Microscopic Marvels: Microscope for the Masses
Nature (06/03/09) Vol. 459 , P. 632 ; Hayden, Erika Check A team of researchers, led by Changhuei Yang at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, have developed a tiny, "optofluidic" microscope, in which the sample casts a shadow directly on a series of commercial light sensors as it floats on a microfluidic channel. The technique is based on the registration of "floaters" in the human eye when bright light casts the shadow of debris onto the retina. In this new microscope, the sensors feed the projection pattern to a computer, which uses imaging-processing software to construct the image. The device itself is smaller than a dime and is assembled with semiconductor fabrication techniques. The technique does not use lenses, but Yang coated the sensing chips with a thin metal layer, creating 500-nanometer holes in it to form apertures smaller than a pixel, patterned along the microfluidic channel's path. This inexpensive, high-throughput imaging could allow researchers to perform drug assays, genomic or proteomic screens, and observe the outcome of thousands of manipulations on the shape or behavior of living cells. The microscope could also help further the efforts of science and medicine in developing nations, as the device works with sunlight and needs an amount of computational power similar to an iPod, potentially allowing it to be used by traveling healthcare workers.
Back to Top Electrochemistry at the Nano-Scale
Nanotechnology Now (06/05/09) Savin, Vladimir Electrochemical (EC) technology has been receiving increased interest as a way to control surface modifications with atomic precision. It can also be used to create thin metal films with unique properties, as well as imitate and study corrosion. Scanning probe microscopy, or Atomic Force Microscopy, as well as Scanning Tunneling Microscopy, can monitor surface changes at the nanometer scale during EC modification. Products from the NTEGRA nanolaboratory can be used for a variety of EC experiments in specialized conditions. NTEGRA AURA can take measurements in low vacuum or under controlled atmosphere environments, and one configuration enables EC experiments to be performed in external magnetic fields.
Back to Top Robots Rolling Toward Farm Revolution
New Scientist (06/01/09) Simonite, Tom Carnegie Mellon University roboticist Tony Stentz says that in the near future the farming industry may undergo a significant change as robotic farmhands become a reality. Robots could help solve growing concerns in the developed world over a lack of available labor in an industry that relies on seasonal work. "Automation is becoming a necessity rather than an enhancement," says John Billingsley from Australia's National Centre for Engineering in Agriculture. The technology needed to make robots capable of working outdoors has been significantly advanced through the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Grand Challenge, which encourages researchers to develop autonomous vehicles that can travel through all types of terrain. "If you can deal with an off-road environment you have never seen before then you're well equipped for agriculture," Stentz says. "We have hit the elbow in the curve for this technology making it big outdoors." He says that during the next few years there will be rapid changes in what robots can practically and affordably provide for farmers. Stentz is experimenting with sending autonomous robots through a Florida orange grove and using a scanner to measure the trees' foliage and count the number of oranges. He says that tree-reading machines could record data more often and more thoroughly than farmers, providing an early warning of diseases and giving a more accurate yield prediction, which could make chemical and other treatments more effective.
Back to Top New Tests Emerging for SCID
Lab Matters (06/09) P. 10 ; Ojodu, Jelili Several newborn screening initiatives related to severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) have been launched in state public health laboratories in the past few years. The Jeffrey Modell Foundation funded the establishment of a newborn screening test for SCID that measures T-cell Receptor Excision Circles (TRECs) by real time PCR, using DNA from newborn screening samples. The New England Newborn Screening Program developed a multiplexed TREC assay targeting TRECs and RNaseP. SCID was recently nominated as a candidate for the "core" panel of recommended newborn screening conditions, but only one state currently screens for SCID, and there is a lack of quality control materials and a proficiency testing program.
Back to Top Into the Dark and Cold
Baltimore Sun (06/05/09) P. 1 ; Roylance, Frank D. Nereus is a remote-controlled robot submersible that dived more than 35,000 feet to the freezing, lightless bottom of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean on June 4. Its navigation system was designed by Johns Hopkins University professor Louis Whitcomb, who directs Hopkins' Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics. The robot features a manipulator arm that it used to collect sediment, rock samples, biological samples, tube cores, and other materials, while onboard cameras captured video and still images during its 10-hour sortie. Nereus was linked to its controllers via a miles-long fiber-optic cable, which had to be designed to support their weight without snapping. Nereus' instruments are housed in sealed lightweight ceramic cylinders to withstand the massive water pressure, while electricity is supplied by 4,000 rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. Whitcomb led the development of the robot's navigation system. He says that underwater vehicles must track their own movements with various sensors because satellite signals used by global positioning systems do not penetrate the ocean. Among the sensors Nereus is outfitted with are sonar ranging, Doppler sonar, precision pressure sensors, a gyrocompass, and accelerometers, which are integrated by a central computer that estimates the submersible's position and speed. "With a robot like Nereus we can now explore virtually anywhere in the ocean," says Andy Bowen with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. "The trenches are virtually unexplored, and I am absolutely certain Nereus will enable new discoveries."
Back to Top New Guidance and Collaborations in Food Safety
Lab Matters (06/09) P. 12 ; Shea, Shari A collaborative writing group, led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has completed a paper to educate clinical and commercial laboratories on public health surveillance and the importance of detecting Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC). To be published in July 2009 as an MMWR Recommendations and Report, one section will assist clinicians with selecting the tests and interpreting them, and a companion article, published later this year, will outline standards for STEC testing and confirmation. The Council to Improve Foodborne Outbreak Response has also issued a 120-page document, "Guidelines for Foodborne Outbreak Response," intended for epidemiologists, laboratorians, and environmental health specialists involved in food safety programs. FoodNet participants at the Vision Meeting in Atlanta, Ga., outlined plans to improve Campylobacter speciation capabilities and evaluate STEC EIA kits in comparison to PCR, in response to reports of false positives. Participants also discussed a study to investigate the incidence of Salmonella and Campylobacter infections in the United States, a study to detect previously unidentified pathogens, and improvements in submitting isolates from clinical laboratories to public health labs.
Back to Top Laboratory Compliance: Making the Grade
Pharmaceutical Processing (06/01/09) Smith, Paul Laboratory compliance is, generally, the set of procedures, policies, and steps a lab takes to ensure that its analytical results are "meaningful, valid, and suitable for the decisions which will be made from the data," writes Paul Smith, Validation Program Manager, PerkinElmer Life and Analytical Sciences. However, the term is used broadly, and factors that differs between organizations and industries include the methods they use to show that the data is valid, the level of rigor they use, and the level of compliance monitoring. Analytical Instrument Qualification (AIQ) is needed to ensure that instruments are working properly and that their data is valid. The first aspect of AIQ that should be considered is User Requirement Specification, or what the instrument's function is. This includes what samples will be tested and how, what results will be generated, the required level of uncertainty, and the required level of confidence. The pharmaceutical industry also uses Good Automated Manufacturing Practice (GAMP) to serve as a validation framework, which eventually became a software-based approach. The most recent offering is GAMP 5, "A Risk Based Approach to Compliant GxP Computerized Systems." In August 2008, the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) monograph on Analytical Instrument Qualification <1058>took effect. Both USP<1058> and GAMP 5 feature risks-based thinking, which are being increasingly implemented by regulatory auditors, so labs need to be knowledgeable about both GAMP 5 and USP<1058> for possible effects on their procedures and policies. According to Smith, USP<1058> is more user-friendly compared to GAMP because it provides a general framework for qualification rather than specific details.
Back to Top Lab Unveils World's Most Powerful Laser
Boston Globe (06/01/09) California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) were on hand May 29th to see the unveiling of the world's most powerful laser, hosted at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The National Ignition Facility was established to help monitor the country's inventory of nuclear weapons while also exploring the heavens. The laser is comprised of 192 separate laser beams, each transmitting 1,000 feet in one millisecond to meet simultaneously on a target less than half an inch wide. Federal officials say they plan to use the laser to keep tabs on aging nuclear missiles apart from relying on underground detonations. The laser will also be used for experiments in astrophysics, controlled fusion reactions, and green energy programs.
Back to Top Better Safeguards for the Food Supply
Chemical & Engineering News (05/25/09) Vol. 87 , No. 21 , Rovner, Sophie L. Prompted by the melamine contamination of milk in 2008 and a 2007 scandal involving the compound in pet food, several organizations are seeking methods to improve the measurement of protein content in food, using ways less vulnerable to tampering. One way is to measure protein at a less fundamental scale than elemental constituents, possibly by using enzymes to break proteins into individual amino acids, and then identifying those with high-performance liquid chromatography. Spectroscopy can detect a whole protein's electromagnetic signature. However, assays must also be cheap, reliable, and fast for a commodity such as milk. R. Graham Cooks, an analytical chemist at Purdue University, and colleagues have developed a handheld mass spectrometer that weighs 5 kg. With this Mini 11 spectrometer, testing can be performed in the field, with no sample prep, making analysis more affordable and portable. Compatible with a variety of ionization sources, the device has a detection limit in the parts-per-billion range, and the researchers are working on an even smaller, lighter version.
Back to Top Virus Detector
Engineer (05/29/09) In the Netherlands, scientists at the University of Twente affiliate Ostendum have created a model of a new system that can use saliva, blood, or another bodily fluid to determine within minutes if a person is infected with a virus. According to the Ostendum researchers, the two-part testing device--consisting of a portable detector and a lab-on-a-chip system--is faster than traditional tools and can be used in any setting. In late May, the company finalized the first model of the device, and it is working on two other prototypes that will be submitted to rigorous testing under a partnership between the Zwanenberg Food Group and the Laboratorium Microbiologie Twente Achterhoek. Ostendum will then use the test results to improve the system's design in hopes of introducing a market model by 2010.
Back to Top Plan Would Expand Minnesota Food Safety Nationwide
Minnesota Public Radio (MN) (05/28/09) Benson, Lorna Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) announced that she will introduce a bill in Congress to follow Minnesota's example in responding to foodborne illnesses. The state places a priority on surveillance, performing DNA fingerprinting on every salmonella sample received, allowing officials to determine if multiple illnesses are caused by the same strain. Minnesota's Health Department also employs University of Minnesota public health graduate students to track down every sick person as soon as possible to learn what they had eaten or touched. All reported cases are interviewed with a detailed questionnaire. Klobuchar's bill requests the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to promote similar disease investigation practices and create a regional "Food Safety Centers of Excellence to be located in the country's top higher education institutions.
Back to Top International Collaboration Reveals Common Problems in Mass Spectrometry-Based Proteomics
LabCanada (05/22/09) A collaborative research effort between Canada's McGill University, the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), and the Human Proteome Organization (HUPO) has exposed some of the frequent problems found in mass spectrometry-based proteomics. In their recent study, published in Nature Methods, the researchers shared the results from labs around the world that were sent a standard sample of proteins for analysis. Of the 27 participating labs, only seven accurately detected the proteins, and only one lab succeeded in the more challenging aspects of the study. Closer examination of the lab results showed all labs detected the proteins initially, but most rejected them as the analyses progressed. "We found that a major contributing factor to erroneous reporting is at the database level," said HUPO's John Bergeron, senior writer of the study from McGill University. "We expect once databases and search engines improve, the accuracy of reporting will as well."
Back to Top Gene Research Boost
Cambridge News Online (05/19/2009) The Biotech and Biological Sciences Research Council has announced a 1.65 million pound investment into the Babraham Institute to create a new genome sequencing facility. This new system will be created out of a partnership with Cambridge University's Center for Trophoblast Research. The facility will participate in defining the epigenetic basis of healthy aging and certain diseases and discover how actions and lifestyles impact health at a genetic level. The sequencing system can identify minute differences between DNA samples that had previously gone undetected, such as finding chemical modifications between just one base pair.
Back to Top Modernizing TLC
Chemical & Engineering News (05/18/09) Vol. 87 , No. 20 , P. 11 ; Kemsley, Jyllian Thin layer chromatography (TLC) techniques have long been used in organic laboratories, but recent advances make TLC suitable for high-performance applications. Regular TLC can be transformed into high-performance TLC (HPTLC) through the use of improved instrumentation, standardized methodology, and better plates, says Eike Reich, head of Camag's research laboratories. In addition, pressurized planar electrochromatography allows electrochromatography to be used in a temperature controlled, pressurized environment that prevents liquid accumulation. To ensure that plates are compatible with mass spectrometry, scientists use desorption electrospray ionization or matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization after laser desorption, liquid/gas jet desorption, or extraction by a liquid stream. The use of automated chambers enables reequilibration prior to placing a plate in contact with the mobile phase to start a run. Also, sensors might be used to detect the advance of a solvent front, allowing a plate to be automatically withdrawn and dried at a certain point. Camag has developed an HPTLC method for Artemisia annua plants to determine the highest yield times for artemisinin, which is used to treat malaria. Camag's process separates the plant mixtures and uses anisaldehyde to stain the bands so that artemisinin can be detected and quantitated.
Back to Top Lean Innovation
Industry Week.com (05/13/09) Brown, Frank K. Research and development organizations depend on a massive amount of data, including information on suppliers and complex molecular simulations, and require improved innovation and time-to-market. Because most of product development consists of methodical discovery, integration, and analyzing data, automation can help speed up routine workflows and repetitive tasks. Organizations also need a scientifically aware solution to support data integration across all formats, systems, and applications, as "one size fits all" solutions were intended only for transactional data. IT should also develop a wide variety of statistical methods, ranging from dashboards to advanced modeling methods, to help analyze advanced scientific information related to chemistry, process engineering, and materials science. Product development also requires the ability of users to look at, manipulate, and analyze data, rather than relying on standard templates.
Back to Top Microarray Technology
Lab Manager (05/13/2009) Koppal, Tanuja While microarray technologies have improved their specificity, sensitivity, and reliability, their reliance on predefined, pre-spotted genes or proteins means that they can never be completely hypothesis-free to discover something completely new. Instead, microarrays are often a starting point. However, Applied Biosystems' genomic assays business allows researchers to take information "to the next level," said Jon Sherlock, product manager of TaqMan Array Plates and Express. TaqMan arrays consist of 384 pre-discovered probes that measure levels of RNA in a sample, using PCR-based quantitative TaqMan technology, in a card-like format. This technology is also available in 96-well plates called TaqMan Express Plates, which allow for the selection of 50,000 predesigned assays for different targets in a variety of genomes.
Back to Top U.S. Halts Pilot Program in New York to Detect Biological Attacks
Washington Post (05/07/09) Hsu, Spencer S. The Department of Homeland Security has announced that it is dismantling the Autonomous Pathogen Detection System that is installed in New York City subways because of technical problems. A component of the system--which was activated in late 2007 as part of an effort to improve the detection of biological weapons--that detects a particular agent has been malfunctioning over the past three or four months, according to Robert Hooks, a deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security. He added that DHS's science and technology directorate is working with an independent assessor and the sensors' manufacturer, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, to determine the cause of the problem. Hooks also noted that DHS no longer believes it is necessary to expand the pilot program because of resource and technology limits. An alternative sensor system that was set to be deployed beginning in late 2010 will not be available until 2012 so that it can undergo further testing, Hooks said. He noted that tests of the new system, known as Gen 3 BioWatch, are set to begin this summer.
Back to Top Thermo Publishes CDS Application Case Study
LIMSource.com (05/01/09) Thermo Scientific Atlas CDS recently completed a case study in which it was selected by one of the world's largest manufacturers to control and process data from more than 60 gas and liquid chromatographs in its process control laboratory. Thermo Scientific Atlas CDS provided distributed instrument access, chromatography data acquisition, and data calculations for management to assess the quality and performance of several manufacturing processes. The project's two requirements were delivery of an automated solution to remove the need for manual intervention to switch between the live and backup servers, and a solution transparent to the company's CDS users, without impacting laboratory operations or the plant's data reliance. The case study is titled "Implementing a Mission Critical Client/Server Chromatography Data System for Continuous Uptime: Application of Thermo Scientific Atlas CDS and Microsoft Cluster Service."
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