The "heartless" man of Cambridgeshire.

There is now a man in the street without a human heart. 

Surgeons at Papworth Hospital  have given a man a plastic heart, powered by a portable driver in a backpack. AND THE MAN IS DOING WELL...


Read the BBC news report here.

It's real

When people ask me what I do, I often say, "I work on embryonic stem cells and I make them into various cell types of the body." 

Sometimes people look at me in disbelief. Sometimes people cringe or grimace. Well, it's not that scary actually. 

 

Embryonic stem cells made into neural cells (they look long and stringy). I stained with antibodies that make neural cells fluoresce red under the microscope.  

 

Beating heart cells made from embryonic stem cells.

Embryonic stem cells made into retinal pigmented epithelial (RPE) cells. RPE is a layer of pigmented cells found behind the retina. It plays very important role in the eye. It absorbs excess light, nourishes the retina etc.

These are just some of the many different cell types that have been made from embryonic stem cells!

Major International Stem Cell Trials For Multiple Sclerosis Get Funding

Great news!


UK scientists getting ready to work on major international trials on the safety and effectiveness of stem cells in treating brain and spinal cord damage in people with multiple scleroris (MS) received £1 million from the MS Society and the UK Stem Cell Foundation.

Read the news report here. 

Put the breaks on using BRAIN POWER!!!

When trying to stop a fast moving car, our intent to jam break happens much earlier than the actual action of stepping on the break. 

A group of scientists in Germany found that the brain sends out unique messages during this period of "intent to jam break".

They then designed a system that reads the driver's brain signals, combines this with the muscle signals, and stops the car even before your foot touches the pedal.

Their system reacted 130 ms earlier than previous systems. For a car going at 100 km/h, this amounts to reducing the braking distance by 3.66 m!

That's pretty cool! Is it practical though?

1) Imagine looking like this everytime you drive

Image source: Mercedes 500sec.com

2) False alarm - Car stopping when it's not supposed to!

Image source: http://www.cawlocal584.com/humour.html 

3) Over reliance on the system

Methinks, neh.. not yet.

Ovarian Cancer Stem Cells

“Cases of ovarian cancer in Singapore have more than doubled from 1968 to 15.5 in every 100,000 women today. This trend is also seen in developing and newly developed countries where women place economic progress and career over procreation.”  - The Straits Times

Apparently, the more children a woman has and the earlier in life she gives birth, the lower her risk for ovarian cancer. 

Well, childbearing can’t be rushed. But we can certainly remind ourselves and our women friends to be more aware of ovarian cancer. 

More information:  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001891
 

Because not much is known about ovarian cancer, scientists are pounding away in the labs trying to find out more about this devastating disease. 

For example, a recent finding by researchers from Michigan, USA, showed that   

1) Cancer stem cells (cells within the tumor that give rise to MORE cancer cells) are present in ovarian cancer. 

 

2) Ovarian cancer stem cells recruit mesenchymal stem cells to the tumour. Mesenchymal stem cells are a type of adult stem cells found throughout the body. These cells can form different specialized cells such as fat, bone or cartilage. 

3) Mesenchymal cells increases the number of cancer stem cell by increasing a signal called BMP.

 And what does this study imply?

Beauty and the brain

Beauty, be it a beautiful face, art, or piece of music, activates the part of our brain known as medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC, red area in diagram below). mOFC is also involved in our emotions, feelings of reward and pleasure, and ability to make decisions.

Diagram from  Milad et. al. PNAS 2005

In response to this finding, John Lehrer suggested in "Why Does Beauty Exist" that the feeling of beauty is useful. According to Lehrer: 

"Beauty is a particularly potent and intense form of curiosity. It’s a learning signal urging us to keep on paying attention, an emotional reminder that there’s something here worth figuring out... ... We know just enough to know that we want to know more; there is something here, we just don’t what. That’s why we call it beautiful."

A few years back, R.J. Dolan and colleagues also showed that our mOFC is more active when we are looking at a happy looking face, as manifested in a smile. 

mOFC more active                                   mOFC less active

mOFC more active                                   mOFC less active

                           mOFC more active                                           mOFC less active

So,  

SMILE AWAY!!!!!

Gentlemen, DEFEND your swimmers

Human sperms are naturally slower swimmers compared to our monkey counterparts.

                                                    http://www.physorg.com/news109934150.html

And if you have a defect in the Defensin gene (DEFB126) , you have to try even harder to get your partner pregnant. The DEFB126 protein is found on the surface of sperms. It protects the sperm and helps it swim through the woman's cervical mucus to fertilise the egg.

Scientists found that:
- About half of all men carry one copy of the defective gene
- About a quarter of all men have two defective copies
- Sperms from men with two defective copies were 84% slower in swimming through the experimental “cervical mucus”. 
- Wives of men with two defective copies are 30% less likely to give birth

Prior to this study, male infertility causes were largely unknown. With knowledge gained from such a study, couples trying to conceive could undergo genetic testing to identify the underlying problem and choose a suitable assisted reproductive method. 

Here's the paper