Wisconsin Advanced Technology Advocates, Inc.

Reprogrammed cells retain some identity in embryonic state, study shows

By Mark Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: July 19, 2010 12:08 p.m.

Several years after scientists found a way to manipulate biology and send skin cells back to their embryonic origin, they are now learning that nature is not so easily tricked.

A reprogrammed skin cell retains a memory of its original identity as skin. Moreover, after the skin cell has returned to the embryonic state, it appears more willing to turn back into skin than to adopt a new identity.

The new findings by the lab of stem cell researcher George Daley at Children's Hospital Boston, were described Monday in a paper published online in the journal Nature and begin to address one of the mysteries surrounding reprogramming.

Since 2007 when the labs of James Thomson at University of Wisconsin-Madison and Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto University first used a cocktail of genes to create an alternative to human embryonic stem cells, scientists have been puzzled by subtle differences between actual embryonic stem cells and these engineered versions.

The differences are important because the engineered cells were hailed as an alternative to embryonic stem cells that would allow scientists to make all of the cells in the human body while bypassing the ethical controversy that surrounded embryonic stem cells.

Daley said his team's work overthrows the assumption "that when you reprogram a skin or a blood cell you erase its memory of being skin or blood … Researchers have to appreciate the potential for this memory and erase it further or exploit it."

Full story.

Quincy Bioscience awarded patent on jellyfish protein

By Kathleen Gallagher of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: July 8, 2010 9:10 a.m.

Quincy Bioscience said it has received a patent on its use of a protein derived from jellyfish that it uses for products to fight the aging process.

The patent covers the use of aequorin-related compounds for preventing and alleviating symptoms and disorders related to calcium imbalance, Mark Underwood, the Madison biotech company's president, said in a statement.

Full story.

Mequon firm seeks to put the brakes on cancer cells

By Kathleen Gallagher of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: July 1, 2010

James Yarger, who owns a drug development company in Mequon, had an idea brewing in his head for some time.

If cancer cells are regular cells run amok - cells with failed brakes, as it were - there must be a way to fix those brakes.

With help from $12 million of investor funding and a $250,000 loan from the state's Technology Venture Fund, Yarger thinks he has figured it out.

His young company, Endece LLC, is prepared to begin clinical trials next year on a compound he says could potentially turn off any kind of cancer cell.

"We can stop any cancer from replicating. The cell is trying to replicate and essentially tearing itself apart because of the blocks we put in place," said Yarger, 58.

Yarger with his wife, Jean, started Endece four years ago. The company has a staff of five.

The compound Endece will bring into clinical trials, called NDC-1308, is one of more than 40 the company has developed. In animal trials, it has shown the ability to stop a tumor's chromosomes from replicating and to inhibit the so-called hedgehog signaling pathway that is present in many aggressive tumors.

Full story.

IceCube telescope: Extreme science meets extreme electronics

Junko Yoshida
EE Times

(06/23/2010 12:05 PM EDT)

MADISON, Wis. — The world’s largest telescope, currently under construction more than a mile beneath the Antarctic ice, is on schedule to be completed next year, according to a researcher at the University of Wisconsin, the lead institution for a scientific project called IceCube.

Ninety-five percent of the IceCube telescope, consisting of thousands of digital optical modules developed for scientists working to understand the universe, is already installed and operating at the South Pole, said Albrecht Karle, a physics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in an interview with EE Times.

The IceCube telescope is no ordinary apparatus. With a volume of one cubic kilometer, the instrument is pointed not to the sky, but downward towards the center of the Earth, buried beneath tons of ice in the coldest spot in the world. No one will ever “look through” this telescope. Instead, it will convey its findings through vast arrays of digital sensors.

Scientists backed by the National Science Foundation are looking for very small, very elusive particles called neutrinos that can tell scientists much more about the universe than photons or charged particles.

Full story.

US experiment hints at 'multiple God particles'

By Paul Rincon

Science reporter, BBC News

There may be multiple versions of the elusive "God particle" - or Higgs boson - according to a new study.

Finding the Higgs is the primary aim of the £6bn ($10bn) Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment near Geneva.

But recent results from the LHC's US rival suggest physicists could be hunting five particles, not one.

The data may point to new laws of physics beyond the current accepted theory - known as the Standard Model.

Full story.

Cellular Dynamics, Promega to collaborate on tests

By Kathleen Gallagher of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: June 15, 2010 10:08 a.m.

Cellular Dynamics International and Promega Corp. have entered into a research collaboration to develop toxicity tests for drug developers that use stem-cell derived heart cells.

The companies, both based in Madison, said the collaboration has potential to provide pharmaceutical company researchers with more predictive data, driving the development of safer and more effective drugs.

Their tests would use an alternative to embryonic stem cells known as iPS, or induced pluripotent stem cells that are made by Cellular Dynamics. To make iPS cells, Cellular Dynamics scientists take tissue cells, for example, and engineer them into cells that have all the characteristics of embryonic stem cells and are able to turn into beating heart cells, liver cells or any other cells in the body.

Full story.

New measurements from Fermilab’s MINOS experiment suggest a difference in a key property of neutrinos and antineutrinos

BATAVIA, Illinois-Scientists of the MINOS experiment at the Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator laboratory today (June 14) announced the world’s most precise measurement to date of the parameters that govern antineutrino oscillations, the back-and-forth transformations of antineutrinos from one type to another. This result provides information about the difference in mass between different antineutrino types. The measurement showed an unexpected variance in the values for neutrinos and antineutrinos. This mass difference parameter, called Δm² (“delta m squared”), is smaller by approximately 40 percent for neutrinos than for antineutrinos.

However, there is a still a five percent probability that Δm² is actually the same for neutrinos and antineutrinos. With such a level of uncertainty, MINOS physicists need more data and analysis to know for certain if the variance is real.

Neutrinos and antineutrinos behave differently in many respects, but the MINOS results, presented today at the Neutrino 2010 conference in Athens, Greece, and in a seminar at Fermilab, are the first observation of a potential fundamental difference that established physical theory could not explain.

“Everything we know up to now about neutrinos would tell you that our measured mass difference parameters should be very similar for neutrinos and antineutrinos,” said MINOS co-spokesperson Rob Plunkett. “If this result holds up, it would signal a fundamentally new property of the neutrino-antineutrino system. The implications of this difference for the physics of the universe would be profound.”

Full story.

Scientists Grow Cells in 3-D Using Magnetic Fields

June 11, 2010

Cells in the human body live in amazingly complex, three-dimensional environments that are crucial for the cells' proper function. The lung, for example, consists of layers of different kinds of cells that work together to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide between the air and the blood.

The way these cells work together, and the chemicals that they express to communicate with one another, change when they live on a flat, two-dimensional surface.

Given these differences in cell behavior and expression, it's intriguing that the standard for testing new drugs and chemicals are tests that use cells grown in flat-bottomed Petri dishes.

In an effort to more accurately mimic the effect of drugs or toxic chemicals on real living tissue, scientists from Rice University and the University of Texas' M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston have developed a new laboratory technique that uses magnetic levitation to grow cells in three-dimensional shapes. Compared with cell cultures grown on flat surfaces, these 3-D cell cultures form tissues that more closely resemble those inside the body. The technique has the potential to drastically reduce the cost of developing new drugs, as well as reduce the use of animals when testing the safety of manufactured chemicals. The team's results were published in March 2010 in Nature Nanotechnology.

Full story.

Genetic technology moving from lab to medical practices

Now it's doctors' turn to learn how to use genetic testing

By Mark Johnson and Kathleen Gallagher of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: May 22, 2010

In January, practicing doctors and doctors-to-be entered a new class at the Medical College of Wisconsin with a futuristic name, "Translational Genetics." The idea was simpler than it sounded: We are fast approaching the time when doctors will use our genetic profiles to treat us.

One of the students was Kevin Regner, a practicing kidney doctor at Froedtert Hospital, who had been hearing for years, "Personalized medicine is just around the corner." Doctors will tailor treatments to each patient's genes and the risks they reveal. It will all be routine.

Regner had doubts. Sequencing of the first human genome in 2003 took more than a decade and cost about $600 million - an effort too herculean to assume doctors would repeat it with patients and insurance companies would foot the bill anytime soon.

But Regner was in for a surprise. As he and his classmates listened, Howard Jacob, head of the college's Human and Molecular Genetics Center, described what has happened since completion of the genome project. He showed two photos: a machine that helped sequence the first human genome in 2003, and then a machine the Medical College has today. The new model does the work of 200 of the old ones; it can sequence a human genome in a few months for several hundred thousand dollars.

And the Medical College has already ordered next-generation sequencers. Within less than a decade, a complete genetic blueprint could be attainable in 15 minutes for as little as $100.

Moreover, in a case that suggests the technology is beginning the journey from research to medical practice, Jacob described how he and his colleagues used a targeted version of gene-sequencing to diagnose and treat an apparently new disease in a young boy at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.

In the audience, Regner had a moment of recognition. "It's likely we'll see this kind of personalized medicine in my lifetime," he said, "and in the course of my medical practice."

Full story.

Air Force Treating Wounds With Lasers and Nanotech

•By Katie Drummond •May 5, 2010

Forget stitches and old-school sutures. The Air Force is funding scientists who are using nano-technology and lasers to seal up wounds at a molecular level.

It might sound like Star Trek tech, but it’s actually the latest in a series of ambitious Pentagon efforts to create faster, more effective methods of treating war-zone injuries.

Full story.

Scientists create human embryonic stem cells with enhanced pluripotency

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (May 3, 2010) – Whitehead Institute researchers have converted established human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells and human embryonic stem (ES) cells to a base state of greater pluripotency.

"This is a previously unknown pluripotent state in human cells," says Jacob Hanna, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Whitehead Member Rudolf Jaenisch. "It's the first time these cell types have approached the flexibility found in mouse ES cells."

ES cells and iPS cells have attracted much attention because of their potential to mature into virtually any cell type in the body. Because ethical and legal issues have hampered human ES cell research, mouse cells have provided a more viable platform for ES cell studies. However, mouse and human ES cells differ in a number of significant ways, raising the very real possibility that breakthroughs in mouse stem cell science simply won't be reproducible with human stem cells.

Researchers have had a relatively easy time genetically manipulating and preventing differentiation (maturation beyond the base pluripotent state) in mouse ES and iPS cells. But human ES and iPS cells have different sets of expressed genes and depend on different signaling pathways for growth and differentiation than mouse ES and iPS cells, which makes the human cells more difficult to work with.

Because of these biological differences, researchers refer to mouse ES and iPS cells as "naïve" while human ES and iPS cells, which teeter on the verge of maturation, are more mature and are referred to as being "primed" for differentiation.

Hanna thought this "primed" state of human cells might be attributable to the way the human ES cell lines are created and stored. To generate ES cell lines, researchers remove cells from an early-stage embryo, called a blastocyst. Once removed from this ball of 80-100 cells, the ES cells are put into serum with other cells to keep the ES cells alive and prevent them from differentiating.

WARF loses a round in stem cell patent dispute

By Kathleen Gallagher of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: May 3, 2010 11:50 a.m.

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation has suffered a blow in its effort to protect a key patent for embryonic stem cell technology.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office last week reversed an earlier decision in which it rejected an appeal on one of three basic human embryonic stem cell patents held by the foundation, known as WARF.

The patent in question covers early work done by University of Wisconsin - Madison stem cell pioneer James Thomson. The patent office said it now agrees with the argument made by two foundations that Thomson's work covered by the single patent could have been performed by other scientists with access to the same resources.

The rejection does not affect a decision the patent office made in early 2008 to uphold two other basic embryonic stem cell patents held by WARF.

"WARF has been invited by the Board of Patent Appeals to continue prosecution of this application and plans to do so and vigorously pursue these claims with the patent office," the foundation said in a statement.

Full story.

Berkeley Scientists Discover Inexpensive Metal Catalyst for Generating Hydrogen from Water

Hydrogen would command a key role in future renewable energy technologies, experts agree, if a relatively cheap, efficient and carbon-neutral means of producing it can be developed. An important step towards this elusive goal has been taken by a team of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California, Berkeley. The team has discovered an inexpensive metal catalyst that can effectively generate hydrogen gas from water.

“Our new proton reduction catalyst is based on a molybdenum-oxo metal complex that is about 70 times cheaper than platinum, today’s most widely used metal catalyst for splitting the water molecule,” said Hemamala Karunadasa, one of the co-discoverers of this complex. “In addition, our catalyst does not require organic additives, and can operate in neutral water, even if it is dirty, and can operate in sea water, the most abundant source of hydrogen on earth and a natural electrolyte. These qualities make our catalyst ideal for renewable energy and sustainable chemistry.”

Karunadasa holds joint appointments with Berkeley Lab’s Chemical Sciences Division and UC Berkeley’s Chemistry Department. She is the lead author of a paper describing this work that appears in the April 29, 2010 issue of the journal Nature, titled “A molecular molybdenum-oxo catalyst for generating hydrogen from water.” Co-authors of this paper were Christopher Chang and Jeffrey Long, who also hold joint appointments with Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley. Chang, in addition, is also an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).

Hydrogen gas, whether combusted or used in fuel cells to generate electricity, emits only water vapor as an exhaust product, which is why this nation would already be rolling towards a hydrogen economy if only there were hydrogen wells to tap. However, hydrogen gas does not occur naturally and has to be produced. Most of the hydrogen gas in the United States today comes from natural gas, a fossil fuel. While inexpensive, this technique adds huge volumes of carbon emissions to the atmosphere. Hydrogen can also be produced through the electrolysis of water – using electricity to split molecules of water into molecules of hydrogen and oxygen. This is an environmentally clean and sustainable method of production – especially if the electricity is generated via a renewable technology such as solar or wind – but requires a water-splitting catalyst.

Nature has developed extremely efficient water-splitting enzymes – called hydrogenases – for use by plants during photosynthesis, however, these enzymes are highly unstable and easily deactivated when removed from their native environment. Human activities demand a stable metal catalyst that can operate under non-biological settings.

Metal catalysts are commercially available, but they are low valence precious metals whose high costs make their widespread use prohibitive. For example, platinum, the best of them, costs some $2,000 an ounce.

“The basic scientific challenge has been to create earth-abundant molecular systems that produce hydrogen from water with high catalytic activity and stability,” Chang says. “We believe our discovery of a molecular molybdenum-oxo catalyst for generating hydrogen from water without the use of additional acids or organic co-solvents establishes a new chemical paradigm for creating reduction catalysts that are highly active and robust in aqueous media.”

Full story.

Dr. Derse named Director of Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities at The Medical College of Wisconsin

Arthur R. Derse, M.D., J.D., will assume responsibilities as director of the new Medical College of Wisconsin’s Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities, effective July 1, 2010.  The new center combines the College’s existing Center for the Study of Bioethics with its Medical Humanities Program.  The Center will be part of the College’s Institute for Community, Population and Public Health.

According to Jonathan Ravdin, M.D., dean and executive vice president, “The goal of the new Center is to have an integrated approach to meet the education, research, clinical, and community health needs while enhancing the impact and academic excellence of both bioethics and medical humanities. Under Dr. Derse’s leadership we look forward to the growth of the Center as it continues to make major contributions to the missions of the College.”

Dr. Derse is currently a professor of bioethics and emergency medicine and was formerly the associate director of the Center for the Study of Bioethics and director of the Medical College’s Medical Humanities Program. He directs the Medical College’s Medical Ethics and Palliative Care course and medical humanities courses. He also directs graduate bioethics courses encompassing law, ethics education and ethics consultation in health systems. He was elected to the College’s Society of Teaching Scholars and is an Arnold Gold Foundation Humanism in Medicine awardee.

His appointments include chair of the Veterans Health Administration’s National Ethics Committee, senior consultant for academic affairs for the American Medical Association’s Institute for Ethics, and member of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Law and Aging. He is past president of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, and is a member and former chair of the Ethics Committee of the American College of Emergency Physicians. He is chair of Froedtert Hospital’s Ethics Committee and serves on several other institutional ethics committees and editorial boards of ethics journals including the American Journal of Bioethics and the Journal of Clinical Ethics.

Dr. Derse has been a member of many expert advisory boards and committees, including the NIH Working Group on Informed Consent in Clinical Research Conducted under Emergent Circumstances. He is a highly published investigator and scholar in bioethics and medical humanities.

Stanford researchers find electrical current stemming from plants

Stanford engineers have generated electrical current by tapping into the electron activity in individual algae cells. Photosynthesis excites electrons, which can then be turned into an electrical current using a specially designed gold electrode. This study could be the first step toward carbon-free electricity directly from plants.

BY GWYNETH DICKEY

In an electrifying first, Stanford scientists have plugged into algae cells and harnessed a tiny electrical current. They found it at the very source of energy production – photosynthesis, a plant's method of converting sunlight to chemical energy. It may be a first step toward generating high-efficiency bioelectricity that doesn't give off carbon dioxide as a byproduct, the researchers say.

"We believe we are the first to extract electrons out of living plant cells," said WonHyoung Ryu, the lead author of the paper published in the March issue of Nano Letters. Ryu conducted the experiments while he was a research associate for mechanical engineering Professor Fritz Prinz.

The Stanford research team developed a unique, ultra-sharp nanoelectrode made of gold, specially designed for probing inside cells. They gently pushed it through the algal cell membranes, which sealed around it, and the cell stayed alive. From the photosynthesizing cells, the electrode collected electrons that had been energized by light and the researchers generated a tiny electrical current.

Full story.

Ultrasensitive imaging method uses gold-silver 'nanocages'

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - New research findings suggest that an experimental ultrasensitive medical imaging technique that uses a pulsed laser and tiny metallic "nanocages" might enable both the early detection and treatment of disease.

The system works by shining near-infrared laser pulses through the skin to detect hollow nanocages and solid nanoparticles - made of an alloy of gold and silver - that are injected into the bloodstream.

Unlike previous approaches using tiny metallic nanorods and nanospheres, the new technique does not cause heat damage to tissue being imaged. Another advantage is that it does not produce a background "auto fluorescent" glow of surrounding tissues, which interferes with the imaging and reduces contrast and brightness, said Ji-Xin Cheng (pronounced Gee-Shin), an associate professor of biomedical engineering and chemistry at Purdue University.

Full story.

International team discovers element 117

An international team of scientists from Russia and the United States, including two Department of Energy national laboratories and two universities, has discovered the newest superheavy element, element 117.

The team included scientists from the Joint Institute of Nuclear Research (Dubna, Russia), the Research Institute for Advanced Reactors (Dimitrovgrad), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

“The discovery of element 117 is the culmination of a decade-long journey to expand the periodic table and write the next chapter in heavy element research,” said Academician Yuri Oganessian, scientific leader of the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions at JINR and spokesperson for the collaboration.

The team established the existence of element 117 from decay patterns observed following the bombardment of a radioactive berkelium target with calcium ions at the JINR U400 cyclotron in Dubna. The experiment depended on the availability of special detection facilities and dedicated accelerator time at Dubna, unique isotope production and separation facilities at Oak Ridge, and distinctive nuclear data analysis capabilities at Livermore.

“This is a significant breakthrough for science,” LLNL director George Miller said. “The discovery of a new element provides new insight into the makeup of the universe and is a testimony to the strength of science and technology at the partner institutions.”

 Full story.

Chemists influence stem-cell development with geometry

University of Chicago scientists have successfully used geometrically patterned surfaces to influence the development of stem cells. The new approach is a departure from that of many stem-cell biologists, who focus instead on uncovering the role of proteins in controlling the fate of stem cells.

"The cells are seeing the same soluble proteins. In both cases it's the shape alone that's dictating whether they turn into fat or bone, and that hasn't been appreciated before," said Milan Mrksich, Professor in Chemistry and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, who led the study. "That's exciting because stem-cell therapies are of enormous interest right now, and a significant effort is ongoing to identify the laboratory conditions that can take a stem cell and push it into a specific lineage."

The UChicago team found that making cells assume a star shape promotes a tense cytoskeleton, which provides structural support for cells, while a flower shape promotes a looser cytoskeleton. "On a flower shape you get the majority of cells turning to fat, and on a star shape you've got the majority of cells turning into bone," said Kris Kilian, a National Institutes of Health Fellow in Mrksich's research group. The UChicago team published its findings in the March 1 Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Mrksich cautioned that the method is far from ready for use in the harvest of stem cells for therapeutic use, but it does signal a potentially promising direction for further study.

Mrksich's research group has a long history of developing methods for patterning surfaces with chemistry to control the positions, sizes and shapes of cells in culture, and applying those patterned cells to drug-discovery assays, and studies of cell migration and cell adhesion.

Contact: Steve Koppes

s-koppes@uchicago.edu

773-702-8366

University of Chicago

Ultra-powerful Laser Makes Silicon Pump Liquid Uphill with No Added Energy

Researchers at the University of Rochester's Institute of Optics have discovered a way to make liquid flow vertically upward along a silicon surface, overcoming the pull of gravity, without pumps or other mechanical devices.

In a paper in the journal Optics Express, professor Chunlei Guo and his assistant Anatoliy Vorobyev demonstrate that by carving intricate patterns in silicon with extremely short, high-powered laser bursts, they can get liquid to climb to the top of a silicon chip like it was being sucked through a straw.

Unlike a straw, though, there is no outside pressure pushing the liquid up; it rises on its own accord. By creating nanometer-scale structures in silicon, Guo greatly increases the attraction that water molecules feel toward it. The attraction, or hydrophile, of the silicon becomes so great, in fact, that it overcomes the strong bond that water molecules feel for other water molecules.

Thus, instead of sticking to each other, the water molecules climb over one another for a chance to be next to the silicon. (This might seem like getting energy for free, but even though the water rises, thus gaining potential energy, the chemical bonds holding the water to the silicon require a lower energy than the ones holding the water molecules to other water molecules.) The water rushes up the surface at speeds of 3.5 cm per second.

Full story.

As universities tighten ethics policies, drug firms turn to private physicians to promote products

By John Fauber of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: March 14, 2010

This article is part of an ongoing series about how money and conflicts of interest affect medicine and patient care.

When looking for a doctor to travel the country and tout its costly prescription fish oil pill, GlaxoSmithKline didn't select a heavyweight university researcher.

Instead, it wrote checks to Tara Dall, a Delafield primary-care doctor who entered private practice in 2001.

For just three months of speaking engagements last year, GlaxoSmithKline paid Dall $45,000, ranking her among the most highly paid of more than 3,600 doctors nationwide who spoke for the company, which released records for only one quarter of the year.

The practice of doing promotional speaking for drug companies has come under fire in recent years.

Full story.

Exotic Antimatter Detected at Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC)

Scientists report discovery of heaviest known antinucleus and first antinucleus containing an anti-strange quark, laying the first stake in a new frontier of physics

March 4, 2010

UPTON, NY — An international team of scientists studying high-energy collisions of gold ions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), a 2.4-mile-circumference particle accelerator located at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, has published evidence of the most massive antinucleus discovered to date. The new antinucleus, discovered at RHIC’s STAR detector, is a negatively charged state of antimatter containing an antiproton, an antineutron, and an anti-Lambda particle. It is also the first antinucleus containing an anti-strange quark. The results will be published online by Science Express on March 4, 2010.

“This experimental discovery may have unprecedented consequences for our view of the world,” commented theoretical physicist Horst Stoecker, Vice President of the Helmholtz Association of German National Laboratories. “This antimatter pushes open the door to new dimensions in the nuclear chart — an idea that just a few years ago, would have been viewed as impossible.”

Full story.

Additional story.

UWM researcher's program helps predict stem cell fates

By Mark Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Feb. 7, 2010

A software program developed by a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee researcher successfully has predicted the fate of stem cells, a key step toward better understanding the developmental process and perhaps one day controlling it.

The program, developed by UWM's Andrew R. Cohen and described in a paper published Sunday in the journal Nature Methods, uses sophisticated mathematical techniques to study the movements of stem cells and translate those observations into reliable predictions about the kinds of cells they will eventually become.

Stem cells travel a path from less specific to more specific, from the limitless possibilities of an embryonic stem cell to the finished product - a piece of heart, brain, bone or skin. By studying the subtle behaviors that lead a cell to move toward one of these end points as opposed to the others, scientists hope they will discover ways to guide cells toward a particular path - perhaps skin to replace some that has been lost.

Full story.

Researcher Creates Strongest Metal Foam Ever

by Bridgette Meinhold, 02/01/10

Spongy metal sounds like a bit of an oxymoron, but it’s actually a real material that is capable of absorbing large impacts without damage. Metal foams have been around for some time, but new research by Dr. Afsaneh Rabiei of North Carolina State University, has revealed the strongest metal foam ever. It can compress up to 80% of its original size under loading and still retain its original shape. The applications for this type of material are too numerous to fathom, but one of the most anticipated uses for the spongy metal is in automobiles to lessen the impact of crashes and protect the driver and passengers.

Full story.

Making Old Stem Cells Act Young Again

In virtually every part of the body, stem cells stand ready to replenish mature cells lost to wounds, disease, and everyday wear and tear. But like other cells, stem cells eventually lose their normal functions as they age, leaving the body less able to repair itself.

Surprisingly, this age-related decline in stem cell potency may be somewhat reversible. A team of Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers has found that in old mice, a several-week exposure to the blood of young mice causes their bone marrow stem cells to act “young” again.

Full story.

Laser fusion test results raise energy hopes

By Jason Palmer

Science and technology reporter, BBC News

A major hurdle to producing fusion energy using lasers has been swept aside, results in a new report show.

The controlled fusion of atoms - creating conditions like those in our Sun - has long been touted as a possible revolutionary energy source.

However, there have been doubts about the use of powerful lasers for fusion energy because the "plasma" they create could interrupt the fusion.

An article in Science showed the plasma is far less of a problem than expected.

The report is based on the first experiments from the National Ignition Facility (Nif) in the US that used all 192 of its laser beams.

Along the way, the experiments smashed the record for the highest energy from a laser - by a factor of 20.

Full story.

Scientists convert cells while bypassing embryonic state

By Mark Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Jan. 27, 2010

In a feat of biological alchemy, scientists at Stanford have turned the skin cells of a mouse into brain cells without ever taking the cells back to the embryonic state, raising hopes that medicine may be approaching a new era.

The work by scientists at Stanford University was described in a paper published online Wednesday in the journal Nature and builds on the 2007 discovery that human skin cells could be reprogrammed back to the embryonic state. The reprogramming of human cells was first accomplished by the labs of James Thomson at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto University in Japan.

"To me, this is huge progress for biomedical science," said Su-Chun Zhang, a UW stem cell researcher and professor of anatomy and neurology.

Full story.

Platypus wins contract to develop sensor

By Kathleen Gallagher of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Jan. 5, 2010

A $2.2 million contract with a U.S. Army research center could bring a Madison company one step closer to its goal of making a portable sensor that detects deadly gases and other toxins.

Platypus Technologies LLC said it has been awarded a one-year contract with Edgewood Chemical and Biological Center in Maryland, the second it has received from the center.

Full story.

Marquette lands $5 million for engineering facility

By Amy Hetzner of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Dec. 29, 2009

Marquette University's new engineering facility got another big boost on Tuesday, with Gov. Jim Doyle announcing that the school will receive a $5 million grant from the Wisconsin Energy Foundation thanks to funding by the state.

"We know this is what we need," Doyle said during a morning announcement held in Marquette's current engineering building, across from its new home at N. 16th St. and W. Wisconsin Ave. "For us to compete, we need more engineers."

Full story.

Congress deals funding blow to Patent Office

Budget strips $100 million provision for backlogged agency

By John Schmid of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Dec. 29, 2009

The $1.1 trillion spending bill that Congress passed this month bankrolls thousands of pet projects: the World Food Prize in Iowa, a farmers market in Kentucky, and a 12-mile bike path in Michigan, among many others.

And to pay for a fraction of its largesse, Congress added one late change to the budget: It slapped a restrictive spending ceiling on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, further cramping an agency that was already incapacitated by more than a decade of congressional raids on its fees. 

Full story.

GE Healthcare to Evaluate and Develop Novel Imaging Technology Invented by Medical College of Wisconsin Researcher

A novel molecular imaging technology aimed at rapid diagnosis of cell death in organs such as the brain and heart has been licensed by The Medical College of Wisconsin to GE Healthcare.  Under the license GE will further evaluate and develop the technology and will have an option to commercialize the technology. The technology, using imaging probes with a radiopharmaceutical compound, was invented by Ming Zhao, Ph.D., assistant professor of biophysics.

The probes bind to dead and dying cells making them useful for detecting acute cell injury and cell death.  When the active component of this molecule is attached to a radioactive tracer, it can be used in nuclear medicine imaging techniques, such as PET (positron emission tomography) or SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography), to produce three-dimensional images of where this cell death is occurring. 

“We are pleased to be working with GE on this technology,” said Dennis Devitt, the director of marketing and licensing for the Office of Technology Development (OTD), the technology transfer arm of the Medical College. “Working with the market leader in medical imaging allows this technology to be quickly moved from the research laboratory into patient care,” Devitt said. 

According to Dr. Zhao, “Imaging agent discovery and development is an important aspect in molecular and medical imaging research. The process is critical for the improvement of existing imaging technologies and for early detection of acute cell death, cancerous tissue growth and major vessel diseases.”

The ability to image dead and dying cells can have major clinical benefits, pointed out Dr. Zhao. For example, it could allow oncologists to rapidly monitor tumor response to a specific therapy.  Another potential application is for rapid diagnosis of myocardial infarction. Often patients come into ER complaining of chest pain and need to have an expensive overnight hospital stay so they can be monitored while their lab results are being processed. This compound could allow clinicians to non-invasively image the heart and determine within a few hours if the patient actually had a heart attack or something else.

Joseph Hill, vice president for technology development, added that Dr. Zhao’s research was supported by a “Proof-of-Concept” grant administered by the College’s OTD.  They have filed several patent applications on the technology. 

The OTD patents intellectual property generated by faculty and staff at the Medical College and licenses it in line with its mission to commercialize as many inventions as possible to help patients.  Its “Patents to PatientsSM” brand best describes its mission.