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High-tech glasses help surgeons see cancer cells
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO, have developed a way of visualizing cancer cells using high-tech glasses designed to make it easier for surgeons to distinguish between cancerous and healthy tissue.
Cancer cells are notoriously difficult to see, even when highly magnified, and the hope is the special glasses will help surgeons remove all of the tumor tissue and avoid leaving behind any stray cancer cells.
Viewed through the glasses, cancer cells appear to glow blue under a special light, thanks to a fluorescent marker injected in the tumor that attaches only to cancerous and not to healthy cells. Also, the lighter the shade of blue, the more concentrated the cancer cells are.
Dr. Julie Margenthaler, a breast surgeon and associate professor of surgery at Washington University, recently carried out the first operation to use the wearable technology, which has not yet been officially named.
She says the technology is still in its early stages and needs to undergo more development and tests, but they are encouraged by the benefits it may offer to patients. She adds:
"Imagine what it would mean if these glasses eliminated the need for follow-up surgery and the associated pain, inconvenience and anxiety."
Current tumor surgery often requires further operations
At present, when operating to remove a tumor, surgeons are expected to remove the cancerous tissue and also some neighboring tissue that may or may not include cancer cells.
Samples of the tissue are then sent to the lab to be examined under a microscope, and if cancer cells are found, the patient often has to have a second operation to remove more tissue, which is then also sent to the lab.
According to Dr. Margenthaler, about 20-25% of breast cancer patients who undergo lumpectomy need to come back for a second operation.
In 2012, British researchers writing in the BMJ describe how one fifth of women with breast cancer who choose breast conserving surgery instead of mastectomy eventually need another operation because the first operation fails to remove all of the tumor.
If the new wearable technology proves successful, it would eliminate the need for further procedures and reducestress for patients, as well as save time and money.
'Goal to make sure no cancer is left behind'
Samuel Achilefu, professor of radiology and biomedical engineering at Washington University led the team that developed the device. In a paper that was published in a November 2013 issue of the Journal of Biomedical Optics, they described how the new technology helped detect tumors as small as 1 mm in diameter.
"This technology has great potential for patients and health care professionals," says Prof. Achilefu. "Our goal is to make sure no cancer is left behind."
Another surgeon, Ryan Fields, an assistant professor of surgery at Washington University, is planning to wear the glasses when he removes a melanoma from a patient later this month.
Prof. Achilefu is currently seeking FDA approval for a molecular agent to use with the glasses that specifically targets and stays longer in cancer cells than the one he and his colleagues used in pilot studies on mice, which is already approved by the FDA.
Written by Catharine Paddock PhD
Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/272579.php
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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