From the article on The Scientist by Ruth Williams:
A 3-D carbon nanotube mesh enables rat spinal tissue sections to reconnect in culture.
Sections of spinal tissue placed 1 to 2 millimeters apart in a culture dish can reconnect their neurons with the help of an intervening carbon nanotube matrix, according to a study published today (July 15) in Science Advances. The 3-D matrix is also well tolerated when inserted into rat brains, the authors reported.
“The important thing about the paper is that, for the first time, it shows that a three-dimensional scaffold of the carbon nanotubes can really improve the connection between two networks in the spinal cord . . . in comparison with 2-D nanotubes or other 3-D networks,” said neuroscientist Jürg Streit of the University of Bern, Switzerland, who was not involved in the study.
The future: If the carbon nanotube mesh were to be used clinically, it would need to be tolerated by the body. Ballerini and colleagues therefore tested the material in living rats. They implanted meshes into the cortices of adult rat brains and examined the animals four weeks later. Both neurons and microglia had grown into the mesh, said Ballerini, and tissue inflammation was minimal.
This was an important “first step to show that there was some biocompatibility,” said rehabilitation researcher and neuroscientist Candace Floyd of the University of Alabama, Birmingham. “But, really, they should have put it in the spinal cord . . . that would be the next step,” Floyd added.
Image credit: 3D carbon nanotube mesh – JUMMI LAISHRAM
Recent News
The new field of sonogenetics uses sound waves to control the behavior of brain cells
What if you didn’t need surgery to implant a pacemaker on a faulty heart? What if you could control your blood sugar levels without an injection of insulin, or [...]
Guided by AI, robotic platform automates molecule manufacture
Guided by artificial intelligence and powered by a robotic platform, a system developed by MIT researchers moves a step closer to automating the production of small molecules that could [...]
Damaged hearts rewired with carbon nanotube fibers
Thin, flexible fibers made of carbon nanotubes have now proven able to bridge damaged heart tissues and deliver the electrical signals needed to keep those hearts beating. Scientists at Texas Heart [...]
A new way to hoard resources in nano-sized factories targeted for biotechnology
The lab of Cheryl Kerfeld at Michigan State University has created a synthetic nano-sized factory, based on natural ones found in bacteria. This research could someday lead to [...]
Scientists develop novel nano-vaccine for melanoma
Melanoma in skin biopsy with H&E stain — this case may represent superficial spreading melanoma. Credit: Wikipedia/CC BY-SA 3.0 Researchers at Tel Aviv University have developed a novel nano-vaccine [...]
Controlling the shape-shifting skeletons of cells
You know you have a skeleton, but did you know that your cells have skeletons, too? Cellular skeletons, or cytoskeletons, are shapeshifting networks of tiny protein filaments, enabling cells [...]
Google Maps for tissue – Resembles Google Maps in 3D mode
Modern light microscopic techniques provide extremely detailed insights into organs, but the terabytes of data they produce are usually nearly impossible to process. New software, developed by a team [...]
Gold glue really does bond nanocages, ‘contradicting’ logic
It has long been known that gold can be used to do things that philosophers have never even dreamed of. The Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy [...]
A ‘cancer lab’ on chip
Finding out you have cancer is bad enough, but to then have to go to hospital for a painful and invasive biopsy to try to identify the exact type [...]
Updated – Worldwide Press for “Human Brain/Cloud Interface”
“We’ll have nanobots that… connect our neocortex to a synthetic neocortex in the cloud. Our thinking will be a…. biological and non-biological hybrid.” Ray Kurzweil, TED 2014 UPDATE [...]
Six paths to the nonsurgical future of brain-machine interfaces
DARPA has awarded funding to six organizations to support the Next-Generation Nonsurgical Neurotechnology (N3) program, first announced in March 2018. Battelle Memorial Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Johns Hopkins University [...]
Neuromorphic Computing – Breakthrough Innovations for Society or Pandora’s Box?
Source: Bold Business. Follow them on twitter. Though you may not realize it, more than 40,000 computer-brain interfaces have already been employed in healthcare today. Thus, to say computer-brain [...]
Transforming advanced nanoscience data into interactive art
It is hard to imagine just how small one nanometer—one-billionth of a meter—really is. Ten hydrogen atoms in a row are one nanometer long. For perspective, consider that a [...]
Microrobots show promise for treating tumors
Targeting medical treatment to an ailing body part is a practice as old as medicine itself. A Band-Aid is placed on a skinned knee. Drops go into itchy eyes. [...]
Nanoparticles Heal Spinal Cord Injuries
The zealous immune response to injuries is known to cause paralyzing damage in spinal cord injury (SCI). Engineers have now created unique nanoparticles that redirect immune cells away from [...]
New Microfluidic Chip Offers Superior Identification of Miniscule Blood Residues
Scientists at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) have designed a new chip device that provides excellent identification of minuscule blood residues for forensic applications. Criminologists detect microscopic blood [...]
Bacteria-killing gel heals itself while healing you
McMaster researchers have developed a novel new gel made entirely from bacteria-killing viruses. The anti-bacterial gel, which can be targeted to attack specific forms of bacteria, holds promise for [...]
Quantum technology could revolutionise the detection and treatment of diseases
When you hear the word ‘quantum’, you may imagine physicists working on a new ground breaking theory. Or perhaps you’ve read about quantum computers and how they might change [...]
Google AI on Track to Revolutionize Medicine
From an article by Jon Markman at thestreet.com: Using data, machine learning and AI, Alphabet managers are incubating vibrant new businesses in pharma and tech. One or more of [...]
Some shifts in venture capital financing of biopharma companies appear underway
Silicon Valley Bank released its healthcare investments and exits trend report for the first half of 2019. It shows, among other things, oncology losing its first-place status in [...]
Tiny vibration-powered robots are the size of the world’s smallest ant
Researchers have created a new type of tiny 3D-printed robot that moves by harnessing vibration from piezoelectric actuators, ultrasound sources or even tiny speakers. Swarms of these “micro-bristle-bots” might [...]
Electronic chip mimics the brain to make memories in a flash
Researchers from RMIT University drew inspiration from an emerging tool in biotechnology - optogenetics - to develop a device that replicates the way the brain stores and loses information. [...]
Watch Elon Musk’s Neuralink presentation
Electric vehicles, rockets... and now brain-computer interfaces. Elon Musk's newest venture, Neuralink, aims to bridge the gap between humans and artificial intelligence by implanting tiny chips that can [...]
Could prosthetic limbs one day be controlled by human thought?
For almost two decades, Stanford electrical engineering professor Krishna Shenoy and neuroscientists in his Neural Prosthetics Translational Laboratory have been working on implantable brain sensors that allow them to [...]
Scientists Just Unveiled The First-Ever Photo of Quantum Entanglement
In an incredible first, scientists have captured the world's first actual photo of quantum entanglement - a phenomenon so strange, physicist Albert Einstein famously described it as 'spooky action [...]
Australian Researchers Have Just Released The World’s First AI-Developed Vaccine
A team at Flinders University in South Australia has developed a new vaccine believed to be the first human drug in the world to be completely designed by artificial [...]
Europe is designing satellites that ‘surf’ their way past space debris
Humans routinely send spacecraft into orbit to ensure services on the ground and to explore other planets. This extraordinary ability comes with a great responsibility: our space activity risks [...]
Black (nano) gold to combat climate change
Global warming is a serious threat to the planet and living beings. One of the main causes of global warming is the increase in the atmospheric CO2 level. The [...]
Ethics in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Digital information technology has made information readily accessible to practically anyone, anytime and anywhere. This has had a profound effect in shaping all aspects of our society from industrial [...]
SpaceX targets 2021 commercial Starship launch
JAKARTA, Indonesia — The first commercial mission for SpaceX’s Starship and Super Heavy launch system will likely take place in 2021, a company executive said June 26. Jonathan Hofeller, [...]
How a healthy microbiome could supercharge the body’s natural cancer-fighting cells
The ways in which the communities of bacteria living within our bodies influence our overall well-being are becoming better understood all the time, and with that better understanding comes [...]
Cancer breakthrough: Scientists discover a new Achilles’ Heel of tumors that causes them to self-destruct
Scientists have identified the Achilles' Heel of cancerous tumors, forcing the disease-spreading cells to over-stress and self-destruct. Experiments showed blocking a specific protein that fuels tumors kills them off. [...]
Improved technique for using magnetic nanoclusters to kill hard-to-reach tumors
Researchers at Oregon State University have developed an improved technique for using magnetic nanoclusters to kill hard-to-reach tumors. Magnetic nanoparticles - tiny pieces of matter as small as [...]
A water repellent ‘nanoflower’ for biomedical applications
Plant leaves have a natural superpower — they’re designed with water repelling characteristics. Called a superhydrophobic surface, this trait allows leaves to cleanse themselves from dust particles. Inspired [...]
Upgrade Your Memory With a Surgically Implanted Chip
In a grainy black-and-white video shot at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, a patient sits in a hospital bed, his head wrapped in a bandage. He’s trying to recall [...]
Video: Amplifying the impact of scientific innovations
From Frontiers Forum: How can research translate to R&D? Or a whole new business venture? In a panel session at Science Unlimited 2019, Holtzbrinck Publishing Group CEO Stefan [...]
Once hailed as unhackable, blockchains are now getting hacked
More and more security holes are appearing in cryptocurrency and smart contract platforms, and some are fundamental to the way they were built. Early last month, the security team [...]
Supercapacitor nano-architecture: designing a plant-powered future
“The most crucial result of this work is the correlation between form and function in supercapacitor materials,” states first author Dina Ibrahim Abouelamaiem. She elaborates that “our research is [...]
Research reveals liquid gold on the nanoscale
Swansea University researchers have discovered what liquid gold looks like on the nanoscale – and in doing so have mapped the way in which nanoparticles melt, which is relevant [...]
The Potential for Nanomedicine to Clean up our Bodies
A new study by the Environmental Working Group reveals that: “Major food companies like General Mills continue to sell popular children’s breakfast cereals and other foods contaminated with troubling [...]
Leave A Comment