GENE THERAPY HELPS 'BUBBLE BABIES'
Italian and Israeli researchers have developed a new gene therapy to treat children born without immune systems. The procedure, which uses genetically altered stem cells, cured a condition known as severe combined immunodeficiency -- or SCID -- caused by the lack of an essential enzyme called ADA. Children born with acute SCID are known as "bubble babies" because they have to be kept in isolation units to prevent them from coming in contact with infectious elements. Researchers cured a 22-month-old child of SCID using genetically altered stem cells. The child was the third bubble baby born to her family, a member of Jerusalem's Arab community. The first died from the condition. An older sister survived after receiving a transplant of umbilical cord blood from a younger brother. Researchers said the gene therapy also could be effective in curing similar genetic diseases, such as Gaucher's and other conditions caused by enzyme deficiency.
'FUZZY' POLYMER MAY HELP IMPLANTS
A new polymer surface could improve the interface between electronic implants and living tissue, helping to advance a technology that may one day enable the blind to see and the paralyzed to walk. The polymer can be processed into a "fuzzy" form that makes it more compatible with brain tissue. One of the problems with existing polymers used to make electrodes implanted in the brain is they are "solid, hard and smooth," said University of Michigan researchers, who developed the new material. Brain tissue, on the other hand, is "soft, wet and alive," differences that can cause the electrodes to lose contact with the brain, blocking the signal. The new polymer is coated with growth factors that encourage brain tissue to blend with it. Researchers are using the material in experiments with a technique called a spinal cord bypass, which could help patients with brain disorders and paralysis operate artificial limbs or control a computer mouse by simply thinking about the task.
LIGHT GRABBED BY A BLACK HOLE
Astronomers have found new evidence that a beam of light loses energy if it travels too closely to the immense gravity well created by a black hole -- a key component of Einstein's general theory of relativity. Using the orbiting Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray satellites, astronomers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center captured bright hotspots within the so-called "accretion disk" of matter surrounding a presumed black hole in a distant galaxy named NGC 3516. A spectrograph taken of light emitted from the disk showed the unmistakable characteristics of strong gravity stealing energy from the light, just as Einstein predicted. Further observations could even allow astronomers to measure how the black hole in NGC 3516 is spinning, and actually forcing nearby space-time itself to rotate with it.
PARASITE LINKED TO OTTER DEATHS
Parasites living in housecats may be killing federally protected southern sea otters, University of California at Davis researchers report. In recent years, wildlife veterinarians have become concerned about the increasing number of southern sea otters dying in California. The current otter population is 10 percent lower than it was in 1995. Disease has been identified as one reason. A species of microscopic parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, has been identified as a cause of fatal brain infections in these otters. Using a new diagnostic test, the researchers found 42 percent of live otters and 62 percent of dead otters were infected with Toxoplasma. Because cats are the only animals known to shed the tough, environmentally resistant eggs of Toxoplasma parasites in their feces, researchers theorize that sea otters might be exposed to Toxoplasma through both freshwater runoff and municipal waste (sewage), from cat feces flushed down toilets. Primary and secondary sewage treatment may not kill the eggs, which are protected by a tough outer shell.
(Editors: For more information on BUBBLE BABIES, contact Roberta Elliott at 212-303-8153 or [email protected]. For FUZZY POLYMER, Sharon Worthy at 202-872-4371 or [email protected]. For BLACK HOLE, Bill Steigerwald at 301-286-5017 or [email protected]. For OTTERS, Pam Kan-Rice at 510-987-0043 or [email protected])
