Filed in archive
Diagnostics, Methodologies and Instrumentation
, Other Biotechnology News
on August 15, 2010
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FeatheredTar
Lasik eye surgery became a popular treatment procedure because of its success in treating the eye's difficulty in focusing up-close objects. This is done by correcting the vision of one eye for distance while the other, for close vision. What is not covered by Lasik however, is the middle range of vision so that a gap in vision resulted.
With the new procedure, there will no longer be any vision gap because it is able to increase the depth of field for each eye. Laser blended vision surgery can also treat other vision impairments such as near-sightedness, far-sightedness and astigmatism.
The average time the procedure takes to be done is 10 to 15 minutes while the usual recovery period is only a few hours. Reported rate of success of the new procedure is a whopping 97%.
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Drugs, Vaccines and Therapeutics
, Other Biotechnology News
on July 21, 2010
©
samantha celera
The vaccine patches actually contain microneedles that are just three hundredths of an inch in size and only feel like fine sandpaper. These microneedles also dissolve within 15 minutes of application on the skin so there's no need for special disposal procedures, as there will be no leftover sharp needles.
The patient-friendly vaccine is the product of research by a team from Georgia Institute of Technology headed by researcher Mark Prausnitz. The said research - which was supported by the National Institutes of Health- produced successfully test results on mice.
The patches were found to deliver the correct doses of the vaccine and showed no harmful effects if left attached for more than 15 minutes. This groundbreaking discovery is anticipated to be available for human use in five years.
Filed in archive
Other Biotechnology News
on July 8, 2010
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paul (dex)
A condition that affects older people, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) damages the center of the retina (or macula), resulting in loss of vision in the center of the visual field.
Designed to replace the natural lens, the tiny device approved by the FDA is called an Implantable Miniature Telescope (IMT). It provides an image that has been magnified more than two times.
The IMT comes in two models: one model provides 2.2 times magnification and the other 2.7 times. It is designed to magnify and project images onto a healthy portion of the afflicted person's retina. It is intended for use in only one eye because the other eye is used for peripheral vision.
IMT is a product developed by VisionCare.
Filed in archive
Genomics, Proteomics and Bioinformatics
on June 27, 2010
©
minnemom
Producing human recombinant type I pro-collagen requires the coordinated expression of five different genes. Prof. Oded Shoseyov of the Robert H. Smith Institute of Plant Sciences and Genetics in Agriculture has established the only laboratory in the world that has reported successful co-expression all the five essential genes in transgenic tobacco plants for the production of processed pro-collagen.
The protocol has been published recently in the journal Biomacromolecules and is already patented by CollPlant Ltd.
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Drugs, Vaccines and Therapeutics
, Stem Cells
on June 24, 2010
©
WTL photos
Such were the findings reported by Italian researchers: the stem cell procedure resulted in successful corneal transplantation in three-fourths of patients with blindness in one or both eyes, caused mostly by chemical or thermal burns.
On the other hand, in those patients who did not have major damage to other parts of the affected eye, at least vision was partially restored.
The study's researcher Graziella Pellegrini, PhD of the University of Moderna's Center for Regenerative Medicine and her team have performed corneal transplants in around 250 patients over the last decade using the said stem cell technique. However, the procedure remains experimental and is not being done in the United States.
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