Jan 02
We’ve all been nagged about staying warm in the winter by a concerned elder: "You don’t want to catch cold!" But that’s absurd; everyone these days knows colds are only caused by viruses, right? Well, it’s complicated.
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Sep 24
Apr 10
DNA testing chip delivers results in one hour, paves way for personalized drug treatments
Posted in: Today's ChiliPanasonic, together with the Belgium-based research institution IMEC, has developed a DNA testing chip that automates all stages of obtaining genetic information, including preprocessing.
This development is expected to enable personalized, tailor-made therapy to become widespread.
“This is the chip we’ve actually developed. As you can see, it’s less than half the size of a business card. It contains everything needed for testing DNA. Once a drop of blood is inserted, the chip completes the entire process, up to SNP detection.”
SNPs are variations in a single DNA base among individuals.
Detecting SNPs makes it possible to check whether genetically transmitted diseases are present, evaluate future risks, and identify genes related to illness.
“By investigating SNPs, we can determine that this drug will work for this person, or this drug will have severe side-effects on that person. Investigating SNPs enables tailor-made therapy. But with the current method, it has to be done in a specialized lab, so it actually takes three to four days. In the worst case, it takes a week from sending the sample to getting the result. Our equipment can determine a patient’s SNPs in just an hour after receiving the blood.”
Testing is done simply by injecting the blood and a chemical into the chip, and setting it in the testing system.
First of all, the blood and chemical are mixed. DNA is then extracted from the mixed solution. The regions containing SNPs are then cut out and amplified. DNA amplification uses technology called PCR, which cuts out the desired sections by varying the temperature. With the conventional method, this process took two hours.
“Through careful attention to thermal separation design, we’ve achieved high-speed PCR, where 30 temperature cycles are completed in nine minutes. We think this is one of the fastest PCR systems in the world.”
The amplified DNA is then sent through a micropump to a DNA filter. Here, the DNA is separated for each section length. Then, a newly developed electrochemical sensor identifies SNPs while the DNA is dissolved in the chemical.
“To implement this system on one chip, and make detection easy, the first thing we focused on was the actuators. This system requires a very small, powerful pump. In our case, we used a conductive polymer for the actuators. A feature of these actuators is they’re powerful, yet extremely compact. They can exert a pressure of up to 30MPa.”
“Ultimately, we’d like to make this system battery-powered. We think that would enable genetically modified foods to be tested while still in the warehouse.”
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Jan 16
Considering how terrible this year’s flu is, odds are good that you’ve already become a languid pile of festering contagions. And in case you’ve managed to evade the virus thus far, get thee a flu shot ASAP, obviously—but then go work out. It may just double your chances of staying plague-free. More »
Jan 11
Everyone you know is sick, or getting sick, or they’ve become a lifeless husk of human skin full of flu germs where there was once organs and bones and blood. Don’t believe it? Check out Google’s influenza tracker, which shows just how massive this year’s spike is. More »
Aug 13
Woman Has Mysterious Allergic Reaction That Causes Fingernails to Grow from Hair Follicles
Posted in: Today's ChiliWe’ve talked about some strange medical conditions over the years here. Most recently, we mentioned the woman who had a live spider living in her ear for several days. Another very strange medical mystery has surfaced with the case of Shanya Isom, who has been visiting doctors around the world in an attempt to figure out what is causing her severe allergic reaction. Isom is having some sort of allergic reaction that is so bizarre that it’s causing fingernails to grow from hair follicles all over her body.
“Black scabs were coming out of her skin,” said her mother, Kathy Gary. “The nails would grow so long and come out and regrow themselves. They are hard to touch and stick you.” The young woman is unable to walk without assistance because of the reaction. Physicians at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore where the young woman is being treated told her family that she is the only person in the world they are aware of with this condition.
The disease first surfaced when the woman was in her junior year in college studying criminal justice in 2009. The woman went to the emergency room for an asthma attack and was given a large dose of steroids. Doctors suspect that caused an allergic reaction. She had itching after returning home from getting the steroid shot, and was given Benadryl but the reaction got worse. Doctors remain baffled by the condition.
[via Atlanta BlackStar]
Aug 02
While scientists increasingly understand the genetics of cancer, they’ve never been able to track how single cancerous cells form tumors in the body, or work out how tumors grow back seemingly from nowhere. New research, however, sheds some light on that problem—and suggests that tumors are fueled by cancer stem cells. More »
Jul 26
If you’ve been walking around a public place lately, you’ve come in contact with a lot of people. Some of those people may have been sick. And if you’ve been hanging around enough of them as they cough and sneeze, then you might be about to get sick too. More »
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