Scientists have developed microscopic robots capable of treating brain aneurysms with unprecedented precision, offering a potential alternative to invasive brain surgeries. An international team, including researchers from the University of Edinburgh, engineered these nanorobots to safely and accurately deliver life-saving medications to the brain. This advancement comes in the context of a global health challenge, […].
Despite the ongoing threat posed by new viruses following the emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which led to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, new antiviral drugs continue to be developed to effectively block viral entry into the human body.
Professor Kyungjae Myung and his research team in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, affiliated with the IBS Center for Genomic Integrity, has discovered UNI418, a compound that effectively prevents the penetration of the coronavirus. This compound works by regulating dielectric homeostasis, thereby inhibiting the virus’s entry into human cells.
New research led by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) has studied the migratory movement of groups of cells using light control. The results show that there is no leader cell that directs the collective movement, as previously thought, but that all cells participate in the process.
St. Jude’s Liz Kellogg, Ph.D., uses cryo-EM to study programmable transposons for targeted gene therapies, including potential new treatments for cystic fibrosis.
The future of CRISPR involves clinical trials focused on treatment for blood diseases and cancers, cardiovascular disease, T1D, and HIV.
As an innovative concept in materials science and engineering, the inspiration for self-healing materials comes from living organisms that have the innate ability to self-heal. Along this line, the search for self-healing materials has been generally focused on “soft” materials like polymers and hydrogels. For solid-state metals, one may intuitively imagine that any form of self-healing will be much more difficult to achieve.
A novel method utilising genes in our body to perform long-sequence DNA recombination and editing, called the RNA bridge, has been discovered and reported by genetic engineers. ThePrint #̦PureScience, Sandhya Ramesh explains the findings and implications.
Sources and further reading:
- Bridge RNAs direct programmable recombination of target and donor DNA https://www.nature.com/articles/s4158…
- Structural mechanism of bridge RNA-guided recombination https://www.nature.com/articles/s4158…
Chinese scientists have developed a method using genetic engineering to potentially enhance brain-computer interface (BCI) technology by enlarging neurons for better signal transmission.
The researchers, with the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ National Centre for Nanoscience…
Gene sequence could be implanted with electrodes to make neurons larger and easier to ‘read’ in quest for better mind control of devices.
A nanoparticle formulation, using oligonucleotide chemistry, able to release a gene editing system with single cell resolution after near infrared laser activation. The full potential of the formulation was demonstrated in the brain after intracerebral and intranasal administrations. The spot of the laser defined the region of gene editing.
Noninvasive braincomputer interfaces could vastly improve brain computer control.
Over the past two decades, the international biomedical research community has demonstrated increasingly sophisticated ways to allow a person’s brain to communicate with a device, allowing breakthroughs aimed at improving quality of life, such as access to computers and the internet, and more recently control of a prosthetic limb. DARPA has been at the forefront of this research.
The state of the art in brain-system communications has employed invasive techniques that allow precise, high-quality connections to specific neurons or groups of neurons. These techniques have helped patients with brain injury and other illnesses. However, these techniques are not appropriate for able-bodied people. DARPA now seeks to achieve high levels of brain-system communications without surgery, in its new program, Next-Generation Nonsurgical Neurotechnology (N3).
“DARPA created N3 to pursue a path to a safe, portable neural interface system capable of reading from and writing to multiple points in the brain at once,” said Dr. Al Emondi, program manager in DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office (BTO). “High-resolution, nonsurgical neurotechnology has been elusive, but thanks to recent advances in biomedical engineering, neuroscience, synthetic biology, and nanotechnology, we now believe the goal is attainable.”
