Applications
Aurora Scientific’s muscle physiology products are designed to test the force-length-velocity characteristics of all types of muscle ranging from myocytes to dog hind limb muscle. Our muscle physiology instruments include Dual-Mode levers, length controllers, force transducers, stimulators, data acquisition hardware and software and experimental apparatus. All of our products are sold individually or in complete systems. With our complete systems, muscle physiologists can precisely measure force, length, sarcomere length and ratiometric calcium. Our systems allow all standard muscle physiology protocols to be run, such as twitch, tetanus, fatigue, force-frequency, force-velocity, stiffness and work loops. In addition, our systems have the flexibility that allows the researcher to customize experimental protocols to meet their needs.
Neuroscience
Aurora Scientific has developed innovative test systems used in olfactory research to validate odors presented to specimens and to track pheromone and plume dispersion. In addition, Aurora Scientific utilizes their Dual-Mode muscle levers as mechanical stimulators to provide a precise, controlled force output for use by researchers measuring neuronal response to touch, pain and stretch. Furthermore, many neurophysiologists study an interdisciplinary field of neuroscience and muscle physiology looking at neural activation and sensory feedback of muscle tissue. Aurora Scientific’s Dual-Mode levers aid in characterizing muscle mechanics in models of neural regeneration and disease.
Materials Science
Aurora Scientific’s unique Dual-Mode muscle lever aids a variety of researchers looking at materials such as MEMS, hydrogels, artificial muscle, nanowires and carbon fibers. Easily and accurately measure tensile strength, elasticity, detaching force, shear fracture and deformation of most materials with the control and measurement of both force and length. Other Aurora Scientific products useful in materials research include our line of high-speed length controllers and our ultra-low compliance, high-sensitivity force transducers.
Featured Content
Out of This World Research at Brock University: Space Flight’s Impact on Female Mice Reproductive Health
NASA's SpaceX CRS-29 launched on November 9th, a commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station (ISS) that was also carrying scientific experiments and technology demonstrations. Included amongst these was the Rodent Research-20 (RR-20) payload, the contents of which will be studied by Brock University's Dr. Val Fajardo and his team using Aurora Scientific equipment upon its return.
Renewed Interests: Harnessing Engineered Constructs to Explore Novel Strategies in Regenerative Medicine
Tissue engineering is at the forefront of regenerative medicine, offering immense promise for restoring or enhancing the function of impaired tissues and organs. While tissue constructs remain costly in clinical settings, their use as a research tool holds vast potential for drug discovery, aiding and expediting the screening of drug candidates. In this publication review, we will discuss three recent publications leveraging specialized equipment from Aurora Scientific to advance the innovative field of engineered tissue constructs.
Cancer Cachexia-Induced Muscle Atrophy
Cancer cachexia is a muscle wasting syndrome that is associated with certain cancers, but most commonly with advanced malignancies. This syndrome arises as a result of tumor-induced metabolic changes, causing the body to break down skeletal muscle and adipose tissue in response to nutritional deficiencies. These changes manifest as severe weight loss, anorexia, asthenia, and anemia, impairing the patient's capacity to tolerate infections, chemotherapy, and radiation treatments (Dhanapal et al., 2022). While research characterizing the multifactorial origins of this syndrome is still ongoing, three recent publications featuring our scientific equipment have made notable advances in the current understanding of this muscle wasting disease, and are discussed in this publication review.
Scents of Security: Emerging Olfaction Applications with Biorobots
The following publication review showcases several new and exciting findings in the olfactory sciences, highlighting how our instruments helped these researchers stir up the lab. The natural world often serves as inspiration for innovation, and insects – specifically their olfactory systems – have become a recent research topic of interest. Given the remarkable sensitivity of insect odor detection systems, the potential applications of this budding field are numerous.
Recent Therapeutic Advances in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) Models
The following publication review showcases recent studies focused on therapeutic advances in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) that use Aurora Scientific equipment.
Cut and Paste of Myosin Binding Protein-C in Striated Muscles
Dr. Samantha Harris discusses the development of three new mouse models in her lab, engineered to target and replace specific myosin binding protein-C paralogs in muscle fibers and impact of their mutations on skeletal and cardiac muscle diseases.