Congratulations go to my fellow graduate student, Weihui Li, on her recent publication in Heart Rhythm. It made the cover!
Category Archives: Biomedical Engineering
MIT Tech Review Article on Stem Cell Differentiation Control
Biosingularity links today to an article in the MIT Technology Review on the state of science with regard to directing differentiation of stem cells into more specific types and tissues. This is of course an area that has been under study for a while. It’s essential to our potential ability to engineer replacement tissues. At the heart of the issue is what makes cells — which each have the entire blueprint for your body — develop into particular types, at the level of DNA transcription. While the pathways and molecules involved have been under investigation with some fruitful results, this is a major step in that people are beginning to integrate all of the information that’s been discovered, with an aim toward total deliberate control of cell development.
Technorati Tags: stem cells, biomedical engineering, tissue engineering
Guidant Chooses Boston Scientific in Buyout Bid War
After all of the drama, including some developments I posted about recently, Guidant has chosen to merge with Boston Scientific (warning, their page renders poorly on Firefox) over Johnson and Johnson, after J&J opted not to raise their bid any further. Many news outlets are reporting on the details.
Columbia University Develops Heart Patches
A story on heartinfo.org (via Slashdot) highlights the tissue engineering work done at Columbia University in New York. While they have grown beating patches of myocytes, it may be years before the patches make their way to a clinical setting.
New Articles on Virtual Electrode Polarization
Virtual Electrode Polarization (VEP) is an effect seen when an electrical field is applied across cardiac tissue. Large regions of positive and negative polarization manifest on the tissue surfaces, and sometimes within the depths of the heart. I’d link to the Wikipedia article on the term, but there is none. Perhaps I should write one.
Here are some recently-published articles on the subject:
- N.H. Kuijpers et al. found that tissue irregularity increased the number of virtual electrodes in simulation. Given that VEP appears strongly at tissue borders, this is not surprising. It’s good to see a methodic investigation on the subject, though.
- D.L. Beaudoin et al. investigated the arrhythmogenic effect of plunge recording electrodes in real cardiac tissue. They found that in some cases, the VEP caused by plunge electrodes could induce reentry. This encourages optical mapping studies of surface activity, and points to simulation as even more advantageous for studying electrical activity withinthe heart.
- Fujian Qu and others from the Efimov lab found that ascending ramp defibrillation waveforms produce more pronounced VEP, thereby more effectively eliminating reentry. I had the pleasure of meeting Fujian this past fall, during our lab’s Post-Katina stay at Washington University. This approach promises to decrease the necessary defibrillation energy, which implies less damage on the heart from defibrillation shocks.
There are some other articles in my queue, but they are from 2004 and earlier. I’ll post more as they roll in.