Tag Archives: University College London

UK’s National Physical Laboratory reaches out to ‘BioTouch’ MIT and UCL

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This March 27, 2014 news item on Azonano is an announcement for a new project featuring haptics and self-assembly,

NPL (UK’s National Physical Laboratory) has started a new strategic research partnership with UCL (University College of London) and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) focused on haptic-enabled sensing and micromanipulation of biological self-assembly – BioTouch.

The NPL March 27, 2014 news release, which originated the news item, is accompanied by a rather interesting image,

A computer operated dexterous robotic hand holding a microscope slide with a fluorescent human cell (not to scale) embedded into a synthetic extracellular matrix. Courtesy: NPL

A computer operated dexterous
robotic hand holding a microscope
slide with a fluorescent human cell
(not to scale) embedded into a
synthetic extracellular matrix. Courtesy: NPL

The news release goes on to describe the BioTouch project in more detail (Note: A link has been removed),

The project will probe sensing and application of force and related vectors specific to biological self-assembly as a means of synthetic biology and nanoscale construction. The overarching objective is to enable the re-programming of self-assembled patterns and objects by directed micro-to-nano manipulation with compliant robotic haptic control.

This joint venture, funded by the European Research Council, EPSRC and NPL’s Strategic Research Programme, is a rare blend of interdisciplinary research bringing together expertise in robotics, haptics and machine vision with synthetic and cell biology, protein design, and super- and high-resolution microscopy. The research builds on the NPL’s pioneering developments in bioengineering and imaging and world-leading haptics technologies from UCL and MIT.

Haptics is an emerging enabling tool for sensing and manipulation through touch, which holds particular promise for the development of autonomous robots that need to perform human-like functions in unstructured environments. However, the path to all such applications is hampered by the lack of a compliant interface between a predictably assembled biological system and a human user. This research will enable human directed micro-manipulation of experimental biological systems using cutting-edge robotic systems and haptic feedback.

Recently the UK government has announced ‘eight great technologies’ in which Britain is to become a world leader. Robotics, synthetic biology, regenerative medicine and advanced materials are four of these technologies for which this project serves as a merging point providing thus an excellent example of how multidisciplinary collaborative research can shape our future.

If it read this rightly, it means they’re trying to design systems where robots will work directly with materials in the labs while humans direct the robots’ actions from a remote location. My best example of this (it’s not a laboratory example) would be of a surgery where a robot actually performs the work while a human directs the robot’s actions based on haptic (touch) information the human receives from the robot. Surgeons don’t necessarily see what they’re dealing with, they may be feeling it with their fingers (haptic information). In effect, the robot’s hands become an extension of the surgeon’s hands. I imagine using a robot’s ‘hands’ would allow for less invasive procedures to be performed.

Reloading the 21st Century body at University College London

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I got an interesting June 3, 2013 announcement yssterday morning (June 3, 2013), a Call for Papers for the 21st Century Body Reloaded Symposium to be held Nov. 7 – 8, 2013 at the University College London (UK). Here are the details,

CALL FOR PAPERS

 ‘The 21st Century Body Reloaded’

Symposium

7-8th November 2013, London

Additional details to be confirmed shortly

Exciting developments in the life sciences and their application in biotechnology are helping to provide pioneering cures and therapies for inherited and degenerative diseases. Consider genomics and genetic based therapies, neuroscience and neuropharmacology, ICT implants and prosthetics, nanomedicine and the required socio-cultural accommodations to ageing and you will see how the way in which we perceive ourselves and those around us is slowly being recast.  As our knowledge and its application continues to grow and expand, the range, scope and magnitude of what we are able to achieve seems to be limitless.

Building on the success of last year’s event and the many positive and encouraging comments from participants, this year’s interdisciplinary symposium is convened in order to further build capacity as well as consolidate existing scholarship on perspectives on the human body and identity in the face of new advances in emerging technologies.

FURTHER DETAILS

Technology forecasters point to advances in nanoscience and nanotechnology as an ‘enabling technology’ which opens up further opportunities when combined with other technologies.  This “convergence” of new emerging technologies therefore becomes a matter of great debate. This is seen, for example, when advances in nanoscience converge with developments in biotechnology, which also utilise developments in information technology to capture and simulate human abilities using artificial intelligence systems and, more controversially, cognitive science.  As the animal-human distinction becomes increasingly blurred, it is plain to see the increasing growth of human power over nature in all of its forms including traditional and contemporary understanding about human nature itself. More than just speculative science fiction, talk of brain implants and neural imaging, cyborg enhancement and virtual reality simulation is suddenly becoming a pressing reality.

At this time we are faced with a key question: what does it mean to be human in the 21st Century? A series of identity crises emerge. Against the backdrop of developments in ICT, and especially in virtual contexts we are keen to ensure that our identities are protected and can be authenticated appropriately, without fear of them being reconstructed by others. Likewise, concern is expressed over the question of privacy and surveillance when we encounter new forms of identifying technologies such as biometrics which could challenge our freedom and dignity. As genetic and neuroscience technologies evolve, they provoke and unsettle some of our traditional perceptions of who and what we are.

It is envisaged that this symposium will contribute to the conversation on this theme and by drawing from insights and ideas from across the disciplines, the aim will be to chart challenges to, and changes in perceptions of identity and the human body in the 21st century.

Some key questions this symposium will aim to address include the following:

●      Is human identity being transformed, redefined or superseded through new developments in medicine and technology?

●      Do these new emerging technologies present as radical and revolutionary changes to how we see ourselves (as is sometimes claimed)? Or, are they in fact no different to their predecessors?

●      How are we to evaluate or assess the moral significance of these new technologies to our identity as humans?

●      What does it mean to have identity and to be identifiable in the 21st Century?

●      Are new technologies helping to redefine what we recognise as the human body? Are they in some ways helping to make the human body redundant? If so, in what ways?

●      What are the social, ethical and policy implications of these changes, both locally and globally, as we increasingly encounter the rapid expansion of biotechnologies worldwide?

●      Is altering the shape and appearance of the body contributing to our loss of contact with the body? How does this affect traditional ideas about the mind/body distinction?

Suggested topics:

  • Ageing and immortality;
  • Artificial intelligence; the Turing test; machine understanding;
  • Artificial life; computational biology;
  • Biometrics;
  • Cognitive science;
  • Converging technologies (nano-bio-info-cogno);
  • Ethical and social implications of advances in emerging technologies;
  • Genetics;
  • Human enhancement;
  • Implant technology;
  • Medical anthropology;
  • Neuroscience.

Organising committee:

Dr Yasemin J. Erden, Lecturer in Philosophy, CBET, St Mary’s University College, Twickenham   erdeny@smuc.ac.uk

Deborah Gale, MA, King’s College London    deb.dgale@gmail.com

Matt James MA, Director, BioCentre    matt.james@bioethics.ac.uk

Aaron Parkhurst, PhD research candidate, Medical Anthropology, University College London   ucsab01@ucl.ac.uk

Dr. Stephen Rainey, Visiting Lecturer in philosophy, St Mary’s University College, Twickenham     stiofan.orian@gmail.com

SUBMISSION DETAILS

We invite submission of abstracts in the first instance, with a word limit of around 500-750 words (maximum), and not including references. The abstract should clearly outline main arguments and conclusions of the paper.  On the basis of these abstracts, the academic organising committee will compose a short list of speakers to be invited to submit full-length papers for presentation at the symposium, which will be held in London in November 2013.

All abstracts must be submitted through EasyChair (in a Word attachment; without inclusion of personal details to allow for blind reviewing).

https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=c21stbody-reloaded

A selection of successful papers from last year’s symposium were published in a special issue of The New Bioethics: A multidisciplinary journal on biotechnology and the body.

This year a selection of papers which are included in the symposium will also be invited to submit copies for consideration to a special publication on the same theme.

WEB LINKS

http://www.bioethics.ac.uk/news/Call-for-Papers-The-21st-Century-Body-Reloaded-.php

IMPORTANT DATES

Tuesday 9th July 2013 Deadline for submission of abstracts to Easychair (500-750 word limit).
Monday 28th October 2013 Final version of papers to be submitted to Easychair
w.c. 4th November 2013 Symposium, University College London

CONTACT

 For more information on submissions, please contact the organising committee directly.

THANKS

 The organising committee is grateful for the support provided by BioCentre and the Department of Anthropology, University College London.

I cannot find anything more about this conference. There doesn’t seem to be a website or webpage for it nor is it mentioned on the University College London’s website. (In fact, I couldn’t find anything for last year’s event either.)  I hope there’s something more once they’ve received the proposals/abstracts and organized the schedule.

COllaborative Network for Training in Electronic Skin Technology (CONTEST) looking for twelve researchers

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The CONTEST (COllaborative Network for Training in Electronic Skin TechnologyCOllaborative Network for Training in Electronic Skin Technology) project was launched today in Italy. According to the Aug. 21, 2012 news item on Nanowerk,

“Flexible electronics” is one of the most significant challenges in the field of future electronics. The possibility of realizing flexible and bendable electronic circuits, that can be rolled up, twisted or inserted in films around objects, would introduce a range of infinite applications in multiple fields, including healthcare, robotics and energy.

In this area, the Fondazione Bruno Kessler of Trento will coordinate the CONTEST project (COllaborative Network for Training in Electronic Skin Technology), an Initial Training Network (ITN) Marie Curie project funded by the European Commission involving European research, academic and business players. These include seven full partners (Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Italy; ST Microelectronics, Italy; Technical University Munich, Germany; Fraunhofer EMFT, Germany; University College London, UK; Imperial College London, UK; and Shadow Robotics Company, UK) and two associate partners (University of Cambridge, UK, and University of Tokyo, Japan).

The CONTEST project page at the Fondazione Bruno Kessler website offers more details,

At the heart of the CONTEST programme lies the multidisciplinary research training of young researchers. The CONTEST network will recruit twelve excellent Early-Stage Researchers (e.g. PhD students) and two Experienced Researchers (e.g. Post-Doc fellows). Information for submitting applications is available at the project’s website: http://www.contest-itn.eu/.
CONTEST activities will be coordinated by Ravinder S. Dahiya, researcher at the Bio-MEMS Unit (BIO-Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems) of  the Center for Materials and Microsystems (Fondazione Bruno Kessler) and by Leandro Lorenzelli, head of the Bio-MEMS Unit.
“The disruptive flexible electronics technology – says Ravinder S. Dahiya – will create change and improve the electronic market landscape and usher in a new revolution in multifunctional electronics. It will transform to an unprecedented degree our view of electronics and how we, as a society, interact with intelligent and responsive systems.”
“The investigation, in a very multidisciplinary framework, of technological approaches for thin flexible components – explains Leandro Lorenzelli – will generate new paradigms and concepts for microelectronic devices and systems with new functionalities tailored to the needs of a wide range of applications including robotics, biomedical instrumentations and smart cities.”

Here’s more about the 12 researchers they’re recruiting, excerpted from the Job Openings page on the CONTEST project website (Note: I have removed some links),

We have been awarded a large interdisciplinary project on electronic skin and applications, called CONTEST (COllaborative Network for Training in Electronic Skin Technology). We are therefore looking for 12 excellent Early-Stage Researchers (e.g. PhD students) and 2 Experienced Researchers (e.g. Post-Doc), associated to:

  • Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento, Italy (2 Early-Stage Researcher positions on silicon based flexible sensors (e.g. touch sensors), electronic circuits and 1 Experienced Researcher position on system integration)  …,
  • ST Microelectronics, Catania, Italy (2 Early-Stage Researcher positions on chemical/physical sensors on flexible substrates, and metal patterned substrates for integrating flexible sensing elements)…,
  • Technical University Munich, Germany (3 Early-Stage Researcher positions on organic semiconductor based electronics devices and circuits, modeling of flexible devices and sensors … , and artificial skin in humanoids…,
  • Fraunhofer EMFT, Munich, Germany (1 Early-Stage Researcher position on assembly on film substrates and foil integration as well as 1 Experienced Researcher position on reliability and ESD issues of components during flex integration) … ,
  • University College London, UK (2 Early-Stage Researcher positions on organic semiconductor based interconnects, solutions processed sensors, alternative on-skin energy schemes, patterning of e-skin and stretchable interconnects using blends of graphene in polymeric materials …
  • Imperial College London, UK (1 Early-Stage Researcher position on human sensori-motor control and robotics) …, and
  • Shadow Robotics Company, UK (1 Early-Stage Researcher position on biorobotics and mechatronics) ….

Mobility rules apply to all these positions. Researchers can be of any nationality. They are required to undertake trans-national mobility (i.e. move from one country to another) when taking up their appointment. One general rule applies to the appointment of researchers: At the time of recruitment by the host organization, researchers must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of their host organization (i.e. recruiting institute) for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the reference date. Short stays such as holidays and/or compulsory national service are not taken into account.

Good luck to all who apply! Priority will be given to applications received by Sept. 30, 2012.

Playing and singing the Higgs Boson

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The Higgs Boson has lead to an explosion of creativity. First, the Guerilla Science team has produced a Secret Garden Party (July 19 – 22, 2012) featuring the Higgs Boson. Here’s a video clip from the 2012 event,

Zoe Cormier (writer and Guerilla Science co-founder) notes in her July 27, 2012 posting on the Guardian science blogs,

The Particle Zoo Safari, hosted by Guerilla Science at the Secret Garden Party arts and music festival last weekend, observed the formation of another proton and hydrogen atom, the sparring of two combative electrons, polyamorous covalent bond formation, sunlight manufacture through fusion (and a ping pong ball), and the creation of deuterium – complete with dubstep to mirror the atomic weight of the heavy form of hydrogen.

With polystyrene magnets our audience-cum-collider recreated the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to produce the star of the show: the Higgs boson, sumo-suited and angry, the weightiest particle of all. “I’m hungry,” it grumpily announced, before we threw a net over it and dragged it into the tent. Too much had been spent on the particle’s discovery to let it escape now.

“The idea of the safari came from a colloquialism in physics, which refers to the set of standard particles that make up the entire universe as the ‘particle zoo’,” explains Patrick Stevenson-Keating, the designer we enlisted to help us devise a new way to explore particle physics. “This scale of subatomic particles is so different to our everyday world that there are few comparisons you can really make, so it was challenging to visualise some of the concepts.”

Here’s what the science consultant had to say about it (from Cormier’s posting),

“When I was first approached to take part, I did think it sounded a bit nuts actually, but in the end it worked out reasonably well in terms of the science – I think most people would at least remember that quarks come in threes, and they are difficult to pull apart,” says Dr James Monk of the University College London, a particle physicist who works on the Atlas experiment on the LHC, whom we enlisted as a scientific consultant. “These particles and forces are important to understand how the world works, and it wouldn’t be fitting if physicists said that we do all this fantastic research – but the rest of you can’t possibly understand it.”

It’s well worth reading Cormier’s whole post and you might even feel like taking another look at the video (I found it embedded in Cormier’s posting)  after reading.

(Last year, I featured Guerilla Science and Cormier in my July 12, 2011 posting.)

Meanwhile, the Higgs is producing music. According to David Bruggeman’s July 28, 2012 posting on his Pasco Phronesis blog,

While it seems unlikely that papers will soon come as .mp3 files with audio infographics, some are still working on hearing things we usually expect to see.

…

The idea is to match energy levels found in the data with particular notes.  That way shifts in energy can be more immediately expressed as shifts in tone.  The Higgs boson peaks out of the background noise – noise that isn’t really noise from a musical perspective.

David is hoping turning data into music could be used in the future for educational purposes,

… for those who have an easier time detecting patterns in audio rather than printed data, this could be a very productive development.

I thought it would be interesting to hear some Higgs Boson music. While this piece is based on Higgs data, the composer has taken liberties after letting you hear what the untreated melody sounds like,

The composer, Ben McCormack, had this to say about the piece titled, Higgs Boson (ATLAS preliminary data),

The data was already converted to notes by Domenico Vicinanza. I then consolidated the melody to remove a lot of the large leaps, giving it a slightly better flow.

Before you say anything, I know that this (at least somewhat) defeats the purpose of the data. I’m a composer; my goal was primarily to make a fun piece of music. I inverted the melody and wrote countermelodies that aren’t mathematically-related to the original melody, so consider this more a creative work than an exercise in data analysis.

You can find out more about the Higgs Boson in my July 4, 2012 posting where I wrote about the then latest announcement from CERN (European Particle Physics Laboratory).

Making nanotechnology-enabled body parts

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In my Aug. 2, 2011 posting, Body parts nano style, I mentioned a scaffolding, developed by Dr. Alex Seifalian, made of a biocomposite. Today’s (Aug. 16, 2011) news item on Nanowerk offers more information about the biocomposite,

The composite made from POSS® and PCU (Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane & Poly (carbonateurea) Urethane) had been developed by Dr. Alex Seifalian of the University College London Medical School. The effort has been so effective that Dr. Seifalian says he now has six more tracheas on order. … Moreover the composite scaffold can be transformed into a human artery, vein, heart valve, tear duct or trachea. It might in the future be used to make larynxes, noses, breasts, ears or other parts of the human body.

Hybrid has developed a platform technology called POSS® (Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane). It is a revolutionary new Nanotechnology based on silicon-derived building blocks that provide nanometerscale control to dramatically improve the properties of traditional polymers. They release no VOCs and, thereby, produce no odor or air pollution. They are biocompatible and recyclable. POSS® nanoscopic chemical technology provides unique opportunities to create revolutionary material combinations through a melding of the desirable properties of ceramics and polymers at the 1 nm length scale. These new combinations enable the circumvention of classic material performance trade-offs by exploiting the synergy and properties that only occur between materials at the nanoscale.

Yes, it’s a bit puffy with hype but that’s to be expected when the news item is released by the company, Hybrid Plastics, that produces at least part of the biocomposite (POSS®) used to create the scaffolding.

Body parts nano style

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In early July 2011, there were reports of a new kind of transplant involving a body part made of a biocomposite. Andemariam Teklesenbet Beyene underwent a trachea transplant that required an artificial windpipe crafted by UK experts then flown to Sweden where Beyene’s stem cells were used to coat the windpipe before being transplanted into his body.

It is an extraordinary story not least because Beyene, a patient in a Swedish hospital planning to return to Eritrea after his PhD studies in Iceland, illustrates the international cooperation that made the transplant possible.

The scaffolding material for the artificial windpipe was developed by Professor Alex Seifalian at the University College London in a landmark piece of nanotechnology-enabled tissue engineering. Tim Harper in his July 25, 2011 posting provides more details about the scaffolding,

A team led by Professor Alexander Seifalian (UCL Division of Surgery & Interventional Science; professor of nanotechnology and regenerative medicine at University College London, UK), whose laboratories are headquartered at the Royal Free Hospital, created a glass mold of the patient’s trachea from X-ray computed tomography (CT) scans of the patient. In CT, digital geometry processing is employed to generate a 3D image of the inside of an object from a large series of 2D X-ray images taken around one single axis of rotation.

Then, they manufactured a full size y-shaped trachea scaffold at Professor Seifalian’s laboratories. The scaffold of the trachea was built using a novel nanocomposite polymer developed and patented by Professor Seifalian. Professor Seifalian worked together with Professor Paolo Macchiarini at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden (who also holds an Honorary appointment at UCL).

Professor Seifalian and his team used a porous novel nanocomposite polymer to build the y-shaped trachea scaffold. The pores were millions of little holes, providing this way a place for the patient’s stem cells to grow roots. The team cut strips of the novel nanocomposite polymer and wrapped them around the glass mold creating this way the cartilage rings that conferred structural strength to the trachea.

After the scaffold construct was finished, it was taken to Karolinska Institutet where the patient’s stem cells were seeded by Professor Macchiarini’s team.

Harper goes on to provide more details and insight into what makes this event such an important one.

Meanwhile, Dexter Johnson’s (Nanoclast blog in the IEEE website) July 21, 2011 posting poses a question,

While the nanocomposite scaffold is a critical element to the artificial organ, perhaps no less important was the bioreactor used to grow the stem cells onto it, which was developed at Harvard Bioscience.

If you needed any evidence of how nanotechnology is not only interdisciplinary, but also international, you could just cite this case: UK-developed nanocomposite for the scaffolding material, US-based bioreactor in which the stem cells were grown onto the scaffolding and a Swedish-based medical institute to perform the transplant.

So I ask, which country or region is going to get rich from the breakthrough?

It’s an interesting question and I don’t think I would have framed it in quite that fashion largely because I don’t tend to think of countries or regions getting wealthy from biomedical products since pharmaceutical companies tend to be internationally based. Is Switzerland richer for Novartis?

I suppose I’m a product of the Canadian landscape from which I spring so I think of trees and mines as making a country or region richer as they are inextricably linked to their environment but pharmaceuticals or biomedical appliances can be manufactured anywhere. Consequently, a synthetic organ could be manufactured anywhere once the technology becomes easily available. Who gets rich from this development? I suspect that will be a person or persons if anyone but, not a region or a country.

Getting back to Beyene, here are more details from the July 7, 2011 BBC News article by Michelle Roberts,

Dr Alex Seifalian and his team used this fragile structure [the scaffold] to create a replacement for the patient, whose own windpipe was ravaged by an inoperable tumour.

Despite aggressive chemotherapy and radiotherapy, the cancer had grown to the size of a golf ball and was blocking his breathing. Without a transplant he would have died.

During a 12-hour operation Professor Macchiarini removed all of the tumour and the diseased windpipe and replaced it with the tailor-made replica [now covered with tissue grown from the patient’s bone marrow tricked into growing like cells found in a trachea].

…

And, importantly, Mr Beyene’s body will accept it as its own, meaning he will not need to take the strong anti-rejection drugs that other transplant patients have to.

Professor Macchiarini said this was the real breakthrough.

“Thanks to nanotechnology, this new branch of regenerative medicine, we are now able to produce a custom-made windpipe within two days or one week.

“This is a synthetic windpipe. The beauty of this is you can have it immediately. There is no delay. This technique does not rely on a human donation.”

He said many other organs could be repaired or replaced in the same way.

A month on from his operation, Mr Beyene is still looking weak, but well.

Sitting up in his hospital bed, he said: “I was very scared, very scared about the operation. But it was live or die.”

My best wishes to Beyene and his family who are also pioneers.

 

Growing into your prosthetics

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Fusing skin to metal is the secret to making prosthetics more comfortable and usable. In a July 13, 2011 posting, GrrlScientist at the Guardian Science blogs highlights this pioneering research,

… thanks to the work of Professor Gordon Blunn, Head of University College London’s Centre for Bio-Medical Engineering, and his colleagues, including Dr Noel Fitzpatrick, a veterinary surgeon. Professor Blunn has been developing groundbreaking metal prosthetic implants that provide comfort and improved mobility for amputee humans and animals.

… They found that in antlers, the bone structure under the skin is very different to that of the exposed bone.

“It was very porous, with lots of tiny holes, which the dermis [the inner layer of skin] webs its way into”, explained Professor Blunn. [emphasis mine]

This observation led to their breakthrough development, known as Intraosseous Transcutaneous Amputation Prosthesis (ITAP), which uses a layer of porous and bioactive (hydroxyapatite-coated) surfaces that encourage adhesion by living tissues. This living “seal” prevents bacterial infections, thereby allowing surgeons to provide amputees with securely-attached limbs that carry weight in a natural way.

Currently, battery-powered sensors allow human amputees to consciously control the movement of downstream portions of the prosthetic limb, such as flexing the hand on a prosthetic arm.

As an excuse for including this item here on the blog and until I hear otherwise, I choose to think of those tiny holes as being at the nanoscale . Plus, I’ve written about prosthetics and human enhancement a number of times.  Here’s the first in a four-part series on Robots and Human Enhancement, July 22, 2009 posting.

As for Blunn’s work, GrrlScientist includes a video and pictures as well as more details about it.