Biomedical Laboratory Science

Friday, April 22, 2016

Why Do Celebrity Deaths Feel So Personal?

Prince's untimely death Thursday at the age of 57 left fans shocked and in mourning. While many express their grief, others are surprised to experience a strong personal reaction: I didn’t know him, some have thought, so why am I this upset?

The truth is, there’s no rulebook when it comes to grief, explains psychologist David Kaplan, chief professional officer of the American Counseling Association. The emotion is so swallowing and vast that it’s hard to pinpoint why it manifests in the ways that it does. But just because we can’t explain grief doesn’t mean it’s invalidated, Kaplan says — and that especially goes for grieving a celebrity.

“We grow up with these people,” Kaplan told The Huffington Post. “We see their movies, we hear their music on a regular basis and we really get to know them. In a sense, they become a member of our family — especially the ones we really like — so when they die, it’s like an extended member of our family dies. It’s somebody we feel like we know.”

These deaths also feel so personal because they resonate with us on a deeper, psychological level. We may grieve celebrities because our dream was to emulate their career path or because a celebrity death can also remind us of our mortality, Kaplan notes.

Prince (Prince Rogers Nelson) 'The Artist Formerly Known as Prince', 'TAFKAP' Hop Farm Festival,

Paddock Wood, Kent, England 3rd July 2011 performing live on stage in concert gig singing playing…

Source: CAPmar/MediaPunch/MediaPunch/IPx

HIV Patients Now Living Long Enough to Develop Alzheimer's

Findings upend previous beliefs about brain changes related to the AIDS-causing virus

The first case of Alzheimer's disease diagnosed in a person with HIV highlights the fact that long-time HIV survivors are starting to reach ages where their risk for Alzheimer's increases, researchers report.

The 71-year-old man was diagnosed after a medical scan revealed amyloid protein clumps in his brain. Until now, it was believed that HIV-related inflammation in the brain might prevent the formation of such clumps and thereby protect these people from Alzheimer's.

"This patient may be a sentinel case that disputes what we thought we knew about dementia in HIV-positive individuals," said study author Dr. R. Scott Turner. He is head of the Memory Disorders Program at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

The case also suggests that some older people with HIV and dementia may be misdiagnosed with HIV-associated brain disorders, but actually have Alzheimer's disease. It's also possible that some older people with HIV have both HIV-associated brain disorders and Alzheimer's, according to Turner.

"Chronic HIV infection and amyloid deposition with aging may represent a 'double-hit' to the brain that results in progressive dementia," he said in a university news release.

Source: HealthDay/ScoutNews LLC

Biomarker Predicts Risk of Preterm Birth Earlier

A standard biomarker test offered earlier in pregnancy could potentially help doctors to better identify women at risk of giving birth prematurely, thus enabling health services to focus treatments on women at highest risk.

A number of factors are used to determine if a woman is at risk of giving birth prematurely, including a history of preterm births or late miscarriages. Two further factors which clinicians normally consider are the length of cervix and levels of a biomarker found in vaginal fluid known as fetal fibronectin.

Scientists at King's College London (London, UK) compared measurements of a new fetal fibronectin test in the cervicovaginal fluid of women at 18 to 21 weeks of gestation with measurements made at 22 to 27 weeks of gestation, to see which time period offered the best prediction of spontaneous preterm birth. They also explored whether using a low (10 ng/mL) and high (200 ng/mL) threshold would more accurately classify a women's risk of giving birth prematurely.

Fetal fibronectin is a “glue-like” protein that holds the developing baby in the womb

Source: Hologic Inc.

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Fifty Biotech and Biopharma Recruiters in the Lists.

Who They Know Can Help You Land a Job in the Industry

In Deloitte’s “2016 U.S. Life Sciences Industry Outlook” released in January, Greg Reh, the firm’s U.S. and Global Life Sciences sector leader, offered a somewhat encouraging assessment of employment prospects this year: “Despite current economic, political, technological, and social challenges, life sciences companies worldwide should see enough long-term growth opportunities to feel cautiously optimistic about 2016.”

Three such opportunities were identified by recruiting firm Smith Hanley Associates earlier this year: One was candidate movement to smaller biopharmas, which the firm said leads to higher base salaries as companies scramble to offset the loss of long-term incentives given by big pharma. Mergers and acquisitions create jobs for candidates willing to relocate, whereas the growth of big data adds positions for in-house data scientists but also results in project outsourcing to vendors that creates new markets and innovations, Smith Hanley added.

All those trends should mean more work for biopharma recruiters, who match employers with job candidates in significant portions of the industry.

The workload of recruiters should increase this year since biotech and other life sciences employers
worldwide “should see enough long-term growth opportunities to feel cautiously optimistic about
2016,” according to Deloitte Consulting.

Source: auremar/Fotolia

Pancreatic cell transplantation: a breakthrough for type 1 diabetes?

The results of a phase 3 clinical trial are being hailed as a "breakthrough" in the treatment of type 1 diabetes, after finding that transplantation of islet cells - clusters of cells in the pancreas that contain insulin-producing cells - prevented potentially life-threatening reductions in blood sugar among patients with the disease.

Study co-author Dr. Xunrong Luo, associate professor of medicine and surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, IL, says the findings show that islet cell transplantation is a viable treatment option for type 1 diabetes patients who have severely low blood glucose levels, or hypoglycemia.

What is more, the team says the findings suggest islet cell transplantation could eliminate the need for lifelong insulin therapy for people with type 1 diabetes.

The researchers recently published their results in Diabetes Care - a journal of the American Diabetes Association.

Type 1 diabetes accounts for around 5% of all diabetes cases in the US. It occurs when beta cells within the islets of the pancreas are unable to produce insulin - the hormone that regulates blood glucose levels by promoting transportation of glucose from the bloodstream to other cells, where it is used for energy.

The study suggests islet transplantation is effective for people with type 1 diabetes who have severely
low blood glucose levels.

Source: medicalnewstoday

Alcohol and processed meat linked to stomach cancer

Drinking alcohol, eating processed meat and being overweight increase the risk of developing stomach cancers, according to a major new scientific report released by the American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund.

The Continuous Update Project (CUP) report was led by the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) and the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF).

Scientists systematically gathered and analyzed data relating to stomach cancer, after which a panel of leading international experts evaluated the results independently.

Worldwide, there were 952,000 cases of stomach cancer in 2012, or 7% of all new cancer cases.

Stomach cancer is the third most common cause of cancer death. It affects men twice as much as women, and it is more common among older people, with the average age of diagnosis in the US being 72 years.

In Europe and the US, the survival rate is 25-28%, rising to 63% if it is diagnosed early. But symptoms may not appear until the later stages, and some 70% of cases worldwide are diagnosed late, leading to a lower survival rate. Eastern Asia and China are particularly affected.

Lifestyle factors are linked to stomach cancer.

Source: medicalnewstoday

MacConkey Agar (MAC): Composition, preparation, application and colony characteristics

MacConkey agar was developed in 20th century by Alfred Theodore MacConkey. It was the first formulated solid differential media. MacConkey Agar is a selective and differential culture media commonly used for the isolation of enteric Gram-negative bacteria. It is based on the bile salt-neutral red-lactose agar of MacConkey. Crystal violet and bile salts in incorporated in MacConkey Agar to prevent the growth of gram-positive bacteria and fastidious gram-negative bacteria, such as Neisseria and Pasteurella. Gram-negative enteric bacteria can tolerate to bile salt because of their bile-resistant outer membrane.

MacConkey Agar is selective for Gram negative organisms, and helps to differentiate lactose fermenting gram negative rods from Non lactose fermenting gram negative rods. It is primarily used for detection and isolation of members of family enterobacteriaceae and Pseudomonas spp.

Composition of MacConeky Agar:

Enzymatic Digest of Gelatin, Casein and Animal tissue: provides nitrogen, vitamins, minerals and amino acids essential for growth.

LF and NLF colonies in MacConkey Agar

Source: microbeonline

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Cardiovascular Disease Diagnostics and Testing

Current and emerging cardiac markers signal improved testing for better patient outcomes

Cardiovascular diseases continue to be the leading cause of death in the United States, responsible for nearly 800,000 deaths annually—or about one in every three deaths. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women, claiming the lives of about 610,000 Americans each year.1Coronary artery disease is the most common type of heart disease, killing more than 370,000 people annually.

In addition, about 5.1 million people in the United States have heart failure.2About half of the people who develop heart failure die within 5 years of diagnosis. In 2009, one out of every nine deaths included heart failure as a contributing cause. Heart failure costs the nation an estimated $32 billion each year.

In light of such dire statistics, it’s no wonder that achieving speedy diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI)—heart attack—remains a significant concern in emergency departments throughout the nation. Early triage of patients to rule-in or rule-out AMI is challenging. For many years, testing for the presence of the regulatory proteins troponin I or troponin T—both released into the bloodstream when the heart muscle has been damaged—has been the gold standard for diagnosing AMI. But recent reports have indicated that the latest generation of high-sensitivity troponin tests can increase diagnostic efficiency and improve early diagnosis of myocardial infarction.

Alere’s troponin I test is a cartridge-based high-sensitivity immunoassay.

Source: clpmag

Emerging Blood-Borne Bacteria Detected in Blood Donors

Bartonella species cause chronic and intermittent intra-erythrocytic bacteremia and infect endothelial cells of both incidental and natural reservoir hosts. The establishment of chronic, stealth infection is achieved by evasion of innate immune responses.

In humans, Bartonella species have been detected from sick patients presented with diverse disease manifestations, including cat scratch disease, trench fever, bacillary angiomatosis, endocarditis, polyarthritis, or granulomatous inflammatory disease.

An international team of scientists, led by those at the Western University of Health Sciences, Pomona, CA, USA), collected blood from 500 apparently healthy Brazilian voluntary blood donors in a cross sectional study. Bartonella species infection from the bloodstream was detected based on enrichment blood culture in a liquid growth medium (Bartonella alpha-Proteobacteria growth medium-BAPGM), coupled with isolation in solid medium. Bartonella-specific DNA was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), followed by DNA sequencing to confirm species identification. Of the ten Bartonella species that are believed to produce infection in humans, the most commonly encountered are B. henselae, B. quintana, and B. bacilliformis. The latter causes Oroya fever and Verruga peruana.

Electron micrograph of Bartonella henelae, Gram-negative bacteria that causes cat scratch fever

Source: Prokaryotes

Acid-Fast Stain Identifies Schistosoma Eggs

Schistosomiasis, also known as snail fever, is a disease caused by parasitic flatworms called schistosomes. The urinary tract or the intestines may be infected and signs and symptoms may include abdominal pain, diarrhea, bloody stool, or blood in the urine.

Microscopic identification of eggs in stool or urine is the most practical method for diagnosis. Stool examination is performed when infection with Schistosoma mansoni or S. japonicum is suspected, and urine examination should be performed if S. haematobium is suspected. Eggs can be present in the stool in infections with all Schistosoma species.

Scientists at the University of Lisbon examined whether the Ziehl–Neelsen (ZN) stain, also known as the acid- fast stain, would be helpful in detection and identification of Schistosoma eggs. In histological sections, S. mansoni eggshells appear as ZN positive and S. haematobium shells as ZN negative. The staining target of the responsible ZN component (carbolfuchsin) in the shell is unknown and because carbolfuchsin is supposed to stain mycolic acids in the mycobacterial cell wall, unidentified substances in the eggshell were proposed as target. Fuchsin is a known nucleic acid stain, and it was already shown that mycobacteria with insufficiently retained carbolfuchsin may be invisible in bright-field microscopy; yet, they can be easily detected because of a strong red fluorescence when excited with green light.

Positive staining of Schistosoma mansoni eggs

Source: ganfyd

Biomedical Laboratory Science