GM corn could boost world grain production
Australian scientists have added a gene found in some plants to corn which provides natural immunity to fungi.
ABC News: 9 May 2011
TechNyou
If you are wondering who the big industry partner is in the story it is Pioneer who have teamed up with Hexima, which is a company set up by and spun out from research at Uni Queensland and La Trobe University.
I purposely left the headline the same as ABC had it as I found it interesting that it and the rest of the story were framed around the technological promise of this research. I understand it is a short news story focusing on the research, but usually there is still the “other” voice of opposition somewhere, which readers of the TechNyou blog will know annoys me even more because of the distortion it does to the science and confusion it has on the public trying to get a handle on the issues.
But for further elaboration on this research and story see the Hexima web link above or the following for info specific to their fungal resistance research and a more comprehensive piece on the ABC from last week.
Image: ABC news online
nano antennas to detect drugs, explosives
A new type of nano-antenna that collect light instead of radio waves have been developed.
Swinburne University: 4 May 2011
Image: Swinburne University
Nanoparticle-boosted T-Cell take on cancer
Attaching drug-filled nanoparticle capsules to our immune system’s T-cells boosts their ability to attack and kill cancer cells.
New Scientist: 3 May 2011
Reference
Nature Medicine, Volume: 16, Pages: 1035–1041 (2010)
- DOI: doi:10.1038/nm.2198
Abstract
A major limitation of cell therapies is the rapid decline in viability and function of the transplanted cells. Here we describe a strategy to enhance cell therapy via the conjugation of adjuvant drug–loaded nanoparticles to the surfaces of therapeutic cells. With this method of providing sustained pseudoautocrine stimulation to donor cells, we elicited marked enhancements in tumor elimination in a model of adoptive T cell therapy for cancer. We also increased the in vivo repopulation rate of hematopoietic stem cell grafts with very low doses of adjuvant drugs that were ineffective when given systemically. This approach is a simple and generalizable strategy to augment cytoreagents while minimizing the systemic side effects of adjuvant drugs. In addition, these results suggest therapeutic cells are promising vectors for actively targeted drug delivery.
Nanofibres are able to help regenerate knee cartilage
Scientists have developed nanofibres that act as a scaffold for cells to promote cartilage regrowth in various animal models.
Nanowerk, May 4 2011
Mind-controlled prosthetics to help amputees
Robotic limbs controlled solely by the mind could be available to paralysed people within a year.
New Scientist: 28 April 2011
Would you like gene tech with that on YouTube
Woo Hoo, we have just uploaded the first four YouTube videos from last year’s National Science Week event, Would you like some gene tech with that? It was a public forum exploring whether GM crop technologies could or should be used in our attempts to ensure food security. The first four videos are of the expert panel’s introductory talks. I have to go back and split the panel and audience discussion into shorter vids to post, but they will be coming asap.
You can get to the TechNyou’s YouTube channel directly from the link on our home page or go directly to the TechNyou YouTube channel here
Stem cells go alternative
By Jason Major
TechNyou
Name what ails you. The alternative medicine market has latched onto stem cells as its next cure-all and apparently business is booming.
Alternative medicine has something for everything from anti-aging creams, miracle pills and butt tightening to curing human kind’s every ill
My family and a couple of female friends have recently badgered me about my thoughts on stem cells in cosmetics such as face creams, the most recent one being the use of apple stem cells in some anti-ageing cream. I had to confess I didn’t have a clue about them, but expressed skepticism as I have yet to see any clinical evidence or robust science to back any of these claims. Plus intuitively, I couldn’t see how stem cells from a plant could help a human, but I am outside my area of expertise here. Regardless, intuitive skepticism doesn’t cut the mustard when we are talking beauty products, so I was glad to stumble across an article that summarises it all in one document.
Context from someone with a clue
Doug Sipp, in the journal Regenerative Medicine provides some perspective to the burgeoning alternative medicine industry that seems to be making plenty of dollars from stem cell-based products or treatments, despite any evidence they even work or are safe.
TechNyou has already posted a bit of stuff on stem cell tourism, which Sipp also does, but he goes into a bit of detail on how companies are marketing the cosmetics and nutritional supplements.
100 ways to stay young
I must live a sheltered life as I had only seen TV or chick mag advertisements for the apple stem cells used in cosmetic creams. Sipp, however, reveals a proliferation of stem cell-based cosmetics that can take the form of injections of human or animal cells, food supplements, or skin creams and lotions that are purported to either include stem cell extracts or activate your own stem cells.
There is even a cosmetic line marketing itself as containing human fat tissue. As gross as that sounds to me it seems the desire for eternal youth is powerful. And should you desire you can get 30 ml of eye cream for $119, or a 28‑vial set of “Million Stem Cell Magic Concentrate” for $1220. My wife tells me that women really would pay this much for a product even if there was only a remote hope it would do as it claims. And tagging the product with stem cells can provide an added marketing push because, according to Sipp, stem cells can be seen as a “natural” product.
But that’s not all
One company suggests their stem cells have been shown to have “effects on health, wellness, and regeneration,” with impacts on such ailments as dodgy hearts, Alzheimer’s disease and erectile dysfunction. Too much? How about a simple augmentation of your butt or breasts?
Wishful thinking
It seems there is nothing stem cells can’t fix. If all these claims were true we really would have eternal life, youth, and sexual functionality – at a hefty price, of course.
Reference
Sipp D (2011) 6(3). Stem cell stratagems in alternative medicine, Regenerative Medicine, DOI:10.2217/rme.11.13
More info
Australian Stem Cell Centre:
Can rabbit stem cells cure your ills?
What do baby stem cells and cows have in common
TechNyou
Hope, stem cells tourism and the art of dialogue
Stem cell tourism: definitely dangerous, but should it be condemmed