Legos in Paradise - Smart Move Season

Our Research

We researched about Macular Degeneration (MD). A disease in the eye that effects one third of people over 55. There are two kinds of MD, the Dry kind and the Wet kind. All patients start out with the Dry kind, and 10% progress into the more severe Wet kind. The disease starts out with the thinning of the macula, which is the very center of the retina which is the layer light sensitive cells at the back of your eye that allow you to see. The macula controls all your central vision. So when the macula gets thinned, you start to lose your central vision, it could be blurry, distorted, or straight lines could appear wavy. A common sign of the disease is drusen, a yellow fatty substance that forms in the retina, however the presence of drusen doesn't mean you have MD, it is just commonly there before the disease. Wet MD is caused by abnormal blood vessels that form in the macula. The blood vessels distrupt the macula and cause loss of vision. People who smoke are 2 - 3 time more likely to get MD. Obesity and family histroy of the disease also increases the risk. There is also a 2% chance that younger people will get it too, including a case where a 17 year old girl had it. There are currently 2 different solutions for Wet MD, and none for Dry MD. Laser treatments and Anti-VEGF treatments. Anti-VEGF treatments are injections into the eye that inhibit the formation of the abnormal blood vessels. There are two different kinds of injections, either Lucentis or Avastin. Usually a patient will get an injection about once a month until the disease is stopped. The laser treatments could either be a Hot Laser, or a Cold Laser. A Hot Laser treatment is a direct beam of high intensity light directed onto the abnormal blood vessels to burn them away. In a Cold Laser treatment, they inject light sensitive drugs into your blood stream. When the drugs reach the abnormal blood vessels, they direct the laser onto the blood vessels, activating the drugs which in turn, destroys the blood vessels. The problem with these solutions is that they only stop the progression of the disease, they don't fix it or reverse the effects, they also will only work for the Wet kind. And, they are also very expensive, up to $2300 for a single dose (one injection) of Lucentis! That's where we come in.

Our Solution is to take skin cells that have been engineered to be like embryonic stem cells which have potential to be any kind of cell. These cells would then be injected under the macula using a 36 gauge needle. The cells would grow into the macula tissue that had thinned. Thus, reversing the effects and preventing the disease from even progressing into the Wet kind.

Here's our solution in a breakdown:

Our solution is done in six steps:

Step 1: Doctors take skin cells from the patient.
In this step, doctors take miniscule amounts of skin from the patient. The cells can be taken from anywhere on the patient’s body, as long as it is skin.

Step 2: Cell biologists engineer the skin cells to be like embryonic stem cells.
In this step, cellular engineers take the skin cells and essentially re-make them back into embryonic stem cells so that they can be put in the macula.

Step 3: Patient gets a Pars Plana Vitrectomy.
In this step, the patient gets the vitreous gel (the gel that helps the eye keep its shape) sucked out to make it easier to access the back of the eye where the macula is.

Step 4: Stem cells injected into the macula tissue.
In this step, now that the eye is cleared out, the cells can be safely injected into the macula tissue through a 36 gauge needle (110 microns, thats 0.11 mm!), and can begin to go to work healing.

Step 5: Patient’s eye is re-filled with saline solution or silicone oils.
In this step, the patient’s eye is re-filled with a saline solution or silicone oils. These will be flushed
out and replaced with aqueous humor which is the body’s natural replacement for vitreous gel.

Step 6: The cells grow and thrive in the macula, replacing the damaged tissue.
In this step, the cells are now in the macula and doing their job creating new tissue; over time, the old tissue will decay and disappear - but the new tissue will thrive and grow to replace it. This is a body healed solution for Dry Macular Degeneration!

Our Robot

Shark V

Our robot is called Shark V because it is our fifth robot since NanoQuest (2006) which was named Shark. Shark V has 2 NXT motors used for direct drive, and 1 RCX motor for the attachment arms. The front “cage” has a sweep door, as well as 2 arms that all operate at different speeds and directions. We run 5 programs, plus a backup that grabs the syringe if it doesn't get into base. If everything works correctly, we get 320 points.

Shark V earned the Mechanical Design award at the LEGO Fever 1 Practice tournament! And here's pictures of Shark V: