Walter Jessen – Page 27

Is My Cancer Different? A Personalized Medicine Campaign

December 29, 2011 | by Walter Jessen

The Is My Cancer Different? campaign urges patients to ask their doctors a crucial question — is my cancer different? — and provides powerful information on why, when and how it could matter to their treatment choices.

Presented in video format and featuring cancer survivors, physicians, scientists, advocates and Ronnie Andrews, the president of Clarient, the personalized medicine campaign covers what indivdualized cancer treatment means, what makes a patient’s cancer different, treatment decisions, expert insights and more.

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Open Source Drug Discovery for Malaria

December 28, 2011 | by Walter Jessen

The term “open source” describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product’s source materials. I’m sure you’ve heard of open source software such as Perl, WordPress, Linux and Android, and are familiar with open content projects such as Wikipedia and Wiktionary, but what about open source drug discovery?

Specifically, Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD) for Malaria is a project launched earlier this year by The Synaptic Leap (TSL), a non-profit organization for open source biomedical research. They focus on providing online tools to allow researchers to coordinate efforts and exchange knowledge. Project members can participate in online discussions, author blogs, and use aggregated RSS feeds to stay current with news and research.

Why malaria? Because malaria is one of the most serious public health problems in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world.

Malaria is a potentially fatal blood disease caused by a human parasite called Plasmodium falciparum. Malaria is transmitted to human and animal hosts by the female anopheles mosquito. Although the disease can be treated in just 48 hours, it can cause fatal complications if the diagnosis and treatment are delayed.

Malaria is a disease of several different strains; five species of Plasmodium can infect and be transmitted by humans. Malaria is currently the fifth cause of death from infectious diseases worldwide, following respiratory infections, HIV/AIDS, diarrheal diseases, and tuberculosis, and the second cause of death in Africa, following HIV/AIDS.

OSDD Malara is a hub for global efforts in open source drug discovery for malaria. The initial participants of OSDD Malaria are the lab of Dr. Matthew Todd, an organic chemist, at the University of Sydney and the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV). Other participants in the project include scientists from the University of Melbourne and Griffith University in Australia, and GlaxoSmithKline in Madrid. As an open science project, anyone can come and join, and participation is encouraged at any level.

OSDD Malaria will be holding an open source drug discovery for malaria meeting in Sydney, Australia on February 24th, 2012. The meeting, like the organization’s data, is open to all and will hopefully be live-streamed to a global audience. The aim is to work out how best to do open source drug discovery. More details will be coming soon.

If you want to get involved, you can sign up for The Synaptic Leap updates (by joining), follow Matthew Todd on Google+ (where data is often presented), or follow the OSDD Malaria Twitter feed.

The OSDD Malaria project status is described on the OSDD Malaria wiki.

Happy Holidays from Highlight HEALTH

December 24, 2011 | by Walter Jessen

Thanks to all of our readers for helping make 2011 a great year.

Happy holidays from the team at Highlight HEALTH!

Walter Jessen, Diana Gitig, Kirstin Hendrickson and Faith Martin.

Microneedle Biosensors for Real-time Monitoring Of Body Chemistry

December 23, 2011 | by Walter Jessen

Scientists from North Carolina State University, Sandia National Laboratories, and the University of California, San Diego have developed new technology that enables doctors to detect real-time chemical changes in the body and to do so continuously for an extended period of time.

Scanning electron micrograph of a microneedle

Microneedles are very small needles in which at least one dimension –- such as length –- is less than one millimeter. Existing technology depends on taking samples and testing them; microneedle biosensors instead allow for continuous monitoring in real time.

Dr. Roger Narayan, professor in the joint biomedical engineering department of NC State’s College of Engineering and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, explains:

We’ve loaded the hollow channels within microneedles with electrochemical sensors that can be used to detect specific molecules or pH levels. The idea is that customized microneedle sensor arrays could be developed and incorporated into wearable devices, such as something like a wristwatch, to help answer specific medical or research questions. For example, it could monitor glucose levels in a diabetic patient

The sensors are currently designed to detect glucose, pH levels and lactate. The research was recently published online in the journal Talanta.

Study: Multiplexed Microneedle-based Biosensor Array for Characterization of Metabolic Acidosis

Source: North Carolina State University News

Medical Mobile Video App Ringadoc

December 21, 2011 | by Walter Jessen

Ringadoc, a startup based in West Hollywood, California, has developed a new method for healthcare delivery. Their goal is to make healthcare instantly available to those in need. This is done by connecting patients to doctors for medical consultations over any phone, from any location, with complete audio and video conferencing.