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Novel technique reduces side effects in head and neck cancer treatment

May 11, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, May 11 (ANI): Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have found a novel way to reduce side effects in head and neck cancer patients receiving radiation treatments.

The scientists say they have developed techniques that help avoid the structures that impact swallowing and eating.

The researchers applied highly conformal, intensity-modulated radiation therapy and knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the structures involved to carefully craft a novel treatment plan that avoids certain muscles in the mouth and throat that are most involved in swallowing.

Generally, head and neck tumours do not spread to these structures.

Of the 73 patients treated with this technique, all but four were eating a normal diet after their treatment ended and only one was dependent on a feeding tube.

Typically up to 20 percent of head and neck cancer patients remain dependent on a feeding tube after finishing an intensive course of radiation
treatment concurrent with chemotherapy.

“More aggressive treatments for head and neck cancer have improved cancer control, but at the expense of quality of life. In this study, we did not
compromise tumour control and we were able to improve this important quality of life measure,” said study author Avraham Eisbruch, professor of radiation oncology at the U-M Medical School.

Scar tissue from radiation treatments to the head and neck often creates long-term problems with swallowing and eating solid foods that do not improve over time.

In this study, 29 percent of the patients required a temporary feeding tube during treatment because of pain while swallowing. But by one year after treatment, only one of the 73 patients on the study still required a feeding tube. Questionnaires to assess eating and swallowing function showed that on average, patients had only slight difficulties up to two years after treatment.

No patients had a spread of their cancer to the untreated structures and few cancers recurred overall, suggesting it was not harmful to avoid treating these areas. After three years, 88 percent of patients were cancer-free.

The results of the study appear online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Aggressive Treatments, Anatomy And Physiology, Anatomy Physiology, Cancer Control, comprehensive cancer center, Head And Neck Cancer, Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy, Life Measure, m medical school, michigan comprehensive cancer, Modulated Radiation Therapy, Neck Cancer Patients, Neck Cancer Treatment, Novel Technique, Novel Treatment, radiation oncology, Radiation Treatment, radiation treatments, scar tissue, University Of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center

Mars turned red due to grinding rocks, not water

September 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, September 19 (ANI): Recent laboratory studies have shown that Mars is not red due to the rocks being rusted by the water that once flooded the planet, but due to the ongoing grinding of surface rocks, which forms the red dust.

These findings, which open up the debate about the history of water on Mars and whether it has ever been habitable, have been presented at the European Planetary Science Congress by Dr. Jonathan Merrison.

“Mars should really look blackish, between its white polar caps, because most of the rocks at mid-latitudes are basalt. For decades, we assumed that the reddish regions on Mars are related to the water-rich early history of the planet and that, at least in some areas, water-bearing heavily oxidized iron minerals are present,” said Dr. Merrison, of the Aarhus Mars Simulation Laboratory, Denmark.

Fine red dust covers Mars’s surface and is even present in the planet’s atmosphere, dominating the weather and sometimes becoming so thick that it plunges the planet into darkness.

Even though dust is ubiquitous, we do not fully understand its physical, chemical, and geological properties.

In their recent laboratory study, scientists at the Mars Simulation Laboratory have pioneered a novel technique to simulate the sand transport on Mars.

They hermetically sealed sand (quartz) samples in glass flasks and mechanically “tumbled” them for several months, turning each flask ten million times.

After gently tumbling pure quartz sand for seven months, almost 10 percent of the sand had been reduced to dust.

When scientists added powdered magnetite, an iron oxide present in Martian basalt, to the flasks, they were surprised to see it getting redder as the flasks were tumbled.

“Reddish-orange material deposits, which resemble mineral mantles known as desert varnish, started appearing on the tumbled flasks. Subsequent analysis of the flask material and dust has shown that the magnetite was transformed into the red mineral hematite, through a completely mechanical process without the presence of water at any stage of this process,” said Dr. Merrison.

The scientists suspect that, as the quartz sand grains are tumbled around, they get quickly eroded and an alteration of minerals through contact ensues.

The first experiments show that this process occurs not only in air, but also in a dried carbon dioxide (CO2) atmosphere, that is, in conditions that perfectly resemble those occurring on Mars.

It may also imply that the reddish Martian dust is geologically recent. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: desert varnish, Dr Jonathan, flask material, glass flasks, Iron Minerals, iron oxide, Laboratory Studies, Laboratory Study, Mid Latitudes, mineral hematite, Novel Technique, Planetary Science, polar caps, quartz sand, red dust, sand transport, Science Congress, simulation laboratory, surface rocks, Water On Mars

Indian-origin researcher virtually builds Rome in a day!

September 17, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, September 16 (ANI): The ancient city of Rome can now be virtually built within a matter of hours, thanks to a new computer algorithm developed by an Indian-origin University of Washington researcher.

The new program can digitise hundreds of pictures of the city, including the Colosseum and St. Peter’s Basilica, in just a matter of hours.

It uses hundreds of thousands of tourist photos to automatically reconstruct an entire city in about a day.

The tool is the most recent in a series developed at the UW to harness the increasingly large digital photo collections available on photo-sharing Web sites.

The university researchers behind this innovation have even built a digital Rome from 150,000 tourist photos, tagged with the word “Rome” or “Roma” that were downloaded from the popular photo-sharing Web site, Flickr.

Computers analysed each image, combined them in 21 hours, and created a 3-D digital model.

The model can help one fly around Rome’s landmarks, from the Trevi Fountain to the Pantheon to the inside of the Sistine Chapel.

“How to match these massive collections of images to each other was a challenge,” said Sameer Agarwal, a UW acting assistant professor of computer science and engineering, and lead author of a paper being presented in October at the International Conference on Computer Vision in Kyoto, Japan.

He said: “(Until now) even if we had all the hardware we could get our hands on and then some, a reconstruction using this many photos would take forever.”

In addition to Rome, the researchers have recreated the Croatian coastal city of Dubrovnik, processing 60,000 images in less than 23 hours using a cluster of 350 computers, and Venice, Italy, processing 250,000 images in 65 hours using a cluster of 500 computers.

The novel technique can create online maps that offer viewers a virtual-reality experience.

The software can even build cities for video games automatically, and may also be used in architecture for digital preservation of cities, or integrated with online maps.

The research was supported by the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research and its Spawar lab, Microsoft Research, and Google. (ANI)

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Punjab authorities launch drive to uproot “Congress Grass”

September 6, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Nag Khurd (Amritsar), Sep.5 (ANI): Farmers in Punjab are confronted with an unusual problem these days. A weed described as “Congress Grass” has covered all soil-bunds in the fields here and the administration is taking up measures to educate farmers about how to obviate it.

The “Congress Grass” is said to be a major biological pollutant of the environment. It is described as one of the seven most destructive weeds of the world.

Locally known as ‘Gajar Buti’, the Congress Grass has become an ecological nuisance especially on sides of link roads and other waste lands. It causes Asthma, Allergy and skin diseases to humans and also the animals.

It becomes a host for dangerous insects. Nowadays the vast growth of this weed can also be seen on roadsides and other wastelands.

Observing its harmful effects on the fields, the agriculture department has decided to pull out the “Congress grass” from its roots.

It is a mechanical technique in which fodder cutter machines attached to tractors are to be used to clear the area covered up by Congress Grass.

The novel technique of mechanical removal of this weed from the sides of link roads and wastelands in Amritsar district was started on Thursday.

Authorities are spreading public awareness among farmers through demonstrations about the new technique with the help of fodder cutting machine by eradicating Congress Grass.

With the help of the machines, the farmers are able to get rid of this menace of “Congress Grass” more effectively and rapidly.

The idea to use fodder cutting machine for this purpose has been conceived by Deputy Commissioner, Amritsar, Kahn Singh Pannu.

On Thursday, Pannu demonstrated to farmers by driving a tractor in Nag Khurd village in Majitha area about how to pull out the “Congress Grass”.

Talking to ANI Pannu said, this is first time in Punjab that they are cutting the hazardous weed “Congress Grass” with fodder cutter machines and it is giving god results.

According to Pannu, Congress Grass is not only harmful to the crop but also causes severe skin problems like rashes and itching and some time cause respiratory diseases.

“Through demonstration, we are creating awareness and educating the farmers to get rid of this unwanted weed by applying new methods,” Pannu said.

With the help of department of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Rural Development, about 20 Fodder Cutter Machines in the district will be employed for the removal of the Congress Grass from the berms and the waste lands in the district.

The farmers, who own these machines, will operate them to remove the weed and they will be paid for their services by the Panchayats (village councils).

“Since these day we have ample time so we would pull out the Congress Grass by applying the new method,” said Satnam Singh, a farmer, while adding that it is more convenient as there has been always a shortage of labour in Punjab.

“Apart from the damage to crop through reduced yields, Congress Grass is weakening the strength of the land,” said Inder Preet Singh, another farmer.

Appreciating the efforts being made by administrative authorities, Singh said he feels that agriculture department should organize more camps so that the more farmers could benefit by eradicating the Congress Grass from their field. By Ravinder Singh Robin(ANI)

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New, improved zebrafish cloning method may further human health research

September 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, August 31 (ANI): In what may eventually prove very useful in human health research, scientists at Michigan State University have come up with a more efficient method to clone zebra fish.

What makes this work an important achievement is the fact that zebra fish, which have served as an excellent model for understanding normal development and birth defects for more than 20 years, are quickly becoming the animal of choice for many researchers.

“After the mouse, it is the most commonly used vertebrate in genetic studies. It is used in cancer research and cardiovascular research because they have many of the same genes we have,” Nature magazine quoted Jose Cibelli, an MSU professor of Animal Science, as saying.

While previous methods of cloning zebra fish have had very low success rates, the MSU researchers say that their novel method can increase the number of cloned fish that can be obtained from an adult fin cell or an embryonic tail clip increased by 2 percent to 13 percent, respectively.

What makes zebra fish so useful in research is their eggs are transparent and the fish’s development is easy to follow.

Improving on the techniques of zebra fish cloning also is important because currently only the mouse remains the best model for gene targeting.

“So far the mouse is the only one from which you can delete genes in a reliable fashion. What researchers do is mutate a gene, abolish its function completely, and then study the consequences,” Cibelli said.

A research article describing the novel technique has been published in the journal Nature Methods. (ANI)

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New stem cell op may prevent thousands from having hip replacements

September 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, August 31 (ANI): British surgeons at the Spire Hospital in Southampton are using a novel technique that uses stem cells to repair damaged bones.

Media reports on this procedure suggest that it may prevent thousands of people from needing to have an artificial hip fitted.

Mark Venables, 39, is one patient on whom doctors at the Spire Hospital conducted one of their first operations.

He suffers from a condition where bone in his hip died, weakening his joint and causing pain on movement.

The surgeons at the hospital used his own stem cells to rejuvenate the affected bone.

“I just want to get back to an active life,” Sky News quoted Venables as saying before the operation.

For the operation, the surgeons first purified stem cells from bone marrow that they had extracted from Venables’ pelvis.

The doctors then mixed them with cleaned, ground-up bone from another patient, who had had their own hip replaced.

After removing the dead tissue from the ball of his hip, the doctors filled the cavity with the mixture of stem cells and donated bone.

Surgeon Doug Dunlop said that the bone would have collapsed without the stem cell treatment, and that Venables would have then needed an artificial hip joint.

“If this new procedure works, he won’t need a hip replacement. It will fix his hip for life,” said Dunlop.

To date, six patients have been operated using the new procedure, and only one surgery has failed.

Professor Richard Oreffo, of Southampton University, is now hoping to improve the technique further by replacing the donated bone with an artificial material containing chemicals that help the stem cells grow.(ANI)

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New technique to help Parkinson’s patients speak louder

August 26, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 26 (ANI): Scientists from Purdue University’s Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences have come up with a novel technique that would help Parkinson’s patients speak louder.

“People with Parkinson’s disease commonly have voice and speech problems,” said Jessica Huber, an associate professor in Purdue’s Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences.

“At some point in their disease they will have some form of voice or speech disorder that generally occurs a little later in the disease,” she added.

The most common therapy, the Lee Silverman voice treatment program, trains patients to speak louder in one-hour sessions four days a week for a month.

“Some Parkinson’s patients do great with this approach, but others do not. They forget to keep speaking louder the minute they have left the therapy room,” said Huber.

Lee Silverman tends to work less for people with later stages of disease or those who have some cognitive decline.

Huber used a new approach: The patients were asked to speak louder while a recording of background “multitalker babble noise” was played. The noise is essentially the sound of a restaurant full of patrons, but without the clattering silverware and clinking glasses.

“They had an easier time getting louder when I had the noise in the room,” she said.

“Ordinarily, when I asked them to be twice as loud they would say they couldn’t. They couldn’t speak 10 decibels louder, but when I turned on the babble noise, they spoke over 10 decibels louder,” she added.

In the device built by engineering resources manager Jim Jones and senior research engineer Kirk Foster, both in the Weldon School, the voice-activated device automatically plays the background babble when the person begins to speak.

A sensor placed on the neck detects that the person has begun to speak and tells the device to play the babble through an earpiece worn by the patient.

“I got the idea that if we train them with a natural cue in their everyday environment, we will probably get better results. We ask them to wear the system for about four hours a day as they go about their daily routine,” she added.(ANI)

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New laser technique may delay onset of age-related macular degeneration

July 6, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, July 6 (ANI): A surgeon from King’s College London has developed a short pulse laser technique that can help delay the onset of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in older adults.

Professor John Marshall, a senior ophthalmologist at King’s College London, who had earlier pioneered laser eye surgery to cure short-sightedness, said that the new treatment could delay the effect of ageing without damaging any other cells.

“The treatment is really treating ageing,” the Telegraph quoted him as saying.

The novel technique stimulates enzymes to eradicate waste material from a thin membrane behind the retina, called Bruch’s membrane.

It was tested in 100 diabetics, and all of them reported improvement in their sights after undergoing the treatment.

In a fresh trial, the researchers will treat patients already suffering from AMD in one eye with the aim of saving the sight in their better eye for as long as possible.

Marshall said that once people have advanced AMD in one eye, the condition usually develops in the second eye in 18 months to three years.

“If you can delay the onset by three, four, six, seven or 10 years, it’s proof of the principle,” he added.

He said that the aim was to preserve their sight for the rest of their lives.

Marshall hopes that the treatment would be available within two to five years.

Conventional lasers can cause damage to the light sensitive cells in the eye.

Prof Marshall said: “With this laser it’s been specifically designed so we don’t cause any damage to the light sensitive cells or to any cells.” (ANI)

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Novel breast biopsy technique may significantly reduce procedure times

June 26, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, June 24 (ANI): A new breast biopsy technique may help reduce procedure times, patient discomfort and morbidity, say researchers.

The novel technique is being tested at Roberts Research Institute, the University of Western Ontario and London Health Sciences Centre, London, ON, Canada.

It uses a mechanical arm to guide the needle for the biopsy. It also has a braking system to allow for accurate placement of the needle, and to avoid needle motion.

Breast biopsy procedures, using both methods, were performed on phantoms during the study.

“Our results showed that biopsy success rates were greater when using our new guidance system. We also showed that experienced and inexperienced radiologists performed a biopsy significantly faster when using our needle guidance system,” said Dr. Aaron Fenster, lead author of the study.

According to the researchers, t he success rate using the needle guidance system was 95.9 per cent, compared to a success rate of 91.3 per cent using the freehand technique.

While experienced radiologists took approximately 31 seconds to complete a procedure using the freehand technique, the needle guidance system reduced the procedure time to approximately 10 seconds.

“Techniques for improving biopsy procedures are needed to make the procedures more efficient and reduce the variability due to physician experience and size of the target lesion. Breast biopsy using the developed needle guidance system is feasible and I believe it will enable physicians to diagnose early-stage carcinomas more efficiently and accurately, thus decreasing patient morbidity,” said Dr. Fenster.

“The system we designed is a prototype and is required to be redesigned for routine clinical use. Tests with human subjects are planned for the fall of 2009,” he said.

A research article on the study has been published in the merican Journal of Roentgenology. (ANI)

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Novel way to detect intellectual disabilities

June 26, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, June 24 (ANI): Scientists from University of California, Davis have devised a novel technique to measure intellectual disability in patients with fragile X syndrome.

Fragile X syndrome is the most common form of inherited intellectual impairment.

Nearly one third of patients diagnosed with fragile X syndrome also have some degree of autism, and the mutation underlying fragile X syndrome is the most commonly known single gene cause of autism.

The research team claim to have developed specific and quantitative means of measuring levels of the fragile X mental retardation 1 (FMR1) protein (FMRP), which is mutated in fragile X syndrome.

Fragile X syndrome is caused by low levels of the FMRP protein, which is thought to play a role in communication between nerve cells.

Presently, tests for fragile X syndrome determine the presence of the mutation by measuring the number of repeats at the DNA and mRNA level.

Dr. Paul Hagerman and colleagues at the University of California, Davis developed a sensitive and highly specific test for FMRP protein.

The method used is able to detect protein throughout the biologically-relevant range of protein concentrations and is readily adaptable for large-scale use.

According to Iwahashi et al “[this] method should prove to be a powerful tool for further investigation of the relationships between FMRP and the diverse clinical phenotypic domains [of fragile X syndrome].

” Such domains include not only autism and autism spectrum disorders, but also developmental delay, behavioral difficulties, anxiety, ADHD, and mood. Involvement among carriers of smaller (premutation) alleles can also involve developmental delays and/or autism spectrum disorders.”

The study appears in the Journal of Molecular Diagnostics. (ANI)

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Large sponges may be reattached to coral reefs using new technique

May 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, April 28 (ANI): A new study has described a novel technique for reattaching large sponges that have been dislodged from coral reefs.

According to the study in Restoration Ecology, the findings could be generally applied to the restoration of other large sponge species removed by human activities or storm events.

As part of the study, 20 specimens of the Caribbean giant barrel sponge were removed and reattached at Conch Reef off of Key Largo, Florida in 2004 and 2005 at depths of 15m and 30m.

The sponges were affixed to the reef using sponge holders consisting of polyvinyl chloride piping, which was anchored in a concrete block that was set on a plastic mesh base.

Though the test area endured four hurricanes during the study period, 62.5 percent of sponges survived at least 2.3-3 years and 90 percent of the sponges attached in deep water locations survived.

The sponges reattached to the reef after being held stationary by sponge holders for as little as 6 months.

Large sponges may be damaged by a variety of natural events and human activities including severe storms, vessel groundings and the cutting movements of chain or rope moved along with debris by strong currents.

After these events, detached large sponges are commonly found, still alive and intact, between reef spurs on sand or rubble where they slowly erode under the action of oscillating currents.

“The worldwide decline of coral reef ecosystems has prompted many local restoration efforts, which typically focus on reattachment of reef-building corals,” said Professor Joseph Pawlik of the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, co-author of the study.

“Despite their dominance on coral reefs, large sponges are generally excluded from restoration efforts because of a lack of suitable methods for sponge reattachment,” he added.

These sponges, which often exceed reef-building corals in abundance, can be more than 1m in diameter and may be hundreds or thousands of years old.

The success of past attempts at reattaching sponges, which used cement or epoxy, has been limited because adhesives do not bind to sponge tissue.

When damaged or dislodged, large sponges usually die because they are unable to reattach to the reef.

The results of the study show that these sponges have the ability to reattach to the reef if they can be properly secured. (ANI)

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Surgeon uses non-invasive method to remove gallbladder via belly button

April 21, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 21 (ANI): A surgeon has successfully removed a patient’s lemon-size gallbladder through a single incision in the belly button.

Julie Kopec had her gallbladder removed via a minimally invasive procedure to operate inside the abdomen, and that too with no traces of a scar, less pain and a lower risk of infection.

Dr. P. Marco Fisichella, assistant professor of surgery, division of general surgery, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, Maywood, performed Kopec’s surgery.

He removed Kopec’s gallbladder, which is located behind the liver on the right side of the rib cage, through a single incision in her belly button that left her with no visible traces of a scar.

“The new frontier in laparoscopic surgery is no-scar surgery,” said Fisichella while discussing the minimally invasive procedure that is still relatively rare.

Called single-incision laparoscopic surgery (SILS), the procedure is an improved form of laparoscopic surgery, which traditionally requires four incisions to allow room for a camera and various instruments.

“The instruments we use are specially designed for this type of procedure. Surgeons are starting to use this novel technique to do other types of procedures – surgery on the stomach, surgery on the colon and obesity surgery,” said Fisichella.

The SILS procedure on average takes less than an hour to complete, and comes with a lower risk of infection because there is only one scar, which is completely hidden in the belly button.

And thus, there is a lessened need for pain medication, and mostly patients are able to more quickly resume their normal activities.

“I had it done on a Tuesday and I went shopping on Friday. I wasn’t surprised at how quickly I recovered. The way I was feeling after my surgery I thought I could have been out shopping Wednesday,” said Kopec.

She added: “I was in, in the morning, and out by afternoon.” (ANI)

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Scientists reveal new way to make narrower chip patterns

April 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, April 12 (ANI): An Indian-origin researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has come up with a new way for etching extremely narrow lines on a microchip by exposing it to certain wavelengths of light.

Research engineer Rajesh Menon and his colleagues call the new technique absorbance modulation.

The researchers say that this technique makes it possible to create lines that are only about one-tenth as wide as the wavelength of light used to create them.

They say that part of the trick was to find a suitable photochromic material whose clear and opaque parts would remain stable after the initial exposure to light.

The research team have revealed that this method has thus far enabled them to produce lines just 36 nanometres wide, and that they could also place many such lines spaced a similar distance apart.

Menon believes that such a technique “could have a significant impact on chip making,” and also help enable new work in a variety of emerging fields that rely on nano-scale patterning, including nanophotonics, nanofluidics, nanoelectronics, and nano-biological systems.

He expects the commercial production of this technology will begin within five years.

His team are pursuing possible use of the same system for imaging systems, which could enable new kinds of microscopes for observing at nanoscale resolution, with possible applications in biology and in materials science.

The researchers are even pursuing ways of using the technique to create even smaller patterns, down to the scale of individual molecules.

A research article on the novel technique has been published in the journal Science. (ANI)

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Novel technique uses stem cells to repair torn knee cartilage

March 25, 2009 By admin 1 Comment

London, Mar 25 (ANI): Scottish scientists are planning to test a new technique of “knitting together” torn knee tissue using stem cells in patients.

Professor Anthony Hollander said researchers hoped to mend torn knee cartilage – a common injury among young sportsmen and women.

It is being believed that the technique could prevent patients suffering serious knee problems, including osteoarthritis, for years to come.

Speaking at a Scottish Stem Cell Network conference in Edinburgh yesterday, Hollander, a Bristol University researcher, told scientists about the work.

The trials include patient tests of a stem cell technique to mend tears in the part of the knee cartilage known as the meniscus.

Hollander told The Scotsman: “At the moment, there’s no way to treat this (cartilage]. It is just cut out, and that leaves the patient very susceptible to osteoarthritis within a short number of years.”

He said the technique involves implanting stem cells on a membrane into the middle of the lesion and sewing it up.

“It is designed in a way that the cells will migrate across the lesion and literally knit it together. So, instead of growing new tissue, it’s healing the lesion itself,” he added.

The stem cells used will come from the patient’s own bone marrow, reducing the chance of them being rejected. (ANI)

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Now, artificial muscles to restore wink and smile

March 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 12 (ANI): People who lose control over their facial muscles have now got a new lease of life, for scientists have now developed a technique that could restore their ability to wink, and eventually may help them smile by implanting an artificial muscle in their temple.

Developed at the University of California, Davis and SRI International, the technique has shown promising results on cadavers.

The researchers say that the novel technique may eventually help living people suffering from stroke, Mobius Syndrome, or battlefield injuries gain control over the muscles in their face.

“The concept is very exciting; thousands of people could benefit from this. Theoretically it could have a wide range of applications if it turns out to be useful,” Discovery News quoted Wayne Larabee, a surgeon and editor of the Archives of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, as saying.

One can lose the ability to control facial muscles in many ways-while those with Mobius Syndrome, are born without the ability to make facial expressions, others have facial tumours removed, and lose the nerve that extends out of the brain near the ear and spreads out on the face.

One of the most common and aesthetically pleasing options to restore a wink is to embed a small 1.2-gram, chip of gold in the eyebrow. The weight of the gold works to pull the eye closed, rather than relying on muscle.

Other surgical options include transplanting an entire section of muscle, nerve, artery and vein and sewing it to the face or co-opting the jaw muscle to pull the eye closed. Both give faster control but look unnatural and have safety risks.

“Our goal was to find a way to reanimate the face while minimizing the risk to patients,” said Travis Tollefson, a surgeon at UC-Davis, who along with Craig Senders, have successfully tried the technique in human cadavers and gerbils.

For their study, the researchers began with the same incisions that would implant a gold chip into the upper eyelid, but instead of gold, they implanted a “sling” of Gore-Tex, the same waterproof and breathable fabric commonly found in outdoor pants and jackets.

Then the surgeons placed another sling at the lower eye by using the same incision for a lower eyelid reduction. Both slings are anchored by the nose, and attached to an artificial muscle hidden in the temple.

The artificial muscle used for the technique was three-layered and consisted of a soft acrylic or silicon centre sandwiched between two layers of charged, FDA-approved black silicon.

When an electric current passes through the silicon it draws the two outer layers together, squishing the soft inner layer into four to five times its original size. This draws the sling back and closes the eye.

A similar set up could be used to draw up the corners of the mouth into a smile. (ANI)

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