news feeds

KidSpeak gives a lift with hearing, speech
The Times-Picayune - NOLA.com, LA - 5 hours ago
Levi began receiving speech and occupational therapy at Children's Hospital and at home. Asher entered speech therapy because he was not exhibiting the ...

Rehab patients find new option in Christus St. Elizabeth Dishman ...
Beaumont Enterprise, tx - 8 hours ago
The facility on St. Elizabeth's sixth floor offers occupational, physical and speech therapy. It has 27 beds, as well as a gym, a dining room, kitchen, ...

Russellville Courier
Rollin’ Razorbacks to help launch Shooting for Success program
Russellville Courier, AR - 14 hours ago
Brandi Akin, current occupational therapy student at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway and a former basketball player at Dardanelle, ...

Weighty backpacks can be a pain for students
Akron Beacon Journal, OH - 25 Aug 2008
According to the American Occupational Therapy Association, studies show that six out of 10 students ages 9 to 20 report back pain attributed to their ...

LSU health center announces grads
Alexandria Town Talk, LA - 25 Aug 2008
... master of occupational therapy; Brigette Suzanne Elkins, Pineville, master of occupational therapy; Erin Franks, Deville, master of occupational therapy ...

OT Graduate Program Ranks No. 24 Nationally
EKUpdate, KY - 24 Aug 2008
One-hundred and fifty-two schools or programs were surveyed for the occupational therapy rankings. “(The ranking) will help us especially in the recruitment ...

• Profile: Speech therapy pioneer Jean Silbar
The Grand Rapids Press - MLive.com, MI - 24 Aug 2008
She is the founder and executive director of the center, a Grand Rapids nonprofit that helps kids and adults with physical, speech and occupational therapy. ...

Local facility uses video game for therapy
WEYI NBC25, MI - 21 Aug 2008
Physical therapy patient Roy O’Hare of Rhodes tries his hand at Nintendo® Wii™ boxing while occupational therapist Lisa Brewer, MOTR, ...

Therapy Link aims to help children
The Huntsville Times - al.com, AL - 20 Aug 2008
Mary Mayhan, owner and an occupational therapist, said Pediatric Therapy Link provides occupational therapy services for children from birth to age 21. ...

RehabCare Becomes National Partner of American Occupational ...
MarketWatch - 5 Aug 2008
Through this partnership, RehabCare's 1300 occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants will receive discounted memberships in AOTA, ...

CHAMBER WELCOMES NEW MEMBERS WITH RECEPTION
Pine Bluff Commercial, AR - 10 hours ago
... diagnostician with Jenkins Therapy Services, said the new membership will provide an opportunity to get the word out about occupational therapy, ...

Five tips music students can guard against injury
Indianapolis Star, United States - 11 hours ago
Rebecca Barton, associate professor in the University of Indianapolis School of Occupational Therapy, treats and counsels musicians and is the lead author ...

Heavy load? Best backpacks for kids
MSNBC - 8 hours ago
And according to the American Occupational Therapy Association, over 50% of all students between the ages of 9 and 20 suffer from chronic back pain related ...

High-Class Hybrids
Poughkeepsie Journal, NY - 15 hours ago
He may also benefit from asking for a prescription for occupational therapy services. Occupational therapists assess and treat difficulties with activities ...

Former employee leaves lasting gift
Oskaloosa Herald, IA - 25 Aug 2008
The family of Beverly Mart, a former employee at MHP Physical and Occupational Therapy, recently made a $1217 contribution to the department in her name. ...

New "Magical Apparel" Line Inspires Children To Expand Their Minds ...
Emediawire (press release), WA - 10 hours ago
"As a mother and occupational therapist, I'm committed to helping children reach their full potential," said Weiss. "Our products are designed with ...

Volunteer: CDS 'focuses on the total child'
Greenville News, SC - 12 hours ago
Knight's daughter receives both speech therapy and occupational therapy (for fine motor skills). Knight said they also work on ways to solve frustrations in ...

This vase collection from Mixko, a design project of Alex Garnett and Nahoko Koyama, should fit right into any aesthetically conscious orthopedic office.

Soon to be available at Mixko's online shop...

(hat tip: Core77)

An old rule devised by Ernst Overton, to estimate the amount of time a given chemical takes to pass through cell walls, has been overturned by scientists at the University of Warwick. The researchers directly observed and measured various substances rate of passage through cell membranes, and showed that Overton's rule is simply backwards.

Overton’s rule says that the easier it is for a chemical to dissolve in a lipid (fat) the easier and faster it will be transported into a cell. The Rule was first outlined in the 1890s by Ernst Overton of the University of Zürich. He declared that substances that dissolve in lipids pass more easily into a cell than those that dissolve in water. He then set forth an equation that predicted how fast that diffusion would happen. One of the key parameters in that equation is K which defines the lipophilicity (oil-liking nature) of the chemical. The higher the value of K, the faster the predicted cell permeation rate. For over a century, medicinal chemists have used this relationship to shape their studies and clinical trials.

A team of electrochemists from the University of Warwick used a combination of a confocal microscope and an ultramicroelectrode to study what really happens when a chemical crosses a cell membrane. Advances in technology enabled them to position an ultramicroelectrode incrediblely close to the membrane boundary (roughly 20 microns away; ca. 1/3rd the thickness of a human hair) where it was used to generate a range of acids that should be able to diffuse relatively easily into a cell. These techniques allowed every step of the diffusion process to be directly examined. Previous studies had not been able to observe every step of the process and often required artificial stirring of the solutions.

The results stunned the researchers. While the acids did diffuse across a lipid membrane, they did so at rates that were diametrically opposite to the predictions of the Rule, i.e. the most lipophilic molecules were actually transported slowest. The researchers studied four acids (acetic, butanoic, valeric, and hexanoic) that had increasingly larger "acyl" (or carbon) chains. The longer the carbon chain, the easier the chemical dissolves in lipids and, therefore, according to Overton, the faster they should diffuse across a lipid membrane. In fact, the University of Warwick researchers observed that for these four acids the exact opposite is true: the easier it is for an acid to dissolve in a lipid, the slower it is transported across the membrane.

Press release: Century old rule of Chemistry overturned - major implications for drug delivery

Image: Model of a section of the lipid bilayer that makes up the cell membrane. A number of different types of proteins are embedded into the bilayer - some span the bilayer whilst others are only exposed to one side of the membrane. Some proteins carry carbohydrate side chains that are needed for them to function properly. These side chains are added after the protin is produced. Collection: Wellcome Images

The MIT Technology Review spoke with Doug Melton, a director at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, about the status of stem cell research and its future applications to fight specific diseases.

TR: Where will this field go in the future?

DM: I think it will change the way degenerative diseases are studied--we'll reduce the whole process of disease to a petri dish. Within a few years, researchers the world over should have access to disease-specific cells that can be turned into cell types defective in a particular disease.

We can also start to study environmental factors. We know sun is important for skin cancer, and smoking is important for lung cancer. But what do we know about Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, ALS, and diabetes? That's hard to study in people because there is a long time between the proximal cause and effect.

Now, scientists can start to think more about how to look at environmental factors in a dish. Let's take food, oxidative insults, pesticides, and extracts and ask how they affect the cells. Scientists can also screen for drugs that slow or stop degeneration of those cells. If that were successful--and now we're talking about a decade-long project--you could make a drug that would slow or stop disease progression.

Read the whole thing at MIT Tech Review...

Additionally, we found a discussion Charlie Rose held with Doug Melton and a few other luminaries in the field in May of this year: