Tagging IVF eggs, sperm and embryos

Never thought radio frequency ID (RFID) would get into this arena. Apparently a UK couple finally conceived a child by in vitro fertilization (IVF)--but the child turned out to be of mixed race while they were both Caucasian.

Employees at IVF clinics are just likely as any worker to make a mistake--except the consequences of mixing genetic material can be much weightier. The solution may be to apply electronic tags, a la RFID, that set off an alarm if the wrong eggs and sperm are brought too close together. They're also considering using barcodes--talk about having to write small...

So with RFID all they have to worry about is whether the low-frequency waves might hurt the eggs or sperm--and/or whether the electronic alarm that's loud enough to alert a possibly sleepy employee might harm the genetic material--or just plain scare the bejeepers out of the embryos.

Gene therapy gets huge boost

Unbelievable. Our great-grandchildren may one day be able to access genetic information from their long-dead ancestors and use it to correct undesirable genes of their own. Experiments with, for example, the mustard weed, indicate that plants have a molecular “memory” of ancestral genetic code they can actually copy from—seemingly as they reproduce—to correct their own DNA sequences. Now researchers speculate they may one day identify a similar treasure trove in human beings—and find ways to copy code that will replace that of broken, mutant, or just-plain-unwanted genes—including those that trigger cancer and other ravaging diseases.

Imagine if we could eventually eliminate disease by becoming wholly self-repairing creatures? Wow. What the hell would we do with all those healthy people in a world that’s already groaning under the weight of our staggering use—and abuse—of its natural resources? And/or what new afflictions might come along to replace disease as nature's way to control populations?

Oh, we’ll find a way, I’m sure. But it might be a bumpy road for a while.

Science fiction for sure - happy Easter

Swarms of ants? Subatomic particles? Unmanned air vehicles (UAVs)? Astounding to think these things could have behaviors in common. Listen to this. Scientists have now created a UAV that can transmit a "digital pheromone," or message—similar to the methods ants and subatomic particles use—to tell a neighboring craft what it has seen.

And we wonder how geese manage to keep that perfect “V” formation?

Whew. This is heavy stuff. A Northeast Ohio biomed company, Orbital Research, is playing a big role in the new concept. It’s writing a software—called “emergent” because, like the swarms, it grows out of the interaction of the people writing it, the people using it and the environment they’re using it in—that uses genetic algorithms and programs that mimic natural selection (which passes algorithms through hundreds of thousands of generations in a short period) to create—well, they use the word “breed” so let’s go with it—control behaviors for these UAVs. Orbital will also try to figure out how to change emergent behavior on the fly.

Using biological tools to control inanimate objects. I don’t know about you, but I think Rod Serling just snuck in the back of the room. And man, the hairs on the back of my neck are standing straight up.

Virtual alliances erase distance

Biomed centers are, not surprisingly, courting each other’s staff just as hospitals have always done. Top hospitals have always teamed up with top medical schools in competition for research dollars and are now using the Internet to expand the possibilities—and the distance between partners. Can a thousand-mile distance be overcome by technology? Houston’s already planning to host two world-class medical research facilities, and now it’s adding a third by virtually networking with Cornell in New York.

Patients will still get sick locally, but new virtual competitive alliances will expand the reach of research stars and the spread of research dollars. For Cleveland—where the competition between giants Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals is legendary—it means a lesson in globalization and the happy news that the research pond just got a lot bigger. Instead of complaining that med staff who fraternize with others are disloyal, we have the option to put IT resources to work and come up with some dream-team virtual matchmaking of our own.

Speedy new test for asthma measures--guess what?--nitric oxide

It's hard for patients with chronic asthma to describe nuances of their condition to doctors and nurses. Now researchers from Belgium have found a fast new way to understand: by quickly measuring nitric oxide levels in exhalation they can fairly accurately determine the quality of life an asthma patient is experiencing. More exhaled NO indicates greater stress on the lungs—and thus a lower quality of life.

This new one-minute NO test could help medical professionals reliably evaluate a patient's condition, measure ongoing progress, and adjust treatment accordingly. That's really good news for those who suffer the potentially life-threatening misery of severe asthma. And given the extraordinary role of NO is so many conditions, it may mean hope for using the test to discover better treatments for other conditions as well..

Stroke Warning Signs Often Occur Hours Or Days Before Attack

Reported everywhere in the media"Warning signs of an ischemic stroke may be evident as early as seven days before an attack and require urgent treatment to prevent serious damage to the brain, according to a study of stroke patients published in the March 8, 2005 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology."

The signs of TIA are much the same as for a full-blown stroke--they simply resolve themselves quickly (within 24 hours). Here's the list:
numbness, tingling, hyperesthesia (increased sensitivity), paralysis, localised weakness, dysarthria (difficult speech), aphasia (inability to speak), dysphagia (difficulty swallowing), diplopia (double vision), amaurosis fugax (temporary loss of vision in one eye) difficulty walking, incoordination, tremor, seizures, confusion, lethargy, dementia, delirium and coma.

Read more about TIA. It's good to know that there are warning signs and that preventive treatment can work--since the incidence of stroke is likely to increase as baby boomers age.

The trend is to slow down

It was bound to happen. As baby boomers jog up on 60, their bodies begin to protest a bit more. The breakneck pace of some exercise classes starts to knock out more people--at least temporarily--with injuries. Tennis elbow, torn Achilles tendons, wrenched knees, sprained ankles, back problems and more plague the forever-youthful-wannabes.

So now, in addition to the burgeoning number of slow-moving yoga classes--once thought the province of weirdos and women, now even guys are going for it in a big way--we have a study that confirms the powerful benefits of t'ai chi, another eastern approach to keeping the body healthy, for frail elderly folks.


Speaking of which, who the hell invented the idea that if you speed the music up you get a better workout? And then the abomination of selling music by the beats-per-minute? Some insane exercise freak in California (no offense, Californians) who has little or no genuine feeling for music, is my guess. I was stunned the first time I saw an exercise CD with BPM listed after each recording.

I guarantee you there's scientific evidence out there that people participate more enthusiastically (and have a higher heart rate) when they're enjoying themselves to music that's played at the speed the artist wrote the song--not simply abusing their bodies to rhythmic sounds.

I won't be sorry when the pendulum swings away from classes taught with artificially speeded-up CDs back to normal and slower speeds--and especially back to music played the way it's supposed to be.

...and it won't be just the frail and elderly getting a better workout.

Million dollar brains--even old ones

Clint Eastwood is getting old--and aren't we the beneficiaries? Saw "Million Dollar Baby" last night. The flood of thoughts and observations I experienced set me to wondering what modern science is saying these days about aging brains.

Old wives'--or should we say old scientists'--tales about aging brains losing tons of neurons have now been proven to be just that--tales. But "Use it or lose it" says a distinguished professor of anatomy at U.C. Berkeley. Funded by a grant and writing for the research section of the magazine Aging, she says challenging your brain results in it expanding, both physically and in chemical activity.

Oh, and guess what else keeps your brain healthy and extends life TLC--yep, that's right. Hugs. Social interaction. Friends. Fun. And if the rodents they tested this stuff on are any model, it doesn't take much. All the researchers changed was that instead of picking the rats up by the tail (standard practice) they hugged them against their chests for "a few moments."

Thought Eastwood getting old was a nice subject for my first entry on that "sinister cabal" of folks over at Blogcritics (we're linked to them from here now). Brace yourself--there's a lot to read there.

The guy who connected nitric oxide to heart disease

Well, well, well. Not only did was he one of three researchers who got the Nobel Prize for independently discovering the role of nitric oxide (NO) in heart disease, now he's gotten really smart and written a book about it.

And hired a professional copywriter to write the press release headline, too, I'll wager. Check this out: Nobel Laureate Award Winner Announces #1 Solution to the #1 Killer in America, Heart Disease; Announces St. Martin's Press

Pretty hard to ignore that one, isn't it? Which, of course, is what we copywriters and true-voice-finders are paid to do. I surely want to know he says in the book, and as a committed Internet researcher, I'm happy to say I've found the kernel of the research in this online article, Nitric Oxide and Vascular Health.

The gist is that healthy endothelial cells (cells that line blood vessels and filter various gases, fluid and various molecules across their cell membranes) produce the NO that signals another substance and your blood vessels end up dilating. Good for lots of things--it's even the basis on which Viagra was created.

Ah, the wonders of science.

Discoveries not always good news at first

Scientists have discovered a test that will tell them how good your chances are for getting well after you've just undergone a traumatic hospitalization for heart failure and spent thousands of either your insurance company's funds or your own.

I'd guess, as a heart failure patient, you'd hardly find it appealing to think that your doctor is giving you a test that's going to tell him you're very likely to die within 60 days after you leave the hospital. Like David Spade in that hysterical frequent flyer miles commercial, your reaction is likely to be NO, NADA, NO WAY, C-E-NO, I'm not interested in your test, thank you very much. ...unless of course you can help me.

It's ironic that researchers often have to find out negative information before they can come up with positive news about treatments. Anyway, here's a news article about the discovery that a high serum sodium level is a major predictor that you'll die soon after being diagnosed with heart failure. It's good that doctors are learning to pay more attention to this factor (formerly ignored in regard to heart failure). Happily, the story also reports that reducing these levels while you're in the hospital can improve your chances, and they've discovered a drug that can help.

So this is what "no salt" is all about for heart patients. When things are working as expected, your kidneys excrete excess sodium; here's more on what sodium serum level testing can tell you and your doctor.

I remember my dad struggling to adjust to living without salt. I don't know about you, but I hope I'd be hitting up the doctor and talking about that sodium level thing before I ever got close to being in the hospital.

Now how I would be able to cope without salt is another matter.

Mumps?

Ireland reports record numbers of young people getting the mumps this year. Most are students in the 18-24 age group who are reporting inflammation of the salivary glands as the main symptom.

Geez, I thought mumps was a thing of the past. Looked up its history--hard to find on the web--but got this tidbit:

"...some older virology textbooks that still included some historical background information on viruses.

• Hippocrates described an outbreak of mumps in the 5th century B.C.


• Hamilton in 1790 emphasized the importance of orchitis and thought some CNS complications also were related to this glandular infection.


• In 1934 Johnson and Goodpasture demonstrated a filtrable virus was present in the saliva after successfully transmitting the virus to rhesus monkeys...


• Habel in 1945 was able to cultivate the virus in chick embryo ...

Wonder if the Irish were preoccupied with something else (like bombing each other?) 15 or 20 years ago and didn't bother to follow routine with the combined measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (for kids 15 months of age or older). Anyway, if you're inclined, here's a site on modern Irish history. Might be fun to know some of that stuff for St. Patrick's day coming up.

Too logical

Sometimes a solution comes along for a terrible problem that's so elegant in its simplicity you wonder what in the hell took so long.

At a Chicago conferenc recently somebody figured out a way to save nearly half the 6000 people hanging onto life while waiting for kidney transplants. Voila--if your relative's blood type doesn't match yours, why not use a computer database to trade with somebody else's relative who does--and who can use yours.

The U.S. isn't the first country to think this up; Netherlands, Israel, and South Korea already operate similar programs. Database technology, which provides searchability in a hundred ways across millions of pieces of information--and which is as close as we can get to the way the human brain works--gives us ever-more-exciting ways to help people in our own backyards and people around the world.

Of course, it also gives the government--and enemies--frighteningly increasing power to know everything about you, too. But we've weathered world wars, raised a generation of kids to hide in the bunker from possible atomic bombs, got through the cold war, and are coexisting with soldiers having to fight wars that were unprovoked, so I guess we'll manage to come up with a way to coexist with vast numbers of people knowing incredible amounts of stuff about us. Already, studies show that our young people are far less concerned about privacy than earlier generations.

Good thing. And it looks like this time, the rebels among us are using computers--including blogs--to fight injustice instead of homemade bombs like the underground freedom fighters in the 60s. Truly, computers have brought home the truth: The pen is mightier than the sword.

Now may be we can get our government to switch weapons--and save a few tens/hundreds/thousands of lives. We don't need another generation where so many of our good young men don't live to marry and father the next generation.

Powerful, fast-recharging battery may relieve guilt

Now here's what sounds like a good use for nano-materials--and hopefully not a dangerous one. 'Twould be grand if this were brought to market soon. Though I love wireless devices for their convenience, I hate the constant purchasing, replacing and feeling-guilty-when-trying-to-decide-how-to-dispose of the typical ones. "Please discard properly. Batteries can leak... blah, blah" -- the little environmental consciousness part of my conscience nags me every time I throw them in the garbage...

Happy news from Nokia: Using nanocrystals, Nokia has invented (it's still in testing)"a rechargeable battery that can be fully charged in just 6 minutes, lasts 10 times as long as today's rechargeables and can provide bursts of electricity up to three times more powerful is showing promise in a Nevada lab."