It may not be long before we can instantaneously map your atomic structure and teleport you across the planet (but we will have to kill you first.) We can already map the molecular structure of disease-agent proteins, like that for SARS, in a matter of weeks, thanks to X-ray crystallography. Mapping is also accelerating our understanding of the brain, thanks to a new 100 terabyte atlas containing maps of 7,000 of them; and the completion of chromosome 7 mapping is a significant advance toward understanding and curing several major diseases.

The development of intelligent systems using networked sensors with a mental map of the home and knowledge of what a person is supposed to be doing in various parts of it is also being accelerated, and by an uncommon alliance. The immediate health benefit will be in catching and managing early signs of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Beam Me Aboard, Scotty

Science fiction writers of a philosophical bent wrestle with the ethics of human teleportation, because it involves destroying a person in location A in order to replicate him or her in location B, but Star Trek does it anyway, and non-fictional science is not far behind. Last year, physicists teleported a laser beam.

To do so, they had to measure the state and properties of the billions of photons making up the original laser beam, and to do that, the laws of quantum physics demanded that they destroy the photons in the process. But when the measurements were transmitted wirelessly to photons in location B, voilà! — the identical laser beam.

One of the physicists involved predicts the successful teleportation of an entire atom or even molecule within five years. It doesn’t sound like much, given that a human body has about 10²⁷ atoms, but as Wired‘s Brendan Koerner points out, “Leonardo da Vinci couldn’t get his flying machines off the ground, either,” and as we keep showing in the Digest, astronomical numbers are not what they used to be.

Reference: Koerner, Brendan I. (2003). “8 Super Powers: Forget Science Fiction. Here’s the Science.” Wired, Issue 11.08, August.

Proteomics Success

The completion of the Human Genome Project (HGP) showed that knowing the structure of the genome is necessary but not sufficient to achieve all the anticipated benefits of knowing it, and that we need to go down an exponential level, to the structure of the proteome.

One biotech company has already made that journey in the case of the SARS protease, an enzyme essential to the replication of the SARS virus. Knowing the shape of the protease will likely help researchers design drug molecules shaped to mesh with the enzyme stop it from doing its job, thus halting the disease. Such “protease inhibitors” have already been developed and work well for HIV.

The enabling technology, X-ray crystallography, furnishes the three-dimensional structure of a protein by analyzing the scatter pattern of x-rays reflected by a crystal of the protein. The technique is not new, but more powerful technology has accelerated what was a months- or even years-long process into weeks (just four, in the case of SARS.) At this rate of acceleration, virtually instantaneous 3-D mapping of proteins is likely within a few years, and this is just one of many accelerants poised to make massive impacts on our ability to prevent or cure disease.

Reference: Pollack, Andrew (2003). “Company Says It Mapped Part of SARS Virus.” New York Times, July 30.

Brain Atlas

The International Consortium of Brain Mapping has built an atlas containing information on 7,000 brains, including the brains of people with Alzheimer’s, fetal alcohol syndrome, autism, schizophrenia, and other diseases. It shows the areas where functions such as speech are located, and how these areas differ among individuals and populations.

The system also contains information on each of the subjects whose brains are featured in the database, and enables direct comparisons between brains. The atlas holds more than 100 terabytes of data — and is growing as more research data are added. It requires a supercomputer to run.

Terabyte databases are here, and their availability makes possible projects which, like the brain atlas,exponentially expand and accelerate our understanding of human biology compared with what we knew just a few years ago. The atlas is a good example of why Health Futures Digestthinks it is important for health leaders and professionals to keep abreast of advances in computing and data storage capacity generally.

Reference: Unknown (2003). “Researchers develop online brain atlas.” iHealthBeat, July 29 (citing an Associated Press report published in the Long Beach Press-Telegram, July 27.).

Chromosome 7 Mapped

The recent completion of the DNA sequencing of chromosome seven by two separate research teams will likely help research into the causes of — and designer-drug cures for — cystic fibrosis, deafness, Williams-Beuren syndrome, acute leukemia several cancers, and other conditions with which it is associated.

Reference: Philipkoski, Kristen (2003). “Mapping an ‘Unlucky’ Chromosome.” Wired News, July 9.

Taking the Lead in In-home Care

Organizations representing the healthcare professions have tended to reflect their members’ sluggish grasp of the threats and opportunities of emerging technologies. Not only are patients ahead of healthcare professionals in that regard (see, for example, the Practice and Policy section of this issue), so too are disease-based associations.

Case in point: The Alzheimer’s Association and Intel are forming a research consortium to explore the application of computing technologies and sensor networks to the care of Alzheimer’s patients. “Everyday Technologies for Alzheimer’s Care” will finance research into affordable technologies to slow the progress of the disease and postpone the need for full-time institutional care.

The technologies will include memory aids to help people continue to work, or to help them remember to drink fluids. An AI-based system of sensors placed in the home might know, for instance, that the patient had not entered the kitchen or opened the refrigerator or turned on a faucet for several hours.

Intel has several prototype technologies in development, including one that uses radio transmitters embedded in shoes to track the patient’s movements, and Intel is not the only game in town. Honeywell Laboratories is already testing a monitoring system in seven assisted-living facilities and four homes. It includes motion detectors attached to walls, switches that detect when a pillbox is opened, and an Internet link to relay the sensor information to a remote processing station, where software compares current activity (getting out of bed, going to the bathroom, etc.) with baseline activity patterns recorded during a calibration period. If the patterns of activity grow too far out of alignment, the computer can call to remind the patient to (for example) “take your pills,” and/or alert caregivers via phone or email. The system should be on the market for less than $500 in three to five years, Honeywell estimates.

Perhaps the ultimate refinement of such monitoring technologies is the one under development at the University of Rochester’s Center for Future Health. It uses multiple video cameras and powerful computers to detect changes in behavior and coordination that might signal early-stage neurological disorders. For example, standing motionless in the kitchen for a few minutes may be a sign of the onset of Alzheimer’s, or unusual movements of a person’s arms, legs, and torso — such as decreased stride length and asymmetries in arm swinging — could indicate very early Parkinson’s symptoms. The system will spot those signs, and take action.

Within two to five years, the falling prices of sensors and processors, increasingly sophisticated software, the wide availability of high-speed Internet access, and the profit motive will bring high-tech systems into the home to monitor and assist the burgeoning population of elderly boomers.

References: Markoff, John (2003). “Intel and Alzheimer’s Group Join Forces.” New York Times, July 25; Huang, Gregory T. (2003). “Monitoring Mom.” Innovation, July/August.