LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- What happens when astronauts are hurtling toward Mars on a years-long space voyage and one is injured, requiring emergency surgery in a environment lacking gravity?

It may sound like science fiction, but it's one of the challenges NASA faces in its goal of putting astronauts on Mars by 2035. And it has spurred a University of Louisville researcher to test a potentially lifesaving surgical device aimed at helping make zero-gravity surgery possible.

George Pantalos, a professor of surgery and bioengineering, and colleagues from Carnegie Mellon University are conducting four days of tests this week in Houston aboard a NASA zero-gravity jet known as the "vomit comet," which flies in gut-churning parabolic arcs to generate 20 to 30 seconds of weightlessness.

They're testing prototypes of an "aqueous immersion surgical system" -- an airtight and watertight dome with surgical ports that would be filled with saline and surround a wound in a zero-gravity environment. The idea is to stop bleeding and contain fluids that would otherwise float through the spacecraft, potentially endangering the patient and crew.

To test the concept, the researchers used plastic containers inside a prenatal care box. The researchers, held in place by foot straps, successfully controlled artificial blood coursing through a simulated vein Tuesday. On Wednesday, they conducted a simulated surgical procedure on a pig's heart.

"We're grateful that it turned out so well," Pantalos said by phone Tuesday night from Ellington Field at the Johnson Space Center Reduced Gravity Program, adding that he hopes the device eventually could be used in other challenging environments, such as war zones.

Pantalos, 60, is working on the device with Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Mellon bioengineering researchers James Antaki, Jennifer Hayden and James Burgess.

Although the United States has retired its space shuttle program, President Obama in 2010 announced that his goal is to have a manned flight reach an asteroid by 2025 and Mars by the mid-2030s, a round-trip mission likely to take several years.

Interest in Mars has grown recently with NASA's successful landing of the Curiosity rover, which landed on the red planet in August after an eight-month journey.

Pantalos is one of many researchers working on the challenges of extended space travel. Those include health care concerns, such as the rapid loss of bone density, wounds that heal slowly in space and the possibility of having to do medical procedures using remote-controlled robots.

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Researchers test zero-gravity surgery device

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Public release date: 31-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jana Smith jana.smith@ou.edu 405-325-1322 University of Oklahoma

Learning to crawl comes naturally for most infants, but those with cerebral palsy lack the muscle strength and coordination to perform the 25 individual movements required for crawling. With a $1.135 million, three-year grant from the National Science Foundation's National Robotics Initiative, University of Oklahoma researchers from the Norman and Health Sciences Center campuses are combining robotics, machine learning and brain imaging to assist infants with CP with the challenging, life-altering skill.

"Because infants with CP are unable to reliably perform the individual movements that make up crawling behavior, they learn to stop trying instead of continuing to practice these movements," said Project Leader Andrew Fagg, associate professor in the OU departments of Computer Science and Bioengineering and project leader. "This substantially delays their development of skilled crawling. In turn, cognitive development and other areas of development are delayed because they both rely on the infants being able to explore their surrounding world."

"In our previous study, we were able to capture many of the infant's actions and had a robot that could assist some of the infant's attempts at crawling. These assists serve as rewards that encourage continued practice of specific limb movements. This grant will allow us, among other things, to develop new robot platforms that can allow a greater range of infant mobility" said David Miller, professor in the OU departments of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering and Bioengineering. "In the latter part of this grant, we will also start working with the transition from crawling to walking."

"This grant is also important because it builds on and expands our previous work that maximizes the interaction of robotics with what an infant can do," said Thubi Kolobe, professor of rehabilitative sciences at the OU Health Sciences Center College of Allied Health. "Infant learning is integral, and when infants stop trying, parts of the brain responsible for the skill are negatively affected. The next step of this research is to increase the level of help that infants with or at risk for CP are getting. We are looking for combinations of assists that result in the best incentives for these infants. We also want to see if there is a connection between what the infants are learning and what is happening in the brain."

Lei Ding, assistant professor in the OU departments of Electrical Engineering and Bioengineering, will then perform brain scans using electroencephalograph to determine how the infants' brains respond when they are assisted by the robotic device. The EEG technology will assess brain activity of infants during crawling and provide information about changes that occur because of robotics assists and infant efforts.

"Beginning in spring 2013, we will conduct clinical trials to test six infants without CP on the new crawling robot," says Kolobe. "Then, one year later, we will conduct clinical trials to test 24 CP infants on the crawling robot. Initial tests on standing and walking with infants without CP will be conducted by the end of the project. No CP infants will be tested on standing and walking in this grant, only healthy infants."

"This is groundbreaking research, and no one else in the world is doing it," says Kolobe. "We want to invite anyone with an infant who is at risk for CP or severe developmental delays, between four and eight months old, who is interested in participating in these clinical trials to contact Dr. Thubi H.A. Kolobe, at 405-271-2131 ext. 47121 or hkolobe@ouhsc.edu."

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OU research team developing robotic devices to aid infants with cerebral palsy

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Using microbes to create useful products is nothing new. Humans have been doing it for centuries to bake bread or brew alcohol, for example. More recent techniques have employed microbes in green technology, where they are used in the production of biofuels and in the generation of electricity from waste.

But sometimes in a laboratory setting, using microbes that have been finely tuned by evolution is like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. This is where bioengineering steps in.

Here are three recent examples of how bioengineering microbes could create better biofuels, more sustainable manufacturing, and even the possibility of settlements on Mars.

Synthetic Evolution

Using a non-food feedstock to create biofuels is better both environmentally and economically, which is why researchers from Iowa State University areworkingto turn corn stalks and sawdust into ethanol.

The process involves heating the feedstock until it becomes a sugar-rich bio oil, then unleashing microbes to feed on the oil and produce ethanol as a by-product. Unfortunately, the microbes have a bad reaction to some of the compounds in the oil, which prevents them from efficiently digesting it.

To work around this, the team is using a technique called directed evolution.

The method works by growing each generation of microbes in a higher concentration of the maligned compounds. Each time the microbes divide, their DNA is replicated, which leads to mistakes in the DNA. The researchers hope one of these mistakes will produce an improved microbe that is tolerant of the oil.

The team has already had some success; some of the newly evolved microbes are able to live in slightly higher concentrations of the compounds. Once the ideal microbe emerges, the researchers will analyze its genetic data in order to duplicate it, and will be on their way to creating better, more sustainable biofuels.

Manufacturing with Microbes

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Engineering Microbes for Sustainable Manufacturing and Better Biofuels

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CollPlant Holdings Ltd. (TASE: CLPT) has signed an agreement to supply CollPlant's recombinant human collagen, derived from tobacco plants, to Hawaii-based Cellular Bioengineering Inc. for use in its synthetic cornea implants. Cellular Bioengineering will pay CollPlant for the collagen and royalties on future sales of its product that use, if any.

CollPlant will supply collagen to Cellular Bioengineering on the basis of non-binding forecasts during the first year of the five-year agreement, and binding annual forecasts for minimum deliveries from the agreement's second year. CollPlant will give Cellular Bioengineering an exclusive worldwide license to use the collagen in artificial corneas, and limited to this use. The agreement can be extended.

CollPlant CEO Yehiel Tal said, "This is a breakthrough. The advantages of synthetic corneas based on CollPlant's collagen are the absence of an immune reaction because no donor material is involved, there is no risk of transmitting a disease from a cornea donor to the patient, and the production costs of artificial corneas are much lower than the cost of a cornea from an organ donor. We envision artificial corneas as an off-the-shelf product, without the need for eye banks or the production of corneas from donors, at a cost of $2,000 per unit. The shelf life of an artificial cornea will be higher than the shelf life of donor corneas, and implants will be possible without the need for the special infrastructures necessary to support the supply of corneas from donors."

Tal added, "This is our first agreement following negotiations for the commercial supply of collagen to a company that develops and manufactures collagen-based products. It meets our strategic targets for 2012. Contracts of this kind fit in with our business model and long-term strategy, which include the marketing of CollPlant's products, the joint development of products with foreign strategic partners, and contracts for the supply of CollPlant's collagen."

Today's agreement follows an agreement that CollPlant signed with Cellular Bioengineering subsidiary Eyegenix Inc. in February 2012.

CollPlant's share price rose 15.8% by mid-afternoon, following the announcement, to NIS 0.52, giving a market cap of NIS 70 million.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - http://www.globes-online.com - on October 30, 2012

Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2012

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CollPlant to supply collagen for artificial corneas

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