Written by: The Midland Certified Reagent Company

Summary: Working with the human genome has enormous potential for the future.

Along with the ability to decode the human gene pool is the process to create synthetic segments of DNA. Synthetic oligos are perfect for testing because they simulate human DNA and can give scientists accurate results to demonstrate how a potential vaccine might affect the body. The ability to work with our gene pool will greatly enhance the understanding of medical science in the future.

Synthesizing a Reaction

The first step in creating a cure is isolating the genes involved in the disease, and how they affect the body. Once we understand more about the disease itself, we can work on testing drugs that will cause a certain reaction. For instance, if we wanted to cure cancer we might want to attack the gene that causes cancer cells to endlessly reproduce. We would need to identify the cancer gene responsible, and then see how to safely destroy or deactivate that gene without interfering with others.

This would be too difficult to test in living subjects, mostly because conditions are hard to duplicate. It’s now possible to perform DNA synthesis under precise lab conditions, which completely removes the need for a live subject until a cure has been defined and substantially tested.

Future Prospects

Soon, it may be possible for scientists to utilize RNA synthesis for their own aims. One method already tested involves using RNA to write code to DNA and turn molecules into storage devices. Maybe someday we’ll be able to write entirely new genetic code to existing DNA.

Written by: Denton Vacuum, LLC

Summary: Are medical device coatings actually safe for the body?

As medical science evolves, the need to put objects into a patient’s body increases. There are more gadgets that do more to keep patients alive and comfortable for longer periods of time. Consider just how much tubes like the catheter have changed. They are still not a pleasant experience, but aqueous coatings have made them easier to slip in and out of the patient’s body.

These chemicals bring up important questions about the safety risks posed to your body. Are these device coatings actually making patients safer?

Consider the Device

There are several kinds of anti-reflective coating possible for eye glasses. Each is good for a specific kind of user. Index-matching, for instance, functions like tarnishing a lens. So it is with coatings, each coating being suited to a specific purpose and carrying out a specific duty. Anti-microbial coatings, for instance, are designed to fend off bacterial infections that can seep through open wounds created by tubes into the skin.

Without these devices, patients still need a catheter or eye glasses, but their site or comfort levels may be diminished. In some cases, their health is jeopardized as they are at risk for infection.

Alterations to the Device

If the coating inhibits the device from doing its job, the coating is ineffective. That’s why medical manufacturers utilize a thermal evaporation system when applying coatings to a device. The finish is thin-film, often only micrometers in thickness, which presents almost no difference to the patient.

Thin film is a little different from the effect yo get with UHV sputter deposition. This process acts more like a spray can, and can give a smooth surface but it more often used to metalize something. You might find metalized plastic in joint replacements or acting as anti-static shielding for medical equipment in the patient’s room.

Written by: Denton Vacuum, LLC

Summary: Using sputter deposition and thermal evaporation, you can manufacture almost any product a patient might need.

Medical devices have undergone some serious changes in the past few years that have made them cheaper, and also more durable. New advancements in manufacturing allow companies to make minimally invasive products, and durable replacement parts. The same techniques that go into manufacturing semiconductors are now part of the medical field. Here are just a few of the benefits they bring.

Durability

A thermal evaporation system can coat one material in the particulates of another material. This is especially useful for manufacturers of medical devices, as they can coat plastic pieces and metalize them. The end result is a more durable part. Take hip joints, for instance. These replacement parts are crucial to the elderly and disabled. Thermal evaporation allows manufacturers to produce these devices at low cost, using parts that wouldn’t normally work long-term.

Comfort

Medical device coatings allow patients to wear something in the body with minimal discomfort. These devices usually make tubes like catheters more pliable, so they can easily slide into place and set there for days at a time without the patient experiencing pain. A special process is used to coat the tubing in an aqueous substance that prevents the device from sticking to the body’s internals.

Final Thoughts

UHV sputter deposition, and thermal coatings, have dramatically changed how devices are manufactured. New devices are made with cheaper materials, then reinforced to a level of quality not otherwise possible. Eye glasses also receive this treatment to achieve the anti-glare affect. Ultimately, cheaper devices keep healthcare costs down.

Modern medicine relies on a number of implantable devices to further patient care efficiently. These devices need to be non-abrasive so that the patient does not experience extreme discomfort at all times when wearing them. A vacuum evaporation system is used during the manufacturing process to solve a number of these complex problems and improve patient care.

Vacuum Evaporation

The first step to vacuum evaporation involves placing a substrate into a vacuum sealed chamber, along with chemicals to be super heated. The pressure inside the chamber causes the chemicals to boil at room temperature, which breaks the chemicals into particulate matter. As the heat lowers, the particles bounce off the walls of the sputter coater, where the substrate receives a thin film of the chemical.

The process is especially useful when there are concerns of harming the substrate by boiling. The original inventor of this process was Henri Nestle, who used it to create the evaporated milk he needed to make his chocolate.

Patient Care

How these systems go from food preparation to patient care involves industrial usage. This technology is used extensively to treat waste water, which is useful for the environment at large. It is also used in the semiconductors that go into medical imaging systems. Vacuum chambers are used extensively for thin film coating of medical implants, like catheters.

These systems are typically clean, and they have low costs associated with managing them. This makes it cheaper and easier to mass produce devices that save lives.

Denton Vacuum, LLC makes vacuum deposition systems for a variety of medical purposes. You can find e-beam and vacuum deposition systems online at Denton Vacuum.