Does AntiMatter fall down or up, Added Protection from the TB vaccine and new Heart Monitoring Patches

October 5

This week we find out the answer to the decades old question, does AntiMatter fall up or down? We discover the added protection that the TB vaccine is giving to those of us old enough to have had it and we investigate a couple of new heart monitoring patches that are easier to attach and safer.

Does AntiMatter fall up or down?

Antimatter is composed of the opposite particles to those that compose matter. The main difference is that antimatter and matter particles have opposite charges. A proton and an antiproton have the same mass but opposite electric charges. A collision between any matter particle and its’ opposite results in immediate annihilation of both. The result is various photons (gamma rays), neutrinos and other less massive particle-antiparticle pairs.

For decades physicists have wondered what affect that gravitational forces have on antimatter. Gravity is much weaker than other forces such as electrostatic attraction and magnetism. This made answering the question “Does Antimatter fall up or down?” extremely difficult. The gravitational force effect needed to be separated from the other forces.

The reason this question is important is the fact that the Universe is made up of mostly matter. Physicists are trying to understand why. According to Einstein’s general theory of relativity, all objects of the same mass should weigh the same or put another way, should experience the same gravitation acceleration.

CERN in Switzerland is the only place were anti hydrogen is made. They designed an experiment to find out what happened when an anti hydrogen atom was dropped. The team made a tiny amount of anti hydrogen gas that contained just one thousand atoms. They pushed the gas into a 3 meter tall vertical shaft surrounded by superconducting electromagnetic coils. The gas was then cooled to 0.5C above absolute zero (-273.15 C)

The researchers then weakened the magnetic force at the top and bottom of the shaft and detected the atoms as they escaped and were annihilated. When opening a container of gas the atoms move in all directions. However due to the low velocity (due to the cold temperature) of the anti hydrogen the team was able to observe a gravitational effect.

The results were consistent with the anti hydrogen experiencing the same force of gravity that hydrogen atoms experience. Not a surprising or unexpected outcome however an important one to understand as we try to unravel the mysteries of the universe.

Can the old TB Vaccine help with other diseases?

The bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccine (BCG) against tuberculosis (TB) is the oldest vaccine that is still in current use (in Africa and Asia). The vaccine provides effective protection against TB. The first doses were administered in France in 1921. A trial in 1927 in young Swedish children showed that BCG reduced early life mortality by more than the reduction in TB deaths. It appeared to provide some protection against other causes of death.

Over the past 100 years epidemiological studies have documented these effects. Other vaccines such as the measles vaccine also show some additional effects however this has not been as well studied. The BCG vaccine appears to modulate the risk of diseases where the immune system goes awry. This includes type 1 diabetes, cancer, MS and Alzheimer's. We don’t however know which patients will benefit most and which conditions it better protects against.

Three clinical trials of BCG’s nonspecific effects by Danish researchers in the 2010’s found that BCG given at birth to low birth weight children from Guinea-Biissau reduced all cause mortality by 40% in the first year of life. The reduction was a result of fewer cases of non TB infections which the vaccine gave protection to in an unknown way. There have been a range of other recent studies that show a positive effect.

The goal of researchers is to find out the mechanism that BCG uses to provide this protection. The immune system has two branches. The innate immune system that provides first response action against infection and the adaptive immune system which takes longer but is aimed at specific targets. Roughly speaking BCG puts a bookmark in the DNA of stem cells in the bone marrow that produce new immune cells. This may explain how the effect of the vaccine can persist for many years.

The goal of some researchers is to repurpose the BCG vaccine as a vaccine against neonatal mortality. In countries where TB is less of a concern it may reduce the risk of diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer's and other conditions. BCG is no longer protected by patent. The makes a dose cost about 6cents. This is not attractive to pharmaceutical companies so funding for trials will have to come from Governments. The Holy Grail in this research is to better understand the mechanism at work to enable us to develop better vaccines and compounds that target specific conditions.

New Heart Monitoring Patches

Epicardial Patches

Epicardial patches are tissue patches that are placed near or on a patient’s heart. They are used to monitor heart conditions including arrhythmia and heart attacks. Current patches are designed to be affixed onto the heart via a surgical procedure.

A team at Sungkyunkwaqn University in Seoul and associated institutions in Korea have developed an alternative that could be much easier to apply in clinic. The new patch is both stretchable and adhesive. Previous patches had to be affixed to the heart via sutures.

The new patch can adhere instantly to the heart and does not exert any unnecessary pressure on the heart’s tissue. It is composed of three different materials. Adhesive jelly like hydrogels with ionic conductivity, stretchable electrodes made from liquid phase metals and fibrous structured self healing elastomeric materials.

The new patch is safer and easier to apply whilst providing highly precise measurements.

Wearable Heart Imaging

A team at the University of California San Diego have developed a wearable ultrasound patch the size of a postage stamp that can take images of the heart and monitor performance even during strenuous exercise. It allows continuous real time assessment of heart function.

Cardiac function is currently assessed via imaging or continuous measurement (the treadmill that you run on at the Cardiologist). Both assessments can not be run together. Ultrasound imaging usually requires the patient to be still.

The patch is composed of two linear arrays of ultrasound transducers. They are arranged in a cross shape to allow imaging from two views without repositioning. Imaging is continual versus the current method of before and after exercise.

In addition to the heart monitoring a deep learning model has been developed to automatically process the images and provide actionable information for the overseeing doctor. The patch is currently tethered via cables for data and power. The next step is to make the patch entirely wireless. It is early days however this may provide a way to non invasively monitor heart performance in real time.

Paying it Forward

If you have a start-up or know of a start-up that has a product ready for market please let me know. I would be happy to have a look and feature the startup in this newsletter. Also if any startups need introductions please get in touch and I will help where I can.

If you have any questions or comments please comment below.

I would also appreciate it if you could forward this newsletter to anyone that you think might be interested.

Till next week.