Archive for August 2017

A team of researchers led by Daniel Gallego-Perez have created a novel therapy which has proved 98% success in reversing organ damage with just a single touch at Ohio State University. How? The researchers created a new technique called Tissue Nanotransfection - TNT for short. TNT uses a specific nanochip technology which can repair/replace injured organs, blood vessels and nerve cells.

This is a form of regenerative medicine; the branch of medicine whereby methods are created to regrow, repair or replace damaged or diseased cells, organs or tissues. In this technique, TNT has been successful in converting skin cells into vascular cells (those which carry blood around the body).

Published in the journal: Nature Nanotechnology, the research promises to replace damaged cells without any other invasive technique or any immunosuppression as the nanochip technology keeps the cells in the body under immune surveillance.

To work its magic, the nanochip is first loaded with a specific genetic code and/or certain proteins. It is then placed onto the skin and a small electric current (which is barely felt by the patient) is applied to the chip, creating channels in the skin tissue where it is grounded and begins to reprogram the cells. After the procedure is completed, the chip is removed and the patient returns to life as normal. This technique is simple and non-invasive so much so that it can be completed in any point-of-care.

"By using our novel nanochip technology, injured or compromised organs can be replaced. We have shown that skin is a fertile land where we can grow the elements of any organ that is declining," said Dr. Chandan Sen, director of Ohio State's Centre for Regenerative Medicine & Cell Based Therapies, who co-led the study with L. James Lee, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering with Ohio State's College of Engineering in collaboration with Ohio State's Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centre.

Within this study, mice and pigs were used to determine the success of the novel nanochip, and it's not only proven to be a success it even proven to provide the ability to grow brain cells. “What’s even more exciting is that it not only works on the skin but on any type of tissue,” Sen said. Amazingly, the researchers were able to grow brain cells on the skin surface of a mouse, harvest them, and then inject them into the mouse’s injured brain. Only a few weeks after having a stroke, brain function in the mouse was restored, and it was healed.

“The concept is very simple,” Lee said. “As a matter of fact, we were even surprised how it worked so well. In my lab, we have ongoing research trying to understand the mechanism and do even better. So, this is the beginning, more to come.” In 2018, the researchers expect to this research to be approved for clinical trials in humans.

If TNT is as promising as it seems, this will be a big game changer in the field of regenerative medicine.

References

Daniel Gallego-Perez, Durba Pal, Subhadip Ghatak, Veysi Malkoc, Natalia Higuita-Castro, Surya Gnyawali, Lingqian Chang, Wei-Ching Liao, Junfeng Shi, Mithun Sinha, Kanhaiya Singh, Erin Steen, Alec Sunyecz, Richard Stewart, Jordan Moore, Thomas Ziebro, Robert G. Northcutt, Michael Homsy, Paul Bertani, Wu Lu, Sashwati Roy, Savita Khanna, Cameron Rink, Vishnu Baba Sundaresan, Jose J. Otero, L. James Lee, Chandan K. Sen. Topical tissue nano-transfection mediates non-viral stroma reprogramming and rescue. Nature Nanotechnology, 2017; DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2017.134
http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nnano.2017.134.html?foxtrotcallback=true
https://wexnermedical.osu.edu/mediaroom/pressreleaselisting/researchers-develop-regenerative-medicine-breakthrough
https://medicine.osu.edu/regenerativemedicine/pressandrecognition/tissue%20nanotransfection/pages/index.aspx
https://www.nature.com/subjects/regenerative-medicine

Okay, I'm going to state it here first, there are no candy canes involved in the science behind these supercapacitors, it only looks like a candy cane. Scientists at QMUL have found a way to make the charging of phones and other devices much, much faster, with better capacities, more flexible and lasting performance. Current technologies don't tick all of the boxes that have just been listed, so a better solution is needed; that's where supercapacitors come in. Supercapacitors are mainly used to power electric and hybrid cars but they're slowly making their way into other technologies because of their ability to store more energy than the state-of-the-art battery. Supercapacitors are made up of two conducting plates, separated by a non-conducting material which can store more charge at a given voltage. The researchers at QMUL made a prototype of a candy-cane-shaped polymer supercapacitor where the nanostructures used to create the supercapacitor are interweaved within a bulk material, maintaining "material toughness" and maintaining a larger surface area. Project leader, Stoyan Smoukov, explained: "Our supercapacitors can store a lot of charge very quickly, because the thin active material (the conductive polymer) is always in contact with a second polymer which contains ions, just like the red thin regions of a candy cane are always in close proximity to the white parts. But this is on a much smaller scale. This interpenetrating structure enables the material to bend more easily, as well as swell and shrink without cracking, leading to greater longevity. This one method is like killing not just two, but three birds with one stone." This type of supercapacitor is now electrochemically resistant and can maintain performance over many charging cycles, unlike other types of capacitors which are prone to expanding and losing their efficiency. The scientists are not stopping there, they're currently researching other materials which can produce even better supercapacitors which could "power electronics embedded in smart clothing, wearable and implantable devices, and soft robotics". It's amazing how common, everyday shapes can influence technology and help us create better, more efficient capacitors/batteries for our technology.

References:

Kara D. Fong, Tiesheng Wang, Hyun-Kyung Kim, R. Vasant Kumar, Stoyan K. Smoukov. Semi-Interpenetrating Polymer Networks for Enhanced Supercapacitor Electrodes. ACS Energy Letters, 2017; 2014 DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.7b00466
Queen Mary University of London. "Candy cane supercapacitor could enable fast charging of mobile phones." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 16 August 2017. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/08/170816100226.htm>.
Materials and Quotations from QMUL: http://www.qmul.ac.uk/media/news/items/se/199334.html

I thought I would write something different on my blog anniversary and sort of go back to my chemistry roots and the reason why I did my third-year research project... to find a way to prevent the exploitation of coral. Albeit this blog post will be discussing the degradation of coral reefs and how we are very close to losing the beautiful coral structures under the sea.

Coral reefs are undergoing severe bleaching. This has been reported over several years, not just in 2017. Starting from 1998, reports started to talk about coral bleaching, increasing in severity in 2010 and reaching its highest degree in 2017.

Corals, which build reefs, are made up of hundreds of thousands of polyps, living in colonies. These polyps build a skeleton made of calcium carbonate in layers, where the polyps live on top (visible to the naked eye if you're close enough) and the coral reef lives on top of old coral reefs a.k.a limestone.

But coral cannot grow or flourish on their own, they live in harmony with a type of single-celled algae called zooxanthellae. Zooxanthellae (Zoox) give the polyps their significant green/brown colour and they absorb their energy from sunlight, hence why coral reefs grow closest to the sunlight on the sea floor. Via photosynthesis, the Zoox convert the sunlight they absorb to energy, in harmony with the polyps. Under heat stress, this harmony is broken, even it's only 1-3 degrees Celsius increase of temperature over the optimal temperature. Instead of normal photosynthesis, Zoox start to produce harmful byproducts such as hydrogen peroxide which start to leak into the polyps. In turn, the polyps start to kick out the Zoox from them, leaving them bare and the significant white colour of bleached coral.

(A) A normal cell with distinct subcellular organelles. (B) A cell undergoing degradation with indistinct subcellular organelles and a thick coral cell. (C) A degraded cell with an enlarged accumulation body and shrunken morphology.

However, we have to take note that heat stress is not the only factor in coral bleaching. Since corals and algae possess a very fragile eco-system and need specific conditions to thrive, factors such as salinity, the opacity of the water, oxygen levels and temperature can all affect the growth of coral. The increase of salinity, high influx of sediments and/or pollutants or changes in the sea level and in temperature can degrade coral.

In this blog post, we'll only be looking at heat stress which is caused by the increasing sea temperatures due to global warming.

Coral bleaching does not necessarily mean the death of the coral, if the temperature of the sea decreases, zooxanthellae can return back to the polyps and grow. however if they don't, and the polyps can die from starvation or disease. So although the coral reef isn't dead yet, the increase in sea temperatures which continue to rise will eventually affect the reefs and deplete them. It's also been predicted that this will more noticeable every coming summer if we do not provide a solution to global warming and lower greenhouse emissions.

What's currently causing global warming?

You've probably already heard of the reasons why global warming is occurring but I'll quickly explain it for people who have not. Global warming is the increase of the temperature of the Earth and it is caused by the increase of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. The most prevalent greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide which causes the greenhouse effect. Living up to its name, the greenhouse effect is like a greenhouse which traps heat inside it whilst the atmosphere around it is cooler. The earth's atmosphere acts as a gigantic greenhouse, trapping heat from the sun. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane accumulate in the atmosphere and create a "barrier" that traps sunlight, warming up the planet. This warming gives off heat energy of a longer wavelength infrared radiation, which radiates out toward space. However, a portion of this outgoing radiation doesn't pass through the atmosphere but is reflected back down to Earth, effectively trapping heat and keeping the planet about 33 degrees Celsius - the natural greenhouse effect which is required to provide life on earth. With the increase in gas emissions from car engines, for example, and the mass-scale burning of fossil fuels there has been a spike in carbon dioxide emissions, making the greenhouse "layer" thicker, therefore trapping in more heat. It's predicted that just within a century, the Earth's atmosphere could heat up an extra 2-5 degree Celsius over the norm. Although it doesn't sound like the big difference it's already having a big impact on the earth and in our case, the coral reefs.

To prevent global warming we need to stop using fossil fuels and switch to more efficient means of energy. A difficult solution, but it has to be done...

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My journey on this blog is now three years old!🎉 I want to thank you all, again, for reading my blog. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Here's to many more years to come!

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References and further reading/watching:

This blog post was my entry for the Tipbox/Abcam science writing competition (2017), although I didn't win, I'm glad I took part in the competition. Let me know your opinions on my post below in the comments. :)

My love for science started when I was very young. I know that at first, I remember that I aspired to grow up to become an astronaut. My passion for space and space travel then turned into a love for archaeology and I wanted to become an archaeologist, taking my dad with me to “archaeological digs” at the museum. By the time I got to my GCSE's and A-levels I had decided that I wanted to become a pharmacist. So I interned at a local pharmacy so that I could experience what my future career would be like - it was then I realised I just couldn't spend my life dispensing medicine (no offence to all the pharmacists out there!) I just felt like I wanted to do something different.

UCAS application time was imminent and I had to pick a course I wanted to study at university and fill in my application form, but still didn't know what I wanted to study at university. This didn't last long though, just until I overheard one of my classmates asking one of my chemistry teachers about Medicinal Chemistry. Immediately after my chemistry lesson, I spent my free period researching all about medicinal chemistry and what my career would be in the future. The following year, I was at a reputable university in London, studying medicinal chemistry.

Most of our subjects were merged between pure chemistry subjects and pharmaceutical sciences subjects; it wasn't until the third year when things began to differentiate and we delved more into medicinal chemistry, drug design and conducting our own laboratory-based projects.

Without waffling on, I'm here to talk to you about my research project... My project was titled "On the synthesis of a derivative of Montiporyne E- an anti-cancer derivative". Montiporyne E is a compound which has antifungal, antibacterial and cytotoxic properties; however, it’s derived from hard coral (Montipora sp.). Clearly, farming large quantities of hard coral just to get minuscule quantities of Montiporyne E is not right for the environment and it also will not produce enough product to meet the demand, so I developed a three-step synthesis to produce a derivative of Montiporyne E.

Ever since the initiation of my third and final year at university, I pondered of what my final project would be like, my results, and my main goal was to make my final product. That's it. You can obviously tell I missed a few important points there... And my project supervisor did not help me with this at all − instead, she encouraged me to continue the way I was working. So, that's how I continued until all of my experiments in the lab were completed and I had a final product, as expected, albeit only a few drops of yellowish oil in a tiny vial and a handful of NMR results to discuss in my final write-up.

My final product!

Towards the end, although too late, I realised that science is a continuous process and that during my project; the aim wasn't to finish and get a final product but to perfect each step until I find the optimal reaction that yields most product and cleanest NMRs. It didn't matter if I hadn't completed the three step synthesis and this could all be identified in the final report. In the end, I didn't have to worry as I got a good grade for my project and final report and soon after graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in medicinal chemistry.

After graduating, I thought my career would continue in the laboratory and I would continue where I left off, except at the same time I wanted to write about science and develop into a published writer. So during my time of unemployment, I set up my blog: Crystals and Catalysts and I used it to communicate science with the world (literally). My blog opened up the door to a large community of science editors, bloggers and Instagrammers. It also landed me my first role in medical communications as an editorial assistant. Medical communications is a field I wouldn’t have heard of if I was not searching for science communication roles. It’s a whole new world to discover, seeing new drugs come to the market, their clinical trials results, their approval by regulatory agencies and seeing the relationship of respected scientists with pharmaceutical companies and their research. I’ve also been fortunate enough to write and prepare materials for the launching of new diabetes drugs coming to the market and new glaucoma treatments.

Yet, my job is like a ghost writer, hidden behind closed doors, only reaching scientists and healthcare professionals. The dream of being published is still engrained in my mind and I want to have the opportunity to make science reach the public and collaborate with scientists to share their science and I’m still working towards this goal...

In no way should you feel as if you started your career path in one area – or if you have chosen a specific research area – that you are devoted to that for the rest of your career, there is always an opportunity to change your field and use your education to the fullest to get the experiences you want in life.

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