Robot Surgeons, Gene Therapy to restore eyesight and Concrete Batteries
17 August
This week we examine some new tiny robot surgeons. We investigate a gene therapy that has restored a 14 year old boys sight. We look at a new way to make batteries out of concrete. Finally we have a few health updates. How many steps do you really have to do each day to have an impact on health and what exercise at the gym gives you better looking skin.
Tiny Robot Surgeons
We are starting to hear more and more regular stories about the advances in robotic surgery. A team at the University of Leeds has developed a tiny robot surgeon that can enter into the lungs and treat early stage lung cancer.
Lung cancer has the highest worldwide mortality rate. In early stage non small cell lung cancer, about 84% of cases, surgery is the standard method of treatment. The surgery is highly invasive and can lead to significant tissue removal. This can have an impact on lung function after surgery. Recent advances in lung screening programs has lead to higher early detection however more non invasive ways are needed to remove the cancerous tissue without leaving excess damage.
The robot is an ultra soft tentacle just 2 millimeters in diameter. It is controlled by magnets and can reach some of the smallest bronchial tubes. Tests on cadavers showed that the robot can travel 37% deeper than standard equipment. This results in substantially less tissue damage. The robot is designed to fit the specific part of the anatomy and is softer than the anatomy and fully controllable by magnets.
Researchers at the same lab are developing similar tools for operations inside the brain. They have developed two independent magnetic robots that can work together in a confined part of the human anatomy. One is a camera and the other uses a laser to remove tumors.
The devices are made of silicon and also steered by magnets. The robotic arms move independently of each other. Normally two magnets placed close together would attract each other however they designed the tentacles to only bend in specific directions. They also moved the North and South poles in each magnetic tentacle to reduce conflict.
This device allows operations on the front of the brain and the top of the spine to be much less invasive. It has been tested on replica skulls with success. The type of equipment should also prove useful in diagnostic procedures.
Gene Therapy to Restore Sight
Dr Alfonso Sabater from the University of Miami has restored the sight of a 14 year old boy with dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa. This is a rare genetic condition that causes blisters all over his body and in his eyes.
The boy initially joined a clinical trail to test the world’s first topical gene therapy. This cleared up his skin and inspired Dr Sabater to work to adapt the therapy for the eye. The condition affects about 3,000 people worldwide. Surgeries can be used to remove scar tissue and allow some sight however it soon grows back. The boy was legally blind and did not feel safe to move around due to the rapidly deteriorating eyesight.
The condition is caused by mutations in a single gene that helps produce the protein Collagen 7. The treatment uses an inactive herpes simplex virus to deliver working copies of the gene. The skin version of the treatment uses a gel to aid in spreading and retention. The same treatment without the gel was used on the eye.
The team trialled the treatment on mice for 2 years before they received a “compassionate use” exemption from the FDA for human trials. They started with the less scarred right eye which showed significant improvement each month and the boy now has near perfect, 20/25 vision in that eye. The left eye was more scared and it has now improved to 20/50 (which is pretty good). The boy is still getting weekly checkups and the eye drops once a month.
The treatment does not modify DNA so it is not a one off treatment. Both the skin and eye versions need regular application. The therapy may also be adapted to other genetic eye problems. For example, a different gene could be used to treat Fuchs’ dystrophy which affects 18 million people in the US and accounts for roughly half of the corneal transplants.
Concrete Batteries
A team from MIT has developed a superconductor made from cement and an ancient ink. This will allow any object made from concrete to store electricity. Cement is the world’s most used material, the ink is Carbon Black that has been used for over 2,000 years. The Dead Sea Scrolls were written in Carbon Black.
The concrete mix only requires cement, carbon black and water making it a low cost alternative to other energy storage systems. The carbon black makes up about 3% of the mixture. The amount of power storage in a super capacitor (which is just a capacitor that can store a lot of charge) depends on the total surface area of its conductive plates.
The carbon black mixed into the cement provides an extremely high internal surface area. The water naturally forms a branching network of openings within the structure as it reacts with the cement. The carbon black migrates into these openings resulting in wire like structures within the hardened concrete. The material is then soaked in a standard electrolyte (such as Potassium Chloride) which provides the charged particles that accumulate on the carbon structures. Two electrodes of this material separated by a small gap or insulating layer for a very powerful superconductor. When connected to a power source (e.g. solar or wind) energy gets stored in the plates. When connected to a load the electrical current flows back out to provide power.
A block of this material, 45 cubic meters in size would have enough capacity to store 10 kilowatt hours of energy or the average daily household use. A house foundation would have enough storage to provide power for the household as required.
If the amount of carbon black is increased even more power can be stored however this comes at the expense of structural strength. Future uses include skyscrapers, bridges and roads with inbuilt car chargers. Initially it is expected that the product will be used in isolated homes and locations that rely on off grid power sources.
Some Health Updates
Is 10,000 steps a day enough?
When Japan was preparing to host the 1964 Tokyo Olympics there was an increased focus on community fitness. Regular exercise was promoted to fight disease. The simplest way to exercise was to walk.
At roughly the same time the first pedometers were introduced to the market in Japan. This gave individuals an idea of how far they had walked. The rallying cry of walking clubs everywhere became “manpo-kei” or 10,000 steps. This number of daily steps soon became the standard number of steps required each day, worldwide. However is there any scientific support for this amount of daily walking?
Ghent University in Belgium and The University of Queensland carried out a study in 2005-6 where they had a group of 866 participants walk 10,000 steps per day. They tracked progress and their wellbeing. The intervention was highly successful for those that managed the 10,000 steps per day. A follow up study 4 years later found that they positive outcomes were not sustained. Only half the participants were available for the follow up and there was a considerable step decrease across the board.
The question then is how many steps per day is enough and can people sustain that level of activity. A team from the University of Lodz in Poland looked at 17 studies on daily steps and risk of death. They found that the minimum threshold required to reduce the risk of death by cardiovascular disease was 2,337 steps per day. 3,967 steps per day (minimum) were needed to make a reduction in the risk of death by any cause.
Every additional 500 steps were associated with a 7% reduction in risk of death from heart disease and 1,000 additional steps resulted in a 15% reduction in all cause death risk. The team analyzed the effects all the way up to 20,000 steps per day. More steps won’t hurt. The analysis included data from 226,889 people with an average age of 64 and was conducted over 7 years.
People under 60 halved their mortality risk when they walked between 7,000 and 13,000 steps per day. Those over 60 saw a 42% reduction in mortality risk when the walked between 6,000 and 10,000 steps per day. Please remember that these are average figures. Seek medical advice before starting a daily routine of walking. You will benefit and it is never too late to start.
Exercise for Better Looking Skin
A group of exercise researchers from Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto have undertaken a study of middle aged women in Japan to find out what effect that different types of exercise would have on the skin.
The participants were split into two groups, one cycled for 30 mins twice a week and the other lifted weights for the same length of time. The study was conducted over 4 months.
At the end of the study both groups saw physical improvements including skin elasticity however only the weightlifting group saw the dermal layers of the skin growing thicker. This meant that the proteins involved in skin rebuilding were working faster for the weightlifters than the cyclists.
This gave the weightlifting group more youthful skin at the cellular level. It is unclear why this happened. The skin is strongly influenced by external factors such as UV radiation and dryness in additional internal factors such as gene expression and inflammation. The study seems to indicate that some of the internal factors can also be influenced by exercise.
You know what to do ladies, hit the gym, push those gym bros out of the way and start pumping some iron.
Finally before we go, during the week the City of San Francisco has approved 24/7 self driving car operations without safety drivers for Cruise and Waymo. The robot future is starting to arrive.
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.