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If confirmed, it would reportedly be the world's first synthetic construction of a complete, transplantable living organ.
"This is undoubtedly a breakthrough in the world of regenerative medicine," said the bioprinter's developer Vladimir Mironov. "We have successfully demonstrated the possibilities of Russia's first bioprinter, and we're continuing our validation work, systematically testing and optimizing our technology for 3D organ bioprinting," he added.
Scientists are increasingly looking at using medication-filled microspheres for targeted drug delivery within the human body. Silicone would be a particularly good building material for such spheres, as it's biocompatible, waterproof, and chemically stable. Unfortunately, using traditional methods, it can't be made into small enough spheres. Now, however, a new process has allowed for the creation of silicone microspheres that are about one one-hundredth the size of any previously produced.
A new type of medical device could one day put the minds of chronic pain sufferers at ease by distributing the body's own natural pain relief signals at just the right time. Developed at Linköping University in Sweden, the tiny "ion pump" is made from organic electronics and could be implanted in patients, serving to cut off pain signals in the spinal chord before they make their way to the brain.
Tomosynthesis detects 40% more breast cancers than traditional mammography does, according to a major screening study from Lund University, Sweden. This is the first large-scale study to compare the screening method with regular mammograms. The 3D X-ray technique is also more comfortable for women, as breast compression is halved.
Researchers at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) and the Institute Ramón y Cajal for Health Research (IRYCIS) have created a new device that significantly cuts down the time required to perform a skin biopsy. It doesn't require any specialized skills to use, and could open the door to faster skin cancer diagnoses.
Australian scientists have for the first time developed an electronic long-term memory cell that mimics the work of a human brain. Researchers say the discovery is a step towards creating a bionic brain.
Researchers from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) have created the world’s first electronic multi-state memory cell which mirrors the brain’s ability to simultaneously process and store multiple strands of information, according to the university’s press-release.
The groundbreaking discovery was recently published in the materials science journal Advanced Functional Materials.
The device which is 10,000 times thinner than a human hair is a “vital step towards creating a bionic brain,” the scientists said.
“This is the closest we have come to creating a brain-like system with memory that learns and stores analog information and is quick at retrieving this stored information,” said project leader and co-leader of the RMIT Functional Materials and Microsystems Research Group, Dr Sharath Sriram.
EnChroma lenses look like ordinary tinted lenses, but when you look through them something amazing happens: your experience of color vision is fundamentally transformed. Colors appear more vibrant, saturated, full, and yet without compromising the accuracy or color balance of the scene. Colorful objects, such as flowers, colorful paint and fabrics, food, and traffic signs suddenly “pop” with a heightened purity and intensity. Experiences like a rainbow or a sunset, seen for the first time with EnChroma, are magically transformed beyond any rational description.
Of course, there is nothing actually magic in this — it’s all based on science and technology — that is, color vision science and optical technology.
Cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of death worldwide, and hypertension is the major risk factor1. Mendelian hypertension elucidates mechanisms of blood pressure regulation. Here we report six missense mutations in PDE3A (encoding phosphodiesterase 3A) in six unrelated families with mendelian hypertension and brachydactyly type E (HTNB)2. The syndrome features brachydactyly type E (BDE), severe salt-independent but age-dependent hypertension, an increased fibroblast growth rate, neurovascular contact at the rostral-ventrolateral medulla, altered baroreflex blood pressure regulation and death from stroke before age 50 years when untreated3, 4. In vitro analyses of mesenchymal stem cell–derived vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) and chondrocytes provided insights into molecular pathogenesis. The mutations increased protein kinase A–mediated PDE3A phosphorylation and resulted in gain of function, with increased cAMP-hydrolytic activity and enhanced cell proliferation. Levels of phosphorylated VASP were diminished, and PTHrP levels were dysregulated. We suggest that the identified PDE3A mutations cause the syndrome. VSMC-expressed PDE3A deserves scrutiny as a therapeutic target for the treatment of hypertension.
Whether you're brainy, brawny or both, you may someday benefit from a drug found to rejuvenate aging brain and muscle tissue.
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have discovered that a small-molecule drug simultaneously perks up old stem cells in the brains and muscles of mice, a finding that could lead to drug interventions for humans that would make aging tissues throughout the body act young again.
"We established that you can use a single small molecule to rescue essential function in not only aged brain tissue but aged muscle," said co-author David Schaffer, director of the Berkeley Stem Cell Center and a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering. "That is good news, because if every tissue had a different molecular mechanism for aging, we wouldn't be able to have a single intervention that rescues the function of multiple tissues."
A new DARPA program aims to investigate the role of neural “replay” in the formation and recall of memory, with the goal of helping individuals better remember specific episodic events and learned skills. The 24-month fundamental research program, Restoring Active Memory Replay or RAM Replay, is designed to develop novel and rigorous computational...
If you use antibiotics against bacteria then antibiotic resistance is inevitable. However, if you use multiple antibiotics in a clever way you can engineer the bacterial population to remain unchanged. This algorithmic approach to controlling evolution is one way that we might retain the usefulness of antibiotics for generations to come and also has wider applications.
If you use a single antibiotic against a population of bacteria then you will kill most or all of the organisms that are susceptible to it. The few bacteria left alive form the start of a new population resistant to the antibiotic. This is evolution in action. As the population is subjected to a pressure the fittest organisms survive and increase as a proportion of the whole. Notice that this is going to happen even if antibiotics aren't overused. Overuse speeds the process, but being restrained in antibiotic use still leads to resistance eventually.
Annually more than 2 million people in the United States get infections that are resistant to antibiotics and at least 23,000 people die as a result, according to the CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
One approach to using antibiotics to avoid selection for resistance is to rotate the antibiotics used. In this way you hope to avoid applying a single evolutionary pressure to make the population move in the direction of resistance to any specific or multiple antibiotics.
A study of skin wound healing in 40 (human) volunteers has found that electrical stimulation significantly speeds up the healing process. The researchers hope to now develop and test dressings and devices that could be used in treatment of human or veterinary surgical wounds, sports injuries, and other serious skin trauma.
Elizabeth is the CEO of BioViva USA Inc ™, which is committed to building gene therapies to eradicate disease and extend healthy life. She is a board member of Radish Medical Solutions and founder of Biotrove Investments and media. She is actively involved in international educational media via the International Longevity Alliance, of which she is a board member and the American Longevity Alliance, on which she serves as Secretary.
Researchers wanted to know whether the flexibility of the juvenile brain could be restored to the adult brain. Apparently, it can: They've successfully re-created a critical juvenile period in the brains of adult mice. In other words, the researchers have reactivated brain plasticity -- the rapid and robust changes in neural pathways and synapses as a result of learning and experience.
The scientists achieved this by transplanting a certain type of embryonic neuron into the brains of adult mice. The transplanted neurons express GABA, a chief inhibitory neurotransmitter that aids in motor control, vision and many other cortical functions.
Much like older muscles lose their youthful flexibility, older brains lose plasticity. But in the Gandhi study, the transplanted GABA neurons created a new period of heightened plasticity that allowed for vigorous rewiring of the adult brain. In a sense, old brain processes became young again.
Scientists have unveiled a comprehensive genetic map of advanced prostate cancer, hailing it as the disease's "Rosetta Stone".
The study, published in the journal Cell, shows that nearly nine in 10 men had gene mutations that could be targeted with drugs.
The study was led in the UK by scientists at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) London in collaboration with several teams in the United States.
Researchers analysed the genetic codes of tumours from 150 patients with metastatic - or advanced - prostate cancer, whose disease had spread to other parts of the body.
They found that 89% had genetic aberrations for which there were existing drugs or treatments undergoing clinical trials.
Prof Johann de Bono, of the ICR and Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust told the BBC: "This is truly a game-changer. We are calling this prostate cancer's Rosetta Stone, because we can now decode the disease for the first time.
"In the past, we used to treat lethal prostate cancer as a single illness but this shows that it is a group of diseases, each driven by their own set of mutations."
Prof de Bono said it meant that, using genetic testing, it would be possible to individualise patient care, heralding the arrival of personalised treatment for advanced prostate cancer.
More than 40,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer and nearly 11,000 die in the UK each year.
Biomedical engineering company Össur has announced the successful development of a thought controlled bionic prosthetic leg. The new technology uses implanted sensors sending wireless signals to the artificial limb's built-in computer, enabling subconscious, real-time control and faster, more natural responses and movements.
