Science and Technology Improvements in IRAN

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List of contemporary Iranian scientists, scholars, and engineers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

List of Persian scientists and scholars - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

According to the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), Iran increased its academic publishing output nearly tenfold from 1996 to 2004, and has been ranked first globally in terms of output growth rate (followed by China with a 3 fold increase). In comparison, the only G8 countries in top 20 ranking with fastest performance improvement are, Italy which stands at tenth and Canada at 13th globally. Iran, China, India and Brazil are the only developing countries among 31 nations with 97.5% of the world's total scientific productivity. The remaining 162 developing countries contribute less than 2.5% of the world's scientific output. Despite the massive improvement from 0.0003% of the global scientific output in 1970 to 0.29% in 2003, still Iran's total share in the world's total output remained small. According to Thomson Reuters, Iran has demonstrated a remarkable growth in science and technology over the past one decade, increasing its science and technology output fivefold from 2000 to 2008. Most of this growth has been in engineering and chemistry producing 1.4% of the world's total output in the period 2004-2008. By year 2008, Iranian science and technology output accounted for 1.02% of the world's total output (That is ~340,000% growth in 37 years of 1970-2008). 25% of scientific articles published in 2008 by Iran were international coauthorships. The top five countries coauthoring with Iranian scientists are US, UK, Canada, Germany and France.

A 2010 report by Canadian research firm Science-Metrix has put Iran in the top rank globally in terms of growth in scientific productivity with a 14.4 growth index followed by South Korea with a 9.8 growth index. Iran's growth rate in science and technology is 11 times more than the average growth of the world's output in 2009 and in terms of total output per year, Iran has already surpassed the total scientific output of countries like Sweden, Switzerland, Israel, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Austria or that of Norway. The report further notes that Iran's scientific capability build-up has been the fastest in the past two decades and that this build-up is in part due to the Iraqi invasion of Iran, the subsequent bloody Iran Iraq war and Iran's high casualties due to the international sanctions in effect on Iran as compared to the international support Iraq enjoyed. The then technologically superior Iraq and its use of chemical weapons on Iranians, made Iran to embark on a very ambitious science developing program by mobilizing scientists in order to offset its international isolation, and this is most evident in the country's nuclear sciences advancement, which has in the past two decades grown by 8,400% as compared to the 34% for the rest of the world. This report further predicts that though Iran's scientific advancement as a response to its international isolation may remain a cause of concern for the world, all the while it may lead to a higher quality of life for the Iranian population but simultaneously and paradoxically will also isolate Iran even more because of the world's concern over Iran's technological advancements. Other findings of the report point out that the fastest growing sectors in Iran are Physics, Public health sciences, Engineering, Chemistry and Mathematics. Overall the growth has mostly occurred after 1980 and specially has been becoming faster since 1991 with a significant acceleration in 2002 and an explosive surge since 2005. It has been argued that scientific and technological advancement besides the nuclear program is the main reason for United States worry about Iran, which may become a superpower in the future. Some in Iranian scientific community see sanctions as a western conspiracy to stop Iran's rising rank in modern science and allege that some (western) countries want to monopolize modern technologies.

Iranian among top world scientists

The latest ranking of Web of Knowledge, which is based on articles written by scientists, shows Professor Hossein Najmabadi is among the top 1 percent of world scientists.

Najmabadi is a medical scientist at the University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences (USWR) and founder of Genetics Research Center (GRC), Mehr News Agency reported.

He is known for his significant contribution to the genetics of mental retardation.

The Iranian scientist studied biology at the University of North Texas and received a PhD in molecular biology from the same university in 1989. He then joined UCLA as a postdoc and was appointed a faculty member of Charles Drew University of Medicine & Science-UCLA in 1995.

Najmabadi has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers in international journals in the field of medical genetics and cancer genetics.

His recent studies were focused on preventing genetic disabilities and disorders through the establishment of a nationwide strategy for the early prenatal diagnosis of genetic disorders. In five areas of preventable genetic disorders, Najmabadi leads projects that not only apply preventive solutions within the population, but also involve nationally and internationally collaborative research to improve the quality of life nationwide.

Iranian Researcher Creates artificially linked DNA

An interdisciplinary study led by Dr Ali Tavassoli, a Reader in chemical biology at the University of Southampton, has shown for the first time that 'click chemistry' can be used to assemble DNA that is functional in human cells, which paves the way for a purely chemical method for gene synthesis.

Writing in Angewandte Chemie International Edition Dr Tavassoli's team and his collaborators, Dr Jeremy Blaydes and Professor Tom Brown, show that human cells can still read through strands of DNA correctly despite being stitched together using a linker not found in nature.

The artificially linked DNA was created by joining oligonucleotides using click chemistry -- chemistry tailored to mimic nature which generates substances quickly and reliably by joining small units together.

This click technique is highly efficient and boasts a number of advantages over the usual approaches to assembling DNA strands in the lab using a combination of DNA synthesis, PCR amplification and enzymatic ligation.

"As chemists we always sought to synthesise long strands of DNA but have been limited by our assumption that the phosphodiester bond is necessary for DNA to function in cells," says Dr Tavassoli. The DNA backbone is made up of pentose sugars and phosphate groups that stitch the nucleotides together using phosphodiester bonds. This backbone acts as the scaffold for the four bases that make up the genetic code.

The click DNA approach relies on a rapid and efficient stitching together of modified DNA strands using the copper-catalysed alkyne-azide cycloaddition reaction. Click-linking DNA leaves behind a triazole group in the backbone and it was feared that cellular machinery would be unable to read these unnaturally joined DNA strands. The new study demonstrated error-free transcription in human cells, the first example of a non-natural DNA linker working correctly in eukaryotic cells.

"This is important because it shows that we don't have to stick to the phosphodiester backbone of the DNA at the site of DNA ligation," Dr Tavassoli explains. "This suggests that we can replace the enzymatic methods for DNA assembly and DNA ligation with highly efficient chemical reactions."

"This is a mind blowing advance that demonstrates chemistry's power to manipulate nature's nature," comments Nobel laureate Barry Sharpless at the Scripps Research Institute, US, who first described the click chemistry process. "I only dreamed I'd get to see click chemistry do this in my lifetime. It is a marvellous achievement."

Iranian helps cultivate synthetic stem cells

Scientists at the University of California and British Surrey University along with an Iranian researcher Azin Fahimi have developed a new method to cultivate stem cells that does not originate from human and animal cells.

Earlier, stem cells have been cultivated using animal proteins or by growing them from other human cells, ISNA reported.

Both methods come with associated problems. But, according to a study published in the journal Applied Materials & Interfaces, researchers have now identified a new method for cultivating stem cells.

Stem cells are able to divide or regenerate indefinitely. This allows the stem cells to generate into a range of cell types for the organ that they originate from, or they may even be able to regenerate the whole organ.

Because of this, scientists are interested in using stem cells in a range of medical treatments, to replenish damaged tissue in the brain or skin, or as a treatment for blood diseases.

In adults, these stem cells have been found in tissues such as the brain, bone marrow, blood, blood vessels, skeletal muscles, skin and liver. Adult stem cells only become ‘activated’ and start dividing and generating new cells when their host tissue becomes damaged by disease or injury.

A more potent kind of stem cell is found in human embryos, which has the unique ability to grow into any kind of cell in the human body. But using these cells in scientific research is controversial—and illegal in some countries—as harvesting them requires the destruction of a fertilized human egg (a ‘blastocyst’) that has not had the chance to develop into a baby.

Stem cells can be grown in laboratories using animal proteins, but these cannot be used in the treatment of humans. An alternative method of growing stem cells on other human cells is risky, as the cells could be contaminated and may transmit disease to the patient.

Now, Prof. Peter Donovan from the University of California and a team of scientists at the University of Surrey in the UK have developed a new method for cultivating stem cells, which involves using carbon ‘nanotubes’ as a ‘scaffold’ from which human stem cells can be grown. The new synthetic cell structure allows stem cells effective in humans to be grown safely in the laboratory.

Dr. Alan Dalton, senior lecturer from the Department of Physics at the University of Surrey, said, “While carbon nanotubes have been used in the field of biomedicine for some time, their use in human stem cell research has not previously been explored successfully.”

This scaffolding imitates the supporting cells in the human body that stem cells would have been grown on. The creation of this synthetic cell structure now allows stem cells effective in humans to be grown safely in the laboratory.

The researchers think that this new development will open doors to “revolutionary steps” in replacing tissue after injury or disease.

Dr. Dalton said, “Synthetic stem cell scaffolding has the potential to change the lives of thousands of people suffering from diseases such as Parkinson’s, diabetes and heart disease, as well as vision and hearing loss. It could lead to cheaper transplant treatments and could potentially one day allow us to produce whole human organs without the need for donors.”

Recently, Medical News Today reported on a study finding that stem cells could be harvested from tissue discarded in routine hip replacement operations.

Iran to Build Human Spare Parts

Researchers at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences are making attempts to build human spare parts for transplantation.

Hossein Niknejad, the head of New Technologies Faculty at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, said the faculty is currently focused on building spare parts through tissue engineering in an attempt to build human spare parts such as kidneys, heart, blood vessels, liver and skin, Tehran-based English newspaper, Iran Daily, reported.

“Currently, 26,000 patients in Iran annually join the waiting list for a kidney transplant. Each year, the number has a 12-percent increase which makes the number of kidney donations very insufficient for meeting the country's need for organ transplant,” he said.

Niknejad also said one of the difficulties in kidney transplant was its rejection from the host body after a few years. He added that building spare parts through tissue engineering was a way to resolve this problem.

“Iran is currently researching and conducting experiments in this area. The Faculty of New Technologies is working on a project to build an organ from the recipient’s cells,” he said.

“Currently, the scaffolds for the spare parts are undergoing the production phase and we have made good progress in turning stem cells into kidney cells.”

Scientists in Iran clone endangered mouflon – born to domestic sheep

Article #1: The baby mouflon, which has been named Maral, is the result of a four-year project at the Royan Institute.
A domestic sheep has given birth to a baby mouflon in a rare successful example of interspecies cloning, according to scientists in Iran.

The wild Isfahan mouflon – or ovis orientalis isphahanica – was cloned by researchers at Iran’s Royan Institute, which is dedicated to reproductive biomedicine and stem cell research, using the domestic sheep as a surrogate mother.

Poaching has driven the Isfahan mouflon close to extinction in Iran. The cloned mouflon, which looks similar to a deer, has been named Maral, a Persian name for a reindeer and for new babies, which means svelte.

Established in 1991, Royan has been a pioneer of IVF in the Islamic republic, where infertile couples have easy access to such treatments at reasonable costs compared to western equivalents. It has also drawn many tourist patients from across the Middle East. Iran has progressive fertility treatment and reproductive health programmes, with Shia clerics in the country largely supportive of such scientific practices.

Mohammad Hossein Nasr-Esfahani, the head of the biomedical research centre at Royan, said the motivation for the project was conservation. Royan became the first place in the Middle East to start working on animal cloning seven years ago and the birth of Maral marks the first successful attempt at interspecies cloning involving an endangered species in the country.

“We have been working on the project for around four years,” he told the Guardian. “Conservation of wildlife is an important concept in developing countries, and so far a few successful projects involving birth of wild animals by interspecies cloning have been achieved worldwide.”

To clone animals scientists take cells from one individual and insert them into an unfertilised donor egg which then develops into an embryo. In this case, the embryo was carried by a surrogate sheep, after a biopsy had been obtained from a mouflon. Domestic sheep oocytes were taken from abattoir ovaries, and the best embryos were transferred to the surrogate sheep.

Nasr-Esfahani said: “The cloning technique is very efficient in our view, and so far we have cloned a herd of goats. The last sheep that we cloned lived for over five years. This mouflon is healthy and 14 days have passed since its birth. We hope to donate the sheep to the city zoo where they can provide a suitable habitat for it.”

Article #2: Cloning is controversial among animal welfare activists, who say cloned animals are more susceptible to abnormalities and die soon after birth. In 2009, cloning was used in an attempt to save an endangered goat species, the Pyrenean ibex, from extinction in Europe, but the newborn died shortly after birth due to breathing complications.

The most famous animal to be cloned was Dolly the sheep, born in 1996. Last year, the birth of Britain’s first cloned dog was dismissed as a “ridiculous waste of money”, while the quest to clone a mammoth has also been the subject of much controversy.

“From an animal welfare point of view, cloning is a very wasteful process,” said Penny Hawkins, head of the research animals department at RSPCA. “Large numbers of embryos would have been created and implanted into female sheep in order to get the cells to make those cloned embryos, animals may well have undergone painful procedures to obtain the tissue.”

Hawkins said the ethical issues relate to “the inherently wasteful nature of the process”. She said: “It’s all very well cloning endangered species but if you haven’t got the natural habitat to put them into you can argue, what’s the point doing it at all? What’s the point manipulating animals and causing suffering and causing risks to the mother animals when maybe there’s the case that the population of endangered animals still can’t be saved because their habitat has been destroyed?”

Scientists may argue practice makes perfect. But Hawkins is not convinced. “It’s highly likely that the process will become more successful because procedures tend to be improved and refined and success rates tend to increase,” she said. “But the whole point is: is it right to use these sort of procedures to manipulate animals in this way with risk to their health and welfare?”

“There’s no point cloning endangered species if they have nowhere to live; you should look at the bigger picture, preserve the habitat as well and not just do something because you can. Just because something can be done it doesn’t mean it should be done.”

 

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Iranian scientists discover a rare bacterium

Researchers in Iran Biological Resource Center have discovered a new bacterium, publish in International Systematic Microbiology Journal.

Actinomycetes are valuable microorganisms used for the 1st and 2nd metabolism in food industries. These microorganisms help produce enzymes widely applied in food industry to process starch in fructose-rich drinks and enzymes used in molecular biology techniques.

Actinomycetes are also applied in production of new generations of antibiotics due to their specific metabolism routes.

Researchers in Iran Biological Resources Center discovered a rare actinomycete belonging to the family Pseudonocardiaceae. The discovery of this microorganism was announced in a paper in the prestigious IJSEM under the name of Alloactinosynnema Iranicum

The microorganism is accessible in National Iranian Biological Resource Center as a valuable microorganism in access code of BRC-M 10403T.

Iranian anticancer drug produced

The first Iranian biosimilar anticancer drug was unveiled at an official ceremony attended by the head of Iran’s Food and Drug Organization, announced the director general of Cinnagen Company.

Dr. Haleh Hamedi-Far said Cinnagen Company is the first company in the country and the second in the world to produce such anticancer drug, Fars News Agency reported.

She added that the drug, by the name of ‘Pegagen’, has successfully passed all animal and human tests and obtained legal permits for mass production.

“Pegagen is a biosimilar anticancer drug which can be used to treat all types of cancer after chemotherapy,” she noted. “Its most important advantages are high efficiency and reduced need for injection.”

Hamedi-Far also disclosed that a contract will be signed on the sidelines of the ceremony between an Iranian drug company and a Turkish company to transfer the knowledge and technology of producing MS-related drug (Resigen), adding that it is the first time that Iran is sharing its drug production know-how with another country.

She said that the Turkish party will produce the drug under license from the Iranian company.

Rasoul Dinarvand, the head of Iran’s Food and Drug Organization announced last week that an Iranian drug company has succeeded in producing the first Iranian anticancer monoclonal antibody drug which is to be unveiled soon.

He said that the production process of monoclonal antibody drugs are much complicated and this makes them expensive.

He added that once monoclonal antibody drugs are produced domestically, the prices will come down.

The head of Iran’s Food and Drug Organization hoped that at least six types of monoclonal antibody drugs can be produced in the next two years once the production line for monoclonal antibody drugs is set up in the country.

Monoclonal antibody drugs are a relatively new innovation in cancer treatment. A monoclonal antibody is a laboratory-produced molecule that’s carefully engineered to attach to specific defects in your cancer cells.

Monoclonal antibodies mimic the antibodies your body naturally produces as part of your immune system’s response to germs, vaccines and other invaders.

Monoclonal antibodies are designed to recognize and attach to specific proteins on the surface of cells. Each monoclonal antibody recognizes one particular protein.

They work in different ways depending on the protein they are targeting. So monoclonal antibodies have to be made to target different types of cancer.

Many different monoclonal antibodies are already available to treat cancer. Some are licensed to treat particular types of cancer while newer types are still undergoing clinical tests. Monoclonal antibodies cause different side effects. It can take a long time to develop this type of treatment because making monoclonal antibodies can be very complicated.

Iranian researcher's method shows how brain recognizes speech sounds

Researchers at the University of California San Francisco along with an Iranian scientist Nima Mesgaran showed in a new study - published in the journal Science - that the shaping of sound by our mouths leaves "an acoustic trail" that the brain follows.

Scientists have known for some time that it is the superior temporal gyrus (STG; also known as "Wernike's area") where speech sounds are interpreted. But not much has been known about how the brain actually processes speech.

To investigate this, the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) researchers placed neural recording devices directly onto the surface of the brains of six patients who were undergoing epilepsy surgery. This allowed the researchers to capture very rapid changes in the brain.

This was one of the most advanced studies of the brain's interpretation of speech. Previous studies had only been able to analyze neural responses to just a handful of natural or synthesized speech sounds, but because of the speed of the technology used by the UCSF team, they were able to use every kind of speech sound in the English language, multiple times.

The researchers collected data from the STGs of the patients as they listened to 500 unique English sentences spoken by 400 different people.

What the researchers expected was to see the patients' brains respond to "phonemes." Phonemes are the individual sound segments that make up language - the researchers give the example of the b sound in "boy."

Instead, the researchers found that the brain was "tuned" to an even simpler function of language - something linguists call "features." Features are distinctive "acoustic signatures" that the human body makes when we move our lips, tongue or vocal cords, Medicalnewstoday reported.

One type of feature are called "plosives" - these occur when, to make a certain speech sound, the speaker has to use the lips or tongue to obstruct air flowing from their lungs, causing a brief burst of air. Examples of plosives are the consonants p, t, k, b and d.

Another type of feature are "fricatives" - these sounds are when the airway is only partially obstructed, which causes friction in the vocal tract. S, z and v are examples of fricatives.

Analyzing the data from the patients' brains, the researchers saw the STGs of the patients "light up" as the participants heard the different speech features. The team found that the brain recognized the "turbulence" created by a fricative, or the "acoustic pattern" of a plosive, rather than individual phonemes such as b or z.

The researchers compare this system for interpreting the "shapes" of sounds to the way the brain recognizes visual objects using edges and shapes. The visual system allows us to identify known objects regardless of the perspective from which we are viewing them, so the researchers think it makes sense that the brain would apply a similar algorithm to understanding sound.

The study's senior author, Dr. Edward F. Chang, said, "It's the conjunctions of responses in combination that give you the higher idea of a phoneme as a complete object. By studying all of the speech sounds in English, we found that the brain has a systematic organization for basic sound feature units, kind of like elements in the periodic table."

The UCSF team hopes their findings will contribute to work around reading disorders. In a reading disorder, printed words are inaccurately mapped by the brain onto speech sounds.

But the team thinks that the findings are significant in their own right. "This is a very intriguing glimpse into speech processing," Chang says. "The brain regions where speech is processed in the brain had been identified, but no one has really known how that processing happens."

Recently, Medical News Today reported on a study that found speech uses both sides of the brain - previously scientists thought just one half of the brain was used for speech and language.

4.3% of world's tech parks are in Iran

There are more than 800 Science and Tech parks in whole world which Iran has its share of 34 Science and Tech Parks. Iran is second only to China with regard to its growth in numbers of science and tech companies.

These parks are ranked by their overall export and financial turn over every year and has access to low-interest loans and are Tax-exempt.

At the moment, there are nearly 3500 active High tech private companies in 34 science and tech parks and another 6000 high tech companies outside these parks. with a total of 20000 scientists, researchers and engineers working in 34 technology parks.

Experts predict these numbers to soar considerably in next 10 years reaching 20000 high tech companies active in science and tech parks and 200 hundred thousands scientists, Engineers and researchers employees.

University of Zanjan among top academies

University of Zanjan has been selected among top academies in UI Greenmetric World University Ranking.

The university was ranked 128 with a score of 5,225, IRNA reported.

Universitas Indonesia (UI) releases the results of UI GreenMetric ranking annually.

This is the fourth year of this ranking, which compares academic efforts toward campus sustainability and environment-friendly university management.

The results were announced by Prof. Muhamad Anis and UI Greenmetric Chairman Prof. Riri Fitri Sari, accompanied by Prof. Gunawan Tjahjono and Dr. Nyoman Suwartha, at Central Administration Building of UI, Depok, Indonesia.

 

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This year, 301 universities from 61 countries took part, which is an increase from last year with 215 universities from 49 countries.

University of Nottingham (UK) was ranked first with a score of 7,521, followed by University College Cork National University of Ireland (score 7,328) and Northeastern University of USA at third position with a score of 7,170.

The results are computed from information provided by universities online. This year, the information is organized under six categories. These categories are setting and infrastructure, energy and climate change, waste management, water usage, transportation and education.

This initiative was launched on 2010 to draw the attention of university leaders and stakeholders to pay more attention to environmental sustainability, as well as economic and social problems related to sustainability.

Iran third in HSCT

Iran ranks third in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) in the world, announced the head of Shariati Hospital’s Hematology-Oncology Research Center and Stem Cell Transplantation.

Dr. Ardeshir Qavamzadeh added Shariati Hospital handles about 400 cases of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation annually, IRNA reported.

The HSCT is the transplantation of multipotent hematopoietic stem cells, usually derived from bone marrow, peripheral blood or umbilical cord blood. It is a medical procedure in the fields of Hematology, most often performed for patients with certain cancers of the blood or bone marrow, such as multiple myeloma or leukemia. In these cases, the recipient’s immune system is usually destroyed with radiation or chemotherapy prior to transplantation.

He noted that cancer can be treated if it is diagnosed in the early stages.

Iranian hematologic specialist said there is no need for all features of donor’s stem cells to be compatible with those of the recipient, adding that the operation can be carried out with just 50 percent compatibility.

“Our stem cell specialists are among the best in the world providing medical services to both children and adults,” Qavamzadeh said.

Eight stem cell centers have been established in a number of cities including Shiraz, Kerman, Mashhad and Orumieh in cooperation with Hematology-Oncology Research Center and Stem Cell Transplantation of Shariati Hospital, he added.

“There are about 200 stem cell specialists nationwide and none of the provinces lack stem cell-related medical services,” he noted.

The Hematology-Oncology Research Center and Stem Cell Transplantation is affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences and based in Shariati Hospital, Tehran, Iran. As a main national hematology-oncology center, it is among the most prominent stem cell transplantation centers in the world, with more than 400 successful transplantations performed per year.

The Center is mainly involved in new therapeutic approaches which are developed or under development for hematologic-oncologic patients, particularly stem cell transplantation. In addition, it is involved in the research activities to improve the diagnosis and management of different hematologic and oncologic diseases.

The Center was founded in 1991 by Ardeshir Ghavamzadeh, who is currently its director.

Hepatoblastoma treatment by stem cell injections in Iran

Doctors and specialists of the Mahak Hospital announced that for the 1st time in Iran, the 1st child recovered from hepatoblastoma left the hospital healthfully.

Hepatoblastoma is the most common form of liver cancer in children, although it is a comparatively uncommon pediatric solid tumor. The disease usually affects children younger than 3 years.

Arian is the 22nd child suffering from hepatoblastoma in the world, and the 1st one in Iran, being successfully treated by stem cell injections.

The Mahak Society to Support Children with Cancer is an organization in Tehran dedicated to helping Iranian children with cancer.

MAHAK’s Hospital and Rehabilitation center equipped to accommodate up to 120 children, each accompanied by a member of their family. The center houses diagnostic and treatment wards of the highest standards, on a par with those seen anywhere else.

Iran is the 4th country, after US, Italy and Japan, which has been successful to treat hepatoblastoma in the world.

Iranians help achieve early diagnosis of prostate cancer

Iranian researchers have developed a new nanoprobe to diagnose cancerous cells, in association with their Australian and Belgian counterparts.

The main characteristic of the nanoprobe is to diagnose the disease before it causes physiological changes in the body, Fars News Agency reported.

Among the applicable medical properties of the results of this research, mention can be made of imaging, separation of cancerous cells from healthy ones, hyperthermia and determination of gene expression.

Taking into account the advantages and wide applications of MRI in different cancer treatment stages, the need for paying attention to new imaging methods is increasing day by day to converge and improve the sensitivity of imaging method, especially magnetic resonance molecular imaging (MRMI).

In this research, a magnetic nanoprobe was designed and tested to increase the sensitivity of MRI method to detect prostate cancer cells.

In this research, PSMA antigen, which is a specific antigen for prostate cancer with high expression on the surface of cancerous cells but with no expression on the surface of prostate natural cells, was determined as an ideal target agent. Next, J591 antibody was chosen as targeting agent due to its unique properties.

The antibody was attached to the magnetic iron nanoparticle with a coating of polyethylene glycol and –NH2 surfactants after activation and preparation of particles by using a specific cross-linker entitled Sulfo-SMCC. After the production of nanoprobe, its physical and chemical properties and performance were investigated in in-vitro and in-vivo applications.

The difference in this research with similar researches is in introducing and developing the contrast agent that is able to detect prostate cancer cells among the healthy ones, which can result in early diagnosis of the disease before it causes physiological changes in cells.

Iran ranks 14th in world in medical sciences

The Islamic Republic of Iran has ranked 14th in terms of science production in medicine in the world, according to the latest statistics released by several international scientific centers.

Iran has garnered this high ranking from among 238 countries across the world, IRNA quoted the deputy manager of education at Iran’s Health Ministry Amir Mohsen Ziaei as saying.

In 2000, the Islamic Republic ranked 53rd in the world in terms of highly cited medical articles but improved to the 22rd rank in 2011.

Iran has taken wide strides in science and technology in recent years despite US sanctions.

Iran also ranked 15th in science production in the world in 2013, according to the recent statistics announced by Thomson Reuters.

Iran has allocated 2.5 % of the world science production since the beginning of 2013 that located the country in the released rank by Thomson Reuters.

Meanwhile, Iran has also ranked first in the region and eighth in the world in science production in the field of nanotechnology, the secretary of Iran Nanotechnology Initiative Council (INIC) Saeed Sarkar had earlier announced.

Iran's 2009 growth rate in science and technology was highest globally being 11 times faster than the world's average rate.

 

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Iranian researchers develop new methods in gastronomical cancers

Researchers in the Mashhad University of Medical Sciences Center for Genetic Research has developed a new method for treating gastrointestinal cancers.

Dr. Mohammad Reza Abbaszadegan, the project senior researcher told Mehr News that the research was carried out on factors contributing to esophagus cancer. “The method works through molecular interventions of the factors,” he said. “We examined two factors of somatic cells (specifically esophagus epithelial cells), which would turn into fundamental malignant tumors,” he added, “The study was carried out on a sample population of patients diagnosed with esophagus cancer.”

“We found that a high percent of patients had the factor, including Mastermind and Twist 1 factors,” he said. “The second phase of the research would examine whether this method would stop the growth of cancer cells, where we found some success,” said the senior researcher.

The head of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences Center for Genetic Research also pointed to the side-effects of non-specific treatment such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy. “General strands of treatment have side-effects on patients, while the preset method is a specifically biological method,” he said.

“The research findings would find applications in the treatment of larger intestine cancers,” he added.

Iranian researcher conquests Everest of cancer genes

The ‘Everest’ of cancer genes has been conquered by an Iranian scientist at California university.

Kevan Shokat along with his colleagues have found a way to shut off a gene that causes a third of all tumours, including some of the most deadly.

Despite advances in medicine, cancer kills more than 150,000 Britons a year – the equivalent of a life every four minutes.

The breakthrough could lead to new drugs for hard-to-treat cancers. As well as saving lives, the new treatments should have fewer side-effects than existing medicines.

The excitement surrounds a gene called ras, which when mutated can trigger the development of tumours, fuel their growth and keep them alive.

A drug that shuts it down has eluded some of the best brains in science for more than 30 years, leading many to believe it was unbeatable.

Now, US scientists have succeeded in making a chemical that kills ras-driven human lung cancer cells.

Researcher Kevan Shokat, of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of California, described the rogue gene as ‘the Everest of cancer mutations’.

He said: ‘People have tried to drug every part of ras and looked at every nook and cranny on it and screened a million compounds and never found anything that inhibits it well.

‘We are very excited. We believe this has real implications for patients.’ Cancers caused by the ras gene are particularly fast growing and spreading and difficult to treat.

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They include many pancreatic, lung and bowel cancers, which between them kill almost 60,000 Britons a year.

Pancreatic cancer is the most deadly common cancer, with fewer than 20 per cent of patients alive a year after diagnosis and under 4 per cent surviving for five years.

Lung cancer kills more Britons than any other form of the disease, with almost 35,000 deaths a year. Bowel cancer is the second biggest cancer killer, with around 16,000 deaths annually.

It is hoped that by shutting off ras, the new drug will stop the growth of tumours and shrink them.

Crucially, it acts only on the cancer-causing form of the ras gene, meaning healthy cells are spared. This should cut the risk of side-effects such as sickness, nausea and hair loss normally seen with cancer drugs.

Dr. Shokat, who has formed a company to commercialise his work, said: ‘What is very special about this drug is that it only works in cells that have this particular mutation. That distinguishes it from every other cancer drug we know of.’

Iranian mathematician wins Fields medal: A First

Maryam Mirzakhani is the first woman - and Iranian - to win the "Nobel Prize of mathematics." (Photo : Stanford University)
Maryam Mirzakhani, a female Iranian mathematician, has been awarded a prestigious Fields Prize. This award is similar to a Noble Prize for mathematics, and is the highest honor bestowed upon those who study math.

Mirzakhani is a professor at Stanford University, who has now been named both the first woman, as well as the first Iranian, to be awarded the prize.

The Fields Prize was first established nearly 80 years ago, with the first award given to Lars Ahlfors of Finland in 1936. The prize is awarded to mathematicians under 40 years of age, who have made outstanding contributions to the science.

Each winner of the award, properly known as the International Medal for Outstanding Discoveries in Mathematics, is also awarded around $15,000 in addition to the recognition.

The Iranian mathematician has been the recipient of other prestigious awards as well. She won the International Mathematical Olympiad in both 1994 and 1995. Her perfect performance in the second event was the first flawless performance in the history of the contest.

Her research specialty is advanced geometry including Riemann surfaces, one-dimensional surfaces which can be mathematically described as three-dimensional figures such as spheres.

Mirzakhani was "awarded the Fields Medal for her outstanding contributions to the dynamics and geometry of Riemann surfaces and their moduli spaces," the International Mathematical Union (IMU) announced.

Stanford professors have not won the prize since 1966, when one was awarded to Paul Cohen.

Mirzakhani was born in Tehran, and wanted to grow up to be a writer when she grew older. By high school, however, she discovered a talent at uncovering patterns in mathematics that was quickly recognized by her instructors. She decided to follow her calling into mathematical sciences, and graduated from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran in 1999. The budding mathematician then moved to the United States, where she attended graduate school, earning her doctorate from Harvard University.

Mirzakhani has a talent, as many great mathematicians do, of solving complex problems using a unique, simple approach. One of her earliest discoveries was solving a problem in calculating the volume of moduli spaces. She did this by picturing tiny loops attached to each point of the surface.

"This is a great honor. I will be happy if it encourages young female scientists and mathematicians. I am sure there will be many more women winning this kind of award in coming years," Mirzakhani said.

The mathematics which won the award for the Iranian woman was developed for the sake of pure mathematics, without pretext for use outside of research. However, her discoveries could assist researchers, working on problems in sub-atomic physics, including quantum field theory.

Iranian university professor receives ASME fellowship

An Iranian civil engineer university professor Hossein Mohammadi Shoja at Sharif University was introduced as a Fellow member of the US ASME because of his valuable international research projects.

Over 130,000 people from 158 countries have so far joined the ASME, but only 3,000 people across the world have managed to get fellowship, the highest degree in the association's membership.

The Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASME) was founded in 1880 to provide a setting for engineers to discuss the concerns brought by the rise of industrialization and mechanization. The Society’s founders were some of the more prominent machine builders and technical innovators of the late nineteenth century; led by prominent steel engineer Alexander Lyman Holley, Henry Rossiter Worthington and John Edison Sweet.

Ali Meghdari, another Iranian university professor of mechanical engineering of Sharif University has already received fellowship from the ASME.

Iranian ophthalmologists treat cataract, transplant corneal by new laser-therapy

Iranian researchers have managed to treat cataract by a new laser-therapy method using femtoSecend laser system.

"Using the new device which is the newest and the most precise one in the world, we are now capable of operating different types of congenital cataracts made due to impacts in the country," said an Iranian ophthalmologist Mostafa Naderi.

The device can make delicate and precise cuts to treat other types of eye diseases such as presbyopia, keratoconus and removing astigmatism and corneal transplants.

All people suffering congenital cataracts and even the elderly can use the method which has the least possibility of human error in the treatment process.

FemtoSecend laser system does not hurt surrounding tissues, especially cornea, boosts eye resistance against possible impacts and shortens the period of patient convalescent.

Iran’s Razi medical research festival honors winners

Iran’s 19th National Razi Research Festival on medical sciences has honored its winners during a ceremony held in the capital city of Tehran, Press TV has reported.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the vice-president for Research and Technology and the Health Ministry officials attended the ceremony held in Tehran’s Shahid Beheshti University on January 15.

Winners were selected from among researchers of different Iranian universities and awarded in different categories including medical nanotechnology, psychology and psychiatry, pharmaceutical sciences and dentistry.

Razi Medical Sciences Research Festival was founded in 1995 after the name of the great Iranian physician, chemist, pharmacist, and philosopher, Razi who lived in the 9th century CE.

The festival is annually held to encourage innovation and research in medical sciences.

Iran has taken wide strides in science and technology in recent years despite US sanctions.

Iran has ranked 15th in terms of science production in medicine in the world, according to the latest statistics released by several international scientific centers.

Iran has garnered this high ranking from among 238 countries across the world.

The country has also ranked first in the region and eighth in the world in science production in the field of nanotechnology, the secretary of Iran Nanotechnology Initiative Council (INIC) Saeed Sarkar had earlier announced.

Iran is now exporting its nanotechnology products to around ten countries including Australia, Turkey, Pakistan and Malaysia, he also noted.

 

[Aramagedon]

Iranian researchers regenerate kidney using stem cells

Researchers in Royan Institute has regenerated kidney tissues of monkey using stem cells.

Dr. Reza Moghaddasali told Mehr News that they selected cellular therapy of acute and chronic diseases in animal media with good results. He also expressed hope that a day would come when the results of the study would be used for human kidney disorders.

He cited hypertension and diabetes as factors of kidney disorders. “The most common treatment is transplant, which according to global data, 20 per cent of patients develop inflammatory reaction to the transplanted organ. Thus, we have in the agenda to regenerated the failing tissues of kidney,” the project manager said.

“We regenerated failed kidney tissues in monkeys using Cisplatin chemotherapeutic drug, and then we injected stem cells to failed tissues, which improved their function,” he added.

Moghaddasali cited decreased Natrium and urea as symptomatic of improved kidney function in animal media. “We are planning to use these cells in human media,” he said, pointing to other Royan Institute other research projects. “In engineering of kidney tissues, we are working to develop a connective tissue using kidney tissues,” he added, expressing hope that in coming years he would use these findings clinically.

Researchers Grow Bone Cells Using Environment-friendly Material

A group of Iranian researchers from Isfahan University of Technology have produced environment-friendly, non-toxic nano-ceramic material which can be used as a suitable culture for bone cells.

Mahshid Kharraziha, the project manager, noted that forsterite is a new bio-ceramic, adding, “Due to mechanical and environmental properties, it can be used in orthopedics for tissue culture.”

She added that nanometry forsterite unlike micron forsterite enjoys active biological properties. She noted that excessive release of magnesium and silica ions under biological conditions can negatively affect its functions.

“Therefore, nanometry forsterite has been used in this bio-compatibility study to review its toxicity on bone cells as well as the cells’ ability to grow on nano-ceramic environment,” she said.

Kharraziha added that nano-powder has been first prepared using sol-gel method before producing a dense piece of nanometry forsterite. Then, bone cells have been cultured on forsterite nano-ceramic in order to study affinity, growth and multiplication of such bones on this form of nano-ceramic.

The researcher stated that the results indicated improved mechanical properties with this nano-ceramic compared to forsterite ceramic. Cell culture tests have also shown that nanometry forsterite can stimulate growth of bone making cells.

She added that bone making cells show good affinity to this ceramic which proves that nanometry forsterite is both environment-friendly and non-toxic.

Iranians Make Superior Hydrogel

Researchers at Iran Polymer and Petrochemical Institute have made super absorbent hydrogel that can absorb and retain extremely large amounts of a liquid relative to their own mass.

Announcing this, Seyyed Ali Hashemi, lead researcher of the project, said that super absorbent polymers (SAP), which are classified as hydrogels, absorb aqueous solutions through hydrogen bonding with water molecules.

He also said a SAP’s ability to absorb water is a factor of the ionic concentration of the aqueous solution.

In deionized and distilled water, a SAP may absorb 500 times its weight (from 30–60 times its own volume), but when put into a 0.9 percent saline solution, the absorbency drops to 50 times its weight. The presence of valent cations in the solution will impede the polymer’s ability to bond with the water molecule. Think of these hydrogels as long chains of molecules (called polymers) that absorb incredible amounts of water, only to release the water to plant roots at a later time.

Today, super absorbent polymers are widely used in forestry, gardening and landscaping as a means of conserving water. Hydrogel can either improve the growth of the plant or decrease the watering frequency. It usually lasts 4-5 years in the soil. The technology has a great impact on parts of the world plagued by drought.

Water Jelly Crystals are an example of a hydrogel. This chemical is biodegradable and is not considered a health hazard. In other words, Water Jelly Crystals are safe to touch, squeeze through your fingers and to use in your garden.

New Advances in Diagnosing Human Genetic Disorders

Researchers at Bovine Embryo Technology Research Center of Shahr-e Kord University have come up with a new method to diagnose genetic disorders in bovine embryo as early as eight-cell phase of its differentiation. The researchers hope that the new method will help diagnose genetic disorders in human embryo.

Dr. Ali Mohammad Ahadi, the project manager, noted that the research team has been able to detect bovine embryo up to eight- and sixteen-cell stages of differentiation, adding, “By separating a single cell from sixteen-cell embryo, we have been able to diagnose genetic disorders with a high level of accuracy.”

Stressing on the high accuracy of the new method, he stated that “female” embryos with special characteristics can be identified in early stages and supplied to livestock breeders for the production of high-quality, thoroughbred species.

Ahadi, who is also deputy director of Bovine Embryo Technology Research Center, stated that the new research has taken advantage of single cell multiplex - PCR method.

He added, “PCR method for single cells is nothing new and we have used it to reduce costs and increase output. We have taken advantage of a combination of single cell multiplex and PCR to increase accuracy by 200 times and sensitivity by 1,000 times.”

The researcher emphasized that the method is easily used in all environments, saying, “We hope by implementing this project on single- and double-cell embryos to be able to take effective steps for the diagnosis of genetic disorders. Since this method is also applicable to humans, we hope to improve it and help other researchers with diagnosis of genetic disorders before birth.”

Iranian Researchers Use Nano-Fiber for Rapid Cure of Gum Infections

Researchers at Isfahan University of Technology have produced electrospun nanofibers as a crucial step toward rapid treatment of gum infections.

Maedeh Zamani, the project manager, explained that electrospinning has been used to produce a web of nanofibers which will be then used to release medicines aimed at rapid cure of gingival infections.

She said a major flaw with most films carrying medicines was their affinity to retain drugs or hardening upon contact with body fluids.

“Meanwhile, due to their special qualities, nanofibers have greatly solved this problem,” she added.

The researcher noted that the web of nanofibers which has been studied in this research remained totally flexible throughout drug release and this was attributed to lower temperature of polycaprolactone compared to body temperature which causes nanofiber web to remain pliant at the body temperature of 37 degrees. As a result, such webs can be used to treat periodontal infections.

Zamani stated that such a system will help patients to just refer once to a periodontist to introduce medicines into periodontal pocket with no need to take medical equipment out of the patient’s mouth. This will reduce cost and time of treatment.

The researchers said that it took 19-23 days to release medicines from electrospun nanofiber web, but the longest time reported in various systems used for local release of medicine to treat periodontal diseases has been 14 days.

Iranian Car Ranks 3rd in Turin

A hybrid car made by Khajeh Nassir University students ranked third in Formula Electric and Hybrid Italy (EHI) held in Turin, Italy, during October 7-10.

The four-wheel car has a composite body, weights 600 kilograms and can travel up to 90 kilometers an hour.

Formula Electric and Hybrid Italy (EHI), an international competitive and sports event, was initiated by Assiciazione Tecnica Dell’Automobile as Formula TECH in 2005, with the objective of promoting innovation developed in academic institutions across the world and applied to sustainable ecological mobility.

Students from universities and technical institutions can participate with complete vehicles, designed and fabricated by themselves and compete in tests such as endurance, acceleration, energy consumption, autocross and climbing ability, as per rules set up by a technical committee.

Formula Electric and Hybrid aims to encourage students and graduate engineers to participate with new ideas and innovative solutions to reduce the environmental impact and improve the energy efficiency of various vehicles supplied by different energy sources.

The student teams were evaluated and awarded by the Technical Committee, formed by experts from industries and institutions, on the basis of the characteristics and performance of vehicles, their level of innovation and industrial aspects.

The outcome of the event is expected to help forge interaction among academic institutions and industries in terms of technology innovations and for the diffusion of the culture of ecological vehicles.

Formula Electric and Hybrid Italy offers an overview of advanced technologies in the field of electrically propelled road vehicles, encompassing various types of power train and energy supply systems by using a variety of vehicles.

The battery of electric vehicles are especially suitable for urban operation, as they do not pollute, are almost noiseless and allow an highly effective use of energy due to energy recovery during braking.

Iran's initiative on artificial organs

Iranian researchers at a research center, affiliated to University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation, Sciences (USWRS), have developed a prosthetic hand which moves by brain waves and commands.

Farhad Tabatabaei, the head of Medical and Rehabilitation Equipments Technologies Institute, said the institute has implemented several research projects, ISNA wrote.

The device is made for people without hands, he said. When an individual needs to move his/her hand, he starts thinking about it which leads to creation of brain waves ― transferring the waves to the prosthesis.

The system, designed on basis of smart technology, works by receiving brain waves.

It processes brain waves by a processor, sends it to a driving motor, which helps the hand to move.

The USWRS researchers have also improved prospects of walking for people with poliomyelitis.

People with poliomyelitis would walk more normally with the new powered knee-ankle-foot orthosis developed by Mokhtar Arazpour, a researcher and faculty member of the university.

The prototype of the powered knee ankle foot orthosis was developed to provide restriction of knee flexion during the stance phase and active flexion and extension of the knee during the swing phase of walking.

The tests on volunteer persons resulted in an 18-percent reduction in walking speed and 18-percent shorter step length compared to walking with the traditional locked knee ankle foot orthosis. There was also a 16-percent increase in percentage of stance phase when walking with the new orthosis. The volunteers also demonstrated near-normal peak knee flexion during swing phase and decreased hip hiking when they used the powered orthosis.

The results demonstrate that the new orthosis provides a more normal gait pattern compared to a locked knee ankle foot orthosis and knee flexion and extension during swing ― promising a more natural walking experience for people with poliomyelitis

Iran Mass-Produces Ocular Bio-Implants

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated the country's tenth bio-implant factory which specializes in the production of Sutureless Amnion Membrane Transplant (SAMT) as well as skin bio-implants dubbed "Lifepatch."

SAMT is set to revolutionize ophthalmology by treating people suffering from potentially blinding eye diseases. SAMT is expected to bring hope for 320 thousand Iranians annually and 15 million people worldwide.

"This is actually a 2010 production, 'ocular' bio-implants are only ten months old and the first steps were taken by American scientists but we managed to go through the engineering stage quicker than the Americans," said project manager Gholam-Reza Abbasi.

"Using AHAM and biotechnological applications of biocompatible biopolymers we reached the final stages successfully and are now ready for mass production. One advantage we had is that our religion strongly supports the principle of saving human lives,” he added.

Iran began investing in biotechnological projects 19 years ago and this is the tenth facility the country has opened over the past two years.

'Lifepathch' is the fourth bio-implant mass-produced by Iran after bone, heart valve, and tendon bio-implants. The facility will be producing 25 to 30 thousand grafts a year and the capacity is expected to increase to 200 thousand.

This technology has so far been monopolized by the US and other Western countries, therefore 'Lifepatch' is also considered a leap toward breaking this monopoly.

 

[Aramagedon]

Iranian Awarded 2010 TWAS Medal

Professor Seyyed Habib Firouzabadi from the acclaimed Shiraz University in Iran was awarded “2010 TWAS Medal” for his scientific endeavors.

The medal was presented to him by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the 21st General Meeting of the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) which opened in Hyderabad, capital of India’s Andhra Pradesh state.

Besides Firouzabadi, awards and medals were given away to 12 scientists in various fields, in recognition of their outstanding work.

Dr. Singh presented the prestigious Ernesto Illy Trieste Science prize for this year to Brazilian scientist Goldenburg and the India Science Prize to eminent statistician Dr. C R Rao.

This year’s TWAS session is being sponsored by India’s Ministry of Science and Technology and hosted by the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) and the TWAS Regional Office for Central and South Asia (TWAS-ROCASA).

Founded in 1983, TWAS is an autonomous international organization, based in Trieste, Italy. It promotes scientific excellence for sustainable development in the South.

Iran Produces Oral Diabetes Medication

Iranian scientists have succeeded in producingan oral medication from stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) to fight diabetes and high blood sugar levels.

“I started the project 15 years ago in Tehran University of Medical Sciences for my diabetic nephew who was forced to inject insulin on a daily basis,” Masoud Shabani Domola, the lead researcher said.

He went on to say that a peptide cycle found in Urtica dioica improves the entrance of blood sugar into the cells, a process which is believed to be impaired in diabetic patients.

Shabani Domala added that the drug has successfully finished its trials and is expected to enter the market by next year. He stressed that the new oral drug is preferred to the injectable insulin as its use is pain free.

Urtica dioica, a herbaceous perennial flowering plant also known as stinging nettles, had long been known for its numerous medical properties. The herb is reported to be effective in treating prostate disorders, respiratory problems, stomach Catarrh and anemia.

The high content of secretin in the plant has turned Urtica dioica into an effective herb for treating various gastrointestinal-related conditions.

Delivering Combination Chemotherapy to Cancer Cells

In recent years, studies have shown that for many types of cancer, combination drug therapy is more effective than single drugs. However, it is usually difficult to get the right amount of each drug to the tumor. Now, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have developed a nanoparticle that can deliver precise doses of two or more drugs to prostate cancer cells.

Such particles say the researchers, could improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy while minimizing the side effects normally seen with these drugs, Azonano reported.
In a study appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of investigators led by Omid Farokhzad and Robert Langer, both members of the MIT-Harvard Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence, demonstrated the utility of their new particle by using it to deliver cisplatin and docetaxel, two drugs commonly used to treat many different types of cancer.

To build their nanoparticles, the researchers developed a new strategy that allowed them to incorporate drugs with very different physical properties, which had been impossible with previous drug-delivering nanoparticles.

In earlier generations of nanoparticles, drug molecules were encapsulated in a polymer coating. Using those particles, hydrophobic (water-repelling) drugs, such as docetaxel, and hydrophilic (water-attracting) drugs, such as cisplatin, can’t be carried together, nor can drugs with different charges. “With the old way, you can only do it if the two drugs are physically and chemically similar,” said Dr. Farokhzad. “With this way, you can put in drugs that are relatively different from each other.”

With the researchers’ new technique, called “drug-polymer blending,” drug molecules are hung like pendants from individual units of the polymer before the units are assembled into a polymer nanoparticle. This approach allows the researchers to precisely control the ratio of drugs loaded into the particle and to control the rate at which each drug will be released once it enters a tumor cell.

For this study, once the investigators loaded the drugs into the nanoparticle, the researchers added a tag that binds to a molecule called PSMA that is located on the surfaces of most prostate tumor cells. This tag allows the nanoparticles to go directly to their target, bypassing healthy tissues and potentially reducing the side effects caused by most chemotherapy drugs.

The researchers have filed for a patent on the polymer-blending fabrication technique and are now testing the drug-delivering particles in animals. Once they gather enough animal data, which could take a few years, they hope to begin clinical trials.

This work, which is detailed in a paper titled, “Engineering of self-assembled nanoparticle platform for precisely controlled combination drug therapy,” was supported in part by the NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer, a comprehensive initiative designed to accelerate the application of nanotechnology to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer.

Moving Holograms Make Their Debut

Holograms have always been a staple of science fiction, most famously in the movie Star Wars where Princess Leia relays a call for help projected by the droid R2D2. The moving hologram is a step closer now, though watching a movie projected on a tabletop is still in the future.

The breakthrough came from the University of Arizona, where a team led by optical sciences professor Nasser Peyghambarian developed a screen made of a novel photoreactive polymer material that allows the picture to refresh faster than before.

Previous holograms were quite slow, with the picture refreshing only every two minutes. Peyghambarian's team has that down to two seconds - not quite real-time, but fast enough to see the movement.

The other big difference is that this three-dimensional picture doesn't require specialized glasses.

The prototype device uses a 10-inch screen, but Peyghambarian's group is already successfully testing a much larger version with a 17-inch screen.

To make the image, an array of regular cameras is used. Each views the object from a different perspective. That information is then encoded onto a pulsed laser beam, which interferes with another beam that serves as a reference. The interference pattern is written into the photorefractive polymer, creating and storing the image. Each laser pulse records an individual three-dimensional pixel in the polymer. The short duration of the laser pulses means that vibrations won't affect the image, making the system easier to use as it can be in a wide array of environments.

This system is also somewhat different from computer-generated holograms, which tend to need a lot of computing power to generate an image - one reason they were so slow, as the number of calculations was large.

Peyghambarian says there are a lot of practical uses - telepresence, for example - because as long as someone has the image-generating equipment, the data from the cameras can be transmitted in any fashion, even over the Internet.

Kamangar to Take Over Harley’s Chief Executive Position

Salar Kamangar, Youtube vice president of product management, will take over Chad Hurley as the chief executive of the company.

After Hurley stepped out of his position as the chief executive of Youtube, the company released a statement that Kamangar is the one who will take over his position.

The news slips during a technology conference at Trinity College in Dublin, when Hurley was asked about what he was up to, and he honestly said that he was giving up of his CEO title.

Chard Hurdley, 33, is one of the co-founder of Youtube, the world’s leading video site, together with Steve Chen and Jewed Karim. The company was acquired by Google in October 2006, and take responsibility for the business in the past two years.

According to Google, Kamangar’s role in the company is to find ways for Youtube to generate more money from billions of user-generated online videos the company serves up every day.

Google added that the site is on the edge of profitability, and due to Kamangar’s effort to promote and develop the type of premium content the company is now enjoying the benefits of the higher advertising rates.

In addition, the revelation of the news regarding the resignation of Hurley did not surprised most of the company’s employees because Mr. Salar Kamangar was been appointed by Google to take control of the company’s business operations, and took on greater responsibilities in controlling the operation of the business for the last two years.

Based on news report, despite of Hurley’s resignation as Youtube CEO, he will continue his service as an advisor of the company.

Youtube was created by Hurley’s team after the three left PayPal, an online payments company, and started to create their own company. With Hurley’s extreme talent and interest in computer science, he was the one who is greatly involved in designing and developing of the website.

Iran Team Ranks 'Second' In RoboCup 2015

Iran’s robot football team has demonstrated impressive displays at the 19th edition of the RoboCup World Championships in China, and managed to finish runner-up in the tournament.

Soroush Sadeqnejad, director for the humanoid teen-size robot team from Tehran-based Amirkabir University of Technology, said on Tuesday that the Iranian designed and developed football robots emerged victorious in the technical competitions of the tournament, which included representatives from Germany, India, Taiwan and the United States, to finally land in the second spot.

The 19th RoboCup World Championships opened in the eastern Chinese city of Hefei on July 19. More than 2,000 robotics professionals and fans from 47 countries are competing in the five-day annual contest.

Robots will autonomously operate without external control and will be assessed on their skills like walking, running, kicking, maintaining balance, visual perception and self-localization.

The RoboCup was launched by Japanese researchers in 1993 in an attempt to use soccer to promote the advancement of robotic science and technology. The ultimate goal was to build a robot soccer team that could compete with human World Cup champion teams by 2050.

The project received unexpected attention from researchers outside Japan, who accordingly requested the contest to be staged internationally.

The RoboCup World Championships have been held annually since 1997, and the games seek to advance the development of artificial intelligence.

Iran's Surena Placed among Top Robots

Iran's humanoid robot, Surena 2, has been placed among the world's top robots by an international technology institute, says an Iranian official.

“The largest professional institute of the world named IEEE put the name of Surena among the five prominent robots of the world after analyzing (the performances of) the world's advanced robots,” Hamid Taahbaz Tavakkoli, the secretary of development and technology institute of Iran's Industries and Mines Ministry, said.

Tavakkoli said that IEEE, the world's leading professional association for the advancement of technology, in a recent report examined the performances of the robots Asimo (Japan), Reem-B (Spain), Justin (German), Charli (US) and Surena (Iran).

The official pointed out that IEEE called Surena as an “unexpected development.”

IEEE is an international non-profit, professional organization for the advancement of technology related to electricity. It has the most members of any technical professional organization in the world, with more than 395,000 members in around 150 countries.

Surena 2, developed by over 20 of Iran's top robotics experts, was unveiled by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in July.

Over 10,000 man-hours have been put into the new high-tech robot.

Surena 2, which weighs 45 kg and has a height of 1.45 meters, can walk like a human being, but at a slower pace.

The Surena 1 robot was developed in Iran in 2008 through a joint project between Center for Advanced Vehicles (CAV), University of Tehran and the R&D Society of Iranian Industries and Mines.

The robot was an 8 degree-of-freedom (8 DOF) humanoid robot, which was able to move on a pre-defined trajectory with a tracking and remote control system.

Surena 2 which was later built has 22 DOFs, including 12, 8, and 2 at its legs, hands and head respectively.

The robot is equipped with various sensors such as a gyroscope and accelerometers which provide stable motion.

The Surena project is enhancing the ability to design robots that walk on two legs, under a feedback control system that provides dynamic balance, yielding a much more human-like motion.

Iran Ranks 15th in World in Producing Science, 7th in Nanotechnology

Science development in Islamic countries

Iranian Vice-President for Science and Technology Sorena Sattari announced that the country ranks 15th in the world in producing science and now stands 7th in nanotechnology.

"In the past 1.5 years, the Islamic Republic of Iran has ascended three steps and is now standing among the 15 pioneering science production nations in the world," Sattari said.

Noting that Iran now ranks 7th in advanced nanotechnology, he said, "We have plans to rank 5th in this field."

Sattari also announced that 1,500 knowledge-based companies are now active in different Iranian provinces.

Also in December, a report dubbed Science-Innovation Atlas of Islamic States and sponsored by Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), showed Iran stands first among the Islamic states in terms of registering inventions.

Based on the report presented in the 7th meeting of Islamic ministers of educations in Morocco, Iran was ranked first among the 57 Islamic countries in terms of science and research.

50 percent of the Islamic countries studies and papers are produced by Iran and Turkey.

 

[Aramagedon]

The Countries With The Most Engineering Graduates (Iran = third)
from Niall McCarthy, June 16th, 2015

Which countries produce the most engineering graduates every year? According to research carried out by the World Economic Forum (excluding China and India due to lack of data), Russia is in first position, churning out over 454,000 graduates in engineering, manufacturing and construction on average every year. The United States is in second position with nearly 238,000 while Iran rounds off the top three with 233,700. Developing economies are producing more graduates than ever with both Vietnam and Indonesia making the top 10 list

This chart shows top countries for graduates in engineering, manufacturing and construction.

More:

Made in Iran

Iranian High Tech Industries | Page 10

Science and technology in Iran - SkyscraperCity

@Daneshmand @The Last of us @scythian500 [USER=8388]@Kiarash @Serpentine @Blackmoon @rmi5 @Arminkh @SOHEIL @New @haman10 @Atanz @B@KH[/USER]

 

[The Last of us]

@2800

Great achievements, but I don't understand why Iran compares itself to other middle eastern or Islamic nations. This is not a good way to measure advancement. Reason is because the Islamic world and most of the middle east (except Isreal) are very backward in terms of science, industry etc. Saying we're first in the middle east/ "islamic world" in x or y is not necessary something to be over the moon about. The day Iran can compare itself to Germany, Japan, etc then we're talking. Right now, in certain fields like Nanotech, stemcell, cloning, we're doing extremely well. But sadly, despite our great talent in the fields of electronics, we're lagging behind in microelectronic and nano-electronics. This is a strategic field which required great attentions and funding.

Another problem I find with Iran (and alot other nations) is that there is little linkage with work being done in research centres, universities and industry. In Germany for example, they quickly take something they make in research centres into industry, produce and make money out of exporting it. Thus, even though a country like Iran may write alot of papers in certain fields, we don't "see" them being used to advance the country And frankly, Iranian industries have a bad habit of not paying attention to our own indigenous research and products and don't invest in them.

And another issue I have, and this is one that bugs me is the lack of high end R&D. Iran has a considerable number of technology parks but minus some macro scale projects (Like the 150 seat plane etc) I don't really see any high end, eye catching projects and research being done. Hopefully, the improvement in economy will change this and we'll start seeing proper R&D in Iran. To conclude, although writing papers is good, but we need to use those knowledge and put them into practise, e.g into R&D and make gains in strategic fields like micro/nano electronic, space projects etc etc.

 

[scythian500]

@2800 aziz... behtar nist har matlabi peida mikoni ke moshakhasate zir ro dare be page sticky hightech bebari? ke unified bashe?

matalebi ke in mavared ro dare ro khodet zahmat bekesh post kon:

1- High tech mahsoob mishe, che research hast va che production
2- nezami nist
3- marboot be iraniane diaspora nist va dakheli hast

mamnoonam az zahamatet

 

[Aramagedon]

Science & Technology in Iran:

P1.

P2.

P3.

 

[Kastor]

Proof you can't keep good people down.....bravo fellow countrymen/woman.