Using smartphone app for detecting bacteria in food

Researchers have developed a smartphone app that alerts users of bacteria in their food using only a microscope attachment. There are very few methods for preventing food poisoning in part because testing for harmful bacteria such as E.Coli and salmonella requires specialized equipment and can take up to two days to show results.

 New technology from researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst changes that, delivering bacteria results in minutes using a smartphone app. Current methods for identifying bacteria associated with food poisoning are time-consuming because it is challenging to collect enough material.

The most common method involves rinsing potentially risky food, collecting small amounts of bacteria from the water and giving it 24 hours to multiply so there's enough to test.The tool developed at UMass uses a chemically-coated chip that binds to even the smallest amounts of bacteria. The university created a video showing how the prototype works: They rinse a potentially contaminated product with water and then place the chip into the water. Within half an hour, the microscope, which can attach to any type of smartphone camera, reveals the bacteria on the screen.

If you don't have the app, you can prevent food poisoning by: keeping the cooking area and your hands clean. Avoiding cross-contamination-raw meat, poultry, seafood and eggs can spread germs to ready-to-eat foods if not kept separate. Use separate cutting boards and plates when handling different foods. To cook food safely, the internal temperature must be high to kill the germs that could cause food poisoning-use a food thermometer.

Store foods properly-storing food properly is essential to combating harmful bacteria, expiration dates may not be accurate for some foods-strange smell or color may indicate that the food is not safe, frozen foods should be thawed in the refrigerator, in cold water, or in the microwave.
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Immune cells can repair damaged nerves

Immune cells fight infections, in a new study, scientists have discovered how they also help the nervous system remove debris, clearing the way for nerve regeneration after injury. Some immune cells- neutrophils can clean up nerve debris. Neutrophils are one of the most common types of immune cells and known to engulf microorganisms, but they are not associated with peripheral nerve damage caused by diabetes or trauma.

Damaged nerve cells produce a stream of molecular lures that specifically attract neutrophils to injury sites in mice. Damaged mouse sciatic nerves produced hundreds of times the normal amount of two "chemoattractant" molecules, Cxcl1 and Cxcl2, which attach to the surfaces of neutrophils and draw the immune cells into injured tissue.

Once at the injury site, the neutrophils engulf cellular debris caused by the nerve damage, tidying up the area so the cells can repair themselves. Without the cellular clearance mechanism, nerves can't properly regenerate after injury. The experiments included sorting immune cells found at injury sites by molecules on their cellular surfaces, and many hours looking at mouse cells through the microscope.

Several different cells pick up the slack in the absence of macrophages, it was the neutrophil that emerged as a major contributor to debris removal. We also discovered that when we depleted neutrophils, nerve debris clearance was significantly halted in both normal mice and mice lacking a major population of macrophages.

Without neutrophils, nerve cells could not properly clear debris. This could leads to new therapeutics designed to repair nerve cells damaged by neurodegenerative disease. The clearance of debris after an injury is necessary for effective nerve regeneration. Immunostimulant molecules that target neutrophils at nerve injury location might enhance clean-up and promote nerve cell repair. Immunostimulant molecules are used to treat chronic infections and immunodeficiency.
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Compound in frog skin destroy flu virus

Emory vaccine center and the Rajiv Gandhi center for biotechnology in India said frog slime can kill the H1 variety of influenza viruses.

Peptide is a tiny compound produced from a chain of amino acids called building blocks of proteins. Frogs' skin have mucus that contains peptides, it protect them from harmful bacteria.

Latest study discovered that the skin of frogs from south Indian contains anti-flu peptides and it can be used for antiviral drug.

Professor Jacob an associate professor of microbiology and immunology at the Emory vaccine center and Emory University School of medicine and his team referred to peptide as urumin.

The team used mild electrical stimulation to gather urumin from an Indian frog and check it under electron microscope, it was discovered that the peptide disrupt flu virus.

The urumin attached itself to the stem of the viral hemagglutinin protein which is better than the current anti-inflammatory drugs that is attached to other parts of the virus.

Since flu viruses from human cannot infect frogs, production of urumin from frogs can still fight some other pathogen.