2009 Bioengineering conference(SBC2009)

2009 Summer Bioengineering Conference

Resort at Squaw Creek, Lake Tahoe, CA

June 17-21, 2009

This is a very interesting conference organised by ASME, I have participated in the one in 2007 and I appreciated a lot the organisation and scientific program.

New Inhaled Tuberculosis Vaccination Developed

Here you can find an article written by Ms. Susan Jacob* as a guest blogger.

University of North Carolina (UNC) and Harvard scientists have recently teamed up to develop an inhaled tuberculosis vaccine. This vaccine is a godsend for developing countries, as it won't require refrigeration and medical-grade water like the typical vaccine.

Professor Tony Hickey, who teaches at the School of Pharmacy at UNC, tells The Kansas City Star, “This is arguably the first step towards future potential vaccines that elicit greater immunity to tuberculosis." Indeed, third-world countries are still being ravaged by the respiratory illness, which reportedly kills millions of people a year in developing areas.

This new inhalant was created by taking the regular tuberculosis vaccine and changing it into fine powder. Experts from both UNC and Harvard collaborated on this project in the laboratory of David Edwards. Edwards is a professor of biomedical engineering at Harvard. The development of the new vaccine was made possible by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Though the inhalant has yet to be tested on human subjects, guinea pigs have responded well thus far. Scientists have administered the drug to the animals, then exposed them to tuberculosis. Not only did the vaccine work well, it appeared to be even more effective than the regular vaccine injections.

The new vaccine will be administered with a plastic tube, which is reportedly similar to a drinking straw. The inhalant is taken orally, which can pose problems with young children. To combat this issue, a special pacifier may be designed for babies to that the inhalant will be blown into the back of their mouths.

The next step to getting the drug on the market is to begin human clinical trials. Hopefully, the vaccination could be used in South Africa as soon as 2009.

*Susan Jacobs is a teacher, a freelance writer as well as a regular contributor for NOEDb, a site helping students obtain an online nursing degree. Susan invites your questions, comments and freelancing job inquiries at her email address susan.jacobs45@gmail.com .

Bioengineering symposium announcement

Bioengineering 08 ,Imperial College, London, Thursday 18 September-Friday 19 September

If you are interested to attend to this symposium or get more information, click here.

Bravo® Catheter–free pH Monitoring System

Use of wireless systems in medical devices brings in most of cases more comfort and less damage to the patient. As an example one can name the Bravo pH monitoring system of Medtronics.

The catheter-free Bravo pH Monitoring System is a pH testing with a capsule that collects pH data and transmits it via radio frequency telemetry to a small external pager-sized receiver worn by the patient.

The ambulatory pH test has long been referred to as the "gold standard" for diagnosing reflux disease. This test provides information about the duration, pattern and symptom correlation of distal esophageal acid exposure from gastro-esophageal reflux(GER).

compared to conventional methods associated with using catheter pH systems, this method:

• Allows patients to maintain regular diet and activities
• Minimizes throat and nasal discomfort
  
• Allows physicians to extend pH data collection to 48 hours — 24 hours beyond the recording capability of conventional catheter systems

more information: click here

A New Fluorescent collagen probe to use on fresh tissue

Collagen is one the important load-bearing components in the body and the collagen structure has a distinct role in mechanical properties of the tissue. One of the challenges today is to visualize the collagen structure in live tissues or fresh tissues without fixing the tissue. It's clear that fixing methods are invasive and may alter the tissue structure. As an example, in tissue engineering experiments, visualization of changes in collagen three dimensional structure is essential for the understanding of collagen fibrils formation and remodeling.

Fluorescent CNA35 collagen probe developed in the laboratory of macromolecular and organic chemistry, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands, shows much specificity to collagen compared to other existing fluorescent techniques currently used for collagen visualization in live tissues and shows improved details compared to SHG ( second harmonic generation microscopy). However, in my opinion, the tissue should be relatively thin to let the prob perfuse all over the tissue.

The figure shows a mouse carotid artery, (Up) SHG signal of collagen (green), (down) fluorescence signal of collagen probe (green, CNA35-OG488) in a mouse carotid artery recorded at the same focal position obtained with two-photon laser scanning microscopy (15 μm deep)

reference:
High resolution imaging of collagen organisation and synthesis using a versatile collagen specific probe, Journal of Structural Biology
Volume 159, Issue 3, September 2007, Pages 392-399