The little boy who is blinded by the light: Toddler can only see in black and white due to rare eye disorder

Three-year-old Harvey Webb has a rare condition that means he is blinded by light - and has to wear special heavy-duty sunglasses to help him see.
Parents Louise and Andy, have resorted to keeping their curtains closed at the family home in Tonbridge, Kent, to help their son see their faces.
Harvey’s condition, known as Achromatopsia, means he is also completely colour blind - and can only see the world in black and white.
Louise, 35, said her son may never see a sunrise or sunset because his eyes cannot handle the light.

Andy, 34, a recruitment consultant, said: 'Normal daylight to him is like the glare you get when you are driving on a wet day and sunlight reflects off the rainwater on the road.
'We have to make everything as dark as possible for him to be able to see.'

Louise, 35, added: 'When we first moved into our house we were worried the neighbours would just think we were really unfriendly, as we always had the curtains shut.
'But we have to keep them closed to keep out as much sunlight as possible.'

Harvey puts on his prescription sunglasses when he gets up, and wears them until he goes to bed - they are designed to let only 10 per cent of light in.
The condition means Harvey struggles to play outside on bright days and he has to take cover from the rays.
The family have had to deal with comments from passers-by who think Harvey’s dark glasses are a fashion statement.
Louise said: 'It’s frustrating because obviously he can hardly see without them, and in the beginning | did worry about what people would think - a lot of people just think we put them on him to look cool.
'Thankfully most people are positive though, and say things like ‘cool shades’.'
Affecting just one in 35,000 people, the condition affects the retina meaning the cells responsible for colour and light sensitivity in the eye don’t function

Harvey was diagnosed with Achromatopsia at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, in December 2009 after his parents noticed he was having trouble focusing.
They were initially assured this was down to a condition called Nystagmus, but at seven months old they were told the devastating diagnosis.
Andy said: 'We were shocked, and felt numb as we hadn’t heard of the condition before.
'As children so much is learnt through sight and observing things outdoors, such as wildlife in the trees or a plane in the sky.
'With Harvey we need to find other ways to show him so we use books and TV.'

Harvey’s baby sister Megan, three months old, has also been diagnosed although she doesn’t need special glasses yet, and can wear normal ones in bright light.
Louise said: 'We were distraught when we first found out and it felt like we were going through a kind of grieving process because we knew they wouldn’t be able to see the world how we see it.
'They’ll never know though as they were born with the condition and we certainly won’t let it stop them doing what they want to do.'
Harvey now goes to Dorton House nursery run by the Royal London Society for the Blind, helping him to make the most of what little vision he has.
His sight means he won’t ever be able to drive, and will need extra help in the classroom, although he will still attend a mainstream school.
There is currently no treatment for the condition but both Harvey and Megan are taking part in research for a cure, partly funded by the charity Fight for Sight.
Dr Tony Moore, consultant at Moorfields Eye Hosptial, London, said: 'Harvey’s activities will be restricted by his eyesight, and he will be less confident outdoors because of his extreme light sensitivity.
'His vision is much worse in bright sunlight.'
Louise said: 'It’s quite difficult for Andy as he would love to teach Harvey to play football but his sight makes co-ordination a bit difficult.
'That doesn’t mean he won’t try though, and we won’t let him dwell on what he will find difficult.'
Visit www.littleheroesappeal.com for more information on their appeal to help expand Dorton House specialist nursery for blind and partially sighted babies and toddlers

Night shifts can raise risk of heart attacks and strokes by more than 40%

Shift work can dramatically increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes, warn researchers.
A study of two million people found shift workers are almost 25 per cent more likely to suffer.
Night shift workers run the highest risk of 41 per cent, says a study published on the British Medical Journal website bmj.com.

People working shifts also have higher levels of unhealthy behaviours such as eating junk food, sleeping badly and not exercising, which are linked to heart problems.
But researchers said they took this into account - and the excess risks remained.

The latest study is the biggest analysis of shift work and likelihood of vascular problems including heart attacks, strokes and angina.
Shift work has long been known to disrupt the body clock and be linked to high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, but the overall impact on cardiovascular health has been unclear.
A team of international researchers analysed the results of 34 studies involving 2,011,935 people to investigate whether shift work was associated with major vascular events.
Shift work was defined as evening shifts, irregular or unspecified shifts, mixed schedules, night shifts and rotating shifts, and the studies also contained day workers or the general population for comparison.

 

Altogether 17,359 had some kind of coronary event, 6,598 had heart attacks and 1,854 had ischaemic strokes caused by lack of blood to the brain.
These events were more common among shift workers than other people.
Shift work was associated with a 23 per cent increased risk of heart attack, 24 per cent rise in coronary events and five per cent extra strokes.
These risks remained consistent even after adjusting for factors such as study quality, socioeconomic status and unhealthy behaviours in shift workers.
Night shifts were linked with the steepest increase in risk of 41 per cent for coronary events.
However, shift work was not associated with increased death rates from any cause.
Daniel Hackam, Clinical Pharmacologist, Stroke Prevention & Atherosclerosis Research Centre (SPARC), London, Ontario, Canada, said the relative risks might appear modest, but millions of people do shift work which means the overall risks are high.
He said screening programmes could help identify and treat risk factors, such as high blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
‘Shift workers should be educated about cardiovascular symptoms in an effort to forestall or avert the earliest clinical manifestations of disease’ he added.
There has been mounting evidence that night shift working might boost cancer risk because of the disruption to the body clock and hormone production.
Previous research found a link between night shifts and increased risk of breast cancer in women.
In 2007 the International Agency for Research on Cancer concluded that shift work was ‘probably carcinogenic’.
The UK’s Health and Safety Executive has commissioned researchers in Oxford to explore the relationship between chronic disease and shift work, which is expected to be completed in December 2015.

 

Only 1 in 4 Americans With HIV Has Virus Under Control: CDC

Among the 1.1 million Americans living with HIV, just one in four has the virus under control, U.S. health researchers say.

In a report presented Friday at the International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C., researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the problem applies to patients of all ages, races and ethnic groups, but especially to young people and blacks.

"This is the first time that we have ever looked at the outcome of continuum of care across all patient groups," said CDC epidemiologist Irene Hall. "And what we found is that, overall, too few people with HIV have viral suppression." People with viral load suppression are healthy and less likely to transmit the virus to others.

"Only if we get everyone under regular care for HIV/AIDS can we recognize the full benefits of treatment and prevention," said Hall, chief of the HIV incidence and case surveillance branch in the CDC division of HIV/AIDS prevention.

For the report, Hall and her colleagues pored through 2009 data collected by the CDC, which included rates of HIV testing, patient participation in the health care system, continuity of care for HIV, treatment prescribed, and the patient's viral load status in terms of suppression.
Overall, about 82 percent of all those infected with HIV know their status, meaning that more than 200,000 Americans now infected with HIV are not aware of their condition.

Two-thirds of the nation's HIV patients do have some relationship with a care provider, the report indicates, and more than one-third (37 percent) receive continuous HIV care, while one-third are treated with antiretroviral therapy.

But just over one-third of black patients were found to have ongoing care, compared with 37 percent to 38 percent of Latinos and whites. Similarly, just a little over one in five black patients was found to have viral load suppression, compared with 26 percent of Latinos and 30 percent of whites.
Blacks infected with HIV were the least likely to find out they were infected in the first place and the least likely to get any care for HIV, Hall added.

Younger HIV patients were also much less likely than older patients to know their HIV status and to obtain routine care, Hall said.

Suppression rates were also poorer among younger patients, with just 15 percent of those aged 25 to 34 having their virus under control compared with 36 percent among those aged 55 to 64.

No significant differences were seen between males and females in terms of diagnosis, treatment or disease control.

For now, the report authors can only theorize about what lies behind these differences in HIV care.
"Our study did not look at the reasons for why people are not in care, or are not prescribed [antiretroviral therapy] or don't have viral suppression," Hall noted. "But in general we do know there are differences in access to care and in insurance status. There is also a stigma associated with [HIV], and some people might distrust the medical system."

As for young people, they may not feel at risk and may not go to the doctor as often, she added.
"The treatment options certainly are much better today than in the past, but it is still a very serious disease," she said. "And it's very important that people know their status and that people who are infected get regular care."

This is not only so they can have optimum health, she said, but also "because if we want a national strategy for prevention we do need to have people with a suppressed viral load and in care so we can stop transmission of the virus."

Chris Collins, vice president and director of public policy at the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) in Washington, D.C., said that the CDC report "sounds consistent" with previous assessments of the current HIV picture across the country.

"One in five are living with HIV and don't know it," he noted. "And many other people are estranged from the health system. They don't think they can get quality care or don't have access, and we haven't done enough outreach."

Complacency about AIDS is an obstacle to ending the disease in America, said Collins. "The science is telling us that we have the opportunity to begin to end this epidemic in America," he said. "But Americans have to realize that while we have drugs that can save lives, we have failed to get them to half of the people that need them."

More information
For more on HIV care, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
(SOURCES: Irene Hall, Ph.D., MpH, epidemiologist and chief, HIV incidence and case surveillance branch, division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta; Chris Collins, vice president and director, public policy, amfAR, Washington D.C.; July 27, 2012, presentation, International AIDS Conference, Washington, D.C.)

Scientists Map Genomes of One Man's Sperm

Scientists say they've mapped the entire genomes of 91 sperm from one man, the first time such gene mapping has been done in a human gamete (sperm or egg cell).

The research gives a glimpse into recombination -- the process by which DNA mixes to create offspring that carry with them traits from parents and grandparents, the Stanford University scientists explained.

"We were able to generate an individual recombination map and mutation rate for each of several sperm from one person," study co-author Barry Behr, director of Stanford's in vitro fertilization laboratory, said in a university news release. "Now we can look at a particular individual, make some calls about what they would likely contribute genetically to an embryo, and perhaps even diagnose or detect potential problems."

The findings were published July 20 in the journal Cell.

Until now, scientists had only been able look to population-wide studies to try and gauge how often recombination happened in sperm and eggs cells, and how complicated the process might be, the Stanford team stated.

The new study focused on the sperm of a healthy 40-year-old man who had normal sperm and had already fathered healthy offspring. The study found that prior population studies were fairly accurate in assessing rates of recombination.

The team reported that, as expected, the man's sperm each had undergone about 23 recombinations of DNA, although there were wide variations in this genetic mixing between individual sperm. Two of the sperm sampled were missing entire chromosomes, the authors pointed out.
Between 25 and 36 "new single nucleotide mutations" were also spotted -- random mutations that can affect offspring for good or ill.

"The exact sites, frequency and degree of this genetic mixing process is unique for each sperm and egg cell," study senior author Stephen Quake, a professor of engineering, bioengineering and applied physics at Stanford, said in the news release. "We've never before been able to see it with this level of detail. It's very interesting that what happens in one person's body mirrors the population average."
The findings have implications for research into fertility, because when things go wrong with recombination, sperm can cease to be viable, the researchers noted.

"This could serve as a new kind of early-detection system for men who may have reproductive problems," said Behr, who is also a co-director of Stanford's reproductive endocrinology and infertility program. "It's also possible that we could one day use other, correlating features to harmlessly identify healthy sperm for use in IVF. In the end, the DNA is the raw material that ultimately defines a sperm's potential. If we can learn more about this process, we can better understand human fertility."

SOURCE: Stanford University, news release, July 19, 2012

7 things women do that drive men mad

Annoying female habit 1: Making an anniversary out of everything

What is it with women turning the nice little things in life into a grand gift-exchanging, champagne-popping ceremony? We return home from a normal day at work to be met with a candle-lit dinner and an expensive looking gift but, quite frankly, it makes our heart stop. Have you done something wrong? Is it your birthday? My birthday? Oh silly me, it’s the anniversary of the first time we looked at each other. Please refrain from doing this, ladies. We have a hard enough time getting event dates right without being shouted at for not buying the dog a card to celebrate the anniversary of his first vaccination.

Annoying female habit 2: Piling the bed with cushions

One would be mistaken for thinking that a bed is for sleeping in. We go to get our head down for the night, only to find the bed piled sky-high with strategically placed cushions that leave no room for us. What’s more, only a couple of these cushions actually have a purpose. We don’t need the tiny heart-shaped one or the big fluffy one that makes us sneeze – just a normal pillow to rest our head on will suffice. We don’t adorn the bed with DIY tools and model cars, so please tame your OCD (Obsessive Cushion Disorder) and stop making an elaborate display out of our bed so we can get down to the important stuff.

Annoying female habit 3: Asking us what we’re thinking

It’s a classic example of how women like to test us, and possibly trick us into making the cardinal sin of admitting that we weren’t thinking about her at that particular moment. One minute we’re enjoying a cuddle, the next they’re hurling that question at us when we’re least expecting it. They say it so fast that we don’t have chance to make up a false reply or even to think straight, which leads us to stutter and then be accused of thinking of our ex. Asking what we’re thinking is basically a nice way of saying ‘you aren’t allowed to have private thoughts, unless they’re about me’.

Annoying female habit 4: Saying ‘I’m fine’, when you’re not happy

So she stood in front of the television while the football was on, we got a bit iffy and snapped, and now all sorts of issues have been bought up. Then she says it – that passive-aggressive statement that marks the start of the dreaded silent treatment: “I’m fine”. Erm, are you really fine because you’ve just screamed at us until you’ve gone red in the face, and now you’re laying face down on the bed crying. If you’re unhappy just outline the problem and then we can sort it out and carry on as normal. Or – even better – don’t outline the problem and let us watch the football in peace.

Annoying female habit 5:  Using sex as a weapon

One of the most annoying things that a woman can do is deny her man of sexual privileges. Some women seem to take great pleasure in using our weakness to their own advantage through the classic ‘if you don’t do this, we’re not having sex’ scenario. If you’re going to stop us from doing one thing, please don’t let it be sex. We don’t stop you from eating and drinking, so please don’t mess with our basic human needs either.

Annoying female habit 6: Being over-emotional

You cry at funerals, you cry at weddings, you cry at happy films, you cry at sad films. This makes us feel awkward because we just don’t know what to say or do when you’re sat sobbing all over our freshly ironed shirt. Where do all these tears come from? We think women should just have an annual crying day where they get together and cry for twenty four hours, before coming home and being normal for the other 364 days of the year. It would solve a lot of our problems.

Annoying female habit 7: Incessant talking

We’ve heard that women are estimated to say around 20, 000 words a day – which is an awful lot compared to the paltry 7, 000 estimated for men – so we understand that she needs to get her daily nattering fix, but why is it always at the most inappropriate times? She was quiet all the way through the family dinner when we needed her to break the awkward silence, but as soon as we start getting to the competitive part of a multi-player game with our friends, she just won’t shut up about how cute the neighbour’s cat looks when it sits next to the rose bush. To make it even more annoying, the actual part of the story she was getting at whilst rambling on about the neighbour’s cat, was that the cat’s owner now works at the grocery store down the road. Ladies, if you’re going to talk, pick the right moment and please, just get to the point.

Wireless glove teaches music, helps those with spinal cord injuries

Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a novel device called the Mobile Music Touch -- a wireless glove intended to improve motor skills in people who have suffered a paralyzing spinal cord injury.

The gadget, which looks like a workout glove with a small box on its back, is meant to be used in combination with a piano. The device vibrates the wearer’s fingers, identifying which keys they are meant to play.

The glove was tested on people who had tetraplegia -- partial paralysis in their limbs. The patients had sustained their injuries a year prior to the study. During this time frame after receiving a paralyzing injury, people in rehab rarely see significant improvement in their limb movement for the rest of their lives.

However, while learning to play piano with the MMT, several patients saw improvement in their fingers’ motility.

“After our preliminary work in 2011, we suspected that the glove would have positive results for people with SCI,” Tanya Markow, a PhD graduate of Georgia Tech as well as the project’s leader, said in a release.

“But we were surprised by how much improvement they made in our study. For example, after using the glove, some participants were able to feel the texture of their bed sheets and clothes for the first time since their injury.”

Markow worked with patients with SCI over the course of eight weeks, requiring them to practice piano for 30 minutes, three times a week. Half of them wore the glove, the other half did not. Hooked up to a computer or other MP3 playing device, the MMT played a song such as Ode to Joy while the corresponding notes on the keyboard became illuminated. The glove would then vibrant the corresponding finger, signaling the wearer to tap the illuminated key.

Not only did participants practice piano with the MMT glove, but they used it in day-to-day activities as well. For two hours a day, five days a week, participants wore the glove, only feeling the vibrations – a technique that was revealed to help them learn to play piano faster.
To test the effectiveness of the glove, patients were required to perform various grabbing and sensing tests at the study’s completion. Those who used the glove performed significantly better than those who did not use the glove.

Scientists Map Genomes of One Man's Sperm

Scientists say they've mapped the entire genomes of 91 sperm from one man, the first time such gene mapping has been done in a human gamete (sperm or egg cell).

The research gives a glimpse into recombination -- the process by which DNA mixes to create offspring that carry with them traits from parents and grandparents, the Stanford University scientists explained.

"We were able to generate an individual recombination map and mutation rate for each of several sperm from one person," study co-author Barry Behr, director of Stanford's in vitro fertilization laboratory, said in a university news release. "Now we can look at a particular individual, make some calls about what they would likely contribute genetically to an embryo, and perhaps even diagnose or detect potential problems."

The findings were published July 20 in the journal Cell.

Until now, scientists had only been able look to population-wide studies to try and gauge how often recombination happened in sperm and eggs cells, and how complicated the process might be, the Stanford team stated.

The new study focused on the sperm of a healthy 40-year-old man who had normal sperm and had already fathered healthy offspring. The study found that prior population studies were fairly accurate in assessing rates of recombination.

The team reported that, as expected, the man's sperm each had undergone about 23 recombinations of DNA, although there were wide variations in this genetic mixing between individual sperm. Two of the sperm sampled were missing entire chromosomes, the authors pointed out.

Between 25 and 36 "new single nucleotide mutations" were also spotted -- random mutations that can affect offspring for good or ill.

"The exact sites, frequency and degree of this genetic mixing process is unique for each sperm and egg cell," study senior author Stephen Quake, a professor of engineering, bioengineering and applied physics at Stanford, said in the news release. "We've never before been able to see it with this level of detail. It's very interesting that what happens in one person's body mirrors the population average."
The findings have implications for research into fertility, because when things go wrong with recombination, sperm can cease to be viable, the researchers noted.

"This could serve as a new kind of early-detection system for men who may have reproductive problems," said Behr, who is also a co-director of Stanford's reproductive endocrinology and infertility program. "It's also possible that we could one day use other, correlating features to harmlessly identify healthy sperm for use in IVF. In the end, the DNA is the raw material that ultimately defines a sperm's potential. If we can learn more about this process, we can better understand human fertility."

More information
The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about male infertility. 
(SOURCE: Stanford University, news release, July 19, 2012)

Kids' Sexual Behavior Influenced by Movie Scenes: Study

Sex scenes in movies influence teens' sexual behavior, new research suggests.

In the study, U.S. researchers analyzed the sexual content of hundreds of top-grossing movies released between 1998 and 2004, and then asked more than 1,200 kids, aged 12 to 14, which of the movies they had seen.

Six years later, the participants were surveyed to find out how old they were when they became sexually active and whether they engaged in risky sexual behaviors, such as not using condoms consistently and having multiple partners.

Teens who were exposed to more sexual content in movies started having sex at younger ages, had more sex partners and were less likely to use condoms with casual sex partners, according to the study authors.

In an attempt to determine how sex scenes in movies can affect teens' sexual behavior, the researchers focused on a personality trait called sensation-seeking. This trait, which peaks between the ages of 10 and 15, refers to a tendency to seek new and intense forms of stimulation.

The study, which is scheduled for publication in the journal Psychological Science, found that greater exposure to sexual content in movies at a young age led to a higher peak of sensation-seeking in adolescents. Among kids who are exposed to sex scenes in movies, sensation-seeking sexual behavior can last well into the late teens and even into the early 20s, the investigators found.

"These movies appear to fundamentally influence their personality through changes in sensation-seeking, which has far-reaching implications for all of their risk-taking behaviors," Ross O'Hara, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Missouri, said in a news release from the Association for Psychological Science.

O'Hara conducted the study with other psychological researchers while at Dartmouth College.
Sensation-seeking alone does not entirely explain how sexual content in movies influences teens' sexual behavior, according to O'Hara and colleagues. They suggested that teens learn specific behaviors from sex scenes in movies. For example, many teens use movies to acquire "sexual scripts" that provide them with examples of how to behave when dealing with complicated emotional situations.

While the study authors pointed out that the research does not prove a direct causal effect of movies on sexual behavior, the study "strongly suggests that parents need to restrict their children from seeing sexual content in movies at young ages," O'Hara concluded in the news release.

More information
The American Academy of Family Physicians offers facts to help teens make the right decision about sex.  
(SOURCE: Association for Psychological Science, news release, July 17, 2012)

1 in 13 Pregnant Women Drink

Drinking among pregnant women in the United States remains an important public health issue, with almost 8 percent of expectant mothers reporting alcohol use, a new study reveals.

Researchers analyzed national data from 2006 to 2010 on nearly 14,000 pregnant women and more than 330,000 non-pregnant women, aged 18 to 44. They found that about 7.6 percent of pregnant women -- one in 13 -- said they drank alcohol within the past month. The rate of drinking among non-pregnant women was 51.5 percent.

The highest rates of alcohol use among pregnant women occurred in those who were: aged 35 to 44 (14.3 percent); college graduates (10 percent); employed (9.6 percent); or white (8.3 percent).
The study was led by Claire Marchetta of the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Her team also found that 1.4 percent of pregnant women reported binge drinking. The average frequency and intensity of binge drinking was similar among pregnant and non-pregnant women who were binge drinkers -- about three times per month and six drinks on each occasion.

Lower levels of education were associated with an increased frequency and intensity of binge drinking among all women. On average, women with a high school education or less reported binge drinking 3.4 times a month and having 6.4 drinks per occasion, compared with 2.5 times per month and 5.4 drinks per occasion for college graduates.

Levels of binge drinking frequency and intensity were higher among unmarried women (3.3 times per month and 6.4 drinks per occasion) than among married women (2.6 times per month and 5.4 drinks per occasion).

The researchers noted that women who binge drink before pregnancy are more likely than non-binge drinkers to continue drinking during pregnancy.

The study appears in the July 20 issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There is no safe level of alcohol use during pregnancy, and alcohol use during pregnancy is the leading preventable cause of birth defects and developmental disabilities, the authors of the report noted. Drinking alcohol during pregnancy can lead to fetal alcohol syndrome and other fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, which result in neurological problems and lifelong disabilities in children.
The study authors said pregnant and non-pregnant women of childbearing age who misuse alcohol might benefit from public health interventions such as increased alcohol taxes and limiting the number of alcohol outlets in neighborhoods.

Such efforts might help to achieve the Healthy People 2020 goals of 98.3 percent abstinence from any alcohol use and 100 percent abstinence from binge drinking among pregnant females aged 15 to 44, the researchers suggested.

More information
The March of Dimes has more about the dangers of drinking during pregnancy. 
(SOURCE: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, news release, July 19, 2012)

Scientists from Western University in London, Canada and the Children's Health Research Institute, an Institute within the Lawson Health Research Institute, have identified the critical role of a receptor called c-Kit in the development and function of insulin-producing beta cells, making it an exciting therapeutic target for the management of diabetes. The research, led by Rennian Wang, demonstrated that overexpression of c-Kit not only leads to increased insulin production but also counteracts the early diabetic effects of a high-fat diet. The paper and an accompanying commentary, are published in the August issue of Diabetologia, and featured in the Research Highlights in Nature Reviews Endocrinology (June 5). Diabetes is one of the most common metabolic diseases affecting over 25 million Americans and 2 million Canadians. It's associated with a multitude of complications leading to considerable morbidity and a major medical as well as financial burden on society. One of the major defects in diabetes is the loss of beta cells in the pancreatic islet. Wang and colleagues, including Zhi Chao Feng, a PhD candidate and first author on the paper, developed a transgenic mouse model (c-Kit Wv) which overexpressed c-Kit, specifically in beta cells. "When c-Kit is overexpressed, we observed a significant improvement in beta cell function and survival," says Wang, a Professor in the Departments of Physiology and Pharmacology, and Medicine at Western's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry. "You can even rescue c-Kit mutant mice from the early onset of diabetes, and protect against high-fat diet-induced beta cell defects. This is a novel finding and is being reported for the first time." Wang believes ongoing research into c-Kit and its underlying mechanisms, will pave the way to develop strategies to preserve and restore function to beta cells as a cure for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. This study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Scientists from Western University in London, Canada and the Children's Health Research Institute, an Institute within the Lawson Health Research Institute, have identified the critical role of a receptor called c-Kit in the development and function of insulin-producing beta cells, making it an exciting therapeutic target for the management of diabetes.

The research, led by Rennian Wang, demonstrated that overexpression of c-Kit not only leads to increased insulin production but also counteracts the early diabetic effects of a high-fat diet. The paper and an accompanying commentary, are published in the August issue of Diabetologia, and featured in the Research Highlights in Nature Reviews Endocrinology (June 5).

Diabetes is one of the most common metabolic diseases affecting over 25 million Americans and 2 million Canadians. It's associated with a multitude of complications leading to considerable morbidity and a major medical as well as financial burden on society.

One of the major defects in diabetes is the loss of beta cells in the pancreatic islet. Wang and colleagues, including Zhi Chao Feng, a PhD candidate and first author on the paper, developed a transgenic mouse model (c-Kit Wv) which overexpressed c-Kit, specifically in beta cells. "When c-Kit is overexpressed, we observed a significant improvement in beta cell function and survival," says Wang, a Professor in the Departments of Physiology and Pharmacology, and Medicine at Western's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry. "You can even rescue c-Kit mutant mice from the early onset of diabetes, and protect against high-fat diet-induced beta cell defects. This is a novel finding and is being reported for the first time."

Wang believes ongoing research into c-Kit and its underlying mechanisms, will pave the way to develop strategies to preserve and restore function to beta cells as a cure for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. This study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Scientists Identify Critical Role of c-Kit in Development and Function of Insulin-producing Beta Cells

Scientists from Western University in London, Canada and the Children's Health Research Institute, an Institute within the Lawson Health Research Institute, have identified the critical role of a receptor called c-Kit in the development and function of insulin-producing beta cells, making it an exciting therapeutic target for the management of diabetes.

The research, led by Rennian Wang, demonstrated that overexpression of c-Kit not only leads to increased insulin production but also counteracts the early diabetic effects of a high-fat diet. The paper and an accompanying commentary, are published in the August issue of Diabetologia, and featured in the Research Highlights in Nature Reviews Endocrinology (June 5).

Diabetes is one of the most common metabolic diseases affecting over 25 million Americans and 2 million Canadians. It's associated with a multitude of complications leading to considerable morbidity and a major medical as well as financial burden on society.

One of the major defects in diabetes is the loss of beta cells in the pancreatic islet. Wang and colleagues, including Zhi Chao Feng, a PhD candidate and first author on the paper, developed a transgenic mouse model (c-Kit Wv) which overexpressed c-Kit, specifically in beta cells. "When c-Kit is overexpressed, we observed a significant improvement in beta cell function and survival," says Wang, a Professor in the Departments of Physiology and Pharmacology, and Medicine at Western's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry. "You can even rescue c-Kit mutant mice from the early onset of diabetes, and protect against high-fat diet-induced beta cell defects. This is a novel finding and is being reported for the first time."

Wang believes ongoing research into c-Kit and its underlying mechanisms, will pave the way to develop strategies to preserve and restore function to beta cells as a cure for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. This study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

World’s Sexiest Hacker

STUNNING student Kristina Svechinskaya has been dubbed the world’s sexiest computer hacker after being linked to a £22million cyber-scam.

The Russian brunette, 22, is accused of using fake passports to open a string of accounts which were flooded with cash plundered from online bank customers.

The blue-eyed beauty wept as she was brought before a New York court over the online racket, believed to have syphoned £6million from UK victims.

Police believe she was recruited as a money launderer by a high-tech gang using a “Zeus Trojan” virus to hack into bank accounts to steal account numbers, user names and password details.
Svechinskaya was among four New York students accused of assisting the racket after investigators held 37 Eastern European suspects said to have been involved.

Bank accounts from the US, UK and across the globe were raided.

Stolen money was transferred into hundreds of fake bank accounts set up in the US by alleged “money mules” like Svechinskaya, said to have taken a ten per cent cut of the profits.
She allegedly opened at least five accounts under her own name and the aliases, Anastasia Opokina and Svetlana Makarova, into which more than £22,000 was fraudulently deposited, and of which £7,000 was withdrawn.

She is the latest Eastern European beauty to be linked with high-level conspiracies following the arrest of flame-haired Anna Chapman, 28, who was unmasked as a Russian agent by the US authorities in July.

Later that month gorgeous Latvian Anne Fermanova, 24, was held after she was caught sneaking high-tech night vision sights – on a banned secret weapons list – into Russia.
Svechinskaya faces up to 40 years behind bars for conspiracy to commit bank fraud and false use of a passport and is due to reappear in court tomorrow.

Manhattan lawyer Preet Bharara said: “The digital age brings with it many benefits, but also many challenges for law enforcement and our financial institutuions.
“As these arrests show, the modern, high-tech bank heist does not require a gun, a mask, a note, or a getaway car.

“It requires only the internet and ingenuity and can be accomplished in the blink of an eye, with just a click of the mouse.”

Svechinskaya has been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and one count of false use of passports.

Researchers Collaborate on Virtual Human

Researchers at the University of Calgary have created a new, interactive tool that will change the way medical education is taught.

LINDSAY, named after Dr. Lindsay Kimmett, a bright, promising medical student who died in a car crash, is a virtual human that uses a variety of touch interfaces to help students learn anatomy and physiology in 3D.

"There's a real gap between textbook anatomy and what students see in real life - the LINDSAY software connects the dots between the classroom and real life," says Heather Jamniczky, assistant professor in the Faculty of Medicine who uses the software to teach classes.
"Students have been really enthusiastic and it seems to improve their ability to make the connections we are asking. It pulls everything in and provides a much more engaging learning experience."
The project is a collaboration between the faculties of Medicine and Science and can be customized to whatever lesson students are being taught.

"It's sort of the medical equivalent to a flight simulator," says Professor Christian Jacob of the Faculty of Science, whose team helped design the software. "Students can navigate – actually fly – through the body to see what is going on at different levels of scale, from inside a cell to a pumping heart."
Dr. Bruce Wright, associate dean of undergraduate medical education, says he hopes LINDSAY will revolutionize how teaching is done in the classroom. The software can be used on big screens as well as on other devices such as the iPad, iPhone and smartboards. Those who teach can also use another application called LINDSAY presenter to make 3D slides and soon, the software will become available to download as an app.

"In five years from now, I want LINDSAY to be a one-stop shop where students can learn all aspects of the anatomy and physiology," says Wright. "This isn't just a tool to be used in medical school. It's part of our vision to go beyond the practise of medicine and into other subjects. The software is dynamic and robust and can be set up anywhere learning needs to happen. In fact, a high-school biology class in Cochrane is using the software."

Lindsay's parents Dianne and Kelly Kimmett say they are thrilled with the project that has her name attached to it. "This is something that Lindsay would have loved," says Dianne Kimmett. "She would have been absolutely inspired by the 21 Century teaching tool it has become."

Genetically Engineered Bacteria Prevent Mosquitoes from Transmitting Malaria

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute have genetically modified a bacterium commonly found in the mosquito’s midgut and found that the parasite that causes malaria in people does not survive in mosquitoes carrying the modified bacterium. The bacterium, Pantoea agglomerans, was modified to secrete proteins toxic to the malaria parasite, but the toxins do not harm the mosquito or humans. According to a study published by PNAS, the modified bacteria were 98 percent effective in reducing the malaria parasite burden in mosquitoes.

“In the past, we worked to genetically modify the mosquito to resist malaria, but genetic modification of bacteria is a simpler approach,” said Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena, PhD, senior author of the study and a professor with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “The ultimate goal is to completely prevent the mosquito from spreading the malaria parasite to people.”

With the study, Jacobs-Lorena and his colleagues found that the engineered P. agglomerans strains inhibited development of the deadliest human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum and rodent malaria parasite Plasmodium berghei by up to 98 percent within the mosquito. The proportion of mosquitoes carrying parasites (prevalence) decreased by up to 84 percent. 

“We demonstrate the use of an engineered symbiotic bacterium to interfere with the development of P. falciparum in the mosquito. These findings provide the foundation for the use of genetically modified symbiotic bacteria as a powerful tool to combat malaria,” said Jacobs-Lorena.

Malaria kills more than 800,000 people worldwide each year. Many are children.

The authors of “Fighting malaria with engineered symbiotic bacteria from vector mosquitoes” are Sibao Wang, Anil K. Ghosh, Nicholas Bongio, Kevin A. Stebbings, David J. Lampe and Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena.

The research was supported by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute and the Bloomberg Family Foundation.

Bad News for Big Brains

With big brains comes big intelligence, or so the hypothesis goes. But there may be trade-offs as well. Humans and other creatures with large brains relative to their body size tend to have smaller guts and possibly fewer offspring. Scientists have debated for decades whether the two phenomena are related. Now a team of researchers says that they are—and that big brains do indeed make us smart. The finding comes thanks to an unusual experiment reported here yesterday at the Evolution Ottawa evolutionary biology meeting in which scientists shrank and grew the brains of guppies over several generations.

"This is a real experimental result," says David Reznick, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Riverside, who was not involved in the study. "The earlier results were just correlations."

Researchers first began to gather evidence that big brains were advantageous after 19th century U.S. biologist Hermon Bumpus examined the brains of sparrows, some of whom had succumbed in a blizzard and some of whom survived. The survivors had relatively larger brains. More recently, evolutionary biologist Alexei Maklakov from Uppsala University in Sweden found evidence that songbirds that colonize cities tend to have larger brains relative to their body size than species still confined to the countryside. The challenge of urban life might require bigger brains, he and his colleagues concluded last year in Biology Letters.

Yet in humans and in certain electric fish, larger brain size seems to have trade-offs: smaller guts and fewer offspring. That's led some scientists to suggest there are constraints on how big brains can become because they are expensive to build and maintain.

To try to sort out the pluses and minuses of having a larger brain, Alexander Kotrschal, a postdoctoral fellow at Uppsala University, and his colleagues bred two lines of guppies. For each generation, he dissected the parents and measured their relative brain size to decide which offspring to breed, selecting those with the biggest and the smallest-brained parents to create two lines. After two generations the team documented up to a 10% difference in brain size between the two lines in females and an 8% difference in males.

The researchers then tested how smart the fish were by trying to teach them to count. The team trained the animals to look for food where a card had either two or four symbols. "The large-brained fish seem to be able to get it," Kotrschal reported at the meeting, but not the small-brained fish. "When you experimentally manipulate brain size, you get cleverer fish."

The guppies' big brains came at a cost, however. The small-brained fish averaged seven offspring in their first brood whereas the large-brained fish had only six. And the guts of the small-brained fish weighed 5.5 milligrams compared with just 4 milligrams for the large-brained fish. "If you select for a trait as complex as brain size, you going to lose with other traits," says Wesley Warren, a biologist at Washington University in St. Louis who was not involved with the study.

That primates have fewer offspring compared to other mammals and humans have fewer still, may be a consequence of the bigger brains, Kotrschal suggested.

The 9 Best Tips for Submitting an Online Job Application

Statistics show that approximately 50 percent of mid-sized companies and almost all large corporations use an applicant tracking system (ATS) to screen candidates for job opportunities.
There are a variety of reasons recruiters and hiring managers adopt this type of technology. With an ATS in place, human resources departments can automate and store hiring documents online so HR professionals never have to worry about sifting through stacks of paperwork or hundreds of emails to find what they need.
Colin Day, the founder and chief executive officer of iCIMS, Inc., a provider of talent acquisition software for growing businesses, is in an excellent position to advise job seekers on how to maximize their online applications. Here are Day's top suggestions for getting the most visibility out of your online application:
1. Thoroughly read job descriptions. Most recruiters will tell you a big pet peeve is hearing from job seekers who apply even if they aren't qualified for the job. Take the time to understand exactly what the company expects from applicants for jobs that interest you; do not ignore the detailed description of what the job entails. "ATS technologies can filter candidates by those whose responses dovetail best with specific job descriptions. For the best response rates, make sure your content and experience match up accordingly," Day says.
2. Create an original cover letter. If the company asks for a cover letter, be sure to include one. Make sure to write one specific to your accomplishments and skills and one that addresses the job description properly. Go a step further and mention how you will use that knowledge and those skills on the job. Avoid sending out a generic, run-of-the-mill cover letter. "Despite the cover letter being digital, it's often the first thing recruiters read when viewing candidate profiles--even ahead of the resume," Day explains. "Use the cover letter as an opportunity to showcase your personality, qualifications, and desire for the job."
3. Identify key words and tailor your resume. Take your time and look over your resume. Find the key words in the job description and make sure you indicate how your accomplishments address those requirements. Be sure to customize your resume and/or cover letter slightly to each specific job.
4. Make sure your responses are on target and error free. "With paper applications, poorly written submissions can be tossed in the 'circular file,' never to be seen again," Day says. "But with digital applications, error-laden content lives on at that company, potentially hurting your chances for a relationship with the employer in the future as well." This is a scary thought, but one that should motivate you to triple-check your content for spelling, content, and grammar. Additionally, Day suggests you make sure all of your information is completely spelled out--in other words, avoid abbreviations. In many cases, abbreviations that may be understood readily by the hiring managers are not familiar to the first-line recruiters.
5. Maintain one candidate profile per company. Once you apply to a company that uses an ATS, the organization saves your personal information. While you should tailor your resume and/or cover letter for each job submission, maintain one master profile for all of your applications for that company. "Multiple profiles in one company's system can cause confusion," Day says. "By only submitting one profile per company, you can eliminate the odds of the wrong profile being disqualified by a first-line recruiter."
6. Fill out all fields within the application process. By filling out every field, you are not just giving information that could make you stand out from the competition, but also demonstrating your interest and desire for the job. Many recruiters just skip over candidates who don't complete their applications. Also, Day explains that with an ATS in place, many companies filter candidates by their responses to certain fields within the online application forms. Don't miss out on any chances to be included in the recruiters' filtering processes for the position.
7. Ensure your social profile is current. Companies are now encouraging candidates to include professional information from their social profiles, typically LinkedIn, Google+, or Facebook, within their online application process. "The ability to view your dynamic social profile(s), allows recruiters to see your current work status and determine whether timing is right to extend you an interview or even a job offer. At iCIMS, we refer to this as a 'social resume,'" Day says.
8. Clean up your public social media profile. A technology-savvy hiring company is more likely to take an active interest in your social media profile postings. Make sure you don't have public images or content that would distract, or worse yet, deter hiring managers or recruiters from wanting to hire you. Don't provide red flags for recruiters and hiring managers. "If used properly, social media can help you connect with potential employers--just make sure your online data is working for you, not against you," Day concludes.
9. Review all the information you imported before submitting. Before hitting the submit button, take a final glance at the content you have provided. Keep in mind that once you hit that button, your information is sent to the recruiter directly. First impressions are important, so make the best one possible when you apply.

Faster Searching of Genomic Data Using New Algorithm

In 2001, the Human Genome Project and Celera Genomics announced that after 10 years of work at a cost of some $400 million, they had completed a draft sequence of the human genome.
Today, sequencing a human genome is something that a single researcher can do in a couple of weeks for less than $10,000.
Since 2002, the rate at which genomes can be sequenced has been doubling every four months or so, whereas computing power doubles only every 18 months. Without the advent of new analytic tools, biologists’ ability to generate genomic data will soon outstrip their ability to do anything useful with it.
In the latest issue of Nature Biotechnology, MIT and Harvard University researchers describe a new algorithm that drastically reduces the time it takes to find a particular gene sequence in a database of genomes. Moreover, the more genomes it’s searching, the greater the speedup it affords, so its advantages will only compound as more data is generated.
In some sense, this is a data-compression algorithm ― like the one that allows computer users to compress data files into smaller zip files. “You have all this data, and clearly, if you want to store it, what people would naturally do is compress it,” says Bonnie Berger, a professor of applied math and computer science at MIT and senior author on the paper. “The problem is that eventually you have to look at it, so you have to decompress it to look at it. But our insight is that if you compress the data in the right way, then you can do your analysis directly on the compressed data. And that increases the speed while maintaining the accuracy of the analyses.”

Exploiting redundancy

The researchers’ compression scheme exploits the fact that evolution is stingy with good designs. There’s a great deal of overlap in the genomes of closely related species, and some overlap even in the genomes of distantly related species: That’s why experiments performed on yeast cells can tell us something about human drug reactions.
Berger; her former grad student Michael Baym PhD ’09, who’s now a visiting scholar in the MIT math department and a postdoc in systems biology at Harvard Medical School; and her current grad student Po-Ru Loh developed a way to mathematically represent the genomes of different species ― or of different individuals within a species ― such that the overlapping data is stored only once. A search of multiple genomes can thus concentrate on their differences, saving time.
“If I want to run a computation on my genome, it takes a certain amount of time,” Baym explains. “If I then want to run the same computation on your genome, the fact that we’re so similar means that I’ve already done most of the work.”
In experiments on a database of 36 yeast genomes, the researchers compared their algorithm to one called BLAST, for Basic Local Alignment Search Tool, one of the most commonly used genomic-search algorithms in biology. In a search for a particular genetic sequence in only 10 of the yeast genomes, the new algorithm was twice as fast as BLAST; but in a search of all 36 genomes, it was four times as fast. That discrepancy will only increase as genomic databases grow larger, Berger explains.

Matchmaking

The new algorithm would be useful in any application where the central question is, as Baym puts it: “I have a sequence; what is it similar to?” Identifying microbes is one example. The new algorithm could help clinicians determine causes of infections, or it could help biologists characterize “microbiomes,” collections of microbes found in animal tissue or particular microenvironments; variations in the human microbiome have been implicated in a range of medical conditions. It could be used to characterize the microbes in particularly fertile or infertile soil, and it could even be used in forensics, to determine the geographical origins of physical evidence by its microbial signatures.
“The problem that they’re looking at ― which is, given a sequence, trying to determine what known sequences are similar to it ― is probably the oldest problem in computational biology, and it’s perhaps the most commonly asked question in computational biology,” says Mona Singh, a professor of computer science at Princeton University and a faculty member at Princeton’s Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics. “And the problem, just for that reason, is of central importance.”
In the last 10 years, Singh says, biologists have tended to think in terms of “reference genomes” ― genomes, such as the draft human sequence released in 2001, that try to generalize across individuals within a species and even across species. “But as we’re getting more and more individuals even within a species, and more very closely related sequenced distinct species, I think we’re starting to move away from the idea of a single reference genome,” Singh says. “Their approach is really going to shine when you have many closely related organisms.”
Berger’s group is currently working to extend the technique to information on proteins and RNA sequences, where it could pay even bigger dividends. Now that the human genome has been mapped, the major questions in biology are what genes are active when, and how the proteins they code for interact. Searches of large databases of biological information are crucial to answering both questions.

Researchers Discover Melanoma-promoting Gene

 Black skin cancer, also known as melanoma, is particularly aggressive and becoming increasingly common in Switzerland. Despite intensive research, however, there is still no treatment.
Researchers from the University of Zurich have now discovered a gene that plays a central role in black skin cancer. Suppressing this gene in mice inhibits the development of melanoma and its proliferation – a discovery that could pave the way for new forms of therapy.
Until recently, it was assumed that a tumour was composed of many equivalent cells that all multiply malignantly and can thus contribute towards tumour growth. According to a more recent hypothesis, however, a tumour might also consist of malignant cancer stem cells and other less aggressive tumour cells. Normally, stem cells are responsible for the formation of organs. Cancer stem cells can divide in a very similar way and develop into other tumour cells to form the tumour. Efficient tumour therapy thus primarily needs to fight cancer stem cells. Consequently, a team of stem-cell researchers from the University of Zurich headed by Professor Sommer decided to find out whether mechanisms that are important for normal stem cells also play a role in cancer stem cells.

Regulating gene discovered in tumour

Melanoma cells are rogue skin-pigment cells formed by so-called neural crest stem cells during embryonic development. Professor Sommer's group teamed up with dermatologists and pathologists to investigate whether cells with characteristics of these specific stem cells are present in human tumour tissue. "This was indeed the case, as we were able to prove based on numerous biopsies performed on melanoma patients," says Sommer. In particular, one gene that effectively controls the stem-cell program was highly active in all the tumour tissue studied. This gene, which is known as "Sox10", is essential for cell division and the survival of stem cells.

Gene suppression inhibits cancer

The next step for the Zurich researchers was to test how Sox10 works in human melanoma cells. They determined that the gene also controls a stem-cell program in cancer cells and is necessary for cell division. In order to corroborate these findings in a living organism, the researchers ultimately used a mouse which carried similar genetic mutations to those found in human melanoma and thus developed black skin cancer spontaneously. Astonishingly, the suppression of Sox10 in this animal model completely inhibited the formation and spread of cancer.
"Our research demonstrates that a tumour could probably be treated by attacking its stem cells," concludes Sommer. The results also illustrate that such studies can primarily be successful through the close collaboration and conscious use of synergies between basic researchers and clinicians.

Improving microbial fuel cells

Some of the planet's tiniest inhabitants may help address two of society's biggest environmental challenges: how to deal with the vast quantities of organic waste produced and where to find clean, renewable energy.

According to César Torres and Sudeep Popat, researchers at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute, certain kinds of bacteria are adept at converting waste into useful energy. These microorganisms are presently being applied to the task, through an innovative technology known as a microbial fuel cell or MFC.

As Torres explains, "the great advantage of the microbial fuel cell is the direct conversion of organic waste into electricity. " In the future, MFC's may be linked to municipal waste streams or sources of agricultural and animal waste, providing a sustainable system for waste treatment and energy production.

To scale up the technology however, improvements in efficiency will be required. "My particular focus is to understand at a fundamental level how anode respiring bacteria transfer electrons from their cells onto an electrode," Popat says, "as well as to design new systems that are both economical and efficient."

The group was able to demonstrate that significant loss in MFC efficiency was due to reactions occurring at the fuel cell's cathode. By modifying materials used in the cathode, as well as adjusting pH levels, they were able to improve cathode performance.
The group's research results appeared recently in the journal ChemSusChem in a special issue devoted to MFC technology.

Torres and Popat work in Biodesign's Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology, directed by ASU Regents' professor Bruce Rittmann—a co-author of the current study. Environmental biotechnology is a rapidly developing discipline in which disparate fields including microbiology, bioinformatics, chemistry, genomics, materials science, and engineering join together to harness biological entities—including bacteria—for the purpose of helping society.

Two chief areas of environmental biotechnology are bioremediation, or the clean up of environmental contaminants, and the production of clean energy. As the authors note, an MFC can perform double duty, targeting electrons from waste streams and converting them into useful energy.

An MFC is a unique kind of battery—part electrochemical cell, part biological reactor. Typically, it contains two electrodes, separated by an ion exchange membrane. On the anode side, bacteria grow and proliferate, forming a dense cell aggregate known as a biofilm that adheres to the MFC's anode. In the course of their microbial metabolism, the bacteria act as catalysts for converting the organic substrate into CO2, protons, and electrons.

Under natural conditions, many bacteria use oxygen as a final electron acceptor to produce water, but in the oxygen-free environment of the MFC, specialized bacteria that send the electrons to an insoluble electron acceptor, namely the MFC's anode, dominate.
The anode-respiring bacteria are able to oxidize organic pollutants, such as those found in waste streams, and transfer the electrons to the anode. The scavenged electrons then flow through an electrical circuit, terminating at the MFC's cathode, thus generating electricity. Ions are transported through the fuel cell's ion membrane, to maintain electroneutrality, although the membrane is often excluded.

In an effort to refine the technology and address losses in MFC efficiency, the group looked at the oxygen reduction reaction at the MFC cathode. While it had earlier been speculated that efficiency loss at the cathode was due to a low availability of protons, the new research showed instead that the transport of hydroxide ions (OH-) away from the catalyst layer of the cathode and into the surrounding liquid largely governed cathode potential losses in the device.
"We found that the cathodes were limiting the power densities we can produce in these MFCs," Popat says. "This is very surprising because, in chemical fuel cells, the same catalyst allows much greater power densities."

A key to the disparity lies in the fact that MFC's, unlike chemical fuel cells, must operate at neutral pH in the anode chamber to ensure optimum growth and activity of the microorganisms catalyzing the reactions. At the cathode, OH- ions cause a local increase in pH, due to a limiting rate of their transport. Further, every unit of pH increase at the cathode results in a loss of 59 millivolts of energy—the authors found that the local cathode pH could easily reach >12, representing a substantial loss.

To attempt to remedy this situation, the group conducted a detailed examination of transport properties at the cathode. An ion exchange binder contained in the cathode usually assists transport of ions to the surrounding electrolyte. Normally, this binder is made from a material called Nafion, which the authors explain is good for transporting positively charged cations like protons, but a poor conductor of negatively charged anions like the hydroxide ions that accumulate at the MFC cathode, or anionic buffer species, such as phosphates and bicarbonates, that help transport OH- ions.
An experimental polymer known as AS-4, which has high anion-exchange capacity, was substituted for Nafion as a cathode binder in the study. The modification ensured the efficient transport of hydroxide ions and improved the performance of the cathode. The study showed that OH- transport could be further enhanced by adjusting pH directly, though the addition of CO2 mixed with air as a buffer for the cathode catalyst.

The study represents the first comprehensive analysis of cathode limitations in MFC's and will further the development of these systems through refinement of materials and operating conditions. "The main importance of our study is not to provide immediate answers, but to conduct a mechanistic study to determine how the cathode operates and identify the sources of inefficiency," Torres explains. "Now we can begin to work on solutions."

Stem Cell Study Scrambles Egg Debate, Again

A handful of "rainbow" mice have persuaded some researchers that biology textbooks don't need to be rewritten quite yet. A study of the animals—rodents genetically engineered to display a variety of colorful fluorescent markers in select cells—indicate that they don't have stem cells that continue making new egg cells after birth, a conclusion that supports a long-held but recently questioned tenet of mammalian reproductive biology. Yet those who have challenged that belief aren't backing down, claiming the new work is fatally flawed.

For more than 50 years, the seemingly ironclad biological rule was that women and other female mammals produce a finite number of egg cells during their embryonic development, then shut down egg production for good. Recently, however, a series of papers from reproductive biologist Jonathan Tilly of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and biologist Ji Wu of Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China have sparked hopes that it might be possible to enhance fertility by stimulating new egg production in adult women or by producing eggs in the lab from stem cells. Their reported discovery of a population of rare ovarian stem cells in adult women and mice that appear to produce immature egg cells, or oocytes, has incited controversy among reproductive biologists, however, who report mixed success in reproducing the data.

Now, a new study from a research team headed by molecular reproductive biologist Kui Liu of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), adds another note of caution. The work centers on a protein known as Ddx4 (also called Mvh) that appears during development in the germ cells that will give rise to sperm or eggs.

Tilly and Wu's teams used an antibody to Ddx4 to identify their putative egg stems cells. Liu's team decided to devise a way of identifying and tracking any cell making that protein during mouse development. The researchers created a strain of mice whose cells all initially glow green, but then randomly turn red, yellow, or cyan when the cells turn on Ddx4. In one experiment, the team cultured ovaries from the mice and watched to see if these putative reproductive cells divided over the course of 72 hours. In order to qualify as egg-producing stem cells, cells must go through several rounds of division, first replicating in a process called mitosis then dividing through a process called meiosis into oocytes, notes reproductive biologist John Eppig of The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, who edited the paper on behalf of PNAS. None of the Ddx4-making cells seen by Liu's team did this, he says. Although some of the cells might have looked like oocytes, they didn't seem to have the genetic programming to divide in the way he would expect egg stem cells to divide. "They just sit there," he says, "and go tum-tiddly-tum."

Based on that data and several other lines of evidence, including experiments where the researchers attempted to cultivate new egg follicles in sterilized ovarian mouse tissue, Liu's team concludes that no egg-producing stem cells exist in mouse ovaries after birth—a summary that has met both hearty agreement and sharp criticism.

David Albertini, a physiologist from the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, describes the new work as "impressive, and the most telling study yet to be published on this controversial topic." Renee Reijo Pera, director of Stanford's Center for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research and Education in Palo Alto, California, describes the study as "very convincing," and agrees that it supports the view that adult female mammals don't produce new egg cells.
Other researchers call the study design badly flawed. Evelyn Telfer, a reproductive biologist at the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom who has worked with Tilly and published independent research using the purported ovarian stem cells, worries that Liu's group used a different method to isolate their cells than the protocols published in earlier studies. The discrepancy, in her opinion, resulted in the researchers looking at the wrong cells.

Tilly agrees. By broadening their search to look for any germ cell that expresses Ddx4, he says that Liu and colleagues cast their nets too wide. The specific subset of stem cells he studies have been demonstrated to express the Ddx4 marker on their cell surfaces, he says, whereas oocytes express the marker only internally. Based on this, and on the cells' size, which was larger than that of the purported stem cells, Tilly and Telfer say that Liu and colleagues were likely looking at oocytes, not stem cells, which, as such, would not be expected to divide. "It's not a clean experiment," says Telfer.
Not all researchers agree with Tilly and Wu's original work, though. Tilly's antibody technique is controversial, says Pera. And Albertini is more persuaded by the latest paper's analysis of Ddx4-making cells than the original textbook-challenging studies. "Bottom line, Tilly should have done these experiments 4 years ago," he says.

Myelodysplastic Syndrome Linked to Abnormal Stem Cells

As researchers suspected, abnormal bone marrow stem cells trigger the development of myelodysplastic syndromes, serious blood diseases that affect the bone marrow and can progress to leukemia, according to a new study.

"Good Morning America" host Robin Roberts recently disclosed that she had developed myelodysplastic syndrome, or MDS, as a rare complication of her breast cancer treatment. The syndrome is diagnosed in about 10,000 to 15,000 people in the United States each year, mostly in men and in those over age 60.

The new findings, published in the July 2 online edition of Blood, could lead to improved treatments for myelodysplastic syndrome and cancers related to the syndrome, researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, in New York City, suggested in an Einstein news release.

"Researchers have suspected that [myelodysplastic syndrome] is a 'stem cell disease,' and now we finally have proof," said the study's co-senior author Amit Verma, an associate professor of medicine and of developmental and molecular biology at Einstein and attending physician in oncology at Montefiore Einstein Center for Cancer Care.

"Equally important, we found that even after [myelodysplastic syndrome] standard treatment, abnormal stem cells persist in the bone marrow. So, although the patient may be in remission, those stem cells don't die and the disease will inevitably return. Based on our findings, it's clear that we need to wipe out the abnormal stem cells in order to improve cure rates," Verma explained in the news release.

For the study, the researchers analyzed bone marrow stem cells and the progenitor cells, or cells formed by stem cells, of 16 patients with various types of myelodysplastic syndrome. They compared these cells to those of 17 people who did not have the syndrome.

The investigators found widespread genetic and epigenetic (related to environmental factors) variations in the stem and progenitor cells taken from myelodysplastic syndrome patients. The abnormalities were more obvious in those with more serious forms of the disease, the researchers noted.

"Our study offers new hope that [myelodysplastic syndromes] can be more effectively treated, with therapies that specifically target genes that are deregulated in early stem and progenitor cells," the study's co-senior author Dr. Ulrich Steidl, an assistant professor of cell biology and of medicine at Einstein, said in the news release. "In addition, our findings could help to detect minimal residual disease in patients in remission, allowing for more individualized treatment strategies that permanently eradicate the disease."

SOURCE: Albert Einstein College of Medicine, news release, July 2, 2012

Cell-Based 'Tracking Devices' Might Help Monitor Treatments

Call it a fantastic voyage. Scientists have successfully found a way to inject tiny iron filings into the human body to potentially monitor medical therapies. The particles work as tracking devices that may help physicians determine if certain treatments are working.

The development of methods to track cells is critical to stem-cell and other therapies that rely on the delivery of particular cells to a target site, such as the heart or other organ, according to the authors of a small new study.

"Eventually we'll be able to prove stem cells are going where they are supposed to be and track cells going into other tissues," said Dr. David Newby, study co-author and professor and chair of cardiology at the Centre for Cardiovascular Science at the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland.
The study, published July 10 in Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging, showed that immune cells tagged with nano-sized iron filings and injected into the bloodstream can be tracked by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as they move through the human body. The researchers also demonstrated that the process was safe and did not interfere with normal cell function.

A type of normal white blood cell known as macrophages ingest pathogens and cellular debris -- including the filings -- and take them along wherever they go. The iron filings are only about 20 nanometers across. In comparison, the average red blood cell is 8,000 nanometers wide.
Newby said the critical question the researchers wanted to answer was whether the tracking cells, once injected into the body, would migrate where the researchers wanted them to go. "We needed to be able to know if they wander off," he said.

The research showed it is possible to track tagged, injected cells for seven days. Because MRI technology is nonradioactive, the tracking system would not subject patients to radiation exposure, Newby noted.

The study involved two phases. First, the researchers determined that blood cells with attached iron filings moved normally, and were indeed able to survive. Twenty study volunteers participated. Some people were given injections into their thigh muscles of either unlabeled cells, iron-filing labeled cells or just the filings. Others received intravenous injections of the labeled blood cells.
To show that the tracking method could be used to facilitate the development of cell-based therapies in the future, the researchers injected one person with labeled immune blood cells, and they tracked the cells as they migrated to an inflamed area of skin on the thigh. The inflammation was caused by a Mantoux tuberculosis test, an injection just under the skin that typically becomes slightly inflamed.
"This is a pretty convincing demonstration that there's real merit to this idea of using cells as carriers," said Matthew Tirrell, a professor and Pritzker director of the Institute for Molecular Engineering, at the University of Chicago.

Tirrell said the research opens up new territory for other kinds of visualization experiments. "There are few examples of any kind of targeting particles in humans," he said. "To have the confidence and guts to do it is impressive, and I think other people will be building on this work," he said.
Newby said that the research team hopes to investigate the use of these techniques to diagnose inflammatory conditions of the heart, such as transplant rejection, myocarditis or inflammation of the heart, and sarcoidosis, where there is inflammation in multiple organs. The work may also be useful in five to 10 years in stem-cell research, he added.

SOURCES:
 David Newby, M.S., professor and chair of cardiology, Centre for Cardiovascular Science, University of Edinburgh, Scotland; Matthew Tirrell, professor and Pritzker director of the Institute for Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago; July 10, 2012, Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging

Coral Reef Scientists Issue Call for Action

Evidence of the dire condition of coral reefs around the world is being presented in abundance at the 12th International Coral Reef Symposium that got underway yesterday in Cairns, Australia. And scientists are calling for action to stop the losses: More than 2500 marine researchers and managers at the conference and around the world have signed a Consensus Statement on Climate Change and Coral Reefs that calls on "all governments to ensure the future of coral reefs, through global action to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, and via improved local protection of coral reefs."

The need for action is self-evident to the community. "The huge declines in live coral cover that people have been talking about are real and increasingly well documented," Jeremy Jackson, professor emeritus of oceanography at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, California, said at a press briefing. He noted that in the Caribbean, live coral cover has declined from 50% to 60% of reefs in the early 1970s, to around 5% to 10% today. Even on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, probably the world's most well-protected, live coral cover has decreased from 40% of the area to 20% over the last 50 years.

The causes are well known: overfishing, habitat destruction, sedimentation, pollution, and, increasingly, climate change. Warmer ocean waters mean increased bleaching; and the oceans are becoming more acidic, which weakens coral skeletons. "There are no climate skeptics among coral reef scientists or coral reef managers because we've been measuring the impact of climate change since about the 1980s," said Terry Hughes, who studies the links between reefs and local communities at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia.

Addressing climate change will take time. Meanwhile, there is hope in local action. "We know from observation and experience that in places where protective actions have been taken, the coral reefs are in better shape," Jackson said. Protecting reefs from human activities makes them more resilient to bleaching and naturally occurring disruptions such as typhoons and will buy time "while we come to grips with the (world's) carbon dioxide addiction," said Stephen Palumbi, a marine biologist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

The scientists banded together because "a statement from a single scientist may not be enough to generate the political and leadership changes we need for saving coral reefs," Palumbi said. He and a small group of like-minded researchers started work on the statement 2 years ago in anticipation of having it adopted at the symposium. Of course, "the statement is just the beginning," he said, adding that the 2500 signing scientists need to engage political and community leaders "to help us by taking on the science and turning it into political action."

Johns Hopkins Global Center on Childhood Obesity Seeking Research Proposals

The Johns Hopkins Global Center on Childhood Obesity at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is offering a second round of funding for innovative rapid response and pilot study projects that examine environmental mechanisms or policy changes related to the childhood obesity epidemic. Projects should use systems science concepts to tackle issues that will potentially inform the development or confirmation of community- or population-based interventions. The application process is open to investigators in the U.S. and globally.

The Center expects to fund up to three projects at up to $30,000 each. The deadline for submitting a study concept summary is July 22, 2012. Full proposals (invited only) are due August 1, 2012..

An informational teleconference is scheduled for July 12 at 11 a.m. ET. For full details and application information, visit the Global Center on Childhood Obesity online at http://www.jhgcco.org.

The Center has recently funded three such projects in the first round, and will offer such grants in the next five years to support similar projects worldwide. The Center was established in November 2011 with a $16 million U54 cooperative agreement from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Center studies the drivers of the childhood obesity epidemic and environmental and policy interventions. Based at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Center works with scientists from many disciplines in collaboration with the NIH and 15 other institutions, including faculty from five Johns Hopkins schools, namely Whiting School of Engineering, School of Medicine, School of Nursing and the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.
According to the World Health Organization, worldwide obesity has more than doubled since 1980. In 2008, 1.5 billion adults aged 20 and older, were overweight or obese, and 65 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where overweight and obesity kill more people than underweight. Nearly 43 million children under age 5 were overweight in 2010. According to the CDC, childhood obesity in the U.S. has more than tripled in the last 30 years. In 2008, more than one-third of American children and adolescents were overweight or obese, which greatly increases the risk of obesity-related illnesses, such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension and heart disease. Prevention of obesity in children is a key to fighting the global epidemic.

Seventh Annual New Energy Symposium

New Energy New York, the Energy & Environmental Technology Applications Center (E2TAC) at the College of Nanoscale Science & Engineering (CNSE), iCLEAN, E2TAC's clean energy incubator at CNSE, and the New York Academy of Sciences are proud to host the Seventh Annual New Energy Symposium July 18–19, 2012.

Investment Pitch Competition (July 18 AM)
The Seventh Annual New Energy Symposium will again feature some of the hottest emerging cleantech startups competing for the opportunity to pitch to a panel of regional and national VCs, angels, private equity investors, corporate VCs, investment bankers, and government executives at the Investment Pitch Competition.
The Investment Pitch Competition, which is done in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), is based on the format of NREL's annual Industry Growth Forum; the nation's premier cleantech startup pitch event. Now in its fifth year at the New Energy Symposium, the Investment Pitch Competition has showcased 58 early stage companies that have raised over $160 million in venture capital and government funding to develop clean energy technologies, products, and services.
The top three presentations, selected by the investor judges, receive awards and $1,500 cash to cover their travel to the NREL Industry Growth Forum in the fall.
Expert Panel Discussions (July 18 PM & July 19 AM)
The 2012 New Energy Symposium will feature expert panel sessions on the afternoon of July 18th and the morning of July 19th.
The July 18th session will include keynote speakers from the energy industry and two expert panel discussions:

• Panel — Alternative Financing Strategies for Cleantech Startups
• Panel — Raising Capital: Lessons Learned from Cleantech Entrepreneurs

The July 19th session will include a keynote speaker from the energy industry, two presentations, and one expert panel discussion:

• Presentation — Clean Energy Patent Trends (Solar Technology Analysis)
• Presentation — Strategies for Cleantech Companies Under the New America Invents Act
• Panel — Importance of IP & Strategies for Commercialization for Early Stage Startups

Join us for this event to see entrepreneurs pitch their business plans to investors and hear experts discuss the newest developments in clean technology.

Registration Pricing

	By 7/16/2012	After 7/16/2012	Onsite
Member — Pitch Competition & Panels (July 18–19)	$225	$500	$500
Nonmember — Pitch Competition & Panels (July 18–19)	$395	$500	$500
Panel Sessions Only (July 18 afternoon – July 19 morning)*	$75	$75	$75

*Registration for the panel sessions (afternoon of July 18th and the morning of July 19th) only.

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