Neurotechnology pioneers @gcourtine and @jocelynebloch are redefining what recovery looks like for people with spinal cord injuries. With a combination of neurosurgery, innovative engineering and AI,…
Category: biotech/medical – Page 233
Functional recovery of the adult murine hippocampus after cryopreservation by vitrification
Year 2025
Cryopreserving the adult brain is challenging due to damage from ice formation, and traditional freezing methods fail to maintain neural architecture and function. Vitrification offers a promising alternative but has not been surveyed in the brain. Here, we demonstrate near-physiological recovery of the adult murine hippocampus after vitrification of brain slices and of the whole brain in situ. Key features of the hippocampus are preserved, including structural integrity, metabolic responsiveness, neuronal excitability, and synaptic transmission and plasticity. Notably, hippocampal long-term potentiation was well preserved, indicating that the cellular machinery of learning and memory remains operational. These findings extend known biophysical limits for cerebral hypothermic shutdown by demonstrating recovery after complete cessation of molecular mobility in the vitreous state. This suggests that the brain can be arrested in time and then reactivated, opening avenues for potential clinical applications.
Significance Statement While the brain is considered exceptionally sensitive, we show that the hippocampus can resume normal electrophysiological activity after being rendered completely immobile in a cryogenic glass. The work extends known biophysical tolerance limits for the brain from the hypothermic to the cryogenic range and establishes a protocol for its long-term storage in a viable state.
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Immunopathology in human tuberculosis
Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) is a bacterial pathogen that has evolved in humans, and its interactions with the host are complex and best studied in humans.
Myriad immune pathways are involved in infection control, granuloma formation, and progression to tuberculosis (TB) disease. Inflammatory cells, such as macrophages, neutrophils, conventional and unconventional T cells, B cells, NK cells, and innate lymphoid cells, interact via cytokines, cell-cell communication, and eicosanoid signaling to contain or eliminate infection but can alternatively mediate pathological changes required for pathogen transmission. Clinical manifestations include pulmonary and extrapulmonary TB, as well as post-TB lung disease.
Risk factors for TB progression, in turn, largely relate to immune status and, apart from traditional chemotherapy, interventions primarily target immune mechanisms, highlighting the critical role of immunopathology in TB.
Maintaining a balance between effector mechanisms to achieve protective immunity and avoid detrimental inflammation is central to the immunopathogenesis of TB. Many research gaps remain and deserve prioritization to improve our understanding of human TB immunopathogenesis.
Learn more in Science Immunology on WorldTBDay.
The balance between protective and pathological immune responses shapes progression of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection.
New computational biology for genome sequencing analysis
To improve the ability of metapipeline-DNA to determine where changes in the genome have occurred, the scientists worked with the Genome in a Bottle Consortium led by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology. By incorporating this public-private-academic consortium’s meticulously validated resources, the researchers reduced the rate of false positives without reducing the tool’s precision in finding true genetic variants.
The researchers also produced two case studies demonstrating the pipeline’s capabilities for cancer research. The investigators used metapipeline-DNA to analyze sequencing data from five patients that donated both normal tissue and tumor samples, as well as another five from The Cancer Genome Atlas.
The next step is to get metapipeline-DNA into more labs to accelerate discoveries, and to continue improving the resource with more user feedback. ScienceMission sciencenewshighlights.
In a single experiment, scientists can decipher the entire genomes of many patient samples, animal models or cultured cells. To fully realize the potential to study biology at this unprecedented scale, researchers must be equipped to analyze the titanic troves of data generated by these new methods.
Scientists published findings in Cell Reports Methods discussing building and testing a new computational tool for tackling massive and complex sequencing datasets. The new resource, named metapipeline-DNA, may also make sequencing data analysis more standardized across different research labs.
The sequence of a single human genome represents about 100 gigabytes of raw data, the rough equivalent of 20,000 smartphone photos. The sheer scale of experimental data increases significantly as tens or hundreds of genomes are added into the mix.
Major leap towards reanimation after death as mammal’s brain preserved
An entire mammalian brain has been successfully preserved using a technique that will now be offered to people who are terminally ill. The intention is to preserve all the neural information thought necessary to one day reconstruct the mind of the person it once belonged to.
“They would need to donate their brain and body for scientific research,” says Borys Wróbel at Nectome in Portland, Oregon, a research company focused on memory preservation. “But what we are offering, as a company, is for their body and brain to be kept, essentially indefinitely, in the hope that sometime, in the future, it would be possible to read out the information from the brain and reconstruct the person… to allow them to continue, in effect, with their life.”
When it comes to preserving the minute architecture of the brain, timing is critical. Within minutes of blood no longer circulating, enzymes break down neurons and cells start digesting themselves.
Image: Samunella/Science Photo Library
A pig’s brain has been frozen with its cellular activity locked in place and minimal damage. Some believe the same could be done with the brains of people with a terminal illness, so their mind can be reconstructed and they can “continue with their life”
Bio-based polymer offers a sustainable solution to ‘forever chemical’ cleanup
Researchers at the University of Bath have discovered a renewable, bio-based polymer membrane capable of efficiently capturing toxic “forever chemicals” from water, offering a potential new route to more sustainable water treatment. The paper is published in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a member of the per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) family and once commonly used in non-stick coatings, has now been widely detected in water sources worldwide. High levels of exposure have been linked to cancers, hormone disruption, and immune system suppression, with governments around the world taking action to protect people and the environment.
Unlike many conventional water treatment materials that require frequent replacement or generate secondary waste, the new bio-based membrane can trap and hold over 94% of PFOA from water. It can later be treated with heat to remove the trapped pollutants, allowing the polymer to be reused and reprocessed into a new membrane.
Uncovering the evolutionary limits of the COVID-19 virus
A new paper in Genome Biology and Evolution, indicates that while the COVID-19 virus has developed rapidly since 2019, it has done so within limited genetic channels. These genetic limits have remained unchanged. Despite scientists’ earlier fears about dramatic, rapid evolution of the COVID-19 virus, it appears recent changes in the virus were relatively constrained; the virus altered by combining pre-existing mutations. The virus has not expanded the number of genetic routes it can take to evolve.
The paper is titled “Structural constraints acting on the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein reveal limited space for viral adaptation.”
Fish gill-inspired panels reveal path to efficient thermal mixing
A fascination with fish gills has led researchers at Cornell to develop a bio-inspired approach to mixing heat and molecules in fluids—findings that could inform future biomedical devices, heat exchangers and soft robotics.
Moving heat and mass efficiently through flowing liquids is central to technologies ranging from dialysis machines to industrial cooling systems, yet many of those technologies rely on rigid components to get the job done.
Looking for an alternative, Yicong Fu, a mechanical engineering doctoral student, turned to fish gills—soft, porous tissue that constantly stirs water to keep gases and ions flowing. Working with Sunghwan “Sunny” Jung, professor of biological and environmental engineering in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Fu designed a gill-like thermal dispenser that is providing new insights into fluid-structure interactions.