Sunday, October 17, 2010

Zero-cost diagnostics on papers



George Whitesides is a Chemistry professor at Harvard University, and his recent work seems to have the potential to change the way diagnostic medicine works. Dr. Whitesides and his team have recently developed a prototype “paper chip” that is capable of diagnosing multiple disease simply with the application of a blood drop.

Here is the talk given by Prof. Whitesides on paper diagnostics:



Here are the papers on paper diagnostics from the same research group:

Patterned Paper as a Platform for Inexpensive, Low-Volume, Portable Bioassays†, Angew Chem. 2007


Simple telemedicine for developing regions: camera phones and paper-based microfluidic devices for real-time, off-site diagnosis, Anal Chem, 2008

Three-dimensional microfluidic devices fabricated in layered paper and tape, PNAS, 2008

FLASH: A rapid method for prototyping paper-based microfluidic devices, Lab Chip, 2008

Understanding Wax Printing: A Simple Micropatterning Process for Paper-Based Microfluidics, Anal Chem, 2009

Paper-supported 3D cell culture for tissue-based bioassays, PNAS, 2009

Diagnostics for the Developing World: Microfluidic Paper-Based Analytical Devices, Anal Chem, 2009

Electrochemical sensing in paper-based microfluidic devices, Lab Chip, 2010

Programmable diagnostic devices made from paper and tape, Lab Chip, 2010

Paper‐Based ELISA, Angew Chem, 2010

And more and more publications over the last 3 years have been published by Prof. Whitesides' research group. Known with his contibutions to microfludics, Prof. Whitesides is opening up a field on paper based diagnositics...

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

High speed Atomic Force Microscopy unveils the steps of Myosin V



In Nature's October issue, the direct visualization of Myosin V motor proteins has been reported by using high-speed atomic force microscopy. The high-resolution movies not only provide corroborative ‘visual evidence’ for previously speculated or demonstrated molecular behaviours, including lever-arm swing, but also reveal more detailed behaviours of the molecules, leading to a comprehensive understanding of the motor mechanism.

Here is the recent report in Nature:
Video imaging of walking myosin V by high-speed atomic force microscopy
Noriyuki Kodera,Daisuke Yamamoto,Ryoki Ishikawa,Toshio Ando, Nature, 2010

Friday, October 1, 2010

Super-resolution Microscopy collection



Nature methods highlights the recent developments in the super-resolution imaging field. This collection of articles from several leaders in the field highlights the diversity of super-resolution microscopy techniques being developed and the principles that allow them to overcome this long-standing limitation.

Click here to see the collection, which is also sponsored by Nikon.

Here are the articles in the collection:

1- Primer: fluorescence imaging under the diffraction limit. D. Evanko. Nat. Methods 6, 19–20 (2009)

2- Microscopy and its focal switch. S.W. Hell. Nat. Methods 6, 24–32 (2009)

3- Putting super-resolution fluorescence microscopy to work. J. Lippincott-Schwartz & S. Manley. Nat. Methods 6, 21– 23 (2009)

4- Subdiffraction resolution in continuous samples. R. Heintzmann & M.G.L. Gustafsson. Nat. Photonics 3, 362–364 (2009)

5- Single-molecule mountains yield nanoscale cell images. W.E. Moerner. Nat. Methods 3, 781–782 (2006)

6- Live-cell photoactivated localization microscopy of nanoscale adhesion dynamics. H. Shroff et al. Nat. Methods 5, 417– 423 (2008)

7- Spherical nanosized focal spot unravels the interior of cells. R. Schmidt et al. Nat. Methods 5, 539–544 (2008)

8- Whole-cell 3D STORM reveals interactions between cellular structures with nanometer-scale resolution. B. Huang et al. Nat. Methods 5, 1047–1052 (2008)

9- Super-resolution video microscopy of live cells by structured illumination. P. Kner et al. Nat. Methods 6, 339– 342 (2009)