SOURCE
The team at the University of Illinois built what are essentially microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) out of a membrane of polylactic-co-glycolic acid, a biodegradable polymer common in medical applications such as dissolvable stitches. This membrane sits on a substrate of nanoporous silicon or a metal foil. The foil is etched with trenches that create an air cavity, allowing the membrane to deflect in response to pressure changes in the surrounding fluid. A piezoresistive element constructed from Rogers’ classic stretchable serpentine coils detects the changes. The structure is stable for at least five days, but completely dissolves after three weeks in the body. Rogers expects the neurosurgeons at Washington University in St. Louis who are testing the device in rats to move into more extensive studies with larger animals; human trials could begin in perhaps five years.
SOURCE The defective gene prevents cells carrying out proper repairs to their DNA, eventually leading to cancer.
Researchers also found that women with the mutation were more likely to be diagnosed with aggressive, later stage ovarian cancers at an older age. An influx of data on neuro-economics is driving a new avenue of theoretical psychology aiming to comprehend why we choose what we choose and why.“Living cells are the ultimate engineering substrate. They are the most difficult thing out there to be able to control,” says Christopher Voigt, a professor of biomedical engineering and one of the lab’s co-founders, in a video. “Imagine being able to engineer a living cell that can navigate the human body, identify disease, and correct that disease. That requires that the cell be able to sense where they are in the body, be able to detect it, and deliver a therapeutic. And that’s something that biology, we know it can do. But we don’t know how to harness that as part of a medicine.” “We’re going to be funnier. We’re going to be sexier. We’re going to be better at expressing loving sentiment,” Kurzweil said. “Right now, we all have a very similar architecture to our thinking,” Kurzweil said. “When we can expand it without the limitations of a fixed enclosure" -- he pointed to his head -- "we we can actually become more different." “People will be able to very deeply explore some particular type of music in far greater degree than we can today. It’ll lead to far greater individuality, not less.” Scientists at the University of Washington have successfully completed the most complex human brain-to-brain communication experiment ever. It allowed two people located a mile apart to play a game of "20 Questions" utilizing their brainwaves - exclusively. After becoming paralyzed from a motor bike accident, this patient never imagined walking again, nonetheless through using his own brain power. Researchers and neurosurgeons at the University of California have successfully accomplished the unthinkable: enabling an individual to work by bypassing and rewiring the motor networks in our central nervous system. US researcher Dr An Do, from the University of California at Irvine, who co-led the study, said: "Even after years of paralysis the brain can still generate robust brain waves that can be harnessed to enable basic walking. We showed that you can restore intuitive, brain-controlled walking after a complete spinal cord injury. This non-invasive system for leg muscle stimulation is a promising method and is an advance of our current brain-controlled systems that use virtual reality or a robotic exoskeleton." "We hope that an implant could achieve an even greater level of prosthesis control because brain waves are recorded with higher quality. In addition, such an implant could deliver sensation back to the brain, enabling the user to feel their legs." MagVenture, a company out of Farum, Denmark, won FDA clearance for its MagVita transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) therapy system to be used in the U.S. to treat major depressive disorder in patients who failed to respond to other therapies. In 2011, the device was the first TMS system approved in the European Union. At the ITMO University in St. Petersburg, Russia researchers have developed a coating of aluminum oxide nanorods combined with a thrombolytic enzyme called urokinase-type plasminogen activator that attracts plasmin, a fibrin clot dissolving enzyme produced by the body. Researchers at Columbia and Boston University have developed novel methods utilizing image reconstruction and nanometer measurements to delve into complex neuronal structures invisible to the naked eye hitherto. The paper, published in Cell, can be accessed here: http://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(15)00824-7 |