Crippled rats walk again with help of electrical stimulation therapy

Bioedge: Crippling spinal cord injury has been one of the most powerful arguments for the pursuit of human embryo research. The late quadriplegic Christopher Reeve argued passionately that it would eventually lead to spectacular cures. That hope has faded. Geron, a biotech specialising in human embryonic stem cells, dropped its research into a spinal cure recently. Now Swiss scientists believe that a combination of electrical impulses and drugs could help some spinal trauma victims walk again. In a study published this week in Science, a research team led by Grégoire Courtine of the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne cut all direct nerve connections to the hind legs of ten rats without completely severing the spinal cord. After a combination of vigorous exercise, electrical stimulation in the motor area of the brain and in the spinal cord below the injury, and growth-inducing drugs, the rats recovered much of their ability to walk. “The way I think about it is that there is this little island of spare tissue in the injured area, and the neurons in that island begin to act as a relay center, bypassing the injury,” Dr. Courtine told the New York Times. He is looking forward to conducting human trials. The therapy will not help all victims of spinal cord injury. The rates had sustained a disabling injury,...

Read More........→June 23, 2012

From pine forests to blue skies, new jet biofuel passes rigorous testing

Renewable Energy Magazine: Virent and Virdia, formerly HCL CleanTech, have announced the successful conversion of cellulosic pine tree sugars to drop-in hydrocarbon fuels within the BIRD Energy project, a joint program funded by the US Department of Energy, the Israeli Ministry of National Infrastructure and the BIRD Foundation.The project, which commenced in January 2011, successfully demonstrated that Virdia’s deconstruction process generated high-quality sugars from cellulosic biomass, which were converted to fuel via Virent’s BioForming process.Virent used Virdia’s biomass-derived sugars to produce gasoline and jet fuel, the latter being sent to the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) for analysis where it passed rigorous testing. Tim Edwards of the Fuels Branch of the AFRL said, “This fuel passed the most stringent specification tests we could throw at it (such as thermal stability) under some conditions where conventional jet fuels would fail. This fuel is definitely worth further evaluation.” “While Virent’s BioForming process has previously generated fuels and chemicals from sugars in cellulosic biomass,” said Virent Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer Dr. Randy Cortright, “The high-quality sugars generated from pine trees using Virdia’s process leveraged Virent’s conversion process, establishing...

Read More........→April 19, 2012

New high-tech plaster to reduce risk of blood clot post surgery

Scientists have developed a high-tech plaster that's stuck to the back of the knee, which could lower the risk of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or blood clots in the leg following surgery. The plaster generates electronic pulses that stimulate a nerve, the common peroneal nerve, in the back of the knee, the Daily Mail reported. This nerve is responsible for making muscles in the calf, shin and foot contract. Once the Geko has been turned on, the nerve sends signals to the muscles deep in the leg, causing them to contract every few seconds. By zapping the nerve every few seconds for up to 30 hours at a time - until its battery runs out - the plaster triggers "micro contractions" that ensure blood is kept moving round the body, rather than collecting in the lower leg. This "pooling" of blood is what causes the dangerous clotting that claims an estimated 25,000 lives every year in the UK. A DVT is a blood clot in a vein, usually in the leg. It's most commonly associated with immobility, such as on a long-haul flights. The most common cause is an operation that lasts for more than an hour (through a combination of immobility and the blood becoming sticky as a result of illness). When we walk, the pressure on the foot and the contracting of our calf muscles helps pump blood from the legs back...

Read More........→January 01, 2013