The minds of man and machine suffer from a glaring disconnect: The inability to interface directly with one another. We have to use our hands, keyboards, and mice to issue commands to our robotic minions and they can only respond via physical sensory mediums. But we can do better. We can use our minds. In fact, we already are.
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ShareContact: Anne Grapin-Botton
anne.grapin-botton@sund.ku.dk
45-29-63-43-98
University of Copenhagen
An international team of researchers from the University of Copenhagen have successfully developed an innovative 3D method to grow miniature pancreas from progenitor cells. The future goal is to use this model to help in the fight against diabetes. The research results has just been published in the scientific journal Development.
Professor Anne Grapin-Botton and her team at the Danish Stem Cell Centre have developed a three-dimensional culture method which enables the efficient expansion of pancreatic cells. The new method allows the cell material from mice to grow vividly in picturesque tree-like structures. The method offers huge long term potential in producing miniature human pancreas from human stem cells. These human miniature organs would be valuable as models to test new drugs fast and effective and without the use of animal models.
"The new method allows the cell material to take a three-dimensional shape enabling them to multiply more freely. It's like a plant where you use effective fertilizer, think of the laboratory like a garden and the scientist being the gardener," says Anne Grapin-Botton.
Social cells
The cells do not thrive and develop if they are alone, and a minimum of four pancreatic cells close together is required for subsequent organoid development.
"We found that the cells of the pancreas develop better in a gel in three-dimensions than when they are attached and flattened at the bottom of a culture plate. Under optimal conditions, the initial clusters of a few cells have proliferated into 40,000 cells within a week. After growing a lot, they transform into cells that make either digestive enzymes or hormones like insulin and they self-organize into branched pancreatic organoids that are amazingly similar to the pancreas," adds Anne Grapin-Botton.
The scientists used this system to discover that the cells of the pancreas are sensitive to their physical environment such as the stiffness of the gel and to contact with other cells.
The research results has just been published in the scientific journal Development.
Pancreas and diabetes connection
An effective cellular therapy for diabetes is dependent on the production of sufficient quantities of functional beta-cells. Recent studies have enabled the production of pancreatic precursors but efforts to expand these cells and differentiate them into insulin-producing beta-cells have proved a challenge.
"We think this is an important step towards the production of cells for diabetes therapy, both to produce mini-organs for drug testing and insulin-producing cells as spare parts. We show that the pancreatic cells care not only about how you feed them but need to be grown in the right physical environment. We are now trying to adapt this method to human stem cells," adds Anne Grapin-Botton.
###
Contact:
Professor Anne Grapin-Botton
Mobile: +45 29 63 43 98
Share
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
ShareContact: Anne Grapin-Botton
anne.grapin-botton@sund.ku.dk
45-29-63-43-98
University of Copenhagen
An international team of researchers from the University of Copenhagen have successfully developed an innovative 3D method to grow miniature pancreas from progenitor cells. The future goal is to use this model to help in the fight against diabetes. The research results has just been published in the scientific journal Development.
Professor Anne Grapin-Botton and her team at the Danish Stem Cell Centre have developed a three-dimensional culture method which enables the efficient expansion of pancreatic cells. The new method allows the cell material from mice to grow vividly in picturesque tree-like structures. The method offers huge long term potential in producing miniature human pancreas from human stem cells. These human miniature organs would be valuable as models to test new drugs fast and effective and without the use of animal models.
"The new method allows the cell material to take a three-dimensional shape enabling them to multiply more freely. It's like a plant where you use effective fertilizer, think of the laboratory like a garden and the scientist being the gardener," says Anne Grapin-Botton.
Social cells
The cells do not thrive and develop if they are alone, and a minimum of four pancreatic cells close together is required for subsequent organoid development.
"We found that the cells of the pancreas develop better in a gel in three-dimensions than when they are attached and flattened at the bottom of a culture plate. Under optimal conditions, the initial clusters of a few cells have proliferated into 40,000 cells within a week. After growing a lot, they transform into cells that make either digestive enzymes or hormones like insulin and they self-organize into branched pancreatic organoids that are amazingly similar to the pancreas," adds Anne Grapin-Botton.
The scientists used this system to discover that the cells of the pancreas are sensitive to their physical environment such as the stiffness of the gel and to contact with other cells.
The research results has just been published in the scientific journal Development.
Pancreas and diabetes connection
An effective cellular therapy for diabetes is dependent on the production of sufficient quantities of functional beta-cells. Recent studies have enabled the production of pancreatic precursors but efforts to expand these cells and differentiate them into insulin-producing beta-cells have proved a challenge.
"We think this is an important step towards the production of cells for diabetes therapy, both to produce mini-organs for drug testing and insulin-producing cells as spare parts. We show that the pancreatic cells care not only about how you feed them but need to be grown in the right physical environment. We are now trying to adapt this method to human stem cells," adds Anne Grapin-Botton.
###
Contact:
Professor Anne Grapin-Botton
Mobile: +45 29 63 43 98
Share
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Edward Snowden. Courtesy of the Guardian
Secure email provider Lavabit just filed the opening brief in its appeal of a court order demanding it turn over the private SSL keys that protected all web traffic to the site.
The government proposed to examine and copy Lavabit’s most sensitive, closely guarded records–its private keys–despite the fact that those keys were not contraband, were not the fruits of any crime, were not used to commit any crime, and were not evidence of any crime. Rather, the government obtained a warrant to search and seize Lavabit’s property simply because it believed that the information would be helpful to know as it conducted its investigation of someone else.
As first reported by WIRED last week, the formerly secret July 16 order under appeal came after Texas-based Lavabit hesitated to circumvent its own security systems to comply with earlier orders intended to monitor a particular Lavabit user’s metadata, defined as “information about each communication sent or received by the account, including the date and time of the communication, the method of communication, and the source and destination of the communication.”
The name of the target is redacted from the brief, and from unsealed records in the case. But the offenses under investigation are listed as violations of the Espionage Act and theft of government property — the exact charges, in the same court, that have been filed against Lavabit’s most famous user, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The appeal brief correctly notes that the SSL keys would have allowed the government to eavesdrop on any or all of Lavabit’s 400,000 users as they used the site, though the government promised it wouldn’t do that.
After losing a court argument challenging the order in August, Lavabit founder Ladar Levison turned over the key and shut down his business, mooting any attempt at surveillance.
He appealed to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The government’s reply brief is due
November 4. Levison has raised approximately $90,000 in an online fundraising drive to finance his appeal.
Manila (AFP) - A major 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck near one of the Philippines key tourist hubs on Tuesday, the United States Geological Survey reported.
The quake struck at 08:12 local time (0012 GMT) some five kilometres (three miles) east of Balilihan, in the Bohol region of the archipelago, at a depth of 56 kilometres, the agency said.
The town lies across the Cebu Strait from the popular tourist destination of Cebu City, the country's fifth most populous city, about 60 kilometres (37 miles) away.
USGS issued a yellow warning, after the quake saying "some casualties and damage are possible and the impact should be relatively localised. Past yellow alerts have required a local or regional level response."
The temblor was followed by two aftershocks, each measuring more than 5.0 in magnitude.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center did not issue a Pacific-wide tsunami threat and there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
The epicentre was 629 kilometres from the capital Manila.
Balilihan has a population of around 18,500, according to the town's official website.
The Philippines lies on the so-called Pacific ring of fire, a chain of islands that are prone to quakes and volcanic eruptions.
Then read about director Nicolas Winding Refn's thoughts on great movies and why violence is like sex.
By Kevin P. Sullivan
Maybe it’s no surprise that Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, likes to wear his black ostrich “arguing boots” around Washington. That’s one of the things readers learn in People magazine’s gentle profile of the conservative who may have done more than anyone in Congress to force a government shutdown.
More surprising? He’s been in not one but two productions of “The Sound of Music.” First in seventh grade, as conflicted Nazi youth member Rolfe. Then in high school, as Max Detweiler, who gets the von Trapps to perform at the Salzburg Music Festival, effectively paving the way for the family’s escape.
“Rolfe was really terrible,” Cruz told People. “I cannot carry a tune to save my life."
The profile, on newsstands Friday, softens the sometimes hard edges of a senator who is often the target of sharp (and anonymous) criticism from his fellow congressional Republicans. It’s the kind of rehabilitation he’ll find useful if inside-the-Beltway rumors are true and he’s thinking about running for president.
He said he saw “The Butler” and found it “delightful.”
With most Washington museums and monuments closed because of the shutdown, the Cruz family headed to privately run Mount Vernon, where they “picked a whole bunch of apples and had a lot of fun," Cruz said.
And “he never misses date night,” his wife, Heidi, tells the magazine.
"Date night"? That was also a feature of rowdy Republican Gov. (and potential 2016 candidate) Chris Christie's People profile in late May.
