LabLogic Aids With Research
The Star (UK) (04/09/08) Rae, Bob

A laboratory information management system is helping a giant pharmaceutical company track research progress at data centers across the globe. The system from LabLogic Systems is working to improve data transmission between different Sanofi-Aventis research sites and facilitate uniformity of research procedures while reducing overall costs. Sanofi research and development sites in France, Germany, Budapest, Hungary, and the United States are using the system, named Debra.
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High Throughput Fetal RhD Typing Feasible for Mass Screening
Reuters Health Information Services (04/03/08)

British researchers have found that high-throughput technology for RHD genotyping of fetal DNA could be used in screening RhD-negative pregnant women as a more effective solution to current screening methodologies. At the NHS Blood and Transplant Center in Bristol, researchers found that the accuracy of the technology would considerably reduce the number of women who receive anti-RhD immune globulin but do not need the treatment. The technology employs a robotic system for maternal plasma DNA extraction, and real-time polymerase chain reaction testing is used to detect RHD in the sample. Researchers noted that the small percentage of samples testing false-negative for RHD were due to transport issues, reducing the validity of results. The findings are reported in the Online First issue of the British Medical Journal.
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The Cancer Biomarker Problem
Nature (04/03/08) Vol. 452 , No. 7187 , P. 548 ; Sawyers, Charles L.

Technological advancements within the biological marker sector have significantly contributed to improvements for detecting and diagnosing cancer, yet a number of challenges remain for determining the effects of specific biomarkers on patients' therapy. Technologies for characterizing tumors include DNA copy-number assessment, mutation screening, gene-expression profiling, microRNA-expression profiling, proteomic profiling, phosphoproteomic profiling, and metabolomic profiling. Prognostic biomarkers such as Genomic Health's Oncotype DX are used for regulating the amount of therapy that a patient should receive, as well as which patient should receive the therapy. However, prognostic biomarkers have a smaller threshold for predicting a patient's response to treatment. Genotyping tumor DNA has been a useful technique for predicting patient responsiveness to therapy, yet the process is costly and the logistics of the extent to which genotyping should occur remains inconclusive. Predictive biomarkers have proved to be effective in assessing the potential for a patient's benefit from a specific therapy in patients that have extra copies of a particular gene, while pharmodynamic markers are used as an early diagnostic tool to evaluate the near-term treatments effects of a certain therapy on the tumor. One impediment to biomarker progress is the treatment of solid tumors, as evaluating the effect of biomarkers has been restricted by the inability of the biomarkers to access the tumor tissue.
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Virginia's State Laboratory Implements Successful LIMS
Lab Matters (Quarter 2, 2008) No. 1 , P. 20 ; Chan, Helen

Public health laboratories are relying more on laboratory information management systems (LIMS) to successfully oversee data. A LIMS offers such things as sample tracking, tools for quality control and quality assurance, and the ability to exchange data with public health affiliates. In addition, a LIMS boosts efficiency by automating lab processes, which leads to enhanced customer service, timeliness, and accuracy. Virginia's Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services (DCLS) has launched a "STARLiMS" LIMS deployment project. As part of the project, DCLS is creating a system in which key "modules" talk with each other to boost laboratory management and data handling. The agency also formed a Core Team that has 25 laboratory and IT professionals, including both state employees and contract staff. DCLS depends on about 130 hours of external contract support each week in order to deploy additional tests and maintain the LIMS. STARLiMS is currently used by 22 public health laboratories and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Fearing the Worst
Lab Matters (Quarter 2, 2008) No. 1 , P. 11 ; Maddox, Nancy

An October 2007 test called TOPOFF IV conducted by the Department of Homeland Security found that the nation's public laboratories are not ready to handle a radiological dispersal device (RDD), otherwise known as a "dirty bomb." Officials at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimate that a TOPOFF IV scenario would likely produce more than 1 million invigorate samples in the first year. To increase national environmental radio-analytical capacity, the EPA will soon award to two public laboratories cooperative agreements of about $1.3 million over five years. Such emergencies might also require public labs to analyze unknown samples containing biological, chemical, radiological, and/or explosive agents. The Virginia Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services (DCLS) is among the few facilities in the country to dedicate a high-security area for processing unknown samples. Jim Pearson, head of DCLS, helped form a draft protocol for screening unknown substances and safeguarding labs and employees. A working version of the protocol was unveiled in late 2006, and pilot all-hazards receipt facilities were created and erected at the New York public health laboratory and in North Chelmsford, Mass. These facilities feature two separate air-handling systems that keep negative air pressure within while filtering circulating air. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working on a rapid urine radionuclide screen that would allow researchers to process a small amount of urine for 13 high-priority radioisotopes.
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Building A Better Nose
Chemical & Engineering News (03/31/08) Vol. 86 , No. 13 , P. 18 ; Reisch, Marc S.

Scientists have developed sophisticated new tools for analyzing odors. A company called AltraSens has created the OdorVector, which uses quartz microbalance sensors to gauge smells produced in waste processing and industrial facilities. The device has six sensors with different coatings to create patterns of specific odor samples. Peter Boeker, a lecturer at the University of Bonn and founder of AltraSens, says he and other researchers hope to eventually use genetics to improve existing biological sensors. The OdorVector and similar tools still need to be calibrated by human odor experts to be effective. During the next two years, AltraSens hopes a larger market will emerge for industrial odor measurement. Meanwhile, Scensive Technologies has developed conductive-polymer-coated silicon chips that could be used to evaluate the quality of odors in commercial products like household cleaners. Similarly, a company called Alpha MOS has developed a gas chromatography fingerprint identification scanner to assess the quality of omega-3 food additives.
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UC San Diego Researchers Eliminate Drug Discovery Bottleneck
EurekAlert (03/31/08)

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) have developed new computational protocols to help them determine the structure of unknown natural compounds. In particular, they wanted to determine the molecular structure of a class of natural compounds called nonribosomal peptides (NRPs). The researchers turned to UCSD's experts in mass spectrometry, bioinformatics, and computer science to form new algorithms that can decipher NRP components' mass and order. This discovery can slash the time it takes to determine the structure of peptides from six months or a year to as little as one day. In addition, this advance might assist drug-discovery researchers learn more about antibiotic, antiviral, and other pharmacologically significant properties. This effort may also help biosynthetic engineering efforts in reprogramming E. coli strains in order to turn them into NRP assembly lines. The researchers presented their findings recently at RECOMB 2008 in Singapore.
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Lab Upgrade Makes Hospital Safer and Faster
New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal (03/29/08) P. B3 ; Bartlett, Bruce

The Saint John Regional Hospital (SJRH) in New Brunswick, Canada, has automated a laboratory that tests patients' fluid samples. The equipment receives samples, removes caps from test tubes, separates the samples, places barcodes on the tubes, and puts the tubes in a centrifuge. The hospital worked with Roche Diagnostics to install the equipment, which can be expanded in the future if needed. Although SJRH has been testing samples in automated systems for about six years, the latest installment automates the process' front end, notes Susan Buckley, chief technologist in the chemistry division. The new system can process up to 200,000 samples annually, says Dr. Anne O'Brien, clinical department head of laboratory medicine. Roche Diagnostics' president and general manager, Christopher Parker, says labs usually represent 2 percent to 4 percent of a hospital's budget, but they provide 70 percent of the data needed to make a clinical decision. The benefits of the new system include less handling of potentially harmful substances, faster turnaround, and the ability to fulfill demand, says Parker.
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New Technique Will Speed the Development of Vaccines
Medical News Today (03/25/08)

Researchers from Washington State University and the National Institutes of Health's Rocky Mountain Laboratories created a method to screen numerous antigens to determine whether they could produce an immune response. Proteins that generate immune responses could be used to develop vaccines for a variety of infectious diseases, such as malaria, sleeping sickness, syphilis, anthrax, Q fever, and the Ebola virus. Immunologist Wendy Brown, who headed the research team, notes, "Now we have a high-throughput way of finding antigens from any pathogen, as long as you have the genome sequence." The screening method was developed using Anaplasma, a tick-borne pathogen that causes severe anemia in cattle, using the bacterium's DNA and comparing it to the genome sequences of other microbes. The researchers identified genes that code for proteins on the cell membrane, purified these proteins, and introduced them to T cells with previous exposure to Anaplasma proteins. The study indicates that 20 proteins produced an immune response--something several of these proteins have never done in the past.
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STMicro Launches Speedy Chip to Detect Bird Flu
Reuters (03/24/08)

STMicroelectronics created the VereFlu Chip to identify human strains of the influenza A and B viruses, including those that are drug-resistant and the H5N1 strain of the avian flu. The chip is disposable, the size of a thumbnail, and can analyze numerous types of pathogens and genes in one diagnostic test in just two hours. Other tests can only identify one strain at a time and can take up to weeks to produce the results. Possible markets for the chip include hospitals, airports, and border checkpoints.
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Sandia Teams Win Awards
Albuquerque Journal (03/24/08) P. B2

Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories have received four awards from the Federal Laboratory Consortium. The awards, given to three Sandia research teams and one Sandia executive, recognize their ability to transfer technology from the lab to the private sector. Excellence in Technology Transfer awards were given for the ElectroNeedle Biomedical Sensor Array and the Secure Sensor and Seal Technologies for Global Nuclear Nonproliferation. The electroneedle sensor provides instant, point-of-care biomedical assessments when pressed against the skin, while the Secure Sensor forms a seal that alerts local law enforcement when broken. An Excellence in Technology Transfer award was also awarded for a joint project with the Naval Research Laboratory on a Helical Fiber Amplifier that produces high beam-quality output while strengthening the present limitations of fiber lasers. Finally, David Goldheim, director of Sandia's Strategic Relationships Center from 1999 to 2007, accepted the Outstanding Technology Transfer Professional award for his work in mediating the transfer of technology.
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Search for Clean Water Leads to Tech Innovations
Indo-Asian News Service (03/23/08)

Scientists looking for a way to meet the demand for clean water have placed an emphasis on creating tools that can be used to purify existing water supplies. Membrane bioreactors, nanoscale filters, and tools for killing microbes can be used to disinfect, decontaminate, and desalinate water so it is clean enough to drink. Globally, the inadequate supply of clean water leads to millions of deaths a year, mostly in developing countries. "As dire as the growing problems are with a lack of enough clean water in the world, I have a great deal of hope that many of these problems can be solved by increasing research into the science and technology of water purification," says University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign scientist Mark Shannon. Experts in the field will meet in Washington, D.C., in June to discuss the clean water problem at the International Water Forum.
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Purdue Researchers Develop Cell-Based Biosensor for Rapid, Onsite Tox Testing
Cell-based Assay News (03/21/08)

Purdue University researchers have developed a biosensor that could prove useful for combating food-borne pathogens and bioterrorism. According to the researchers, the cell-based assay could test thousands of food or water samples for pathogens in just a few hours. The scientists, whose findings are published in the journal Laboratory Investigation, exposed cultured mammalian cells to pathogenic Listeria and Bacillus and then tested them using the multi-well plate-based biosensor. The biosensor, which includes a murine B-lymphocyte hybridoma, successfully detected viable cells of the toxins. The researchers used laser scanning cytometry and cryo-nano scanning electron microscopy to confirm the findings. Prof. Arun Bhunia said that 96-well plates were used to promote the flexibility of the method for possible use in rapid, on-site situations. Bhunia also noted, "Basically, researchers can adapt this technology to suit their own purposes. We are interested primarily in the food-borne pathogens, so that is where we started using this assay with Listeria monocytogenes and Bacillus cereus."
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Police Make Chip That Can ID Bioweapons Quickly
Daily Yomiuri (Japan) (03/19/08) P. 3

A new DNA chip developed by the National Research Institute of Police Science in Japan can more quickly identify a virus or bacteria spread during a bioterrorist attack. To use the chip, which contains DNA data on 20 possible biological weapons, a sample is placed inside the device and an electric current is applied, allowing the agent to multiply. Currently, it takes almost half a day to determine which biological weapon was used in an attack; however, the chip only takes about an hour to identify possible bioweapons, allowing for faster preparation of vaccines and other protective measures. The institute hopes to release the chip for police use as soon as possible.
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Blood-Matching Goes Genetic
Science (03/14/08) Vol. 319 , No. 5869 , P. 1478 ; Quill, Elizabeth

Genetic testing may improve how blood typing is done in hospitals, experts say. Supporters of genotyping say the practice might prevent 80 percent to 90 percent of alloimmunization, or the development of antibodies to donated red blood cells. A European Union-funded group called BloodGen, led by Neil Avent of the University of the West of England, has developed a gene chip called BLOODchip. The chip tests people's DNA using blood samples. The chip, now made by a firm called Progenika, assesses nine blood groups, including genes coding for the A, B, and D antigens. The firm's chip has obtained clinical approval for seven blood groups and is now seeking approval for RhD. Avent predicts that within 10 years, genotyping will supplant serology for most blood groups and perhaps earlier in some cases. Willy Flegal, a transfusion medicine specialist at the University Hospital Ulm, says he has genotyped more than 46,000 blood donations identified as D-, of which 47 were found to be actually D+. "The scientific arguments are clearly in favor of genotyping," he says. The city of Quebec announced in December it plans to genotype 22,000 blood donors, eliminating the need to do trial-and-error tests for people with rare blood groups.
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Cleaner Water Through Nanotechnology
Pharma Investments, Ventures & Law Weekly (03/09/08) P. 717

Researchers at the University of South Australia Ian Wark Research Institute have demonstrated that nanotechnology can be used to remove toxic chemicals, bacteria, viruses, and other hazardous materials from water more effectively and less expensively than conventional water purification methods. Though potable water is scarce in much of the world and getting scarcer, purification typically requires sophisticated equipment which is expensive to run and maintain. Researchers Peter Majewski and Chiu Ping Chan have coated silica particles with a nanometer-thin layer of active material based on hydrocarbon; the coating is formed through chemical self-assembly, requiring nothing more but stirring the ingredients to activate particles. The particles created thusly were then tested to see if they could remove viruses like Polio, bacteria like Escherichia coli, and Cryptosporidium parvum, a waterborne parasite. "The results clearly show that organic species can efficiently be removed at pH ranges of drinking water by stirring the coated particles in the contaminated water for up to one hour and filtering the powder," say the researchers, noting that that the filtration process takes place through an electrostatic attraction between the pathogens and the surface engineered particles. More than 6,000 people die daily due to water-related diseases around the world.
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Staab’s Futuristic Robot Appears on "CSI New York" Television Show

On the April 2 episode of the TV crime drama "CSI: New York" investigators use a futuristic robotic crime-scene tool that might look phony to anyone but Los Alamos scientists — or its inventor, ALA Past President, Torsten Staab, Ph.D. But, in fact the high-tech "sampler gun" is real and was developed by Staab at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The sampler can actually do all of the things the TV crime-scene investigators did in cracking their case.

The Los Alamos device, formally known as a computerized multi-purpose sampler gun, has too many detection, imaging and measuring gadgets to list. They include a GPS location receiver, sonic and laser measuring devices, video and still cameras, a voice-activation system, compass, wireless data link and more. All are designed to help people who must rapidly and precisely document things like hazardous materials spills and crime scenes. It would have been a big help when anthrax was released in Washington and three different federal agencies descended on the scene. For more on this story.
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