Researchers at Brown University have succeeded in creating the first wireless, implantable, rechargeable, long-term brain-computer interface. The wireless BCIs have been implanted in pigs and monkeys for over 13 months without issue, and human subjects are next. We’ve covered BCIs extensively here on ExtremeTech, but historically they’ve been bulky and tethered to a computer. [...]
The coronavirus outbreak made household names of companies like Moderna Inc. and BioNTech SE, whose shots offered hope for ending the pandemic. Now a new wave of vaccines is on the horizon that may get the world over the finish line of inoculation. Protecting 7.7 billion people is a herculean task. There are more than 250 [...]
Researchers at the University of Southampton have developed a new way of using nanomaterials to identify and enrich skeletal stem cells—a discovery which could eventually lead to new treatments for major bone fractures and the repair of lost or damaged bone. Working together, a team of physicists, chemists and tissue engineering experts used specially [...]
In March 2020, Hannu Rajaniemi pivoted his biotech company Helix Nanotechnologies' focus from cancer therapies to Covid-19 vaccines. The role biotech start-ups can play in a pandemic Rajaniemi originally co-founded Helix Nanotechnologies in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2013 to develop cancer therapeutics, which was a personal mission: His mother got sick with and eventually passed due to [...]
The rapid mass testing strategy costing just £1 a day per child can get children back to school and economies up and running, according to experts. That is the small price of the rapid mass testing across schools in the UK, which is also hard on the heels of one of the world’s [...]
Covid-19 vaccines are incredibly good at preventing severe symptoms and hospitalization, but they’re probably less effective at stopping transmission. To do that, we might need a different kind of vaccine altogether. Because SARS-CoV-2 is mainly transmitted through droplets and airborne aerosols, some scientists reason that a vaccine should provide first-line protection where the virus [...]
For many scientists, challenging the idea that SARS-CoV-2 has natural origins is seen as career suicide. But a vocal few say it shouldn't be disregarded or lumped in with conspiracy theories. Nikolai Petrovsky was scrolling through social media after a day on the ski slopes when reports describing a mysterious cluster of pneumonia cases in [...]
Ultrasound scans like those used to track the growth of a foetus can destroy coronavirus cells by forcing their surface to split apart and implode, new research suggests. MIT researchers conducted a mathematical analysis based on the physical properties of generic coronavirus cells. It revealed medical ultrasound scans may be able to damage the [...]
The most widely used approach to testing for COVID-19 requires a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, which involves taking a swab of the back of the throat and far inside the nose. In a paper published by Lancet E Clinical Medicine, chemists from Surrey teamed up with Frimley NHS Trust and the Universities of Manchester [...]
The cobas SARS-CoV-2 Variant Set 1 Test is designed to detect key spike mutations in virus variants associated with increased human-to-human transmission Accurate detection and differentiation of SARS-CoV-2 mutations can help assess the spread of circulating variants and monitor their potential impact on therapeutics, vaccines and public health interventions Periodic assessments against emerging variants [...]
