AL | Science News
Researchers Use Light Stimulation to Control Motion of Bio-robots
Biological robots powered by muscle cells have been genetically engineered to respond to light, allowing researchers to control their motion. Less invasive than the previous method of activating the bio-bots with an electrical field, the new light-stimulation technique allows the bio-bots to be steered in different directions toward the light stimulus.
The researchers grew rings of muscle tissue from a mouse cell line. Blue light stimulates the muscle to contract (a technique called optogenetics). The rings are looped around posts on 3-D-printed flexible backbones, ranging from about 7 mm to 2 cm in length. Graduate student Ritu Raman explained, “The skeletal muscle rings we engineer are shaped like rings or rubber bands because we want them to be modular. …This means we can treat them as building blocks that can be combined with any 3-D-printed skeleton to make bio- bots for a variety of different applications.”
The thin muscle rings allow light and nutrients to diffuse into the tissue from all sides. Earlier bio-bot designs used a thick strip of muscle tissue grown around the skeleton.
The researchers experimented with skeletons of different shapes and sizes to determine which configurations generated the most net motion. They also exercised the muscle rings daily, triggering the muscle with a flashing light, to make them stronger so that the bots moved farther with each contraction.
“This is a much more flexible design,” said Rashid Bashir, head of bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “With the rings, we can connect any two joints or hinges on the 3-D-printed skeleton. We can have multiple legs and multiple rings. With the light, we can control which direction things move. People can now use this to build higher- order systems.”
Collaboration to Provide Electron Microscopy-Based Structural Biology Services for Biotech, Pharmaceutical Industries
A strategic partnership between FEI and NovAliX will allow NovAliX to provide commercial cryo-electron microscopy (EM)-based structural analysis services to its customers in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. NovAliX has integrated a cryo-EM workflow based on a transmission electron microscope (TEM). The collaboration combines application, training and support with on-site personnel from FEI.
Denis Zeyer, CEO of NovAliX, said, “We have witnessed the interest and the relevance of biophysical tools in drug discovery. So, this new offering will nicely complement our structural biology and biophysical platform that includes X-ray, NMR, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and native mass spectrometry (native MS). Now with cryo- EM available, NovAliX scientists are able to deliver critical insights into the biology of protein complexes. Indeed, we will be able to fit X-ray structural results of individual proteins with a global structural view of the complex obtained by cryo-EM, which is otherwise not easily accessible.”
Magnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles Find Use in Targeted Drug Delivery, Disease Diagnosis
Magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) show promise to deliver cancer drugs that target specific tissues. It is important to control the size of these particles because those that are too large may be cleared from the bloodstream. IONPs with diameters from 10 to 100 nm are optimal for intravenous injection and can remain in the bloodstream for the longest period of time, found researchers at the National Institute for Materials Science.
AMERICAN LABORATORY 8 APRIL 2016
Surface charge is also important for the stability of IONPs and how they interact with tissues. For example, breast cells uptake positively charged IONPs better than negatively charged ones. Positively charged IONPs are more rapidly cleared from the circulation; negatively charged and neutral IONPs remain longer in the circulation. The surface charge of IONPs can be controlled by using an appropriately charged functionalized material as a shell. Further research is needed to evaluate the toxicity of both bare and functionalized IONPs.
Improving the functionality of magnetic IONPs can also benefit magnetic resonance imaging, magnetic hyperthermia and thermoablation (killing selected cancer cells with heat) and biosensing (detecting molecular interactions for disease diagnosis).
Plant Anti-Aging Molecules Uncovered by Researchers
Plant extracts containing the six best groups of anti-aging molecules ever seen have been discovered by researchers at Concordia University and biotechnology company Idunn Technologies. These molecules could potentially delay the aging process and prevent age-related diseases such as cancer.
Since the aging process is similar in yeast and humans, the scientists conducted more than 10,000 trials to screen for plant extracts that would increase yeast’s lifespan. They found six new molecule groups that slow the chronological aging of yeast. One group of molecules is a specific extract of willow bark, the most potent, longevity-extending pharmacological intervention yet described in the scientific literature. The study demonstrated that willow bark increases the average and maximum chronological lifespan of yeast by 475% and 369%, respectively—a much greater effect than the drugs rapamycin and metformin, which are noted for their anti- aging effects.
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