Bioengineers go retro to build a calculator from living cells.

Scientists in the US have developed a calculator from living cells, using old-fashioned analog programming. Their hope is that the technology could be used in the future to program cells to kill cancer.

Researchers have previously built electronic circuits using living cells. They achieved this by forcing living cells to behave in binary (digital) systems. But this is not energy efficient.

And many cells are required to implement simple functions that transistors, the basic units of electronic circuits which are ten times smaller than a cell and more reliable, can perform.

Instead analog technology, which uses not just two states like digital but many, could be used to make cells do more complex tasks. Rahul Sarpeshkar, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, realised that chemical reactions inside a living cell are also analog in nature.

OpenWorm, a new open-source project devoted to creating a complete virtual model of a worm, aims to bring simulation into the living world by creating a digital organism–C. elegans, a nematode commonly used as a model organism in biology research.

The goal is to make a digital worm that mimics its biological counterpart in essentially every way, from the molecular level to behavioral patterns.

Just 3D bioprinting ears (an announcement we shared so recently!) was not enough — here is a 3D bioprinted ‘bionic’ ear that melds electronics and biology from phys.org:

Scientists at Princeton University used off-the-shelf printing tools to create a functional ear that can “hear” radio frequencies far beyond the range of normal human capability.

The researchers’ primary purpose was to explore an efficient and versatile means to merge electronics with tissue. The scientists used 3D printing of cells and nanoparticles followed by cell culture to combine a small coil antenna with cartilage, creating what they term a bionic ear.

“In general, there are mechanical and thermal challenges with interfacing electronic materials with biological materials,” said Michael McAlpine, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton and the lead researcher. “Previously, researchers have suggested some strategies to tailor the electronics so that this merger is less awkward. That typically happens between a 2D sheet of electronics and a surface of the tissue. However, our work suggests a new approach—to build and grow the biology up with the electronics synergistically and in a 3D interwoven format.”

McAlpine’s team has made several advances in recent years involving the use of small-scale medical sensors and antenna. Last year, a research effort led by McAlpine and Naveen Verma, an assistant professor of electrical engineering, and Fio Omenetto of Tufts University, resulted in the development of a “tattoo” made up of a biological sensor and antenna that can be affixed to the surface of a tooth.

This project, however, is the team’s first effort to create a fully functional organ: one that not only replicates a human ability, but extends it using embedded electronics:

“The design and implementation of bionic organs and devices that enhance human capabilities, known as cybernetics, has been an area of increasing scientific interest,” the researchers wrote in the article which appears in the scholarly journal Nano Letters. “This field has the potential to generate customized replacement parts for the human body, or even create organs containing capabilities beyond what human biology ordinarily provides.” …

Read more.

Self-deployable current sources fabricated from edible materials – Journal of Materials Chemistry B (RSC Publishing).

He browsed the books like a giant looking for something to read. Some were small enough to fit into a fold of his hand. Many of the books were illegibly small, and he didn’t know what they were all about. But reading them was never the point.

Neale Albert, 75, is a collector of miniature books, and he may be the most serious collector living in New York. By definition, miniature books are properly printed and bound, and for the most part no larger than three inches. Mr. Albert has over 4,000 of them, some the size of matchboxes and others smaller than a tab of chewing gum. Some of the books are worth many thousands of dollars.

Cheap and quick HIV testing made possible with DVD scanners.

Aman Russom, senior lecturer at the School of Biotechnology at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, says that his research team converted a commercial DVD drive into a laser scanning microscope that can analyse blood and perform cellular imaging with one-micrometre resolution. The breakthrough creates the possibility of an inexpensive and simple-to-use tool that could have far-reaching benefits in health care in the developing world. “With an ordinary DVD player, we have created a cheap analytical tool for DNA, RNA, proteins and even entire cells,” says Russom. The so-called “Lab-on-DVD” technology makes it possible to complete an HIV test in just a few minutes, he says.

Science Fiction Comes Alive as Researchers Grow Organs in Lab @ WSJ.com.

Building a complex human organ in the lab is no longer a dream of science fiction. At London’s Royal Free Hospital, a team of 30 scientists is manufacturing a variety of body parts, including windpipes, noses and ears.

Check out these fascinating algae-powered public lamps, sent to us as a blogtip sent in from Tony Sherwood: a reminder that solutions to one problem often emerge from an understanding of the fuel, product, and waste from complementary processes.

Here’s a post about these lamps with some links to supplementary articles from Treehugger.com:

French biochemist and Shamengo pioneer Pierre Calleja has invented this impressive streetlight that is powered by algae which absorbs CO2 from the air. We have featured algae-powered lamps before but this one takes out 1 ton (!) of CO2 per year. This is as much CO2 as a tree absorbs on average during its entire life.

It seems to me that this is a pretty amazing idea that could really work and clean the air pollution from urban areas (like parking lots, tested in the video above) and at the same time look good. That said, reducing is still better than restoring, but in the meantime- let’s get this lamp working!

Read more.

Data Storage in DNA Becomes a Reality.

DNA is the building block of life, but in the future it may also be the standard repository for encyclopedias, music and other digital data. Scientists announced yesterday that they successfully converted 739 kilobytes of hard drive data in genetic code and then retrieved the content with 100 percent accuracy.

The researchers began with the computer files from some notable cultural highlights: an audio recording of MLK Jr.’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech, all 154 of Shakespeare’s sonnets, and, appropriately, a copy of Watson and Crick’s original research paper describing DNA’s double helix structure. On a hard drive, these files are stored as a series of zeros and ones. The researchers worked out a system to translate the binary code into one with four characters instead: A, C, G and T. They used this genetic code to synthesize actual strands of DNA with the content embedded in its very structure.

Read more.

A story that has been racing like wildfire around the desktop 3D printing world, especially as so many people got to see the Organovo at Euromold. Via Wired Design.

Autodesk, the industry leader in CAD software, has announced it is partnering with biological printer manufacturer Organovo to create 3-D design software for designing and printing living tissue.

It’s an area of interest to Autodesk, whose software runs the industrial design and architecture worlds, allowing them to expand further into new fields by helping researchers interface with new tools.

Organovo’s bioplotter, one of the only machines that can shape living tissue, works like a standard desktop 3-D printers but uses living cells instead of ABS plastic. It creates tissue by printing a gel base material as a scaffold and then deposits cells which mature into living material that can be used in the process of developing new pharmaceuticals.

Read more.

Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!

3ders.org had a chance at EuroMold to learn more about the envisionTEC 3D Bioplotter:

First, an object is placed on the platform of the printer upon – a petrie dish for example. Then the printer must check the height of the object to make sure everything is calibrated correctly. Mr. Carvalho placed a paper card on the platform of the 3D-Bioplotter to demonstrate how the machine works.

Mr. Carvalho then talked us through the printing process. To begin, a liquefied material – in this case a silicone paste – is pressed through a needle-like tip by applying air pressure. The needle moves in all three dimensions which means it is able to create a three dimensional object. The printer is called ‘Bioplotter’ because the unique aspect of this machine is its use of biomaterials to make implants or other objects for biomedical application.

Some of the implants which are made using the 3D Bioplotter are intended to dissolve in the body. The materials which are used in this application include PLLA, PLGA, and silicone.

Implants made with thermoplastics – as they are mostly water and CO2 – are removed by the body naturally in around a week or two. Other materials, such as ceramic paste, may also be used to print implants. The implants printed using ceramic paste do not dissolve. Instead, the body uses this material to create new bone. This actually speeds up the process of the body’s regeneration.

The 3DBioplotter also prints hydrogels – such as collagen or alginate. These materials can have human cells actually added to them. Thus human cells may be printed directly with this machine.

Read more.

Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has thrilled us at Adafruit with its passion and dedication to making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed that our community integrating electronics projects into 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you take considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless EL Wire and LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects!

The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! If you have a cool project you’ve made that joins the traditions of 3D printing and electronics, be sure to send it in to be featured here!

DNA Hacking Is Now Street Legal @ Fast Company.

Chances are you haven’t heard much about lipoprotein lipase deficiency (LPLD), a disease that leads to pancreatitis. This rare disease, however, is at the center of world-changing medical advances.

Last week the European Union approved a gene therapy treatment for LPLD–and this marks the first time any medical treatment that rewrites a patients’ DNA has been approved for commercial use.

The treatment, called Glybera, will be released by Dutch firm uniQure in the second half of 2013. Glybera will be administered to patients by specially trained doctors at a limited number of European hospitals. Patients receiving treatment have their DNA altered by a series of injections into their leg muscles, which helps normalize the metabolism of fat particles carried in the blood. LPLD prevents sufferers from properly metabolizing these particles, leading to a host of side effects including pancreatitis.

IN STOCK! Biohacking- Skill badge, iron-on patch.

Had a great time meeting with other presenters and guests for the Launch Party for the “Making Things” series, GE Garages‘ month at STORY in the Chelsea Arts District in NYC. It was a real treat talking to engineering and design heavyweights Nina Tandon, Catarina Mota, Corrie Van Sice, and Manca Ahlin about biohacking, open hardware, 3D designs, and lamps, while the four of them celebrated their pleasure watching product shots and videos at Adafruit that have Limor or Becky’s painted nails in the corners of them: what a great message that is to young hotshot female engineers just getting started.

I also spent some time talking with Rich and Peter of Brooklyn-based Industrial City Distillery, hardcore makers themselves. Rich, who designs the custom-built distillery’s automation, was thrilled to see someone from Adafruit at the party. He shared about his use of Arduinos and other Adafruit supplies to reinvent how they are distilling high-grade vodka from sugar beets, going from setup to on-shelves in less than a year. (Check out this awesome video!)

I have posted my Skillshare signup for my workshop on October 21st, and already the 30 slots are starting to fill up. I shared with a few other presenters tonight what I have in mind for the activity, but I’m going to keep quiet about this secret 3D printing + electronics project here on the blog until I offer a sneak preview during the Adafruit “Show and Tell” episode on October 20th.

NEW PRODUCT – Polar T34 Heart Rate Transmitter The Polar T34 Non-Coded Heart Rate Transmitter monitors and then wirelessly transmits your heart rate data from the chest strap to a Polar WearLink+ compatible receiver.  This allows the wearer to monitor their heart rate. This transmitter can also be paired with your local gym’s exercise equipment if it is Polar WearLink compatible.

Key Features:

• Heart rate sensor wirelessly transmits heart rate data without the need for conductive gel
• Water-resistant up to 30 meters for use in extreme environments 
• Battery to last up to 2,500 hours of continuous usage
• Adjustable elastic strap for comfortable yet secure sensing
• Removable and machine washable textile strap keeps your sensor bacteria-free

Details:

• Water resistant up to 30 meters
• ECG accuracy
• Up to 2,500 hours of usage
• Non-user replaceable battery
• Adjustable medium size elastic chest strap included (25-54 inches)
• Machine washable and anti-bacterial

Application Ideas:

• Measuring heart rate during workout or during cooldown
• Applications with Polar Heart Rate Monitor Receiver

Parallax has a a heart rate sensing tutorial with sample code on their learning site.

In stock and shipping now!

To present at Ubicomp 2012, by Pervasive Computing Group at CCNT Lab, Zhejiang University, China

“Blink to take pictures” – via Beyond the Beyond.

What It’s Like to Hear Music for the First Time @ The Atlantic.

Austin Chapman was born profoundly deaf. Hearing aids helped some, but music — its full range of pitches and tones — remained indecipherable. As Chapman explains, “I’ve never understood it. My whole life I’ve seen hearing people make a fool of themselves singing their favorite song or gyrating on the dance floor. I’ve also seen hearing people moved to tears by a single song. That was the hardest thing for me to wrap my head around.”

..When Mozart’s Lacrimosa came on, I was blown away by the beauty of it. At one point of the song, it sounded like angels singing and I suddenly realized that this was the first time I was able to appreciate music. Tears rolled down my face and I tried to hide it. But when I looked over I saw that there wasn’t a dry eye in the car.

…”Silence is still my favorite sound,” he writes. “When I turn my aids off my thoughts become more clear and it’s absolutely peaceful.”

Cyborg America: inside the strange new world of basement body hackers @ The Verge.

Cannon led me down into the basement, which he and Sarver have converted into a laboratory. A long work space was covered with Arduino motherboards, soldering irons, and electrodes. Cannon had recently captured a garter snake, which eyed us from inside a plastic jar. “Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been telling people that I want to be a robot,” said Cannon. “These days, that doesn’t seem so impossible anymore.” The pair call themselves grinders — homebrew biohackers obsessed with the idea of human enhancement — who are looking for new ways to put machines into their bodies. They are joined by hundreds of aspiring biohackers who populate the movement’s online forums and a growing number, now several dozen, who have gotten the magnetic implants in real life.

Intel International Science and Engineering Fair Winners.

Jack Andraka, 15, of Crownsville, Md. was awarded first place for his new method to detect pancreatic cancer at this year’s Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF), a program of Society for Science & the Public. Based on diabetic test paper, Jack created a simple dip-stick sensor to test blood or urine to determine whether or not a patient has early-stage pancreatic cancer. His study resulted in over 90 percent accuracy and showed his patent-pending sensor to be 28 times faster, 28 times less expensive and over 100 times more sensitive than current tests. Jack received the Gordon E. Moore Award, of $75,000, named in honor of Intel co-founder and retired chairman and CEO.

Brain-Computer Interface Using Single-Channel Electroencephalography.

We developed an EEG brainwave-controlled Pong game using an AVR microcontroller. It uses alpha wave modulation based on the spectral power to control the paddle position. If you relax, the paddle moves up, and if you concentrate, the paddle moves down.

Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

“Molecular structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid” was an article published by James D. Watson and Francis Crick in the scientific journal Nature in its 171st volume on pages 737–738 (dated April 25, 1953). It was the first publication which described Rosalind Franklin’s discovery of the double helix structure of DNA. This discovery had a major impact onbiology, particularly in the field of genetics.

This article is often termed a “pearl” of science because it is brief and contains the answer to a fundamental mystery about living organisms. This mystery was the question of how it was possible thatgenetic instructions were held inside organisms and how they were passed from generation to generation. The article presents a simple and elegant solution, which surprised many biologists at the time who believed that DNA transmission was going to be more difficult to detail and understand.

Make your own medical device! Why not? – What’s Next – CNN.com Blogs.

Our Little Devices group at MIT has logged thousands of miles to find and empower individuals in places that simply cannot afford this spiral. Instead of charity and aid, they resort to invention. We call them “MacGyver nurses and doctors”: men and women with everyday medical inventions in hospital wards in some the poorest places in the world.

Unlike our modern day American Edison’s, they shy away from showing off their inventions, embarrassed by the prototyping hack. They lack the stature to publish in meaningful journals, and they are left out of the conversation that dictates what medical equipment looks like. So we give them tools that include toy helicopters, Lego blocks, engineering couplings, and a variety of biosensors that add to up something called MEDIKits. These erector sets for medical technology aim to democratize the invention process in healthcare.

Backyard Brains offers a series of exciting and affordable entry‐level Brain Recording Kitsthat provide the ability for students of all ages to learn about neurons.

For the first time ever, school children and amateur scientists will have access to similar tools used by neuroscientists worldwide to study Electrophysiology: the electrical activity of neurons. By following a few simple steps, everyone can experience how the brain is able to communicate our senses, memories, hopes, and desires!

How Raven, the Smart Robotic Helper, is Changing Surgery @ Popular Mechanics.

When researchers at the University of Washington created a new version of Raven, their robotic surgical assistant, they allowed the bots to work with open-source code and sent out Raven IIs to research labs around the country. Here’s what happened…

Doing Biotech in My Bedroom @ Technology Review.

A new generation of biologists embraces the do-it-yourself ethic of computer programming. In a spare bedroom of his family’s house in County Cork, Ireland, Cathal Garvey is repeating the feats that led to the dawn of the biotechnology age. He’s growing bacteria. He’s adding DNA. He’s seeing what happens.

“To transform bacteria was once a huge deal, a new method,” he explains. “Today, you can do it with Epsom salt and an over-the-counter brand of laxatives.”

Garvey, who is 26, dropped out of a PhD program at a big cancer lab two years ago. Instead of giving up on science, however, he started doing it on his own, spending $4,000 to equip a laboratory in his parent’s house. As a member of the “do-it-yourself” biology movement, Garvey takes inspiration from the early days of hobby computers, when garage tinkerers spawned companies like Apple and the rest of the PC industry. The idea now is that anyone—not only big-budget academic labs or large companies—should be able to practice biotechnology.

Garvey was still working toward his PhD when he tried his first at-home experiment: isolating pale-blue bioluminescent bacteria from squid he purchased from a Cork fishmonger. It was a beginner’s experiment, but he says he immediately realized he had a choice to make: “Would I finish and get a few letters after my name, or seize the day and do something that needed to be done?”

His goal, he says, is to show that biology can be done in an open-source fashion, and on a shoestring budget. Instead of beakers, he uses recycled jars. A sterilizer is rigged from a pressure cooker and a hot plate. To feed his germs, he boils potatoes into a starchy mix. “In a university you are trained to think that this is all too expensive and difficult to do on your own,” he says.

Read more.

By popular request, we’ve added a bio-hacking category to the Adafruit blog.

BioCurious? The DIY garage biology movement @ opensource.com.

Would you enjoy reprogramming lab bacteria with DNA from a jellyfish to make them glow green? How about hacking your own genetic data to find out what percentage of the Neanderthal genome you share?  Or building a device that splits water into oxygen and hydrogen?

If so, maybe you should consider joining the DIY garage biology movement.

Educational institutions, governments, and big businesses dominate biological research. But plummeting technology costs let entrepreneurs and hobbyists design do-it-yourself tools for biological engineering at a fraction of previous prices.

Aspiring biologists can also get access to lab equipment outside university and government labs. Neighborhood labs are open to everyone and can bring together communities of like-minded citizen scientists. Like community tech shops (where one might share the use of large and expensive technology used in metal machining or wood work), these new science spaces are popping up more frequently.

If you’re curious about biology, you can join a newly formed organization called BioCurious in California’s Bay Area. BioCurious, started as an online community, recently opened a new biotech hackerspace and community lab where those interested can come together to learn and share ideas. Anyone can become a member.

Read more.

Pictured above, our biohacking sticker / skill badge.

DNA Sequencing is Now Improving Faster Than Moore’s Law @ Forbes.

A “worldwide genomics revolution” is upon us. The genomics industry marked a new milestone on Tuesday. As Forbes’ Matthew Herper reported in three separate posts and nearly 100 related Tweets, the two leading manufacturers of DNA sequencing instruments announced almost simultaneously at an investors’ conference that they would introduce new machines this year capable of sequencing an entire human genome in a single day. Life Technologies said its forthcoming Ion Proton machine, which processes DNA on a semiconductor chip, will do it for a cost of $1,000 per genome.

That’s our biohacking skill badge, we’ll be needing to send these out soon to many people it seems!

Preview – Biohacking skill badge. Skills we’ll celebrate and share in the 21st century.

On a related note. Did you know NYC has a biohacking lab?

Genspace is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting education in molecular biology for both children and adults. We work inside and outside of traditional settings, providing a safe, supportive environment for study and mentoring of biotechnology.

In the summer of 2010, we built the first-ever community laboratory, a facility where we design workshops, train students and innovate new technologies. As a membership-based community lab, we offer New Yorkers the opportunity to work on their own unique projects in a safe, Biosafety Level 1 compliant facility.

Visit, GENSPACE.

2011 is of to a pretty good start… Transcending the Human, DIY Style @ Wired:

Lepht Anonym wants everyone to know the door to transcending normal human capabilities is no farther away than your own kitchen. It’s just going to hurt like a sonofabitch. Anonym is a biohacker, a woman who has spent the last several years learning how to extend her own senses by putting tiny magnets and other electronic devices under her own skin, allowing her to feel electromagnetic fields, or — if her latest project works — even magnetic north.

Greetings citizen scientists, budding biohackers, and backyard explorers! We think you’ll find the Make: Science Room a fun and useful resource. We hope you’ll use it as your DIY science classroom, virtual laboratory, and a place to share your projects, hacks, and laboratory tips with other amateur scientists. Your Make: Science Room host is Robert Bruce Thompson, author of Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments: All Lab, No Lecture. (Make: Books, 2008) and Illustrated Guide to Forensics Investigations: Uncover Evidence in Your Home, Lab, or Basement (not yet published). We’ll be drawing material from these titles first, but will soon branch out into biology, astrononmy, Earth sciences, and other disciplines. We’ll be adding lots of material on a regular basis, so check back often. For more info on the site, see Introducing the Make: Science Room.