Dutch researchers at University Medical Center Utrecht and the Hubrecht Institute have succeeded in growing large numbers of stem cells from adult human hearts into new heart muscle cells. The stem cells are derived from material left over from open-heart operations. Until now, it was necessary to use embryonic stem cells to make this happen.

Researchers at UMC Utrecht used a simple method to isolate the stem cells from this material and reproduce them in the laboratory, which they then allowed to develop. The cells grew into fully developed heart muscle cells that contract rhythmically, respond to electrical activity, and react to adrenaline. “We’re able to make heart muscle cells in unprecedented quantities, and on top of it they’re all the same,” says researcher Pieter Doevendans. “This is good news in terms of treatment, as well as for scientific research and testing of potentially new drugs.”

Doevendans will use the cultured heart muscle cells to study things like cardiac arrhythmia. Stem cells from the hearts of patients with genetic heart defects can be grown into heart muscle cells in the lab, allowing researchers to study the cells responsible for the condition. This could mean that research into genetic heart conditions can move forward at a much faster pace. In the future, new heart muscle cells can likely be used to repair heart tissue damaged during a heart attack.

Read more here.

North Carolina State University geneticists have shown that environmental factors play a large role in whether certain genes are turned on or off. By studying gene expression of white blood cells in 46 Moroccan Amazighs, including desert nomads, mountain agrarians and coastal urban dwellers, the NC State researchers and collaborators in Morocco and the United States showed that up to one-third of genes are differentially expressed due to where and how the Moroccan Amazighs live.

The researchers used the latest tools for characterizing the sequence and expression of all 23,000 human genes to compare the three Moroccan Amazigh groups. These groups were chosen because they have a similar genetic makeup, but lead distinct ways of life and occupy different geographic domains. Thus, differences in gene expression profiles between the three groups would likely be due to environmental and not genetic factors.

The team uncovered specific genes and pathways that are affected by lifestyle and geography. For example, they found respiratory genes were upregulated, or turned on, more frequently in the urban population than in the nomadic or agrarian populations. This makes sense, as urban dwellers deal with greater amounts of pollution in the city and encounter more difficulties with diseases like asthma and bronchitis.

Click here for more info.

For HIV/AIDS patients, a skipped pill could mean the difference between health and hazard for the entire population. A breath monitoring device developed by scientists at the University of Florida and Xhale Inc. could help prevent the emergence of drug-resistant strains of HIV, by monitoring medication adherence in high-risk individuals.

The researchers developed the adherence monitor by incorporating minute amounts of an alcohol into a gel capsule. The additive, called 2-butanol, is one of many GRAS – Generally Recognized as Safe – compounds approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in foods. The monitor records the results of each breath test, allowing patients to bring a memory card or USB key to the clinic once a month and receive a printout of their results.

“For HIV, it’s been shown that if you don’t take a very high percentage of your medication, you may as well not take medication at all,” said Dr. Richard Melker, a professor of anesthesiology at the University of Florida College of Medicine and chief technology officer for Xhale. While experts have tried many methods to monitor drug adherence, ranging from daily log books to blister packs that record the time each pill is dispensed, Melker asserts that only directly observed therapy, or DOT, works well. “If we had a good way of doing DOT that’s realistic, instead of having someone come to your house or you going to clinic every day of your life, then we would know whether these people stopped taking their medication and why,” Melker said.

Visit here to learn more.

Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the U.S. Army Dugway (Utah) Proving Ground have developed reliable methods, based on DNA analysis, to assess the concentration and viability of anthrax spores after prolonged storage. Because traditional methods to extract DNA from Bacillus anthracis spores – the bacterium responsible for anthrax – are too harsh to produce material suited for reliable measurements, the researchers developed an extraction technique using chemicals and enzymes to disrupt intact spores into releasing their DNA in a relatively pure state.

Working with samples that had been stored up to 2 1/2 years, the researchers team used two classic microbiological techniques to quantify Bacillus anthracis concentrations: counting spores under a microscope and counting the bacterial colonies that grow after the spores are spread on a nutrient surface and germinate. Scientists found that the better approach is to measure the amount of genetic material present in the sample. This method not only measures the DNA extracted from viable anthrax spores, but also DNA in solution from damaged spores, cell debris and spore fragments – yielding a truer measure of the source of DNA in the samples.

The study showed that laboratory-grade anthracis spores in suspension maintained their viability and did not clump when stored for up to 900 days. The results demonstrate that research-quality spores can be stored for long periods of time and still maintain their important properties. The findings could be good news for the Department of Homeland Security, which has been working with NIST to develop anthrax spore reference materials to calibrate spore detection equipment and to assess the efficiency of decontamination methods as part of its anti-terrorist efforts.

Learn more here.

Dye-sensitized solar cells are more flexible, easier to manufacture, and cheaper than existing solar technologies. Current lab prototypes are about half as efficient as the silicon-based cells used in rooftop panels and calculators. By using a popcorn-ball design – tiny kernels clumped into much larger porous spheres – researchers at the University of Washington are able to manipulate light and more than double the
efficiency of converting solar energy to electricity.

One quandary in making an efficient solar cell is the size of the grains. Smaller grains have bigger surface area per volume, and thus absorb more rays. But bigger clumps – closer to the wavelength of visible light – cause light to ricochet within the thin light-absorbing surface, so it has a higher chance of being absorbed. The UW group made tiny grains about 15 nanometers across, and then clumped these into larger masses about 300 nanometers across.

The overall efficiency using only small particles was 2.4 percent, but with the popcorn-ball design, results show an efficiency of 6.2 percent. The experiments were performed using zinc oxide, and the researchers are working on transferring this concept to titanium oxide. Titanium oxide based dye-sensitized solar cells are now at 11 percent maximum efficiency. The UW researchers hope their popcorn-ball strategy could push dye-sensitized solar cells’ efficiency significantly over that threshold.

Go here to learn more.