Foldscope: DIY microscope holds promise in battles against disease

Foldscope design, components and usage. 

(A) CAD layout of Foldscope paper components on an A4 sheet. 

(B) Schematic of an assembled Foldscope illustrating panning.

(C) cross-sectional view illustrating flexure-based focusing. 

(D) Foldscope components and tools used in the assembly, including 

Foldscope paper components, ball lens, button-cell battery, surface-mounted LED, switch, copper tape and polymeric filters. 

(E) Different modalities assembled from colored paper stock. 

(F) Novice users demonstrating the technique for using the Foldscope.

G) Demonstration of the field-rugged design, such as stomping under foot. Credit: 

Did they say fifty cents? That is how much researchers say it would cost, and maybe less, to make a microscope that you print on a piece of paper and then add some components and assemble in minutes, not hours.

Manu Prakash

Stanford University's Manu Prakash, an assistant professor of bioengineering, and colleagues have been working on merging principles of optical design with origami.

The result is something in the order of origami optics, or you might call it by the title of the team's paper detailing their work, "Foldscope: Origami-based paper microscope," submitted earlier this month on arXiv.


Prakash had presented the idea in a 2012 TED talk, and now the research paper, explaining the team's Foldscope, was authored by James Cybulski, James Clements, and Prakash, representing Stanford's departments of Mechanical Engineering and Bioengineering.

The authors wrote that they are presenting "ultra-low cost brightfield, darkfield, and fluorescence microscopes designed for rugged applications in science and education."

The end result is a light, rugged instrument with imaging capabilities for use as portable microscopes.

One motivating driver to create their Foldscope was as a low-cost medical screening tool in developing countries where medical researchers study organisms to guide treatment and practitioners cope with such diseases such as malaria.

In the online tech mag Gizmodo an article on Foldscope observed, "A cheap, long-lasting, easily transported microscope means quicker diagnosis and treatment in places where doctors can't count on a fully-stocked laboratory."

Another key benefit would be augmenting science education to children in developing and developed countries.

"By removing cost barriers, Foldscope provides new opportunities for a vast user base, said the Stanford team.

"Many children around the world have never used a microscope, even in developed countries like the United States. A universal program providing 'a microscope for every child' could foster deep interest in science at an early age."

One challenge in doing so has been availability of tools previously cost-prohibitive.

More Information: Foldscope: Origami-based paper microscope, arXiv:1403.1211 [physics.optics] arxiv.org/abs/1403.1211

Motor Neurone Disease: New Insight about how it works

When we imagine how research results can change society or help us make new bounds in medical science we think of proving a hypothesis or cracking a code, but sometimes research that refutes a theory can be just as beneficial, as scientists can eliminate a hypothesis from the mix and save years of wasted-time investigating dead ends and a team of German researchers has just done exactly that.

Writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the team refute a widely accepted hypothesis about a causative step in neuro-degenerative conditions.

These results deal specifically with animal models of human amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), more commonly known as Motor Neurone Disease, but the findings also have implications for other neuro-degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's or Huntington's disease.

One of the ways neuro-degenerative diseases manifest themselves is in the loss of axons - essentially, the transmission lines for electrical signals in individual nerve cells - and synapses, the key sites for communication between them.

In the past, such damage has been attributed to deficits in the bi-directional transport of organelles, such as the intracellular power plants called mitochondria, along the axons of nerve cells.

The team, from the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen (LMU), put these previously-held assumptions to the test in one of the most thorough tests carried out to date.

They used novel imaging techniques, with high resolution in both space and time, to observe changes in both axon morphology and organelle transport in several different animal models of ALS.

Their results show that transport deficits and axon degeneration can develop independently of each other, throwing into question the theory that one is a direct cause of the other.

They observed axonal organelle transport in living tissue in real time, and in a way that enabled them to track the movement of individual mitochondria, using a novel imaging approach that involves transgenic labelling.

They were also able to observe transport of another kind of organelle, endosome-derived vesicles. Several different animal models of ALS were investigated, all of which are based on human mutations associated with the disease.

One of the study authors, Professor Thomas Misgeld from the Institute of Neuroscience at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen, comments on their findings: 'We do think these insights have implications for other studies of ALS, or even studies of other neuro-degenerative diseases.

What our experiments really say is that it is not easy to develop faithful models of neuro-degenerative diseases.

So it might be worth spending more effort to get better animal models, as this is the only way forward for mechanistic studies, while always checking them against human pathology or human-derived cellular models.

In the meantime, it is probably prudent to work with several of the available models in parallel. Moreover, in more general biological terms, our results also speak to the relationship between axonal transport disruptions and degeneration - which might not be as tight as we assumed. Here we have a lot more to understand.'

The iPSoALS project brings together researchers from France, Germany, Israel and Sweden with the aim of better understanding ALS disease mechanisms.

For more information, please visit: Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM)

How Has Stephen Hawking Lived to 70 with Motor Neuron Disease

Stephen Hawking turns 70 on Sunday, beating the odds of a daunting diagnosis by nearly half a century.

The famous theoretical physicist has helped to bring his ideas about black holes and quantum gravity to a broad public audience.

For much of his time in the public eye, though, he has been confined to a wheelchair by a form of the motor-neuron disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Since 1985 he has had to speak through his trademark computer system—which he operates with his cheek—and have around-the-clock care.

But his disease seems hardly to have slowed him down. Hawking spent 30 years as a full professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge. And he is currently the director of research at the school's Center for Theoretical Cosmology.

Like his mind, Hawking's illness seems to be almost unique. Most patients with ALS—also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, from a famous US baseball player who succumbed to the disease, are diagnosed after the age of 50 and die within five years of their diagnosis.

Hawking's condition was first diagnosed when he was 21, and he was not expected to see his 25th birthday.

Why has Hawking lived so long with this malady when so many other people die so soon after diagnosis?

We spoke with Leo McCluskey, an associate professor of neurology and medical director of the ALS Center at the University of Pennsylvania, to find out more about the disease and why it has spared Hawking and his amazing brain.

Read more of this article and interview: How Has Stephen Hawking Lived to 70 with ALS?

Malaria: Cell Phone Cameras Capture Microscopic Images

Smart phone apps can help you check your vision, keep tabs on your blood-glucose levels and track your blood pressure. Earlier this year the U.S. Food and Drug Administration even approved an app that allows doctors to view scans on an iPhone or iPad to help them make diagnoses on the go.

But fancy apps aside, the cameras on these devices and others can help health care workers in remote or understaffed areas submit photos of complicated conditions to doctors who can verify or make a diagnosis.

One question that quickly surfaces is whether cell phone cameras are good enough to transmit microscopic information to experts.

A new study found that many simple bar phones with cameras could snap a good enough picture through a standard microscope to allow a remote assessment of a sample. The results were published online Wednesday in PLoS ONE.

“Poor and vulnerable populations are most affected by weak laboratory services because they carry the largest burden of ill health,” noted the researchers behind the study, which was led by Coosje Tuijn, of the Royal Tropical Institute of Biomedical Research in Amsterdam.

And although microscopy is often pivotal in diagnosing common diseases, such as malaria, tuberculosis and other bacterial or parasitic diseases, in poor areas, “microscopy services are often suboptimal,” the researchers noted.

And “as a result, many common diseases are misdiagnosed and improperly treated, ” which can affect patients—and cost the health system time and money.

In Uganda, where there are only eight physicians for every 100,000 people, getting a definitive diagnosis can be difficult. The research team enlisted local health workers to try using their own (or borrowed) cell phones to capture photos and videos of microscopic images to send off for remote diagnosis.

The best images were obtained with cameras that were two megapixels or higher, which are common in smart phones and are in some slimmer Nokia, Samsung and Sony bar phones.

And some of the most successful diagnoses were those of samples that contained malaria parasites, which “were often so clear that specific stages of the malaria parasite could be identified”—thus improving targeted treatment.

TB was a little more challenging (owing to the small size of its bacteria) and required a fluorescent microscopy and a five-megapixel camera.

But phones with video could also grab clips that revealed some other microbes as they moved around, helping to improve the remote diagnosis.

Once the pictures were snapped, health workers could send them directly to a website that could make them accessible to experts for diagnosis and/or students for training.

Direct feedback, via phone call or text, could then be sent to the user’s phone.

TCE Cleaning Solvent Strong Links to Parkinson's disease

An international study has linked an industrial solvent to Parkinson's disease.

Researchers found a six-fold increase in the risk of developing Parkinson's in individuals exposed in the workplace to trichloroethylene (TCE).

Although many uses for TCE have been banned around the world, the chemical is still used as a degreasing agent.

The research was based on analysis of 99 pairs of twins selected from US data records.

Parkinson's can result in limb tremors, slowed movement and speech impairment, but the exact cause of the disease is still unknown, and there is no cure.

Research to date suggests a mix of genetic and environmental factors may be responsible. A link has previously been made with pesticide use.

'Significant association'
The researchers from institutes in the US, Canada, Germany and Argentina, wanted to examine the impact of solvent exposure - specifically six solvents including TCE.

They looked at 99 sets of twins, one twin with Parkinson's, the other without.

Because twins are similar genetically and often share certain lifestyle characteristics, twins were thought to provide a better control group, reducing the likelihood of spurious results.

The twins were interviewed to build up a work history and calculate likely exposure to solvents. They were also asked about hobbies.

The findings are presented as the first study to report a "significant association" between TCE exposure and Parkinson's and suggest exposure to the solvent was likely to result in a six-fold increase in the chances of developing the disease.

The study also adjudged exposure to two other solvents, perchloroethylene (PERC) and carbon tetrachloride (CCl4), "tended towards significant risk of developing the disease".

No statistical link was found with the other three solvents examined in the study - toluene, xylene and n-hexane.

"Our study confirms that common environmental contaminants may increase the risk of developing Parkinson's, which has considerable public health implications," said Dr Samuel Goldman of The Parkinson's Institute in Sunnyvale, California, who co-led the study published in the journal Annals of Neurology.

Coronary Imaging helps identify cause of heart disease

Results from the PROSPECT clinical trial shed new light on the types of vulnerable plaque that are most likely to cause sudden, unexpected adverse cardiac events, and on the ability to identify them through imaging techniques before they occur.

The trial, Providing Regional Observations to Study Predictors of Events in the Coronary Tree (PROSPECT), is the first prospective natural history study of atherosclerosis using multi-modality imaging to characterize the coronary tree. The study findings were published in the January 20, 2011 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

“As a result of the PROSPECT trial, we are closer to being able to predict — and therefore prevent — sudden, unexpected adverse cardiac events,” said principal investigator Gregg W. Stone, MD. Dr. Stone is Professor of Medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Director of Cardiovascular Research and Education at the Center for Interventional Vascular Therapy at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center and Co-Director of the Medical Research and Education Division at the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF).

The multi-center trial studied 700 patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) using three-vessel multimodality intra-coronary imaging — angiography, grayscale intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), and radiofrequency IVUS — to quantify the clinical event rate due to atherosclerotic progression and to identify those lesions that place patients at risk for unexpected adverse cardiovascular events (sudden death, cardiac arrest, heart attacks and unstable or progressive angina).

Among the discoveries of the trial are that most untreated plaques that cause unexpected heart attacks are not mild lesions, as previously thought, but actually have a large plaque burden and/or a small lumen area. These are characteristics that were invisible to the coronary angiogram but easily identifiable by grayscale IVUS.

Moreover, and perhaps most importantly, for the first time it was demonstrated that characterization of the underlying plaque composition (with radiofrequency IVUS, also known as VH-IVUS) was able to significantly improve the ability to predict future adverse events beyond other more standard imaging techniques.

“These results mean that using a combination of imaging modalities, including IVUS to identify lesions with a large plaque burden and/or small lumen area, and VH-IVUS to identify a large necrotic core without a visible cap (a thin cap fibroatheroma) identifies the lesions that are at especially high risk of causing future adverse cardiovascular events,” Dr. Stone said.

Alzheimer's disease: Memory Jogging Camera

Originally invented to help jog the memories of people with Alzheimer's disease, it might one day be used by consumers to create "lifelogs" that archive their entire lives.

Worn on a cord around the neck, the camera takes pictures automatically as often as once every 30 seconds. It also uses an accelerometer and light sensors to snap an image when a person enters a new environment, and an infrared sensor to take one when it detects the body heat of a person in front of the wearer. It can fit 30,000 images onto its 1-gigabyte memory.

The ViconRevue was originally developed as the SenseCam by Microsoft Research Cambridge, UK, for researchers studying Alzheimer's and other dementias. Studies showed that reviewing the events of the day using SenseCam photos could help some people improve long-term recall.

Psoriasis: debilitating socially and emotionally

“Psoriasis is a predisposition for your immune system to react with your skin,” said Dr. Ellen Marmur, chief of the Division of Dermatologic and Cosmetic Surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.

“Something that would normally… trigger a slight reaction in most of us, will trigger a domino effect in somebody with psoriasis.”

Beneath the surface, a psoriasis patient’s immune system overreacts and begins to attack itself. This abnormal activity is more characteristic of an autoimmune disease such as multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid arthritis.

Healthy skin regenertaes itself every 28 days but with psoriasis and as a result of inflammation, skin cells regenerate every two to four days, causing an excessive build up of cells.

When this happens, patches of the skin develop plaque, which is thick, red and scaly. The dead cells surface on top of irritated areas as loose, dry skin. They have a silver-white color and can flake off or crack. Depending on the type and severity, psoriasis can be painful and itchy.

In addition to the symptoms experienced, psoriasis patients who scratch their skin are likely to encounter or create further damage.

“If you scratch your skin, or if you have a piece of clothing that rubs against your skin in the area that is irritated, you can develop psoriasis. This is called the Koebner phenomenon,” said Dr. Mark Lebwohl, chairman of the Department of Dermatology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Mount Sinai Hospital.

Causes
Outbreaks are usually triggered by environmental factors like skin injuries; cold weather, infections, such as strep throat; bad reactions to medications; and even stress.

Psoriasis isn’t contagious. It can affect anyone and can plague anyone from babies to the elderly, Lebwohl said.

While some cases are so mild the patient doesn’t realise they have psoriasis, severe cases can be very debilitating and cover nearly the entire surface of the body.

The elbows, knees and scalp are the most common areas to be affected, however, psoriasis can present anywhere on the body, Marmur said.

Mild psoriasis is defined as 3 percent body coverage and severe psoriasis as 10 percent or more. Approximately 25 percent of those with psoriasis have a moderate or severe case.

There are a number of Types of Psoriasis
Where it turns up and how severe it is, has a lot to do with which of the five types of psoriasis you have.

1. Psoriasis vulgaris, also known as plaque psoriasis, is the most common, affecting more than 80 percent of all psoriasis patients. It can be a really well circumscribed pink, red plaque with a silvery or gray scale.

2. Guttate psoriasis is also red and scaly but smaller and typically covers larger body parts. It affects approximately 10 percent of psoriasis patients and can be triggered by strep throat.

3. Inverse psoriasis is red but doesn’t have the silvery-white scales. It presents as moist and red and covers smooth, creased areas of the skin like the armpits, the groin and underneath the breasts. Obese patients are most prone and tend to have more severe symptoms

A large portion of psoriasis patients are obese or become obese, said Lebwohl, who includes a heart-healthy diet as one course of action to improve your condition.

4. Pustular psoriasis looks like little spots of acne all over the body, Marmur said.

5. Erythrodermic psoriasis is the most severe form of the disease when plaque covers most of the body surface

Pustular and erythrodermic psoriasis are the rarest and the most dangerous. While they can occur independently, patients who develop them generally have plaque psoriasis. They are potentially fatal because they compromise the body’s ability to ward off infections and control body temperature.

“The typical story will be a patient with plaque psoriasis is given systemic steroids, cortisone,” Lebwohl said. “That clears psoriasis, but as you take them off of the steroids, you can develop a horrific flare where your body gets covered head to toe with red skin, or covered with puss pimples… Many of these patients will grow bacteria in their blood and can actually die from sepsis.”

Problems Associated With Psoriasis
Patients can become anemic from dangerously low amounts of protein in the blood, or suffer from other factors as a result of these debilitating forms of the disease.

When treating a psoriasis patient, doctors will ask a series of questions called the SF-36 to measure how it has impacted there lives.

In addition to its debilitating physical and psychological effects, psoriasis can force patients to miss work in order to manage their disease. Some of Lebwohl’s psoriasis patients have lost, or quit their jobs because of the amount of time they had to take off, he said. Others quit because of the embarrassment of not being able to perform.

“The National Psoriasis Foundation has looked at the incomes of patients and, basically, you can correlate income negatively with the various severities of the disease. The more severe, you’re going to earn less money,” said Lebwohl, who is also the chairman of the Medical Board of the National Psoriasis Foundation.

The disease is also linked to cardiovascular disease, diabetes and depression.

“Not only can it be debilitating socially and emotionally, but people with psoriasis also have a risk of other internal diseases,” Marmur said. “It’s like running your car at maximum, you’re just going to burn out other parts of the engine and infrastructure, other things are likely to premature wear or to be damaged.”

Dealing with the effects
Make sure you have been correctly diagnosed. Consult regularly with your doctor to ensure that you are receiving the best medical treatment. In addition to this, seek out local self help groups where you can share experiences and get practical advice. Keep up to date on the latest research but don't be the first one to try it.

Check what you are eating and try to establish living and healthy eating patterns, reducing your intake of artificial chemicals, sugar and caffeine. Also actively pursue activities which you enjoy and which relax you, give you a sense of well being. Learn to relax yourself through yoga, meditation or simply reading a book in a warm quiet room.

It is often difficult to mix well in groups and crowds because of the skin irritation but mainly because of the 'stigma' that makes you feel less worthy. Psoriasis and many other skin complaints do severely damage the self esteem and this leads to self isolation and exclusion from society. Seek out a good friend and ask for their help and support in keeping you socially active, simply by accompanying you to venues. To tell you the truth, we all do it, why not you?

Lack of sleep linked to Alzheimer's disease

Lack of sleep linked to Alzheimer's - health - 24 September 2009 - New Scientist

A lack of sleep could help toxic plaques develop in the brain, accelerating the progression of Alzheimer's disease.

David Holtzman looked at how sleep affected the levels of beta-amyloid protein in mice and humans. This protein causes plaques to build up in the brain, which some think cause Alzheimer's disease by killing cells.

Holtzman's group found that beta-amyloid levels were higher in mouse brains when the mice were awake than when they were sleeping.

Lack of sleep also had an effect on plaque levels: when the mice were sleep-deprived – forced to stay awake for 20 hours of the day – they developed more plaques in their brains.
Sleep therapy

Holtzman also tried sending the mice to sleep with a drug that is being trialled for insomnia, called Almorexant. This reduced the amount of plaque-forming protein.

He suggests that sleeping for longer could limit the formation of plaques, and perhaps block it altogether.

The group also measured levels of beta-amyloid in the cerebrospinal fluid of 10 healthy men, both at night and during the day. Levels were lower at night, suggesting that sleep might also help keep levels of the plaque protein low in humans.

Holtzman reckons that when we're awake, our brains are more active, and that this may cause us to produce more beta-amyloid protein.

Chimps can Transmit SIV to Humans (HIV)

The discovery that chimpanzees can develop an AIDS-like illness after infection with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), may have implications for future AIDS research and the prevention of HIV infection.

Until now, it was thought that SIV infection in chimps did not result in disease. However, after following 94 wild chimps in Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania for nine years, Beatrice Hahn, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and colleagues have shown that SIVcpz, the virus that jumped from chimps to humans as HIV-1, can and does cause an AIDS-like illness.

Over the 9 years of the study, SIVcpz infection caused an increased risk of mortality. "Up to 41 per cent in adults and 100 per cent in infants, and lower birth rates," says Hahn, "but we need longer-term follow-up to determine what proportion of infected animals develop an AIDS-like illness."

Unique opportunity
Hahn suspects that compared to HIV-infected humans, a greater proportion of SIV-infected chimps do not go on to develop fatal disease. "But this is not simple to test because chimpanzees don't just walk into clinics and give you a blood sample."

However, Hahn hopes that future research into animals which have long-term infection without developing an AIDS-like illness will yield insights that will enable us to better tackle HIV infection.

Unique Opportunity
The team believes that these findings provide a unique opportunity to compare the disease-causing mechanisms of two closely related viruses – SIVcpz and HIV-1 – in two closely related species. Such work has also already yielded information on mortality rates, prevalence and routes of spread of HIV and SIV.