Gizmorama!

Good Morning,

As cancer continues to plague the entire world and claim
millions of lives, the fight against it continues as well.
Monitoring cancer is done with stills taken at various
moments and stages. The fight may become slightly less
difficult with a new system development that is able cont-
inuously monitor growth.

Until Tomorrow,
Erin

Device continuously monitors cancer growth

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - A Massachusetts Institute of Technology
team says it has created the first implantable device that
can continuously monitor cancer growth. Surgical removal of
a tissue sample, a procedure known as a biopsy, is now the
standard for diagnosing cancer. But biopsies only offer a
snapshot of the tumor at a single moment in time. MIT
Professor Michael Cima led the team in developing the device
that can monitor a tumor for weeks or months after the
biopsy. The scientists said the implants could one day
provide up-to-the-minute information about what a tumor is
doing — whether it is growing or shrinking, how it’s re-
sponding to treatment and whether it has metastasized or is
about to do so. “What this does is basically take the lab
and put it in the patient,” said Cima, who conducted the
experiments using a mouse model. He said the devices, which
could be implanted at the time of biopsy, could also be
tailored to monitor chemotherapy agents, allowing doctors to
determine whether cancer drugs are reaching the tumors.
“This is one of the tools we’re going to need if we’re
going to turn cancer from a death sentence to a manageable
disease,” Cima said. The work was described in a paper
published online last month in the journal Biosensors &
Bioelectronics.

U.S. closer to creation of a Smart Grid

WASHINGTON - U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and U.S.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu say they’ve moved closer to
creation of a nationwide “smart” electric power grid. A so-
called Smart Grid would replace the current, outdated system
of electricity distribution and employ real-time, two-way
communication technologies to allow users to connect direc-
tly with power suppliers. Locke and Chu said the new tech-
nology would not only create jobs and spur development of
innovative products that can be exported, but it is expected
to save consumers money and reduce America’s dependence on
foreign oil. But before the grid can be constructed there
needs to be agreement on standards for the devices that will
connect it. Locke and Chu met Monday with industry leaders
at the White House and announced the first set of standards
needed for the interoperability and security of the Smart
Grid. They also announced the maximum award available under
the Smart Grid Investment Grant Program will be increased
from $20 million to $200 million and for Smart Grid Demon-
stration Projects from $40 million to $100 million. Chu and
Locke said their meeting was designed to encourage industry
executives to expedite the adoption of standards in advance
of a major public standards workshop to be held this week
in Washington.

Environment can improve wound healing

BOSTON - U.S. medical scientists say they’ve found enviro-
nmental improvements can strengthen the physiological pro-
cess of wound healing. Researchers from the Benson-Henry
Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General
Hospital and the Boston Shriners Hospital found giving rats
living in isolation the opportunity to build nests led to
faster and more complete healing of burn injuries than was
seen in isolation-reared rats without nest-building mater-
ials. The scientists said they also found evidence that
the effect was associated with altered gene expression in
stress-associated structures in the brain. “These findings
are consistent with other animal studies that show how
stress and social deprivation reduce physical well being,
but our study is novel in showing that the detrimental
effects on physical health can be reversed by environmental
stimulation” Dr. John Levine, senior author of the paper,
said. The study is reported in the online journal PLoS One.