Category Archives: BioEngineering

Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the bacteria responsible for gonorrhea. (Image: National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering)

Describing it as a serious situation, the World Health Organization has issued a grim warning about the dramatic rise of antibiotic resistant gonorrhea around the world. The agency is now calling for the quick development of drugs to treat the sexually transmitted disease.

Data collected from nearly 80 countries shows that antibiotic resistance is making gonorrhea much tougher, and at times impossible, to treat. The disease is becoming increasingly immune to older and cheaper antibiotics, and treatment-resistant strains are now appearing even in countries where monitoring practices are top notch. WHO, with help from a global team of researchers, is set to release these findings in a special edition of PLoS Medicine prior to the STI & HIV World Congress that will be held in Rio from July 9-12.

The bacteria that cause gonorrhea are particularly smart, said WHO medical officer Teodora Wi in a statement. Every time we use a new class of antibiotics to treat the infection, the bacteria evolve to resist them.

Each year, the sexually transmitted disease afflicts an estimated 78 million people worldwide. Gonorrhea is caused by the Neisseria gonorrhoeae bacterium, and it infects both men and women. Symptoms include a greenish yellow or whitish discharge from the penis and vagina, burning while urinating, swollen glands in the throat (due to oral sex), and other unpleasant manifestations. The disease is particularly tough on women, and its frequently accompanied by pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility, ectopic pregnancy (when the fetus develops outside the uterus), and an increased risk of contracting HIV. WHO says the disease is spreading on account of decreased condom use, increased urbanization and travel, poor detection measures, and inadequate or failed treatments.

Data collected by WHO from 2009 to 2014 shows widespread resistance to the commonly used antibiotics ciprofloxacin and azithromycin, along with emerging resistance to the current last-resort treatment involving injectable ceftriaxone. Superbugs that couldnt be treated with the last line of defence have been reported in France, Japan, and Spain. The agency is now advising doctors to prescribe a double-whammy treatment involving both azithromycin and ceftriaxone. This is a rather grim prescription, given that azithromycin-resistant gonorrhea is now being reported in 81 percent of countries, and ceftriaxone-resistant gonorrhea has taken root in 66 percent of countries. Ultimately, WHO says we need to develop a vaccine, because gonorrhea will always remain a step ahead of our efforts to curb it with antibiotics.

WHO is also calling for the rapid development of new drugs to treat the disease. Disturbingly, the research and development pipeline for gonorrhea is relatively empty, with only three new candidate drugs currently in clinical development, according to WHO. Part of the problem has to do with Big Pharmas reluctance to develop drugs that treat gonorrhea, which are only taken for short periods of time (unlike meds for chronic diseases), and become less effective over time as resistance develops.

To address the pressing need for new treatments for gonorrhea, we urgently need to seize the opportunities we have with existing drugs and candidates in the pipeline, said Manica Balasegaram, who directs the not-for-profit Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP). In the short term, we aim to accelerate the development and introduction of at least one of these pipeline drugs, and will evaluate the possible development of combination treatments for public health use. Any new treatment developed should be accessible to everyone who needs it, while ensuring its used appropriately, so that drug resistance is slowed as much as possible.

In addition to developing new drugs and re-evaluating existing antibiotics, WHO says its critical to develop treatments that are easier to administer, and produce more simplified treatment guidelines.

An 18-month review into antimicrobial resistance warns that superbugs will kill upwards of 10

This latest development is another discouraging reminder that our antibiotics are failing. Last year, the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries in Britain claimed that a new era of antimicrobial resistance is already upon us, and that 50,000 people are already dying each year in the US and Europe from untreatable infections. Should nothing be done to offset this trend, as many as 10 million people could die each year by the mid-point of the 21st century, making antimicrobial resistance more deadly than cancer.

Antibiotics that treat gonorrhea may be failing, but theres still a way to fight back: practice safe sex.

[World Health Organization, CBC News]

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Experts Sound the Alarm as Drug Resistant Gonorrhea Goes Global - Gizmodo

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5 ways CRISPR will save your life - Red Bull

CU Denvers first group of bioengineering undergraduates

We were all in it together

Thats how Jacob Altholz, a recent CU Denver graduate, remembers his experience in the undergraduate bioengineering program, which is part of the College of Engineering and Applied Science with upper division courses taught on CU Anschutz Medical Campus. Jacob and 14 of his classmates are the first group of students to graduate from the program, which is the first of its kind in Colorado.

His fellow classmate, Rachelle Walter, also remembers how much she enjoyed learning how to work together. The program created a cohesive environment that allowed students to work closely with one another and make friendships to last a lifetime.

There were definitely a few late nights and waves of emotion, but we had each other, Walter said. I know something about each of my classmates and I will even be continuing my bioengineering education alongside one of them.

A Colorado native, Altholz had excelled at math and science in high school, so an engineering degree seemed like the right path. He chose bioengineering because of its biological nature and the opportunity to work in a field related to health policy, another area of interest for him. I think of biology as a people-based study and Im a social person, so I like being around other people, he said. The bioengineering program gave him the chance to work with others while also challenging his intellectual skills. Little did he know hed also meet some of his closest friends and be given so many opportunities along the way.

Both Altholz and Walter went through the program while working at the same time, and CU Denver offered them the flexibility to do so. Both found CU Denver to be the perfect atmosphere for students trying to get a degree and start a career at the same time. Walter also enjoyed the diversity of students at CU Denver. With students coming from all over Colorado, CU Denver is the perfect intersection for students of different backgrounds to meet and form friendships, she said.

At the undergraduate level bioengineering offers rigorous training, combining mathematical and physical sciences with engineering principles. At the core of bioengineering is a focus on catalyzing technology to cure and prevent disease.

CU Denver gave us skills that we can sell, Altholz explained. Bioengineering is a relatively new field with big potential for the future, but as Altholz sees it, the degree is meaningless unless you also have skills and experience when you get it. An engineering degree already puts graduates ahead of the game, but in such a rapidly growing field, students need hands-on experience now more than ever. Thats where CU Denver meets the needs of its students head-on.

The CU Denver undergraduate bioengineering program offered research and collaborative opportunities across departments. In fact, Walter had the opportunity to do an American Physiological Society Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship, where she was published alongside Associate Professor Richard Benninger, PhD, and Post-doctoral Research Fellow Nikki Farnsworth, PhD.

Between working in a prosthetics lab and working in the cardiology department of the Colorado Childrens Hospital, Altholz was able to get hands-on experience through numerous internships, while being connected to faculty and students of other departments along the way. Everything I was doing felt relevant, he said.

By attending CU Denver, Walter and Altholz benefited from new facilities and a program tailored to face the needs of the bioengineering field, as Altholz describes it. Unlike similar degree programs, which start with a mechanical engineering core and add biological components, CU Denvers program was created with bioengineering in mind.

We had the opportunity to learn skills and concepts directly in the context of bioengineering, said Walter. Using CU Denvers resources and keeping the integrative focus of the program in mind, professors brought in guest lecturers and faculty from other departments to create well-rounded courses.

By maintaining a small core group of students, faculty had the opportunity to offer more one-on- one feedback and really get to know the students capabilities. In more than one way, they got to grow up together, leaning on one another when the going got tough, and celebrating one another when they succeeded.

While Walter has decided to continue to get her masters degree in bioengineering, Altholz has decided to begin medical school this fall. Even in this new field, he is staying true to the core of bioengineering the cure and prevention of disease.

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Prepared for the future - CU Denver Today (press release)

Lehigh has established a new Department of Bioengineering that will build upon the universitys existing bioengineering undergraduate and graduate programs, according to an announcement from Provost Patrick V. Farrell.

The department, which was formally announced on July 1, will be chaired by Professor Anand Jagota, a member of the chemical and biomolecular engineering faculty who has chaired the bioengineering program since 2004.

As Lehigh moves toward the creation of a new College of Health, the new Department of Bioengineering will form an essential connection point for ongoing interdisciplinary research and serve as a natural channel of partnership between the colleges, Farrell wrote.

The initial department faculty includes 17 members with academic appointments, as well as 17 affiliated members, according to the announcement. Their research is supported by, among others, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Energy.

The field of bioengineering was born out of a combination of elements from other well-established disciplines, Jagota told University Communications. In recent years, it has developed its own language, its own tools, its own gravitational pull, so to speak. Thus, the timing is right for Lehigh to recognize this evolution by organizing the faculty and students working in this space into a self-standing department.

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Lehigh establishes new Department of Bioengineering - The Brown and White

Text size: research Jonsson School Researchers Refine Biosensor to Measure Three Diabetes-Related Compounds for a Week

July 3, 2017

Researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas are getting more out of the sweat theyve put into their work on a wearable diagnostic tool that measures three diabetes-related compounds in microscopic amounts of perspiration.

Type 2 diabetes affects so many people. If you have to manage and regulate this chronic problem, these markers are the levers that will help you do that, said Dr. Shalini Prasad, professor of bioengineering in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science. We believe weve created the first diagnostic wearable that can monitor these compounds for up to a week, which goes beyond the type of single-use monitors that are on the market today.

In a study published recently in Nature Scientific Reports, Prasad and lead author Dr. RujutaMunje, a recent bioengineering PhD graduate, describe their wearable diagnostic biosensor that can detect three interconnected compounds cortisol, glucose and interleukin-6 in perspired sweat for up to a week without loss of signal integrity.

If a person has chronic stress, their cortisol levels increase, and their resulting insulin resistance will gradually drive their glucose levels out of the normal range, said Prasad, Cecil H. and Ida Green Professor in Systems Biology Science. At that point, one could become pre-diabetic, which can progress to Type 2 diabetes, and so on. If that happens, your body is under a state of inflammation, and this inflammatory marker, interleukin-6, will indicate that your organs are starting to be affected.

Last October, Prasad and her research team confirmed they could measure glucose and cortisol in sweat. Several significant advances since then have allowed them to create a more practical, versatile tool.

We wanted to make a product more useful than something disposable after a single use, Prasad said. It also has to require only your ambient sweat, not a huge amount. And its not enough to detect just one thing. Measuring multiple molecules in a combinatorial manner and tracking them over time allows us to tell a story about your health.

Extending theLifespan of the Monitor

One factor that facilitated their devices progress was the use of room temperature ionic liquid (RTIL), a gel that serves to stabilize the microenvironment at the skin-cell surface so that a weeks worth of hourly readings can be taken without the performance degrading over time.

This greatly influences the cost model for the device youre buying four monitors per month instead of 30; youre looking at a years supply of only about 50, Prasad said. The RTIL also allows the detector to interface well with different skin types the texture and quality of pediatric skin versus geriatric skin have created difficulties in prior models. The RTILs ionic characteristics make it somewhat like applying moisturizer to skin.

Prasads team also determined that their biomarker measurements are reliable with a tiny amount of sweat just 1 to 3 microliters, much less than the 25 to 50 previously believed necessary.

We actually spent three years producing that evidence, Prasad said. At those low volumes, the biomolecules expressed are meaningful. We can do these three measurements in a continuous manner with that little sweat.

Prasad envisions that her wearable devices will contain a small transceiver to send data to an application installed on a cellphone.

With the app were creating, youll simply push a button to request information from the device, Prasad said. If you measure levels every hour on the hour for a full week, that provides 168 hours worth of data on your health as it changes.

That frequency of measurement could produce an unprecedented picture of how the body responds to dietary decisions, lifestyle activities and treatment.

People can take more control and improve their own self-care, Prasad said. A user could learn which unhealthy decisions are more forgiven by their body than others.

An Accessible, Affordable Solution for More People

Prasad has emphasized frugal innovation throughout the development process, making sure the end product is accessible for as many people as possible.

Weve designed this product so that it can be manufactured using standard coating techniques. We made sure we used processes that will allow for mass production without adding cost, Prasad said. Our cost of manufacturing will be comparable to what it currently takes to make single-use glucose test strips as little as 10 to 15 cents. It needs to reach people beyond America and Europe and even within first-world nations, we see the link between diabetes and wealth. It cant simply be a small percentage of people who can afford this.

In the market, theres nothing that is a slap-on wearable that uses perspired sweat for diagnostics. And I think we are the closest.

Dr. Shalini Prasad, professor of bioengineering and Cecil H. and Ida Green Professor in Systems Biology Science

Prasad was motivated to address this specific problem in part by her own story.

South Asians, like myself, are typically prone to diabetes and to cardiovascular disease, Prasad said. If I can monitor on a day-to-day basis how my body is responding to intake, and as I age, if I can adjust my lifestyle to keep those readings where they need to be, then I can delay getting a disease, if not prevent it entirely.

For Prasad, the latest work is a fulfilling leap forward in what has already been a five-year process.

Weve been solving this problem since 2012, in three phases, Prasad said. The initial concept for a system-level integration of these sensors was done in collaboration with EnLiSense LLC, a startup focused on enabling lifestyle-based sensors and devices. In the market, theres nothing that is a slap-on wearable that uses perspired sweat for diagnostics. And I think we are the closest. If we find the right partner, then within a 12-month window, we hope to license our technology and have our first products in the market.

In addition to Prasad and Munje, Dr. Sriram Muthukumar,adjunct associate professor of materials engineering, and bioengineering research assistant Badrinath Jagannath were also involved with the work published in Nature Scientific Reports.

Media Contact: Stephen Fontenot, UT Dallas, (972) 883-4405, [emailprotected] or the Office of Media Relations, UT Dallas, (972) 883-2155, [emailprotected]

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Bioengineers Improve Diabetes Monitor's Versatility, Durability - University of Texas at Dallas (press release)

Auckland Bioengineering Institute Thursday 29 June 2017, 09:42AM

Media release from Auckland Bioengineering Institute

Research into heart and gut disease at Auckland Bioengineering Institute (ABI) has received a significant boost with recent funding from the New Zealand Health Research Council (HRC).

A five-year research programme looking at the biomechanics of heart disease has been awarded $4,964,878, while two researchers from ABIs Gastrointestinal Research Group have received HRC Emerging Researcher funding of $250,000 each to look at electrical abnormalities in the gut.

The heart team led by Professor Martyn Nash, Honorary Professor of Biomedical Engineering at ABI and in Engineering Science, is looking at biomechanical factors such as stiffness and stress which are known to have important influences on heart function, but are difficult to quantify.

Working with Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences researchers Professor Alistair Young, a medical imaging expert, and National Heart Foundation Professor of Heart Health, Rob Doughty, Professor Nashs team will develop novel tools for robust evaluation of biomechanical factors in cardiac patients.

The new knowledge from this programme will improve our understanding of the mechanisms of heart disease, says ABI research fellow Dr Vicky Wang. This will enable better targeting of treatment, leading to better outcomes for patients and reduced health care costs.

Gut research at ABI also aims to improve outcomes for patients. Research Fellow, Dr Timothy Angeli is using his HRC Emerging Researcher grant to develop gastric ablation as a novel treatment for slow wave abnormalities. (Slow waves form part of underlying bio-electrical activity in the gut. Abnormal slow waves have been associated with major functional gastrointestinal disorders, such as gastroparesis, chronic unexplained nausea and vomiting, and functional dyspepsia.)

Ablation is a technique to destroy specific regions of tissue to eliminate these electrical abnormalities, says Angeli. This holds great promise for delivering a new therapy for patients suffering from severe gastrointestinal disorders.

Dr Niranchan Paskaranandavadivel is using his HRC Emerging Researcher grant to develop new high resolution experimental mapping techniques to investigate slow wave intervals.

This research looks to advance gastrointestinal electrophysiology and has the potential to create new diagnostics and therapeutics for patients.

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Funding for heart and gut research at Auckland Bioengineering Institute - New Zealand Doctor Online