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Issue no. 27, 2011 Published: Aug 19, 2011
Internet databases reveal new uses for old drugs
Virtual touch helps keyhole surgeons to 'feel' tumours
Cell-based alternative to animal testing
'Electronic skin' could replace bulky electrodes
Bacterial nanowires conduct like metals
IBM pursues chips that behave like brains
Solar-powered soldiers to reduce weight of batteries

Internet databases reveal new uses for old drugs
It is a disarmingly simple idea: to find out if a drug might treat a disease it wasn't intended for, check out whether it has an opposite effect on gene activity to the illness itself. For more than a decade, DNA chips have routinely measured the activity of thousands of genes at a time, and researchers have deposited the results online into the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). Researchers at Stanford University reasoned that it should be possible to find new drug uses by combining data from GEO with information gleaned from the Connectivity Map. In this latter database, biologists at the Broad Institute in Cambridge have documented how patterns of gene activity in human cells change when they are exposed to a range of drugs. The team mashed up the two datasets according to a simple hypothesis: drugs that have an opposite effect on gene activity to a particular disease could be good candidates for treating the condition. They devised algorithms to look for drugs that ramp up the activity of genes that are unusually quiet in tissues affected by a particular disease, and suppress those that are hyperactive in that disease. The team took two of the strongest leads and showed in animal experiments that the drugs could treat the conditions with which they were paired. In one case, the epilepsy drug topiramate helped rats with inflammatory bowel disease in the second, cimetidine, used to treat stomach ulcers and acid reflux, reduced tumour growth in mice implanted with human lung cancer cells.
New Scientist Aug 18, 2011	back to top

Virtual touch helps keyhole surgeons to 'feel' tumours
Tactile feedback technology could give keyhole surgeons a virtual sense of 'feeling' tumours while operating. A Leeds University study has combined computer virtualisation with a device that simulates pressure on a surgeon's hand when touching human tissue remotely. This could enable a medic to handle a tumour robotically, and judge if it is malignant or benign. Cancer specialists hope the new system will help to improve future treatment. In current keyhole procedures, a surgeon operates through a tiny incision in the patient's body, guided only by video images. Using keyhole techniques, as opposed to major invasive surgery, helps improve healing and patient recovery. However, surgeons can't feel the tissue they are operating on - something which might help them to find and categorise tumours. The team has devised a solution that combines a computer-generated virtual simulation with a hand-held 'haptic' feedback device. The system works by varying feedback pressure on the user's hand when the density of the tissue being examined changes. In tests, team members simulated tumours in a human liver using a soft block of silicon embedded with ball bearings. The user was able to locate these lumps using haptic feedback. 1 Engineers hope this will one day allow a surgeon to feel for lumps in tissue during surgery.
BBC News Aug 17, 2011	back to top

Cell-based alternative to animal testing
European legislation restricts animal testing within the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries and companies are increasingly looking at alternative systems to ensure that their products are safe to use. Research published in BMC Genomics demonstrates that the response of laboratory grown human cells can now be used to classify chemicals as sensitising, or non-sensitising, and can even predict the strength of allergic response, so providing an alternative to animal testing. Allergic contact dermatitis can result in itching and eczema and is often due to repeated exposure to chemicals at work or in everyday life such as machine oil, detergents, soaps, and cosmetics. Unless the source of the sensitising chemical is found the resulting rashes can be an ongoing source of misery for the sufferer. The 2009, 7th Amendment to the Cosmetic Directive bans testing of cosmetic products and ingredients on animals meaning that there is currently no way of ensuring new products are hypoallergenic. Researchers from Lund University in Sweden used genome-wide profiling to measure the response of a human myeloid leukaemia cell line to known chemicals. From this they defined a 'biomarker signature' of 200 genes, which could accurately discriminate between sensitising and non-sensitising chemicals. By comparing this signature with the known action of these chemicals they were also able to use this system to predict sensitizing potency.
Medicalxpress / BioMed Central Aug 08, 2011	back to top

'Electronic skin' could replace bulky electrodes
Wearable sensor could help monitor health, amplify speech or control prosthetics. 'Electronic skin' has been developed that records heartbeats, brain activity and muscle contractions as accurately as bulky conventional electrodes, yet is no thicker than a human hair. The patch, created by scientist at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, consists of a flexible and stretchy lattice of sensor-laden circuits. It can be applied and removed like a temporary tattoo, and sticks to skin without adhesives. So far, it can only be used for a few days at a time, but researchers hope that the technology could one day allow doctors to monitor patients' health without wires or clunky equipment. The electronic skin can also do things that conventional medical sensors cannot. When placed on the throat, for example, it senses spoken words well enough to control a simple computer game. The device might be used to help people with laryngeal diseases communicate, to monitor premature babies, or to enhance the control of prosthetics. The researchers are also collaborating with physical therapists to use the skin to induce muscle contractions in regions of the body that have degenerated.
Nature News Aug 11, 2011	back to top

Bacterial nanowires conduct like metals
Researchers of the University of Massachusetts say that they have discovered a new phenomenon in biology: metal-like conductivity along protein filaments. The result suggests that it could be possible to produce inexpensive conductive materials using micro-organisms - something that could revolutionise nanotechnology and bioelectronics. The team made their discovery in networks of 'bacterial filaments', also known as 'microbial nanowires' because they conduct electrons along their length. These are produced naturally by some bacteria and are about 3-5 nm wide and up to tens of micrometres long. The filaments bind bacteria together into clumps called microbial biofilms. The team looked at nanowires produced by the bacterium Geobacter sulfurreducens. They measured electrical conductivities in the wires of around 5 mS cm-1, which is comparable to those of synthetic organic metallic nanostructures that are commonly used in the electronics industry. The wires were also seen to conduct over distances of centimetres, thousands of times the length of a bacterium itself. The findings could influence the design of energy-capture strategies, such as conversion of biomass and wastes to methane or electricity. Looking further into the future, the discovery could lead to the development of new electronic materials - either produced by the micro-organisms themselves or engineered based on insights gleaned from the biological materials.
PhysicsWorld / Nature Nanotechnology Aug 10, 2011	back to top

IBM pursues chips that behave like brains
The challenge in training a computer to behave like a human brain is technological and physiological, testing the limits of computer and brain science. But researchers from IBM say they've made a key step toward combining the two worlds. The company has built two prototype chips that processes data more like how humans digest information than the chips that now power PCs and supercomputers. The chips represent a significant milestone in a six-year-long project funded by IBM and the US government's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or DARPA. The prototypes offer further evidence of the growing importance of 'parallel processing', or computers doing multiple tasks simultaneously. That is important for rendering graphics and crunching large amounts of data. The uses of the IBM chips so far are prosaic, such as steering a simulated car through a maze, or playing Pong. It may be a decade or longer before the chips make their way into actual products. The chips' ability to adapt to types of information that it wasn't specifically programmed to expect is a key feature. IBM's interest in the chips lies in their ability to potentially help process real-world signals such as temperature or sound or motion and make sense of them for computers.
PhysOrg / AP Aug 18, 2011	back to top

Solar-powered soldiers to reduce weight of batteries
Australia's soldiers will soon be clad in lightweight solar panels, allowing them to forgo their heavy battery packs, thanks to researchers at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra. The average soldier schleps around half a kilogram of batteries to operate radios, night-vision devices, torches and communications systems. With solar cells stuck on helmets, tents or clothing, soldiers can generate power in the field and carry fewer batteries. The cells being used are called Sliver cells and were developed at ANU. They are created by slicing through conventional silicon wafers like a loaf of bread. Each slice is 50 to 100mm long, 1 to 2mm wide and 45 micrometres thick, and put together they generate up to 140 watts per square metre. Slicing up the silicon wafer increases the surface area exposed to the sun. According to the researchers, this means the cells use up to 80% less silicon than conventional cells to produce equivalent power. Plus, the number of wafers that need to be processed per megawatt is reduced by 90%. Trials with solar-clad soldiers will begin in the next few years.
New Scientist Aug 16, 2011	back to top