St Louis Institute of Nanomedicine – Home

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What it's all about

The recent emergence of nanoscience as a key approach to innovation in advanced materials has sparked a similar interest in the application of its principles to the fields of biomedical diagnostics, therapeutics, and basic cell physiology.

The overarching goal of the new St Louis Institute of Nanomedicine sponsored by the Missouri Life Sciences Research Board is to advance the safe and effective use of nanotechnologies to reduce death and suffering from human disease.

The St. Louis Institute for Nanomedicine is a joint venture sponsored principally by leading local academic institutions that will assemble a broad base of regional expertise in the nanotechnology, medicine, technology transfer, and education to create novel solutions to complex health care problems.

Founding partners include: WashingtonFounding partners include: Washington University, University of Missouri at St Louis, St Louis University, and the St Louis Community Colleges. The Institute will develop viable approaches to foster collaborations between multinational industrial and regional academic partners, and seek to leverage local financial and community resources to grow the regional biotechnology enterprise.

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St Louis Institute of Nanomedicine - Home

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There is only one playwright on the planet who could change the way you think about human existence in 90 minutes and leave you wishing there was a bit more to his new play. And that playwright is the great Tom Stoppard.

The Hard Problem comes with an almost unfair weight of expectations: its Stoppards first play in nine years; it follows 2006s Rock n Roll, which WAS an unqualified success, and there is, face facts, every chance that itll be the 77-year-olds final stage work.

The Hard Problem follows Hilary (Olivia Vinall), a young psychology researcher who is attempting to unravel the riddle of whether there is such thing as a truly good person something she has personally attempted to be ever since a trauma in her teens. Much of the play is set at the Krohl Institute, a high-powered research centre where Hilary is hired and taken in under the wing of the eccentric Leo (Jonathan Coy). Hes a cranky professor who rejects better qualified candidates because he likes her spirited some might say naive determination to pick away at the questions science seems incapable of answering. Namely, the hard problem: if existence is only matter, what is consciousness?

And theres, er, not really much more to the plot than that: Hilary occasionally indulges in bickering sexposition with Damien Molonys hunky cynic Spike; there is a slightly hard-to-swallow (though partly justified) resolution to her trauma; and in the background the economy tanks. Vinall is a compelling actor, and Hilarys not a total drip, but you kind of wish there was more to her than earnest goodness and background sorrow, while the other characters barely scrape two dimensions between them. As a drama, I couldnt help but think its overshadowed by Lucy Prebbles not dissimilar The Effect, which played the same theatre a couple of years back.

But no playwright does ideas like Stoppard, and the arguments he places in his characters mouths both for and against the possibility of something more to our existence are lucid, digestible, immaculately researched and at moments almost dazzlingly audacious in one scene he appears to make a case that the collapse of the stockmarkets is evidence for the possible existence of God. With typical Stoppardian mischief, The Hard Problem is probably the most eloquent case for agnosticism youll ever see. And Nicholas Hytners old-fashioned, light-touch production is the perfect vehicle.

Not champagne Stoppard, but still quintessentially Stoppard: if this is last act of his stage career, then he goes out undimmed.

'The Hard Problem' will be broadcast live to cinemas on April 16

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Genetic screening for workers: A panacea or a pandora’s box?

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To retain and attract top talent, a quarter of UK businesses would extend health screening into genetic testing but fear of legal repercussions is an inhibiting factor for 76% of employers

With the price of full DNA testing plummeting, and in anticipation of personalised medicines fine-tuned to a patient's genetic make-up, one in four (24%) UK businesses say that they are likely to extend health screening into genetic testing as they strive to retain and attract top talent, a new survey has found.

UK businesses could soon offer employees a complete readout of their genetic blueprint, and hence unprecedented insight into their current and future health, but, amidst all the excitement, Baroness Helena Kennedy, QC, Vice President of the Patients Association and former Chair of the Human Genetics Committee, urges businesses to consider the wider implications, suggesting that genetic screening of employees may be more of a Pandoras box than a panacea.

More than 600 UK business leaders were questioned for the Astellas Innovation DebateTM 2015, which on Thursday 29th January brings together a panel of world-renowned experts at The Royal Institution of Great Britain to discuss the implications of the revolutions in DNA and data for our health.1

Currently, one in four (24%) business leaders say they would offer full genetic screening to their employees though this rises to nearly a third (29%) in the IT and banking sectors, where talent often seems in short supply. But most employers (76%) the fear of legal repercussions is an inhibiting factor.

Of employers who said that their business would be unlikely to offer genetic screening to employees, 43% said they might reconsider their view in the future if better legislation were introduced to protect the rights of employers (19%) and employees (24%). 16% said they would re-consider their view if the results of genetic testing could serve to reduce the cost of key person insurance, while a further 16% said that businesses would need access to advice on dealing with employees found to be at higher genetic risk of developing serious illness. Only 5% said they might choose to offer genetic screening if their business could access genetic data from test results.

European legislation prohibits businesses from gaining access to their employees genetic data, and most businesses (72%) support this principle. Despite that, one in five bosses (22%) admitted that an employee who revealed his/her greater genetic risk of serious illness would consequently also run a greater risk of redundancy and become less eligible for promotion.

Baroness Helena Kennedy, QC, a panellist at the Astellas Innovation Debate Vice President of the Patients Association, and former Chair of the Human Genetics Commission, where she successfully pushed for a moratorium on access to genetic records for insurance companies and persuaded the Government to make it a criminal offence to test DNA without an individuals consent, commented:

Of course its a testament to mankinds ingenuity that genetics and technology are combining to bring the prospect of personalised medicine much closer. But knowing the facts about our genes can also bring challenges. For example, our genetic information could be misused by insurers, who could over-interpret the information in our genes, wrongly suspect we are susceptible to some disease, and so not provide us with the kind of insurance we need. Similarly, if an employee shared some genetic information with his or her boss that indicated a higher risk of, say, cancer or a neurological disease, as this survey shows the employee would be at higher risk of discrimination in the workplace in the form of redundancy or being passed over for promotion. This in turn leaves the employer vulnerable to accusations of discrimination. And then, on a personal level, employees might well need professional support if they become distressed at the prospect of a disease that they might or might not develop.

Some US technology companies are offering employees DNA screening to identify the risk of cancers, and holding out the promise of personalised treatment based on their genetic make-up should they need it. However, I would urge UK businesses not to follow suit certainly not without thinking very carefully about the wider implications to them and their employees. It is not just a matter of potential discrimination and lawsuits, but also of the health benefits to those being tested. Of course, we all recognise the importance of screening people with a family history of certain diseases and rare genetic disorders as the 100,000 Genomes Project is currently doing but there is little benefit to widespread genetic testing if it cant tell you when or even if you will develop the disease.

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Genetic screening for workers: A panacea or a pandora's box?

Americans are this close to finally understanding their energy bills and saving a lot of money

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This is the second article in a three-part series titled Your Brain on Energy for ournew Energy and Environment coverage. The first article, titled The next energy revolution wont be in wind or solar. It will be in our brains, appeared last week.

Five years ago came the promise: A great new way of saving money on yourenergy billswas on its way. An impressivenew devicecalled a smart meter a key component of the much touted smart grid would let consumers actuallyseehow much power theyre using in their homes, thus empowering them to change their habitsand slash their bills.

President Obama heralded the innovation: Smart meters will allow you to actually monitor how much energy your family is using by the month, by the week, by the day, or even by the hour, hesaidin 2009, as the federal government unleashed a $3.4 billion Smart Grid investment. So coupled with other technologies,this is going to help you manage your electricity use and your budget at the same time.

Lofty words butwhen it comes to changing peoples energy behavior, the smart meter revolution so far hasnt been very revolutionary.

True, the meters are everywhere utilities have installed 50 millionat homes across the U.S., reaching 43 percent of homes overall, according to the Edison Foundations Institute for Electric Innovation. Butthat doesnt mean consumers are easily accessing the available data or using it to change their energy use.

Initially I had pretty high hopes, says Carrie Armel, a research associate at the Precourt Energy Efficiency Center at Stanford University and a leader of anew wave of behavioral research on energy use. I think the technology has a lot of potential. In retrospect, in that nobody has really leveraged the technology along with efficient behavioral techniques, I find its not surprising that we didnt find rate savings.

Smart meters are a nifty new technology that can record yourelectricity usage on at least an hourly basis (and sometimes much more frequently). But behavioral research suggests thattechnologies alone dont necessarily change what we do, how we act, the habits we form. In the case of smart meters, what still seems missing in most cases are user interfaces that relay information from the meter in real time, and translate it into dollars and cents. Consumers also need much more access to an innovation called smart pricing in other words, electricity prices that vary based on supply and demand a key change the Smart Grid was designed to enable, and one that might make it a lot more worthwhile to pay attention to your energy behavior.

The upshot: Right now, smart meters arent waking Americans up and making them conscious of their energy use because they arent being paired with what behavioral research shows us is needed for that to happen.

This is the story of why the smart meter revolution has, thus far,fallen short and howwe can better use one of the most pivotal innovations in the electricity sphere to save energy, cut greenhouse gas emissions and save a lot of money.

The problem of rational inattentiveness

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Americans are this close to finally understanding their energy bills and saving a lot of money

Sol 0 – Mars Colonization – Season 2 – Part 5 – Brand New Start! – Video

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Sol 0 - Mars Colonization - Season 2 - Part 5 - Brand New Start!
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Elon Musk and the SpaceX Odyssey: the Path from Falcon 9 to Mars Colonization Transporter

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Are we seeing the convergence of a century of space science and science fiction before our eyes? Will Musk and SpaceX make 2001 Space Odyssey a reality? (Photo Credit: NASA, Apple, SpaceX, Tesla Motors, MGM, Paramount Pictures, Illustration Judy Schmidt)

In Kubricks and Clarks 2001 Space Odyssey, there was no question of Boots or Bots[ref]. The monolith had been left for humanity as a mileage and direction marker on Route 66 to the stars. So we went to Jupiter and Dave Bowman overcame a sentient machine, shut it down cold and went forth to discover the greatest story yet to be told.

Now Elon Musk, born three years after the great science fiction movie and one year before the last Apollo mission to the Moon has set his goals, is achieving milestones to lift humans beyond low-Earth orbit, beyond the bonds of Earths gravity and take us to the first stop in the final frontier Mars the destination of the SpaceX odyssey.

Marvel claims Musk as the inspiration for Tony Stark in Ironman but for countless space advocates around the World he is the embodiment of Dave Bowman, the astronaut in 2001 Space Odyssey destined to travel to the edge of the Universe and retire an old man on Mars. (Photo Credit: NASA, MGM, Paramount Pictures, Illustration Judy Schmidt)

Ask him whats next and nowhere on his bucket list does he have Disneyland or Disney World. You will find Falcon 9R, Falcon Heavy, Dragon Crew, Raptor Engine and Mars Colonization Transporter (MCT).

At the top of his working list is the continued clean launch record of the Falcon 9 and beside that must-have is the milestone of a soft landing of a Falcon 9 core. To reach this milestone, Elon Musk has an impressive array of successes and also failures necessary, to-be-expected and effectively of equal value. His plans for tomorrow are keeping us on the edge of our seats.

The Dragon Crew capsule is more than a modernized Apollo capsule. It will land softly and at least on Earth will be reusable while Musk and SpaceX dream of landing Falcon Crew on Mars. (Photo Credits: SpaceX)

CRS-5, the Cargo Resupply mission number 5, was an unadulterated success and to make it even better, Elons crew took another step towards the first soft landing of a Falcon core, even though it wasnt entirely successful. Elon explained that they ran out of hydaulic fluid. Additionally, there is a slew of telemetry that his engineers are analyzing to optimize the control software. Could it have been just a shortage of fluid? Yes, its possible they could extrapolate the performance that was cut short and recognize the landing Musk and crew dreamed of.

A successful failure of a soft landing had no baring on the successful launch of the CRS-5, the cargo resupply mission to ISS. (Image Credits: SpaceX)

The addition of the new grid fins to improve control both assured the observed level of success and also assured failure. Anytime one adds something unprovento a test vehicle, the risk of failure is raised. This was a fantastic failure that provided a treasure trove of new telemetry and the possibilities to optimize software. More hydraulic fluid is a must but improvements to SpaceX software is what will bring a repeatable string of Falcon core soft landings.

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Elon Musk and the SpaceX Odyssey: the Path from Falcon 9 to Mars Colonization Transporter

Hubble Telescope: The Camera That Saved Hubble – Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 – Video

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Hubble Telescope: The Camera That Saved Hubble - Wide Field Planetary Camera 2
NASA #39;s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 has done more than take some of the most historic pictures of our cosmos during its 15 plus years in orbit -- it sav...

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Spain plane crash: Greek F-16 fighter jet crashes during NATO exercise killing 10 – Video

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Spain plane crash: Greek F-16 fighter jet crashes during NATO exercise killing 10
At least ten people were killed when a Greek F-16 fighter jet came down shortly after takeoff during a NATO exercise at a training centre in Spain on Monday. The two-seater Greek F-16 jet...

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Spain plane crash: Greek F-16 fighter jet crashes during NATO exercise killing 10 - Video