R&D INSIGHT


Eurostruct SEED REVIEW


www.seedresearchlibrary.com/science- technology-research-projects/178/eurostruct- structural-biology


Neurosurgeon uses daughter’s head to create surgery simulator


neurosurgeon Richard Ashpole. Known as Rowena, the design of the two part plastic simulator was named after and modelled on the head of the inventor’s own daughter. Rowena stands for Realistic Operative


A I n t e fi st n the first in a n a new series us ng t e SEED Researc usiing the SEED Research Librar


new series of fe tures on projec Lib ary, we t


features on projects etake a c


eacloser


look at EUROSTRUCT, a project designed to unlock the full research potential of the Structural


Biology and Chemistry Group (SBCG) with emphasis on structure-based drug design and discovery. Macromolecular crystallography has been the core


activity of SBCG for over 20 years and the use of X-rays has played a pivotal role. The establishment of an X-ray facility, the development of a computational infrastructure along with the recruitment of new personnel will allow the thorough investigation of a number of macromolecular targets of biotechnological and


pharmaceutical interest, increasing SBCG’s


research capacity at international level. Modern structural biology, particularly protein


crystallography, can provide a clear insight into the mechanism of action of a protein and can generate the structure of therapeutically important targets. In structure-based drug design, the crystal structure of a ligand bound to a protein provides a detailed insight into the interactions made between the protein and the ligand, and such an understanding can be used to design changes to the ligand to introduce new interactions to modify the affinity and specificity of the ligand for a particular protein. In structure-based drug discovery a number of experimental and computational methods,


such as de novo design,


virtual screening and fragment-based discovery have been developed to use the structure of the protein target as a route to discover novel hit compounds.


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Workstation for Educating Neurosurgical


Apprentices, and


consists of a moulded plastic base with internal


skull anatomy on which is


fixed a replaceable upper cranium with scalp, bone and dural layers. Inside the skull is a realistic plastic brain. Richard used the head of his daughter Rowena, now aged


14, basing his new simulator designed has by


neurosurgical to


teach basic surgical techniques created


been practicing


designs for the model on her skull size and shape. The model was created in Wales by a company normally involved in special effects for Hollywood film studios. “It was essential


that the Rowena


model be as close to a real skull as possible,


both internally “Fortunately my and


externally, so it seemed logical to base the design on a real person,” explains Ashpole.


daughter


was happy to help, and sat for over an hour and a half whilst the model makers did their work. Rowena has been developed over many months to ensure all layers of the cranium behave as realistically as possible. As a result, it offers a unique, cutting edge teaching aid to train the next generation of neurosurgeons.”


Meet the real “Iron Chef”


The art of making a pizza is usually something mastered through years of practice and refinement. However, Professor Bruno Siciliano is hoping that within the next five years, his robot – named RoDyMan – will be able to compete with the famed pizzaiolos of Napoli.


RoDyMan (Robotic Dynamic Manipulation) is a service robot that will be able to mimic complex human tasks with a level of dexterity and mobility never seen


before. “The manipulation of non- rigid, deformable objects – food or clothes in our daily lives, soft tissues such as muscles and skin in medical operations – has not been much investigated so far and offers an important challenge to the robotics community”, says Siciliano. According to data of the International Federation of Robotics, about 3 million service robots for personal and domestic use were sold in 2012, 20% more than in 2011.


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