Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS March Meeting 2013
Volume 58, Number 1
Monday–Friday, March 18–22, 2013; Baltimore, Maryland
Session J4: Invited Session: Physics Challenges in Biophysics |
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Sponsoring Units: FIAP Chair: Cha-Mei Tang, Creatv Micro Tech Inc Room: Ballroom IV |
Tuesday, March 19, 2013 2:30PM - 3:06PM |
J4.00001: Phase contrast imaging with conventional x-ray sources at acceptable dose levels and exposure times Invited Speaker: Alessandro Olivo X-ray Phase Contrast imaging (XPCi) generates image contrast from interference and refraction effects (instead of x-ray attenuation), which leads to enhanced visibility of all details and to the detection of features classically considered ``x-ray invisible.'' XPCi thus has great potential in a wide range of applications, from the earlier diagnosis of lesions in medical imaging to the detection of faint blemishes in non-destructive testing. However, XPCi seemed to require a high level of (at least spatial) coherence, which restricted its use to synchrotron facilities. Microfocal sources can be used but, due to low emitted flux, result in exposure times too long (hours) for most practical applications. Other attempts were based on aperturing/collimating the focal spot of a conventional source to create sufficient spatial coherence, again limiting the source output and resulting in excessive exposure times and/or delivered dose. This talk will present a method, based on appropriately designed x-ray masks, which works with unapertured and uncollimated conventional sources, at acceptable exposure times and delivered doses. It will describe how the method works, explain how quantitative features can be extracted from the images, and provide examples of application in various fields. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, March 19, 2013 3:06PM - 3:42PM |
J4.00002: Diagnostic Applications and Methods to Isolate Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) from Blood Invited Speaker: Cha-Mei Tang Each year a million new cancer cases are diagnosed in the United States. Ninety percent of the deaths will be the result of metastasis, not from the primary tumor. Tissue biopsy is a universally accepted tool for cancer diagnosis and determination of treatment. The procedure varies, but is invasive, costly, and can be fatal, and for these reasons is seldom repeated after initial diagnosis. Monitoring of treatment response and for possible relapse is usually done by CT or MRI scan, both of which are expensive and require the tumor to change size perceptibly. Further, cancer can mutate or develop resistance to therapeutics and require modification of the treatment regimen. The initial tissue biopsy often cannot reflect the disease as it progresses, requiring new biopsy samples to determine a change of treatment. All carcinomas, about 80{\%} of all cancer, shed tumor cells into the circulation, most often at the later stages when treatment is more critical. These circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are the cause of metastasis, and can be isolated from patient blood to serve as ``liquid biopsy''. These CTCs contain a valuable trove of information that help both patient and clinician understand disease status. In addition to counting the number of CTCs (known to be a prognostic indicator of survival), CTCs can provide biomarker information such as protein expressions and gene mutations, amplifications, and translocations. This information can be used to determine treatment. During treatment, the number of intact and apoptotic CTCs can be measured on a repeated basis to measure the patient's response to treatment and disease progression. Following treatment, liquid biopsy can be repeated at regular intervals to watch for relapse. Methods to isolate CTCs can be grouped into three categories: i) immunocapture based on surface markers of CTCs, ii) size exclusion based on CTC size, typically larger than blood cells, and iii) negative selection utilizing red blood cell lysis, white blood cell depletion or FICOLL. Various implementations of the CTC isolation methods will be presented. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, March 19, 2013 3:42PM - 4:18PM |
J4.00003: A Retinal Prosthetic Strategy with the Capacity to Restore Normal or Near-Normal Vision Invited Speaker: Sheila Nirenberg A pressing problem in neuroscience is determining the neural code. We know that neurons send their signals in the form of trains of action potentials, but we don't know what the code is, that is, we don't know what the unit of information is. Is it the number of spikes per unit time? Is it the individual spike or some pattern of spikes? Getting a clear answer to this affects a great deal of work in neuroscience, both basic and applied. For basic research, it tells us what quantity we need for building models of neural computations (i.e., what spike train features we need). For applied research, it tells us what quantity we need to effectively transmit information from one brain area to another via brain-machine-interfaces or prosthetic devices. Here we describe a strategy for finding neural codes and use it to develop a powerful new kind of prosthetic device for treating blindness. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, March 19, 2013 4:18PM - 4:54PM |
J4.00004: Smart Prosthetics Invited Speaker: Stuart Harshbarger |
Tuesday, March 19, 2013 4:54PM - 5:30PM |
J4.00005: Artifical Pancreas Invited Speaker: Jiangfeng Fei In 2006, JDRF launched the Artificial Pancreas Project (APP) to accelerate the development of a commercially-viable artificial pancreas system to closely mimic the biological function of the pancreas individuals with insulin-dependent diabetes, particularly type 1 diabetes. By automating detection of blood sugar levels and delivery of insulin in response to those levels, an artificial pancreas has the potential to transform the lives of people with type 1 diabetes. The 6-step APP development pathway serves as JDRF's APP strategic funding plan and defines the priorities of product research and development. Each step in the plan represents incremental advances in automation beginning with devices that shut off insulin delivery to prevent episodes of low blood sugar and progressing ultimately to a fully automated ``closed loop'' system that maintains blood glucose at a target level without the need to bolus for meals or adjust for exercise. [Preview Abstract] |
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