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Category: biotech/medical – Page 2,326

Blood Test to Diagnose Brain Cancer in Development

Brain cancer remains challenging to diagnose, due to nonspecific symptoms and a lack of cost-effective tests. A new blood test that uses attenuated total reflection (ATR)-Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy in conjunction with machine learning technology, may help advance the detection of brain cancer.

The patented technology, developed by a team at the University of Strathclyde, uses infrared light to produce a “bio-signature” of a blood sample and applies artificial intelligence to check for the signs of cancer.

The research is published in Nature Communications in a paper titled, “Development of high-throughput ATR-FTIR technology for rapid triage of brain cancer.”

Goodbye Colonoscopy: Exam Uses Capsule to Take Pictures of the Intestine

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL — Approved in Brazil almost four years ago, the colon capsule is finally starting to become popular and available in laboratories and diagnostic centers.

The capsule serves as an alternative to traditional colonoscopy, where a wired camera is introduced through the anus and guided throughout the large intestine.

“The new technology is less invasive and does not require sedation,” says Dr. Admar Borges, of the Brazilian Society of Digestive Endoscopy.

Hall-effect magnetic tracking device for Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Circa 2013

The unique relationship between the coordinates in the bore of a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner and the magnetic field gradients used for MRI allows building a localization system based on the measurement of these gradients. We have previously presented a miniature 3D Hall probe integrated in a low cost, low voltage 0.35μm CMOS chip from which we were able to measure the magnetic gradient 3D maps of 1.5T and 3T MRI scanners. In this paper, this 3D Hall probe has been integrated in a magnetic tracking device prototype and an algorithm was built to determine the position of the probe. First experimental results show that the probe gives its position with accuracy close to a few millimeters, and that sub-millimeter localization in a one-shot-3ms-measurement should be readily possible. Such a prototype opens the way for the development of MRI compatible real time magnetic tracking systems which could be integrable in surgical tools for MR-guided minimally-invasive surgery.

Serotonin is a master regulator of neuroregeneration

Neuroregeneration entails not only neurogenesis, but also regrowth of lost connections and birth of non-neuronal cells. While adult neurogenesis in humans is only known to occur definitively in a few precisely circumscribed regions of the brain, work in other species suggests that science has only scratched the surface of the full regenerative potential of our own nervous systems.

The serotonergic system has widely been shown to control many aspects of neuroregeneration. In some regions, it facilitates neurogenesis, while in others, it seems to inhibit it. In the case of inhibition, a recent example has been published in PLOS Biology. The authors used a zebrafish model of Alzheimer’s disease to show that amyloid-induced interleukin-4 (IL4) promotes neurogenic stem cell proliferation by suppressing the production of serotonin. In these animals, there is a unique neuro-immune interaction through which IL4 secreted by dying neurons activates microglia. In turn, microglia reciprocate by revving up neural stem cell proliferation.

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