioengineering and senior author told The Guardian. It has remarkable activity against a broad range of antibiotic-resistant pathogens.

Beyond tests in petri-dish bacterial colonies, the team also tested halicin in mice. The antibiotic cleared up infections of a strain of bacteria resistant to all known antibiotics in a day. The team plans further study in partnership with a pharmaceutical company or nonprofit, and they hope to eventually prove it safe and effective for use in humans.

This last bit remains the trickiest step, given the cost of getting a new drug approved. But Collins hopes algorithms like theirs will help. We could dramatically reduce the cost required to get through clinical trials, he told the Financial Times.

The bigger story may be what happens next.

How many novel antibiotics await discovery, and how far can AI screening take us? The initial 6,000 compounds scanned by Barzilay and Collinss team is a drop in the bucket.

Theyve already begun digging deeper by setting the algorithm loose on 100 million molecules from an online library of 1.5 billion compounds called the ZINC15 database. This first search took three days and turned up 23 more candidates that, like halicin, differ structurally from existing antibiotics and may be safe for humans. Two of thesewhich the team will study furtherappear to be especially powerful.

Even more ambitiously, Barzilay hopes the approach can find or even design novel antibiotics that kill bad bacteria with alacrity while sparing the good guys. In this way, a round of antibiotics would cure whatever ails you without taking out your whole gut microbiome in the process.

All this is part of a larger movement to use machine learning algorithms in the long, expensive process of drug discovery. Other players in the area are also training AI on the vast possibility space of drug-like compounds. Last fall, one of the leaders in the area, Insilico, was challenged by a partner to see just how fast their method could do the job. The company turned out a new a proof-of-concept drug candidate in only 46 days.

The field is still developing, however, and it has yet to be seen exactly how valuable these approaches will be in practice. Barzilay is optimistic though.

There is still a question of whether machine-learning tools are really doing something intelligent in healthcare, and how we can develop them to be workhorses in the pharmaceuticals industry, she said. This shows how far you can adapt this tool.

Image Credit: Halicin (top row) prevented the development of antibiotic resistance in E. coli, while ciprofloxacin (bottom row) did not. Collins Lab at MIT

Go here to see the original:
AI Just Discovered a New Antibiotic to Kill the World's Nastiest Bacteria - Singularity Hub

Dallas Health Wildcatters CEO Launches Health Hacking Crisis Network to Put Community Skills and Ideas to Action – dallasinnovates.com

Posted on by

[Illustration: ARTQU/istockphoto]

Hubert Zajicek knows that we have a strong innovation community here in North Texas that can have an impactnot only locally, but globally. Zajicek, who runs Dallas-based accelerator Health Wildcatters, also believes we have to act fast to find solutions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Zajicek, himself a trained physician, has started a new group called Health Hacking Crisis Network to share knowledge and actionable ideas. His goal is to connect like-minded people to facilitate collaboration and help coordinate an exchange of know-how in the current crisis.

This effort is about connecting the right people to make things happen if and when we need anything addressed, he says.

The new group, launched Thursday, welcomes physicians and health professionals, engineers, biomedical and others, medtech professionals, students, and business professionalsreally anyone who believes they can contribute, he says. And theres a particular need for those who have access to useful equipment in order to solve emergency healthcare issues quickly.

In just 24 hours, the group has pushed past more than 100 talented volunteers, Zajicek says. The first ideas are being worked on. The group was officially launched through the Health Wildcatters email list and its social media contacts.

Zajicek sees the Health Hacking Crisis Network as a group of people who can contribute their skills to solve problems, shortages, and come up with new solutions having to do with an acute situation.

Examples are like the Italian example of engineers sharing CAD files to build a critical part via 3D printing, he says. Many different skills are needed, from engineering to medicine (all subspecialties), from medical device expertise to statistics. Other skills could be in 3D rendering, 3D printing, but also bioengineering, biotechnology.

Early members of the group already include most of these fields, but were just at the beginning, he told Dallas Innovates via email.

We will want web-developers, coders, designers and folks who help us spread the word. It is the expressed goal to have a rapid reaction force and brain trust that we can call upon in times of crisis, just like now, he says. We are defining next steps as we speak to enable virtual meetings with speakers and discussions online.

To keep it simple, Zajicek says he decided to start the network on Facebook.

While the group was launched by Zajicek personally, he calls it a community effort. Health Wildcatters will support it with all the resources we have been blessed with.

Zajicek invitesencouragesothers to join him in the effort to build the resource network.

If you have an interest in contributing to solutions to the current crisis, join this group to meet and converse with like-minded people, he says. This effort is about connecting the right people to make things happen if/when we need anything addressed. Please share this group with anyone you know who is a doer, and has the right talents, training or access to provide help and solutions.

Go here to find out more.

Sign up to keep your eye on whats new and next in Dallas-Fort Worth, every day.

Health Wildcatters' third hackathonthe first focused on womenhosted more than 100 female innovators and entrepreneurs to create actionable solutions for problems in healthcare and life sciences.

The Plano-based remote patient monitoring startup is now offering providers a no-cost solution for low-risk patients or those with mild symptoms simply by answering a series of questions.

The concentration of headquarters, top universities, healthcare systems, and tech companies are key components to Dallas stature among the nations metro areas.

C1 Innovation Lab guides stakeholders from Dallas-area companies through immersive design sprints to find creative solutions for major challenges.

North Texas is one of the first metros to use a web-based information exchange to generate collaboration between the communitys healthcare and social sectors. Now the pioneering PCCI is sharing its solutions in a new playbook.

Continued here:
Dallas Health Wildcatters CEO Launches Health Hacking Crisis Network to Put Community Skills and Ideas to Action - dallasinnovates.com

SwRI Receives $9.9 Million to Develop Nerve Agent Antidote – Business Wire

Posted on by

SAN ANTONIO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Southwest Research Institute has received funding from the Medical CBRN Defense Consortium (MCDC) administered by Advanced Technology International to develop a nerve agent antidote for emergency use on the battlefield or to protect public health.

The use of nerve agents continues to be a significant threat to both military and civilian populations. This prototype medication could serve as a countermeasure against a nerve agent attack. SwRI will lead the development of the antidote under the $9.9 million, five-year program, and will collaborate with University of Pittsburgh on the synthesis and compound design, through the support of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA).

This antidote improves on the current standard of care, importantly, its ability to reverse the effects of the toxin in the central nervous system, said SwRIs Dr. Jonathan Bohmann, a principal scientist in SwRIs Pharmaceutical and Bioengineering Department. The antidote will eventually be administered through an autoinjector, which allows for rapid and effective treatment in the field. It would work much like an Epinephrine Auto-Injector or EpiPen administered during a severe allergy attack. The initial goal of the project is to support our warfighters; however, this treatment could also eventually be administered for civilian use.

In the design of the new medication, SwRI will use a computer-based drug design software platform called Rhodium. SwRI developed Rhodium, a proprietary docking simulation software program tool, to enhance drug design and safety while reducing costs and speeding up development time. The Institute offers Rhodium as a service to clients.

SwRI is one of 193 industry, government and nonprofit organizations supporting the medical countermeasures sector in MCDC. This sector was founded to support U.S. Department of Defense needs in areas of infectious diseases, chemical threats and other medical countermeasures for military personnel.

SwRIs Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Division is ISO 9001:2015 certified, meeting international quality standards for product development from initial design through production and service. SwRI scientists support drug development from discovery to clinical trials in FDA-inspected Current Good Manufacturing Practice facilities.

Rhodium supports drug development and screening for antibiotics as well as preventative treatments such as vaccines. The software also predicts adverse drug reactions and side effects.

For more information, visit https://www.swri.org/industries/pharmaceutical-development.

https://www.swri.org/press-release/rhodium-nerve-agent-antidote-dtra-mcdc

See the original post here:
SwRI Receives $9.9 Million to Develop Nerve Agent Antidote - Business Wire

PNNL-WSU research has potential for high impact on crop production and yields – WSU News

Posted on by

Elias Zegeye uses an LTQ Mass Spectrometer at PNNL in Aaron Wrights laboratory.

By Karen Hunt, Office of Research

Elias Zegeye, a chemical engineering PhD student in the joint Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)-Washington State University (WSU) Distinguished Graduate Research Program (DGRP), has a vision for research that could make a difference.

Zegeyes research focuses on how soil nutritional and physical environments shape soil microbiomes the interactive microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi that are associated with soil and plants. He is working on developing predictive tools that could assist in better understanding the ecological functions of soil microbials under varying conditions.

The research has the potential to be very useful for farmers in addressing soil management and improving crop production and yields now and in the decades ahead. The importance of Zegeyes research was recently highlighted by the Department of Energy and featured online by the American Society of Microbiology. The predictive model will reduce complexity in studying the soil microbes and assist in better understanding the ecological mechanisms and functions that impact soil health, sustainability, and yield potential.

Zegeye works with and is advised by Aaron Wright, a scientist based at PNNL who helps to guide, mentor, and share research expertise with Zegeye. Wright is also anadjunct research professor in the Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering.

WSU-PNNL joint-appointees are distinguished scientists in their expertise and devote extensive time and attention on the progress of students research, says Zegeye. Moreover, the WSU-PNNL joint-appointee helps to maximize the potential, knowledge and experience of students by providing independent research for the student. Additionally, they help students to collaborate and get mentorship from other senior scientists at PNNL, which is important for the student to broaden their research and project understanding from different scientific viewpoints.

The DGRP recently announced its call for applications for its fourth student cohort. DGRP students complete their coursework and preliminary exam at a WSU campus. After this point, students transfer to PNNLs Tri-Cities campus. The application process is undertaken by interested co-advisors at WSU and PNNL who submit a joint-DGRP application online. The priority deadline for DGRP applications is January 10, 2020.

Link:
PNNL-WSU research has potential for high impact on crop production and yields - WSU News

Bioengineering | Britannica

Posted on by

3D-printed prosthetic jawLearn about a titanium 3D-printed prosthetic jaw. University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (A Britannica Publishing Partner)

Bioengineering, the application of engineering knowledge to the fields of medicine and biology. The bioengineer must be well grounded in biology and have engineering knowledge that is broad, drawing upon electrical, chemical, mechanical, and other engineering disciplines. The bioengineer may work in any of a large range of areas. One of these is the provision of artificial means to assist defective body functionssuch as hearing aids, artificial limbs, and supportive or substitute organs. In another direction, the bioengineer may use engineering methods to achieve biosynthesis of animal or plant productssuch as for fermentation processes.

Before World War II the field of bioengineering was essentially unknown, and little communication or interaction existed between the engineer and the life scientist. A few exceptions, however, should be noted. The agricultural engineer and the chemical engineer, involved in fermentation processes, have always been bioengineers in the broadest sense of the definition since they deal with biological systems and work with biologists. The civil engineer, specializing in sanitation, has applied biological principles in the work. Mechanical engineers have worked with the medical profession for many years in the development of artificial limbs. Another area of mechanical engineering that falls in the field of bioengineering is the air-conditioning field. In the early 1920s engineers and physiologists were employed by the American Society of Heating and Ventilating Engineers to study the effects of temperature and humidity on humans and to provide design criteria for heating and air-conditioning systems.

Today there are many more examples of interaction between biology and engineering, particularly in the medical and life-support fields. In addition to an increased awareness of the need for communication between the engineer and the associate in the life sciences, there is an increasing recognition of the role the engineer can play in several of the biological fields, including human medicine, and, likewise, an awareness of the contributions biological science can make toward the solution of engineering problems.

Much of the increase in bioengineering activity can be credited to electrical engineers. In the 1950s bioengineering meetings were dominated by sessions devoted to medical electronics. Medical instrumentation and medical electronics continue to be major areas of interest, but biological modeling, blood-flow dynamics, prosthetics, biomechanics (dynamics of body motion and strength of materials), biological heat transfer, biomaterials, and other areas are now included in conference programs.

Bioengineering developed out of specific desires or needs: the desire of surgeons to bypass the heart, the need for replacement organs, the requirement for life support in space, and many more. In most cases the early interaction and education were a result of personal contacts between physician, or physiologist, and engineer. Communication between the engineer and the life scientist was immediately recognized as a problem. Most engineers who wandered into the field in its early days probably had an exposure to biology through a high-school course and no further work. To overcome this problem, engineers began to study not only the subject matter but also the methods and techniques of their counterparts in medicine, physiology, psychology, and biology. Much of the information was self-taught or obtained through personal association and discussions. Finally, recognizing a need to assist in overcoming the communication barrier as well as to prepare engineers for the future, engineering schools developed courses and curricula in bioengineering.

Follow this link:
Bioengineering | Britannica

RPT-China stocks slump 3% on Wuhan lockdown over virus outbreak – Reuters

Posted on by

(Repeats to attach to alerts)

SHANGHAI, Jan 23 (Reuters) - China stocks fell about 3% on Thursday, their biggest single-day loss in nearly nine months, as investors unloaded shares related to restaurants, cinemas, airlines and theme parks after a lockdown in the central city of Wuhan to curb a SARS-like virus.

Authorities in Wuhan, the epicentre of the new coronavirus outbreak that has killed 17 and infected nearly 600 people, shut urban transport networks and suspended outgoing flights.

The drastic measures spooked investors who scrambled for safe haven in bonds.

Chinas blue-chip index CSI300 tanked 3.1% to 4,003.90 points, posting its biggest one-day loss in nearly nine months. Shanghai stocks lost 2.8% to 2,976.53 points.

The CSI300 index marked its worst week since May 2019, while the Shanghai benchmark fell the most on-week since August last year. China financial markets will be suspended on Friday for the week-long Lunar New Year holiday.

Selling intensified in afternoon trading as news trickled in about fresh cases of infection across China, and cancellation of entertainment events.

The market was dominated by fears of the Wuhan coronavirus, which stirs dark memories of the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak, said Larry Hu, an economist at Macquarie Capital Ltd.

We cant answer how severe it will be and when it will end, Hu wrote, adding The worst is yet to come.

However, fundamentals will eventually rule for the year, as the virus impact on Chinas economy is manageable and short-lived, Hu argued.

It was not clear yet whether the virus would follow the six-month life cycle of SARS, said Chi Lo, Greater China economist at BNP Paribas Asset Management.

The outbreak posed bigger downside risks in Chinas sequential economic growth as consumption and the service sector is a bigger part of the economy.

The sell-off was across the board, but most concentrated in transport and leisure sectors as people avoid interactions and outdoor activities.

The healthcare sector was the only bright spot, as demand for vaccines and health check-ups surged following the virus outbreak, although no drugs can directly treat the flu-like symptoms of the new coronavirus.

Airline shares continued to weaken, with Air China , China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines dropping more than 3% each.

Wanda Film slumped nearly 7%, while China Film and Beijing Enlight Media Co fell nearly 5%.

Bucking the trend, biotech firms and drugmakers surged with Shandong Lukang Pharmaceutical Co, Jiangsu Sihuan Bioengineering Co and Jiangsu Lianhua Pharmaceutical Co all advancing by their daily limit of 10%. (Reporting by Shanghai Newsroom, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

View post:
RPT-China stocks slump 3% on Wuhan lockdown over virus outbreak - Reuters

A Star ProfessorAnd Her Radical, AI-Powered Plan To Discover New Drugs – Forbes

Posted on by

Not many scientists get solicited for photo ops, but for Daphne Koller its a regular occurrence. It happens at pretty much any event that has tech people, Koller says when asked about one recent snapshot. Its a little awkward. Its not like I feel like this is something I deserve.

Selfie requests are just one sign of Kollers stardom, earned from more than 20 years bridging computer science, biology and education. She chalked up a string of accolades along the way: getting a masters degree from Jerusalems Hebrew University at 18; becoming a Stanford University professor focused on machine learning at 26; winning, nearly a decade later, a MacArthur genius grant for research that combined artificial intelligence and genomics; cofounding $1 billion (valuation) Coursera, an early platform to let people around the world take university classes for free.

The next act for this 51-year-old innovator: Insitro, a firm in South San Francisco that aims to find new drugs by sorting through masses of data. If it succeeds, it will have overturned how drugs get discovered.

Lab biologists typically focus on a few specific proteins as drug targets. If those fail, data scientists make suggestions for others to try. Insitro, on the other hand, wants to collect much more data before the biologists go off on their hunt. It will leverage advances in bioengineering (such as Crispr gene editing) and in software that enables computers to see things that escape humans.

Koller describes her aha moment this way: Machine learning is now doing amazing things if you give it enough data. We finally have the opportunity to create biological data at scale.

There are very few individuals who understand both sides of the beast, says Mani Subramanian, who heads liver disease clinical research at Gilead. The biology as well as the deep learning.

Insitros computational experts and biologists work together to create lab experiments to produce massive custom data sets. Machine learning models then find patterns to suggest new tests and potential therapies. Robotics like automated pipetting machines reduce human error. With all this, Insitro can do experiments in a matter of weeks instead of years, Koller says.

AI plus biology, her background, was a marriage made in heaven for investors, she says. Within six months Koller raised $100 million from ARCH Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Foresite Capital, Alphabets venture fund GV and Third Rock, with Jeff Bezos and others joining later. In April, she landed a deal with Gilead Sciences that gives Insitro $15 million now with $1 billion to follow if it helps find a treatment for a deadly form of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. The disease is expected to soon become the leading cause of liver transplants.

There are very few individuals who understand both sides of the beast, says Mani Subramanian, who heads liver disease clinical research at Gilead. The biology as well as the deep learning.

Insitros future payouts from Gilead hang on whether it can identify five proteins that could be targets for drugs and then whether targeting those proteins leads to approved therapies for the liver disease. The contingent payments, which include revenue sharing from successful drugs, helped Insitro earn a spot on Forbes inaugural AI 50 list of the most promising artificial intelligence companies.

More than 20 other startups are chasing the dream of faster, cheaper drug discovery through AI. Among them are Notable Labs, with $55 million of venture capital, and Verge Genomics, with $36 million. Novartis has announced a five-year AI collaboration with Microsoft, and Merck and GSK have startup partnerships as well.

Artificial intelligence does not make biology easy. I dont think the platform can be magic, Koller says.

Before Insitro can reap rewards, a few hundred thousand lab tests need to happen. Koller has the energy. Bouncing around Insitros officeshe gave away her desk chair to one of her 53 employees because she never used itshe moves from a room named Macrophage (a white blood cell) to one named Elastic Net (a data-modeling technique) to show off the latest lab equipment.

Big Pharmas interest would seem to make Insitro a likely acquisition target if it hits pay dirt. But Koller says she doesnt want to see Insitro swallowed into the maw of a larger organization. She wants it to make its own branded drugs.

The ultimate goal is that the people asking for photos ops will be healthier thanks to Insitro. Koller says she hopes they come up to her and say, Because of you, I have my life back.

GetForbesdaily top headlines straight to your inboxfor news on the worlds most important entrepreneurs and superstars, expert career advice, and success secrets.

Read the original here:
A Star ProfessorAnd Her Radical, AI-Powered Plan To Discover New Drugs - Forbes

Researchers and scholars at the top of their fields elected – Scoop.co.nz

Posted on by

Thursday, 21 November 2019, 11:08 amPress Release: Royal Society Te Aparangi

Nineteen new Ng Ahurei a Te Aprangi Fellows andNg Ahurei Honore a Te Aprangi Honorary Fellows have beenelected to the Academy of the Royal Society Te Aprangi fortheir distinction in research and advancement of science,technology or the humanities. They are world leaders in thefollowing topics: improving humanmachine interactions,moral philosophy, autobiographical memory, Pasifika poetry,cross-cultural psychology, Indigenous studies and thepolitics of polar regions. Also, paleobiology, seabedgeology, tectonic and seismic hazards, pollen records,reintroduction biology, mathematical functional analysis,optical physics, stroke, maternal health, bone biology, endof life care and gout.

Being made a Fellow is anhonour that recognises distinction in research, scholarshipor the advancement of knowledge at the highest internationalstandards. Fellows can use the post-nominal FRSNZafter their name to indicate this honour.

Chair ofthe Academy Executive Committee Professor Richard BlaikieFRSNZ says it was pleasing to see new Fellows from a widerange of disciplines and backgrounds.

Thenewly-elected Fellows have made amazing contributions toknowledge in their fields and across disciplinaryboundaries. Their election adds significantly to the breadthand diversity of knowledge held within the Academy; theywill help support the purpose of Te Aprangi to engage withand inform New Zealanders on matters of publicimportance.

On behalf of the Academy andSociety, I heartily congratulate all the new Fellows. Theelection process is rigorous and new Fellows can berightfully proud that their outstanding achievements havebeen recognised by their peers in this way.

Thenew Fellows are:

Associate Professor Mark Sagar,CEO Soul Machines Ltd and Auckland Bioengineering Institute,University of AucklandProfessor Valery Feigin, AucklandUniversity of TechnologyProfessor Caroline Crowther,Liggins Institute, University of AucklandProfessor TimMulgan, University of AucklandDr Philip Barnes,NIWAProfessor Elaine Reese, University ofOtagoAssociate Professor Selina Tusitala Marsh,University of AucklandProfessor Ronald Fischer, VictoriaUniversity of WellingtonProfessor James Crampton, GNSScience and Victoria University of WellingtonProfessorJillian Cornish, University of AucklandProfessor BrendanHokowhitu, University of WaikatoDr Kelvin Berryman, GNSScienceProfessor Merryn Gott, University ofAucklandProfessor Rewi Newnham, Victoria University ofWellingtonProfessor Nicola Dalbeth, University ofAuckland and Auckland District Health BoardProfessorPhilip Seddon, University of OtagoProfessor Astrid anHuef, Victoria University of WellingtonProfessorAnne-Marie Brady, University of Canterbury

TheSociety also announced the election of an Honorary Fellow.The election of Honorary Fellows aims to encourage strongties with leading international scientists and scholars andNew Zealands research community.

The new HonoraryFellow is:

Distinguished Professor John Dudley,University of Bourgogne-Franche Comt France and CNRSresearch institute FEMTO-ST.

Read more onthe new Fellows:

AssociateProfessor Mark Sagar, CEO Soul Machines Ltd and AucklandBioengineering Institute, University ofAucklandMark Sagar is a pioneer in thecomputational modelling of the face. His early worksimulating facial appearance and movement received twoscientific and technical Academy Awards. His later researchhas gone deeper under the skin, simulating facialmusculature, behavioural circuits, and the motivatingcognitive processes. Mark is re-imagining how peopleinteract with technology, humanising it in appearance and inthe way it processes information. By creating interactivemodels of human cognition and emotion, he aims to (1) givenew insights into human nature, exploring how interconnectedneural processing models give rise to intelligent andemotional behaviour; (2) build the foundation for futurehuman-intelligent machine co-operation; and (3) democratiseartificial intelligence by making it intuitive to use in aface-to-face manner by millions.

ProfessorValery Feigin, Auckland University ofTechnologyThe research findings of ValeryFeigin have had profound international impact, changing ourunderstanding of stroke and traumatic brain injuryprevention and epidemiology. His research has hadsignificant implications for health care services, researchplanning and priority setting and significantly has resultedin changes in the World Health Organisation InternationalClassification of Diseases 11th revision. His novel approachto primary stroke prevention through motivationalpopulation-wide intervention (Stroke Riskometer app) hasreceived worldwide recognition. He was awarded the 2015MacDiarmid Medal by Royal Society Te Aprangi inrecognition of his work in this area.

Professor Caroline Crowther, Liggins Institute,University of AucklandCaroline Crowther is amaternal fetal medicine subspecialist recognisedinternationally for her landmark, large, multicentreclinical trials and translation of research findings intoguidelines, practice and policy change, leading to improvedmaternal and perinatal health worldwide. Her work haschanged care for women before preterm birth and for diabetesin pregnancy, and has led to substantially reduced death,disability and cerebral palsy in their newborn babies.Caroline has led significant development of evidence-basedhealth care within New Zealand and Australia and beyond,including establishing the Australian and New ZealandCochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Satellite and has been anadvisor to the World Health Organisation on maternal andperinatal research priorities and care recommendations.

Professor Tim Mulgan, University ofAucklandTim Mulgan is a significantinternational scholar in moral philosophy and philosophy ofreligion. He is the author of five books and numerousjournal articles and book chapters. He has made originalcontributions to discussions about the demands of morality,our obligations to future people, the moral significance ofclimate change, the purpose of the universe, and our placein the cosmos. Tims work has influenced other scholars inphilosophy, and also in related disciplines includingtheology, development studies, environmental studies,political theory, institutional design and publichealth.

Dr Philip Barnes, NIWAPhilip Barnes is an internationally recognisedmarine scientist who uses geophysical and geological methodsto unlock the secrets of the Earth beneath the seabed. Overthe past three decades, his expansive research into NewZealands undersea environment has revolutionised ourperspective of the fault lines and active tectonic processesthat shape New Zealand and its surrounding seafloor. Hisinsights underpin numerous discoveries regarding the dynamicnature of our tectonic plate boundary. His quantification ofnatural phenomena such as deformation of Earths crust,earthquake variability, fault movements and landslidescontinue to produce science of international and societalrelevance, especially as active plate boundaries dominatethe circum-Pacific rim (Ring of Fire) and pose significantgeohazards.

Professor Elaine Reese,University of OtagoElaine Reese is aworld-leading expert on autobiographical memory. She beganher career with the ground-breaking discovery that the wayin which mothers and young children talk about the past haslong-lasting effects on a childs memory development. Overthe years, she has expanded her research to include studieswith older children and adolescents, tracing the role ofmaternal reminiscing practices in the development ofchildrens narrative skill, self-concept, and wellbeingover significant periods of development. More recently, inwork with Mori families, she has documented howcross-cultural differences in maternal reminiscing arereflected in childrens emerging life stories. Eachdiscovery has set a new bar in the field of developmentalpsychology and has fostered new research in laboratoriesaround the world.

Associate Professor SelinaTusitala Marsh, University of AucklandPoetLaureate and scholar Selina Tusitala Marsh ONZM from theUniversity of Auckland is renowned for her outstandingcreative and scholarly contribution to Pacific literatureand Pacific Literary Studies. A prolific author andaward-winning poet, she has published widely. Her poetry hasappeared on the Top 5 NZ Best Seller List and NZListeners Best 100 Books, in Best New Zealand Poems, inthe prestigious The Poetry Archive (UK), and on the renownedUS Poetry Foundation website. The Commonwealth Poet for2016, Marsh composed and performed a poem for QueenElizabeth II at Westminster Abbey on behalf of theCommonwealth member states. She was appointed New ZealandPoet Laureate (2017-2019). A notable scholar and teacher,and hailing from the islands of Samoa and Tuvalu on hermother's side, Selina has produced a distinctive style ofPacific literary criticism, developed Pacific pedagogies forteaching literature, and mentors Mori and Pacificstudents. Selina was awarded the 2019 Humanities AronuiMedal by Royal Society Te Aprangi in recognition of hercontribution.

Professor Ronald Fischer,Victoria University of WellingtonRonald Fischeris one of the leading cross-cultural psychologists in theworld. His work is interdisciplinary, focussing on theinterplay between cultures and individuals, and hispioneering work has led to major advances in the study ofnorms and values, and the evolutionary functions of ritual.He has won many prestigious awards and is a sought-afterspeaker. He has shown exceptional engagement and leadershipthrough establishing large research networks, serving asassociate editor on international journals, initiatinginternational training PhD programmes, teaching at summerschools, serving on executive boards, and contributing toUnited Nations development programmes.

Professor James Crampton, GNS Science andVictoria University of WellingtonJames Cramptonis the leading authority on New Zealand Cretaceouspaleobiology, biostratigraphy and paleo-environments. Hisresearch informs us about life before the last greatextinction. He is internationally recognised for his diverseresearch including systematic paleontology; morphometrics;physical drivers of evolution; dynamics of diversity;macroecology; biogeography; and biostratigraphy. His work inleading international journals synthesises geological,ecological and macroevolutionary processes, and achieves animpressive level of quantitative and analytical rigour. Inaddition to his contributions to paleobiological theory, hisinnovative methodology and analytical techniques arebecoming widely adopted. Through presentations, print, anddisplay of fossils, he has increased public understandingand appreciation of New Zealands past life andenvironments. He was elected a Fellow of the US-basedPaleontological Society in 2018.

ProfessorJillian Cornish, University of AucklandJillianCornish is an international leader and educator in bonebiology and its application to orthopaedic research. She hasidentified a series of key bone regulatory molecules, thuselucidating important pathways in normal bone biology suchas the close relationship between fat cells and bone cellsas well as providing bone growth factors for potential usein orthopaedics. This work has been recognised by researchawards from the International Combined Orthopaedic ResearchSocieties, the Faculty of Science of the Royal College ofPathologists of Australasia, the New Zealand Society ofEndocrinology, the American Society of Bone and MineralResearch, and the Australia and New Zealand Bone and MineralSociety. Her current orthopaedic collaborations have thepotential to alter clinical outcomes for patients withsevere skeletal injuries and bone cancers.

Professor Brendan Hokowhitu, University ofWaikatoBrendan Hokowhitu (Ngti Pkenga) is apioneering Mori scholar who has helped define the globallynascent field of Indigenous Studies. His intellect,originality in thinking and depth of knowledge aredemonstrated in his expansive publications creating thesub-fields of Indigenous Masculinities, and Indigenous Sportand Physical Education, and are significantly contributingto sub-fields of Indigenous Critical Theory, IndigenousMedia, and Indigenous Wellbeing. He leads the Ageing WellNational Science Challenge Kaumtua Mana Motuhakeproject. Uniquely, he has become the Dean of two IndigenousStudies faculties in two different countries (Canada and NewZealand), which is a testament to his international peerrecognition.

Dr Kelvin Berryman, GNSScienceKelvin Berryman QSO is one of theforemost pioneers and international experts in activetectonics and seismic hazard assessment. His research hasincreased fundamental understanding of the processes andhazards to society associated with plate boundary zones andhe has communicated this knowledge to the public, governmentagency staff and elected officials. He has played a pivotalrole in the response and recovery from the Canterburyearthquakes, bringing research knowledge to the fore indecision-making. He was awarded the Queens Service Orderin 2012 for services to science and Canterbury earthquakerecovery.

Professor Merryn Gott, Universityof AucklandMerryn Gott is internationallyrecognised for the critical social science lens she bringsto addressing what the World Health Organisation describesas one of the most significant public health challengesof the 21st century, namely the need to reduce sufferingat the end of life. Her evidence has informed practice andpolicy in Aotearoa New Zealand, the UK, the United Statesand Canada, ultimately leading to positive impact forpatients and whnau. Her work has also led to theoreticaland methodological advances in palliative care researchinternationally. She directs the only bicultural palliativecare research group internationally, recognised asworld-leading for its equity focus.

Professor Rewi Newnham, Victoria University ofWellingtonRewi Newnham (Ngpuhi) is anoutstanding researcher and educator in studying past andpresent environmental and climatic conditions and modernchanges, primarily through analyses of pollen records(palynology). His wide-ranging work includes studies of NewZealands past climates and their controls and links toglobal climate change, using pollen analysis to determinehuman and volcanic impacts on the environment, andcontemporary effects of pollen on human health. Rewi hasachieved world-wide recognition and has contributed to orco-led international initiatives to determine NewZealands past climates, using these findings to answerglobally-important questions about environmental change. Healso draws on his roots in Ngpuhi iwi to build linksbetween science and mtauranga Mori and to help NewZealanders understand the factors that affect environmentalchange.

Professor Nicola Dalbeth, Universityof Auckland and Auckland District HealthBoardNicola Dalbeth is a rheumatologist andprofessor of medicine who leads a research programme ingout, an arthritis of major relevance to Aotearoa NewZealand. Her work has identified novel mechanisms of diseaseand defined treatment approaches for gout. In addition, shehas led international initiatives to define central conceptsof gout, including nomenclature of disease, disease staging,and outcome measures. Her research in both pharmacologicaland non-pharmacological treatments has been incorporatedinto international gout management guidelines.

Professor Philip Seddon, University ofOtagoPhilip Seddon is an outstandingconservation biologist and founding member of the expandingfield of Reintroduction Biology. His work improves thepractice, scientific underpinnings and success of speciestranslocations globally. He has key leadership roles withinspecialist groups of the International Union forConservation of Nature. His publications, including keypapers in flagship journals such as Nature Ecology &Evolution, Science, Conservation Biology,and Trends in Ecology and Evolution, have shapedinternational conservation policy.

ProfessorAstrid an Huef, Victoria University ofWellingtonAstrid an Huef is a highly regardedpure mathematician working in functional analysis, the typeof analysis that deals with infinite-dimensional phenomena.Her focus ranges broadly from operator algebras associatedwith various dynamical systems, to operator algebrasassociated with combinatorial objects such as graphs andsemigroups, and to purely algebraic analogues of the latter.The breadth, depth and quality of her research isillustrated by her international collaborations, peeresteem, the external funding she has received and thequality of the journals she publishes in.

Professor Anne-Marie Brady, University ofCanterburyThe research of Anne-Marie Brady onAntarctic politics, China's polar interests, and the ChineseCommunist Party's domestic and foreign policy, inparticular, foreign interference activities, has been acatalyst contributing to policy adjustments by governmentsfrom the USA, to New Zealand, Australia, the UK, Canada, andthe EU. Her research has been publicly praised by HillaryClinton and Marco Rubio. Her testimony on Antarctica andChina is recorded in Hansard in the Australian Parliament,as well as in several reports on Antarctica prepared for theAustralian government. Her policy advice helped spark aninquiry into foreign interference in the New Zealandparliament. Her research on small states in the changingglobal order has assisted New Zealand and other small stategovernments with contestable policy advice. She founded agroundbreaking journal of polar social sciences, whichoffers policy relevant research on the Arctic and Antarctic.In 2019, she was awarded the New Zealand Women of InfluenceGlobal Influence Award. She is the first female politicalscientist elected a Fellow of Royal Society Te Aprangi.

HONORARY FELLOW

Distinguished Professor John Dudley, Universityof Bourgogne-Franche Comt FranceJohn Dudleyhas made sustained and exceptional contributions to sciencethrough pioneering research in optical physics and globalscience advocacy. After attending high school in Mangere,South Auckland, he received his PhD from the University ofAuckland in 1992, where he subsequently lectured from 1993to 2000. He then moved to France where he is nowDistinguished Professor at the University ofBurgundy-Franche-Comt and the CNRS research instituteFEMTO-ST. He has made groundbreaking discoveries in thescience of ultrafast lasers, nonlinear optics and extremewaves, with highly cited publications (many of which areco-authored with New Zealand researchers), and numerousinternational awards and distinctions. He is equallycommitted to education, and has initiated major sciencecommunication initiatives with the United Nations and UNESCOthat have reached hundreds of millions worldwide.

Scoop Media

Scoop Citizen Membership ScoopPro for Organisations

View post:
Researchers and scholars at the top of their fields elected - Scoop.co.nz

Biobots are hybrid machines that have muscles and nerves – DesignNews

Posted on by

An artist rendering of a new generation of biobots developed by researchers at the University of Illinois--soft robotic devices powered by skeletal muscle tissue stimulated by on-board motor neurons. (Image source: Michael Vincent)

The next-generation of medical treatment and diagnosis likely will include tiny robots that can explore inside the human body and perform appointed tasks.

To drive this technological aim, researchers at the University of Illinois have developed soft, biological robotic devices that are self-driven using light-stimulated neuromuscular tissue and have intelligence, memory, and learning ability. The work brings researchers a step closer toward the development of autonomous biobots.

This is the first milestone towards intelligent biorobots that make themselves through self assembly, project leader Taher Saif, a mechanical science and engineering professor from the University of Illinois, told Design News.

Muscle cells mixed with an extra cellular matrix is dropped on the tail part, where muscle cells form the muscle tissue by self assembly, Saif told Design News. Neurons are placed on the head part of the swimmer from where they spread out and form junctions with the muscle. These neurons then fire and make the muscle contract.

The researchers published a paper on their recent work in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The recent work is a continuation of Saifs research on similar technology. In 2014, research teams led by Saif and a colleague, bioengineering professor Rashid Bashir, developed the first self-propelled biohybrid robots that could swim and walk, powered by beating cardiac muscle cells derived from rats.

While those robots could move on their own using biomaterials, they couldnt sense the environment or make decisions, Saif said.

The current work takes this technology a step further with biobots powered by skeletal muscle tissue and stimulated by on-board motor neurons, he said. The neurons have optogenetic properties derived from mouse stem cells; when exposed to light, they fire to actuate the muscle tissue.

Neurons make connections between each other forming a neural network, Saif explained. Some of the neurons form junctions with the muscle. The neurons fire and stimulate the muscle.

Once the muscle is stimulated, it contracts and moves the tails of the swimming biobot, Saif said. This motion of the tails make the swimmer propel forward.

Once the researchers ensured that the neuromuscular tissue used in the biobots was compatible with the synthetic biobot skeletons, they then set about to optimize the abilities of the swimming device. In particular, they aimed for the bot to be able to respond intelligently to environment cues by integrating neural units within biohybrid systems.

Given our understanding of neural control in animals, it may be possible to move forward with biohybrid neuromuscular design by using a hierarchical organization of neural networks, Saif said in a press statement.

Once these smart biobots are optimized, Saif and his team believe they can be used for various applications in bioengineering, medicine, and self-healing materials and technologies.

In the future, it is possible that such intelligent micro biorobots may swim towards a target tissue inside the body and deliver drugs on an on-demand basis, Saif told Design News.

The team plans to continue its work by exploring the use of multiple types of neurons in the biobot as well as to test the robots ability to sense and fire when a threshold signal such as a chemical gradient is exceeded.

Elizabeth Montalbano is a freelance writer who has written about technology and culture for more than 20 years. She has lived and worked as a professional journalist in Phoenix, San Francisco and New York City. In her free time she enjoys surfing, traveling, music, yoga and cooking. She currently resides in a village on the southwest coast of Portugal.

January 28-30:North America's largest chip, board, and systems event,DesignCon, returns to Silicon Valleyfor its 25th year!The premier educational conference and technology exhibition, this three-day event brings together the brightest minds across the high-speed communications and semiconductor industries, who are looking to engineer the technology of tomorrow. DesignCon is your rocket to the future. Ready to come aboard?Register to attend!

Read more:
Biobots are hybrid machines that have muscles and nerves - DesignNews

Prosthetic ovary created in breakthrough that could lead to ‘holy grail … – The Independent

Posted on by

Mice whose ovaries were removed and replaced with an artificial structure were able to have offspring naturally, scientists have revealed in a breakthrough that could lead to the holy grail of bioengineering in humans.

The ovarystructurewas 3D-printed using gelatin to create a latticethat could house follicles containing the eggs.

The researchers said the new technique could one day be used to restore fertility to women rendered infertile by cancer treatment.

And they also suggested it could also help design a range of artificial organs that could be used instead of transplants from dead people, which require the patient to take immune-suppressing drugs for the rest of their lives.

One of the researchers, Professor Teresa Woodruff, of Northwestern University in the US, said: Using bioengineering, instead of transplanting from a cadaver, to create organ structures that function and restore the health of that tissue for that person, is the holy grail of bioengineering for regenerative medicine.

The exciting part of this new discovery is that we are going to be able to build ovaries that we hope one day will help restore fertility to young cancer survivors as well as children going through puberty who have been treated with life-preserving cancer treatments but are going to be sterilised by that same treatment.

We have never had a way to provide back that fertility. We can protect their fertility but weve not been able to restore it.

What that means is they are going to have endocrine function endocrine hormones like oestrogen and progesterone and they are going to have the ability to have their own children one day.

Thats the real promise of this technology.

She said the prosthetic ovaries had been showed to have a long-term, durable function.

Crucially, the mice with the prosthetic ovaries produced milk in the normal way as a result of the normal hormonalchanges in their body.

A paper in the journal Nature Communications said ovarian function had been fully restored in surgically sterilized mice.

The techniques developed here are the necessary first steps to validate the significant undertaking of exploring such an approach for creating a human bioprosthetic ovary, the paper added.

Live birth was achieved with the implant alone; angiogenic growth factors [used to encourage new blood vessels], hormone stimulation and embryo transfer were not required.

The resulting pups from the bioprosthetic ovary developed normally with their own reproductive competency, as they were all able to sire or deliver healthy litters.

However the researchers cautioned that further work was required to establish whether the synthetic ovary would function in the same way in humans and that there was not a risk of cancerous cells.

This bioprosthetic ovary may become a promising solution for restoring hormone and fertility function in oncofertility [cancer] patients, the paper said.

Outside of reproductive biology, our findings will likely impact others developing tissue units and underscore the importance of independently investigating the impact of architectural variables when designing scaffolds for other soft tissue and organ targets.

Gelatin is a hydrogel made from collagen, which is found in humans bones and skin and is safe to use inside the body.

Professor Ramille Shah, an expert in materials science at Northwestern, said: Most hydrogels are very weak, since they're made up of mostly water, and will often collapse on themselves.

But we found a gelatin temperature that allows it to be self-supporting, not collapse, and lead to building multiple layers. No one else has been able to print gelatin with such well-defined and self-supported geometry.

She added that the study was also the first to show that the scaffold architecture makes a difference in the survival of ovarian follicles, which each contain a single egg.

In some cancer patients, the ovaries do not function at a high enough level and hormone replacement therapy is required.

Dr Jane Stewart, the chair-elect of the British Fertility Society, said the paper sounds really exciting.

They have managed to create a matrix in which they can embed ovarian tissue and theyve then managed to implant that back in a mouse and made it work, she said.

From a human point of view we are way off being able to use that in clinical practice, but its a step towards that.

Dr Stewart said this technique still required the existence of ovarian follicles containing eggs.

But other researchers are working on ways to produce these from stem cells, which could eventually allow the artificial construction of a complete ovary with eggs genetically related to the woman.

She said ovarian tissue was currently removed from cancer patients and then grafted back to allow them to have children.

But eggs were lost during the process and the artificial ovarian structure might help reduce this, allowing the women to have children naturally, rather than requiring IVF.

Originally posted here:
Prosthetic ovary created in breakthrough that could lead to 'holy grail ... - The Independent

Kettering University student creates prosthetic hand for Bioengineering independent study – Kettering University News

Posted on by

Tyler Bylsma 17 was playing on both the offensive and defensive lines on the Calvin High School varsity football team when the most unfortunate of circumstances altered the course of his life.

During a game in his junior year, Bylsma broke his wrist.

The injury ended both his football and wrestling seasons that year but it also spurred a medical journey that has inspired him to this day. In the days following his injury, Bylsma got an MRI, underwent ultrasound therapy and eventually needed surgery to implant screws into his wrist.

Going through all of that got me interested in the medical field and how machinery can diagnose and heal people, Bylsma said. Thats what got me interested in Biomedical Engineering.

Bylsma was healed and ready to wrestle and play football in his senior year of high school but his experiences from the previous year helped guide his decision to pursue engineering in college.

I had two cousins who graduated from Kettering and they both work at General Motors right now. One of them really convinced me that I should go to Kettering because of the co-op experience, Bylsma said. Im getting real world experience and thats the thing that set me over.

Bylsma left the Grand Rapids, Michigan area for the first time in his life to pursue a Mechanical Engineering degree at Kettering while completing his co-op at Boston Scientific in Spencer, Indiana.

During his first co-op term, Bylsma was conducting tests to validate a medical device process. His second rotation was assisting with the development of a manufacturing process. The device he worked on - LithoVue, a digital flexible ureteroscope - is now on the market in the United States. He also worked on SureDrive, a steerable ureteral stent deployment device that is now popular in Europe.

We only want to make good products, Bylsma said. We validate the process to make sure we only make good parts. We dont want the surgeon to take out a piece of equipment that isnt working. We need to make sure everything is manufactured correctly.

Bylsma spent the next three terms at Boston Scientific working on a confidential thesis project that involved creating a new tool for doctors to heal patients with kidney stones. In fall 2016, Bylsma brought his work experiences to Kettering when he engaged in an independent study alongside Dr. Patrick Atkinson in the Mechanical Engineering department. For this study, Bylsma wanted to design and produce a prosthetic hand that responded to biological signals.

I thought it was a good project because I would cover areas of Biomedical Engineering such as Biomechanics for the hand, and bio-signal processing in more depth, Bylsma said. Your body sends out signals, I used those signals to turn the motor of the hand on and off.

Bylsma demonstrated the results of his independent study in Mech 350 Introduction to Bioengineering in February 2017, a class he had also taken the previous year which further cemented his desire to pursue Biomedical Engineering. After attaching sensors on his elbow and forearm, Bylsma showed how a response from his arm resulted in a movement in the prosthetic hand.

Mech 350 is the first of five required classes for the Biomedical Engineering concentration at Kettering. Atkinson describes the concentration as a holistic approach to the field as it provides a strong foundation in both Engineering and Biology. For example, students are able to take classes related to the mechanics of the body while also completing coursework in the Crash Safety Center on campus to see how the body responds to trauma in extreme circumstances.

The curriculum complements the experiences that our students have in their co-op positions and the combination of the two sets them up for future success, Atkinson said. Tyler has an enormous amount of knowledge of the biomedical industry which will provide him with multiple career opportunities in the medical and engineering fields.

Bylsma will graduate in June 2017 and is currently in the process of applying to graduate schools in Biomedical Engineering. Whether in industry or in higher education, he ultimately hopes to work on the potential therapeutic properties of ultrasound as a non-invasive surgery tool.

Written By Pardeep Toor | Contact: Pardeep Toor - ptoor@kettering.edu - (800) 955-4464 ext. 5970

Continued here:
Kettering University student creates prosthetic hand for Bioengineering independent study - Kettering University News

The Tech Museum of Innovation wins national honor for BioDesign Studio exhibit – GlobeNewswire (press release)

Posted on by

May 08, 2017 11:56 ET | Source: The Tech Museum of Innovation

photo-release

San Jose, CA, May 08, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Tech Museum of Innovation has earned one of the nations top honors for museum experiences. BioDesign Studio, an exhibit The Tech opened in 2016, won Silver for Interpretive Interactive Installations at the Media and Technology MUSE Awards, presented by The American Alliance of Museums at a celebration Sunday night.

We developed BioDesign Studio to make bioengineering playful, fun and approachable. Were thrilled to have national recognition of this ambitious effort, says Anja Scholze, Experience Developer and Program Manager, Biotech & Health, who accepted the award at AAMs annual meeting. It was a daunting task to design experiences that would empower everyone, from grade-schoolers to retirees, to explore a complex topic like bioengineering. A year later, its humbling to see our visitors walk away with a new understanding and enthusiasm for the possibilities of biotechnology and their own role in it.

BioDesign Studio is a permanent exhibit with an array of hands-on experiences that encourage visitors to play, tinker and design with the building blocks of life. At the Creature Creation Station, visitors use custom blocks representing genetic traits to build creatures and unleash them in a digital world where they interact with other organisms. In the Living Colors Lab, they use real lab equipment to alter the DNA of bacteria to change its color, and in the BioTinkering Lab they participate in bioengineering projects like creating bricks using mycelium, or mushroom root, a sustainable building material. The goal is to spark a sense of wonder about the worlds most complex technology: biology.

Bioengineering plays an important role in solving many of the worlds biggest problems like hunger and climate change. Were so happy to see BioDesign Studio visitors not only learning about synthetic biology, but starting to see their own potential to create with it, said Gretchen Walker, Vice President of Learning at The Tech.

The MUSE Awards competition received more than 200 applications from a wide variety of institutions in North and South America, Europe, Australia and Asia. This years entries included videos and films, interactive kiosks and installations, VR experiences, applications and APIs, digital communities, websites, audio tours and more.

"We're so pleased to have received this recognition- we worked hard with the brilliant team of scientists at The Tech to create an exhibit about synthetic biology that could last 10 years. We can't wait to see the new life forms, biological and digital, that visitors create in the years to come," said Ben Millstein, Communications Manager of Local Projects, a New York firm that helped The Tech design the exhibit.

Over 90 GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) professionals from across the globe participated as jurors in the process of reviewing and scoring entries. Winning programs demonstrate outstanding achievement in their content, interface, design, technical merit, innovation, utility and appeal.

Now in its 28th year, the MUSE awards competition recognizes outstanding achievement in GLAM media and technology efforts. The competition is led by the American Alliance of Museums Media & Technology Professional Network. For more information about the MUSE awards, visit: http://aam-us.org/about-us/grants-awards-and-competitions/muse-awards

For more information on BioDesign Studio, visit thetech.org/biodesignstudio.

For pictures of BioDesign Studio, click here.

Media Contact: Marika E. Krause | 408-591-0027 | mkrause@thetech.org

About The Tech Museum of InnovationThe Tech is a hands-on technology and science museum for people of all ages and backgrounds. The museum located in the capital of Silicon Valley is a non-profit experiential learning resource established to engage people in exploring and experiencing applied technologies affecting their lives. The Tech Challenge and Tech Awards are signature programs of The Tech. The Techs mission is to inspire the innovator in everyone. Visit thetech.org for more info.

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/88294027-79e5-486e-9d1c-c257028ff313

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/23d6a5b5-27b1-4e86-9c0b-486eea2851c9

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/07781886-7474-4144-9b5e-cc54eaf82e6a

Related Articles

The Tech Museum of Innovation

San Jose California, UNITED STATES

https://www.thetech.org/

449321.jpg

(JPEG - 374 x 800)

IMAGE URL | Copy the link below

Formats available:

449322.jpg

(JPEG - 374 x 800)

IMAGE URL | Copy the link below

Formats available:

The Tech Museum of Innovation Logo

LOGO URL | Copy the link below

Formats available:

The rest is here:
The Tech Museum of Innovation wins national honor for BioDesign Studio exhibit - GlobeNewswire (press release)

Bioengineering researchers showcase work | Scoop News – Scoop.co.nz (press release)

Posted on by

Tuesday, 9 May 2017, 3:28 pm Press Release: University of Auckland

Bioengineering researchers showcase work at Waikato Mori school

Researchers from the University of Aucklands Bioengineering Institute (ABI) will step outside their laboratories tomorrow and spend a day with 40 Year nine and ten pupils at Ng Taitea School in Hamilton.

They will work hands-on with students demonstrating things like the intricate workings of our noses and eyes and how a baby breathes in vitro.

This is the second year in a row the ABI, in partnership with Medical Technologies Centre of Research Excellence (MedTech CoRE) Outreach, has held an innovation day at Ng Taitea Wharekura.

The Outreach programme aims to build strong relationships with students at high school level and then provide support as they progress to University, says Diana Siew, MedTechCoREs Strategic Relationships Manager, based at ABI.

The MedTech CoRE Outreach has been co-designed with Ng Taitea Wharekura and aims to target the Mori community, particularly lower decile schools giving a little extra support to interested students to help them pursue STEM-related subjects.

Our goal is not necessarily clinically oriented, says Siew. Students moving into tertiary education through our programme will have a chance to be mentored by our researchers adding support during their studies and potentially even achieve postgraduate qualifications.

Last year we ran our pilot innovation day with Ng Taitea Wharekura, this year we have extended the invitation to include the wider high school communities of the region.

Mel Veituna, Head of Learning in the Community at Ng Taitea, says: The students of Ng Taitea Wharekura benefit from the interactions with MedTech CoRE because it opens their eyes to a whole range of career possibilities out there.

These students are passionate about science, and it is inspiring for them to see people working in these types of careers. To hear about it is one thing, but our students are lucky enough to be able to see it with their own eyes.

Five Bioengineering Research Groups will be showcasing their work tomorrow. These include NIHI, the National Institute for Health Innovation, which is developing an app and website aimed at reducing risks of diabetes, obesity and heart disease for Mori and Pasifika Communities.

Research fellow Dr Hari Kumar and his team will use a printed replica of a human nose to show the inside of the nose including sinuses. We shall explain flow resistance and why breathing becomes difficult when the nose is obstructed. We will also use basic geometry and relate to functioning of the nose, says Dr Kumar.

Senior Research Fellow Dr Alys Clark will take students through the life of an unborn child. There is no air in the womb so babies have to get all their oxygen from the mother via the placenta, she says. Well do some experiments to show how this works, and what effects smoking and diet can have on this delicate process.

Members of ABIs Eye Group, Dr Jason Turuwhenua and Dr Peng Guo will demonstrate eye structure with a tangible model. To inspire our students, we will also show some computer technologies used for visual acuity measurement, including some face tracking and eye tracking devices, says Dr Turuwhenua.

http://www.abi.auckland.ac.nz/en.html

Scoop Media

Follow this link:
Bioengineering researchers showcase work | Scoop News - Scoop.co.nz (press release)

Bioengineering professor gives talk on biology, physics working together – The Observer

Posted on by

Srivatsan Uchani, Staff Reporter March 24, 2017 Filed under News

Share on Facebook

Share via Email

Some people usually dont see biology and physics as having many inherent similarities. Herbert Levine, physicist and professor of bioengineering at Rice University, seeks to challenge that view.

In a talk on March 8 at the Euclid Tavern, Levine described in detail the ways in which computational modeling can be used to develop a detailed understanding and appreciation of the mechanics underlying cell movement. In his estimation, his work in this area is a key example of how physics can profoundly inform and enhance our knowledge of biology.

The talk was called Cells that Figure out Where to Go: Smart Behavior from Amoebae to our Immune System, and dealt with the methods employed by cells of varying degrees of complexity to ensure accurate navigation. According to Levine, organisms such as amoebae and white blood cells can be broadly grouped together when it comes to motion. This is because they both rely on the same general mechanisms in order to move to target locations within their respective environments.

Cells figure out where to go by using primitive senses, mostly smelldetecting chemicalsand touchdetecting the hardness of surfaces, said Levine. [Of course] for cells, chemical detection is usually more important than any mechanical stimulus.

According to him, such methods of detection are crucial for cells to establish which parts of their surroundings are favorable to move towards, and to distinguish such desirable areas from more unfavorable locations. He provided an example: In much the same way that human beings are attracted to fragrant scents and repulsed by putrid stenches, cells know to move to certain places because such locations emit chemical signals that are attractive to them.

Cells are incredibly sophisticated in terms of their overall capabilities as compared to almost anything synthetic, said Levine. [They] can forage for food, can move to higher ground when faced with stressors [and can even] delay division when faced with other needs for resources.

Levine went on to explain that in contrast to the popular view of such self-preserving activities as being purely the domain of so-called higher organisms, many of these complex behaviors developed much earlier in the evolution of life than most people realize. Moreover, a significant number of the abilities displayed by microorganisms easily outstrip not only those of higher-order species, but even those of the most advanced machines.

With all the progress on self-driving cars and the like, we still cannot build robots that refuel themselves off the land, reproduce, respond to a wide range of different stimuli and survive in a wide range of environments, Levine declared.

It was the realization of how much more complicated cells can be than even technology that led Levine to focus much of his work on computerized models of cellular movement. This approach to studying cell motility is unorthodox, to say the least, due in no small part to the amount of guesswork and speculation involved.

Because of the tiny scale of their subjects and the very subtle nature of their activities, Levine and his team must work by first developing plausible-sounding models of cell motion, and then testing their accuracy in real life. It is meticulous but often precarious work.

We usually [begin by formulating] a series of computer models, starting from a simple one and proceeding to more realistic ones, that challenge us to see if we really understand how it might work, said Levine.

Once he and his colleagues have determined that a model accurately captures the specific cellular phenomena under observation, they can extrapolate it to predict hypothetical alternative scenarios, such as the potential response of cells to chemical signals that are received in staggered bursts rather than in one continuous wave.

This strategy of build something simple, test it and then try to have it fail by devising increasingly sophisticated tests is not a typical approach for someone without a physical science background, he admitted. [However], in our opinion it does lead to a more complete and quantitative understanding of how something like directed cell movement actually works [than a traditional biological approach might allow].

Levine believes that his research exemplifies an often underappreciated link between physics and biology. In his opinion, other than the obvious technological contributions made by physics to the life sciences (such as microscopes and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology), the full potential for cooperation between the two fields is not often grasped by the public. This is something he aspires to change.

I hope to show with my work that physics can also contribute new conceptual ways of thinking about the possible ways in which complex [biological] systems can carry out complex functions, said Levine.

He stresses that neither field can work in a vacuum, and that each would only be enriched by fully utilizing the other.

See original here:
Bioengineering professor gives talk on biology, physics working together - The Observer

Why a group of scientists grew human heart tissue on spinach – CTV News

Posted on by

Everyone knows that eating vegetables is great for maintaining heart health, but what about using leafy greens to create part of a human heart?

Although the research is still in its infancy, a group of scientists from Massachusettss Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has been able to successfully grow heart tissue on the leaves of spinach with the aim of one day being able to use the plant to replace diseased tissue in human hearts, such as those affected by a heart attack.

In a study published online ahead of its release in next months journal Biomaterials, senior author and bioengineering professor Glenn Gaudette and his team at WPI report being able to grow human heart cells that could contract or beat after five days for a total of 21 days straight.

With a chronic shortage of donor organs, researchers have resorted to engineering large-scale human tissue using techniques such as 3-D printing. One complex problem that has impeded this research, however, is how to recreate a small, intricate vascular system in order to deliver oxygen and nutrients required for proper tissue growth.

One of the big problems in tissue engineering today is getting blood supply to the newly-created tissue, Gaudette explained to CTVNews.ca in a phone interview from Worcester, Mass.

To overcome this problem, scientists have started looking at plants for a potential solution. Bioengineering researchers have begun experimenting with growing organs on different plants using their branching network of veins, which delivers water and nutrients to the leaves.

The University of Ottawas Pelling Lab has been testing plant-based biomaterials for growing tissue for the past four years. The labs work of cultivating a human ear on an apple slice made headlines last year and attracted international attention to the emerging field.

Its just funny. A few years ago I was literally presenting our work and being laughed at in conferences and now other groups are actually saying, Hey it wasnt so crazy, Andrew Pelling, the labs founder remarked during a phone interview from Ottawa.

Why spinach?

The scientists at WPI have been working in the field of cardiac research for a number of years and realized the potential in plants, and spinach in particular, just by looking at them. Joshua Gershlak, a graduate student and the studys lead author, said they were inspired to use spinach when they noticed it looks pretty similar to a human hearts aorta, the main artery extending from the heart.

When you look at spinach, when you hold it up to the light, you can see the nice veins passing through the leaf. It turns out that the system of pipes, the vasculature in the leaf, is very similar to human muscle tissue, Gaudette added.

In order to create the right conditions on the spinach for human heart cells to grow, the researchers used a process called decellurization to strip the plant of its cells. To do this, Gershlak said the team used detergents and soaps found in body wash, but in a much higher concentration, and pumped them through the leafs veins. The spinachs plant vasculature made up of primarily cellulose is all thats left once the stripping process is complete.

Gaudette said the nice thing about the decellurization process is that it rids the biomaterial of its natural cells, which the human body ordinarily rejects during a transplant. He cited the example of a heart transplant and how its the new organs cells that are rejected by the recipient. In the case of spinach, its cells would be stripped away, making it potentially easier for the body to accept; however, biocompatibility tests still need to be conducted.

The material thats left behind, the cellulose, is actually pretty compatible. Its been used in a bunch of different applications, Gaudette said.

More research needed

Andrew Pelling, from the University of Ottawa, cautioned against reading too much into studies in their early stages, such as the one from WPI. He said the research shows promise but that its still a relatively small experiment.

I dont want people to get their hopes up when its still way too early, Pelling said.

The researcher said media coverage on plant-based biomaterials can be overblown or over-interpreted and theres still a lot of work to be done in the field.

If as a scientific community, we want our opinion and knowledge to be respected by decision makers then we have to make sure that whats being put out there is the truth and not hype because thats not much better than putting out nonsense, he warned.

Pelling did say, however, that hes encouraged that other groups, such as the WPI researchers, are delving into this field.

This is how science works. Other groups reproduce your work, they extend it and they move in new directions, he said. Thats the cool part about science and discovery.

Gaudette acknowledged his team has a lot of work to do before spinach is used to grow tissue for a human heart. He said the next steps for the researchers will be to conduct biocompatibility tests to understand how the body would react to this type of plant material inside it. He said they also still need to solve some issues surrounding blood flow in a plants vascular network.

Despite its early stages, Gaudette said hes optimistic about the future possibilities of plant-based bioengineering.

One of the exciting things for me about this area of research is really the dreaming, he said. I think were just on the tip of the iceberg here and I hope well see a lot more applications.

See original here:
Why a group of scientists grew human heart tissue on spinach - CTV News