From laboratory bench to benchmark: technology transfer in laboratory medicine

Background: Life Sciences research, enhancing the occurrence of innovation, is able to impact clinical decision-making, both at diagnosis and therapy. Indeed, starting from the knowledge of specific needs and of technical-scientific demands, researchers can conceive and experiment innovative solutions. Despite these strengths, transferring research to the market in Life Sciences shows considerable criticalities. The aim of this paper is to provide concrete evidences on the processes of technology transfer based on the exploitation of the results obtained by KronosDNAsrl, an academic spin-off focused on reproductive medicine. Methods: Different tools were used to evaluate the technical feasibility (validation of the results obtained with the prototype) and to manage the technology transfer process of One4Two®. Results: The different analyses we carried out showed the feasibility of the proposed solution. As a result, the One4Two® prototype has been developed and validated. Conclusions: Here, we provide a strength of evidences on how knowledge obtained by translational research on "bench" can be used to be transferred to the market on "benchmark" enabling innovation in Laboratory Medicine. In addition, the model described for One4Two® can be easily transferred to other products

Neural Intrinsic timescales in the macaque dorsal premotor cortex predict the strength of spatial response coding

Our brain continuously receives information over multiple timescales that are differently processed across areas. In this study, we investigated the intrinsic timescale of neurons in the dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) of two rhesus macaques while performing a non-match-to-goal task. The task rule was to reject the previously chosen target and select the alternative one. We defined the intrinsic timescale as the decay constant of the autocorrelation structure computed during a baseline period of the task. We found that neurons with longer intrinsic timescale tended to maintain a stronger spatial response coding during a delay period. This result suggests that longer intrinsic timescales predict the functional role of PMd neurons in a cognitive task. Our estimate of the intrinsic timescale integrates an existing hierarchical model (Murray et al., 2014), by assigning to PMd a lower position than prefrontal cortex in the hierarchical ordering of the brain areas based on neurons' timescales

In the name of women : comparing gynecologists’ discourses about abortion in Italy

For at least fifty years, voluntary termination of pregnancy has represented a terrain of struggles among different theoretical and political positions, often claimed ‘in the name of women’ (Pitch, 1992; Koralewska & Zielińska, 2022). The rate of objectingdoctors and recent changes in the regulation of the pharmacological abortion have rekindled the debate on the actual access to the service in Italy. And, once again, the different parties refer to ‘women's interests and well-being’, sometimes explicitly in the name of a feminist position, sometimes in the name of human rights, sometimes on scientific evidence. Drawing on a field research based on in-depth interviews conducted with gynecologists and other specialists, this article explores the discourses around the legitimacy, the best techniques, and the most appropriate conditions of abortion to understand how these health professionals set their own ‘threshold of legitimacy’. The need to reduce their own dissonance and value conflicts lead them to set a hierarchy of deservingness of abortion that put women’s behavior into a moral ranking. Again, very different positions are rhetorically taken in the name of women, whose actual agency is discussed at the light of our research results

The evolving role of genetic tests in reproductive medicine

Infertility is considered a major public health issue, and approximately 1 out of 6 people worldwide suffer from infertility during their reproductive lifespans. Thanks to technological advances, genetic tests are becoming increasingly relevant in reproductive medicine. More genetic tests are required to identify the cause of male and/or female infertility, identify carriers of inherited diseases and plan antenatal testing. Furthermore, genetic tests provide direction toward the most appropriate assisted reproductive techniques. Nevertheless, the use of molecular analysis in this field is still fragmented and cumbersome. The aim of this review is to highlight the conditions in which a genetic evaluation (counselling and testing) plays a role in improving the reproductive outcomes of infertile couples. We conducted a review of the literature, and starting from the observation of specific signs and symptoms, we describe the available molecular tests. To conceive a child, both partners' reproductive systems need to function in a precisely choreographed manner. Hence to treat infertility, it is key to assess both partners. Our results highlight the increasing importance of molecular testing in reproductive medicine

Innovative technologies for diagnosis and screening of genetic diseases in antenatal age

The rapid progress of the technologies applied to laboratory diagnostics allows several diagnostic and screening options for the identification of genetic diseases and chromosomal alterations in the antenatal age. Couples at risk to have a child with a chromosomal or genetic illness (i.e., carriers of previously identified genetic alterations, a previous child with a genetic condition, and/or a positive family history) should receive personalized genetic counselling, preferably before the pregnancy. In this way, couples will be able to receive appropriate information about the best diagnostic option based on their personal and familial history. Taking into account that prenatal diagnostic options are rapidly changing with the emerging of more sensitive technologies and that, consequently, the offer for diagnostic tests in reproductive medicine is increased, in this review we discuss about the diagnostic indications for each test in antenatal age, such as preimplantation, invasive prenatal and non-invasive prenatal diagnosis (PND). In addition, sampling and the laboratory techniques are well represented. Rapid progress of modern high-throughput molecular technologies, largely based on next generation sequencing, has required clinical validation studies. The most representative studies were included in order to better characterize the technology used for each diagnostic test. Therefore, the combination of innovative diagnostic technologies with the increase in demand (also related to the increased age of both partners facing the first pregnancy) has contributed to the practice of antenatal diagnosis and non-invasive prenatal screening (NIPT)

Particle swarm optimization of GaAs-AlGaAS nanowire photonic crystals as two-dimensional diffraction gratings for light trapping

Semiconductor nanowire ordered arrays represent a class of bi-dimensional photonic crystals that can be engineered to obtain functional metamaterials. Here is proposed a novel approach, based on a particle swarm optimization algorithm, for using such a photonic crystal concept to design a semiconductor nanowire-based two-dimensional diffraction grating able to guarantee an in-plane coupling for light trapping. The method takes into account the experimental constraints associated to the bottom-up growth of nanowire arrays, by processing as input dataset all relevant geometrical and morphological features of the array, and returns as output the optimised set of parameters according to the desired electromagnetic functionality of the metamaterial. A case of study based on an array of tapered GaAs-AlGaAs core-shell nanowire heterostructures is discussed

Microbiota and Human Reproduction: The Case of Male Infertility

The increasing interest in metagenomics is enhancing our knowledge regarding the composition and role of the microbiota in human physiology and pathology. Indeed, microbes have been reported to play a role in several diseases, including infertility. In particular, the male seminal microbiota has been suggested as an important factor able to influence couple’s health and pregnancy outcomes, as well as offspring health. Nevertheless, few studies have been carried out to date to deeper investigate semen microbiome origins and functions, and its correlations with the partner’s reproductive tract microbiome. Here, we report the state of the art regarding the male reproductive system microbiome and its alterations in infertility