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Category: biotech/medical – Page 2,292

Common foods can help ‘landscape’ the jungle of our gut microbiome

Researchers at San Diego State University have found a new way to harness food as medicine, which has far reaching implications to control harmful microbes in our gut while balancing microbial diversity by fostering the growth of beneficial bacteria.

Foods we eat commonly affect our gut microbiota. New research shows they do so by triggering the production of bacteriophage—viruses that infect and replicate inside bacteria. Compounds in these foods have an antimicrobial effect which causes the phage to replicate.

The researchers began by identifying which foods were antimicrobial, then analyzed them before narrowing it down to a shortlist. When examining growth curves of bacteria, they observed that while bacteria multiply over time, eventually their numbers plateau. However, if phages are activated, then bacterial growth stops altogether and their numbers drop dramatically until they’re depleted.

Microscopy technique reveals cells’ 3D ultrastructure in new detail

Inside a cell, tentacled vesicles shuttle cargo for sorting. DNA rearranges in the nucleus as stem cells differentiate into neurons. Neighboring neurons cling to one another through a web-like interface. And a new microscopy technique shows it all, in exquisite detail.

The technique, called cryo-SR/EM, melds images captured from and super-resolution light microscopes, resulting in brilliant, clear detailed views of the inside of —in 3D.

For years, scientists have probed the microscopic world inside cells, developing new tools to view these basic units of life. But each tool comes with a tradeoff. Light microscopy makes it simple to identify specific cellular structures by tagging them with easy-to-see fluorescent molecules. With the development of super-resolution (SR) , these structures can be viewed with even greater clarity. But fluorescence can reveal only a few of the more than 10,000 proteins in a cell at a given time, making it difficult to understand how these few relate to everything else. Electron microscopy (EM), on the other hand, reveals all cellular structures in high-resolution pictures—but delineating one feature from all others by EM alone can be difficult because the space inside of cells is so crowded.

This Sci-Fi-Inspired Device Could Replace Bulky, Expensive X-Ray Machines

We’re still a long way from Star Trek-style tricorders that can instantly diagnose disease, but medical startup Nanox is hoping to bring a little of the 24th century to a hospital near you. The company has unveiled a new low-cost X-ray scanner called the Nanox. Arc. It hopes to deploy 15,000 units in the coming years, with the aim of making medical scans more available and affordable.

Nanox was founded in 2016 by Japanese venture capitalist Hitoshi Masuya in partnership with Sony. The consumer electronics giant later bowed out, but Masuya joined forces with current CEO Ran Poliakine to split the company’s operations between Israel and Japan. Nanox has now raised a total of $55 million to fund the development of Nanox. Arc, which supposedly offers the same capabilities of traditional X-ray machines with a much smaller footprint and lower operating costs.

Current X-ray machinery is bulky, requiring arrays of rotating tubes with superheated filaments that produce electron clouds. When moved near a metal anode, the filament produces the X-rays needed for imaging. These giant analog contraptions require heavy shielding to keep patients safe, and they use a lot of power. There’s also a substantial upfront cost that can run $2–3 million. The Nanox. Arc, on the other hand, uses silicon micro-electromechanical systems (MEMs) in the form of more than 100 million molybdenum nano-cones that generate electrons.

Stage is set to develop clinically relevant, senescence-based biomarkers of aging

Researchers at the Buck Institute have extensively profiled the various inflammatory signals given off by senescent human cells and have generated a curated database available for use in the field.

Senescent cells, which stop dividing under stress, are long- recognized drivers of multiple diseases of aging. Mouse studies have shown that targeted removal of these cells and the inflammatory factors they secrete, known as the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP), has beneficial results on multiple organ systems and functions. Success in the laboratory has given rise to companies and research projects aimed at developing either senolytics, drugs that clear senescent cells, or senomorphics, drugs that suppress the SASP. But drug development and clinical utilization require simple, reliable biomarkers to assess the abundance of senescent cells in human tissues. Publishing in PLOS Biology, researchers at the Buck Institute have extensively profiled the SASP of human cells and have generated a curated database available for use in the field.

“The stage is now set for the development of clinically-relevant biomarkers of aging,” said Judith Campisi, Ph.D., Buck professor and one of the senior authors on the paper. “This will speed efforts to get safe and effective drugs into the clinic and, in the long term, could enable physicians to give patients a clear read-out of how well, or poorly, their various tissues and organs are aging.”

The study, led by postdoc Nathan Basisty, Ph.D., expanded the number of proteins known to be secreted by human by about 10-fold, to over 1000. Researchers show that a ‘core’ set of senescence factors, which were secreted by all types of senescent cells studied, are significantly increased in human plasma as we age, and may be the basis for developing “whole body” biomarkers of aging, and biomarkers to assess the efficacy of senolytics and senomorphics in human trials. Using advanced proteomic analysis, researchers also propose signatures that identify specific subsets of senescent cells.

‘Invisible computing’ startup unveils smart contact lens

A startup focused on “invisible computing” Thursday unveiled a smart contact lens which delivers an augmented reality display in a user’s field of vision.

The Mojo Vision contact lens offers a display with information and notifications, and allows the user to interact by focusing on certain points.

The rigid contact lens, which the company has been developing in stealth mode for some 10 years, may also be used to help people with by using enhanced image overlays, and has obtained US approval for testing it as a .

Nanoparticle levitated

A dumbbell-shaped nanoparticle powered just by the force and torque of light has become the world’s fastest-spinning object.

Scientists at Purdue University created the , which revolves at 300 billion revolutions per minute. Or, put another way, half a million times faster than a dentist’s drill.

In addition, the silica nanoparticle can serve as the world’s most sensitive detector, which researchers hope will be used to measure the friction created by .

Lannett Announces FDA Approval Of NDA For Branded Anesthetic Product, Cocaine Hydrochloride Nasal Solution 4%

Lannett Company, Inc. (NYSE: LCI) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the New Drug Application (NDA), submitted under the 505(b) regulatory pathway, for Cocaine Hydrochloride (HCl) Nasal Solution 4% (40 mg/mL), the company’s branded local anesthetic product.

PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 13, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Lannett Company, Inc. (NYSE: LCI) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the New Drug Application (NDA), submitted under the 505(b) regulatory pathway, for Cocaine Hydrochloride (HCl) Nasal Solution 4% (40 mg/mL), the company’s branded local anesthetic product.

“The FDA’s approval of our Cocaine HCl product, the first NDA approval to include full clinical trials in the company’s history, marks a major milestone in Lannett’s 70+ years of operations,” said Tim Crew, chief executive officer of Lannett. “We believe the product has the potential to be an excellent option for the labeled indication. We expect to launch the product shortly, under the brand name NUMBRINO®.”

NUMBRINO® (cocaine hydrochloride) nasal solution is an ester local anesthetic indicated for the introduction of local anesthesia of the mucous membranes for diagnostic procedures and surgeries on or through the nasal cavities of adults. The 505(b) NDA submission was supported by two Phase III, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter studies in several hundred patients, as well as a Phase I pharmacokinetic study.

Quantum physics: Controlled experiment observes self-organized criticality

Writing in Nature, researchers describe the first-time observation of ‘self-organized criticality’ in a controlled laboratory experiment. Complex systems exist in mathematics and physics, but also occur in nature and society. The concept of self-organized criticality claims that without external input, complex systems in non-equilibrium tend to develop into a critical state far away from a stable equilibrium. That way, they reinforce their own non-equilibrium.

Systems that are at first glance quite different, like the dissemination of information in social networks or the spread of fire or disease, may have similar characteristics. One example is an avalanche-like behaviour that reinforces itself instead of coming to a standstill. However, these are very difficult to study under controlled lab conditions.

For the first time, researchers from the European Centre for Quantum Sciences (CESQ) in Strasbourg, in collaboration with researchers from the universities of Cologne and Heidelberg and the California Institute of Technology, have succeeded in observing the most important features of self-organized in a controlled experiment—including universal avalanche behavior.

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