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Jellyfish cells ‘diagnose’ cancer
Posted On: November 7, 2010From BBC News – Luminous cells from jellyfish can be used to diagnose cancers deep inside the body, scientists have said. The process uses the green fluorescent protein (GFP) enabling jellyfish to glow in the dark.
Researchers in North Yorkshire found it can be targeted at cancer cells allowing them to be spotted using a special camera. A team from the Yorkshire Cancer Research Laboratory at York University has developed the procedure.
The team’s leader, Professor Norman Maitland, believes it will revolutionise the way some cancers are diagnosed. ”Cancers deep within the body are difficult to spot at an early stage, and early diagnosis is critical for the successful treatment of any form of cancer.”
“What we have developed is a process which involves inserting proteins derived from luminous jellyfish cells into human cancer cells. Then, when we illuminate the tissue, a special camera detects these proteins as they light up, indicating where the tumours are.”
The process is an extension of the work done by American chemist Dr Roger Y Tsien, who won a Nobel Prize in 2008 for taking luminous cells from the crystal jelly species of jellyfish and isolating the GFP.
Jellyfish “smoothies” offer solar solutions
Posted On: October 16, 2010Putting thousands of jellyfish in a blender to make a smoothie sounds like the start of bad joke. In fact, it’s one way to source ingredients for a new generation of solar power solutions that could aid medical science and offer cheap energy.
Scientists say by liquidizing the humble Aequorea victoria — a glow-in-the-dark jellyfish commonly found off the western coast of North America — they can use the green fluorescent protein (GFP) it contains to create miniature fuel cells.
These, say their creators, could be used to power microscopic “nanodevices” that could operate independently inside the human body, helping reverse blindness or fight tumors.
Nanotechnology — the manipulation of matter at an atomic scale (one nanometer is equivalent to one billionth of a meter) — is seen by many as the future of medicine, but the science of powering nano-machinery is still in its infancy.
Which is where the jellyfish come in.
Zackary Chiragwandi at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden told CNN he has developed a method of generating power at a nano-level by administration a droplet of jellyfish-type GFP onto aluminum electrodes and exposing it to ultraviolet light.
Jellyfish protein boosts cognitive function and wins patent protection
Posted On: July 16, 2010The jellyfish protein apoaequorin improves cognitive function in people with memory problems, according to interim data from a randomized controlled trial commissioned by Quincy BioScience which recently announced a successful application for patent protection. Derived from a jellyfish called Aequorea Victoria, aequorin is a calcium-binding protein.
The protein improved cognitive testing scores by 14 per cent in 60 days compared with the placebo in the randomized controlled Madison Memory Study. The trial focused on 35 adults who had a memory concern and an average age of 61.
The company also recently received a US patent covering the use of aequorin-containing compounds for the purpose of preventing and alleviating symptoms and disorders related to calcium imbalance. It first applied for the patent in 2005.
Scientists Add Jellyfish Gene to Monkeys
Posted On: June 1, 2009In a controversial achievement, Japanese scientists announced they had created the world’s first transgenic primates, breeding monkeys with a jellyfish gene that made the animals’ skin glow a fluorescent green.
The exploit opens up exciting prospects for medical researchers, they said, which could eventually lead to lab monkeys that replicate some of humanity’s most devastating diseases, providing a new model for exploring how these disorders are caused and how they may be cured.
“Great advances in pre-clinical research can be expected using these models,” the team said. But others warned of a potential ethics storm, brewed by fears that technology used on our closest animal relatives could be turned to create genetically-engineered humans.
Large Family of Green Fluorescent Proteins Discovered in Marine Creature with antioxidant potential
Posted On: June 1, 2009Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have discovered a family of green fluorescent proteins (GFPs) in a primitive sea animal, along with new clues about the role of the proteins that has nothing to do with their famous glow.
GFPs recently gained international attention with the awarding of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, shared by UC San Diego’s Roger Tsien, as word spread of their extensive presence in nature as well as benefit to researchers. GFPs, originally isolated from a luminous jellyfish, have gained scientific ubiquity in uses ranging from biomedical tracers to probes for testing environmental quality. But while the value of GFPs in biomedicine and bioengineering has become evident, their diversity across the tree of life and their role in nature haven’t been as easily deciphered.
Energy Drinks Containing Jellyfish-based Bioluminescence Ingredients That Glow in the Dark, or Poison from the Puffer Fish?
Posted On: January 11, 2008
In Japan, energy drink makers are working on a stinging jellyfish-based (Aequorea victoria) bioluminescence beverage that glows in the dark from which the luminescent protein aequorin and the fluorescent molecule GFP (green fluorescent protein) have been extracted, purified, and cloned. The Sea of Japan is awash in these alien-looking, creatures, a team of researchers led by biochemist Kiminori Ushida from Riken (the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research) in Saitama and Shimva Chemical Industries in Kyoto, are working on a way to commercially extract the Glycoproteins (Qniumucin) from the giant Nomura’s jellyfish which can get up to 6-foot-long, the monsters weigh in at more than 200 kilograms. This new source of ocean proteins may be reminiscent of the 1973 movie “Soylent Green”, but with the exploding jellyfish populations around the world oceans, the food and beverage industry may soon have some interesting new additives, suggests the research
Also in Japan, beverage companies are working on a safe fugu (puffer fish) extract to be used in Japanese energy drinks, the fish is highly toxic, but despite this or perhaps because of this deadly side effect, it is considered a delicacy among the Japanese. Puffer fish (Sphoeroides testudineus) poisoning results from the ingestion of fish containing the deadly nerve toxin called tetrodotoxin and it is the most common and lethal form of marine poisoning in Japan. Neurological effects vary depending on the severity of poisoning but can include numbness, slurred speech, incoordination, and paralysis. The puffer’s highly toxic liver poison is 1,200 times deadlier than cyanide. A lethal dose could fit on a pinhead. Over 10,000 tons of these so-called blowfish or puffer fish are consumed in Japan each year, in fact, it is considered an anti-karoshi modality and a highly effective aphrodisiac.
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