MIT Works Toward Safer Gene Therapy: Researchers at MIT have recently had a successful gene therapy and stem cell experiment using nanotechnology to synthesize biodegradable polymers for genetic transfer. These biodegradable carriers are a safer alternative to previous methods involving viral vectors, which often cause negative health effects. There are currently no methods of gene therapy that have been approved by the FDA, so this breakthrough could potentially open up an entirely novel market in the industry.
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/gene-delivery-0907.html
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/blog/2007/09/mit_scientists.html
Three Americans Win the 2009 Nobel Prize for Medicine: Three Americans won the 2009 Nobel Prize for Medicine early Monday morning. Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider, and Jack Szostak have focused their research on telomeres (structures at the end of chromosomes), and how these structures prevent chromosomes from eroding away. Their research has suggested that cancer cells may specific enzymes from telomeres (telomerase) to fuel their uncontrolled growth. This enzyme has already been linked to several genetic diseases. The research is relevant because it may lead to new methods to combat cancer. Also, the shortening of telomeres is one of the fundamental reasons why the human body ages, and are play a key role in aging and longevity research.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/10/05/health/AP-EU-Nobel-Medicine.html?_r=1&hp
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2009/index.html
http://www4.utsouthwestern.edu/cellbio/shay-wright/intro/facts/sw_facts.html
http://genetics.mgh.harvard.edu/szostakweb/
http://biochemistry.ucsf.edu/labs/blackburn/
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/pharmacology/research/greider.html
Lab-on-Chip Uses Tiny Blood Sample to Assess Breast Cancer Risk: The University of Toronto has developed a prototype device that can quickly measure hormone levels in tiny amounts of fluid. The product may one day be used to analyze risk for breast cancer, steroid use in athletes, and other chemical measurements. If successful, the product may fundamentally change the operations and cost structure of clinical labs. The university researchers are currently looking for partners to help commercialize the product. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601202&sid=a06wRVTnxcQ0
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The University of Toronto seems to be readily making advances with biomarkers, and has been able to apply this to different kinds of cancers. We posted the article last week that was very similar, except with a urine sample to diagnose prostate cancer.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting how they've applied this emerging technology to several broad areas.
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/
Kacey
In response to the "Lab-on-chip" post as well as Kacey's comments:
ReplyDeleteThe original prostate cancer urine chip was also implied to have potential in monitoring biomarkers for other diseases, such as MRSA, H1N1, and HIV. If this was the case, a single device could completely revolutionize diagnostics, increasing the cost-effectiveness of diagnosis and treatment.
As for cancer diagnosis, different types of cancers have very different biomarkers. Even within the same type of cancer, individuals may exhibit different gene or protein expression levels, which often correlate with drug effectiveness or resistance. Although the chip mentioned in this week's blog is only capable of measuring estrogen levels at this point, further research into this area should allow for development of more specialized devices. If chips were able to diagnose specific markers, then targeted therapies could become much more effective. This type of diagnostic tool would help push forward the idea of personalized medicine and treating diseases on an individual basis.
Nicole Cohen
Any reason why the gene therapy articles are from 2 years ago instead of last week?
ReplyDeleteI did a search to see if anything had happened in the 2 years since those articles were published, and I found this link: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/ovarian-0730.html which is from July of this year, where they were able to use nanoparticles made of these biodegradable polymers to deliver genes to ovarian cells to treat ovarian cancer.
-Lu Chou
David Weingeist
ReplyDeleteRe: thundeer
I was wondering the same thing... I found this article that the team may have meant to cite:
http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/56041/
The article describes MIT researcher Daniel Anderson using nanoparticles to deliver vascular endothelial growth factor to stem cells that can then be implanted into mice to stimulate new blood vessel growth.
This is an exciting result for the field; however, the non-viral biodegradable particles are not as efficacious as traditional adenoviral vector delivery. As discussed in class, this technology is at least a decade away from the clinic.
Diagnostics are evaluated on two elements:
ReplyDelete1) Sensitivity
2) Specificity
These labs on chips will have to beat out other methods of diagnosis (sometimes ones that are very cheap) in order to be adopted full-scale.