Tech

Taking eye drops multiple times a day can be difficult for patients to do, and because of blinking and tearing, as little as 1 to 7 percent of the dose is actually absorbed by the eye. Now, researchers led by Daniel Kohane, MD, PhD, director of the Laboratory for Biomaterials and Drug Delivery at Children's Hospital Boston, have developed special contact lenses that can gradually dispense a constant amount of medication to the eye, at adjustable rates. They describe their prototype lens in the July issue of Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science.

Computers have made it virtually impossible to leave the past behind. College Facebook posts or pictures can resurface during a job interview. A lost cell phone can expose personal photos or text messages. A legal investigation can subpoena the entire contents of a home or work computer, uncovering incriminating, inconvenient or just embarrassing details from the past.

DURHAM, NC -- A new technique that detects the HIV virus early and monitors its development without requiring refrigeration may make AIDS testing more accessible in sub-Saharan Africa.

According to UNAIDS, sub-Saharan Africa accounts for almost a third of all new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths globally. Yet there may be many people who do not get tested due to the high cost of treatment and minimal access to health care.

BOSTON (July 21, 2009) — Dental and tissue engineering researchers at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts have harnessed the pluripotency of human embryonic stem cells (hESC) to generate complex, multilayer tissues that mimic human skin and the oral mucosa (the moist tissue that lines the inside of the mouth). The proof-of-concept study is published online in advance of print in Tissue Engineering Part A.

Research at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute into the mechanics of how two types of white blood cells grow and die is fundamentally changing the development of computer models that are used to predict how immune system cells respond to a pathogenic threat.

A team led by Professor Phil Hodgkin, head of the institute's Immunology Division, is investigating the proliferation and survival of T and B lymphocytes – white blood cells that are crucial to the body's ability to generate immunity.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Secondhand smoke (SHS) is not only a nuisance, but a potential health concern for many college students, and administrators should be taking steps to reduce students' exposure, according to a new study by researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

It is the first study to provide evidence of the high rates of SHS exposure, and correlates of exposure, among college students in the United States.

A new subsidy designed to increase access to life-saving antiretrovirals must remain focused on quality patient care if it is to succeed, argues Tido von Schoen-Angerer and colleagues in this week's open access journal PLoS Medicine. The subsidy, called the Affordable Medicines Facility–malaria (AMFm), will be rolled out in 2009 and is designed to address concerns of poor access to artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs) for malaria, and fears about growing resistance to the drugs. Dr.

Johns Hopkins biomedical engineering students have demonstrated a practical way to embed a patient's own adult stem cells in the surgical thread that doctors use to repair serious orthopedic injuries such as ruptured tendons. The goal, the students said, is to enhance healing and reduce the likelihood of re-injury without changing the surgical procedure itself.

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed a fast and efficient way to determine the structure of proteins, shortening a process that often takes years into a matter of days.

According to the most recent energy flow charts released by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Americans used more solar, nuclear, biomass, and wind energy in 2008 than they did in 2007. The nation used less coal and petroleum during the same time frame and only slightly increased its natural gas consumption., while geothermal energy use remained the same.

New research suggests that antibiotic treatment could be asymptomatically inducing the transmission of the healthcare-acquired infection, C. difficile, contributing to the outbreaks that have recently been widely reported in hospitals and other settings. A team of scientists have successfully mirrored the infection cycle of C. difficile by generating a 'mouse hospital' with conditions mimicking the human environment in which C. difficile is transmitted.

Scientists at the University of Leicester are investigating how the stuff of stink bombs and flatulence could play a critical role in the human reproductive system.

Hydrogen sulphide –partially responsible for the foul odour of stink bombs- is also a toxic gas and has been used for chemical warfare.

But research at the University of Leicester is now looking at beneficial effects it has in the body- and the potentially critical role the chemical might have in term and pre-term births.

July 20, 2009 -- Prenatal exposure to environmental pollutants known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) can adversely affect a child's intelligence quotient or IQ, according to new research by the the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health (CCCEH) at the Mailman School of Public Health. PAHs are chemicals released into the air from the burning of coal, diesel, oil and gas, or other organic substances such as tobacco. In urban areas motor vehicles are a major source of PAHs. The study findings are published in the August 2009 issue of Pediatrics.

INDIANAPOLIS – The results of a new study of the pen and paper workarounds employed by healthcare providers who use an electronic medical record system may help make electronic medical records even more useful to health-care providers and the patients they serve.

"Exploring the Persistence of Paper with the Electronic Health Record" appears in the September 2009 issue of the International Journal of Medical Informatics.

PROVIDENCE -- Rhode Island Hospital is one of only four sites across the country to participate in a new clinical trial called the DIGNITY Study. The study will investigate the effectiveness of a chemotherapeutic agent, ThermoDox, used in conjunction with mild hyperthermia (a form of heat therapy) for treating recurrent chest wall breast cancer.