TAINAN, Taiwan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Wan-Pei Su, a graduate student of Molecular Medicine at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), southern Taiwan, has received a Graduate/Postdoctoral Travel Award from the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) to attend the annual conference on Experimental Biology (EB) in San Diego in April 2012.

NCKU President Hwung-Hweng Hwung congratulated Su and her advisor, Dr. Nan-Shan Chang, director of NCKU Institute of Molecular Medicine, for winning international recognition. It is expected that the efforts put into the research will benefit the future clinical application, said Hwung.

Prof. Chang has been devoted to the discovery and development of the tumor suppressor WW domain-containing oxidoreductase (designated WWOX, FOR or WOX1). Zfra is one of the proteins which interact with WOX1. Su has carried on Changs research findings to anti-cancer mechanism.

Su is awarded for her research paper titled Self-polymerizing Zfra peptides elicit immune response for targeting cancer where the function of Zfra in anti-cancer therapy is investigated.

Zfra was first cloned by Dr. Changs group at the Guthrie Research Institute, Sayre, PA, USA in 2005, according to Su, and the role of Zfra in tumor necrosis factor signal pathway has aroused attention since then.

The most remarkable function of Zfra is its prevention of growth of skin cancer basal cell carcinoma, melanoma, prostate cancer, breast cancer and so on. It is foreseeable that Zfra can be used as a vaccine against all kinds of cancers, said Su.

Of all the 195 award recipients this year, mainly from North America and only 13 from Asia, 2 awardees come from Taiwan.

The ASBMB, founded in 1906 and now based in Maryland, is a prestigious, nonprofit scientific and educational organization with over 12,000 members. Many of them are highly regarded scientists, including Nobel laureates. ASBMB manages the publication of premier journals such as Journal of Biological Chemistry, Molecular & Cellular Proteomics, and Journal of Lipid Research.

Read the original post:

NCKU Student Wins Prestigious Award for Anti-Cancer Research

Zachary Hostetler of Garnet Valley, Pennsylvania, is one of two students who will be honored as the student marshals for the Eberly College of Science during Penn State's spring commencement ceremonies on 5 May, 2012 at the University Park campus. Hostetler's faculty escort will be Song Tan, a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Hostetler, who will graduate from Penn State with a 4.0 grade-point average and a bachelor's degree in biochemistry and molecular biology, also is enrolled in the Schreyer Honors College and he has been on the Dean's List every semester while at Penn State. Hostetler's awards and scholarships include a Schreyer Academic Excellence Scholarship, two Eberly College of Science academic scholarships--the Tershak Scholarship and the Vinezie Scholarship, a President's Freshman Award, a President Sparks Award, two Evan Pugh Scholar Awards, a University Undergraduate Research Funds award, and a Summer Discovery Grant.

During his years at Penn State, Hostetler has focused on laboratory research involving X-ray crystallography -- a method used to model the atomic structure of proteins. In particular, he and his faculty escort Song Tan, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, have been working on a research project dealing with improving protein crystallization, which is often one of the most difficult steps in X-ray crystallography. While certain proteins naturally form large, ordered crystals, some proteins resist crystallization attempts. Hostetler's approach involves fusing a "protein of interest" with a protein that is known to crystallize well so that this fusion protein will form crystals.

In addition to his scientific pursuits, Hostetler has served on the executive board of the Schreyer Honors College Student Council for several years. He also has represented the Schreyer Honors College Student Council and a Four Diamonds Family by dancing in Penn State's IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon -- an independent student-organized event that raises money to fight pediatric cancer.

In addition, Hostetler has volunteered as a Donor and Alumni Relations (DAR) captain for THON. As a DAR captain, his responsibilities included approaching companies for monetary donations, acting as a liaison to Penn State clubs and organizations to help them with fund-raising efforts, and establishing a system to track and analyze donation patterns. Hostetler also has volunteered for ATLAS, which is an organization devoted to raising money for THON and the Four Diamonds Fund. The Four Diamonds Fund is a Penn State Hershey organization that provides support for patients and families facing pediatric cancer.

After graduation, Hostetler plans to attend a combined M.D./Ph.D. program at either the University of Pennsylvania or Weill-Cornell Medical College in New York City. "I hope that attending a combined medical and graduate-degree program will allow me to combine my interests in human medicine and scientific research," Hostetler said. "Ultimately, I envision myself in academic medicine: conducting research, treating patients, and eventually teaching and training new physicians."

Hostetler also said he is truly honored to represent his Eberly College of Science colleagues at graduation. "This past year truly challenged the Penn State community." Hostetler said. "However, I believe it also was an opportunity for a troubled community to come together. Candlelight vigils and a record-breaking THON weekend marked the best of what Penn State has to offer. These memories, the ones that challenged us as a school and a community, will forever be a part of my Penn State experience."

Hostetler, who attended Garnet Valley High School, will be accompanied at graduation by his parents Robert and Lisa Hostetler, his sisters Lauren and Jenna Hostetler, and his grandfather John Hostetler.

Hostetler, who will graduate from Penn State with a 4.0 grade-point average and a bachelor's degree in biochemistry and molecular biology, also is enrolled in the Schreyer Honors College and he has been on the Dean's List every semester while at Penn State. Hostetler's awards and scholarships include a Schreyer Academic Excellence Scholarship, two Eberly College of Science academic scholarships--the Tershak Scholarship and the Vinezie Scholarship, a President's Freshman Award, a President Sparks Award, two Evan Pugh Scholar Awards, a University Undergraduate Research Funds award, and a Summer Discovery Grant.

During his years at Penn State, Hostetler has focused on laboratory research involving X-ray crystallography -- a method used to model the atomic structure of proteins. In particular, he and his faculty escort Song Tan, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, have been working on a research project dealing with improving protein crystallization, which is often one of the most difficult steps in X-ray crystallography. While certain proteins naturally form large, ordered crystals, some proteins resist crystallization attempts. Hostetler's approach involves fusing a "protein of interest" with a protein that is known to crystallize well so that this fusion protein will form crystals.

Read the original post:

Penn State student Zachary Hostetler from Garnet Valley is being honored as a student marshal

OTTAWA A team of University of Ottawa researchers has solved the mystery of how our bodies adapt to low-oxygen environments, raising the prospect that life-threatening conditions such as cancer, stroke and heart disease could someday be successfully treated using a simple, antibiotic-like drug.

The teams findings were published Sunday in Nature, the worlds leading scientific journal.

Its a tremendously important discovery in understanding how life without oxygen works, said Dr. Stephen Lee, a professor in the universitys Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, whose laboratory did the groundbreaking research.

Scientists have known for decades that in the presence of oxygen, cells make proteins the building blocks of life using a process called protein synthesis. But how they do so in conditions of limited oxygen had remained a mystery.

Theres a huge amount of research, hundreds of thousands of papers, Lee said in an interview. But still nobody has discovered how we make the basic building blocks of life in these conditions. Thats what we discovered.

Lees team found theres an oxygen-regulated switch in the protein synthesis machinery, a very novel and unexpected way of synthesizing proteins, Lee said. Its very different.

The discovery explains, for the first time, how mountain climbers and highland Tibetans are able to adapt and function in environments that would kill or sicken most people.

These are very basic processes of life, Lee said. Its kind of strange that we discovered this in the 21st century. That tells you there are still basic processes that we just dont know exist.

The implications for cancer treatment, though still speculative, are potentially huge. Lees team discovered that cancer cells proliferate by using the same protein synthesis machinery the body employs to deal with low levels of oxygen.

Cancer cells utilize that way of producing proteins without oxygen, even if oxygen is present, Lee said. They hijack that system and that drives their proliferation.

Follow this link:

Researchers' discovery offers hope for cancer, heart disease miracle drugs

In Experimental and Molecular Pathology, researchers in China and the US report that IL-21R expression on CD8+ T-cells promotes their activation in coxsackievirus B3-induced myocarditis. The team infected C57Bl/6 and IL-21R knock-out mice with CVB3 and found that the IL-21RKO mice developed significantly less myocarditis than C57Bl/6 animals. "Numbers of CD8+IFN+ cells were decreased in IL-21RKO mice but numbers of either CD4+IFN+ or CD4+IL-4+ cells were not significantly different from C57Bl/6 animals indicating a selective effect of IL-21 signaling on the CD8+ T cell response," the authors write. This, they add, suggests that IL-21 signaling directly in CD8+ T-cells in required for CVB3-induced myocarditis.

Also in Experimental and Molecular Pathology this week, researchers in New York report that the drug sirolimus modulates the HIV-associated nephropathy phenotype by inhibiting epithelial mesenchymal transition. In its study, the team observed the effects of sirolimus on the development of renal cell EMT and on HIVAN in a mouse model of HIVAN. The HIVAN mice that received saline showed enhanced proliferation of both glomerular and tubular cells compared to control mice that also received saline, the team says. However, HIVAN mice receiving sirolimus showed attenuated renal cell proliferation compared to HIVAN mice receiving saline. "Since sirolimus attenuated renal cell ZEB expression (a repressor of E-cadherin transcription), it appears that sirolimus may be attenuating renal cell EMT by preserving epithelial cell E-cadherin expression," the authors add.

Continued here:

This Week in Experimental and Molecular Pathology

DECATUR, IL- Decatur Memorial Hospital is in the process of constructing a Center for Advanced Molecular Medicine.

The center will allow DMH to improve the diagnosis of cancer, Alzheimer's and heart disease. The hospital will also be able to produce the agents and drugs it needs right on site.

This technology is available in only a few places in the entire United States, like the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, the University of Virginia and the University of Wisconsin.

DMH Dr. Mark Muscato calls the project "very cutting edge" and the "new wave of medicine."

"Most places that have these (centers) are very large academic institutions," Dr. Muscato says. "So it is a great opportunity for our hospital and the City of Decatur to be involved and have this opportunity."

When the project is finished, Decatur Memorial Hospital will be the only hospital in Illinois with this technology.Construction of the center will be completed in about a month.

Link:

Cutting Edge Technology Coming To DMH

Featured Article Main Category: Medical Devices / Diagnostics Also Included In: Cancer / Oncology;Biology / Biochemistry Article Date: 04 May 2012 - 11:00 PDT

email to a friend printer friendly opinions

Current Article Ratings:

This article does not attempt to cover the whole field, but offers, by means of some examples, a few insights into how nanotechnology has the potential to change medicine, both in the research lab and clinically, while touching on some of the challenges and concerns that it raises.

The ability to manipulate structures and properties at the nanoscale in medicine is like having a sub-microscopic lab bench on which you can handle cell components, viruses or pieces of DNA, using a range of tiny tools, robots and tubes.

This creates a need for tools that help scientists experiment and develop such treatments.

Imagine, for example, being able to stretch out a section of DNA like a strand of spaghetti, so you can examine or operate on it, or building nanorobots that can "walk" and carry out repairs inside cell components. Nanotechnology is bringing that scientific dream closer to reality.

For instance, scientists at the Australian National University have managed to attach coated latex beads to the ends of modified DNA, and then using an "optical trap" comprising a focused beam of light to hold the beads in place, they have stretched out the DNA strand in order to study the interactions of specific binding proteins.

One of the researchers, Ned Seeman, said he envisages it will be possible to create a molecule-scale production line, where you move a molecule along till the right location is reached, and a nanobot does a bit chemisty on it, rather like "spot-welding" on a car assembly line. Seeman's lab at NYU is also looking to use DNA nanotechnology to make a biochip computer, and to find out how biological molecules crystallize, an area that is currently fraught with challenges.

The work that Seeman and colleagues are doing is a good example of "biomimetics", where with nanotechnology they can imitate some of the biological processes in nature, such as the behavior of DNA, to engineer new methods and perhaps even improve them.

See the original post:

Nanotechnology In Medicine: Huge Potential, But What Are The Risks?

19-04-2011 15:06 Top Story: Princess Anne was in Dundee today to officially open the new Centre for Molecular Medicine at Ninewells Hospital. The £3.5 million state-of-the-art facility focuses on research into diabetes and skin diseases and houses 50 staff. Also, at their conference in Aviemore the Scottish Police Federation urged political leaders to maintain their budgets and protect officer numbers. In sport, Dundee United are targeting their second April win over Rangers, when they clash at Tannadice tonight. This is an international version that may have been edited for rights reasons.

Go here to read the rest:

Dundee

17-11-2011 07:28 EMBO Member Stefanie Dimmeler, Professor at the Institute of Cardiovascular Regeneration Centre, Goethe-University Frankfurt, talks about her transition from basic research to translational medicine and some of the highlights of her first year as Chief Editor of EMBO Molecular Medicine.

Read more here:

Focus on Stefanie Dimmeler - Video

22-12-2011 08:22 Proper brain function requires the sculpting of connections between neurons during early postnatal life. Synapses -- the junctions between nerve cells -- are the highways for messages sent and received by every cell in the brain. These junctions are formed and strengthened, weakened and lost, under the influence of sensory experience. Over four decades of research on the visual cortex have culminated in a deep understanding of the mechanisms responsible for whittling away inappropriate synaptic connections. Insights derived from this line of research have recently suggested the remarkable possibility of new treatments that may fundamentally alter the course of fragile X syndrome, the most common inherited form of human intellectual impairment and autism. Dr. Mark Bear initiated the MGluR5 theory of intellectual disability in fragile X syndrome, that led to potential targeted treatments for this disorder. Series: "MIND Institute Lecture Series on Neurodevelopmental Disorders" [Health and Medicine] [Professional Medical Education] [Show ID: 23073]

Read the original post:

Fulfilling the Promise of Molecular Medicine in a Developmental Brain Disorder - Video

01-02-2012 15:09 Unlike many other therapeutics, oncology drugs are not one-size-fits-all. In the movement toward personalized medicine, there's more to understand, more to test. Translational research is helping uncover how a drug will work and who it will work best in -- a crucial early step in proving the value of cancer treatments. Quintiles' translational oncology offers drug developers a better understanding of therapeutic targets, molecular signaling, drug biology and predictive biomarkers. So you can identify failures faster and prove how your drug will benefit patients. Cancer isn't one disease. It's so many different diseases, arising from any tissue in the body -- the lung, breast, prostate, even the blood. Today we are beginning to understand the molecular mechanisms of these different types of cancers. We know that there isn't just one type of breast or lung cancer. There are several subtypes, each with identifiable biomarkers. Biomarkers are bringing us a lot closer to personalized medicine. Biomarkers represent a terrific paradigm shift. But our new understanding means that developing drugs for cancer is now exponentially more complex. We're identifying both molecular targets and the drugs that work against these targets. We have to test different dose levels, different combinations of drugs, and we have to test them for both safety and effectiveness. And we have to do this for every indication where that biomarker appears. So, to attack all ...

Continue reading here:

Molecule to Medicine: The Biomarker Frontier - Video

13-03-2012 11:52 Dear friends, Are you searching for some molecules for OSDD community?. Please listen to Dr. Eswaren, Sir is suggesting some molecules which can be synthesized in college lab, with his forty years of experience in synthetic chemistry. So, please listen to Dr. Eswar words. - -- JALEEL

Read the original here:

osdd heterocyclic compounds and molecular medicines - Video

13-03-2012 19:27 Research @ New insights on what causes Alzheimers disease could arise from a recent discovery made by bioengineers from the University of California, San Diego. The finding concerns the infamous amyloid beta peptides (A?)—fragments of which form plaques thought to play a role in Alzheimers disease. The bioengineers found that amyloid beta peptides (A?) spontaneously trigger calcium waves in purified cultures of astrocyte cells extracted from the cortex region of rat brains and grown in the lab. These calcium waves could be relevant for understanding the origin of Alzheimers disease. The accumulation of Amyloid beta fragments and sustained disruption of the calcium balance within cells are leading hypotheses for what causes Alzheimers disease. Mice on cell phones: The study involved 96 mice, most of which were genetically altered to develop beta-amyloid plaques and memory problems mimicking Alzheimer's disease as they aged. Some mice were left as-is, so researchers could test the effects of the radiation on normal memory as well. Both the Alzheimer's and normal mice were exposed to the electromagnetic field generated by standard cell phone use for two 1-hour periods each day for seven to nine months. They were housed in cages arranged around a centrally-located antenna that generated a cell-phone signal. The cages were arranged at the same distance from the antenna and exposed to the ...

Read more from the original source:

Electro-Medicine : Biological Physics - The Molecular Basis of Alzheimers Disease - Video

11-04-2012 16:34 Demystifying Medicine Seminar Series Date: Monday, February 27, 2012 Location: McMaster University Medical Centre, Hamitlon, Ontario, Canada Speakers: Dr. Peter Margetts, Associate Professor, Departments of Medicine and Pathology and Molecular Medicine Director, MD/PhD Program, McMaster University Dr. Azim Gangji, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine Description: Outline a clinical approach to proteinuria and nephrotic syndrome General review of treatment of nephrotic syndrome and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis Understand the glomerular filtration barrier and basic mechanisms of proteinuria Review the structure and function of podocytes and novel concepts of anti-proteinuric agents

Go here to read the rest:

Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis and the Nephrotic Syndrome - Part 1 Clinical - Video

HIV-1, the AIDS virus, spreads mainly via unprotected sexual contacts in China including Hong Kong. Over 90% of recently identified infections is due to sexual transmission in Hong Kong. After the HIV-1 enters human body, it establishes persistent and latent infections quickly which makes current antiviral therapy fail to cure the patients. Since an effective AIDS vaccine remains elusive, it is important to develop a highly effective drug to prevent HIV-1 sexual transmission. With the support of National 11th Five-Year Research Project and HKU Developmental Fund, AIDS Institute of The University of Hong Kong Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine discovers a novel molecular mechanism of a potent anti-HIV CCR5 antagonist TD-0680 in close collaboration with Shanghai Targetdrug Co. Ltd, Nanjing University and City University of Hong Kong. This drug candidate is potent against a clinical CCR5 antagonist-resistant HIV-1, and is an attractive candidate drug for preventing HIV-1 sexual transmission once developed as a topical microbicide gel. The research article has recently been published in The Journal of Biological Chemistry, a top journal in the area of drug mechanism study.

Research Background and Methodology

HIV-1 enters human cells by binding with the human receptor CD4 and a co-receptor CCR5. Since sexually transmitted HIV-1 strains adhere mainly to CCR5 (i.e. CCR5-tropic), CCR5 antagonist can effectively block the interaction between the virus and CCR5, thus prevent the virus from entering human cells, and thereby, avoid persistent and latent infections.

To date, Maraviroc is the only CCR5 antagonist approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States for clinical treatment. After almost 5 years of clinical application of this drug, Maraviroc-resistant HIV-1 has already emerged. It is, therefore, necessary to discover novel CCR5 antagonists and strategies to overcome the resistant virus. Using viral infection, gene mutagenesis, drug combination assay, molecular modeling and docking, inhibition of monoclonal antibody and other methods, the collaborative team discovered a novel molecular mechanism of a potent anti-HIV CCR5 antagonist (TD-0680).

Research Results

The findings indicated that the small molecule TD-0680 is currently the most potent anti-HIV CCR5 antagonist. Its antiviral activity is several to over ten-fold higher than Maraviroc. TD-0680 displays broad reactivity against both human and monkey AIDS viruses. Besides inhibiting cell-free viruses, it also blocks cell-mediated viral transmissions with similar potency, which is over one thousand-fold better than a reverse transcriptase inhibitor Tenofovir (TDF). A vaginal microbicide gel containing TDF was shown to reduce HIV-1 infection rates by 39% recently. In addition, TD-0680 is potent against a known Maraviroc-resistant HIV-1.

The newly discovered molecular mechanism of TD-0680 involves the blockade of two functional regions of CCR5, which forms a tougher barrier as if a door with double locks to prevent virus from entering the target cell. The study is the first discovery of a CCR5 antagonist which uses such a unique mechanism.

Research Implications

The principal investigator of the study, Dr. Zhiwei CHEN, Director of AIDS Institute of The University of Hong Kong Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine emphasises "Unprotected sexual contact is the major risk factor for the spread of HIV/AIDS among general populations in China. In 2011, it has led to a record high of HIV infections in Hong Kong. It is urgently needed to discover a biomedical means to prevent HIV sexual transmission, which is important for AIDS prevention in China and in the world." He adds, "The ideal solution is to develop an effective vaccine. Since such a vaccine remains elusive, we must explore other strategies such as topical microbicide. The discovery of the mechanism and potency of TD-0680 is encouraging. It may not only be developed as a therapy for treating AIDS patients, but may also be used to prevent HIV sexual transmission after being formulated into vaginal or rectal microbicide gels, therefore giving people, especially women, an alternative method to protect themselves from the virus, in addition to condoms."

SOURCE: The University of Hong Kong

See the article here:

HKU Collaborative Research Discovers A Novel Molecular Mechanism Of A New Anti-HIV-1 Drug Candidate

Cutting down on repeated nuclear and molecular imaging scans due to poor quality images could save about $1.32 billion over the next 10 years, according to the Society of Nuclear Medicine.

Read the original post:

Technologist Education Requirements Can Help Cut Repeat Scans

Public release date: 24-Apr-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Dr Boris Kovacic Boris.Kovacic@vetmeduni.ac.at 43-125-077-5622 University of Veterinary Medicine -- Vienna

Although people generally talk about "cancer", it is clear that the disease occurs in a bewildering variety of forms. Even single groups of cancers, such as those of the white blood cells, may show widely differing properties. How do the various cancers arise and what factors determine their progression? Clues to these two issues, at least for leukaemias, have now been provided by Boris Kovacic and colleagues at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna (Vetmeduni Vienna). The results are published in the current issue of the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine and have extremely important consequences for the treatment of a particularly aggressive type of leukaemia.

It is well known that many types of cancer arise as a result of a mutation within a cell and prevailing wisdom has held that the stage of differentiation of this cell determines exactly what form of cancer develops. For example, it was believed that so-called chronic myeloid leukaemia or CML arises from bone marrow stem cells, while a different type of leukaemia, known as B-cell acute lymphoid leukaemia or B-ALL, results from B-cell precursors. This belief has been spectacularly refuted by the latest results from Boris Kovacic and colleagues in the Vetmeduni Vienna's institutes of Animal Breeding and Genetics and of Pharmacology and Toxicology.

The researchers have now shown that both CML and B-ALL arise from the most primordial kind of blood cell (long-term haematopoietic stem cells), although the pathways by which the diseases progress are different. The usual causes of CML and B-ALL are two highly related versions of the same oncogene, BCR/ABL. If the primordial blood cells are transformed or made potentially cancerous by a particular version of BCR/ABL, for technical reasons termed BCR/ABLp210, the result is chronic myeloid leukaemia or CML. The long-term haematopoietic stem cells remain and act as the dreaded cancer stem cells, or CSCs, which ensure that the disease persists. Curing chronic myeloid leukaemia requires the complete elimination of the CSCs. However, if the long-term haematopoietic stem cells are transformed by a related version of BCR/ABL, BCR/ABLp185, the result is a highly aggressive form of leukaemia, B-ALL. The finding that B-ALL actually originates from the same stem cells as CML was both unexpected and highly provocative.

Kovacic and colleagues have shown further that B-ALL only develops if the transformed stem cell is exposed to a particular growth factor, interleukin-7. If interleukin-7 is present (it usually is), the transformed long-term haematopoietic stem cells undergo a differentiation step to CSCs, which in this case correspond to pro-B cells. If interleukin-7 is absent during the initial phase of transformation, B-ALL cannot develop.

In other words, two distinct types of cell are involved in leukaemia development, the primordial cells (also termed the cells of origin of cancer) and the cancer stem cells that cause the disease to progress. Unless the CSCs are eliminated, fresh cancer cells can arise at any time and the leukaemia will recur. The problem is that current leukaemia therapies are not designed to target CSCs. The primordial CSCs in CML are highly quiescent and thus difficult to target. In contrast, the CSCs in B-ALL are abundant and have a high turnover rate, which makes them susceptible to treatment. Treatment of B-ALL may thus succeed in eliminating most CSCs but if even a single cell remains intact it is likely that the patient will relapse, possibly with an even more aggressive form of leukaemia. "A therapy that targets the bulk of tumour cells will not work," as Kovacic succinctly summarizes his results. "To treat B-ALL successfully it will be necessary for us to learn much more about the development of the disease. A combined therapy is required, so future work should aim at developing drugs that target the long-term haematopoietic stem cells from which B-ALL is derived."

###

The paper "Diverging fates of cells of origin in acute and chronic leukemia" by Boris Kovacic, Andrea Hoelbl, Gabriele Litos, Memetcan Alacakaptan, Christian Schuster, Katrin M. Fischhuber, Marc A. Kerenyi, Gabriele Stengl, Richard Moriggl, Veronika Sexl and the late Hartmut Beug is published in the current issue of the journal "EMBO Molecular Medicine" (2012, Vol. 4 pp. 283-297).

The work was initiated at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) and was performed together with groups at the Medical University of Vienna and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Cancer Research in Vienna.

Read more here:

Leukaemia cells have a remembrance of things past

BOLOGNA, Italy--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Silicon Biosystems, S.p.A., a provider of specialized molecular and cellular biology technologies, will present at the Fourth World Circulating Tumour Cells Summit, April 25, 2012 at 3:30 p.m. at the Maritim Hotel in Berlin. Dr. Nicol Manaresi, founder and chief technology officer of Silicon Biosystems, will provide an overview of the DEPArray system, which uses image-based single-cell sorting to deliver pure populations of rare tumor cells.

As part of the presentation, Dr. Manaresi will also offer recent data demonstrating single-CTC molecular characterization based on Whole Genome Amplification using the companys proprietary Ampli1 WGA kit followed by sequencing with Ion Torrent.

Silicon Biosystems is a device manufacturer leading the field in the detection and isolation of single cells for cancer research and prenatal genetic testing. The companys DEPArray technology exploits microelectronics and the principles of dielectrophoresis to find, sort, isolate, and collect 100 percent pure populations of rare cells, such as CTCs, for single-cell based genomic and transcriptional profiling.

The collection of pure individual CTCs from biological samples is a game changer in the quest to obtain clinical utility of these cells as it enables individual cell-based molecular profiling for personalized therapy, going beyond existing cell counting approaches for prognostic purposes, said Manaresi. We show that 100 percent pure single-CTC sorting by DEPArray and DNA amplification with our Ampli1 WGA seamlessly integrates with Ion Torrent AmpliSeq Cancer Panel sequencing to deliver a comprehensive overview of the mutational status, cell-by-cell, in a streamlined and automated manner. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time this has been achieved.

There are multiple large and expanding market opportunities for technology that find and isolate rare cells for molecular analysis. Silicon Biosystems DEPArray is used for translational medicine applications in metastatic cancer, cardiovascular disease, prenatal genetics, and stem cells research.

The World CTC Summit attracts important members across the CTC study community including diagnosticians, drug developers, technology providers and clinicians, said Manaresi. Silicon Biosystems is eager to join our peers and share the excitement of this achievement, and the impact of our unique method for CTC collection and analysis for the advancement of patient diagnosis and decision making.

About Silicon Biosystems

Silicon Biosystems, Inc. was formed in October 2010 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Silicon Biosystems, S.p.A. based in Bologna, Italy. The company manufactures and sells the DEPArray platform which is based on the principle of dielectrophoresis to isolate and manipulate cells in suspension with a microelectronic array. The approach, patented by Silicon Biosystems, offers the unique ability to control individual cells and micro-particles inside a disposable cartridge. The DEPArray platform makes it possible to find, sort, select and separate individual cells for further analysis or culturing. For more information on Silicon Biosystems visit http://www.siliconbiosystems.com.

More here:

Silicon Biosystems to Present Single-Circulating Tumor Cell Molecular Characterization at the Fourth World CTC Summit

PET MRI camera from Siemens Dr Georgi Video Edition

This podcast Features an interview with Dr From Siemens discusses the challenges and success of building the new PET MRI how does it work?

What...

This podcast is for nuclear medicine professionals and PET professionals This is one of the worlds longest running medical podcasts. Direct link to itunes itunes link Please email suggestions for topics, offers of interviews, bouquets and brickbats. nucmedpodcast@gmail.com

This podcast Features an interview with Dr Georgi From Siemens discusses the challenges and success of building the new PET MRI how does it work?

What new applications does this open up?

Further...

This podcast is for nuclear medicine professionals and PET professionals This is one of the worlds longest running medical podcasts. Direct link to itunes itunes link Please email suggestions for topics, offers of interviews, bouquets and brickbats. nucmedpodcast@gmail.com

Dear Steve,

I am and many more like me are your one more thing.

Rob from the nuclear medicine and molecular medicine podcast

We are rapidly moving to make neuro-endocrine pancreatic cancer a...

This podcast is for nuclear medicine professionals and PET professionals This is one of the worlds longest running medical podcasts. Direct link to itunes itunes link Please email suggestions for topics, offers of interviews, bouquets and brickbats. nucmedpodcast@gmail.com