Thursday, January 31, 2008
Lab On A Chip Development
University of Alberta researchers in Edmonton, Canada, have developed a portable unit for genetic testing about the size of a shoebox, which has the same capability as a lab full of expensive equipment.
The device - along with other, even smaller units the team is now in the process of developing - paves the way for enormous savings to health-care systems and will improve care for patients. A wide variety of genetic tests that are available but not often used because their cost is prohibitive will become cheap, fast and easily accessible.
Prof. Christopher Backhouse, of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, together with Dr. Linda Pilarski, an oncology professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, and their research team, have received international recognition for the device. An article describing their "shoebox-sized" portable unit appears in the Jan. 18, 2008, issue of The Analyst, a scientific journal published by the Royal Society of Chemistry based in the United Kingdom. The article lead author is University of Alberta PhD student Govind V. Kaigala.
A royal society publication (Chemical Science) heralded the device in an online article featuring the advance, and indicated the University of Alberta is winning the global race to use micro and nano-biotechnology in developing diagnostic applications for so-called lab-on-chip technology.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/95618.php
Strategies to determine the biological function of microRNAs
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are regulators of gene expression that control many biological processes in development, differentiation, growth and metabolism. Their expression levels, small size, abundance of repetitive copies in the genome and mode of action pose unique challenges in studies elucidating the function of miRNAs.
New technologies for identification, expression profiling and target gene validation, as well as manipulation of miRNA expression in vivo, will facilitate the study of their contribution to biological processes and disease. Such information will be crucial to exploit the emerging knowledge of miRNAs for the development of new human therapeutic applications.
http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v38/n6s/abs/ng1799.html
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